I found myself and BloggersGuide.net at a crossroad this week: To tweet or not to tweet. That was the question. I’ve had a personal Twitter account for about a year, and I’ve kept it pretty well up to date with personal musings and activities and the feeds from my personal blog and BGnet. But I also use Twitter to keep my Facebook status up to date, so my personal Twitter audience is much larger than the 50 or so followers I have on Twitter; my tweets also go to my 300 or so friends on Facebook.

And that was the problem. By promoting BGnet with my Twitter account (and therefore Facebook), I was publicizing to a whole group of people who a) had no interest in Twitter and b) had no interest in blogging. And as a professional writer, I can tell you that the first thing we’re taught in our professional writing classes is to know and address your audience.

At the same time, I asked myself, Sarah, do you really want to separate your Twitter account? You know yourself. You’ll probably start separating all your other accounts, too. This could get really hairy very quickly.

These thoughts are valid. I’m an all-or-nothing kind of girl, and when I commit to something, I go all out. But there are three reasons I separated my personal Twitter account from my BGnet Twitter account, and they are reasons you should consider as well:

1. Time. I spend a lot of time online, and it’s very easy to let the line between personal and work activity become gray and fuzzy. By separating my Twitter accounts, I’m ensuring that when I’m working on BGnet, I’m solely working on BGnet. And that makes tracking the time I work on BGnet so much easier.
2. Audience. My BloggersGuide.net Twitter account is directed primarily to bloggers rather than my miscellany of friends. While I’m sure my friends don’t mind an occassional BGnet plug, they don’t want to be inundated with articles I’m reading or conversations I’m having with other bloggers. At the same time, the Twitter username @bloggers_guide communicates that the account is about blogging whereas @sarahjoaustin only communicates that the account is about me.
3. Content. My personal Twitter account is filled with all things personal: what I’m doing at work, what I’ve just posted on my personal blog, what I’m doing on a Friday night, etc. I want to do the same thing with my BGnet Twitter account: share what I’m reading that pertains to bloggers, promote BGnet, and network with other bloggers.

So my question is: Did I make the right move? I can think of several bloggers/tweeters off the top of my head who keep their personal and blogging tweets together, but I think there’s validity to keeping them separate. What about you? How are you handling your Twitter account(s)?