I follow a lot of PR students on Twitter. This semester, I had 60 of my own, plus other Grady students, plus lots of other students at universities around the U.S. and around the world.
Unfortunately, I also sometimes stop following students on Twitter. Here are some things that students tweet about that just might result in a quick click on the unfollow button:
- Complaining about your classes or professors. Even when it's not me. Even when I have no idea who it is. Think of it this way: who wants to hire a whiner? Are you going to whine about your boss or employer online?
- Alcohol and party related tweets. An occasional mention is one thing. A twitterstream flowing with it is another. Who wants to hire a drunk?
- Tweets that are too promotional in nature. We all do it sometimes, but if you're working on behalf of a client or employer, consider starting a separate account for the client rather than doing all the promo from your personal account.
- News about your job or internship interviews that name the potential employer. Don't tweet about this until you actually land the job. If you don't get it, you're not going to look good.
- Stuff that should be in a direct message. This is one I've been working on myself-- it's easy to just hit reply, but when a conversation starts to be one-to-one, move it to DMs. And use the DM for anything that's not of general interest. (In fact, this post started as a DM conversation with @kaye.)
Earlier this semester, @BarbaraNixon tweeted a wise suggestion to her students: go to the Web and look at your last page of tweets. Is that really how you want to represent yourself to the world?
If not, it's time to rethink your twitter strategy.
Tweeting can be a problem with students. its hard to get them tweeting about relative material. http://www.hotfilemediafire.com
Posted by: Chris | September 05, 2010 at 02:50 AM