A lady posts on a photography education site that she is trying to grow her business but nothing is working. She posts to facebook groups (we’ll talk about that another day) and everything everyone suggests to her she tells why she can’t do it. I’m not one for making big excuses or thinking my situation is so different that I can’t succeed. She has me curious so I click on her profile.

I see her work is listed as “none of your business”. There’s no mention of her photography business. The images are just snapshots. Then I scroll down and I see sexually explicit comments that she made in jest with her friends.

Now if that’s how you want your personal page to be, that’s fine, I wont judge. But if you want to have a business that people are letting you have an intimate view of their lives, they are going to choose people they know, like and trust. Nothing in the profile made me feel like I know, like or trust that woman.

You can argue that it’s a personal page with no connect to the business page, but let me ask you, have you ever done a facebook search on someone you didn’t know? Maybe it was a doctor you were considering, a potential client who email you, your child’s friend’s parents? I’m guessing the answer is yes. And I guarantee people are searching for you too. What do they find and does it represent your business? Remember your security settings, if everything is set to private now but it was public in the past, the old posts are what people will see first. Make sure the personal life you present online is the one you want your clients to see. Even if it doesn’t matter to you, it will matter to your clients.