What does your social media profile say about you?

At the end of her article on mixing business with pleasure in Social Media, author Jennifer Laycock suggests that there is no right way to build a Social Media profile. As I ponder that thought in relation to the growing popularity of social networking sites, I respectfully disagree with her idea. There is a right way to balance your personal life with your business life in your social media profile, and it is dependent upon what is comfortable to you.

• To maintain your professional integrity and personal reputation online, share only the personal information that you would be comfortable sharing with your mother at the dinner table.

Of the myriad social networking websites, few are as popular right now as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. The exciting part about each site is the appeal to a variety of demographics, interests and intentions. But each one requires the user to monitor information shared.

LinkedIn is the big professional social network. It’s where you share the highlights of your professional life with others. It’s where you look, either actively or passively, for employment opportunities. It’s where you keep in touch with former co-workers and potential partners. It's where you really don't want those photos of you finishing off a six-pack at the tail-gate last weekend that you posted on another site to accidentally show-up.

Facebook is more commonly knows as a place to connect with family and friends and people with whom you’d like to get a little bit more personal with. Users often consider it more appropriate for sharing off-the-mark comments with people they know on a more familiar level.

But Facebook is also a must-use business tool. Through a Facebook Fan Page, businesses can attract and reach out to a very targeted audience.

And Twitter is like an on-line billboard where you can broadcast your thoughts to the people who chose to listen to them.

Regardless of the social networking site you frequent, follow this rule of thumb to maintain keep your online reputation clean and powerful:

• If what you want to say, do, or post isn’t something you would announce to a large crowd of strangers or display on a billboard, than keep it to yourself.
• Use privacy settings to distinguish between the people you want to be more intimate with from the ones you’d like to keep more informal.