I had a unique opportunity recently; I was selected, along with my sister, for a “Cheap Chic” makeover courtesy of the Nate Berkus show. It was a tremendous amount of fun and a great experience.
When I compared notes with my sister, also a Facebook and Twitter junkie, we were both tweeting and posting about it nearly non-stop for the better part of a week. But we were taking different tacks on it. She was using her business page on Facebook to share her experience while I chose to use my personal profile. Who was right?
Both of us.
Which Social Media Account Should You Use?
It really depends on who you’re communicating with and the tone you want to set.
Sound Earth, my sister’s company, works hard to build personal relationships with their customers. So in that regard, it makes perfect sense to share the personal experiences of its key personnel; which is exactly what she did. Sharing personal experiences draws in customers, gets them engaged and excited to be a part of the brand.
While Marketing Cafe also works hard to build strong relationships with clients, our social media efforts focus on sharing marketing information and tips with some random fun stuff sprinkled in. The makeover, while random and definitely fun, skewed too far towards personal to warrant much play on our Facebook page. I did, however, Tweet about it since my Twitter account is both personal and business.
How Do You Decide?
How do you know whether to share information on your profile or page? Whether it’s Tweet-worthy or not? Well, the first thing you want to do is develop a social media strategy. Decide what channels you should be using and why? Check out a past post, Which Social Media Sites Should I Use?, to help you with this.
Once you know where you want to be and why you’re there, you can more easily decide the types of things you can post to engage your audience. Will it be fun, personal stuff mixed in – and reinforcing – your marketing message? Is it strictly business? Is it only sales?
Too much personal information on a business page is definitely TMI (too much information). But not showing any personality is TLI (too little information).
The bottom line is, deliver what your audience wants and expects. Social media is most decidedly social; how personal you want to make it is up to you.