Social Media Boundaries: How Much Personal Content Should You Share for Your Business?

Everyone seems to have an opinion about what you should share online and how much you should share online. Some people say be as vulnerable as possible, and some people say you shouldn't overshare or share anything. Some say show your personality, others say keep it professional.

If you're sitting here thinking, "what is actually right for me and how much should I share online?" you're not alone. There's no magic formula for this. And what might be right for one person isn't right for another.

Today I want to help you figure out your own social media boundaries around what you should be sharing. This is not what some expert told you to do. This is not what your competitors are doing, but what actually feels right for you and your small business.

Because the last thing I want you to do is burn out on social media content creation because you're creating and sharing things that make you feel uncomfortable. Or on the flip side, keeping things so buttoned up and polished that you don't attract the audience you want.

Understanding the Social Media Sharing Spectrum

First, we need to talk about the sharing spectrum, and this is where things are really going to start being put into perspective for you as you try and figure out how you want to share.

On one extreme end, you have what I like to call the influencer approach. This is sharing literally anything and everything, like a diary that lives on the internet. You're sharing things that are a bit TMI, and you're letting people in on everyday aspects of your life and almost reporting in real time.

This is going to look like morning routines, sharing what you had for lunch that day, and it can be as dramatic as relationship problems. Literally just giving the internet all of your personal business.

The Corporate Approach: All Business, No Personality

Then on the other side of the spectrum, you have the corporate approach where it's all business all the time. You're like a walking billboard on every single social media platform. There's no personality. It's all benefits, features, call to action, heavy promo.

As you can see, those are two very opposite touchpoints that you can have with your audience. And there are pros and cons to each. Honestly, the vast majority of us will sit somewhere in the middle, especially when it comes to creating content and sharing about our small business.

We want to sit somewhere in the middle. You don't want to go to those far ends. We want to connect one-on-one with our audience without having to share every single moment of our lives. We want to feel relatable, but without feeling overexposed.

The Problems with Extremes

When you go to those opposite ends and those extremes, you can run into problems:

• Oversharing can lead to burnout, very serious privacy and security concerns, and honestly, sometimes your audience can even get fatigued from it.

• Undersharing might make you seem very inauthentic, disconnected, or like you're hiding yourself behind your brand instead of showing up as a person running a business.

Before you ask, no, there is no perfect answer. There's no perfect balance. It's figuring out where you fall on that spectrum.

Context Matters: Different Businesses, Different Boundaries

A therapist is going to share very differently than a wedding photographer. A therapist has legal constraints about talking about client success, whereas a wedding photographer can directly show off content and client success.

A B2B consultant is going to have very different boundaries than a life coach. B2B consultants might have privacy concerns with what they're supposed to be sharing, whereas a lifestyle coach really needs to connect with people one-on-one.

Yes, your audience expectation levels and what they expect and anticipate from you does matter, but what matters more is how comfortable you are in sharing.

The Three-Zone Framework for Social Media Boundaries

So how do you figure out what is right for you and how do you start to define your social media boundaries? I actually break this into three different zones.

Zone 1: The Lighthearted Zone

First you have the lighthearted zone. Think of this as your everyday stories, those funny anecdotes, maybe some behind the scenes moments. These overall kind of peel back the curtain a little bit, but feel lighthearted. They don't feel so heavy.

This is the kind of stuff that might feel easy or natural to share. And honestly, as a millennial, I know we get a lot of crap for it, but this is like sharing your coffee order, sharing your lunch, sharing the water cup that spilled over and ruined your laptop. The easy things to share.

The lighthearted zone is your gateway into personal content. It's where you can test the waters without diving too deep. These moments create connection points with your audience without requiring you to be vulnerable or share anything too personal.

Think about the small, relatable moments in your day that might make someone smile or nod along. The technology fails, the coffee shop mix-ups, the moments where you're clearly human and not a polished business robot.

