Odd Social Marketing question

[Russ in Vancouver]

Hello All,

I have been providing consulting services to people in my area since 2004. I took a break from the field 2009 until March 2015. This was and is now again a full time job that requires my commitment 9am-9pm 365 days a year.

Back in 09 I did not use social marketing but now I think I really need to include and not overlook it. FB, Twitter, Pinterest, G+ are the platforms I have been building up.

I have several different websites that all point to me. I use them all in different ways to try to capture and funnel leads to me. 2 of them I would like to keep secret in a way that does not let my competitors know that it is me. I plan to build a comprehensive website about everything there is to do in my city. It will include photos, videos, 360 virtual tours and hopefully, well written copy. I will also plan to post the photos in the 4 SM platforms above.

In your opinion, should I post all it from my name or from the other websites I maintain that do not disclose my name but rather give out the free information in an unbiased way.

I hope I explained this in a digestible way.

Thank you for any feedback you can provide. I don't bite.

[Harold Mansfield]

How you brand yourself really all depends on your marketing plan.

Is your website your sir name or a company name?
If it's a company name then you need to be consistent with your branding.

I use both, so I have both although there is some cross purpose. I only have one Twitter account for both websites and it's under my name.
I don't have G+ and Facebook company pages for my name. Just the business.

On Linked In I have both.

You can do both, brand your company and it's products and services, as well as use your own identity to brand yourself as an expert in your field or CEO of the company.

I also have a different identity for another project, but all of the branding is consistent with the name of the project. Not me specifically.

Neither way is wrong. However you can go very wrong by not making a decision, being clear about your identity, and mixing and matching your communication and marketing without any clarity.

In other words, create a plan for branding, execute it and stay consistent.

[Russ in Vancouver]

Thank you for your thoughts Harold.

[vangogh]

I agree with Harold. It really depends on how you want to brand yourself and your business. It also depends on what you're using the account for. If the social account is solely for business then a business name probably makes sense. The downside is if you change your business, you'll be starting over again with a new account.

In general I think you're better off with a personal name on the account. Unless people know the business why would they care to follow the business account?

For the sites you don't want people to know are you, I would use a separate account.

[Harold Mansfield]

Also, if you have a domain as strong as your example "See Las Vegas" in a .com or even a .vegas (if it is indeed Vegas located), there's no contest. That's what I would use for my branding and marketing. Period.

[99social]

Try and keep your branding consistent. I think it would be wise to use the business name across all the platforms. Otherwise, things tend to get a bit convoluted and in the end, it will just make things easier on yourself.