Using Facebook for Personal vs. Business Use

Today I need your advice on something Facebook-related.

The #1 reason why I joined Facebook awhile ago, was to solve the problem of having a place online where my friends and family could see what I was up to. I had been on MySpace for a looooong time (think when Mark Zuckerberg was still in college) and that profile morphed into a networking and info-sharing powerhouse for me. But as this happened, my privacy began to fade away, and I began to limit certain personal things for the sake of protecting and keeping things "safe."

So I had turned to this new thing called Facebook. At the time, hardly anyone was on it, but it seemed people were migrating over with the same idea. I liked the privacy settings and to this day, I only allow access to friends and family I actually know. Mostly I am concerned about protecting my son and more personal pictures, videos, etc that belong to the family. People who know me know that I'm very protective of this, yet am a part of this "share-everything-online" generation. Such a contradiction, I know!

However, now that I'm helping folks learn how to take advantage of these social networking sites for their business, they are "finding" me and it doesn't make sense if I don't "friend" them back. It's part of the online ettiquette we all know about. (I hope.) It's just rude not to. And Social Media is all about relationships. Bad start to a possibly great future.

Is it true that Facebook will shut you down for having two accounts under the same name? I'll be digging through the legal jargon and Terms Of Use here shortly to find out, but have you encountered this?

I have created a fan page for my company, Mellott Marketing Group, which is advertised all over my blog here in hopes of bringing in some much needed work. I can direct these friend requests to that page, yet doing so gives them the ability to see my personal account for 30 days. This seems to defeat the point of keeping it personal, but, hey, I don't make up the rules. I just question them. ;0)

My particular skill-set and knowledge on Social Media has just recently been given a new level of respect, and there is an overwhelming number of people who are asking for my help in explaining it all. What to do, what to do???

Please tell me your feedback, advice, or take this opportunity to vent, too.

What are your thoughts on privacy issues and sharing your real life experiences with the world wide web? I know what certain people in my life think about it already, and if you're a Babyboomer who's comfortable and sees value in posting things online and sharing with others, please comment back and tell us why.

Thanks for your feedback on this one!

Cheers,

Kerianne :0)