For smaller businesses the team of 1 person often prevents a business from running more than one twitter account due to time constraints, but “Should We Set Up More Than One Twitter Account” is something I’m increasingly being asked about from larger organisations.

These are often organisations with multiple disciplines, locations and personnel that need to deliver different messages, but also have the team to help deliver and work on the social media accounts

In the past 12 months we’ve worked with Legal Firms, Networking Groups, Restaurants, Drinks Brands who have for various valid reasons opted to go for the multiple twitter accounts to market their business

QUESTIONS TO ASK BEFORE OPTING FOR MULTIPLE TWITTER ACCOUNTS
Running multiple twitter accounts for a business is not a decision to be taken lightly and needs to be well thought-out and discussed with the whole team before actioning

• Do multiple twitter accounts fit with your longterm business / marketing objectives?
• Do you have the team in place to help manage multiple Twitter accounts (Social Media should take approx. 4 hours a week per account if done in an engaging way)
• Do you have a variety of messages / departments / functions that require multiple twitter accounts?
• Is location a reason to run multiple accounts? Do you need to work hyper-local across different towns?
• How will you ensure you keep a consistent message across all accounts?
• What minimum standards will you set for each account?
• Is there an over-arching business account?

WHAT OPTIONS CAN YOU TAKE?

Here are 4 options to take when running multiple twitter accounts for your business

PERSONAL BRAND TWITTER ACCOUNTS
People buy from people – so why not put your key directors / people at the heart of your Social Media Strategy

These are the people out networking and being the face of your business, so it makes sense that those same people who they meet at networking will warm to the human touch on twitter and buy into personal brand

Personal accounts allow twitter accounts to be a little more informal and as well as talking business allow them to show off their personality

Those are the positives and they are big wins for an organisation – I know of several people I network where I think of the name of the person before the company name

The downside is what happens if these people move on from the organisation and they take all that with them?

With the personal brand the organisation definitely needs to protect themselves when it comes to social media and have contracts in place that if the personal brand is built in company time there is a process in places on they leave

DEPARTMENTAL TWITTER ACCOUNTS
A lot of the law firms we’ve opted for have opted for the Departmental Twitter Account options such as Family Law, Business Law, Sports Law etc

It’s the right option for larger businesses where each department has a number of different personnel in who cross over with roles and therefore having personal accounts would see a large amount of duplication of content

There are still ways to personalise and add a face to the organisation via behind the scene photos and well thought out content plans

The advantage of the departmental options is that they allow for continuity if people move on from the organisation

LOCATION BASED TWITTER ACCOUNTS
I really believe hyper-local is terribly important for small businesses looking to get their name out in the market

Naturally we’re called Altrincham HQ so we tweet 50% about what we do (Social Media) and 50% about things that happen in Altrincham

When a restaurant approached us who were based in Altrincham and expanding to another local town we discussed in depth the advantages and disadvantages of running 2 separate accounts for the different towns – the advantages far outweighed the disadvantages

Being able to drill down on a local level in terms of engagement is a huge advantage

Businesses we suggest might use the location based twitter are Estate Agents, Restaurants, Networking Groups, Small B2B Firms with a number of offices in separate towns

NICHE TWITTER ACCOUNTS
Even when you’re an owner managed business, there can sometimes be the need to run separate twitter accounts

For example a photographer may have separate twitter accounts for their Corporate vs Wedding Work

We run a seperate Restaurant based twitter account as 50% of our Social Media Management clients are food businesses and yet they make up a much smaller percentage of our Social Media training side of the business

If you have a niche that has become something of a specialism within your overall business then a Niche Twitter account, so you can talk about those interests and engage with a specific audience may be appropriate

WHAT TO DO NEXT?
Go back to those questions at the start of the blog and start to consider if there is a need or the team in place to run multiple twitter accounts

And then call us so we can talk through the best options for multiple twitter accounts for YOUR business

Altrincham HQ offer Group Social Media Training to Organisations Looking To Expand Their Social Media Reach

Call Alex on 07806774279 or email alex@altrinchamhq.co.uk

Altrincham Hq

“With over 12 years experience of Social Media and 17 years experience of online marketing in other companies, clients come to myself when they want a veteran rather than a rookie” Alex McCann