Tweetworks

I was blindsided and pulled into a Twitter pissing match out of nowhere. What started out as what I thought was a nice gesture, sharing a link to a video in which someone I had met was mentioned, quickly turned into a disaster. Before the dust settled I was emphatically told that “I don’t get it”, accused of being the “civility police”, and finally accused of being a chauvinist.

Now before we go any further I have to say I totally blame Gary Vaynerchuk for this because it was one of his videos I shared and he obviously has done something horrendous to this person to make her so angry. (Just kidding Gary, I walked into this one.)

So what did I learn from this experience?

1. If you don’t really know the person you are talking with on Twitter, tread very lightly. I met this person once, very briefly, at an event. I connected with her on Twitter but we haven’t really had any substantive back and forth prior to today. I had no idea she had this quick of a trigger and that lack of knowledge cost me.
2. The first time you find yourself uttering (not typing) “WTF” or “What is wrong with this person?” out loud, get out. Stop tweeting and extend an invitation to connect privately. Or just beg off and let the person know you’re done. Say you are sorry, do whatever you have to do but get out as quickly as you can.

Having said this, what kept me in the conversation was exactly what got me into the conversation in the first place. I had shared the @Garyvee video with my would be assassin because she was mentioned in it and I thought she might like the opportunity to respond. The funny thing is that Gary’s video was about listening to Twitter for negative mentions of you or your brand that require your engagement. Unlike Gary’s example however, I was living it real-time. I was getting flamed and was left with little choice but to address it.

You simply cannot stand idly by while someone kills you in public. Responding can be messy and you won’t always make things perfectly right with the other person but in the end they know you’re listening.

Let’s get to the groups:

• Entrepreneurs (created by E-Commerce Info) – A place for entrepreneurs to get advice, feedback, and discuss ideas.
• PalmPre (created by Dan Silverstein) – A group for Palm Pre users

Bonus Group: TwitFights (created by Marvin aka eMarv) – Debate can be fun. If you know you are going to be going back and forth, why not do it threaded style.