Separating Business from Personal: The Art of Marketing
Since I am associated with the real estate industry, this post is going to be directed right at people that are also in the real estate industry. With that said, I am sure that it can apply to many other industries just as well. Learning how to separate business from personal is not a hard task. It is all part of the art of marketing. Many people either do not care or do not realize that their personal life can actually be detrimental to their business life. It is one thing to be controversial but it is totally something else when you take those controversial feelings and stances to the extreme in a public forum. This is where some people use the cop out of ‘I am entitled to my opinions’ or ‘We are entitled to free speech’. You are entitled to both your opinions and free speech. However, so is the consumer. The question is, when you go EXTREME with a public comment or stance that is already controversial, does it effect your business life? That is the question that we will look at in this post. Hold on because the ride can get a little bumpy.
Yesterday, I was reading some comments that came across on my homepage News Feed on Facebook. I was moving right along until I ran into a comment that hit me like a ton of bricks. Here was a person on Facebook blasting out his personal feelings. Now, I could care less what people say in a public forum on their personal pages. However, when it comes to being tied to your business, what you say can get you in trouble. In some cases, it can alienate you from business partners or from consumers. I realize that there actually might be some people out there that will agree with what you say. But, before you jump on that horse and try to ride it to the finish line, most people do not agree with the EXTREME point of view. And even fewer agree when it comes to name calling.
Personally, I have chosen to leave political and religious views out of my blogs and my Internet life all together. Most of the posts that center around these particular hot button issues have been avoided by me. The biggest reason is that I do not believe that political, religious, or other hot button issues have any place in my business interactions with consumers. As long as it is legal, what they believe and how they conduct their life is not my concern. As much as theirs is not my concern, my views are not what they want to hear either. They want to hear my experienced industry advice. Frankly, if you think that your expertise is in religious or political venues, then maybe you are in the wrong business and you might want to change professions.
Where I think many people go wrong in this is when it comes to marketing. When you use social platforms like MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, ActiveRain, or Positive Real Estate Professionals that are viewed thousands of times a day, separating your business from your personal is an important key to marketing. However, many people use a single account to voice those professional and personal views. While the personal views are not what the consumer is searching for, it is something that they are going to read. While you might be extremely adamant about your message, you have to think before you want to write it. ‘How is this going to affect me?’ is the primary thought that needs to spring to mind. If you can truly answer that it would not be detrimental to your business and potentially loose you a client, then I think that you should say it. However, if you think that it is something that might drive a potential consumer away, then you need to rethink what you are going to say.
Something that a lot of people do not consider is that people are Internet savvy today; they will search you out on the Internet. Consider how easy it was for you to find that childhood friend you haven’t spoke to in twenty years on Facebook. Part of a person’s opinion of you will be based on what they find on the Internet. Do you really want to be viewed as someone other than the professional that can supply them with the knowledge and service that they deserve?
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this article it is excellent. It is clean and to the point.
Shows professionalism in what you do. I have enjoyed reading.
Thank you, and all the best!
PS If you install a plugin that allows readers to follow up comments, that would be great
http://hospitalera.com/blogging-tools/
Sorry, I didn’t realize that you are on a MU system / network, regarding the gravatars, I am connecting this comment to the correct email address but it still doesn’t show up, but it has done so previously on this blog!? As I said, I have no experience with a MU platform, so please keep that in mind, SY