“Experience is the name everyone gives to their mistakes.”  Oscar Wilde 1892

Oops.  I have a new experience to chalk up.

Last weekend I was an emcee for our Rotary District Conference.  Two of my fellow Rotarians thought it would be great to Twitter some of the events of the evening just in case any media outlets or journalists that follow me find interest.  “Not a bad idea,” I thought.  I lent my username and password to one of them since I would be preoccupied.  Oops.  I forgot that my Twitter account links to my Facebook, so every Tweet shows up on my Facebook page.

That night I found 15 posts over a 2 1/2 hour time frame.  Most of which didn’t have a lot of interest unless you were there and knew what was going on.  To make matters worse, it clogged up the system for my other friends and one actually hid my posts! Ouch!

Bottom line, those posts actually violate my best practices for Twitter and Facebook.  My friend had no idea that the Tweets would end up on my Facebook.  The whole issue was my fault.  Here’s my lessons learned…

1 – Guard your Twitter username and password like your credit cards.  Don’t let others, even if well-intentioned, change your pattern of communication.

2 -If you mess up apologize – like this.  My apologies to my Facebook friends who had no interest in those posts.  I want you to read the others, so please give me a mulligan!

Remember, etiquette is important in Twitter and Facebook, too.  Make sure you control your communications and stay out of hot water.

Cheers,

I had