I certainly agree there are some issues here – and I’m not sure there’s a right answer, in terms of one account or two.

On Twitter (which I see as being 95% professional) I’ve had professional followers complain (mildly) about my personal tweets. On the other hand, on Facebook (which I see as 95% personal, even though I still have many more professional ‘friends’) I’ve had personal friends complain about my professional status updates.

My personal approach is to stick with a single account, and a single tone. It seems to me that we are who we are. Creating two accounts doesn’t change that… it just tries to hide certain aspects of oneself from certain people. Something that probably won’t work and is of questionable value anyway?

There’s only one Mike that goes down the pub?

Yes, I rant occasionally. Usually I regret doing so afterwards… but that is part of what I am. Ranting isn’t necessarily unprofessional (depending on how you define that term) provided 1) (as you suggest) that it comes from a passionate place and people generally understand that to be the case and 2) that one admits any ranting mistakes publicly.

Speaking only for myself, I’d rather hear, and understand, someone’s real viewpoint (even if delivered as a rant) than not know where they are coming from (and/or saying in private) because they spend their life worried they’ll upset people.

In the main, I’d prefer to do that via a single Twitter account (as both follower and followed – remember that maintaining knowledge about multiple Twitter accounts has a (small) cost to the follower as well).

But I also understand that not everyone sees the world like that – so I have to modify my behaviour (thru the single Twitter account) accordingly.