Zone 2: The Vulnerability Zone

Then there's the vulnerability zone. Think of this as your business struggles, maybe some challenges you've had to overcome, lessons that you've unfortunately had to learn the hard way. These are connection points between you and your audience and maybe things that they relate to that they might also struggle with.

This really starts to tip the scale of that vulnerability aspect. It may require some more thought and it may require you to share a little bit more, but can ultimately allow you to connect deeper with your audience as well.

The vulnerability zone is where the magic happens for building deeper connections. When you share a struggle you've overcome or a lesson you've learned the hard way, you're giving your audience permission to not be perfect either.

Maybe it's the time you completely bombed a launch and what you learned from it. Or the moment you realized you were burning out and had to completely restructure your business. These stories create trust because they show your humanity.

But here's the key: you can share the struggle and the outcome without sharing all the gory details. You don't need to air every piece of dirty laundry to be vulnerable and authentic.

Zone 3: The Protected Zone

Finally, there's something I like to call the protected zone. These are those deep personal issues, maybe some family drama, relationship problems, stuff that you might not want to have out there on the internet. For most people, this is the kind of stuff that typically stays private.

The protected zone is exactly what it sounds like. These are your hard boundaries. The things that are off-limits, either because they involve other people's privacy, could put you at risk, or simply feel too personal to share with strangers on the internet.

Your protected zone might include details about your family members, your exact location when traveling, financial specifics, health information, or relationship dynamics. This zone is completely personal to you, and there's no right or wrong answer for what belongs here.

The important thing is that you clearly define this zone for yourself so you never feel pressured to share something that crosses your boundaries.

How to Identify Your Personal Comfort Zone

So how do you identify which zone you are most comfortable in? You have to start with your values and what matters most to you.

Start with Your Values

Do you want to be transparent? Do you want to lead with authenticity or do you want to have a little bit of privacy? Your boundaries and what zone you ultimately end up in really should align with your morals, your values, and how you want to be perceived online.

Your values are your North Star when it comes to content creation. If authenticity and transparency are core values for you, you might be comfortable spending more time in the vulnerability zone. If privacy and professionalism are more important, you might stick primarily to the lighthearted zone with occasional dips into vulnerability.

There's no right or wrong answer here. A financial advisor might need to maintain more professional boundaries than a life coach. A parent might want to protect their children's privacy more than someone without kids.

Consider Energy Protection

Next, you have to think about energy protection. Which one of these zones really lights you up? Where do you feel like you can talk and you can share, and what zone makes you feel icky and uncomfortable?

Some people might love being completely open, honest, and vulnerable online, and for other people that's scary and feels very, very uncomfortable.

Pay attention to how you feel before, during, and after sharing different types of content. Does sharing a vulnerable story energize you because you helped someone feel less alone? Or does it drain you because you spent the day worried about judgment?

Does sharing lighthearted content feel natural and fun, or does it feel forced and inauthentic? Your energy response is a clear indicator of where your boundaries should be.

Think About Your Audience

Lastly, consider your audience and who you're trying to talk to. Do they value personal connection or professional expertise? There's no wrong answer here, but you really need to start to figure out where you align and how you're going to talk to them.

If your ideal clients are looking for someone they can trust with their deepest insecurities, they probably want to see some vulnerability from you. If they're looking for strategic business advice, they might care more about your expertise than your personal struggles.

But remember, even B2B audiences are still human. They want to work with people they like and trust, which usually requires some level of personality and authenticity.

The Three Lists Exercise: Defining Your Boundaries

You might fit in one of those three zones, or you might have a zone that you're most comfortable in and you tap into the others as you see fit. Here's a quick exercise that you can do. I want you to get out a piece of paper or jot down some notes, and you're going to have three separate lists.

Your Always Share List

The first one being your always share list. These are things that you don't mind sharing with the internet that you always feel comfortable about.

For me, this really comes down to sharing funny stories about my dog or talking about my Virgo Sun, Virgo Moon, Capricorn Rising, or that I'm Type A. Some of my personality traits, those things I deem okay to talk about always.

