I'm not a social media expert, just a business person learning to use it effectively with some really great coaches.

I now have five twitter profiles. @joankw for an eclectic mix of things that I share with my friends on Facebook as well as with my twitter followers at the same time. @CorePurpose is all business articles and tips. This links back to my profile on LinkedIn. Then I have three very specific profiles to have deeper conversations on the subjects I like the most @JKWinnovation, @JKWgrowth, @JKWleadership.

Why 5 Profiles?

If you Tweet consistently - and I do - linking to other platforms like Facebook, Plaxo, and Linked in can cause you to monopolize your friends feeds. It's like crying wolf - when you have something important to say - no one's there to listen.

Your profile is a brand component. Multiple profiles allow you to keep your brand focused and consistent within each profile. People follow the profiles that have the messages they want.

It's easier to have real conversations. On the focused profiles, I follow publications and people who tweet on the subject - when we connect we have something to actually talk/tweet about.

<strong>Ways to make work it without going crazy</strong>
There are some great tools for those of us with multiple profiles. None are perfect, but my toolset includes Seesmic - great visual interface - and Hootsuite which allows me to 'tweet later' and manage the follow. It these two platforms would just merge into one, I would be in Twitter Heaven.

Tweet Later - a great way to spread your messages across the day with out being tied to your computer. Early each morning I schedule a few messages for each profile to tweet later using Hootsuite. Then I log in later via Seesmic to read the feed, reply to conversations, or share more 'in the moment' thoughts.
Set aside a specific time to do this then turn it off. It's easy to get sucked into all the goings on and not get other important things done.

Less can be More - I share and follow based on good content. So when someone follows me - I follow them. If it turns out to be spam or just noise - I un-follow later. That way I can find interesting new people and still get through all the messages in a reasonable amount of time.

I look forward to sharing ideas with you.

Stay Tuned...