I’m hoping today’s post will foster a healthy discussion on this topic… would love to know your thoughts and learn from you.

Lately I’ve been getting a lot of Facebook friend requests from people in the industry.  I like to keep my Facebook for my friends.  I define friends as people who I socialize with in real non-virtual life.  This doesn’t mean that I don’t like and love everyone of you in this industry.  And, this doesn’t mean that I haven’t forged some INCREDIBLE relationships with people in the virtual world.  I have. But, if I haven’t met you then it’s hard for me to socialize with you in this forum.

Here’s why…

Facebook is more personal to me than all the other social media channels.

Look, I don’t care that you see my nutso photos from high school.  Hell – I’d post them on Twitter for the world to see.  I’m also going to make the (totally naïve) assumption that most people aren’t going to show up on my front porch some day.  I don’t care that you know how old I am and that you know that I like to drink cocktails on the weekends (more than just 2).

So… why does it matter that I only have real life friends on my Facebook?

I think it is because Facebook for me is personal.  This is my separation of work and life. This is part of my work-life balancing act.  I like my Facebook feed to be people that I have actually met in real life.  It’s fun for me to see people’s babies, travels, and triumphs.  I actually don’t want to have to “work” while on Facebook. (That’s what my business page is for.)  Facebook (my personal profile) is my outlet from work.

I think MANY people feel this way too.  I think this is why I’m seeing that people are setting up two personal profiles.  These are NOT business pages.  One personal profile has been set up for the “personal relationships” as I’ve described above.  And, then a second profile was set up to get around all the business relationships and show the best business face. I totally get this.  In fact, I’ve thought of doing the same… keep everyone compartmentalized… show my best business face on Profile #2 (not the nutso high school face)… and keep my babies and outside-work Facebook on Profile #1.  Two profiles could be a way to have a deeper connection with people than thru a business page in which the communication is often just “corporate-like”.

But, then I realized…

HEY!  Why should I get to see someone’s personal Facebook page while they are only limited to my “fake” Facebook page?  Is that really fair?  I get to see their nutso high school photos and they don’t get to see mine?  Those “friends” would only subjected to this very perfect (and unrealistic) Facebook profile where all I do is talk about work?  (Actually, some friends might actual prefer not reading about my fun weekend beaching in December. HA!)

Also – I realized that I do not want all the upkeep involved in this.  1 profile and 1 business page is already insane to manage (and we haven’t even talked about all the other social media upkeep: the blog, Twitter, tumblr, etc.)

Wedding pros?  What are your thoughts on this?  Do you have two separate profiles?  How does it work for you?

How I resolved this…

I stopped myself before I got into all this craziness of 2 personal profiles.  I’ve been better about managing my Facebook lists.  I think this is WHY Facebook lists were invented.  Do you know you can compartmentalize people into lists and filter out what each list can see?  BRILLIANT!

I’ve also stopped myself from feeling guilty about not being Facebook friends with everyone.  This isn’t because I think of myself as exclusive or elite.  I am just like you.  And, I think most people would say I’m pretty darn approachable and friendly.  I’ll hug you the minute we meet.  So, if you don’t know me very well… let’s become friends in real life… that’s wayyyyy better than becoming Facebook Friends. Then, the Facebook friendship will be oh-so-secondary to what we have in real life.