Coming Out of My Social Media Closet

It feels like anyone and everyone is hammering home the idea that social media is THE marketing/networking future. I mean there are TONS of events JUST for social media! Forget that golf club membership, you better have a Facebook page. Don't buy someone a beer after work to get to know them, follow them on Twitter. I don't necessarily buy into the whole replacing personal interaction with social media bit, but it's definitely a force of technology, and of human interaction, that cannot be ignored.

A noticeable fallout of this is that I now know several people who have both a 'personal' and a 'professional' Facebook page/Twitter account. While sometimes it's about privacy (for example, I have a criminal defense attorney friend who would never want her clients to even know she has children, let alone look at 97 pictures of them on Halloween), more often than not, the underlying reason is that people don't want to have to worry about whether they might offend a client/business contact/colleague, etc. with their picture or status or what they're a "fan of".

This is all fine and dandy and I myself, up to now, have had two Twitter accounts (one 'personal' where I mostly follow and retweet sports dudes and comedians, and one 'professional' where I follow lawyers, local people, a few personal friends, etc.) and only a personal and very private Facebook page. On my Facebook, I have pictures of myself in {gasp!} civilian attire (see photo above), have often posted funny movie quotes as my status, largely from the Will Ferrell genre, and I love nothing more than sharing funny websites I find and even some truly hysterical quotes from the website Texts From Last Night (which is, by the way, one of the best ways to spend a 5-minute-let-me-regain-my-sanity break). Up until now, I kept everything private because I was always worried that I "might" offend someone (for example, someone unfamiliar with Ron Burgundy's words of wisdom). I also have, on occasion, posted some photos from some very legal, but a little crazy, nights out with friends that perhaps don't depict everyone involved in the best light.

The problem? I feel like if I set up a 'professional' Facebook now, it will just be a big, fat lie. NEWSFLASH: I AM REAL HUMAN BEING. I am not a 'hard seller' and I don't have over 500 friends on Facebook because of my important and informational status updates that plug my blog and my website (Ha!). The entire point of Facebook and other social media is to share yourself with others, and what am I without my real personality? If this is a real networking/marketing tool, then I have to just put myself out there, the real me, and know that if people don't like me because of my Facebook status, they probably wouldn't like me in "real" life either. I'm sarcastic, light-hearteded and incredibily fallible. I'm also a great lawyer. Why do the two have to be mutually exclusive?

So, after a little light editing of my photo albums (mostly for the sake of a certain favorite new bride friend of mine), I'm doing it. I'm taking my Facebook public. Well, not "public" (internet stranger creepers still skeeve me out) but I'm going to friend and be friended by not just old classmates and personal friends, but by anyone who wants to be "friends" with me. And if they see me playing with my little cousin on the beach or in the costume I wore for a charity event (yeah, I was a Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer, so what of it?) or living it up on the ski slopes. So be it. Because it's my real life experiences, my down to earth nature and ability to laugh at myself, that add so much to my legal skills (particularly in an area so entrenched in family entanglements and real life problems) . I would even dare to say that those personal qualities, combined with my legal skills, are what sets me apart as a great attorney (Toot! Toot!... That's me on my own horn, FYI)

It's just too hard to have a "secret","private", personal life that there really wasn't anything wrong with to begin with. I play Wii, I go to Red Sox games, I eat deep fried cheesecake at the Big E, and I have a Guinness after the local breakfast on St. Paddy's Day (along with the entire rest of City of Northampton) why wouldn't this make me a MORE desirable family law attorney? Someone who knows and enjoys what real life is like? Pshaw! Who would want that?!

I guess the biggest reason for me ending this duplicity, is that people can tell when you're fake or holding back and that defeats the entire purpose of building real relationships through social media.

So here I am world! Hope you still like me...