So the internet carries rumours about Foreign Secretary William Hague’s sexuality and he responds with a detailed rebuttal. Fair enough. But why, oh why did Mr Hague — clearly an extremely intelligent man if you look at his career both in and out of politics — then choose to Tweet that he hoped he’d “nailed the big lie”.

By doing so he gave an opportunity for political rivals (and journalists) to question his judgment. “Why raise this issue again,” is the cry. All it does is keep the story alive, the very last thing you would assume that he wanted to do.

It never ceases to amaze me how so many people — people who ought to know better — fail to understand the dangers of Twitter. Undoubtedly, it can be a powerful tool for good — it is now widely used in business — and can be great fun in a social context. But mistakes can be enormously damaging.

Take cricketer Kevin Pietersen. Not too long ago he was the England skipper and one of the game’s golden boys.

Then the selectors decided to drop him from the England team. But before this could be announced, KP revealed all on Twitter in what the newspapers described as a “foul-mouthed, four-lettered rant”.

The result? Huge bad PR for Pietersen himself…plus a hefty fine of some £2.5K from the cricket authorities. Pietersen also felt he had to apologise.

‘Gavin & Stacey’ actor Matt Horne didn’t do himself any favours when he reacted to media criticism of his show ‘Horne & Corden’. He Tweeted…”It means a lot when  Josef Fritzl is getting better press than us.” Ouch!!!

Not a politician or a celebrity, but an Arizona man told his 2,000 Twitter followers that his family was “heading out of town” and had “ten hours of driving ahead”. When he returned home, he found burglars had stolen thousands of dollars of video equipment!

At Optu, we  work with clients to get the best out of Twitter (and other social-networking sites). There are tricks to be learnt which can improve your business significantly and you cannot ignore Twitter in our modern commercial world. Yes, Twitter can be an enormous asset to your business…but please, please, please be aware of the pitfalls.

Because once you make a mistake….

But that’s another story.

Steve Ireland