For a while now, I have operated under one Twitter account, @adition and I was using it as both a medium to share industry related items that I found interesting and to communicate with friends, in only 140 characters.  As time went on and the business grew and more than just my close friends started to follow the account, I realized that the more social, lackadaisical messages I once used to post were no longer completely appropriate.  Given this, I created another Twitter account, @beverlycrandon, and it is one I should have gotten a long time ago. (Someone was squatting with my name on Twitter and posting dubious and inappropriate comments  - inappropriate for even me).  Now I use the two accounts with one posting links to our blogs, webinars and industry related information (@aditioin) and the other posting thoughts, some unacceptable and not liking to a nice young lady (so my father, who follows me on Twitter, says).  The @beverlycrandon account houses messages that are more personal and casual in thought - the kind of thing I would share with friends, if they were in the same room at the time.  As the @beverlycrandon account is personal, with different intended uses, and my experiences with both accounts have been extremely different, I have come to some realizations about Twitter that liken it to the same things that caused the early adopter students of "The Facebook", to fall out of love.

Being Followed by Big Business: If you are a brand or business and you follow me on our business account then GREAT, but follow my personal account, and it’s not so great.  With the increasing effectiveness of Twitter as a business tool, more and more marketers are using it to engage with the everyday layman and this approach works, if you have something to offer.  Sending out blanket messages or if you post things that have noting to do with me and my day to day, then I see you as spamming my account.  As I post more on my personal account, I fear that it will start to mirror my business account, thus making the creation of @beverlycrandon futile.  With that being said, I have no issues with businesses housing valuable information, valuable to me, following me and or sending me replies or mentions, but I beg you, don't do it if you are just in the business of mass messaging.

Twitter = Mainstream: given it's mass adoption and effectiveness as a business  branding tool, it has become more mainstream than I had bargained for.  While still an effective tool to personally brand by sharing your thoughts, I was forced to create and now maintain two accounts to get the Twitter experience I desire. This leads me to believe that there is room for another micro-blogging site to sprout and succeed, with those wanting to keep it grassroots.  No matter the changes, lists, etc... that Twitter thought leaders come up with, the personal thought sharing feel is gone.  But the marketing and branding strength of Twitter is where it inevitably needed to get to, in order to be profitable, and we get that, but feel it now has created a gap in services and those being served.

Followed by Many or Followed by a Few: I have kept my personal account small for a reason.  I can say that I get through at least 60% of the posts shared by those I follow on my personal account and get a better chance to form conversation there.  In addition, the small numbers allow me to be myself.  Really sharing and providing insight on who I am and that is what social sharing at its crux is really all about.  This experience varies greatly from my business account and no amount of ‘Lists’ really rectify the issues.

So I have come to realize that Twitter has got me so much so that I manage two accounts, regularly, when only 27% of Twitter accounts are active (accounts with posts in the past 30 days).  This is one case in which a social tool drives my laborious activities, as opposed to my user traits and trends dictating the tools full functionality.  An interesting realization, when you look at it this way.