Your always share list might include your coffee preferences, your favorite productivity tools, funny moments from your workday, or personality traits that help people understand how you work.

These are the things that feel so natural and comfortable to share that you never second-guess them. They're part of your brand personality and help people connect with you without crossing any personal boundaries.

Your Sometimes Share List

Then your second list is going to be your sometimes share list. This is going to look like things that you may want to share depending upon timing and context.

For me, this looks like talking about ADHD. I think there's a time and a place. There's certain things I'm comfortable sharing and certain things that I'm not comfortable sharing, and it truly depends on the situation.

Your sometimes share list might include business struggles, lessons learned from failures, challenges with work-life balance, or aspects of your personal life that relate to your business but require more thought before sharing.

The key with this list is context. You might share a business struggle when it ties into a lesson that helps your audience, but not just for the sake of sharing.

Your Never Share List

Then you have a never share list. These are the things that you never want to share. And this is where you have those hard boundaries set in place.

For me, this looks like anything about my personal life that gives away details of my loved ones. If I'm traveling, I don't post things in real time or in the moment for security concerns. So for me, those are my hard boundaries with social media.

Your never share list might include family drama, financial specifics, health details, relationship problems, or anything that could compromise your safety or the privacy of people you care about.

Questions to Ask Yourself Before Posting

Now, if you're looking for an even more tactical strategy and approach to figuring out "should I post this or shouldn't I?" here are questions that you should ask yourself if you are a little hesitant towards hitting that post button.

Question 1: Normal Discomfort or Red Flag Anxiety?

Number one, is the discomfort you're experiencing normal, like nervousness and just like you're a little scared to put yourself out there, or is it anxiety stopping you from being like, "hold on a second, I actually shouldn't be doing this"?

There's a difference between the normal nervousness that comes with being vulnerable and the gut feeling that tells you something is off. Normal nervousness might feel like butterflies or a slight worry about how people will respond. Red flag anxiety feels like dread or a strong urge to delete immediately after posting.

Learn to distinguish between these two feelings. One is growth, the other is your intuition protecting you.

Question 2: The Internet Forever Test

Number two, are you okay with it being on the internet forever? Even if you've deleted it, somebody could have potentially screenshotted it or saved it somewhere. Knowing that whatever it is you're about to post could live out there forever and be searchable, findable, are you comfortable with that?

This is the ultimate test. Would you be okay if this post showed up in a Google search of your name five years from now? Would you be comfortable if a potential client, family member, or future business partner saw this content?

If the answer is no, don't post it. The internet has a long memory, and delete buttons don't guarantee anything disappears permanently.

Question 3: Handling Misinterpretation and Attention

Number three, are you comfortable with being misunderstood or having that post be misinterpreted? Because it's not always likely that you will go viral, but you may get a little bit more attention and you may get a little bit more pushback depending upon what it is you are sharing.

Are you comfortable knowing that a lot of eyeballs might potentially see this, might comment, might DM and might not say the nicest things? Would you be okay with that amount of attention around the topic that you're going to be posting about?

Even well-intentioned posts can be misunderstood. People might take something out of context, disagree with your perspective, or respond in ways you didn't expect. Before posting, make sure you're emotionally prepared for various responses.

Question 4: What's Your Real Intention?

Number four, I want you to think about what is the intention behind the post. Are you sharing to actually have a connection moment with your audience, to help them out, to be truly vulnerable and authentic? Or are you jumping on a trend, jumping on something that you think might just make you viral, or you're just doing a hot take or something just to boost engagement?

You need to really discern between the two. Content created for genuine connection tends to perform better long-term than content created just for engagement.

When your intention is to help, educate, or connect, you're more likely to attract the right audience and build meaningful relationships. When your intention is just to get attention, you might get short-term engagement but struggle to build lasting connections.

Tactical Strategies for Strategic Sharing

So how do you actually go about sharing this kind of content strategically?

