by Jackie Sheeler from Get Angry With Me (@getangrywithme).
I set up my first profile last June and, like most, was initially baffled. There was no TwiTip then to help me get started. I followed a few people, and garnered a few followers, mostly people I already knew. back then (six months is an eternity in the Twitter evolution) there were a lot of ‘going to get a ham sandwich now’ tweets that weren’t interesting even when they came from people that I knew quite well.
But I was aggressively trying to learn about blog promotion, and when ProBlogger published a list of 538 Twitter Users to Follow, a whole new universe opened up – people generously sharing their experiences, tips and tricks. Many of them had twitter IDs that reflected their blog names, so that every tweet became a subtle promo.
‘How stupid of me to use a name-based ID,’ I thought. ‘I should follow their example and create an identify that reflects my blog.’ In December, I did exactly that.
I didn’t give up my original ID because I’m involved in a lot of projects completely unrelated to the topics I focus on in GetAngryWithMe, a ranty left-wing political blog. For that ID to tweet about songwriting or poetry didn’t make much sense. So big deal, right, I can just work from both IDs. I set up tools suggested by TwiTip, such as Tweetdeck and Twhirl, to make this easier, and activated other resources such as Twitterfeed, Friendfeed, Ping.fm and the Facebook plugin to automate the basics.
The result? Total CHAOS! Keeping track of which ID updated Facebook, which feed appeared on my blog, figuring out which tweets should go where, and which ID was linked to Ping.fm or Friendfeed immediately became a problem.
Then disaster – in the form of good fortune – struck: my Twitter IDs ended up on a list of recommended tweeters (I still don’t know where) and I starting gaining new followers every day, out of the blue — most of them, unfortunately, following both IDs. Not wanting to seem repetitious (or become annoying enough to unfollow), I now had to be careful not to post the same or similar content from both IDs.
All this made me so self-conscious that my tweeting went way, way down, and it became even worse when some well-known people became followers. I don’t want to sound repetitious (or lame) in front of Rachel Maddow or Robert Scoble! And which ID was who following, and – on and on.
Now, if I had the luxury of working full-time with my online projects, no doubt I could get these multiple personalities sorted out. But, like many of you, I am not a full-time blogger: with a demanding dayjob, a small recording studio and a reasonably active performance schedule, social networking must fit into whatever small, scattered pockets of time can be found. If your online time is also limited, do yourself a favor and work with only one Twitter ID. Put some thought into what you’d like your profile to represent BEFORE choosing an identity, and then – come hell or high water! – stick with that one.
It’s also critical to keep track of automations. For example, if your blog automatically feeds its links to Twitter, and your Twitter stream also appears that blog’s sidebar, you can easily end up looking, well, stupid.
My project for tomorrow – a whole blessed day with no scheduled appointments or overdue tasks to complete! – is organizing my Twitter connections and feeds. And, probably, shutting down that second ID altogether. If your situation is anything like mine, you can save yourself a lot of frustration by sticking with one ID and taking the time to make that one really work for you.
Good luck!
@brandonacox
Gotta totally agree with you here! Besides, people follow people, not id’s, logos, or businesses.
@irunabiz
My ID is based on my blog, but I pretty much use it for personal themed stuff. I’m starting a new blog and I’m debating getting a new ID for it that wouldn’t have personal stuff. I’m not sure what to do.
@friarjohn
I’m starting to have the same problem, except without the massive amounts of new followers. I have my main ID, a second ID that’s tied to one hobby blog that’s getting off the ground, and now a third that is tied to an anonymous, ranty blog that I’ve spun off from my main site. I really, really, really don’t want to confuse the last one with the first two. I’m using TweetDeck for friarjohn and Twirl for the other two.
@goingtoseminary
Got to say I was a little disappointed with the post. I have a personal twitter account (@ryan_burns), one related to my blog (@goingtoseminary), and one I manage for the company I work for (@logos). As I was reading I sat there thinking “yes… yes..” I desperatly hoped that you were going to share some great insight on how to manage them all… then you simply dropped “If your situation is anything like mine, you can save yourself a lot of frustration by sticking with one ID and taking the time to make that one really work for you.”
Uh, that’s just not helpful. Having separate accounts is good, as the people who follow my personal account don’t care about seminary all that much. But people in seminary don’t necessarily care that my kids are singing Christmas songs in the grocery store in the middle of February. Top it off with the fact that none of that should go on the company account. So, there are certainly cases where multiple accounts are needed and helpful… but, as you express so well… managing them is a fiasco! Any help out there?
@jonathanwthomas
I use my Twitter name for personal branding purposes and don’t intend to change. However, I have several other accounts that are more topic focused (such as @webinarcentral). I also manage several accounts for my work.
My wish is a program that will allow you to manage multiple accounts from one application. Having to log in in different programs and browsers is a huge pain.
@monstertalk
I have two IDs. One personal one and another one for my blog. It has been confusing but because I blog anonymously and about my work I have to detach one from the other. I also use different clients and my mobile phone is only attached to my personal twitter. It has more ‘noise’ in it but more personal.
Some people need to have some anonymity in ‘blogland and twitterville’ so sometimes it isn’t as easy to make the choice of one or the other.
@alaskanbest
I have two ID’s one for politics (emperor_bob) and the other for everything else.(alaskanbest) It’s been working ok for me, although I understand what you’re saying about the difficulty of keeping them straight. I don’t have a lot of cross over from one group to the other.
