On Twitter: Can the People You “Follow” Enhance or Hurt Your Personal Brand or Does It Even Matter?
When I joined Twitter on April 9th one of the first people I followed was an internet guru. I know who I will call Charlie (not his real name). He has had days on the web when he has made millions (yes, plural!). I figured if there was anyone I would want to regularly hear answer the question, “What are you doing right now?” in 140 characters or less it would be Charlie!
On Twitter people can see who you are following so I checked to see who Charlie follows. I figured if Charlie follows them then I should also follow them.
I was surprised to see Charlie following several ladies in the adult entertainment industry. Oh my! Isn’t Charlie worried about his reputation and his personal brand? Then it dawned on me. He does a lot of internet marketing consulting with entrepreneurs. Maybe instead of spending money on these ladies they are actually clients of his! Whether it is true or not it somehow makes me feel better for Charlie’s wife.
I started wondering if these ladies could be hurting Charlie’s personal brand. I thought it was possible so I decided I would be careful when I “Follow” people on Twitter. I didn’t want to “Follow” anyone who might lead people to question my personal brand. Besides, my dear Mom, rest her soul, did an extraordinary job of raising me with a full blown “what would the Jones think?” paranoia so this tactic suited me.
For the first few days I was very selective. To Job Seekers, Corporate Executives, Recruiters, and fellow Entrepreneurs I wanted to appear wise, worldly, sophisticated, and hip. For the worldly category I chose to “Follow” the Dali Llama. To represent sophisticated and hip I chose to “Follow” Ellen Degeneres. Following one of my all time favorites, Brian Tracy appealed to me for the wise.
Then it happened. People I knew very little about seemed interesting. People would “Retweet” (the Twitter equivalent of forwarding email) interesting articles from people they “Follow.” I started to “Follow” these strangers. The Twitter experience of following interesting people became more important than what people thought about me.
In other words I stopped being a snob and started to engage. While I don’t want to “Follow” time wasters, creepy people, criminals or evil-doers I want to really experience the Twitterverse. This means that sometimes I could occasionally “Follow” someone who isn’t great for my personal brand.
So what do you think?
“Can the People You Follow Enhance Your Personal Brand?
“Can It Hurt Your Brand?”
“Does It Matter?”
“Does a man following ladies in adult entertainment hurt or help a man’s brand?” – Ok that one wasn’t in the header, but I couldn’t resist asking!
Suzanne Travers
On Twitter people can see who you are following so I checked to see who Charlie follows. I figured if Charlie follows them then I should also follow them.
I was surprised to see Charlie following several ladies in the adult entertainment industry. Oh my! Isn’t Charlie worried about his reputation and his personal brand? Then it dawned on me. He does a lot of internet marketing consulting with entrepreneurs. Maybe instead of spending money on these ladies they are actually clients of his! Whether it is true or not it somehow makes me feel better for Charlie’s wife.
I started wondering if these ladies could be hurting Charlie’s personal brand. I thought it was possible so I decided I would be careful when I “Follow” people on Twitter. I didn’t want to “Follow” anyone who might lead people to question my personal brand. Besides, my dear Mom, rest her soul, did an extraordinary job of raising me with a full blown “what would the Jones think?” paranoia so this tactic suited me.
For the first few days I was very selective. To Job Seekers, Corporate Executives, Recruiters, and fellow Entrepreneurs I wanted to appear wise, worldly, sophisticated, and hip. For the worldly category I chose to “Follow” the Dali Llama. To represent sophisticated and hip I chose to “Follow” Ellen Degeneres. Following one of my all time favorites, Brian Tracy appealed to me for the wise.
Then it happened. People I knew very little about seemed interesting. People would “Retweet” (the Twitter equivalent of forwarding email) interesting articles from people they “Follow.” I started to “Follow” these strangers. The Twitter experience of following interesting people became more important than what people thought about me.
In other words I stopped being a snob and started to engage. While I don’t want to “Follow” time wasters, creepy people, criminals or evil-doers I want to really experience the Twitterverse. This means that sometimes I could occasionally “Follow” someone who isn’t great for my personal brand.
So what do you think?
“Can the People You Follow Enhance Your Personal Brand?
“Can It Hurt Your Brand?”
“Does It Matter?”
“Does a man following ladies in adult entertainment hurt or help a man’s brand?” – Ok that one wasn’t in the header, but I couldn’t resist asking!
Suzanne Travers
Comment
-
Comment by Fred Greenberg on May 20, 2009 at 10:27am - I think it is important who follows you an who you choose to follow, you are who you are associated to even on the internet
-
Comment by John Markey on April 28, 2009 at 9:14am - Hi Suzanne, How about the issue of who follows you.....don't you find yourself curious about who wants to follow you? To your point about brand, there are clearly porn sites that try to "follow", or introduce themselves, based upon who you follow. Is your brand in question for allowing them to follow you?
-
Comment by Cynthia Parker on April 28, 2009 at 8:35am -
From a professional stand point, I think it could hurt your company's brand if you are representing them on Twitter. It all depends if you are using it as a personal environment or professional. If it is professional, then I believe you should apply all the same rules you would in the workplace. Especially if you are using this site to "brand" your company, then the branding should be appropriate.
I have a question. Do you think you could be "performance managed" or even fired for mis-representing your company on Twitter? The answer may be different for each company.
-
Comment by Suzanne Travers on April 27, 2009 at 12:14pm - Thanks for the feedback. Last week it was reported that somewhere between 19 - 30mm could be on Twitter. Twitter doesn't report so it is hard to say. It is a dynamic environment and we are all learning as we go.
-
Comment by Martin Briggs on April 27, 2009 at 10:48am -
Sue I can relate to your predicament as I am in week two of my Twitterlife and trying to do the "right thing" with who to follow but have also found that the are a range of interesting people out there worth a listen to.
As a side note though I would think that you are in the clear for whoever is being followed by people you are following as you have no involvment in the selection ... like your Charlie friend.
-
Comment by Recruiting Animal on April 26, 2009 at 6:58pm - Thanks. I was afraid to follow pRon stars before I read this article. Now I know that it's okay to be diverse. See, you learn something on the internet. (And I was sent here by Twitter!)
TalentBar is a product of Electronic Syndication, LLC. Members agree to the terms of service at the bottom of the page. TalentBar and Electronic Syndication LLC do not accept copyrighted material and take such matters seriously. TalentBar is associated with HR.net, a publication for HR professionals and Recruiter.com, a Recruiter network.
© 2010 Created by Miles.
You need to be a member of TalentBar to add comments!
Join TalentBar