Twitter can be dangerous
Twitter is a great social tool which can be used to expand one”s influence to areas that were once out of reach. But what about the flip side of this scenario? What happens when nefarious (yes, it”s a word. I didn”t make it up) information starts spreading about you on Twitter? How would you react if skeletons in your closet suddenly showed up and said “Hi”?
This is currently happening to Arleen Anderson AKA @AlohaArleen. In the past few days a storm of controversy has been brewing on Twitter about her past, with many people suddenly starting to voice their complaints about Arleen.
Some of the statements coming forward about Arleen Anderson are a felony conviction for stealing from the Special Olympics, passing bad checks, defaulting on a loan, being a bad renter, and numerous civil suits against her. All in all, these claims easily destroy a person who lives a public lifestyle.
Now I”m not going to debate the merits of any of these claims or documents, I”ll leave that up to someone else. But I have been following the Twitter stream over the past two days regarding this, curious to see how it all plays out.
One thing I can say for certain though is that Twitter can ruin your reputation. This has become quite apparent in the above scenario. Public accusations of wrong doing have been leveled at Arleen Anderson, and so far she has been surprisingly quiet about it. She has pretty much chosen not to engage with the other people on Twitter making these claims and has so far refused to publicly respond to any of these allegations.
As damaging as these claims are, I find it to be social media suicide to allow a mountain of negativity to accumulate without even bothering to offer some form of a response. You can”t expect to make your livelihood through the use of social media when such damning information is being put forward about you.
The tough part about all this situation is that it doesn’t matter so much whether everything being stated about Arleen Anderson is true or not; the court of public opinion doesn’t always base their stance on facts. Reputation is everything in social media, and continued silence just increases the damage caused to it.
Have you been following this so-called AlohaArleen scandal? What are your thoughts on how Twitter affects your social media reputation?
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