This is a guest post by a dear member ‘o my tribe and BGB contributor Kazia.
Please note, while I myself have multiple Twitter accounts I can’t argue with her logic!
I find the bulk of my tweeting and activity is on my BGB account, and very little action happens on the other two!
So read, learn, and implement grasshoppers… some good shite here. Oh and be sure to make her feel welcome in the comments below. 😉
I believe it was Mae West who said, “Too much of a good thing is wonderful”. While I can’t argue with her when it comes to chocolate and shoes, the same doesn’t hold true for Twitter accounts. Too many accounts is not a good thing.
In fact, having multiple Twitter accounts can actually hurt your brand and lower your chances of being retweeted and having links clicked, reducing your Twitter power.
More Doesn’t Always Mean Better
I’m speaking from recent experience. I was one of those people who had a couple of Twitter accounts. I told myself I needed to have both accounts. I was sure I had to have one account for my blog and freelance work, and one twitter account just for me.
I had great reasons for keeping two separate accounts. I was going to keep it all business over at my work twitter account, @KitchenTableMkt, tweeting out marketing tips, links and resources. The @KitchenTableMkt twitter stream was going to be purely ‘useful’.
My other twitter account, the one with my name on it, was the account where I was already posting dorky pictures, interweb finds and a general count of how many cups of coffee I had drunk that day. My personal Twitter account was business free.
I was pretty confident people were going to appreciate my Twitter system of ‘business’ separated from ‘personality’. Yup, I had this twitter thing all figured out.
Everyone Makes Mistakes, Especially On Twitter
I tweeted away like this for almost a year. Sure, it got to be a chore keeping track of the two accounts. Trying to stay fresh and interesting on two separate Twitter streams is tough.
And keeping track of conversations I was having with people on separate Twitter accounts was giving me a kind of twitter multiple personality disorder. But I kept on going.
Then about two months ago, I realized I’d hit a Twitter plateaux. My follower count had leveled off on both accounts, and my Klout scores hovered at the high 40s low 50s. My Twitter was stuck and I was unsure how to get my momentum back.
Then one day it hit me. I was my own Twitter problem.
One Twitter Account, Super Charged!
I had diluted my personal brand on Twitter. I wasn’t being the whole me. I wasn’t being authentic. And it was affecting how people interacted with me on Twitter.
I preach authenticity all freakin’ day to my clients. I stand on my little soap box and tell people that the power of social media lies in honest authentic sharing. And here I was, being a big ol’ social media faker hiding behind two separate Twitter accounts.
On March 13th, 2011, my blog Twitter account @KitchenTableMkt went dark. I posted a message on my twitter stream and changed my bio letting people know the account was not going to be tweeting anymore.
Once I merged into one account and began to be my whole self, I got my Twitter groove back. My twitter following shot up. My interactions and retweets went up. And (love ‘em or hate ‘em) my Klout score went from 52 to 57 in seven days.
You’re Only One Person. Why Do You Need More Than One Account?
Being pulled between two different twitter accounts had been negatively affecting my true Twitter reach. I thought by having more than one account, I was reaching more people. But what was really happening was I was weakening my personal brand.
People weren’t getting the whole picture when they were following just one of my Twitter profiles. And because I was split between multiple accounts, neither Twitter account was really me.
I know there are a few of you out there reading this who have multiple twitter accounts. Maybe one account’s for your blog, one’s for your business, one’s for your hobby, but are any of them really you?
Ask yourself, can you stay true to your personal brand by spreading yourself across multiple Twitter profiles? It’s time to re-evaluate your twitter strategy, and open yourself up to the possibility that you might have to slash and burn some of your Twitter profiles.
Think about how much more powerful your twitter account would be if your gathered all those followers from those multiple account into one place.
From one Twitter profile, you could share all the interesting and quirky things that make you who you are. Being fully present and available to your Twitter followers on one account means building a stronger and more receptive audience. And that’s Twitter power you can build a business on.
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