I had an interesting conversation last week in regards to using a personal name v. a descriptive term on Twitter. I am in the “use your real name” camp for Twitter IDs for personal accounts (versus a company ID for a corporate account). Here’s are a few reasons why (according to me):

  1. If you’re participating in social media, you’re most likely trying to identify and build relationships. Relationships are developed between people. Not between descriptive terms and people.
  2. Social media, as far as I am concerned, is about conversations. Two way conversations happen between people. One way conversation happen from an entity to a person. I’m not even sure how a descriptive term communicates, but I know people who do Tweet this way.
  3. If you Tweet under a descriptive term, how will anyone identify you outside of a Twitter stream? Will they put your name together with your Twitter ID? How would you be identified at a conference or industry event?
  4. Tweeting under your name allows your followers to get a holistic view of who you are (assuming that you’re tweeting about something more than business, which you should be doing, but that’s the subject for a different post).

I’m not just a legal marketer. I am a mother, a Girl Scout troop leader, a sports fan, a former punker who still likes to slam in the pit at a concert, etc. There’s much more to me than The Legal Watercooler. If we’ve never met in person, and we were to bump into each other at, say, the Legal Marketing Association’s annual conference next month, how would you best be able to identify me? By “LGL_MKTR” – a descriptive term of what I do? Or, by my name? I’m going with by name. My name is more than just who I am as an individual. It is part of my brand. It is the entry way to the holistic, and authentic, Heather. I am one of thousands of legal marketing professional. I am one of a handful of Heathers who are legal marketers. But there is only one me. Why make it a puzzle for my readers and followers to know who I am? Oh, and speaking of names, yes, I did make the final change. It’s Morse, as in code (no relation).