How to Balance Your Personal and Professional Presence Online Four tips for successfully blending the personal with the professional on social networks.

As Twitter has grown in influence as both a social platform and a communication channel for companies, I have recalibrated the way I interact with people there--and, by extension, any social network where I represent my brand. It has been a subtle shift, but an important one.

This was on my mind when a question came up at a marketing event where I spoke recently: How do you balance the personal and professional on social networks?

I advocated for a blending of the two. At its heart, that's the real opportunity of social media, isn't it? People do business with people--not faceless, soulless edifices. Don't you want your prospects and customers online to have an opportunity to get to know you, just as your contacts in real life do?