Is there a business justification for separate social profiles?

I wrote another lengthy (possibly interesting) blog comment on the subject of schizo-social identities for @GerZah http://bit.ly/fZgBaGless than a minute ago via TweetDeckMark Mapstone
markmapstone




I think anonymity is a fragment of web history that harps back to the time when everyone thought the web was insecure, dangerous, nerdy and a fleeting opportunity to 'be someone different'.

Stupid thoughts looking back at it now, hey?

People are having a hard time trying to shake that history off. For as long as we are someone else, we can flex the truth, exaggerate our strengths, hide our weaknesses, over emphasis our social stature safe in the knowledge that the come back will be close to zero... and nothing that signing back in with a different username wouldn't cure.

Oh how those days have gone!

I too had multiple accounts and identities all over the web for years, until I realised how pathetic I was behaving... and I wasn't doing anything wrong with those identities, I was just caught up in the same 'historical' flashbacks of 'protect yourself online' messages being thrown around like anyone cared.

The truth being, my life was actually waaaay too dull for anyone to really be interested in.

Once I shook off the pseudonyms, life suddenly got easy. All the account switching, conversational overlaps and separation of virtual friends went out the window... actually the virtual friends just got dumped altogether - they were only useful to me as long as that pseudonym existed.

Today, I'm interested in how people in business (and the owners specifically) have to keep identities separate for strategic reason & ensuring that conflicts of interests do not overlap.

When we do things for personal reasons, any 'exposure' are merely ripples of embarrassment perhaps, but for business, those ripples can be financial and have a real impact on other peoples financial lives.

I'm keen to hear and discuss if there is a way to be social, completely, honestly and transparently and still function in differing areas of business and industry where this schizo-social identity can manifest easily and almost appear essential.

I'm thinking is it just an echo left over from the bad old days of Internet and business activity, whereby decisions are made without consideration for anything other than the benefits of the business and its operations? If that is so, then I hope I'm offering a different perspective to businesses I meet and speak to about effective social media usage.

I see no real way one can be truly social... and keep split identities without the risk of exposure in some way. And even if one could, and could justify that approach, I fear the reasons for doing so would be unethical and lead to further decisions whereby one could escape accountability for ones actions.

I'd be interested to hear what other people think on the subject matter.

great post - Mark

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