I think of Facebook as a middle ground between business and pleasure, sort of MySpace for post-adolescents or LinkedIn for professional late adopters like me. - David Carr, NY Times
That quote made me think of Wendy Harman's Facebook Profile. Like many of us, Wendy uses her Facebook presence for both personally and professional reasons. As she notes on her profile in the "about me,"
I am the New Media Integrator for the American Red Cross. You'll see a lot of personal "lifestream" info here, but I'm also constantly searching around for Red Cross-related communities. Hints and suggestions welcome.
I read an interesting post in the Conversation Starter called "Why I'm Dropping You As A Facebook Friend" where Paul Michelman reports on his lack of success using his Facebook (and Twitter) profile as a personal/professional networking tool and has decided to keep it totally personal. For him, the discomfort of the collision of his professional and private lives outweighs the benefits of using Facebook (and Twitter) for professional reasons.
While the future of social networks may allow us to get more granular with our social networks (friends) and privacy settings so we can automate being strategic in with our postings and more selective in our friending, if you need to establish a profile as part of your work -- you have to figure out the best way to balance your personal versus private persona.
What professional value has your Facebook profile brought you? If you have a presence on Facebook and need to professionally represent your nonprofit organization, how do you manage that? Do you have a "private/personal persona" and "professional" one?
Related Resources:
Mari Smith, Why Facebook Blog - Filled with practical tips for leveraging Facebook for professional use
Search Engine Watch, Social Networking and Employees (recommended by Zemanta)
Jesse Stay, I'm On Facebook Now What?
Beth's Blog covers nonprofits and social media.