Recently HubSpot Blog published an article by Pamela Vaughn entitled “New Study by LinkedIn Shows How User Mindset Affects Social Media Marketing.”

The article summarizes research done by the social media website LinkedIn. This research contrasts the mindsets people have when they are using social media sites for professional purposes vs. personal purposes.

It got into why people use different social media networks and what they expect from them, along with the emotions they feel when participating on them.

Here is a link to this article for you to read more: http://ow.ly/dZL8q

What especially intrigued me was that toward the end of the article the author observed that for her a social media site such as Twitter is actually a blend of professional and personal.

In the short time I have been more active on Twitter, I see what Vaughn means about how the very nature of Twitter spans these professional and personal worlds.

Do you experience different mindsets when you are on say LinkedIn rather than Facebook, for example?

I can tell you that last night on Facebook, I was posting away on friend’s comments about the horrible call made by the refs at the end of the Packer/Seahawk football game. Even if I wasn’t an avid Packer fan, I would have been aghast at this call.

However, it never dawned on me to post about this call on LinkedIn, which I primarily use for professional purposes.

Mostly I use LinkedIn to do things like share links like the one to the article I am referencing in this blog, recommend someone who has provided me a valuable service, or to post an answer in the Answers section on a topic where I have experience and/or a perspective.

Yet, even with LinkedIn, there are some exceptions. Such as this week I posted on LinkedIn that I am excited participating in a humorous speech contest for Toastmasters. Then on Facebook, I posted about the fun I was having emceeing some other contests of this type. Chances are, after the contest takes place on Thursday night, I might post about the results on both LinkedIn and Facebook.

Being Toastmasters, at least to me, spans the personal and professional realms, I post about it on both LinkedIn and Facebook.

I share these examples to help you get your thinking caps on about how you tend to use various social media sites.

Do you agree with the author of this article about having different mindsets for different websites, or isn’t there as dramatic a difference in your experience?

I always like to hear what others have to say about their use of social media.

 

Joyce Feustel, Founder of Boomers’ Social Media Tutor, helps people relatively new to social media to become more effective and comfortable in their use of this medium.  Find her at www.boomerssocialmediatutor.com