Social networking is not new. It did not start with MySpace or Facebook. It is a natural part of humans integrating with their community. Over the past few years the trend of social networking has been taking place more on the Internet. A 2010 Nielsen report shows that more computer time is being devoted to social networking. It is not only the 18-34 crowd who participates; the report lists Facebook as the #3 most visited site for people 65 and over.

Business networking is not new. It did not start with LinkedIn or Contact Relationship Management applications. Businesspeople have been shepherding contacts and leads to make sales ever since we started trading with each other. Both business and social networking are blurring together on the Internet.

How do you keep your social life separate from your business life online?

Separate Accounts

Keep separate accounts. You can create two unique accounts, one personal one business, on the social networking site of your choice. You could also use separate networking sites, one for personal one for business. Not all social networking sites are the same; some are general sites, but many sites have been started for specific interests or geographic locations. Wikipedia has a list of networking sites with their area of focus listed.

Think Twice Before You Post

Once something has been posted to the Internet, it cannot be removed. Never ever ever. Social Networking websites take regular backups of their systems. There are other website services that take snapshots of websites over time, like the Wayback Machine that has saved over 150 billion web pages since 1996. You would have an easier time removing a tattoo from your arm than being able to expunge data that had been carelessly posted to a website. Charles Skamser, founder of eDiscovery Solutions Group, has promoted in seminars that his company's computer forensics team has recovered data from a disk that had been deleted, reformatted, overwritten, and dropped in a river. Think before you post text or photos, lest they come back to haunt you.

Social Network on Your Own Time

Most companies have an electronic usage policy that prohibits you from using their equipment for non-business activities. Logging onto your personal social networking site would violate this policy. Wait until you get home to connect online.