I have been reading profusely about social media and buiding your personal brand. The general consensus (from what I have read) is to combine both. As many have said already in this thread, people like to do business with people that they feel they can trust and know.

I have just started to tweet @Kim_Cockburn and intend to mix the two.

Ah, yes, this is a very good question and a topic I spent a lot of time worrying about initially.

What I have come to love about Twitter is the sheer authenticity of the medium. You simply cannot manage your public impression in a particular way for long if it is at odds with your personal 'persona'. This has pros and cons.

I have come to work out that there are many people I wouldn't chose to work with after observing what they say of a personal nature. But the converse is true as well - the stellar folk just shine on, and are consistent. If your product requires a personal connection, or trust, or thought leadership, then I think tweeting under a personal name is fine, in fact preferred. The 10 second rule still applies though - think twice, tweet once, regret never! Good luck

People definitely like to connect with 'real' people. All my tweeting is done through one account @kirsty_wilson but I did grab my business Twitter ID, so no one else could get it!!

In saying that, I'm on Twitter for business and networking purposes largely. So most of my tweets are business orientated with the odd little personal one thrown into the mix. Of all my friends and family members, only my brother 'gets' the space.

Hi Meike,

Great question! and there is no right or wrong way to tackle this.

I work at Thinktank Media as a social media strategist and we have found that it really depends on how you want your brand to be portrayed, plus how much time you want to invest in this space. I think many of the comments above ring true with sound advice, so great going Women in Business community - woop woop! I will add my 2 cents worth now ;-)

Thinktank Media has an account as do I - @sammutimer. I only focus on my account and tweet business mixed in with personal tweets each day. I believe a few personal tweets a day only adds to your brand AND personal brand plus the interaction is GOLD - it's much easier to build relationships here also.

We have had more leads from my personal account than from the Thinktank media account, so that must say something. If you want to get into some juicy convo then you can always take it off the live stream and resort to DMs - that's what I do, as I love a good natter yet don't want to piss off my followers with stuff that's not relevant ;-)

If you choose to open two accounts you can easily manage these via tweetdeck or Hoote Suite http://hootsuite.com/ - yet I'm guessing you already know that darl.

I believe the difference that makes the difference when marketing your brand is openness, quality content and honesty - the personal touch works as it builds trust and that's the no.1 reason people buy.

You GO GO with your brand and I look forward to connecting with you on twitter Meike - woohowww!!! @sammutimer

High fives

Sam ;-)

I firmly believe that people do business with people that they like. In saying that, I think you can mix personal and business on Twitter, but remember not to put anything too personal - nothing you wouldn't want a client to know.

This may make the overall account less personal but will be a happy medium between personal and business. (That's a lot of 'personal' in one sentence, sorry!)

Hi all!

Thanks so much for your comments. Your responses are much appreciated.

As my business is life insurance, its based soley on personal relationships - if my clients don't like me personally, they're not going to share the personal information required for me to organise their insurance. So I like your suggestions to keep the one account and develop my personal brand.

Feel free to follow me on twitter and let me know how you think i'm doing! @meikejean

Cheers Meike

I have one Twitter account and use a philosophy similar to Clare's - social networking is just that - social.

But it comes down to your business marketing strategy - does it add value to your business to build such a close relationship with you the person vs your business, the brand.

If you go with one account, remember to be sufficiently interesting to generate business connections... .if you go with two, remember to add a dash of you, personally, so people can connect with you and see that your a person.

The first question you need to ask yourself is whether you will get more following to your business account if it is separate vs together with your personal one?

I generally find that unless you have a recognisable strong brand (e.g. CNN) or have membership that follow you (e.g. an association) or 100s of clients that benefit from focused tweets you might as well keep it personal.

Knowing that you like fruit tingles would not put me off your professional tweets but rather humanise them.

Hi Mieke,

I must agree with Clare. I have one account for business and pleasure - it seems to work well. If I want to say something a little too personal, I tend to DM the other person. My business is based on the relationship and trust I build with my clients so I think they appreciate reading about any quirky traits I may have.

Yes - I think personal and business should be seperated as much as possible. Of course it's nice to show clients/prospects that you are also human, sometimes there may be a case where people might not appreciate it.

Facebook is another tricky one. I have Facebook friends, alot of which are clients who have found me and want to "become a friend". The only way i can make them a fan of my business page(s) IS to be their friend. So therefore my Facebook page is very mellow as a result.

I think they should stay combined. A friend once shared an analogy with me that your personal brand is a football player and your work or company is the ball you carry. You will switch companies or careers but if your brand is strong enough that will remain and be able to support changes.

I'd say keep them together and be adaptable - good luck figuring it out!

I agree with Clare - as long as you don't get too personal, I think it you include tweets that give an insight into your personality, your ethics, and in turn your business. It would probably even increase business!

It also depends on your business though. Take the food industry, for example; heaps of followers enjoy reading about what's cooking etc, but you still have to inject than certain proportion of your own personality into your tweets.

Go with your gut feeling and you'll come to the right answer

Good luck Mieke! @FriendlySavage

I think separation is a great idea, but only if you have the time to post 2 accounts.

I think while you are in the planning/ startup phase of your business, it would be great to hear both sides of the story from the one account. But as your business grows and specialises, you could start a new twitter account. Your loyal followers would probably join both.

Hi Meike,

The first thing I'd ask is - how personal do you get on your personal Twitter account? If it's for conversations with friends or mainly talking about life outside of work you might want to separate them.

It's important to remember that Twitter as a platform is social - its purpose is to reveal your personality and make personal connections - and frankly accounts that are used solely for business info can be a bit dry and boring. I think it's a good thing that your clients see you as a whole person.

Personally - I use one account for business and pleasure because I talk a lot about online business in my daily life and my philosophy is about merging business and life.