We’re all guilty of it, some more than others. Tweeting without thinking about the consequences of what we write is almost a right of passage on social media and on Twitter especially. The quick and easy nature of the Twitter makes it a great place to blurt out ideas and thoughts. But beware of what you say – there are almost always some type of consequence.
A great example of making this mistake was seen recently when Twitter engineer Alex Payne tweeted about some new features being developed at Twitter. This tweet, now deleted, made technology news headlines and according to TechCrunch many many third party app developers worried.
Payne wrote, “If you had some of the nifty site features that we Twitter employees have, you might not want to use a desktop client. (You will soon.)”
Apparently after seeing all of this commotion his tweet had caused, Payne tweeted an apology on March 1st.
“Still regretting wasting everyone’s time this weekend over nothing. Learn from my mistake: talk about your business carefully.”
Neville Hobson over on Social Media Today put it best in his post:
It’s a good example of what the consequences could be when you engage publicly in conversation and where you don’t apply all your common sense to what you’re saying. It also illustrates the value to everyone of an organization helping employees be clear on what they should or should not discuss publicly by providing clarity though guidelines or policies. If Twitter doesn’t have those, they ought to.
Obviously there was a breakdown at Twitter. If something like this wasn’t a purposeful leak, which it could have been, then there should to be some more careful guidance or regulation given to the employees on what is kosher to say on the network and what isn’t.
Although, in the end regardless of whether or not it was an approved leak or just a mistake, we can all sympathize and learn from Payne’s mistake. The moral: Think before you Tweet.
