Checking In With a Dual Social Media Identity
By Jael McHenry | May 4, 2015 |
Five months ago, I set out my rules for Social Media the Second Time Around — what I did, and planned to do, differently as I built a social media identity from scratch for my pseudonym. Five months in, how’s it going?
Both better and worse than expected.
If I count it up, I’ve done pretty much what I set out to do. Here were my guidelines for setting up the second identity:
- Don’t just replicate exactly what you did the first time around.
- Do make deliberate decisions.
- Do watch yourself (or selves).
- Don’t blast the world.
- Do tell the truth at the right time.
I’ve followed those guidelines, and they’ve served me well. P.M. (Pseudonym Me) is definitely not a clone of Jael McHenry; she follows different people and posts different things. She’s less flippant and more political. She talks less about writing and more about reading. Overall, she has a lot to say and isn’t afraid to say it.
Here’s the problem: I kind of don’t have energy for both. And the busier P.M. is, the less we see of Jael McHenry. All it takes is a peek at my Twitter account to see that my activity has dropped off dramatically; the same is true of Facebook.
If I had unlimited time, of course, things would be different. But that’s never how it is in a writer’s life. Even before I had the pseudonym identity, I was already balancing a dozen identities, as we all are — the promoter and the writer, the supporter and the mom, the critic and the cheerleader. Time spent talking to people about our books is time spent not writing them. It’s a balancing act, and a tough one. So my social media time, once 90 percent J.M., is now 90 percent P.M. The five minutes here and there that I have to pull up Twitter or Facebook are generally spent checking on P.M.’s contacts, not J.M.’s. I didn’t anticipate this, and it makes me a little sad.
How will I resolve the situation? At the moment I’m taking the philosophical bent: everything is ebb and flow, and depending on what happens with future books (and the other things in my life that keep me busy), I may find myself having more to say as J.M. and less as P.M. in the future.
Or I may need new guidelines. Time, and Twitter, will tell.
Jael McHenry is the debut author of The Kitchen Daughter (Simon & Schuster/Gallery Books, April 12, 2011). Her work has appeared in publications such as the North American Review, Indiana Review, and the Graduate Review at American University, where she earned her MFA in Creative Writing. You can read more about Jael and her book at jaelmchenry.com or follow her on Twitter at @jaelmchenry.
While I hear your frustration, I think you’re doing amazingly well, JM/PM. As a creative, I already walk a thin line between my real and imagined selves—I think a pen name, and all that is associated with that these days, would drive me insane. If I ever had to do this (which would sadden me, as I’ve fought so damned hard to become Kathryn Craft!) I think I’d have to keep Facebook for me and Twitter for pen name me. To help reinforce the divide, and preserve my continuity as true self.
I hope you can face it for the long haul, though, because I predict that PM is going to publishing for a good long while.
Jael – or should I say PM?
Thanks so much for this
I’m just trying to develop two personae too – on advice that the two things I’m trying to do (on Iran and death respectively) are so different that I should do that
Are you using Tweetdeck? This is great for my Iran persona – and I’ve just added death stuff on there too. Am finding it v useful – even time saving
Best wishes
Caroline
So glad you posted this. I’ve been struggling with this for years, first with two totally different names, now with the same first name but different last names. I have never found a way to balance things. I have a few crossover readers, plus friends from a totally different professional time in my life. I like to cross post things that I think might interest a few from each place when I can, but I usually feel like a I’m ignoring one group to the exclusion of the others (especially around launch time). Hope you keep us posted on your experiences.
Long ago, when I first joined Twitter, I tried to have 2 different accounts. It didn’t work then because I didn’t even know how to “do” Twitter, let alone try to learn it for 2 different purposes. I kept the writer one and let the professional one go.
I took a new job this year where joining Twitter for a professional account seemed like a no-brainer. So I opened up a new, 2nd account. And while I did pretty well with it for about a month, I’ve since learned that it is freaking hard to maintain. I am not surprised at all that you found that you’ve tended to focus on one more than another, especially since the two are more similar than how I’m doing (or rather not doing… professional account is woefully neglected).
If you figure out a magic formula down the road, I look forward to reading about it!
(I appreciate your self-guidelines, btw. Great way to enter into the whole thing.)
Yes.
How will you resolve this interesting turn of events?
Truly, Fascinating
Who will Jael ultimately become? I applaud your skill with illusion. ;-) And I look forward to hearing more about this incredible journey!
Hi, Jael/PM:
Kudos for the willingness to split yourself — I suppose it’s akin to the usual censoring we all do, but you seem to have mastered it in unusual fashion.
I was almost hoping for a ending that went something like: Finally, PM just got sick of my lagging behind and dropped me as a FB friend and stopped following me on Twitter.
Good luck. And get some sleep.
I hereby dub thee- Jedi Master “Alias”!