When should you delete that tweet?
We’ve all seen tweets that should never have been published.
Someone posted to the wrong account. A bad joke in poor taste. Spam injected by a hacker.
There are so many types of tweets that probably should never have been published, but should they always be deleted? That’s always a tough question to answer, because the correct path is always so subjective. What might be worthy of deletion for one account, may not be for another.
Still, that doesn’t mean that someone out there at some point might need a checklist for “Should I delete that Tweet, or not?” So here goes…
Probably Not
- You tweeted something with a typo – it just shows you’re human
- You retweeted yourself – yes this can happen
- Different team members responded to the same tweet – it shows just how much you care
- You made a political, moral, or ethical statement about a hot topic – you probably shouldn’t have tweeted it, but unless your tweet was insensitive, stand by it
- You made an ugly joke/comment about a client, employee, or business partner – you’re a jerk, the twitterverse deserves to know
Probably Should
- It’s a duplicate tweet – no need to dilute your message
- You tweeted something benign to the wrong account – fess up and move on
- You shared something material about your public company – the SEC will not be happy
- You hijacked a popular hashtag – you can probably get away with a single tweet, but don’t keep using a hashtag that has nothing to do with you
Absolutely Should
- Your account was hacked – no need to keep those spammy links in your tweet stream
- It’s inciting outrage – if the tweet is so insensitive it continues to incite anger or criticism. Delete & apologize.
- You faked an attack on your account for publicity – don’t be that guy
- A rogue employee tweeted without permission – delete and explain why
Which ones have I missed? Which ones do you strongly disagree with? [highlight color=”yellow”]Let us know what you would add, and we’ll credit you with a link to your Twitter account.[/highlight] 😉
I’ll delete tweets with typos if I notice it right off the bat, then re-do it with the correct spelling, etc. Also on rare occasions 😉 I realize I’m wrong about something or misread something soon after I tweeted, so I might remove those. Typically, however, I mostly only remove tweets if it’s within minutes of when I did it. Otherwise I believe they should just stand as is.
I agree Jill. If you can delete something within a few seconds, and then tweet a corrected version, that should generally be fine.
I respectfully disagree that this is Probably Not a tweet you should delete… “You made an ugly joke/comment about a client, employee, or business partner – you’re a jerk, the twitterverse deserves to know”
Like I said, each one is subjective. Of course, if that ugly joke or comment is causing outrage by the target, then you would go by the criteria in “Absolutely Should” 😉