Summary: Twitterfeed is a great tool with many advantages but it does have its drawbacks. No 2 human beings can ever be entirely in sync about everything. If you share other people's content with your followers through Twitterfeed or any automated tool, sooner or later, someone is going to post content on their blog or in their periodical that you feel you can't endorse. What are some strategies for handling it when it finally happens to you? Here are some lessons from the school of hard knocks.

Twitterfeed: Balancing Pros and Cons

Twitterfeed has a lot going for it. It's a fabulous tool. I discovered it quite a while back and immediately started to use it. In fact, I discussed it in-depth in last fall's Social Media Marketing for Event Planners  Event Coup series.

Twitterfeed Pros

1. Twitterfeed and other automated tools help you ensure that your content is visible.Twitter moves quickly. If you don't tweet regularly, your tweets will disappear from the global tweetsream before you know it. It is impossible to sit at your computer or to be constantly checking your Blackberry or Ipad 24/7 to manually tweet information. Once you set up your Twitterfeeds, you can distribute content round the clock.
2. Twitterfeed makes it easy to distribute your blogs and articles to a wider audience.

   It gives small to medium bloggers and periodicals the advantages of syndication that were previously enjoyed only by major media outlets. Even while you're sleeping your content can be distributed to followers in other time zones quickly and easily.

3. Once you have a following, with Twitterfeed is a great way of ensuring that your followers have access to the very best articles and videos from blogs, magazines, and news sources around the globe.

   Never before has it been so easy to tailor content to your readers and followers.

4. With Twitterfeed, you can hashtags automate and categorize your Tweets to help other Twitter users easily locate content that is of relevance and interest to them.
5. Twitterfeed is easy to use.

   There is almost no learning curve. The site provides instructions and you can be up and running in no time

A Twitterfeed Lesson From the School of Hard Knocks

In fact I could think of no downside to Twitterfeed until today. Here is what happened.

I returned home from church and decided to log on to Twitter for a few moments. When I checked my tweetstream, I was absolutely horrfied. @outspokenmedia had posted a new article on their blog. Their blog has some great content including marketing tips and the latest perspectives on social media use. In fact, I felt their content was so innovative ad outstanding that it was one of the first blogs I added when I first discovered Twitterfeed. Unfortunately, today the title was a shocker. I won't repeat it but it was certainly well beyond my zone of comfort.

I can just hear some readers thinking "Bwoy she gwan prudish". (Translation: "Man she's prudish".) I'm originally from Jamaica so please indulge my Jamaican patois in situations like this.

Now a lot of their followers LOVED it. They found it bold, edgy, cheeky, in your face, and refreshing. It fits the tagline on their Twitter profile. What I call disgusting, some people call provocative. It's generated some buzz, people are talking about it and it's getting their name out there even more. They have over 9,500 followers so clearly, a lot of people love their approach and there were many positive comments about their tweet and article.

Let's face it, when we take a risk, it generates a variety of reactions. Some will like what we have, others won't.It's just not the kind of headline that I want out there associated with my name when prospective clients are considering using my services. It's a personal preference. Another example would be profanity. Some people are fine with it, others aren't. When Richard Branson was in Montreal for the F1 in June, he was quoted using profanity. Donald Trump has been beeped on Celebrity Apprentice. It may not be my cup of tea but this hasn't stopped either of these executives from being HIGHLY successful.

Normally, with Twitter, if I see something in my tweetstream that doesn't fit my personal tastes of values I just delete it. I tried to delete the tweet but it took MANY attempts. I've noticed this has been happening with Twitter of late. In fact, the only way I could get the deletion to stick was to tweet something else and then go back and delete the Twitterfeed tweet. I noice the same thing happens sometimes with Tweet Chat.

Problem solved...so I thought. After all, it was late Sunday morning. Likely no one would be around to see it. I tweet a lot of content. Even when there is is something I really want to get out there and I tweet it many times, very little of it gets re-tweeted. Just to be on the safe side, I checked my mentions and re-tweets. Horror of horrors, not only had that tweet been re-tweeted by about half a dozen people, a couple had negative reactions to it and 1 person had sent it out on 2 accounts as a re-tweet using MY NAME rather than my Twitter ID. Talk about a reputation management nightmare. Visions of a mass exodous of followers danced in my head. I couldn't understand how that happened. I have since determined how that happened. To make it easier for people to find me, my FriendFeed is in my personal name rather than my company name. That tweet went instantly from Twitterfeed to Twitter to Friendfeed to Google. OUCH! 

