Let’s see…I have:
But why? What’s the point?
@heatherlarson is my regular, day-to-day Twitter account. I tweet to it from Tweetie on my iPod, Twitterberry on my Blackberry, and currently Spaz on my Mac. I’ve also liked Seesmic and Tweetdeck, but I just want to try all the desktop apps. I like to use the @heatherlarson account for everything; school, work, entertainment, food allergy issues, feedback, jokes, etc. It’s the most “me” account but also the grab bag one. I also use it to drive Twitter followers to my two additional accounts if they are even interested.
That is it right there–interest. I figure my @heatherlarson followers shouldn’t be bombarded with @heathercast and @curecjd if the stuff I tweet there isn’t their thing. I don’t want to turn off the people who aren’t into hearing about the human form of “mad cow disease” or DJ stuff. That’s why I keep one radio-specific account and one that’s only about CJD. If I used one account for all three, the radio stuff would make me lose credibility in CJD World.
@heathercast is the one I use while I am on the air at 98.7 The Peak. Many of my Twitter followers are in Phoenix, but many are out of state too. They can only get The Peak if they listen to the station online. I also don’t want to annoy the regular followers I network with about, “Coming up, your chance to win tickets to see Aerosmith,” or “Thanks to Phil for listening and requesting The Police…”
However I also use @heatherlarson to promote The Peak if I’m at home and see our afternoon guy, @HiSteveDouglas has posted a Twitpic of our new studio or a funny new “Hollywood Hoo Hah” video starring our illustrious midday girl Monica Nelson, aka @justhighonlife. I try later to “RT” or “retweet” it from @heathercast but often forget. I’m happy to promote The Peak at either account when I’m off the air. Die-hard Peak listeners follow me at both @heatherlarson and @heathercast.
Then there’s @curecjd, which is quite a coup to get for being someone not-too-important in the CJD realm. I’m no neurologist. But @priongirl is. This Twitter account has helped others interested in/involved with CJD to find me, and me them. I use it to post links to articles about CJD and to post links back to my CJD blog. What’s cool is when all the article links show up on my blog since I installed a Twitter widget there. It’s a good visual/content addition to that blog and also helps add content (in a small way) to that blog when I only have time to Tweet about CJD and can’t fit in a proper blog entry.
I’m fascinated with how people are using Twitter today. It’s a geek thing that has really evolved into many very different things during the 2.5 years I’ve been on it. While I think it’s great for self-promotion, you can overdo it too. I’d say this blog is going a bit far in self-promotion! If nothing else, I hope it gives you ideas. I don’t plug every blog post on Twitter. And guess what? People still find and comment on my blogs. If I make a post I am especially proud of or really need feedback on, I definitely post a link on Twitter. I used to get a lot of responses quickly from doing that but not as much since Twitter has grown. I think we all have too many followers now. Getting tons of instant feedback is no longer common. I’m probably missing out on giving others good feedback on their posts too, though I do try.
Writer Heather Larson 