Guest writer

Tweeting job away

Social-media slips can hurt career

If you’re a professional in the world of communications or marketing, Twitter can be your best friend, or it can destroy your career. It’s entirely up to you.

If you’re active on Twitter (or any social media), you probably know all about the Justine Sacco “Tweet Scorned ’Round the World.” Sacco, a public relations representative for Internet media company IAC-owner of Match.com, Vimeo and various online dating and search services-tweeted something particularly offensive about HIV as she boarded a plane for South Africa.

I won’t repeat her exact comment here, nor will I go into the well-documented details of the worldwide backlash she received. Rather, I want to focus on the fact that she was a “PR exec” for a major company and now she’s not. One ill-considered tweet was all it took to change her life forever.

For communications professionals (or, for that matter, almost anyone who deals with clients or has a boss), Twitter is a tightrope that must be walked while carefully juggling professional obligations, personal opinions, self- or business promotion, and humor. In social media, you are expected to be “real” and, if you want engagement, you must be one or more of the following: (1) amiable, (2) informative, or (3) entertaining.

In other words, to survive and thrive in the world of Twitter, you can’t be too “PR.”

That said, true professionals can’t abandon what they know (or should know) about communicating in the public sphere. Always be aware that your employer, clients, the media and potential clients are watching. Here are some basic guidelines that I follow as a public relations practitioner and that professionals of all types should keep in mind: Don’t curse-You may drop a bomb now and then in your private conversations, but you probably don’t do it around your children and you shouldn’t do it on Twitter. Like it or not, a random “f-bomb” thrown out late on a Friday night can grab the attention of someone you work for or a client you work with, and they may not appreciate it (to put it mildly).

Always monitor-Justine Sacco sent out her controversial tweet and then boarded an international flight with no WiFi. That meant that the troubling tweet and the loud reaction to it sat there in public for hours without any effort at explanation or a retraction. You can’t do damage control if you’re oblivious to the damage, so if you even consider sending out a tweet that could be considered controversial, stick around and stay connected. Be careful with comedy-There’s an old showbiz expression: “Dying is easy. Comedy is hard.” Twitter may make it easier to engage your inner Joel McHale (of the E Network’s The Soup and NBC’s Community) or test out new jokes for parties, but be careful. As with email, sarcasm and other forms of humor may not always translate well in 140 characters. Leave the edgy stuff to the pros, and definitely avoid taking mean-spirited potshots at others.

Be politic, but not political-In case you haven’t heard, politics are pretty nasty these days and it’s a topic that stirs up strong feelings. You may have some pretty strong feelings yourself about some hot-button issues, and there’s nothing wrong with that. However, if you’re in PR, you probably have a lot of co-workers or clients that don’t agree with you, so you should be careful how and when you discuss these issues.

Think of Twitter as your family dinner table at Thanksgiving or Christmas. One poorly timed or strong comment could turn a pleasant mealtime conversation into a shouting argument, and there goes the holiday. So join organizations, make donations to causes and talk to your friends all you want, but tread lightly on Twitter (and social media as a whole).

Be a little paranoid (but not too much)-You may know many of your followers-your circle of those you communicate with the most on Twitter-but you don’t know them all. Nor do you know the motivation some may have for following you. Competitors may be lurking and current and potential clients may be watching. Don’t freeze up or become a robot, but keep this in mind and you should be in good shape when deciding what to tweet and what to keep to yourself. Following this advice won’t prevent you from being interesting on Twitter. If attracting a large Twitter following is important to you and you want to stay “relevant” to your followers, there’s actually some research that can help you.

A study presented last year by faculty from Georgia Tech’s School of Interactive Computing and the University of Michigan found reliable predictors for building a Twitter following. The research showed that those who shared interesting “informational content” attracted followers at a rate substantially higher than those who shared only information about themselves.

So, as is the case with brands and businesses, you should strive to provide something of value to those who follow you-information or advice that others can benefit from, enjoy and share.

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Rob Anderson is Cranford Johnson Robinson Woods’ director of content strategy.

Editorial, Pages 17 on 01/16/2014

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