Yikes! You’ve done it. On the spur of the moment you’ve gone ahead and followed all your colleagues on Twitter, and they have followed back. Now, there’s no going back.

Everything has changed, and before you go on tweeting as before, there are some important rules you have to be aware of.

  1. DO NOT POST SLACK CONVO WITHOUT PERMISSION

Thought your casual conversation with your workplace BFF was hilarious? Good for you. But, before you go ahead posting a screenshot for the world to see, take a second to consider whether your colleague would be cool with the world reading something he might consider private.

  1. GIVE THE ENIGMATIC PERSONAL TWEETS A SECOND THOUGHT

If you feel a continuous urge to tweet sentimental song lyrics, and mysterious statements about your issues like to say a heartbreak, please refrain. Your colleagues are not going to favorite your 12 am “if they don’t value you there’s someone else who will” missive. And you surely don’t want your emotions being the butt of office jokes. If you feel the urge to let something out so strongly, pen them down in your journal.

  1. DON’T GO ON A RANT

Twitter is a platform which allows us to share our views, feelings, and opinion on hot topics. But if you have your employer as one of your followers, and you are followed by co-workers, going off on a tirade about someone or something might be you just crossing the line.

When posting online, you have to be savvy and extra too when you have your office colleagues among your followers. The cliché “views my own” on your bio might not save you if litigation gets thrown your way.

  1. AN ANNOYING COLLEAGUE WOULD LIKELY NOT TURN A NEW LEAF ON TWITTER

Now your least favorite colleague has followed you on Twitter. Wait! Before you hit that “follow” button out of courtesy or curiosity, take a second to think it through.

A colleague who is annoying in the workplace is likely to be just as if not even more annoying on social media. I think you shouldn’t follow them in the first place and if somehow you have no choice but to follow back, the mute button on your twitter account does a lot of wonders.

  1. AVOID THE FOLLOW/UNFOLLOW DANCE

Eager to make things super awkward with a colleague? Simply unfollow them after you have been following them for a while. If you choose to unfollow colleagues, then you should know this could potentially cause upset the moment they discover you have unfollowed them. They will likely be confused and worried about what they did to offend you. Proceed with caution.

  1. LOOK AT YOUR OLD TWEETS

If you tweet in haste, you would be making repentance at leisure. And, you’ll be repenting for a long time if you tweeted something that could be deemed offensive. New colleagues could easily look back at your old tweets, and if it happens that your opinion has changed, you do no harm in going back to clean your feed up from time to time.

  1. TAKE A HINT

You followed a colleague, and they never bothered to follow back? Avoid the passive-aggressive move of following then re-following. It’s annoying they would probably never follow back. Just go on with your life or unfollow them forever.

  1. BE MINDFUL OF POLITICS AND RELIGION

Steering clear of politics in this present clime might be a bit difficult, but some employers have strict policies about airing political and religious sentiments on Twitter. There’s also the risk of inadvertently causing some friction within the workplace when you go tweeting on controversial political or religious issues.

Conclusively, views on social media use differ from one employee to the other. Some employers can be pretty relaxed about what you post online. However, I’m sure you must have got the message now, think before you tweet, follow or unfollow. And tweet others as you would want to be tweeted.

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