• Before You Start: You have a business Twitter account. You have more than one Twitter account, or you are considering adding another Twitter account.
• Learning level: 3 | Building Skills
• Article Last Updated: Friday, December 2, 2011

Managing Multiple Twitter Accounts

If you want to give multiple accounts a try, or if you have multiple accounts and you aren’t quite happy with the results yet, here are some things to consider with managing multiple Twitter accounts.

• Account names. When possible, you want to have an appropriate name for your accounts. A nickname works well for a personal account, but might not help brand you with a business account.
• Account profiles. With two accounts, you need two different profiles, and two different avatars for people who might follow both accounts. Create a different Twitter landing pages for each account where you explain what you talk about in each account, and give each account an appropriate bio. You want to make it easy for someone who doesn’t already know you to figure out which account they want to follow.
• Follow policy. Decide whom you want in your community, in your conversation zone, and set up your follow policy accordingly. For example, with one business account, I limit the number of people I follow to a size I can know and engage. However, for my other business account, I want to connect to a larger community, so I follow most of the people I meet. Obviously, I know the people in one community much better than I do the other community, but that’s okay. I still meet my account goals.
• What to tweet. Make a bulleted list of the topics you tweet for each account. You may find there is a gray area, tweets that can go into both or either account. When you have a tweet in the gray area, think about the overlap between your communities. If you have a lot of overlap, I recommend that you make a choice and just tweet in one account. However, if you have little overlap, you can either:  a) tweet in one and retweet in the other, or b) tweet the same tweet in both accounts, or c) tweet in both accounts, but rewrite it so it isn’t exactly the same.
• Figure our your tools. Unfortunately, Twitter.com doesn’t allow you to log into separate accounts at the same time. You must decide either to split your time between accounts, or find a tool that allows multiple accounts at the same time, such as HootSuite or TweetDeck.
• Make sure you have enough time. It’s a lot of work to maintain two or more Twitter accounts. Not only is the conversation to maintain, but you have community management tasks for each account. I found it was a bigger time commitment than I expected.

Using Multiple Accounts

For many people and many situations, having multiple Twitter accounts is a good strategy. The challenge of finding a good set of tools and investing the time pays off because of the goals met.

If you are thinking about trying multiple accounts, start first with one account. Get your feet wet and get some Twitter experience with a single account. Take what you have learned with one account to set up your multiple account strategy. Be prepared to experiment until you get a set up that really works.

As a multiple account person, I’m very happy with the results I get from this strategy.

Related Articles:

• Multiple Twitter Personalities (Part 1)
• Ebook: Twitter For Beginners
• Setting Twitter Goals
• Using Your Twitter Goals
• Twitter Profile Checklist
• Write A Great Twitter Bio

• Before You Start: You have a business Twitter account.
• Learning level: 3 | Building Skills
• Article Last Updated: Friday, December 2, 2011

Does Your Business Need Two Twitter Accounts?

Many large brands have multiple Twitter accounts. But so do many smaller businesses. If you are struggling with finding your voice on Twitter, one reason may be that you are trying to fit too many kinds of conversation into a single account.

Before digging into the details about how your business can decide if it needs multiple Twitter accounts, here’s an interview I did with Bo Bennett and Ryan Levesque on the Twooting podcast on this topic.

Figuring Out Multiple Accounts

There are several reasons why your business might have more than one Twitter account.

• You have several Twitter goals and you can’t meet them with one account.
• You want to engage distinct and separate Twitter communities.

For example, you might want to have separate Twitter accounts for these conversations:

• Peers vs. clients. You may want to talk shop and exchange advice or tips with other people in your industry. You may not want to have those conversations in front of your clients.
• Clients vs. potential clients. You may talk more about benefits and the features of your services and products with potential clients, and talk nitty gritty details with your clients.
• Friends vs. business. You may want to arrange tweetups or chat with people you met at a tweetup and not do that in front of your clients.
• English vs. another language. If you speak more than one language, you may want to engage separate communities based on language.

Keep in mind that nothing you say on Twitter is ever private. So don’t get the wrong idea that if you have a separate account for peers and clients, for example, that you can trash talk your clients on your peer account, or vice versa.

