Twitter can lose you your job

Did your teacher sound like a broken record when she shouted ‘if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all”? Well I bet your boss is beginning to sound like one too when he says “if you don’t have anything nice to say, definitely don’t Tweet it”. Well, listen to your boss, as he may just be scripting the first chapter of next year’s PR 101 and Client Services 101 textbooks.

As some have found out, it’s not just the corporation itself that faces reputation risks with the inflated ‘looking over your online shoulder’ effect the Internet has created. Individuals and employees have their boss’s eye constantly on them and careless tweets will no doubt land up on your boss’s desk.

Here’s a classic example, especially in today’s economic climate, of what not to say on any social networking site.

“Cisco just offered me a job! Now I have to weigh the utility of a fatty paycheck against the daily commute to San Jose and hating the work”.

The response from Tim Levad, a channel partner advocate for Cisco:

Cisco Fatty’s unmindful tweet consequently lost her the job.

Online reputation risks facing individuals and businesses are already growing more complex as new digital platforms – social networks, blogs, virtual realities, and Twitter – rapidly gain acceptance. And as the major obstructing characteristic, as businesses have desperately found out, no digital eraser exists to wipe away company missteps.

Today we are witnessing both the positive and negative features of this new era of transparent corporate behaviour and instant communications: the possibilities for building long-lasting competitive advantage coupled with unprecedented threats to corporate and individual reputation.

Businesses must learn that tweets, from any corporate representative, are not ‘dear diary’. Many businesses are adopting Twitter to cut costs in addition to using it as an avenue to hire employees - you should consider briefing your employees on the consequences of oblivious Twitter use.