How Many Online Personalities Do You Have?
When it comes to signing up for new accounts with social networking sites and forums, I use the same username if possible. The original reason for this is that I tend to be pretty forgetful and can barely remember my passwords for each site . . . but if you forget the password, you almost always need to remember your username to get it back.
About a year and a half ago, there was a lot of information on the web about separating yourself from your brand. People started signing up under a number of different names and you could easily have three or four accounts on each social media site, one for personal use, one for one business area, another for another area, etc. I started to panic, wondering if I was making a mistake, putting everything under one name.
These days, there are two schools of thought. One part says that you should run things through an anonymous brand, just in case you want to switch later on. My big issue with this is, what exactly are you doing that you wouldn´t want people to know who you are? For example, I did the 30 Day Challenge two years ago and this was the advice given. While I think the challenge is awesome and very educational, I don´t agree with their idea of turning out a bunch of relatively useless pages just to earn cash. Obviously you don´t want those sites associated with your real name if you ever hope to go on and set something REAL up.
The second school of thought (which is made up almost entirely of women, interestingly enough) is that you are who you are and clients will appreciate you for that. These people happily mix personal life and business and believe that their clients will enjoy the fact that they are a real human being.
Which school of thought are you?
I personally feel that you should be yourself. You are unique and that right there is a great selling point. That doesn´t mean you should go on and on and on about your cat vomiting on the carpet while on Twitter, but a quick mention of the incident isn´t a bad thing and it will certainly appeal to other moms who face the same issue! They´ll be able to relate to you.
In my experience, people don´t trust salespeople. They trust those who are human. And what could be more human than a mom who is trying to take a client call with a toddler tugging at her shirt? Being honest and upfront, as opposed to hiding behind a fake identity, is far more trustworthy!
What are your thoughts? Do you think going with the typical internet marketing facade is a good way to go . . . after all, those guys ARE millionaires! Or do you feel that being yourself is a better option? Or are you somewhere in between? Discuss!
I really struggle with this myself. On the one hand, I don’t want to deal with dozens of accounts. It’s all I can do to keep up with one Twitter account and one Facebook account, thank you very much!
On the other hand, I blog about a few very different subjects, and I wonder if my Twitter followers wouldn’t be better served by not having to wade through tweets they’re not interested in?
I only use twitter and facebook and both are just for personal use. I don’t really talk much about what I do professionally on either. I suppose doing so would boost business and help me generate leads but I kind of like just being myself and talking about the cat vomiting (i don’t have a cat but you know what I mean) on those sites. If I made it a part of my business plan, I think I would start censoring everything I say. I’m paranoid as it is… I don’t want to feel like every word I type will be scrutinized by potential clients!
I think those internet marketing types are icky. I don’t want to do that for my business. I really don’t understand how they make money. Their sales pitches make me cringe. I guess they sell to other internet marketers and internet marketing wannabes.
You know, if you`re interested in a number of things, it´s quite possible your followers are, too.
One thing I´ve found, that you might want to keep in mind, is that clients tend to Google you. So even if you think you`re just talking to a personal audience, chances are that clients can find it.
I don´t bother really censoring myself while on Twitter, but then I`m not that controversial either!
Interesting question. I ‘am’ WAHM Biz Builder, and I am also very much Melinda (or Mel) Brennan. I use WAHM Biz Builder as my twitter name, and when facebook changes to usernames I’ll use it there too. However I’m also very clear about being ‘me’. Both those sites have my real name there as well.
I’ve chosen to do it this way because of branding – I want people to recognise my business brand AND associate my name with it.
I find it ethically uncomfortable to even think about not putting my real name on something. If I’m not keen to have my real name associated with it, then should I be putting it out there? Hmmmmmm….