For those that have known me over the past few years, they were surprised when I added a second Twitter name, @TimetobeFrank.  I have been asked by a number of people the reason for the change, and I felt I would explain it here.  I have always spoken about the need to personalize business in a space like Twitter.  That is one of the many reasons my team at Comcast has their own Twitter user names.  It is also why you see my picture and blog information on my @ComcastCares Twitter account.  I have also said many times that if I had another account, I would still be representing my employer, so there was no reason to make the change.  So what happened?  A number of things, but most prevalent was discussions with people that wanted to hear my thoughts, but because they were not Comcast Customers, they were not interested in following @ComcastCares.  This is an easy way to accommodate that.  There have also been times where I was not in a position to assist Customers (such as being out) but I wanted to tweet something interesting.  I can now do that.

This in no way changes my view that social media is a relationship driven medium that is about personal connections.  This change is really a means to further that.  There will be many times I will tweet the same personal thoughts through both Twitter accounts.

It has been an interesting experience.  The opportunity to see the process as a new Twitter user was much improved since the last time I went through that.  I was able to see more efforts to prevent spam then I thought were happening.  It was good to see.  It is fun reviewing the stream of tweets from fewer people I am following.  This is something I have not done in a long time due to the sheer quantity.  At the same time I would like to build my followers up on this account so I can have even broader conversations about Customer Service in business today and into the future.  I have also realized it is hard to manage multiple Twitter accounts, even with the tools that are currently available.  It will take some getting used to.  I hope this provides clarification.

See you on Twitter!