I have a twitter account. In fact I have two. Which should you follow? Having set one up a few years ago, and the other more recently, I've been reflecting on whether it is somehow more appropriate to have just one account for all purposes, or separate accounts for 'work' and 'everything else'.
The first (digitalreality) was established as a way of reaching friends and people who know (or want to know) me well. The second (jhm_tbegins) I established a couple of weeks ago to provide an account I could focus on Transmission Begins from. I'm sympathetic to the view that having two separate blogs/twitters/email addresses/etc is somehow unnecessary, after all I'm one person, and my views don't magically change when I enter or leave the professional sphere. In the same vein, a Google for my name by a colleague or friend will necessarily turn up both Facebook pictures taken at parties, and more sober presentations I've given on behalf of employers.
However, that they look like one world in the results page of Google is not entirely true, because there are differences in the relationships I have with friends, acquaintances and colleagues. Whilst I hope my character will be important to most people I deal with, the skills and opinions they need to rely on will differ. We don't have to agree on all matters to have a successful commercial relationship. My role as a company director also affects things. Views I express as a director are necessarily those of the company too. When the company is small, those two things are not very different, but I hope Transmission Begins will grow, and that will mean that the company will have responsibilities to many people, not just the directors.
I anticipate that while Transmission Begins is small, and the people interested in it know me in other spheres, there will be a lot of work activity on my 'personal' twitter feed. It is also easy for me to post everything into one place! However, as the company grows I will put more of my work on the jhm_tbegins twitter feed. Hopefully the tools you use to follow twitter will enable you to combine and separate them in ways that are useful to you.
