Twitter Search: Not Your Friend If You Tweet Something Bad
Mar 18, 2009 at 9:44am ET by Barry Schwartz
Did you Twitter something embarrassing? Don’t think deleting your tweet or locking your Twitter feed means what you said goes away. Twitter Search still makes it available, which one job applicant may have found to their loss.
Hutch Carpenter covers how one Twitter user named TheConnor said on Twitter that Cisco offered them a job. But the full message is what may have gotten this person in trouble:
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.
Soon after, Tim Levad, Business Development Manager at Cisco Systems, spotted the tweet and replied, saying:
@theconnor 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.
That caused @theconner to take their Twitter account private, but as Carpenter points out, the tweet could still be found in Twitter Search.
Making a feed private from the start does appear to keep it out of Twitter Search, of course, But bear in mind that it’s common that other people retweet what their friends say. That can put your “private” post out into the public eye.
Overall, Twitter is not instant messaging or private communication. Be careful what you say in a public setting and use social media tools to help you, not hurt you.
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Haha, that’s funny (and sad) Barry. Last week I was with someone showing them how many tweets related to health conditions, or potentially even illegal activity are made regularly. There’s all sorts of stuff being tweeted before thinking about potential consequences. May be better at times to step back before hitting the “update” button.