An $80,000 Tweet

As discussed in Chapter 6, new media writing requires increased attention to audiences and how audiences receive information. A tweet might be intended for just your followers, but those followers can retweet and quickly spread your message.

Such was the case for the daughter for former Gulliver Preparatory School head Patrick Snay. Snay was just awarded $80,000 in a settlement with Gulliver Prep for an age discrimination complaint. However, this agreement depended on confidentiality, that no one else would know about the settlement.

Enter Snay's daughter, who took to Twitter to voice her opinion on the confidential matter to her nearly 1200 Twitter followers:

Mama and Papa Snay won the case against Gulliver. Gulliver is now officially paying for my vacation to Europe this summer. SUCK IT.

The message quickly spread, and school officials found out about the confidentiality breach. As a result, the judge ruled the settlement could be cancelled, costing Snay the loss of the $80,000.

Read the whole story here:

Girl costs father $80,000 with 'SUCK IT' Facebook post

Tweeting and Job Searches

In a recent post on CNNMoney, Daniel Bortz reports that many job recruiters are now researching potential new employees on social media. As he writes:

"If you want to shine in a competitive workforce, take to Twitter. Nearly 95% of recruiters surveyed by software firm Jobvite used or planned to use social media to find and vet candidates last year."

Twitter allows you to quickly build a social media presence, since tweeting is often quicker than creating other social media content, such as lengthier blog posts.

However, as Bortz states, there are some best practices when using Twitter to build an online presence. Specifically, he lists the following:

• Perfect the profile
• Follow the right crowd
• Tweet with value
• Pay it forward

View the full article below to read more about how these practices can help you use Twitter to land your next position. 

Tweet yourself to a new job