A client recently asked us how to be engaging and personal on their blog without giving away too many details about their personal lives.

This is a question we get a lot, and it comes from a few different places.

There’s privacy and security, and there’s also not wanting your own personal brand to eclipse the corporate brand.

We’ve found that the best brands have the most personality, the most foibles.

The important difference is between your personal life and your personal experience. One has lots of details, the other involves universal truths and stories.

Sharing your experiences – and the feelings you felt going through them – doesn’t mean you have to disclose your date of birth, family details or street address.

(Photo from imanemergency’s Flickr page. Thanks)

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The issue of personal vs. business identity online keeps coming up.

It was a recurring question at the Marketing Now conference last week.

Jeremiah Owyang’s grappling with how much to reveal . Courtney is amazed at how personal business has become .

And every time we talk about Twitter , we get two responses. Some people love the real, human interaction; others can’t bear hearing what others have had for breakfast. It’s extremely polarising.

At iJump, we believe (or at least I personally believe!) the real brand is made up of the people who represent it, far more than the brand identity as written down by experts. So businesses with a healthy culture shouldn’t fear their employees’ personal brands busting through the screen. It’s a positive thing.

Of course this solves nothing, it just brings up more questions – which we hope to answer in due time! Questions like:

• How much should you mix personal and business identities online? (eg. is your Facebook profile for business, or friends and family, or all of the above?)
• If businesses really let their staff build their personal brands, don’t they risk losing customers when the staff move on? (A problem faced by sports teams, TV shows and sales departments especially)
• How much personal information is too much information on Twitter? (Your stories are most welcome!)

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