Twitter - As events unfold in Tripoli, should you Tweet things you may regret later??

Rather a good story this morning revolving around the events that are unfolding in Tripoli and Gaddafi's probable impending demise, via Will King and his @KingofShaves Twitter timeline. Is this a case of Tweet in haste, repent at leisure? I don't think it's turned out like that...

Iain Dale is publisher of Total Politics, MD of Biteback Publishing & presenter of LBC's evening show. He also Tweets. Here's his salutary tale of how an impulsive Tweet led to a barrage of insults and a period of reflection on his part... although I think if you read the comments on his blog you can see that, by airing his apology so publicly, he has garnered support from the opposite side to those who aired their disapproval on Twitter.

I'll let Iain take over the story...

"Yes, my rather idiotic words became the centre of a rather unattractive twitter storm. I suppose it had to happen sooner or later. I even ‘trended’ in Dublin, I’ll have you know. So, what caused this to happen. Are you sitting comfortably? Then I'll begin...

Like most of you, I suspect, I was avidly following developments in Libya during the course of the evening. Sky News’s coverage was superb, with Steve Dixon anchoring it in London and the fearless Alex Crawford travelling with the rebels (a la John Simpson) into the centre of Tripoli. Gripping TV. And then I switched over to the BBC News Channel. Oh dear, oh dear. No sense of drama, no reporter embedded with the rebels and appearing totally behind the curve. Lots of people were saying the same thing on Twitter. No one could quite understand how the BBC coverage could be quite so bad. As I said in one tweet...

Sky News is whipping the BBC’s pale white ass at the moment

The BBC didn’t even carry Moussa Ibrahim’s press conference live, yet pretended to. Everyone seemed to agree about the awfulness of the BBC’s coverage, even those who normally have no problem in faulting Sky. A few minutes later, having watched an action packed five minutes with Alex Crawford I switched over to the BBC to find the presenter talking to a reporter in a flak jacket, who was in the Media Hotel in Tripoli. The contrast was stunning. I wondered why he was in the hotel rather than out on the streets like Alex Crawford. That was where I made my big mistake. This is what I the tweeted...

Who is this wimp of a reporter on the BBC wearing a flak jacket in the hotel! Bet he's been told he can't go out cos of Elf 'n Safety.

And then the wrath of twitter descended on me. I might as well have said I agreed with slaughtering the first born. But it wasn’t just the usual suspects who were having a right old go – it was journalists I respect.

You can do one of two things in these circumstances. Stick to your guns or issue a rapid apology. I have been in this situation before on my old blog, and I have always taken the view that if you’re in a hole, stop digging. And if you think you’ve gone over the top or just been plain wrong, say so. Acknowledge it. Apologise and put it behind you.

The latter is easier said than done in this case, I suspect, but I withdrew the tweet (although I didn’t delete it, as I would have been accused of hiding) and then issued a total apology and took up a twitter follower’s suggestion and made a donation to the Rory Peck Trust."

He goes on to outline the actual responses he got, including some rather Anglo Saxon language from some very unhappy fellow journalists and followers on Twitter. However, have a look at the comments and the rather measured thoughts on spontaneity and balance. I think these have parallels on all the social media marketing platforms.

Where do you stand? It's an interesting one...

Full article here if you don't mind some "adult" language - Iain Dale and how I made a **** of myself on Twitter