Guest post by Nancy Evans
The Twitter universe is full of egomaniacs, narcissists, and straight-up sociopaths who probably don’t deserve the attention they are getting. Yet thousands of celebrities, would-be celebrities, and self-made auteurs are strengthening their careers and creating great business analytics all with the use of 140 characters and a few symbols. At it’s best, Twitter can be utilized as a premiere marketing tool and, more importantly, as a way to disseminate vital information about a social revolution or a breaking story.
At it’s worse, it becomes a voice box for very annoying people and a way for ordinary people to make major mistakes. These mistakes can damage your reputation or business and embarrass you in front of millions of people, or just a couple important bosses. Here are some of the top Twitter mistakes to avoid:
Pictures of yourself shirtless or scantily clad. The risk/reward here is all out of wack. What you have to gain from posting a picture like this is maybe a slight, momentary ego boost. What you have to lose is alienating and repulsing your fans and offending your employers, clients, and colleagues.
Emotional outbursts. Everyone gets fed up at times and they let people know how they really feel. The problem with doing it online, especially on Twitter, is that you can never take it back. You can apologize afterward, but that original Tweet will always be out there, circulated, reposted, and screen-grabbed. Unless you’re engaging in a planned Twitter debate for the purpose of promoting something, emotional Tweets that use curse words, name-calling, and offensive language is a big no-no.
Tweeting while at work. This one is obvious. If your boss or supervisor sees it, they know you weren’t working. Sure, they only take a minute to write and post, but why wouldn’t they assume you’re doing other non-related work activities as well? There’s a reason why NBA players can get fined and suspended now for tweeting before, during, or after a game—it’s unprofessional.
Tweeting about illegal activity. Cops aren’t going to arrest you online for tweeting about weed, but it’s probably not a good idea to broadcast to millions of people that you did something illegal. It might be used as evidence later.
Coupled with Omniture and other Internet tools, Twitter is an incredible technology for celebrities, businesses, and individuals. But it can cause people to think they’re in a bubble and won’t have to answer for the Tweets they put out there. A good rule of thumb is if you’re in doubt about whether or not to post something online, come back to it in a couple hours later and look at it again. If you had doubts in the first place, chances are you’re probably better off safe than sorry and not posting it.
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Really, sometimes I think we extrapolate the same hours put something on twitter, or even other people.
We have to control our addiction seriously. And I agree with the leaders, because the more you take 30 seconds or 1 minute to enter, he’ll distraction because you will already be thinking of another matter entirely. And then you will no longer yield as before. Great post.
Twitter can be fun and cool, but sometimes it can be scary and dangerous too. We’ve seen a lot of mistakes done by companies which cost them a lot, but we can’t deny the fact that there are still a lot of opportunities that we can get from it as well.
Twitter is a social network very interesting, for everything is happening at the moment, brings many benefits for companies and the like. But there are people who can not really use it. They need to have a better sense of what they are doing, why then precesses want to play against the network. But the fault lies with the person and not the network. This ends up hurting both sides. We will moderate as we post on Twitter!
Yes, In today’s time ignoring Twitter just by thinking that it is micro-blogging and one cannot express fully is surely a BIG mistake. Not only celebrities but also for online business it is becoming an important aspect of a business. Thankfully I discovered Twitter long before I became a bestselling author, and I am enjoying my stay here..!