Image Credit: Flickr.com / Cea

When faced with the decision to brand yourself as one entity or several, which do you chose? Many experts believe that it’s better to separate and compartmentalize, focusing on several smaller niches. However, I believe that it may just be better to try to focus on the individual as a whole, and brand the person as a complete package.

And for myself, I have chosen to do just that. It wasn’t an easy decision. In fact, it was something I puzzled over for at least 6 months, if not longer. But now that I’ve reached the decision to consolidate, I no longer feel split, or frazzled. I can now see a streamlined path that is going to make my online life more manageable and far less stressful. And that makes me happy.

Of course, what is right for me may not be right for you. One of the biggest points to consider when deciding if online persona consolidation is right for you is how well your interests and goals intersect. If they are similar then consolidating is easy; however if your interests and goals are drastically different, you will want to consider how your various topics may impact different types of readers if lumped together.

Here are the reasons why I decided to consolidate my online personalities.

I’m doing so much everywhere, that I’m effective nowhere. At one point, I was running at least 4 different sites. It was a lot to keep up with! For each site I was also trying to manage social media as well (Facebook, Twitter, Google+). Whew – it was a lot. I was spread so thin, I barely accomplished anything.

Too much to keep up with. For every page created there were email addresses, user names, and passwords to keep up with. Not to mention, trying to keep all of this separate from my own personal pages at each of these places. Because the services for each were the same, I was constantly logging in and logging out. Additionally, as a freelancer, I manage the same pages and sites for my clients. In the end, it was getting to be too much to keep up with. I was simply tired of constantly chasing my own tail.

What free time? Managing accounts like this takes time. Which is fine, I’m willing to sacrifice time to get the things I want in life, but eventually I found that all my time was being eaten up by unimportant tasks, leaving me very little time to get work done. In order to compensate, I sacrificed my free time and time with my family.

I felt dishonest. I didn’t feel like I was being true to myself, or my audience. By chopping myself up into all these little pieces and compartments, I was losing sight of who I was, who I wanted to become, my goals, and the things that really mattered.

That’s why I decided to take steps to reclaim my time and sanity, which for me was removing all of these virtual barriers, and turning myself back into one whole person again. And while it may not be the best choice for everyone, I now feel at peace, which means it was the right choice for me.

So if you feel frazzled and overwhelmed by the magnitude of all that is required of managing multiple online personas, take a minute to think about why you feel the need to fracture yourself into several different pieces, and then try to look for the common dominator in the things you are trying to accomplish. The intersections you find might just surprise you!