On the one year anniversary of my decision to separate the Roundpeg and Lorraine Ball Twitter brands, creating two separate identities, I talked about the process at Blog Indiana. If you missed the presentation, here are a few of the highlights:

Bad Excuses Not to Change:

  • Momentum – Roundpeg had been an account on Twitter for three and a half years, and I was afraid of losing momentum. If it isn’t building your brand, your momentum is taking your further from your goal.
  • Bias – Twitter has transformed from a purely communication platform to a business exchange. Today, business accounts are a part of the Twitter ecosystem and there is room for companies with a human voice.
  • Ego – I am Roundpeg!  But so are all the members of my incredibly talented team. My refusal to change was undermining their efforts in the community. 

The Process

  • Define the brands – What is Roundpeg and who is Lorraine Ball? If we were going to have multiple Twitter accounts, each one had to have a reason to exist.
  • One voice or many – Roundpeg, although it has four authors, presents one unified voice to the world.
  • Administration – To avoid stepping on each other’s toes, we have rules. Whoever starts a conversation finishes it. We also avoid pronouns when possible to avoid the question of whether the brand is singular or plural.

The Learning Curve

  • Communicate – Keep those channels of discussion open. Freely voice concerns and continually look for ways to improve.
  • Step back, Step up – While I needed to take a step back from being Roundpeg, it was up to my team to make sure the voice and content remained interesting, engaging and valuable to our readers.

Results

  • Stronger brand –  With more hands on deck, the brand is stronger and serves as a better ambassador for our company and a better traffic referrer to our website.
  • Personal fun – Personally, I am having more fun as I have a platform to talk about a range of things that interest me instead of constantly being tied to Roundpeg.

The video contains excerpts and my power point can be found and additional content on this topic can be found below. 

For more on this topic check out the recording of my conversation with Allison about the process and my original blog post kicking off the transformation.