Several times in the last year I’ve had to address the confusion that having two Twitter accounts with my name on them causes. The two accounts are @raffel and @JimRaffel. The two accounts serve different purposes and I have written the bio of each to reflect those differences. Nonetheless confusion occurs and I’m guessing I am not the only one dealing with this.
The bios are important when managing multiple accounts
On Twitter @raffel is me. The bio is short, sweet and to the point – “CEO of ColorMetrix.com, I’m with @hawtwife. #3T” Let’s break it down. The me most of you would be concerned with is the CEO of a small business, ColorMetrix. I added the dot com so that folks can easily find the site if they choose to. I’m married to Cheryl who you can find on Twitter @hawtwife. I’m a member of Third Tribe Marketing (#3T is a hash tag), so if you are a member, you know we have that in common. In short, I’m a real person and I’ve shared some basics about me.
@JimRaffel is the account of my blog. Again, let’s start with the bio – “This is me without the blather – new blog posts and other interesting links I find but no interaction that’s all found @raffel.” This account was set-up for two reasons. First, it’s my name and I’d prefer I have control of it and not someone else. Second, some people really just want to know when I publish a new post here. This is the account that automatically tweets that information at 4:30am CST time each morning. I also point folks to the @raffel account so they can engage and interact with me if that’s in their plans.
Another key point is that @JimRaffel only follow one person on Twitter, @raffel. @raffel on the other hand (me) follows close to 3,000. What I’m suggesting here is that you take 20 seconds or so to look at the bio and follower/follows stats of the accounts you choose to follow. There can be a great deal of valuable information there to help you understand who you have or are about to follow. Both these accounts represent my personal brand and should be owned and managed by me.
Your brand needs its own voice
What about a brand that’s not a personal brand? In my case that’s @ColorMetrix. I’ve struggled with what to do with this account for a while. Too much tweeting and re-tweeting between @raffel and @ColorMetrix just looks like me talking to myself and that, quite frankly, looks ridiculous.
Brand voices should not be a voice of one. If it’s not a personal brand then it’s a representation of the entire company and team behind the brand. How can one person possible embody and represent that? In our case the @ColorMetrix account is now the true voice of the company. I’ve hired @ShelMKE to help me manage the account. Before you ask how a hired gun can be the voice of the company let me explain. Shelby does more than just help manage the Twitter account.
She is a team member helping us with other marketing and project management related tasks at ColorMetrix. In addition, she’s known me almost a year. Over that year, she has asked lots of questions about us and our customers. She knows and is immersed in ColorMetrix. Together, we are able to put together a voice on Twitter that represents who we are and what we do.
This is what’s starting to work for me and the multiple accounts I manage on Twitter. How about you? Please jump into the comments and share your thoughts.
Jim,
I think that a quick cue for the other site might be using an icon or other picture for the @jimraffel blog…
I might use my other account as a stream for my blogs… will include the Icon…
I think your approach is one that proves to be effective since you can create a twitter feed for your blog for those few that read you every day… I will add @jimraffel account on my favorite blogs twitter list which I check every day.
Another thing I do when managing multiple accounts is create lists of those who are continuously engaging so I they don’t get lost in my stream.
Yes, I’ve been thinking about a different avatar for JimRaffel.com, that would make a great deal of sense. Thanks for that.