I began my Twitter account while working for the Local Government Association last December. I wished to connect up with communication professionals across the public and private sectors, and with people in local government, central government and journalism.
My Twitter account - @EdwardWelsh - went well. I have around 365 followers. I was tipped a number of times as one of the people in local government to follow on Twitter. I made some important new contacts. I have begun seeing Twitter as a news feed.
But I am now changing employer and sector. In a fortnight, I start at the Association of Train Operating Companies.
How will my Twitter profile change? Will I keep the followers I have? Will some drift away as I gain new followers? Will I stop following a lot of people? Has anyone any tips about changing jobs and the impact on one Twitter account?
My Reply:
Great question Ed and one I am sure we will all come into contact with over time. The key to all you have put forward here is Identity and Personality. Can I just say off the mark that using your own name as your Twitter name is key to all this as you have branded your profile as you. You will always maintain your personal identity no matter what job you move to. Everyone who uses Social Media needs a purpose and objective for it to deliver value back to them. I am going to assume your purpose and objective wont change, you still want it to deliver news to you related to your field of work and interest. The news you may want to get though may start to change. You will need to update your BIO with your new position on Twitter to reflect the new direction to gain more relevant news. Actually Ed I just looked and you don't have a BIO in twitter. I tend to Block anyone who doesn't have a Twitter BIO (don't mean to sound harsh) as I don't feel they are sharing their interests or Personality with me so why should I do the same with them - Its social remember.
In the move a wonderful thing will start to emerge. You will have developed what we refer to as an extended network once you move. What this means is that you will have followers who, hopefully you have selected personally based on their professionalism and ethics (I'll have to do a post on how to do this), who come from your old sector of business . When you move those who can identify with your Identity and Personality will not Unfollow you and the pool of followers becomes even more valuable though its diversity. Diversity is the key ingredient to the "Wisdom of Crowds." What do I mean by this? Well you are developing a crowd whose wisdom over time will show itself in questions you ask and help you make decisions. You see we all tend to try and attract like minded individuals into our Twitter Stream. I had someone recently say to me "Wow I can't believe that most people in my city I follow eat at the same restaurants and visit the same Bars as I do." Just so you know it was a very large city so don't get the picture it only had one bar please ;-) You have decided to change jobs and this takes you outside of your comfort zone and philosophically to different Restaurants and Bars. In doing so you will widen your circle of influence face to face and the same will happen online. As you embrace the new role you will gain confidence in the position and begin to Tweet interesting facts about your new findings but you will most likely still be interested in what is going on back in the Local Government Association as you have relationships there. You would probably catagorise these groups in Tweetdeck or the like but you will continue to add value to the previous association as you still know what relevant information to Re Tweet and your followers will appreciate this. We live in a world where barriers are being broken down all around us and it's important to embrace this perspective.
Will some people stop following you? There will be a natural attrition as your passion diversifies but in all honesty you would not have wanted them to continue to follow you at this point. I see you are interested in a lot of common passions like Football and Cricket so don't expect to lose many ;-) However on the professional front when you say you are going to meet with someone at a specific location, as I see you have done in the past, you will need to take your extended audience into account when you Tweet. What I mean is that you need to use your skills in "Emotional Awareness of others." Having thin sliced you (term from the Book Blink by Malcolm Gladwell) I believe you are a vey genuine person and this is what attracts your followers.
To finish off what started as a simple reply. Be yourself! You seem to do this really well and who better to do it than you ;-) Tweet what you are thinking! Invest time in managing who you allow to follow you. Don't stop following anyone unless they are demanding your time.
I hope this gives a little insight into what to expect Ed and keep up the good work.
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