Setting up a discrete social media persona from my work persona
January 5, 2022 4:57 PM Subscribe
Have you created social media profiles distinct from your professional self? I'm interested in process and logic, especially as regards which name you use for which, and how you establish the newer identity.
I'm at a point careerwise where my job requires a social media presence for work-related reasons, while working in a very small-c conservative environment. My personal content isn't lurid, but things like kinda weird jokes, sharing Lucien Greaves' tweets, or having public thoughts about things like mental health support or public policy could be problematic.
I'm also on an arc where I'd like to build more of a reputation as somebody who thinks deeply and has good ideas about my specialized field, which sometimes means discussing ideas that aren't totally in alignment with directions chosen by our leadership team.
So it's definitely past due for me to separate my "me" social media from my "work" social media. Setting things to private isn't really an option because I'd really like to develop more of a presence as a thinker in my area.
My questions/concerns are...
- I'm an early-enough-adopter that my Twitter handle is actually my real name, despite it being a fairly common name. Ditto Instagram. I don't think creating a new "work-me" and trying to get everyone to ignore the original handle is possible (my boss' boss' boss follows me on Twitter at the moment!), but I'm trying to figure out how close to "real me" the new identities should be, or if I should just create a pseudonym like A. N. Oonymous and strike out fresh.
- I don't have a massive following on social media but enough that starting over would feel like a big step back in terms of presence. Are there good ideas or strategies to rebuild a social media presence after swapping identities?
- Once established, tactics to clearly establish that Identity X is distinct from Identity Y and while X is my work persona, Y is clearly delineated.
Have you done this, or something like it? Any thoughts or guidance?
I'm at a point careerwise where my job requires a social media presence for work-related reasons, while working in a very small-c conservative environment. My personal content isn't lurid, but things like kinda weird jokes, sharing Lucien Greaves' tweets, or having public thoughts about things like mental health support or public policy could be problematic.
I'm also on an arc where I'd like to build more of a reputation as somebody who thinks deeply and has good ideas about my specialized field, which sometimes means discussing ideas that aren't totally in alignment with directions chosen by our leadership team.
So it's definitely past due for me to separate my "me" social media from my "work" social media. Setting things to private isn't really an option because I'd really like to develop more of a presence as a thinker in my area.
My questions/concerns are...
- I'm an early-enough-adopter that my Twitter handle is actually my real name, despite it being a fairly common name. Ditto Instagram. I don't think creating a new "work-me" and trying to get everyone to ignore the original handle is possible (my boss' boss' boss follows me on Twitter at the moment!), but I'm trying to figure out how close to "real me" the new identities should be, or if I should just create a pseudonym like A. N. Oonymous and strike out fresh.
- I don't have a massive following on social media but enough that starting over would feel like a big step back in terms of presence. Are there good ideas or strategies to rebuild a social media presence after swapping identities?
- Once established, tactics to clearly establish that Identity X is distinct from Identity Y and while X is my work persona, Y is clearly delineated.
Have you done this, or something like it? Any thoughts or guidance?
Many people I know do this, often with privacy restrictions on their personal accounts and job title/industry info/degree on their professional account names.
posted by emd3737 at 8:06 PM on January 5, 2022
posted by emd3737 at 8:06 PM on January 5, 2022
Best answer: Managing separate social media accounts for personal & work is no big deal in general, but don't ever think you can truly separate both lots of accounts from your identity. That may seem obvious, but also consider to what extent someone (eg your employer) can connect the two accounts to you and what views they may form based on your non-work social media activity. It's logical to think that, as long as you keep personal stuff on your personal accounts, your employer won't have an issue. However, if the average person can link your professional profile with posts on your personal profile that are in conflict with your employer's views, you may have a problem.
This may or may not be a major problem and, if your employer is reasonable enough to consider it OK for you to publish things as an individual that are in conflict with the employer's values, all will be well. If they don't hold that view or if your employment conditions say otherwise, you may well have a problem. It's definitely a good idea to consider that before you post anything.
posted by dg at 8:10 PM on January 5, 2022 [2 favorites]
This may or may not be a major problem and, if your employer is reasonable enough to consider it OK for you to publish things as an individual that are in conflict with the employer's values, all will be well. If they don't hold that view or if your employment conditions say otherwise, you may well have a problem. It's definitely a good idea to consider that before you post anything.
posted by dg at 8:10 PM on January 5, 2022 [2 favorites]
When I started my career as an academic librarian, I worked diligently to keep that side of my online life separate from my online life a writer. This became more challenging as folks from each "side" became more interested in the "other" side of things. It became further challenging when I started pursuing scholarship as a librarian that fits perfectly with my professional role and ties to my personal/writerly interests. It has gotten very muddled, to the extent that, if I ever start making "book money" as a writer, I will seriously consider setting up a new social media profile.
