The Pros and Cons of Personal and Professional Social Media

Hayley Ross
hr332511@ohio.edu

One of the biggest questions journalists face in this age of digital media is how to balance their personal and professional lives on social media. When is it ok to accept a friend request on Facebook? How many twitter accounts is it appropriate to have? And how much personal information is ok to share online?

One of the hottest topics right now is the debate between whether or not professionals must have multiple twitter accounts. Some argue that sharing personal information and professional information on the same account increases trust between professionals and their followers, while others believe that it is important to completely separate our personal lives from our professional ones. Below are some of the pros and cons to each approach.

One Account: The Pros

As a journalist, providing some amounts of personal information along with professional information increases the audience's trust and can help that journalist develop their own personal brand. They will be able to gain more followers if those followers are interested in the journalist as a person as well as the organization that they work for. In the article "How Journalists Balance Work, Personal Lives on Twitter" on PBS website, one writer argues that having one single account helps to "maximize the benefits communities like Twitter." Mixing personal and professional information helps to create more meaningful relationships with followers.

One Account: The Cons

Some journalists argue that mixing personal and professional information on one twitter account can get confusing or annoying for followers. Too much information about a journalists personal life can turn viewers away especially if the information is inappropriate. As a journalist with only one account for personal and professional matters it is extremely important to be cautious of what is being posted. If there is even the smallest doubt about whether or not to post a tweet, it's best not to post it. U.S. News posted an article titled "The Fine Art to Juggling Personal and Professional Twitter Accounts" that provides a list of what not to post on a combined twitter account. The list includes complaints about the organization, information that isn't public yet as well as complaints about competitors. Again, if it might cause trouble, don't post it.

Two Accounts: The Pros

Having a professional account may be the safer approach because there is no possibility of something inappropriate getting posted on the account. Using a professional account helps to develop the organizations reputation without confusing followers with any of the journalists personal information. The Case Foundation put together a YouTube video (see below) titled "Using personal vs. professional Twitter accounts" that encourages professionals to use a separate organizational twitter account to separate personal information from information that the organization releases.



Two Accounts: The Cons

Keeping track of multiple accounts can get confusing at times. It is tedious to repeat posts on both accounts and followers of both accounts may find it annoying to see the same thing posted twice. It is also difficult to get the most followers possible for each account. Followers may be unaware that the journalist has multiple accounts and only follow one. Keeping multiple accounts also takes more time to manage than only having one account.

There are pros and cons to both approaches and in the end it comes down to what is the best solution for that specific journalist and the organization they are working for. Some organizations may prefer that journalists have two accounts, while others may not mind if the personal information and the professional information intermix. Perhaps in the future one approach will become more popular, but as for now the topic is still up for debate.