If one of your valued clients invited you to join his professional network on LinkedIn, you'd do it in a heartbeart, right?

But what if he invited you to be his friend on Facebook? Or - even more potentially unsettling - MySpace?

In OMG -- My Boss wants to 'Friend' Me On My Online Profile, Jared Sandberg of the Wall Street Journal talks about the hazards of cramming many different social relationships "into one category of friends." One market-research consultant accepted her client's invitation to be friends online, and found herself confronted with a profile photo of her client scantily clad and striking a come-hither pose in soft lighting.

On a related note, Teresa Valdez Klein is grappling with issues of personal and professional presentation via Facebook in the wake of a back-and-forth with Robert Scoble over the wisdom of "friending" all comers. Scoble thinks that in the world of the future, not only will CEOs be able to post goofy pictures of themselves on their profiles, such photos will be expected.

Fig. 1 - Sadly, we were unable to secure permissions to a photo of a scantily clad Teresa Valdez Klein prior to publication.

We do not advise today's CEOs to try and come in ahead of this trend by appearing in a YouTube video naked and drunk and attempting to ride on the roof of a moving pickup truck.

(Via Blog Business Summit, photo by jdlasica)

Tags: Wall Street Journal, LinkedIn, Facebook, MySpace, social networking, coolest self, Teresa Valdez Klein, Robert Scoble