Better Rhetoric

What’s your social media philosophy when it comes to how you use each channel and whom you let in? Some people have a different purpose and a different audience for each channel–Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Foursquare, LinkedIn, etc.–carefully segmenting their social media presence and vigilantly monitoring privacy settings to keep the walls between audiences solid. I have a “WYSIWYG” (pronounced “wizzywig”) social media philosophy: What You See Is What You Get.

I don’t have a significantly different persona in my personal life than I do in my professional life, and so I don’t have a problem letting anyone into my social media world, in whichever channel or channels they’d like to connect. Yes, I kick it up a notch for clients in real life. I do avoid friending students on Facebook while they’re in my classes. And yes, I try to avoid talking about politics or religion in my social media. But that’s nothing more than I’d do in a restaurant where anyone might overhear and be offended. Social media for me is pretty much like having conversations in public places. I am myself; I am genuine; but I’m mindful of others’ presence as well. So I’m just not inclined to do all the work it takes to keep everyone in my life segregated in my social media through selective friending/following/filtering.

My social media presence is a part of my personal branding. As a speaker, writer, and communications strategist, I am my product. Therefore, it’s important to me that people know that I am authentic and that what they see is what they get, not something that I’ve carefully packaged up for them.

What do you think? What’s your social media philosophy and why? I’m genuinely curious about people’s perspectives on this.