Small Business Tip Tuesday: Don’t Get Caught in the Two Twitter Trap

I get what you're saying. But I think some people, particularly those who are also charged with tweeting for their employers/businesses, do this as a way of disclosure. And I don't think that's bad. For example, when I was iabcdc chapter president, we listed the Twitter handles of the people managing that account in the bio, because we wanted people to know who was behind the tweets.

I know quite a few people who I respect, who are prominently identified with their employers' handles, who also have their personal handles and tweet more personal stuff from there. Though I certainly make the connection between them and their organizations, I don't think any worse of them for being upfront. However, I will say that I haven't seen (or noticed) them tweeting anything off-color/that could be perceived as inappropriate from their personal handles... so maybe that plays into it as well.

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I completely get what you're saying. It's a wilder wild web - what you do/say in your personal account Will affect your business account, particularly if you connect them. My partners and I don't bother to separate - I'm not two people, why should I have two accounts? And I try to keep the conversation appropriate for the time of day, and when I'm being casual, I'm still myself but like anyone else, the way I talk will depend on my environment. If I was at a networking mixer, I wouldn't get drunk and scream about my dating life - I'm in public. And that's how I think we need to behave when we share on the web, like we're in public. Some areas are certainly going to be more intimate, but they're still public. But unlike an in-person encounter, what we say online, even in emails, can live forever. Being careful is just smart.

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You are annoyingly light on details here (i.e. "small business" is *painfully* generic and you likewise don't actually explain WHAT on the private accounts is so awful you change your shopping(?) habits based in it), but I've seen enough in this issue that I have a feeling I know what you're saying...

So, basically, people are no longer allowed to have private lives? Or, if they do they must keep them hidden away from their world, least be seen by full-grow adults so immature they base what stores they go to, not on any rational assessment of the store's product and services, but how they felt about an employee's personal Twitter account?!

And, people here honestly and truly think that's a rational position to take?

Dear God, companies *employ* people, they don't *own* them. What they do and who they are OFF THE CLOCK, is their own business and NO ONE eles'. Least of all their employer's or customers. If they want to leave work on Friday and, on their own personal time, go out to a club and get drunk, here in America, they are allowed to do so! And if they want to Tweet their own, personal Twitter account to invite their friends out of whatever, they are also allowed to do so, because, guess what? This is a free country!

The idea that they shouldn't be permitted to speak of this in their own personal online space, because OMG!!1! a customer that disapproves may see it and be so childish as to not buy from their craft store because an employee Tweeted about getting drunk on their time off over the weekend...

I'm sorry, but that is pure lunacy.

What a great post. Best article I've read so far this year!

I had been considering writing a piece on this very subject myself, so your thoughts inspired me to get it done. http://amarkie.tumblr.com/post/17257461268/why-have-your-employer-in-your-twitter-profile

I've always thought that bit of signage was considerate. But I never really thought about what I actually think of that person versus their company. Good advice to take precautions, Ken.

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This is a great point, Ken. I tweet under my business name, @sigmawebmktg, and have often thought about setting up a personal account... but I really don't need yet ANOTHER social media stream to keep up with, so I haven't done it. But several of my clients have this "two-tweeter" conundrum, and I know businesses try to separate the "personal" from the "business" all the time. I think you really hit the nail on the head by saying that this is impossible.

This is sort of like "No personal phone calls!" from the era in which I grew up. Who were they kidding?!

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I love the technology age we're in, but this is one of the frustrating aspects; there just isn't much of a line between personal and business anymore, and I think there should be. For most people, they work FOR a company, but they are not THE company. I'm essentially the same person at work as at home, but there are of course aspects of my life (family, relationships, etc.) that I don't want to have splashed everywhere, or associated with my company. Not because I think it will reflect badly on me, but because it's really nobody's business.

That's why I like splitting people along platform lines. I connect to my closest friends on Facebook. They're free to follow me on Twitter, but I use that space more as a way to connect with book bloggers and other bookish people — I don't usually post anything insanely personal there, because my personal Twitter account is linked on my profile on my company's website.

As kind of lame as Google is being recently, the Google+ circles are a really great idea. I love being able to separate people along business/professional lines.

Great article, Ken, and another reminder that in this age, we may always be under a microscope.

I used to have the place where I worked in my Twitter profile, but now I dont mention it at all.

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I personally think its a bad idea to include this description in a personal profile as if it gives you permission to act like a jackwagon. Are their any legal stipulations of putting this language on your profile?

We're in the era of the profersonal. Learn it, live it, love it. http://thefuturebuzz.com/2012/01/10/the-rise-of-the-profersonal/

Hi Ken, it's Eliza from Cultivate Wines. A little off-topic, but I'd love your opinion -I have in our twitter profile that the tweets are "by Eliza" -- I did this so that people would feel like they know it's a real person, who actually works for the company and they can find on the company website, doing the tweeting -- not a PR machine churning stuff out. What do you think of that approach?

People do business with people they know like and trust. I think that sums it up.

Do you think this applies to everything? Bigger businesses included? I know since I tweet corporately and personally, there are some things I share through one account and not the other. For instance, my personal twitter is where I shares thoughts on motherhood AND marketing. Clearly, some topics wouldn't be appropriate for the corporate account. I definitely still sensor myself in certain ways even on the personal twitter because I view it as more public than say my FB account. I don't think I'm alone here. But I do still agree to a certain extent. I know that anyone who looks at our corporate account, can and often does look at my personal account, and that's okay.

I agree with BestRoofer , this is not the 90's anymore - there is very little, if any, line left separating personal and business even for those of us that are not business owners. Get over it. This is 2012 things are different now.

I wouldn't even know how to begin to separate the two. I think that people should just be authentic. It sounds like way too much work to be two different people.