Use Your Content Pillars as a Guide

I actually always come back to my content strategy, specifically my content pillars, and I see if I'm feeling called to share something, does it naturally fit within one of my more personal content pillars? Can I weave in something about my content pillars to make it make sense as a part of my overall content strategy?

This is something that works for me. And if that feels a little weird and icky to you, I totally understand. But it is just a checkpoint for me to understand where those boundaries are. I'm like, if it doesn't fit naturally into the content I'm already currently creating, I might not need to post it here.

Your content pillars act as guardrails for your sharing. If you have a content pillar around work-life balance, sharing a struggle with burnout might fit naturally. If you don't have any personal content pillars, sharing deeply personal content might feel disconnected from your brand.

The Pause Button Strategy

Sometimes for more vulnerable topics, I will simply hit the pause button. I will create the piece of content, I will sit on it sometimes even just for 24 hours before actually hitting publish, because sometimes that pause brings me clarity around whether or not I want to share that. Sometimes I ultimately decide not to.

The pause button is one of your most powerful tools. Time gives you perspective. What feels urgent to share in the moment might not feel necessary after you sleep on it.

Create the content when you're inspired, but don't feel pressured to publish immediately. Give yourself permission to sit with it, review it, and make sure it still feels aligned when you're in a different emotional state.

Test with Temporary Formats

Then you can also test out some more temporary formats. Something like Instagram stories where it disappears after 24 hours, or maybe something like Twitter or Threads that tend to have a little bit shorter shelf life unless you go viral.

It's just easy and quick for you to share your thought process, share that piece of content before it becomes something as concrete as what feels like a feed post.

Stories, Threads, and other temporary or quick formats are great testing grounds for content you're unsure about. You can gauge audience response without the pressure of permanent content.

If something resonates in Stories, you might decide to turn it into a more permanent post. If it doesn't land the way you expected, it disappears without affecting your main content strategy.

Share the Message, Not All the Details

Lastly, remember that you can always share something, the core message, the core idea, without sharing all the gory details that come along with it.

You can share the struggle, you can share the challenge, you can share the outcome without exposing the entire process that led you there. That might just be the part that you feel uncomfortable with, because the goal is a connection point, not necessarily like this full confession.

You don't need to share every detail to be authentic. Often, the lesson or insight is more valuable to your audience than the specific personal details anyway.

For example, you could share that you learned the importance of boundaries after a difficult client experience without sharing exactly what that client did or said. The lesson is what matters, not the drama.

Flexibility in Your Boundaries

Know that you can always be flexible with your boundaries. One day you can decide to pull back, and the next day you can decide to move forward and share more. Know that these are always up to you and you decide what you want to gatekeep, and what you don't.

Your boundaries aren't set in stone. As you grow and change, your comfort level with sharing might change too. What felt too vulnerable to share last year might feel perfectly comfortable now. Or you might decide you want more privacy as your business grows.

The key is to regularly check in with yourself and adjust as needed. Your boundaries should serve you and support your business goals, not limit you or make you feel uncomfortable.

The Bottom Line on Social Media Boundaries

The bottom line is your social media boundaries are truly personal and they're valid, no matter what you decide to share or what you decide not to share.

You don't have to be completely vulnerable online to be successful, and you don't have to share every single detail in order to be considered authentic. You definitely don't have to follow what somebody else is doing.

It truly takes some time to think about your own comfort zones. What feels energizing? What feels draining? Where do you feel most comfortable?

Remember, authenticity isn't about sharing everything. It's about being genuine in what you do choose to share. You can build a successful, authentic brand while maintaining privacy and boundaries that feel good to you.

The goal isn't to become a more open person or push your comfort zones for the sake of content. The goal is to find a sustainable way to connect with your audience that supports both your business growth and your personal well-being.

Take the time to define your three zones, create your three lists, and establish questions you can ask yourself before posting anything you're unsure about. Your future self will thank you for the clarity and peace of mind.