Twitterfeed Caution

So my take away from all of this is that while Twitterfeed is a fantastic tool, it shares 2 great drawbacks with other social media automation tools.

1. With Twitterfeed and other automated tools, you have no opportunity to see and approve content before it's tweeted.

   Since no one has control over what another person posts in their blog, magazine or newspaper, it's a risky proposition.

2. Once a Tweet is out there, it's out there.

   You have no control over what other Twitter users do with it. It can end up in Google within 3 minutes and, after months of longing for Twitoaster to pick up some of your content, the very thing that you don't want out there can be what gets distributed.

Google appears to be very selective. There are popular topics about which I tweet on a regular basis. I have longed for Google to have "Latest Results" for those topics to give me more exposure. It doesn't. You guessed it. Google now has "Latest Results" on the first page of search results for MY name and a link that you can click to get EVEN MORE.

I've done some acting but I'm not a celebrity. I Googled some famous Canadian celebrities like "Art Hindle" and "Drake". Art and Drake didn't have a "Latest Results" section and neither did any of the other Canadian celebrities I checked. In fact, not even Lady Gaga has a "Latest Results" section on the first 3 pages of search results for HER name in Google. What maked me so special? I guess I should be flattered that Google feels that I am more important than top celebrities and popular topics but the timing couldn't be worse. Now if a prospective client is checking me out by name, they can access my latest Twitter results on the first page. If they look for my company, they'll find my Twitoaster conversations. That's good news as I can be certain that some of the content I want to release gets out there but there are downsides when technology goes wrong.

Damage Control: What to do When Automation Goes Wrong

As the Internet matures, there will be many tools that make our lives easier and allow us to get our content to wider audiences. Automation is a great advantage but it does have its drawback.What should you do if something gets sent into cyberspace with your name attached?

1. Monitor what's out there on a regular basis.

   . Check your Tweetstream a couple of times a day (by clicking on your User ID or "Profile" in Twitter. Have a look at your Friendfeed. Monitor the conversations that are ending up in Twitoaster.

2. Never leave Twitter or any other Internet account where you have some automated processes on automatic pilot for too long
3. When content is released with which you would not want to have your name associated, delete it as soon as you see it.

4. Ask people who re-tweeted it to delete it.

   Most people are good at heart and they'll help you out.

5. Apologize

   Make sure that your followers know that the content did not have your blessing and apologize for the inconvenience.

6. Immediately send out more content to replace what shows up in "recent results"

   Get your blogs out there and add your name as an author. Release new content. Re-tweet positive content with your name or company name.

7. After you're finished freaking out (I have), find the humour in the situation.

   Remember this too will pass.

8. If you have a blog, blog about it

Preventative Strategies

How can you prevent a reputation management crisis from happening in the first place? There are no foolproof strategies but there are a few things you can try to minimize risk

1. Ensure that your Friendfeed is in the same name as your Twitter account
2. Consider setting up a separate Twitter and Friendfeed for personal content
3. Be clear about your boundaries and what is outside your zone of comfort

   For me that includes expletives, profanity, and suggestive content

4. Thoroughly examine the archives for blogs, magazines, newspapers, and other content sources you are thinking of adding to your Twitterfeed to ensure that the tone and content are within your zone of content.

   I did that but it wasn't enough.

5. Have a look at the Tweetstream for the individuals who publish the blogs to get clues about tone
6. Monitor the content that is shared through your Twitterfeed at least twice per day
7. Immediately delete anything that is outside your zone of comfort or that you feel would offend your followers
8. Remove RSS Feeds from your Twitterfeed and revert to manual tweets and re-tweets if something beyond your zone of comfort has been published.

Next Steps

• Do a Google search for your name and see if latest results are showing up yet.

  If they are monitor them on a regular basis.

• Check out your Tweetstream and delete any Twitterfeed tweets that don't have your blessing
• Get your message out there with new content, as quickly as possible
• If you have had similar experiences, please share them in comments with lessons learned so that we all can benefit.

As for , I still love them but they're off my Twitterfeed. No one could ever accuse these gals of not having spunk. To be on the safe side, from now on I think I'll just re-tweet some of the great content they put out there manually.

Photo Credits: Twitterfeed Images Tony Haile

Photo Credits: Shocked Photo pfaff