Is One Account Best For Your Business?

There are also good reasons not to create multiple accounts.

• You like having one voice. You like the transparency of saying “this is me” and sharing both personal and business information in the same account. It’s part of who you are, no matter whether you are talking business or personal.
• Your business is a personal business. For example, my friend @PhxREGuy sells real estate and has just one account because he believes his clients want to hear about his family activities interspersed with his real estate tips.

In the end, it’s a personal choice you make. There isn’t any right or wrong answer. It’s about what works for you and your business, and that may change over time.

My Business Experience

When I first started using two accounts (I have four today), I floundered and wondered if I had made a mistake about starting the second account. After some time and experimentation, I found my groove with multiple accounts. I could have decided to go back to one account and I would have made that work, also.

There is no right or wrong answer. It’s all about what works for you.

Your turn: Do you have multiple accounts? Here’s your chance to share with us what works for you, and what challenges you still face. Use the comments to this post to share your experience.

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Your turn: Does your business currently have more than one Twitter account? Or do you have a personal and a business account? Do you follow a business that has multiple accounts? Share your experience.

Related Articles:

• Ebook: Twitter For Beginners
• Setting Twitter Goals
• Using Your Twitter Goals
• Twitter Profile Checklist
• Write A Great Twitter Bio
• Multiple Twitter Personalities (Part 2)

• Before You Start: You want to start using Twitter. Some of the topics make more sense after you have a little experience using Twitter.
• Learning Level: 1 | Social Media Basics
• Article Last Updated: Tuesday, August 2, 2011

New Version Available!

I wrote the original version of the Twitter for Beginners ebook back in February 2009. Since then, Twitter has grown and evolved, and so has my ebook! Now 32 pages long, this short guide explains everything you need to know to begin using Twitter or to master the basic features of Twitter to talk with your online community.

If this is your first time learning about this ebook, you should read the full ebook description! If you are here to pick up an updated copy, here’s the link:

What’s New In This Edition

This is the seventh version of this ebook and is updated and expanded from the previous version. It is one page longer, and now includes information about using new Twitter and its features. If you have an older version, download the new version today!

Download Now!

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• Before You Start: You have a business Twitter account.
• Learning level: 4 | Creating Solutions
• Article Last Updated: Sunday, December 4, 2011

City Government Finds A Smart Use For Facebook & Twitter

City governments fight a never-ending battle to keep up with street repairs. Now, the City of Columbus (Ohio) has figured out a smart way to let its citizens report potholes: social media.

That’s right. The City has launched a new Facebook page to collect reports of potholes from the public.  It also launched a Twitter account for the same purpose.

The City still allows citizens to report potholes the old-fashioned way, by telephone and through a form on their website.

For each submission, the City staff verifies the pothole and submits a service request. They post the service request number on the social media site. People can check on the status of pothole repair requests at the City’s 311 Service Center online.

A quick review of the pothole reports shows that people are reporting potholes outside of the city limits. For those, the staff responds by telling them which government should receive their report.

Borrow This Idea

If your business, non-profit, or government agency needs to collect input, you can borrow and adapt this idea for yourself. All you need is a basic Facebook business (official) page, a Twitter account, and someone to monitor them  (perhaps once an hour) to collect input and post replies. It couldn’t be easier. And it would be much faster than taking the same information over the phone.

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• Before You Start: You have a business Twitter account.
• Learning level: 4 | Creating Solutions
• Article Last Updated: Sunday, December 4, 2011

Getting More From What You Already Have

I love to travel, so I’ve been a huge fan of the Travel Channel for many years. My favorite show there is No Reservations, the travel/food show hosted by Anthony Bourdain. I love his sacrastic and yet philosophical attitude about life, and his no-nonsense comments about the show’s locations, food, and other celebrity chefs.

In the last year, I’ve been really impressed at the smart social media efforts around this show. While their efforts effectively promote this television show, there are also lessons that apply to other types of businesses. Let me show you what I mean.

Content Strategy & Reuse

I know when I start using terms like “content,” some of your eyes glaze over. But stick with me a minute.

The staff of No Reservations spends a great deal of time planning each show before they hit the road. They research great food options, local food experts, and every other detail of the show. Nothing is left to chance when the production crew and Tony arrive at their destination.

