This week, the Monday Marketing Minute is more a question than an answer: Is it better to blend your personal social presence or divide it up? And, as with most things… it depends. Before I get too far into this, please note that I’d love to hear YOUR thoughts on this so definitely share after reading.
There are several variables to consider and some of those may make this choice clear-cut for you. The first one is are you an employee of the company or the owner? If you are the owner (like I am) then I think it still varies on whether or not the brand and the person blend on social. It could really come down to your comfort level. Here are some things to consider when making this decision:
Objective
What is the purpose of your instagram? Is it to share your kids’ photos or is it to tell stories about your business? Or, as the business owner, is it all connected and woven together? First, determine your reason for having this account in the first place and then start laying out what we’ve discussed the past two weeks: brand voice and persona. Those apply whether you are a company account or an individual. Know your voice, know your brand.
Tone
This is a big one and when I share more about my personal place in all this at the end of this piece it will make more sense. Tone matters. This goes back to brand voice and persona. Your personal voice may be completely different than your company. Tone matters. Sometimes I get a text from my best friend (aka my husband) and reply with #tone. We all know it’s hard to read someone’s word without inflecting some tone – warranted or not – onto that message. So it’s important that tone you put out on social reflects the account from which your publishing.
Know your skills
There is also some practicality involved in the decision of whether to blend voices or separate them. Here are some to consider:
- First, how much time do you have? Do you want to be feeding content to two different accounts?
- Do you have enough content to feed two accounts?
- Is your business account (or your personal account, to each their own) looking to grow? If so, do you know how to run ads to reach more people? Do you know how to make the algorithm work in your favor to help support this effort?
- Are your two voices different enough or is your business so much a part of who you are and how your day goes that it does not make sense to separate them?
My decision and where I’m headed
So here’s the thing. And I know, I know. I’m supposed to have ALL the answers when it comes to social. But I’ve told you before I am a practitioner, not an expert. I’ve also shared how freeing it is to use the phrase: “I don’t know.”
With that in mind, I’ve been wrestling with something for about six months and have made a decision and guess what? You are the first to know (well, after my team and my husband).
When I launched my Instagram account, it was a fun place to share photos and it wasn’t yet set up for business, professional accounts, advertising, branding. So I made a strategic decision at that time to use it only for personal reasons and that’s why my handle is @smoshaps. But lately I’ve been sharing some content about my business. I’ve also shared content about the war in Israel and how I’m dealing with antisemetism and DEI in the schools (and all the issues that come along with it). This called into focus the three points above, and had me asking some questions:
Objective
Now I’ve got so many content buckets coming out of this one voice. Has my objective with having an online voice, personally, shifted? Does it still make sense for me? At some point I felt #1 this is all what’s important to me, the person, and it’s me showing up authentically as myself but also #2 I think I thought this war would be over by now so it wouldn’t be dragging on with me sharing so much stuff that is important to me as a Jewish American.
Tone
My tone in my personal instagram has shifted, obviously, in light of what’s written above in my questions about my objective. You know, I’m not afraid of losing business because I’m an outspoken Jewish person. BUT sometimes I’m – frankly – pretty angry about what’s happening in the world, and maybe I want to keep that between friends. So I started rethinking that perhaps separating these two voices might be a good step.
Know your skills
I do know my skills. And my skills are in separating voices and multitasking. So can I divide the voice and manage two accounts? You bet I can.
So – congrats! You’re (almost) first to hear the news.
2024 is the year I’m pushing myself into some uncomfortable space, as referenced in my “word of the year” Reel I published a few weeks ago. In the coming months, I’ll be splitting my voice into two Instagram accounts – one personal, one business. AND what’s even bigger, we have decided as a team to go for the rebrand. Thanks to everyone who weighed in on that decision. We are strategizing and researching and planning now. Before 2024 is up we’ll have a whole new look in more ways than one!
Best of luck talking through your decisions with your brand this year. If you’re having a tough time determining your online voice or your social media strategy or if you’re sick and tired of handling it yourself, let me know. We’d be happy to help you out.
Join me as I continue to work on this split. You can find my company Instagram account here (new name coming) and my personal Instagram account here (must love dogs to follow).
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