When I first went onto Twitter, I did so as an experiment, to teach myself how to use it. In case I completely messed up, I was keenly aware that I would wish to do so 'incognito'. One may laugh, now! I chose a username that sounded quite catchy, to show that I was trading as a PR consultant at Mainline Business Centre in Liss, East Hampshire. MainlinePR was born. Crucially, however, it was not my trading name, which had built up some reputation amongst my clients, colleagues and associates in the East Hampshire vicinity. The trading name for my business is, in fact, Compege - with the tagline 'ideas for competitive edge'. It has been a PR consultancy, and it now offers Customer Loyalty Management in addition to media relations.
Within a matter of weeks (or was it days?) I found that I had around 40 to 50 followers. Wonderful. I was faced with an important choice - keep @MainlinePR or change the handle to @CompegePR? I was still reluctant, at that point, to 'go public', and didn't relish the thought of losing the valuable followers and friends whom I had just made. So there we are - fear stopped me from changing it.
And fear is what has kept me here so far. At 1,048 followers at last count, I find myself in a dilemma.
My website has just been updated, and I am on the cusp of a new business plan. A colleague may well join me at the end of this year - sometime between November 2014 and February 2015; that is the plan. There are exciting chapters waiting to be written in the story of Compege.
I shall have to bite the bullet and shall almost inevitably change the Twitter handle to CompegePR. The thing is, being an emotional old 'kinesthetic' kind of individual (thanks @Relationshiptraining for that insight!), I shall miss my dear @MainlinePR handle.
At the end of the day, will the change make any difference, be it negative, or positive?
What do you think? What shall we do? All feedback welcome - if you don't care, then that's fine by me.
Keren.
