Ten Ways to Tweet Yourself Out of A Job

This first post was made a tending topic this morning on Twitter Search, by Hutch Carpenter:

I saw this exchange on Twitter, which is a painful lesson in how NOT to use Twitter in this tough economy.

A lucky job applicant tweeted the following:

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.

This tweet caught the attention of Tim Levad, a channel partner advocate for Cisco. To which he responded:

Who is the hiring manager. I'm sure they would love to know that you will hate the work. We here at Cisco are versed in the web.

Ouch! The person who dissed the Cisco offer quickly took their Twitter account private. But Twitter search retained the record.

Remember a couple months ago when the PR guy's tweet about Memphis came back to bite him? This is another example of the need to be careful with what you post on Twitter, and social media in general.

1. IF your on Facebook, make yourself a private profile and a limited "group". That way your business or networking peers don't have access to all the fun things you do with friends. Keep it classy regardless.
1. How to make a Limited profile on facebook: Use a browser (not your phone) and click on the friends tab.
2. Click Make new list (on the left)
3. Name it something like "Limited Profile" and hit enter
   
4. Start typing any of your professional friends' names who you want to not have full access to your profile.
1. OR Select multiple friends by hitting the button that says so.
2. This feature is also good for making groups of people for messaging or making actual groups
5. When your done adding friends, click on the settings tab (up top) and use the drop down to click on privacy settings
   
6. Click on the first option:
   
   

   Profile

   Control who can see your profile and personal information.

1. Use the drop down tabs to choose who can see what. Anything you don't want the "Limited Profile" group to see just use custom settings, and say everyone except this group can see this information. It should look something like this:
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
2. Now any new friends you make, there will be a drop down that lets you choose if you want to add people to any of your existing groups. Use this to add them to the limited profile group.
   
1. Watch what you say online and offline. The old adage what comes around goes around, works faster online.
2. If you don't know whether or not to say something, think of what you would tell children: 'If you can't say anything nice, DON'T say anything at all"
3. If you're at work, and you boss doesn't approve of twitter. You probably shouldn't be using it, especially in excess.
4. Be careful what you refer others too. Once your opinions are out there, you can't take them back.
5. Don't complain about clients, even if they are not online, you never know which of their young relatives, friends, or colleagues ARE.
6. Twitter is a wonderful tool with a lot of potential for sharing information, keeping in touch with friends, connecting to other networks, and asking questions -- but even I have been known to use it in excess and that will burn out any audience.
7. Try not to "Drunk" Tweet.
8. Be yourself. Literally, don't try to pretend to be someone else.
9. If all else fails think of twitter like Big brother or your parents. If your parents or boss where to read what you write, would you be embarrassed? Not everyone "gets your humor" or "knows the real you" especially when you have 100+ followers. Air on the side of being diplomatic, without losing yourself. Not to say you can't be negative, because that wouldn't stop anyone from complaining, but twitter isn't like texting you best friend --
   

Lesson Learned? Think Before You Tweet!