One of my clients was recently invited by a recruiter to become a friend on Facebook. The client had a hope to keep her Facebook personal and use Linkedln for professional contacts. At the same time she also wanted to maintain the relationship with this recruiter and worried that refusing the request might be viewed as a rebuff. In the end she contacted the recruiter via email to let her know that she wanted to connect via LinkedIn instead. Score one for boundaries.

Many people keep my client's online boundary: Facebook for personal; Linkedln for professional. I didn't want to take any risk crossing these common boundary when I got recruited I deliberately chose Linkedln for my research and sourcing. Its the same reason I tried a candidate's work number first before calling home or cell.

If you would like to keep a personal and professional online boundary, then be consistent. Always keep your professional research and inquiries in one network and personal separate. It is good to realize this that not everyone think like this way, so you may have people reach out to you in ways you didn't intend (as with my client and the recruiter), and you want to deal with these inquiries consistently. So always keep your personal networking profile as private as possible if you indeed do not want it used for professional inquiries.

Another consideration is that the line between personal and professional lives is often hazy. Especially when we are in the job search mode (and who isn't these days, even if you are employed). Your friends always likely to think about you and want to advocate for you. Therefore, your personal networks may be your strongest professional leads. Before you completely differentiate between personal and professional, know that what you gain in boundaries, you may lose in opportunities.

There is a compromise to toggle between your personal and professional networks of choice and be sure that everyone you would like to be in both networks are. You need to invite one to the other, and make sure that you updating each site with the relevant information. This work requires a coordination. However, it ensures that you maintain the boundaries, but still reap the benefits of integrating your personal and professional lives.