Another side to that coin is, many small businesses are feeling the pinch due to the economy and the increasing ineffectiveness of traditional marketing in many industries. I am experiencing more and more individuals who are willing to take the time to dive into social media. Those people are a little less apt to hire a social media consultant and would rather spend money attending conferences and other events related to social media. While that is great and it enables them to have a better understanding of how social media can benefit them, a more focused strategy is still what is lacking.

I want to address your question about those who are only worried about “getting new customers”. The savviest of those folks will understand that it is cheaper to retain customers than it is to acquire new ones. In both cases social media is an effective tool in most cases. Thanks for your comment and question.

Everything you do on the web lives on in some shape or form. The social web will become an integral part of all of our lives and what we do, share, and say on the web will represent us just as if it is being done outside of the digital world. Rather than try to make a clear cut divide between business or personal, it will simply be smarter to be a little more careful about just how crazy the photos are that you want to post of yourself at last weekend’s party.
Somewhat related to my first point, we are all human and in being human we all have personal lives in addition to our professional role. That said, it is often the personal things we enjoy that spark a conversation or enhance a previously luke warm connection. Elements of our lives like pets, tastes in music, and favorite sports teams don’t always come up in conversations, but they often are discovered when people are connected online in some way and happen to see a post or status update. When was the last time someone you were just starting to know got offended when you commented about something you noticed they had in common with you?

To add to this, sites like Facebook are actively working to add selective privacy features to allow folks to better manage who sees what. In the future you should be able to share what you want with who you want. In my opinion this should not be an excuse to lock away all your personal stuff for only the closest of your friends to see. What do you think?