As an Internet professional where do you stand? As you know, to be able to do your job effectively you will have to use Social Media as part of your work. As such you need to include some personal revelations to ensure you come across as human.
Even if you specialise in Email Marketing or SEO you will still need to integrate Social Media for maximum effect. But how much are you willing to give up? Is your success dependant on this? How can you advise clients or colleagues to do what you’re not willing to?
And really is your privacy at that much risk or is the same fallacy that we faced when e-commerce became popular and the scare stories around rogue companies using your credit card details or not supplying goods. When in reality most credit card details that are used illegally are obtained off-line. Yes, they may end up being used on-line for fraudulent transactions but the acquisition happened in the off-line world. Personal privacy isn’t that different, if you don’t shred important documents, check that your post hasn’t been tampered with or even vary your daily schedule and route to work!
Personally, I accept that giving up part of my privacy is required by my career choice, in some ways like a celebrity expecting to be photographed when out shopping or on holiday. I rarely mention family, but you’ll find my whereabouts on Foursquare from time to time. You’ll know how often and how far I run in a week if you follow my MapMyRun updates and you’ll also notice my love for chess in from my Twitter lists and occasional Tweets.
But if you didn’t see this part of me then all the ReTweets of Internet related articles, mentions of new beers or wine, company events and other work related stuff would be out of context. I give up some of my privacy not because I want to sell product or my company but because I want to express what I care about and because all of this is the real, Sean Clark.