Twitter announced last Tuesday that users can now integrate their Twitter streams into their LinkedIn profiles. I’ve long questioned the benefit of LinkedIn to people not looking to hire or be hired. But LinkedIn has taken a major step toward daily professional legitimacy.

Then again, this begs the question: Do I REALLY want my tweets to be visible on LinkedIn? What do my tweets say about my level of expertise and professionalism?

I can’t say that the imagery Twitter provided (look to your left) is appropriate, considering the level of awesomeness I attribute to Twitter and my feelings of ho-humness toward LinkedIn. Having said that, I have now willfully and intentionally merged my LinkedIn and Twitter on a selective basis, and I will explain why.

But first, let’s look at the pros and the cons of merging your LinkedIn and Twitter accounts:

Reasons to Approach with Caution

1. You tweet all manner of tomfoolery and are the poster child of what not to say to people who can get you fired.
2. You frequently promote religious or political comments that could cause anything from mild irritation to corporate outrage.
3. You tweet things you don’t want your boss to see, and he/she never will as long as they are posted on Twitter and NOT LinkedIn.
4. Your Twitter account is privatized so that only those you approve can see your tweets.
5. Your Twitter profile name is unrecognizable to your employer, but integrating with LinkedIn would spoil the party.

Reasons to Link Your Twitter Account with Confidence

1. You can choose to only make selective tweets visible, which you would denote on Twitter with the hashtag #in.
2. You know the culture of your work environment and you know that your bosses, coworkers, and clients are real people who take EVERYTHING with a grain of salt.
3. You are a business owner whose product or service is so AWESOME you could abuse a pet and people would still buy from you.
4. You simply don’t care what other people know or think about you.

Uncomfortable Still? Practice First with Facebook

You may or may not be familiar with Selective Twitter Status for Facebook. It allows much of the same functionality of the new LinkedIn/Twitter integration.  This Facebook app, once activated and synced with your Twitter profile, allows each user to post selective tweets to their Facebook Wall. Only tweets containing the hashtag “#fb” are posted. This has been very helpful for me since my less-than-tech-savvy friends use Facebook, and my tech-superstar friends use Twitter.

The way that breaks down for me is that childhood, high school, and college friends use Facebook. Industry peers and others use Twitter. So I can speak to two different groups. I don’t mind sharing most personal information with my Tweeps, but I’d only bore and annoy my Facebook friends with all my links, retweets, and references to Search Marketing, Reputation Management, and Social Media Marketing. So I use Twitter as my home base, but add #fb to a few tweets per day that will tell my Facebook friends more personal or humorous details.

Now I have the opposite solution. Twitter will remain my home base, but I can use #in to share the more professional tweets. Here’s how one of these tweets could look on Twitter:

just finished writing a new blog post about twitter integration for linkedin. http://tr.im/FaG6 #in

And if I ever have a personal tweet I think is appropriate for both Facebook and LinkedIn use both #fb #in tags together and both sites will receive the update. I’m not assuming that my tweets cannot be found on Twitter, mind you. I’m more than aware that they are available for the world to see. So I’m not living under any delusion that I can get away with offensive content.

I AM, however, expecting that a person reviewing my LinkedIn profile who sees the kinds of tweets I have selectively chosen to share will come away with the impression that I know my stuff, that I am on the cutting edge of my industry, and that I would be a valuable resource either to hire, to quote, to work for, or to build a professional relationship with. Sure, they can run across my more zany side on Twitter later, but first they encounter my capability. After that has been established, the rest is less important to me personally.

So there you have some food for thought. Remember, you have the option to either keep your profiles separate, to fully integrate them, or to selectively integrate them. I’m guessing the latter is most appropriate for 75% of LinkedIn users. You have all the control AND the flexibility.

Let me know if you think I missed any crucial concerns or issues.

Popularity: 68% [?]