Twitter Accounts: Personal or Public

Mobile Workplace

I was having a conversation with fellow PRBC-er Jess about our mutual Twitter dilemmas.

There doesn’t seem to be a week that goes by that I don’t hear “Hey Marie, you really should get a personal Twitter account.” But, why is that?

If you don’t know by now, I tweet from my work account. When tweeting on behalf of a company, you have to be mindful of what you are putting out there for public consumption. I also have to know my audience. I realize that not all of my tweets will be interesting to my “friends,” but I do try to mix in some personal tweets along with the work-related ones. I also try not to tweet too much, and only tweet what I think my primary audience would be interested in.

Apparently to my “real life” friends, this equates into one big snore-fest. Taking a look at my Twitter feed, I guess I can see their point. If you were to describe the outside-of-work me in adjectives, they would probably say: Billy Corgan-obsessed, music snob, sarcastic and cold weather hater.

However, I don’t have a million hours in the day. So the hours that I do have, I dedicate to my work Twitter feed. I’ve heard the arguments “Marie, it’s so easy to manage two Twitter accounts,” or “You can use your personal Twitter after hours.” Well, that just seems like a whole lot of effort.

What do you think? Should my “real life” friends just deal with my work Twitter? Or, should I cave in and get a little more personal?


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  • missmotorcade

    Great question, Marie. I went with two separate accounts – personal (@missmotorcade) and business (@WY20). I tweet about completely different things in each account. Eventually I may merge them, but certainly not now. In truth, I spend more time in my personal account, since there, I feel as though I can really say what I want and be [for the most part] uncensored. But as I noted in a comment to Jess' post, I'm in the middle of a job search, certain opportunities for which I'd benefit from my online presence (though certainly not if I'm known as @missmotorcade). So I'm considering setting up yet another account, with my real name, as my “career” account. I know it sounds complicated – but I already manage 6 accounts and just don't devote tremendous amounts of time to any of them. But I'm still getting a lot out of each of them. So for now, I'll keep 'em. I say add another account and give it a shot – try it…you'll like it ;)

  • jeffespo

    Marie, like you I also tweet for my company. However with the PC-ness and branding with the business account, your individuality is stifled a bit. You also need to think of scale with the business account. What happens if you hire someone and pass them the torch of @teammommedia? Where will your identity go? To that I would agree with Sherri in saying give it a try, what could it hurt?

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