My FaceBook page serves as my personal and professional page - so there will be times my professional peers and even managers will see a side of me that I normally wouldn't share. A good example was a recent wall post by my sister. While the post itself is fine, it refers to a rather crude - though humorous - video.
Now for me - I don't care that you see that side of me. However members may not be willing to share their personal life (you yourself may not even be able to share that side with your professional peers). This was brought up at the Tech Conference during the Young Professional Facebook session. One panelist mentioned she had two facebook pages - one personal and one professional. And I totally see the point in having two pages - obviously some things probably shouldn't be shared with professional peers.
This is something to consider though as your organization makes its way on facebook and other recreational social sites. Perhaps your members don't want to become social butterflies, they just want to make some new contacts and participate in informal learning. They may not want to put themself out there for all to see. I personally do not keep a personal twitter page because I don't want to be that connected - for me it blurs personal and professional too much (not to mention my personal life is boring).
Now this may be a trival point for some, but members may like the exclusivity your organization offers. Being "out there" may not be appealing to them - though the experience of social networking would be beneficial. I've recieved some feedback along these lines from members who do not feel that facebook or any of the personal social networking sites are appropriate for business use and would not be interested in joining a professional network through any of them.
Don't fret though - this could be an opportunity to examine a closed group such as ning or collectiveX or percieved professional services such as linkedin. You just need to talk and listen to your members to find out how up close and personal they are comfortable getting.
Thanks for reading,
bob
