I’ve read a number of debates about using your own name vs. your brand name on twitter.

You’ve probably noticed that I use my own name (JessVanDen) rather than my main brand name (Epheriell). So, why do I do this?

Firstly, when I first got interested in internet marketing (which was before I started making my jewellery) I was struck by the prevalent wisdom out there that stated that you should brand yourself – that is, turn you as a person into the brand that people are interested in. I don’t know about you, but I’m not really interested in knowing more about a big company, but other real people and their lives and thoughts do interest me.

So, I decided to go with that angle on twitter. Another reason, that I discovered, was that having multiple twitter accounts under different names is just a complete pain. I tried it with another project of mine for a short time, but stopped because it got too annoying to manage.

Now, while Epheriell is my main online venture, I also run a second Etsy shop, as well as write this blog, and run the Aussie Handmade Giveaway. All of these things make up who I am online, so why would I want to cut a part of that out and separate it? If I have one twitter account under my name, I can talk about and cross-promote all of these things – and I take the gamble that my followers will be interested in them all – since they’re all in the craft/handmade niche. If I had projects that were in vastly different niches I might consider a different account – but chances are I wouldn’t.

All human beings are multi-faceted, and we all have diverse interests. I think that is what makes us interesting, and I personally enjoy tweets from people who let their personality and lives shine through – and who don’t just promote their shop or website relentlessly. If I wanted continual adversiting I could go elsewhere. Don’t get me wrong, I use twitter to promote my items, and it works well, but I try not to spam people with my promotions.

Another thing I don’t do is auto-follow back. Now, this is not because I’m ignoring you, but because I only check my  followers list once in a while! If you want me to follow you back, the best thing to do is engage me – RT something of mine, @ me about something… chances are I’ll then know you exist and follow you back!

I think that’s what I love the most about Twitter – the ability to interact with people online in real time, and to help share things both they and I are interested in.

So – do you use your brand name or your own name – and why?

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