The Travel Channel realized about a year back that they could use some of that research information to provide new and useful information (i.e. “content”) on their website. Now, you can access information about the names and addresses of each location shown in show episodes, along with other places that ended up on the editing room floor or didn’t make the shooting schedule cut. These Travel Guides are a perfect example of a business reusing information it already has to provide value to its online community.

See Your Business With A Different Perspective

What’s so smart about this? Until that moment, the Travel Channel saw itself as a television channel that educates people about travel through television. They didn’t see themselves as an online travel guide sort of business. Now, you and I may look at their No Reservations travel advice and think it is a no-brainer. But it actually was a shift in their online content (there’s that word again).

This restaurant information is interesting to the usual Tony and No Reservations fans, but it also pulls in a new segment of people: people who are traveling to destinations where Tony has visited who are not fans of the show or even fans of Tony. These are just people who are looking for great restaurants on their upcoming travel. But once they start using this travel information, how many of them will take an interest in No Reservations or other Travel Channel shows? And how many of them will recommend this restaurant guide to their friends?

The Travel Channel also publishes a section of recipes from Tony and his chef friends who appear on his show. Again, this is something they do to add value that is related to Tony, but not part of their general business goals (running a successful television channel).

Look around that the information you have laying around inside your business. Do you have information that you can easily publish on your website, through a blog, through podcasts or videos, that would add value to your existing online community and add interest in your business from other people who are currently not part of your online community?

Is there an ah-ha moment for you just waiting to happen?

No Reservations And Twitter

With the new season of No Reservations, the Travel Channel has tried another new social media strategy. They asked Tony to live tweet during the airing of the premier episode. The results were staggering! The number of times the No Reservations Twitter account was mentioned during that evening was impressive. In fact, it went so well, the Travel Channel is going to add more live tweeting with their other shows.

When your business has an event, or when you participate in a professional conference or trade show, why not try live tweeting your experience? In my community, there is a restaurant that gives away free food one day every year. Joe’s Real BBQ uses Twittter on this day to let people know how many people they have served, how long the line is, and includes pictures of some happy customers. How can your business take this idea and use it to promote your own events?

Pay attention to what the big brands are doing on social media. There are always ideas you can borrow and adapt for your business and your budget.

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• Before You Start: You have a business Twitter account and you have your personal resume listed on LinkedIn.
• Learning level: 4 | Creating Solutions
• Article Last Updated: Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Should You Share Your Tweets On LinkedIn?

Many small business people work hard to share great information with their community on Twitter. For some small business people, it makes sense to republish your tweets with your LinkedIn profile. For others, your business tweet stream is more about your customers and doesn’t contribute to your professional resume and image. This is a decision that you must make after reviewing your tweets and your goals for your LinkedIn profile.

Before you link together Twitter and LinkedIn, review your tweet stream to make sure that your tweets add to the professional presence you want to convey on Twitter. It is better not to display your tweets than to display them and have them detract from your professionalism or add clutter to your LinkedIn profile.

I strongly recommend that you only share selected tweets from Twitter to LinkedIn.

Connecting Twitter and LinkedIn

Previously, LinkedIn had a special application that allowed people to post their most recent tweets on their LinkedIn profile. They did away with that feature, and replaced it with a simple way to post a tweet as a status update on LinkedIn.

First, you must set up your Twitter account with your LinkedIn profile.

1. Log into your LinkedIn profile.
2. Choose Profile | Edit Profile from the menu.
3. Scroll down to the Additional Information area.
4. Next to Twitter, click Edit. LinkedIn displays the Manager Your Twitter Setting window.
5. Click Add Another Twitter Account. Twitter displays a window where you can authorized LinkedIn to access your Twitter account.
6. Type your Twitter account credentials and click Authorize App. Your Twitter account now appears in the Manage Your Twitter Settings window.
7. Under Sharing Tweets, select the appropriate Twitter account from the drop-down list of Twitter accounts associated with your LinkedIn profile. (You can link several Twitter accounts, but you can only share tweets from one account at a time.)
8. Click the checkbox for sharing only tweets that contain the hashtags #li or #in.
9. Click Save Settings.

