SOCIAL media has genuinely revolutionised the way we interact.

It’s easy to forget that just ten years ago Facebook was only just emerging, and even then was restricted to university students only.

Yes, we had MySpace, but that never quite took off in the same way. Today even my mother has a Twitter account and my granny has an email address.

Some would grumble that people don’t really talk any more, and they’re probably right. But Facebook and the like are genuinely a great way to keep in touch with people it might otherwise be all too easy to lose contact with.

How else are you going to get regular updates on the bowel movements and sleeping habits of the children of someone living 100 miles away? But it presents an interesting conundrum for those of us who use social media for work.

There’s no getting away from the fact that Twitter and Facebook are invaluable tools for a journalist.

I’ve lost count of the number of stories I’ve found just by keeping an eye on Twitter and it’s a great way of getting and sharing pictures of events as they’re happening.

But when you also use it in a social capacity you’re presented with a problem.

Are your actual friends going to be interested in what you’re working on, and likewise are people who follow you on Twitter going to particularly want to see pictures of your cats?

A lot of people in my line of work have a personal account and a work account, but personally that’s far too fiddly for me. And I suspect it wouldn’t be long before I slipped up and tweeted something on the wrong account.

My rule is Twitter is for work, Facebook is personal. While anyone who follows me on Twitter will know I use it in a personal capacity quite a lot, I make a point of keeping my work off Facebook.

I’m not under any illusion someone I went to university with and lives 100 miles away is at all interested in my article about the Norton Parkway station, however wonderfully written it was.

But others take a different approach and share everything they write with all their Facebook friends.

So what’s the answer? I don’t know.Now excuse me, I have to post this hilarious video of a cat stuck in a doorframe on Twitter. Wait, no I meant Facebook.