Hard agree with dg on not being able to keep things fully separate, even with a pseudonym, and certainly if you are ever in a place where you're posting things that you know you don't want your employer to see. You would not only have to be fastidious about your gear, not only have to be certain never to log into work & person stuff from the same devices, but you'd also -- if you are writing at any length -- have to find ways to make sure SockShepherd doesn't sound like you. Even assuming you won't provide enough text and your employer won't go to text analysis lengths, pseudonymous authors are regularly "found out" based on similarities of grammar, diction, etc.
All that aside, I am a fan of the now-standard approach of many elected officials: one account for personal, one for work, and no attempt to hide either. You just talk about different stuff in different places and expect people to respect (more or less) the complexities of online identity.
posted by cupcakeninja at 8:28 AM on January 6, 2022 [1 favorite]
Hard agree with dg on not being able to keep things fully separate, even with a pseudonym, and certainly if you are ever in a place where you're posting things that you know you don't want your employer to see. You would not only have to be fastidious about your gear, not only have to be certain never to log into work & person stuff from the same devices, but you'd also -- if you are writing at any length -- have to find ways to make sure SockShepherd doesn't sound like you. Even assuming you won't provide enough text and your employer won't go to text analysis lengths, pseudonymous authors are regularly "found out" based on similarities of grammar, diction, etc.
All that aside, I am a fan of the now-standard approach of many elected officials: one account for personal, one for work, and no attempt to hide either. You just talk about different stuff in different places and expect people to respect (more or less) the complexities of online identity.
posted by cupcakeninja at 8:28 AM on January 6, 2022 [1 favorite]
Best answer: for twitter at least, when you change your handle everything just moves over to the new one and the old one becomes immediately available for registration again (twitter help).
I know people who've chosen to professionalise their twitter presence by changing handle from eg. twitter.com/Shepherd to twitter.com/PrivateShepherd and then immediately registering twitter.com/Shepherd as a new "professional" account. all existing follows/followers/etc move with the rename to PrivateShepherd so you won't lose all the existing connections you already have, and then Shepherd is a shiny new persona ready for your clean professional image.
posted by russm at 3:08 PM on January 6, 2022 [2 favorites]
I know people who've chosen to professionalise their twitter presence by changing handle from eg. twitter.com/Shepherd to twitter.com/PrivateShepherd and then immediately registering twitter.com/Shepherd as a new "professional" account. all existing follows/followers/etc move with the rename to PrivateShepherd so you won't lose all the existing connections you already have, and then Shepherd is a shiny new persona ready for your clean professional image.
posted by russm at 3:08 PM on January 6, 2022 [2 favorites]
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The bios on each make it clear which is which, and neither bio references the other account. My personal account bio includes a two word fairly generic version of my job title alongside detail of my non-work interests, but no reference to my employer. They have different profile pics, though both visibly me.
I basically only tweet work-related things from my work account, and everything else from my personal account and it seems fine. Anyone who searched me by name on twitter would probably see both accounts but I think it would be clear pretty quickly which was which. Very occasionally “real me” RTs something that “work me” has done but only rarely, when I’m particularly pleased with it.
I think when I set up the work account, real me did one tweet flagging up my new work account for any of rmy personal followers that were interested.
A google search for my name returns my personal twitter account way before my work one, because it has about 10 times as many followers, and I’m happy with it that way. I’d definitely suggest keeping your current personal account as it is and then creating a new work account where you aim to pick up followers in that niche. You don’t want to lose or confuse your existing followers, who followed you for the kind of stuff you’re already tweeting from that account, so trying to make that now your work account, or setting up a whole new personal account, don’t make much sense.
YMMV if you tweet a lot of stuff from your personal account that would be super inappropriate or boundary-crossing for your employers. I figure I’m a grown up who can swear and talk politics on my own time on an account that doesn’t reference my employers, and so far so good. I’d steer clear of using it to comment on anything controversial related to my job, but that’s pretty easy in my case.
I did absolutely do a softblock a couple of times on our CEO when he tried following my personal account (block them and then immediately unblock them, they’ll no longer be following you and if they even notice will probably assume a twitter glitch). Obviously he could have looked for my tweets if he really wanted but I didn’t have to give him the easy access of a follow, and after the second time I did it, I think he got the message!
posted by penguin pie at 5:42 PM on January 5, 2022 [2 favorites]