You might know this quote from Dr Zhivago – the film version, not the novel; I believe the novel does not contain that phrase. (Uttered by Pasha Antipov played by Tom Courtenay in the film if you want to check next time it is on TV, which is every Easter or Christmas).

That was about the Russian Revolution,which I am not sure  ever succeeded in its aim to dominate all aspects of an individual’s life.

The social media revolution seems to be inadvertently achieving it, or at least blurring the line between private and working lives as soon as you engage in it.

My opening is a little journalistic but a few days ago a business contact asked to be accepted onto my Facebook circle of friends.  I have not replied.  I don’t like saying “no” but this is not the place to engage with someone you know only in a business context: I really do use it for informal personal communications by and large.

I didn’t think much more of it until Matthew Goldsbrough a marketing consultant was speaking at a recent Manchester Chamber meeting about social media.

Matthew made the exact point that our work and private lives cannot be compartmentalised anymore, certainly not as we might wish.

We all know stories about someone misbehaving on holiday or saying something a little too frank about their boss on their Facebook or Bebo page and losing his or her job, or indeed having an offer for one withdrawn.  These stories having been doing the media rounds for years, so there is little surprise to be really had.

The realisation that “I am a brand” – a concept I do not like or completely agree with seems to be being imposed upon me.  But there it  is, if you aim to use social media for work you have to accept that your marketing, image and reputation do not get put on hold when you leave the office after a hard day’s work.

Tags: Social media

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 16th, 2009 at 4:36 pm and is filed under Social networking. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.