Is it okay to delete your own tweets? Is it authentic and transparent to do this? What if you’re in the business of authenticity and transparency? Is it less okay?
My friend Lindsay Manfredi tweeted this question yesterday, and it got me to thinking.
What if you delete your own embarrassing tweets?
Is that being transparent??? Just curious.
What if they’re embarrassing? What if you said or did something that, upon reflection, made you look like a total idiot, and you just wanted to erase all evidence of it?
If you were David George-Cosh (@SirDavid), technology reporter for Canada’s National Post, you probably would. (I’d link to his Twitter page, but it was suspended.)
In April 2008, he had a veritable Twitter meltdown and got into a profanity-laden shouting match with PR pro April Dunford.
It started when April tweeted Reporter to me”When the media calls you, you jump, OK!?” Why, when you called me and I’m not selling? Newspapers will get what they deserve. Then things got all F-bomby.
Somehow, his dustup made it to the MediaStyle blog, plus several other social media blogs. After attracting a lot of unwanted attention, @SirDavid deleted the evidence. Too late. Someone took a screenshot of it, and it lives on now and forever. Including here. (Hey, I’m helpful that way.)
While his embarrassment is more than understandable, it raises the question about whether it’s appropriate to delete your tweets. After all, social media is about authenticity.
Let the real world see the real you. If you’re a kind and helpful person, put out kind and helpful ideas and information. If you’re a teacher at heart, teach others. And if the real you is a short-tempered foul-mouthed jerk, and you put that out into the Twitterverse, let it ride. If you get drunk at your friends’ weddings, feel free to post the evidence of your lack of decorum on the My Friend’s Getting Married, I’m Just Getting Drunk Facebook group (with nearly 200,000 members now).
Just be prepared to deal with the consequences when you do. Like when your Facebook photo gets found at the top of a Google search by an HR director. Or when your blog about your anti-government screeds are discovered by your pro-government boss. Or when your Twitter meltdown on a public relations pro makes the social media rounds.
If you’re in the business of being authentic and transparent — like a newspaper reporter — then you need to let your mistakes live on. (After all, you’re in the business of exposing other people’s shortcomings.) Or better yet, just don’t put tweet/post/upload that stuff.
If you don’t want any skeletons in the closet, don’t stick the bodies in there in first place.
Interesting post, Erik. I agree that social media is not ABOUT being authentic but I think it’s an ideal principle of social media… along with Transparency-having a clear purpose with no ulterior motives; Honesty-after all it is the best policy; Reciprocity-there is no religion in the recorded history of our species that hasn’t concluded, “what you put out comes back”; and Gratuity-in social media especially, the payment of time and attention can be MORE important than cash (I am giving you a gratuity right now by spending time writing this).
Ideals like perfection are things to which we aspire and occasionally fall short. I’ve never deleted a post (although there were a few times I was tempted to delete stuff while conversing with a certain Smoosier who will remain nameless ). I do backspace quite a bit, however, and write and re-write ad nauseum before hitting enter.
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@Bnpositive, you’re right that social media is not “about” being authentic, but rather it’s the expectation. And lots of social media people are beating the “transparent and authentic” drum over and over. I just think that if people preach being authentic, then deleting the tweets that make them look stupid is rather hypocritical.
I don’t think @SirDavid’s account was suspended because of language, but I don’t actually know. I just did a quick search for it when I was writing this piece, and found it had been suspended due to “strange activity.”
I don’t think I’ve ever deleted a tweet. Would I, if I needed to? Probably. I usually tweet out a correction if I misspell someone’s name, and I’ve sent a couple of tweets from the wrong account, but nothing major. I just go “meh” and move on..
I forgot to add, I have deleted my tweets before. It’s usually only when I misspell something and notice it immediately after I sent it. Or, sometimes if I accidentally tweet something out from the wrong account. Ooops!
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Interesting thoughts Erik. A couple of questions. Is “social media” about “authenticity”? I agree that the power of social media tools is that they provide the ability for people to be authentic. That’s for sure, but I’m not sure if that’s what social media is all about. I’d say generally that social media is about conversation and communication. Authenticity at all times would be nice perhaps, but probably not a reality. My next question is why this guy’s account was suspended? Was it the language? I’d be surprised. The personal attacks? Guess I should go re-read the Twitter TOS.
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