Keep your PERSONAL and

Business Online Social Networks separate

As a business owner who has a personal life, it is important not to mix the two. It can be difficult today not to with the advent of social media. When someone "likes", "follows" or "friends" you because they know who you are, it can be difficult, awkward and uncomfortable to deny them. You may fear hurting someone's feeling when you turn them down as a friend on Facebook because they are a business acquaintance and not a friend, but it is important that you learn to do it.

It is true, that some business associates will cross over and become friends, but it's not always the case. In business, one wrong comment, picture, or "like" can turn someone off your business even if it's not business related. It's hard to imagine, but even people you do business with, like and respect, often have different political, religious and social beliefs from you. The social rules of not discussing politics or religion with mixed company still holds true. It's just that you now have more places to manage now, with the open atmosphere of the Internet.

If you've been on the Internet for a long time, you might be surprised to find out what information there is about you online. There are websites that gather information based on your name, address, and other factors. Check out the site PeekYou.com, which is a site that collections information from all over the web. Do a simple Google Search on an old email address, or an old discussion you had years ago on an open message board or Usenet group, and you'll find the ghosts of your past ready to jump out and run your online reputation.

You can clean up the past, and bury it behind new content and information, but it will take a little work. Take the following steps to clean up your online reputation so that you can manage your online reputation.

Separate

Keep personal and business separate on social media. Ensure that updates on your personal space are personal, and your updates on your business space are business related. Do not intertwine the two unless you have a really good reason.

Research

Check out your search results and see if there is any damage yet. Do a separate search on each search engine especially Google, Bing, Yahoo and MSN. What results turn up on the first three to five pages? More importantly, what comes up first? Most people will not look past the first couple of pages, but it is important that you check.

Clean

If you've already mixed up things, start slowly cleaning it up. Announce to your friends and business acquaintances that you want to separate your personal and professional life. They will understand, and you'll find that some people will follow your lead. In some cases, you can even ask for the content to be removed. Ask the responsible parties to kindly remove the offending content.

Cover

Up your focused and positive business content. Set out to do at least one new blog post a day for 30 days, and one new article marketing article per day for 30 days. Focus on specific keywords that you want to be known for, and before you know it, the bad search results will be buried. They will never go away, but people will be less likely to find them if you have positive content up front.

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