For those of you who have decided to blog, to post details about your personal life, your professional life, yourself online I ask: where do you draw the line? I thought long about what I would and would not include in my blogs, but still sometimes wonder if it’s going to come back to haunt me. It seems I’m not alone…
Business Blog Consulting asks Does personal info belong on a business blog?
Recently Amy and I revealed stuff about ourselves on our personal/business blogs. Amy and I both caught some flak for it. Which got Amy and I to talking about the issue of personal info on “business blogs”. When is it okay to post personal information on your business blog? Or is it okay at all? Amy and I talked about stuff that was once only whispered or just not talked about. I think we both feel good about what we wrote, I know I do. But how do you feel about it? Well, Amy wants to find out! She wrote a great survey and talked about the details on her blog—Contentious » Survey- Online Professional-Personal. So, take a gander.
Thanks for the link to my survey, Paloma.
You wrote, “I thought long about what I would and would not include in my blogs, but still sometimes wonder if it’s going to come back to haunt me.”
Yes, disclosing anything personal online, in any venue, no matter slight, is always a risk. So, I’ve discovered, can be the choice not to disclose anything personal. Trying to compartmentalized oneself completely online requires considerable effort and can generate its own stress.
Plus, it seems (according to the survey results so far, which I’m publishing), that if you never disclose anything personal online, even in a professional setting, you may actually end up alienating a portion of your online audience. That’s one possible interpretation, anyway. I suggest you and your readers check out the results.
– Amy Gahran
Editor, Contentious.