Nothing makes me cringe more than people choosing to use the very public Internet as their very personal diary. It’s altogether worse when folks don’t realize that is what they are doing.

Exhibit A: young professionals who Tweet drunk photos of themselves, not realizing they’ve perviously set their Twitter feed to autopost to their LinkedIn profile. I’ll not “out” this gal here on FlackRabbit, but I did email her and suggest she take down the unflattering photo perched atop her very impressive skills summary and employer information. Then, I Tweeted about it:

I received a flurry of replies, from folks who wanted to know who the gal was (I’ll never tell!) to the social media savvy who strongly believe streaming your Twitter feed shows future employers and peers that you possess a working knowledge of the Internet.

While I agree that having a visible link to your Twitter account makes good sense, I can’t see the logic in auto-posting my sometimes “unprofessional” thoughts/opinions/beer selections to my “professional” resume. I’d much rather a head-hunter see my skills and work history than my excitement over finally getting to try DC Brau’s Penn Quarter Porter. Which, by the way, is very tasty.

Fortunately–thanks to Twitter hashtag magic–we can Tweet about our beer and appear professional on LinkedIn, too, by displaying only the Tweets that include #in. Here’s how my settings look:

If you’re wondering how this looks in practice, here’s a fitting sample:

For the record, I feel the same way about autoposting Tweets to Facebook. Why inundate your wall with every little thing you Tweet, when you could show your friends some respect by using Selective Twitter?

Do you agree or am I just being a prude? Either way, I’d love to read your thoughts in the comments!

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