4 reasons to shut up on Twitter

Madhuri Shekar
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Social Media Posted on October 12, 2009

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Don't tweet: When you think you're funny

Think you're funny? Maybe you are, and maybe you aren't -- it's not always up to you to decide. As every good comedian knows, a joke that can work brilliantly with one audience can bomb with another. With Twitter, you don't really have the luxury of choosing, or even truly knowing, your audience. So why risk alienating and offending a significant chunk of your following?

Take the example of agency representative James Andrews (@keyinfluencer), whose snarky tweet regarding Memphis, the global HQ of his client, FedEx, landed him in hot soup. Early this year, Andrews landed in Memphis and tweeted his reaction to the city.

Needless to say, FedEx was not amused, and Andrews was subject to a chastising email that quickly made the rounds of the blogosphere.

The 140 Twitter Conference featured a special panel of professional comedians who use Twitter to stay connected with their fans and networks, and to try out new jokes in 140 characters or less. However, when asked if they thought it would be appropriate to use humor for a corporate or business account, all panel members immediately voiced their hesitation. Since a good joke, by its very nature, always walks the line between funny and offensive, it would not be wise to take that risk.

Stand-up comedian and actress Loni Love (@lonilove) advised that if you can't be funny, focus on being positive and inspirational on Twitter. That will put a smile on your followers' faces without running the risk of a backlash.

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Etienne Chabot November 18, 2009 at 9:11 AM

Hi Madhuri,

thanks again for your great article and your links to help me establish social media policies for my organization.

Suggestion: since your site is inspired from a blog platform, It would be very useful if you'd add a check box to your comment box to let us be advised when there is a new comment on the discussion topic for which we commented.

S T October 23, 2009 at 8:06 PM

Guys, could you please stop posting Bitly URLs? Just give us the full URL. Thanks.

Madhuri Shekar October 19, 2009 at 12:18 PM

Thanks Wendy! The photo on my profile is my actual photo- for cover stories the author's picture is usually replaced by a graphic created especially for the article.

Wendy Marx October 19, 2009 at 10:43 AM

Thanks, Madhuri, for your excellent article that by "bad example" shows what to do. Quick question: I clicked on your name and saw a totally different photo of you. Is the picture your alias? :)

Madhuri Shekar October 13, 2009 at 1:48 PM

Hi Etienne,

There's a great article on iMediaConnection with regards to your question: "5 Steps to a Humane Social Media Policy" [http://bit.ly/14MVw9]. It could also be useful to look at established social media guidelines for employees by major brands and companies, for example IBM [http://www.ibm.com/blogs/zz/en/guidelines.html], BBC [http://www.bbc.co.uk/guidelines/editorialguidelines/advice/personalweb/blogging.shtml] and the AP [http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/threatlevel/2009/06/apsocialnetworkingpolicy.pdf].

Hope this helps!

Thanks to everyone for reading and your feedback. :)

Madhuri

Etienne Chabot October 13, 2009 at 1:33 PM

On the same topic, is there a document that exists to draft a policy to establish the guiding principles when you wanna let your employee talk about your company on Social Media? (Twitter, Facebook, Linked In. etc)

Manasi Subramaniam October 13, 2009 at 1:03 AM

This is a fascinating article. It is crisp, well-written and informative. My congratulations to this talented journalist who seems to be in control of his/her pen.

Cindy Goh October 12, 2009 at 10:23 PM

Great article! Wholly agreed with what you have mentioned. We should always keep it positive and inspirational and at the same time don't give it all away on the first tweet. Nice. :)