"I stay in touch with people on Facebook," says Derfler, 30, who met his fiancee on Match.com. But on other platforms - his LinkedIn account and his personal website - Derfler has no qualms about commingling his diverse interests.
In a bygone era, a professional could take part in an unrelated hobby - the lawyer moonlighting as a rock star - and easily keep the smoke-filled pub scene divorced from the courtroom. But with the pervasiveness of social media today, we probably need to establish paradigms of how our versatile selves are perceived within our social network.
Steven L. Johnson at Temple University Fox School of Business, says sometimes the online blending of a person's main job and any after-hours interest might work - in Derfler's case, for instance, - but it's probably best to keep a firewall between them.
"It can get tricky," says Johnson, who teaches social media innovation. "We want to be around people that are well-rounded, but if our surgeon is regularly tweeting and posting pictures of himself skiing, you might start to wonder how good he is at surgery."
Pamela Hetherington, 30, began tap-dance training when she was 3. She stages tap jams around town, and she is cofounder of an all-female pickup company, Lady Hoofers Society, which sold out two shows during the Live Arts Festival/Philly Fringe 2011.
"I do it for love, not for money," the dancer says.
But in the 9-to-5 weekday world, she is an editor at a medical publishing company. "I have a very demanding day job," says Hetherington, who has a master's degree in English. "In work, I'm focused . . . but away from editing, dance is swirling in my head."
To cover both interests, the Philadelphia native also employs a mix of social media tools, using some to grow her artistic pursuits, while others connect her with like-minded editing professionals.
