So, to recap, it’s not so much what you write about on a blog, or on Twitter, but more how you go about writing it that impacts your personal brand.

Emily, I agree with what you say about people who are always ‘on message’. When I come across somebody’s feed on Twitter, and see that all they ever talk about is their work, I seldom follow them. In fact, I’ve recently been unfollowing a few people who were doing that. I was beginning to feel Twitter had turned into some sort of free-for-all sales convention!

Well, thanks again, you’ve both given me a bit of reassurance as I take a nervous step back into the ‘blogosphere’ with a different approach to last time.

I personally find people who are always ‘on message’ on Twitter a real turn off, lacking genuine personality, so I’m pleased to see this question raised.

Firstly, I think it’s fine to have different and varying interests as long as you make it clear what you’re purporting to be an expert in (if anything), and what you’re merely interested in.

It would be a real shame if people only joined conversations that furthered their professional images, and my goodness what boring places social networks would be. Of course, there are those that go too far and tweet random nonsense at all times, but they’re probably not concerned about personal branding in the least.

It’s my belief that being consistent in your personal branding is less about _what_ you talk about and more to do with _how_ you talk about it. Like Wayne mentioned, f-ing and blinding about a football match in between professional tweets about your industry could make you seem volatile and inconsistent. But would I think your personal branding was all over the place if I saw a pattern of changing interests? No.

If you categorised all my tweets, I’d say the biggest pile would probably relate to marketing and PR – no surprise there. But there’d be lots of other piles too, about technology, current affairs, books I’m reading, and indeed some about my family and the town I live in.

For me (a person using Twitter for business as well as socially) I guess it’s comparable to the sort of conversations I’d have at the office. It’s mostly business, but I’m still a human being!

Hope that helps.

Personally speaking, I expect those things you mentioned from you, given what I know about your likes and dislikes.

It’s not like you’re the head of marketing for some stuffy and staid Fortune 500 company, so flexibility is fine.

Of course, there are some basic rules to personal branding (thou shalt not litter and pepper every missive with expletives etc), but in broader terms, it’s just a set of rules defining how you wish to present your persona.