So… this morning I was drinking coffee with my buddy Jackson before a meeting that we were both going to.
He brought up that he loves following me on Twitter and he’s going to continue following me but sometimes it can get slightly “noisy”/annoying when I’m using Twitter as a mechanism for doing customer support for Clearspring and AddThis customers, like the amazing Frank from @ComcastCares.
I completely agree with Jackson’s concern.
I LOVE Twitter because it allows for me to have a certain level of connection with both my friends and my greater communities, as well as the Clearspring and AddThis user communities. But… by using it to have conversations with such a large base of folks, I run the possibility that I alienate the friends that I started out with on Twitter, when I was just using it to share what kind of beers I was drinking and when I was waiting at an airport terminal. :-p
All of my communities aren’t interested in all sides of me. Today’s social networks can’t have such a macro way of approaching how I communicate.
Yet… I’d much rather have just a single Twitter account. Having multiple is just a lot to manage.
I don’t want to hide under the cloak of a corporate Twitter account. I agree with Dr. Mark Drapeau. It adds so much to the conversation when all the relevant parties are completely transparent about who they are. It adds an authenticity.
So what should I do? Should I create a Twitter account that’s @JustinFromClearspring? What do you guys do?
Oatmeal Stout - Justin Thorp's blog 
“By default twitter hides @ replies unless if you are following both people. Perhaps the annoyed party has changed that setting?”
-http://twitter.com/samuelcole/status/1065245005
NICE!
I’ve changed that default setting because I find seeing the other @ replies can be beneficial. I found new people to follow, really cool websites, and some killer tips through @ replies to people I’m not following.
As far as providing tech support on your personal account, if it’s not in the majority of your tweets, I’m cool with it and think it’s nice to see the personal touch of helping people out. If you start to get too “noisy” with your help, I’d either unsubscribe or put up with the noise depending on the value of your other tweets.
I do like the personal touch, but I also think there is some value to companies having a presence on twitter that do more than just spam their followers with noise.
@Thorpus and @ClearspringCares.
Hmm, this is a tough one. Mostly because it has made me think about how Saul and I use the @freshbooks account.
I don’t think I agree with Dr. Mark Drapeau. As someone on his post commented, the “corporate” (I mean, really, are we corporate?) accounts tweet things relevant to people who want to hear about what’s going on with the company.
And anyone who pays any attention to us can see who’s tweeting from our account. We say so all the time.
I also think it excites people to see a brand on Twitter they know, love and want to get in touch with. People won’t necessarily pay attention to my bio if I reply to a tweet they made about FreshBooks. Sure, I say I’m part of the magic team there, but people, in general, just have no patience. They’ll usually just wonder, “Who are you to tell me how things really are?”
I could go on, but I won’t : ) Good thoughts, Justin!
@Thorpus might be your go to account and be completely transparent. However,as Clearspring grows, you might find it important to differentiate. One thought… you might not be in that exact position forever (promotion etc.) and the new you will need access to the same @clearspringcares account. If it is directly related to you @JustinFromClearspring, that can’t happen. If, however, you make the transition as well as use the general account in a transparent way, I think you will find real success form it.