A while ago the rumour was that Twitter pages were ‘noindex, ‘nofollow’ or that robots.txt kept Google out, but it seems that if this was ever the case, it certainly isn’t now.
A recent change in how Twitter writes the title tags on pages is seeing people’s Twitter profiles showing up in the search results when someone searches a name.
A month ago a search on my name brought up my own site, a few networking sites I was a member of, a couple of my blogs and some other profiles.
Now i can see, smiling broadly at me, above many of the ‘Google friendly’ networking sites, my Twitter profile.
That means that anything I say on Twitter can be found easily by people researching me.
Now, I use my Twitter account for business and personal, occasionally I may swear mildly, or make risque jokes – I may even link to some not suitable for work things. I’m quite happy for others researching me to see this, and to see how I interact with people.
Are you?
Given that lots of poeple I follow seem to forget that Twitter is publicly viewable, all sorts of things could be open to future employers or employees, clients or customers – even the VAT inspector (so beware of those boasts of many clients people!)
With Twitter results showing up for decent keyword searches on occasion too, it might be time to start thinking about the keyphrases you use in your business Tweets, and seeing Twitter as much as a part of your SEO strategy as it is your Social Media Marketing strategy…
It is always worth remembering that the internet is open to all. About 12 months ago a client of mine had an HM Revenue & Customs investigation that we eventually discovered had been initiated by a boast on his E-bay profile. Took some convincing that the boast whilst true was, shall we say, overstating things somewhat!
Facebook conversations are private if your settings are right, but Facebook can easily convert and open to search as well. It’s best to assume that anything posted anywhere is not private. Privacy is over.
The flip side of this is that you can use it to your advantage. Your words, wherever and however they were written, are visible to all. Capitalise on it!
My public and private lives have a very high crossover, and there’s very little that I’d do or say with my work hat on, that I wouldn’t do down the pub with my mates. And vice versa.
Keep it clean, keep it sensible, keep it honest, keep it real. If you choose to use Twitter to promote brand awareness, keep these comments in mind. Rgds Vince