Hello, my name is Erin and I’m a Twitter douchebag. I’m glad to finally get that off my chest. I don’t like it, but when I break it down I am not sure how to avoid it. Don’t nod your head in judgment, odds are you are a Twitter DB too.
To determine if you are you need to answer this seemingly simple question: Who are you tweeting for? In the chart below, I break it down to three main (and most popular) options – 1) Friends 2) Industry Peers and 3) Yourself. You may think the answer is easy, but before you lock in your final answer, look at your last 20 tweets, I bet it is not that black & white. If you are like me, you live in a chaotic gray area when it comes to your digital persona. Especially in the advertising and marketing industry, the notion of professional and personal separation doesn’t exist. Sure, you can keep some things separate, but it’s not easy. You are expected to fan, follow and like your company’s clients (and their competitors), you have your own interests, you post and share at all hours of the day (and night), you have opinions about what is going on in the world around you. And before you know it, there it is, all on the same screen, your personal interests right there next to that article about paid, earned and owned media. You can’t be more than one without being a DB. Now really, where do you fall on the chart?
Now, ask yourself this question: What are you willing to give up based on your choices? Are you willing to create a strategy for your personal brand on Twitter? Choose your target audience? Determine if followers, @s and RTs are reason you are there? and stick to it? Play a few scenarios out: You convince your friends to start using twitter, but those that don’t get or care what you do for work get annoyed when you start posting the latest article on how brand managers debate content creation on the latest panel. Or you make a coveted “Smart Industry Peeps” list by someone you admire (virtually). Only to be removed from that list or unfollowed once you post 5 comments about how you can’t believe that the girl you went to high school with is still working at the bar in your hometown. Or, even better, you post a politically charged link mocking George Bush and Sarah Palin.
It’s true, like brands that are getting into social (see how I brought it back around to work?), I can’t please everyone, and short of creating two Twitter accounts, I will be unfollowed and it hurts a little. Personally, I try to separate super political polarizing opinions in different blogs, make it pretty clear that my Facebook page is more personal interests and stream of everything (and friend at your own risk), my twitter account is a place for everything to coexist. Both blogs send links to my Twitter account, I like the Red Wings after I share the latest infographic about how twitter employees use twitter. Because of that, I will cross that line. It may be too many tweets in a short period of time, it may be too many tweets that aren’t industry related and/or funny enough. And, because I enjoy knowing who I have pushed too far, I will continue to use QWITTER. A service that sends me a weekly email telling me who has unfollowed me the last tweet I sent before it happened.
So I own it, I know my personal and professional versions of me are more similar than different and I thank the followers who can see through the noise and hopefully find something I say useful/entertaining once in a while and/or ignore me without officially unfollowing me. Because I really don’t have the energy or time to build another twitter account. Oh, and you can follow me @schmogel.
the world according to schmogel. 