Mistakes are a good thing if you learn from them and they don’t kill you.
Well, that is the common wisdom.
The reality is that mistakes can cost you your job, your relationship and significant dollops of money.
All of these are painful.
Social media provides a public platform that make stuff ups visible at velocity. Humiliation on a global scale is the downside of the social web.
Tweet some stupidity and you have the potential for a viral campaign of the very wrong kind that provides a new category of embarrassment.
Embarrassment at speed.
Public relations agencies have made a lot of money from advising companies on how to be ready or recover from a social media disaster.
So not engaging your brain before you post to Facebook or tweet on Twitter is a mistake that should be avoided at all costs when participating on social media networks.
So what should you do?
There are are some basic principles to keep in mind when you next punch out 140 characters to 200 million people.
- Think before tweeting
- Summon your commonsense
- Don’t drink and tweet
- Don’t tweet when angry
- Implement social media policies or guidelines
There maybe more but these will enable Twitter harm minimization that will help you retain your job, your business and your sanity.
What shouldn’t you do?
Here are 14 Twitter mistakes to be avoided to ensure that the boss values you on Monday morning, your wife still loves you on Friday evening and your career path is not hijacked by an insane moment.
Infographic source: Boot Camp Digital
So what about you?
Have you ever tweeted something that you still regret. Have you ever seen a tweet that made you wince.
What is the most terrible tweet you have seen in your Twitter stream or heard of?
Look forward to hearing your stories and experiences in the comments below.
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