When a client wants to "friend" you, what to do?

What happens when a client want to "friend" you on Facebook or some other social media site?

For those professionals, including myself, who follow a professional code of conduct and want to be mindful of questions of dual relationships, this is a good question. Complications go further when many therapy, counseling and helping professionals are using these rapidly growing sites like Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, Twitter and other lesser-known social sites for marketing purposes.

Dual relationships are not unethical in themselves but can cause complications. Here are thoughts -- and questions to consider -- about how to respond when clients send "Friend Request" to their psychotherapists from the Zur Institute.

Resources are everywhere for social media

I'm still getting marketing mileage from the fascinating three-part class that I attended in 2009 courtesy of the University of Wisconsin-Parkside on social media marketing. There are several amazing no-cost options available online. In addition to Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and MySpace, try out:

Google Docs, a free service which allows you to create and edit web-based documents, spreadsheets, and presentations. Store documents online and access them from any computer.

Mashable, a massive online guide which helps you learn lots about social media opportunities for connecting and marketing with others.

If your potential clients are using Facebook, then you need to have a Facebook Fan page – it is a great public relations tool. It's free except for time maintaining and updating it. A well-organized person will be able to do such in just minutes per day.

Next step in social media? Video.

Michael Todd says video is the key to relationship building. I'm not there yet, but this is the direction that we are going...

What can yoga teach us about the social web? Gwen Bell has ideas.

Gwen Bell, a yoga instructor and social media expert, has a great blog article titled What Can Yoga Teach Us About the Social Web? I love her creativity, and I'm following her on Twitter.