So I got into a debate with a friend of mine over mixing business with friendship through social media… Quite frankly, should you mix business with friendship at all? Many people have a real challenge with this. I never understand why. I find it so strange that people have multiple personalities.. one for business and one for friendship. It’s almost as if you have a green light to be an asshole, if you cloak it under the guise of “it’s business.”
Look, I run a business, in fact I run several of them. From time to time I have to make “business decisions.” They are always made with intelligence, heart and integrity. People have an obligation to be themselves. One should conduct themselves as themselves – always. I don’t have”business Eric” and “friend Eric”… there is just “Eric!” It must be really hard for many of you out there to manage all of your personalities! I really think that one should be themself and if people don’t resonate with you, then they likely won’t be a good client (or business associate) for you anyways!
I know many people don’t like to mix business and pleasure. In business, you make “sales,” by having people… “know, like and trust you.” Isn’t that what friendship is? Why don’t people just do good business and not be so concerned about mixing the two. If people start to do their job and make money by helping people, instead of making money by screwing people, they wouldn’t be so concerned about mixing the two. I remember a quote from Alan Shore on Boston Legal, “All it takes for evil to succeed is for good people to say it’s a business.”
Now as far as mixing business and friendship on your social media sites… well, it really depends on how you do it! I don’t think it’s completely inappropriate to intermingle business and friendship on your social media sites… that being said, it depends on how you do it. Perry Belcher has a great analogy to a party; he basically says that if you march around a party and all you talk about is your “business opportunity,” you may as well put a name tag on that says “ASSHOLE!” He is right on the money. The same goes true for the guy that marches around the business networking meeting shoving his business card in everyone’s hand. The fact is there are jackasses in every industry… there are jerks in real estate, insurance, auto sales, mortgages – there certainly jerk lawyers and doctors and the list goes on! They are the guys that the jokes are made from…
If you are going to plaster your Facebook page with ads for your MLM or worse… on other people’s pages, that’s a little much! If you are, who Randy Gage calls a “Multi-Level Moron” who spams Twitter with your “click here now opportunity,” well, enough is enough already! It’s no wonder people are pissed off and blasting the whole industry!
Unfortunately, the true professionals are being judged by the actions of these obnoxious jerk-holes! However… for the rest of us, who value our friendships, and are looking to grow our businesses as well as help others… You have every business and every right to utilize social media to grow your business. We are moving into a world where you are your business! Soon the people who separate themselves from their business will realize how easy it is to lose their business. People do business with people, not businesses. You are the only you!
Posted by Eric Kurit 
Under the Hat 