Great minds think alike, Debbie (or fools seldom differ – take your pick!) – I’ve recently started doing exactly this. For me the catalyst was FaceBook – because friending is mutual, I tend to be a bit more cautious about who I connect to. So I reserve it for family and real-life friends, and I use a “personal” twitter feed to update my status. I also use the personal twitter account to follow family, friends and a handful of celebs. Then I have a “writing” account, which is my original @annelyle username, for following writers, agents, podcasters, etc. I mostly tweet writing stuff, though I do put the occasional personal thing in if I think it would interest/amuse my followers. This feed also goes onto the homepage of my writing-oriented website – another reason to keep it writing-focused. Finally I have a “chat” account which I use for #writechat and similar – I don’t want either FaceBook or my website cluttered up with disjointed chatter! I manage all these using groups in Seesmic Desktop, usually in the evening here in the UK since I’m more likely to coincide with my US friends then. On my iPhone I prefer Tweetie, which I have used to tweet “live” events such as my research trip to the Tower of London and the British Fantasy Society Awards. This might seem like overkill since I only have a few dozen followers at the moment, but I like to think that I’m building a good foundation for the future.

Interesting to read your reasoning. I blended my accounts to reflect my policy of personal transparency. You’ve shown me transparency doesn’t have to mean throwing my work, life and sexual secrets into a big Googleified blender. (NOW you tell me?!) With only 500ish followers and very few @ or RTs (despite relevant content…more often than not), it’s much easier for me to streamline accounts than it would be for you. And thanks for giving me an option for how to handle it when I hit the four-digit follower mark Cheers, Sarah