A new colleague of mine hesitantly sent me a link to a hilarious video from the ellen show. She presented it cautiously, perhaps not wanting to offend me. After all, we are still in those early stages of working together when you feel that you might too easily say or do the wrong thing and damage the relationship.

If this had come to me through Facebook, I would have thought nothing of sharing it. Most of my Facebook contacts are friends and family and I know they’d appreciate it. But what about my professional contacts? Is this the sort of thing I should share with them?

My first response is of course not – it’s not professional enough. It sends the wrong message about how serious I am about my work. But on the other hand, it could indicate that I have a sense of humor and don’t take myself too seriously, and some people might like that.

This is the sort of debate that can trip up a blogger or writer. How much of your personality do you let through? Certainly there are successful blogs on which the writer lets the world into their deeply personal life. That works especially well for artists, knitters and even some foodies. But what about those who want to have a blog about their business rather than themselves? How far can or should you go before you’ve turned away the people you are hoping to attract?

At the end of the day, it comes down to this for me – I want to work with people who share my values,  are pleasant to work with,  have big goals, and like to have fun.  I’m serious about helping people reach their goals, but I think life is too short to not enjoy the process. So if I post a video that I think is funny and someone doesn’t want to work with me because of it, it’s likely that I wouldn’t want to work with that person anyway.

This is not, however, a good guiding principle for everyone. There are some companies and individuals who need to maintain a more professional appearance. Are you one of them? It depends on your audience. What can they tolerate? What do they want or need to see?

I hope that my audience can handle it: