When we embrace personal branding, suddenly everything we post online is personal.  And nowhere is it more confusing than Facebook.  Does the Instagram feed go on the private timeline or the public page? Do I post those random statuses just for my family and friends or for the whole world to see?

I’ve had a Facebook page for my blog for two years.  But this summer I created a new Facebook page that’s just for me, the writer.  I’m excited about the way it’s already made for more personal interaction with “fans”: they’re commenting to me, not to a blog name, seeing my face, not a blog icon. But it’s also blurred the lines a bit for me and caused me to re-evaluate what fits on each profile or page, respectively.

The ability to enable public subscriptions on personal Facebook profiles has added to the conundrum, because now anyone can see what you’re listening to on Spotify or liking on a blog—if you’ve enabled subscriptions and set your default privacy level to public. Subscriptions can simplify a lot of things—there’s only one profile to deal with, for one.  But it also blurs the lines between public and private, family and fans.  It works well for some people (from Joni Eareckson Tada to my friend Diane Shiffer), but it’s not for me.

“I have decided that I will only use my Facebook profile for family and close friends… If you try to be everyone’s friend, you will be no one’s friend. You must be deliberate and selective.”
-Michael Hyatt in Platform: Get Noticed in a Noisy World

I’ve chosen not to enable subscriptions for the simple reason that I want to keep my personal Facebook account a private haven where I can interact more personally with my friends and family, where I can keep track of the pages I truly like.  For that reason, I’ve drawn distinct lines between my public and my private Facebook presence.

I’ve come to differentiate between public and private rather than public and personal.  Yes, when we embrace personal branding, everything we post online is personal.  But we can still choose (to some extent) whether it’s public or private.

In this crazy world of social media, I think we need to remain thoughtful and flexible about how we connect online, drawing clear distinctions between public and private. Nonetheless, what works today may not work tomorrow. What works with one hundred followers may not work with ten thousand followers.
-Michael Hyatt in Platform: Get Noticed in a Noisy World

“I think it’s thoughtful to sift our content and share it to the appropriate audience. My personal friends aren’t interested in technical stuff, and my bloggy friends probably don’t have the time or interest in my personal posts or recipes. I’m respecting and serving my followers.”
–Trina Holden, author and speaker

My Personal Facebook Guidelines

1. Differentiate between the two by using my full name and a recent casual profile photo on my private timeline, my online name and my professional headshot on my public page.

It’s easy for me to differentiate between my page names—I use my first and middle name as my domain and “pen name”, if you will, so that’s what I use for my public page, while my full name goes on my personal Facebook profile.  You could use your maiden name on your personal Facebook profile and just your first and last name on your public page (like Sarah Bessey and my friend Natasha Metzler), or append “Writer” to your public page (like “Jeff Goins, Writer” and my friend “K.J. Tanner – Writer”).  Just keep in mind that you can change your name on your personal profile—you can’t on your public page after you have 200 likes!

I keep the profile picture on my public page constant, using the same headshot I use as my Gravatar icon that shows up wherever I comment.  But my personal profile picture is ever-changing to be a recent favorite in a more casual style.

2. Like generously on my private timeline, share thoughtfully on my public page.

I know that whenever I like someone else’s blog post or Facebook post, it will not only show up in the feed of my Facebook friends that I liked it, but it will help promote that post on Facebook itself—so I like generously.  (And if it bothers my friends, well, they can hover over my name, click “Settings”, and uncheck “Comments and Likes”.)

I like to use my public page as an avenue for sharing the work of my friends, too.  Usually I’ll pull a quote I liked from their post (which often makes it into my Delicious feed as well), and schedule it with the link, tagging their public page if they have one.

3. Share family-related things on my private profile, platform-related things on my public pages.

My grandmas might read every single blog post I write, but my uncles, my brothers-in-law, and my brother’s college roommate (all of whom I’m friends with on Facebook) certainly don’t.  They can like my page if they want to keep up with those kind of things, otherwise they’ll find family photos and more private updates on my timeline.

My friend Trina Holden says that if it fits under her page’s platform, she shares it on that page (she has a public page for herself as well as her popular eBook Real {Fast} Food). Author Sarah Bessey told me she likes to think of her public Facebook page as an extension of her Twitter account—if she’d Tweet it, she’ll also share it on her Facebook page.

4. Don’t duplicate content between profiles, except on rare occasions.

I don’t want to spam my friends and my grandma with every blog post I write, every technical tip I run across—that’s why I have a public page.  And I don’t know about you, but if I’m friends with someone who also has a public page, it gets a bit annoying when they double-post every single link to both their public page and their personal timeline minutes apart.

I share things from my public page to my personal timeline on rare occasions, when I know it’s a post most of my friends and family would like to read (like our end-of-the-year letter or the story of my son’s hospital stay).  Otherwise, I let them like my page if they want to hear about my blog posts on Facebook.

Need to Transition?

1. Start by inviting all your friends to “Like” your page—just once, mind you, but go ahead and invite them.

2. Post on Facebook about your transition:

3. Then feel free to start un-friending!

4. Make sure your page is listed as your employer, so your friends have quick access to your public page via your profile.

You might even want to make a note in your “about” section, so they’ll understand if you don’t friend them back:

“I like having a page for my writing and other business type stuff so I don’t drive my friends crazy with links to what I wrote or what I’m doing business wise. That way they can choose if they want to know those things, or if they don’t.  I also like having the public page so that people who read my blog/writing but who I have no other connection to can feel like they have a place to interact or get to know me without always adding my personal one. I do like a tiny bit of privacy from the world at large.”

–Chantel Brankshire, virtual assistant