Warning: People Read Your Tweets!

Getting to comfortable on Twitter can be dangerous to your business and credibility. To often now I am seeing people speaking very loosely forgetting the objective of marketing their businesses or services to the masses.

The line between personal life and business/professional life is all but erased now. With Twitter it is so easy to get caught up in conversation that can shed a negative light on your reputation. Much like avoiding combining late night wine drinking with emailing here are a couple of pointers to keep in mind when sitting behind the keyboard and Twittering.

Twitter Archives soooo Delete!

What may have seemed funny at the time will eventually become archived in the Twitter timeline and at some point be taken out of context. Worse yet it can be miss-understood by a potential client or employer and if given the opportunity for an awkward explanation of what you really meant most likely it will not end well.

Twitter does give you the ability to delete messages that you generate. So if you do end up staying up late and tossing back a few before stroking the keys and end up regretting what you wrote click on the little trash can icon and delete your message! Unfortunately if someone is bent on destroying your reputation all they have to do is ReTweet your message and alas there is no delete button for that.

Culture is something beyond your four walls

What is funny to you, in your room, in your town or in your state can be offensive to anyone around the world who reads your Twitter messages. I know what you are thinking “So what? Let them unfollow!”

If you are in a position to blow anyone and everyone off that’s great but for the rest of the population who still requires a somewhat intact reputation a derogatory or demeaning remark towards a race, culture or gender can follow you around for some time.

I have read messages from CEO’s and other executives of well known companies even in my own industry make some very critical, offensive and demeaning Tweets without a second thought to who would be reading it on the other end. Potential clients, consultants and employees are reading those messages and all of it gets archived, re-syndicated and scraped for later reference.

Planning + Consistency = Success

Many people enter Twitterland wanting to connect with others as well as promote their products or services. All too often though I have seen these same people forget their objective and begin to enter in the Fame Game, wanting nothing more than to accumulate the most followers possible and be popular with everyone.

Having a clear plan for Twittering is important so you don’t spend hours caught up in arguments or fruitless conversation that lead to writing something you may later regret. Having 100 targeted followers who believe in you, your products or services is far more valuable than 1000’s of followers who never read what you have to say. Creating and maintaining a solid reputation for yourself and the products or services you represent takes planning even if its in the form a of sticky note on your monitor to remind you to stay on task.

UPDATE:
Found this via StumbleUpon and it shows that should REALLY REALLY watch what you Twitter! I couldn’t believe the things people Twittered, you have to see for yourself: http://www.resumebear.com/blog/index.php/2009/07/15/20-things-job-seekers-shouldnt-say-on-twitter/

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