The next time you write a tweet that you want to share on LinkedIn, simply add a special hashtag to your tweet. You can use either #in or #li and that tweet will show up on LinkedIn as a status update.

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• Using Twitter Lists

• Before You Start: You have a business Twitter account and you understand how to create Twitter lists.
• Learning level: 4 | Creating Solutions
• Article Last Updated: Sunday, December 4, 2011

Twitter Lists For People You Follow

Many people on Twitter follow a large number of other Twitter users. There are advantages to this type of Twitter follow policy, but one disadvantage is that it’s easy to lose track of important people in the parade of tweets. One of the most effective ways to use Twitter lists is to create one or more groups of people within the people you follow on Twitter. This lets you follow a large number of people and at the same time, watch a group of people more closely.

Identify one of more groups of people within your Twitter following list that you want to watch more closely. For example, you might identify a group of businesses located nearby your own business, a group of peers, and a group of people you consider your friends on Twitter. Create a separate list for each group.

There are several ways to read the tweets from the people you place in a list.

• Twitter Clients. The most popular Twitter clients (HootSuite, Tweetdeck, etc.), have options for creating a column for each Twitter list. Check the online help for your tool for specific instructions.
• Twitter.com. On your Home page, Twitter shows a list of your lists in the right column under Saved Searches. To view the tweet stream for a list, click on the list name. You can reply and favorite items in this tweet stream.

By creating a list, you can filter out the general noise in your tweet stream and focus on the people you most want to hear. You can mark your list as private if you don’t want anyone to know that you have these lists, or if you don’t want the people on the list to know when you add or remove them.

Serving Your Community With Twitter Lists

Another important way to use Twitter lists is to create a list that would interest other people. For example, you might want to create a list for:

• Local businesses
• Businesses in your industry
• Businesses that provide similar services in your region (restaurants, real estate agents, museums, etc.)
• Members of a professional or trade association
• People who inspire you with smart business ideas, a positive outlook, or practical advice.

When you create a list, you can help other people find great resources on Twitter. Other people can choose to follow your list. As your lists get popular, you may find businesses asking you to add them to your list.

You don’t have to follow a business to add them to your list. In fact, adding a business to a list is a great way to let other businesses know about your business. Use your Twitter goals and your follow policy to help you decide which businesses to follow, and what types of Twitter lists can help you build your business.

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• Before You Start: You have a business Twitter account.
• Learning level: 3 | Building Skills
• Article Last Updated:  Sunday, December 4, 2011

My Previous Twitter Follow Policy

In the past, I’ve been pretty conservative about my follow policy. I’ve kept my following count low because I wanted to know these people personally. I wanted time to get to know their personality and a bit about their lives. I wanted to really know and engage my online community.

It was always tough when I would find people started following me who were real gems, people I wanted to add into my community, but I felt stretched to the limit with my current community size. To keep the purity of the signal, I felt I had to shut out a lot of voices so it didn’t get too noisy.

My New Twitter Follow Policy

Quite a few things were going on in my office the last few months, and my Twitter use temporarily shifted. As a result, I found myself a little more adventurous than usual. I thought I might try something radical for a time. I decided that I would follow back almost everyone who followed me and just see what happened.

It’s only been a few days, but my follower number has climbed rapidly each day. I’m stunned to see such a dramatic change in just a few days. But I’m also wondering if I’ve made a decision that is going to make it impossible for me to feel the same sort of cozy familiarity with my Twitter community. It feels like something is lost along with this follower gain.

What I’ve Learned (So Far)

One thing I realized today is that the shift from knowing everyone to embracing relative strangers is a normal part of the business growth process. Haven’t you seen this yourself? You start out with a handful of customers who become almost business friends. And as your business grows, that small, tight-knit community feeling gets diluted by the larger and larger number of people who become customers. Yes, something is lost along the way, but it’s along the way to realizing your dreams of running a larger business. And more people get to be part of the fun.

Social media can be a great barometer of your business growth and give you a very visceral sense of intangibles along the way. I’m still the same businesswoman I was with the other Twitter following policy. I’ve just opened myself and my business up to more people along the path of my business goals. And that’s a good thing.

