Oh, the variety of people who are on Twitter!!! Who said that this popular social network is only for geeks and geekettes? It is simply not true. Everyone wants to shout in the void and get some Twitter love. But when the going gets tough, the tough… ain’t going. Or at least not the ones that parade with their (in)significance.

Just last weekend, I managed to score my first verbal abuse on Twitter. It is not something to be proud of. It is not something to show off with. But it is something that can be appalled by and share with as many people as possible…

Desislav Chukolov, a former MP in the Bulgarian and European Parliaments and a member of the nationalist party ATAKA sent me the following tweet:

My tweet reads: “@tourbg this @chukolov shows a great dissonance between educational background and party identification. Did you read “About me”?”

The initial conversation that involved a couple of tweeps of mine evolved around the “About me” section on Chukolov’s website and him mentioning his education.

Twitter is just as much about bragging and complaining as Facebook is about “like” -ing. And this is its Unique Value Proposition to many of its users. However, that said should still abide by a certain code of conduct, especially if one is a public figure and/or a “politician”. So, @chukolov sending people around mIRC style “gfy” tweets is definitely a no go. And I have counted two occasions so far – myself and another user.

In addition to the strict social media guidelines businesses have to follow on Twitter, the politicians shall be obliged to be even more considerate of the implications any of their tweets might bear. One way or another, they are the people who participate in elections, vote for regional, national or European laws. They wish to be reelected (in most cases). By telling someone to “go F himself” is not F-ing smart. Really. And deleting the tweet afterwards will not help much.

Bonus: 4 Simple Social Media Guidelines for Desislav Chukolov:

• Be nice and treat people RESPECTFULLY!
• Communicate your position RESPECTFULLY!
• Use clear language in a RESPECTFUL and MEANINGFUL manner!
• Aim to build mutual RESPECT!

P.S. In this post, I am purposely not providing any links for shared reference or research. I find myself rather unwilling to indirectly support the SEO or marketing efforts of both Desislav Chukolov and ATAKA. You can easily find them on Google should you wish to research your own, and Google Translate can give you the basic idea.

Copyright © 2013 Borislav Kiprin. All Rights Reserved.