@adamstahr
I have thought long and hard about how to handle this dilemma. I use Twitter for both personal and professional purposes. My blog is definitely a personal endeavor, unrelated to my profession. I have decided to stick with one Twitter account for now. Perhaps this will change in the future, though I don’t look forward to building a following for a new Twitter account. Further, I don’t know of an easy or effective way to support multiple accounts on a mobile device.
@johnshepard
I wouldn’t follow a “ranty left-wing political blog” any longer than you would likely want to follow my #TCOT tweets. But I am interested in a lot of artists whom I don’t share politics with. We can share, yet respect our audience.
@rickybuchanan
I have a bunch of different web projects, mostly – but not all – related loosely to disability in some way. At the moment I have my name @rickybuchanan for most stuff but for the most popular web project I’ve spun off its own twitter id (@atmac). I’ve been debating with myself whether I should split or merge or leave things as they are.
I don’t like any of the Twitter clients available for OS X – none allow proper large print at the moment. So I use Firefox to update the @atmac one, and a Fluid SSB instance for the @rickybuchanan one (I keep a bunch of saved searches in that too). I keep one on teh left side of my screen and one on the right to help with separation and – touch wood – I haven’t mixed them up disasterously yet! It’s not an optimial system though.
@MoiraLA
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I was just told by another expert to change my Twitter ID, MoiraLA (my name and location) to my blog name, Dog Art Today. I have another blog, The Obama Dog Blog, but it is new and not as popular (yet), so I was going to make the change. I am so glad I read your article, because not only did it save me the disruption of changing Twitter ID, but it made me reorganize my Twitterfeeds and automatic posts too. I am sorry you had to go through the chaos… but I appreciate you sharing your experience and saving a another blogger and new Twitterer like me from going there too.
@RealityDouche
Well Done!
@jpseabury
Great post.
I think at one point, people looked at the Internet as a way of disguising their true identity. They had their “online persona” which was different (and perhaps more attractive, flirtatious, fun, etc.) than their “real life persona”.
But with all these social networks busting on to the scene, the opposite effect is starting to emerge. You might have different contacts on your Facebook vs Twitter vs MySpace vs LinkedIn vs Plaxo vs Whatever Else — but in the end, they’re all part of a giant Venn diagram. And it’s becoming increasingly easy for people to discover the real you, by finding where all those Venn diagram areas intersect.
@heidimoon
I have to agree with a couple of the folks above who have very clear reasons for keeping their Twitter handles distinct. I have an open account that is used for more business-oriented, personal branding tweets, and a second, protected account for more personal musings that don’t show up in Friendfeed or elsewhere.
I also have to work to keep them separate. I’ve tried http://www.splitweet.com — it’s good for seeing multiple account streams in one place, but lacks follower management at the moment. So I’ve got one account up in Twhirl, and the other in a browser. I check the business one more regularly and only during the work day, and the personal one intermittently during the day and somewhat more at night.
Ultimately, you have to decide your personal online strategy and use Twitter or any of the other SM tools in a way that’s consistent with it.
@thebenchs
Ups in my casei reaching to caos, i have one for me hectorhenry17 i have one for my principal blog Blinkyit adn one for my secondary blog Thebenchs and to be shore its hard to keep ups all of them and worths its that 2 of them are in Spanish and one to try improve my English so its a complete joke sometime.
I guess the because its organize good my self but that don’t make it be easy. thank you for the pots.
@selfpubreview
I changed my ID to be better branded and what’s annoying is that the old ID doesn’t automatically forward to the new ID so I had to change all the old links. Not a huge deal, but seems like Twitter should fix this. I get it: the Twitter ID’s open now and anyone can take it, but there should really be some system in place when this happens.
@bestlifeweb
I was looking for a way to manage multiple accounts and found this post. I read some advice to take separate accounts but have also found that managing 2 accounts is tricky. So I will take your advice and cancel my other account. Thanks for sharing.
@jsinkeywest
Great post Jackie. On the ride home today I was actually thinking of my pitch for you to do a post on my blog LOL . Now to twitter. Like yourself we pull no punches. I don’t need to game twitter and get a bunch of followers especially a bunch of self centered GURUS serious.
I like real people and real friends. I rather have the 400 followers I have then 4000 lamers who are going to bombard me with their GET RICH nonsense, I had the pleasure to speak with you in REAL life and I can vouch that I rather know You then all those other clowns.
Your blowing it UP
Stumbled
@lance_
I’ve seen this happen plenty of times in overlap between twitter ids and also overlap between different social media sites. I had to remove someone from my IM list on friendfeed because any time he posted a blog entry I’d get blasted by eight messages when he added it to Google Reader shared, delicious shared, mediaclipper, etc. I get five copies of anything that Fair Copyright for Canada puts out.
I’m not sure if shutting down a twitter account is the way to go. Maybe choose a dominant id where all your overlapping posts go, keep the secondary id open but only for tweets that are solidly there. Looking forward to hearing a solution.
@writerchic
If I could change my user name, I wouldn’t consider having two twitter accts – an interesting person is multifaceted, no? When I started twittering, writerchic as my user name had been out there and I wanted to connect with those I knew from other cyber places. But, it doesn’t reflect the who, what, where of me and for that, I’d like now to use at least a portion of my real name. Any advice from others?
@lance_
@Nancy,
You can change your username under settings. Right below “name” is “username.” I don’t get what the issue is. I’m sure something like writerchic_hayes would be available.