If you are the person behind building your brand online, what you say can have a huge impact. Your reputation can literally change in 140 characters or less!
Every day someone says the wrong thing and literally that person gets unfollowed, or even harassed. Perez Hilton was a prime example when he bashed Michael Jackson after the legendary pop star passed away. Tila Tequila bashed Perez Hilton, Kanye West bashed… Twitter, and of course, there have been other kerfuffles from celebrities, non-celebrities, and even members of the blogging community.
You of course, have a right to share your opinion, but it comes down to: should you? Regardless, of the subject and no matter how many or how few people hear you, your reputation is important. It is not censoring if you keep your mouth closed on certain things – it is common sense.
There are going to be people out there that are in for the shock value, but if you do not want the backlash, have second thoughts over what you say. On Twitter, Facebook, and other social networks, no matter how old you are, you are speaking to people of all ages.
The worst case scenario is when your social network account has been reported and flagged because of what you say. Unfortunately, Twitter, Facebook, and other social networks have a moderation team that is not sympathetic to sharing controversial opinions, especially if it may end up pretty chaotic. So… in worst case scenario, you could lose your social network account or the conversation that is offensive removed. It seems unfair, but most websites, even blogs have a responsibility to make sure things do not get out of hand.
So, think about it:
- Will it emotionally harm someone?
- Would you regret saying it later?
- Is the topic highly controversial and already having trouble on other websites?
- Are you willing to take full responsibility of the backlash?
Have you had an incident online where it was very controversial and caused your social network account to be suspended, flagged, or even terminated?
Hi Nile,
This is a really interesting phenomenon. I agree wholeheartedly that one has to watch what they say and do online. However, the flip side of this is that negativity has such a huge tendency to go viral, it almost encourages pople to be more negative. It's too bad that positivity does go viral as quickly.
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Hi, Nile.
When I read posts such as these, I am thankful that I am a peaceable person who do not want to incite controversy. Although I plod along like the tortoise instead of the hare in this race of getting known online, I am quite content of being on the safe side, instead of skirting along dangerous avenues.
So, no, my site has never been in question because of negative remarks and I don't I will ever resort to posting anything negative or with controversy in the future.
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Hi Nile,
You have written about a difficult topic. I am totally against censorship of any kind and feel people should be able to freely talk what they want but yes they should be aware of consequence of their actions ( legal or whatsoever).
Best regards,
Ashvini
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Nile, what you are saying is basically behave like a normal polite human being – rather than hide behind a computer screen and lose any sense of empathy. I couldn't agree more – I wonder if people are becoming more bitchy now that virtual anonymity is an easy option?
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Wow, great and insightful article! I especially like your checklist of questions — they apply to whether someone is tweeting or posting on Facebook.
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On the subject of inappropriate tweets, let's not forget what Gilbert Gottfried said right after the earthquake and tsunami disaster in Japan…
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The thing is that mostly people who starts up new business they rush into making their customer but the reality is that customer building requires a lot of time the main thing that they should work on is gaining the trust of there customers specially when your business is online
I totally agree! Trust from customers doesn't come overnight.
The secret service just apologized for an accidental tweet by an employee today. They thought they were tweeting about fox news on their own account. The only person who can't ruin their reputation in 140 characters, Charlie Sheen
I haven’t got in trouble yet. But if I do I’ll ask why not Charlie Sheen?
interesting post,social networks add more and more functions
It is great to read such articles analysing behavious of various persons on web. I am feeling really great because I usually avoid myself falling in any such sort of controversy.
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It's right. Twitter and Facebook are amazing sites but you need to be careful when you share your opinions, because lot of people can love or hate you in record time 🙂
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Another good example of this is Gilber Gottfried's offensive comments about the Japanese. He lost an extremely lucrative position as the voice of the Aflac duck.
Twitter can be such a personal, stream-of-consciousness, tossed-off sort of thing; sometimes its easy to forget that you could potentially be speaking to millions of people all across the world, and all these people have different opinions and backgrounds, etc. Be careful what you tweet, people!!
Freddy K
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You really can't be too careful about what you say on social media networks, especially if, like me, you manage your company's social media accounts. I try to stay away from anything too controversial when deciding what to post on my company's accounts. It's OK to stir the pot, so to speak, in order to see what peoples' opinions are on certain topics, but there are definitely certain topics to stay away from. Politics, for example, is something I won't touch when dealing with my company's social media profiles. Like you mention, 140 characters doesn't seem like a lot, but you've got a lot to lose if you say the wrong thing.
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I have gone through this from my early experience on the web. Creating different accounts and having diffferent usernames on various services has basically hurt me.
Today, I don't have the time to start all over again building a reputation, so I just drive on and keep the same attitude and if some don't like it, there are thousands more that do.
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Words are like a double-edged sword. They can help you to get the love of the people around you. But they may hurt you when you misuse them.
You're absolutely right. People have to really be responsible and careful when they're about to make powerful and controversial statements. You reputation could be blown off in a second if you you're not aware of what's you're addressing. It's a great subject by the way. Thanks
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I don't have the time to start all over again building a reputation, so I just drive on and keep the same attitude and if some don't like it, there are thousands more that do.
This is absolutely true. We have to pay attention to everything we say, because it may have bad effects on us.
Hi,
I also totally against censorship of any kind and feel people should be able to freely talk what they want but yes they should be aware of consequence of their actions.
Thanks & best regards,
Sana
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Amazing post,thanks for sharing the article with all.
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