Avoid Twitter Disasters

The use, and uses, of Twitter seem to grow daily. Its role as a source of news on Iran during that country's current unrest has been widely reported, for example. For most people, however, Twitter is simply a convenient social networking tool, but as such, it is even more open than Facebook -- which is all the more reason to employ what safeguards you can on its network. (Note: This article doesn't cover such issues as the growing problem of spam on Twitter or reports of its use in phishing-like attacks.)

At the end of this article, which uses hypothetical examples, we'll also offer a brief guide to Twitter commands.

The disaster: Nelson knows everyone who follows his Twitter feed and didn't think much about trashing a co-worker on the service. Months later, long after he'd forgotten about it, the co-worker began to follow his tweets -- and, with a little digging, found Nelson's insult, creating an awkward office environment.

The solution: Unlike Facebook, Twitter has no mechanism for ap­­proving who follows you on the service, and anyone can read your full tweeting history. That is, unless you protect your updates: Click Settings and check the Protect my updates box. Your tweets now won't be visible to anyone not approved as a follower. However, anything you've al­­ready sent out will stick around, especially on third-party Twitter interfaces.

The disaster: Vicky regularly tweets (nastily) about a former friend, and naturally doesn't want that person to follow her on Twitter. How does she keep that person out before it becomes an issue?

The solution: First, your account must be marked as "Protected," as described in the preceding item. Then, assuming you know the person's user name, simply block that user on Twitter. This op­­tion is on the profile page, in the "Ac­­tions" section. It removes you from the person's Following list and prevents your updates from showing up on her page and from adding you to her Following list again. But your current friends can still copy and paste your tweets, or save them through screen captures.

The real lesson: It's probably best not to bash people on Twitter if you're afraid they'll find out about it.

The disaster: Dan thought he was being a good Web citizen and killing two birds with one stone by linking his Twitter account to his Facebook profile (visit apps.facebook.com/twitter to set it up for yourself -- but finish reading this item first). The idea is sound enough: Update your Twitter status, and your Facebook status updates along with it, automatically. However, a Facebook connection isn't always a good idea. If you're live -- tweeting, say, a sports event or a conference, you might post 20 tweets or more in an hour. That may fly on the rapid-fire Twitter, but on Facebook it's over the line since it clogs up your friends' news feeds.

The solution: In Dan's case, a Twitter/Facebook link may not be appropriate, and he may be better off simply unlinking the two networks.

The best way to unlink is to browse to Facebook, click the Applications button on the bottom-left corner, and then select Applications. Find Twitter on this page and click the X to delete the app from your Facebook profile. (If you use a third-party application like TweetDeck to access Twitter, you'll have to unlink your profile through that app.)