CEO VIEWPOINT:
As I have dived head first into the social media world, I have come accross an interesting problem. I believe it is important that as the CEO of one of the best trade associations in the US that I am always a step ahead, being able from a vantage point to offer guidance to the membership. Here is my concern: In a virtual world the only means by which the public knows you is through your profile. I question the wisdom of blending the "Two Yous" (public and private) in the virtual reality.
Recently, what has come to my attention is that members use the same facebook site and profile for their professional life as they do for their personal life. When a profile is checked, information that family members may consider clever or endearing can be quite off-putting to a potential client or customer. Please check the profile picture to which you are posting to the OKCMAR facebook, a professional site. What message are you sending to the public? If you were searching for a physician or other professional, what picture would you expect to see and what would her profile look like?
Also, knowing that the world has access to public sites, what do your postings say about you? I would caution against too much private information. I strongly advise you to review your public profile and to have two facebook sites. One for your professional life with your professional email and one for your family and friends with a personal email address- and keep your personal site private. Email addresses are free through many online providers, google, yahoo, msn and aol. Just visit any of their websites and click on email for a free account.
To keep your personal facebook site private go into your facebook site and in the upper right corner click on the link entitled "Settings". Here you will be led to privacy settings where you can control who has access to your site and also who can search for you through your site. You also have the option of blocking people who you inadvertently allowed on your site. Protect your privacy and the reputation of professionalism you have worked so hard to build by creating two virtual world profiles.
5 comments:
Awesome post...thanks for the information! Also, all Realtors should update their current contact information to ALL organizations they are apart of..NAR, OAR, OKCMAR, OREC...just remember there are fines if you don't..not only that..you could be losing business and not know it!
Great suggestion Angela- OKCMAR does automatically upload to OAR and NAR nightly with any membership changes but that does mean your contact info at OKCMAR must be correct.
Our MLS Director, Adam Taflinger, set up an easy way to update contact info without having to contact an OKCMAR representative. On the OKCMAR home page is a link http://www.formspring.com/forms/okcmar-contact_information
to fill out a form that auto updates all our systems.
Even if you have not changed your contact info in awhile there is no harm in updating it- this just ensures OKCMAR has accurate information.
Thanks for your response! DMK
The blog is great!
Personally, I have to disagree with this particular post... a great deal of my success online is attributed directly to the fact that I make both my personal and professional life transparent to those who choose to take interest. They get to see the real me as well as what I do for a living, which is what helps us find common ground and build relationships.
Sure, I'm careful not to post things that might be 'too personal' or offend people, but for the most part, I'm just me and the public has a chance to choose to work with me or not to work with me based on who they see that I really am.
I have to say both sides of the argument have merit. I think the key is paying attention to what is posted if one is only going to have a singular site. I also agree with you that I have learned a great deal about you from the various social media you participate in. That is what I am trying to accomplish in this blog- a means for the membership to get to know the leadership on a personal level.
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