As my life becomes more 'online' I find it difficult to keep lines from crossing. Friends. Family. Coworkers. Clients. Who do you friend on Facebook? Linked In? Twitter? Flickr? Ack?!?
I have tried to keep a pretty strict rule about who to add to which social media outlet. Facebook is for friends - since we all just ramble on about nothing. Twitter is for following people, subjects and news that interests me. Linked In is for business contacts, with a few friends tossed in for good measure. That said, I will not endorse someone I have not done work for/with simply because they are my friend. Just because I think you're cool doesn't mean I can vouch for your work. But I find that these rules are blurring more and more every day..
Recently I added a friend to facebook who is also a client. I was very much on the fence about doing it, but figured it couldn't really cause problems right? It shouldn't really be viewed any different than adding a coworker.... but, is it? You see, we now get information about each other that we might not know otherwise. And sometimes that information includes our coworkers. So, saw you went to dinner at that cool new restaurant with coworker x - how was it? Seems harmless and doesn't interfere with business at all. But... where it gets complicated is when the coworkers of friends are also clients. Can you ask them about that cool new eatery without being a social media stalker? Should you just ignore that you have this information and not ask? Is there some social media etiquette guide that we should consult for such situations? Where should these lines be drawn? Just wonder if I am the only one that runs into this connection conundrum?