So after uprooting my Boston-based life and making the big move to SW Florida, I’m now settling into a new job as a Social Media Marketing Manager at a growing marketing company in Fort Myers.
For those of you who know me, you know I’ve always worked to keep my professional and personal (blogging) lives somewhat connected, but still separated. Yet as a social media professional, my very instincts are telling me to take my own advice and merge my two selves (professional & personal) into one transparent identity.
I’ve thought about it before, of course. Yet the idea of letting go of my “personal” life online was a challenge. I have LinkedIn, Skype, Twitter (several in fact), YouTube, Facebook, and [the rather outdated] MySpace accounts. Yet I’ve never merged them together. Well, I must admit that the time has come to take that big step.
So who the heck cares right? What does it mean for my readers? Well, for one I’ll be blogging more! You’ll also see more social media, marketing and PR insights creeping into my posts. Still the same me, but just a new direction. Secondly, you’ll be seeing me, for ME. The me no longer hiding behind a username, but the me on all my other online social platforms.
I hope you will stay tuned, comment, criticize and give me your feedback. So speak up! If you want to hear about something in particular (or not hear about something else), let me know.
Thanks for sharing this blog link in your tweet. I look forward to following your blog and reading your insights. I too have often thought about combining my personal and professional “selves”. And yet, I’m finding that I like the separation when it comes to social media as I’m using different Twitter handles, etc for different purposes.
What made you decide to combine the two “selves”? I can definitely see wanting to be more transparent, not to mention that the personal and professional sides do bump into each other quite often, especially in social media. Would love to hear your insights on this topic because I think its an ongoing question for most of us who use it every day.
Thanks and great discussion during #socialmedia today!
Welcome back to the Sunshine State! Congrats on the move and new position! I’d love to hear all about it – when you get a chance, please shoot me an email with your new contact info. Thanks!
Yay for more blogging! It’s definitely a challenge merging your two personas together, but in the end I think it’s totally worth it. Transparency is key. I hope Florida and your new job are treating you well!
Hey Shannon – you should buy the URL for this and load WordPress on it. Time to upgrade from WordPress.com!
Dean
It’s all a part of the blog roadmap!