Lost in a Tweet

Sometimes we can be seen to not be clear in what we are meaning when we tweet something, and others may take it the wrong way – some clarity is often needed to ensure people seeing our tweets understand what we are saying.

If we have something that could be taken out of context using 140 characters we should perhaps look at writing a blog post about it to avoid misunderstandings.

For organizations being misunderstood can be detrimental to their standing, to how people perceive them and of course to the credibility of the work they do in the community.

Can misunderstandings be avoided? Yes, and with thought put into messages organizations will avoid them. But, often the misunderstandings come about as a result of a hastily prepared tweet – tweets sent on the fly. Something comes to mind, an idea, a thought, and without thinking too much a tweet is sent, only for people reading it to take the wrong meaning; but don’t despair – some of your followers will help you when things like this happen, but in the first instance you do have to be mindful that what you are sharing is clear, that it can’t be taken anyway other than the way you mean it.

If it is taken wrong, taken out of context – then as soon as possible you have to put it right, you have to clarify what you meant.

Next time you feel the need to send that hasty tweet, stop, think and reword it if needed – don’t assume others will read it they way you read it yourself.

Don’t let errors, the chance that things may go wrong put you off – there’s far more to be gained that lost using Twitter (or any other social site).