Don’t be afraid to experiment with your social media. A great new opportunity may lie just ahead of you, just around the corner from that thing you are doing the way you have always done it. Stretch yourself just a little bit. You might be thrilled with the results.

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• Before You Start: You have a business Twitter account.
• Learning Level: 3 | Building Skills
• Article Last Updated: Sunday, December 4, 2011

Twitter Lists

Have you ever wanted a way to group together people you follow on Twitter? Or have you ever wanted a way to keep track of Twitter accounts related to a topic? Twitter lists allow you to create up to 20 different lists of Twitter accounts with up to 500 accounts in each list.

Create A Twitter List

To create a Twitter list:

1. Log in to Twitter (http://twitter.com/) if necessary.
2. Display your home page (if necessary).
3. Locate the Lists option (under the tweet box).
4. Click Lists. Twitter displays a menu of list options.
5. Click Create a list. Twitter displays the Create A New List window.

1. Type a name for your new list.
2. Type a list description.
3. Set the Privacy setting for your new list.
4. Click Save List. Twitter creates your new list and displays the new list page so you can begin adding people to your new list.

There are 3 ways to add people and businesses to your new list.

1. Search: Use the search feature to look up Twitter accounts. If the account you want to add to your list appears in the search results, click the account name. Twitter displays the profile in the flyout (right pane). Click the options button. Twitter displays the action options. Click Add To List. Twitter displays a list of your lists. Check all appropriate lists.

1. Profile: Display the profile of a person or business you want to add to a list. Click the options button. Twitter displays the action options. Click Add To List. Twitter displays a list of your lists. Check all appropriate lists.
2. Following: You can add anyone you follow to a list. Display the list of accounts you follow. Click the options button. Twitter displays the action options. Click Add To List. Twitter displays a list of your lists. Check all appropriate lists.

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• Before You Start: You have a business Twitter account. You have created Twitter goals.
• Learning Level: 2 | Getting Started
• Article Last Updated: Sunday, December 4, 2011

Twitter Goals and Profile Setup

Your Twitter goals give you a strategy for how you set up and use Twitter.

Your Twitter goals influence many of the choices in your Twitter account setup.

• Set up one or more than one Twitter account. If you have incompatible Twitter goals, you may want to set up more than one account. Remember that having additional accounts multiplies the amount of work required to maintain your Twitter presence. Think carefully before creating multiple accounts.
• Decide on the best user name for your Twitter account. If you set up multiple business Twitter accounts, you need to give them slightly different names so you and your community can identify the account’s purpose from the user name.
• Identify the best web link for more information about your Twitter account. If you create multiple Twitter accounts, you need multiple Twitter landing pages. You should also include information about the other accounts in each landing page, along with information to help potential followers find the best account for their needs.
• Create the appropriate bio for your Twitter account. Your Twitter bio should explain your Twitter goal to potential followers. If you need more space, you can expand this explanation in your Twitter landing page.
• Select the appropriate avatar for your Twitter account. If you have multiple business Twitter accounts, you may want to modify your logo for the avatar to support the account user name and goal. For example, if you have separate Twitter accounts for different products, you might use your company logo with the product name for your avatar, or you might use the product logo instead of the company logo.

Twitter Goals And Community Management

Your Twitter community management is everything you do to maintain your list of the people you follow. It involves finding new people to follow, deciding whom to follow back, and occasionally weeding out people you follow.

Your Twitter community, the people you follow, determine your ability to meet your Twitter goals for the account. Each week as you perform community management tasks, you should make your choices based on your Twitter goals. Seek out people on Twitter who can help you meet your Twitter goals and follow them. Many of them will follow you back, making your community stronger.

You may find that someone follows you who does not support your Twitter goal. For example, you may focus your Twitter account on new and existing customers, but you discover that a stranger is following you, or a vendor has started following your account. You have no control over who decides to follow your account. Focus your efforts on whom you follow.

Twitter Goals and What You Tweet

Your Twitter goal also influences what you tweet. Consider your Twitter goals when you create a list of topics for conversation. But what you say on Twitter is only half of the conversation process. Be ready to jump into ongoing conversations within your community on other topics as well.

Your turn: How have your Twitter goals influenced the way you set up and use your Twitter account?

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