You vs You the Brand on Twitter

Below is the transcript from a twitter conversation I had with a good colleague of mine about a day ago about You vs You the Brand:

:I know someone who makes a LOT of money who wants to use a very talented videographer but won't because of the mess they tweet. #TooBadSoSad

Me: part of the reason I have two twitter accounts. Ones for business and the other is for everything else.

Me: however if YOU are your brand there is a fine line of professionalism and realism that you have to maintain At all times on here

Me: but people don't look at twitter as a business tool. They solely see it as a "social media" mechanism when in truth it's more.

:You're preaching SOA!

Me: and it's a simple thing to see. Don't you think celebrities, CEOs, politicians, etc have multiple accounts? Because depending on what your role is in society and how you want others to see you you do what you do for others. If you didn't it wouldn't matter but it does. So you have to either separate your professional self &everyday self or learn to tone down your everyday self at least until you make the type of money where it doesn't really matter or THAT becomes society's view of you, ie @kanyewest

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- But it's true. If you believe that your employers, peers, etc. aren't paying attention to your tweets, you've got another thing coming. With it being so easy for people to follow you, unless of course your page is private, you really have to watch what you repeatedly say on Twitter. It's one thing to every once in a while let a cuss word slip or tweet your heart felt feelings about a matter, but when you continuously use foul language, talk about people, disrespect people that shines down on your character. Maybe you aren't like that in real life...but who would know? Certainly, I've fallen victim to TMItweets a time or two on my personal page, but you'll NEVER see my professional page get out of line.

The difference between You and You the Brand when it comes to social media lies in the image you portray and the image everyone else sees. If you are a freelancer or entrepreneur, how easy is it to create a page strictly for networking, jobs/ clients, and professional purposes and a separate page for everything else? As a student, when you are gearing up to step into the corporate world, keeping the chatter and inappropriateness to a minimum is a must. Your tweets about who you were with last night could be the difference between working at Hooters Corporate or Hooters down the street [think about it].

If you are your brand, ie student, notable figure, or employee at a corporate office, you have to be your own filter. It's easy to want to put everything on your twitter but when the stakes are high, you're better off keeping a diary if you don't want to make a decoy page.

Unless you just plain don't care, your name is Kanye West or you've finally reached the ultimate status in life...keep the inappropriate Twitter chatter to a minimum. And even then, keep THAT to a minimum.

The Unemployed [but Empowered] Entrepreneur