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On Twitter, I follow 138 people. All but a few use their Twitter accounts in a professional manner. There are 3 main categories: Game company employees, people who use YouTube professionally, and online content authors.

However, one of the accounts I follow is an Afterdark Alt account of someone else who only posts once or twice per day in a public manner but nearly always inappropriately. Most of his posts are explicit texts referring to his recent escapades, which at a glance are similar to non-explicit tweets. However, a few weeks ago (luckily when I was already home) he retweeted very explicit pictures of something not work appropriate. There are other accounts that I follow, which occasionally share inappropriate images during the day.

So far I have been lucky that these images weren't noticed by anyone else. A moment ago, I activated the explicit content filter on Tweetdeck, which should filter these out, but the risk remains.

My boss doesn't mind me using Twitter at work as long as it does not affect my performance, but I'm not sure that flag will fly if a batch of furry porn manages to get past the content filter. But I also don't want to stop using Twitter at work because it keeps me updated about important news and developments, both internationally, locally, and related to my job.

How can I deal with inappropriate content appearing on my twitter feed at work?

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  • Nate, I edited this a bit to focus more on what you're trying to solve than the details of what you're getting in your Twitter feed. The previous revision detracted from the actual problem and made the post appear to be more off-topic. With the edits, this seems like a better fit for our site. Hope this helps.
    – jmort253
    Jun 16, 2014 at 2:45
  • You unfollow them. What's so complicated?
    – Octopus
    Sep 18, 2015 at 19:00
  • @Octopus Thing is, I don't mind such tweets appearing on my feed, just not at work where they can cost me my job. Also, some of those accounts are protected, which means they need to give permission for you to follow them. Randomly following and unfollowing them can cause them to block me, which is the complete opposite of what i want.
    – Nzall
    Sep 18, 2015 at 19:50
  • @Nzall, then you shouldn't be using that account from work. Make a separate SFW one.
    – Octopus
    Sep 18, 2015 at 19:52
  • @Octopus I did the reverse and made a separate NSFW account that I protected myself. When I become employed again, I'll make a separate twitter account that I'll use at work, but before that time, I'm sticking with my current 2 accounts.
    – Nzall
    Sep 18, 2015 at 19:54

3 Answers 3

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I'd suggest maintaining two accounts: a personal one for things that interest you that might be work-inappropriate, and a second work-related one for things that are always work safe. If need be you can even protect your personal account. There's no reason not to follow many / most of the same people with both accounts.

This is my personal approach to maintaining a 'respectable' work profile, but still feeling free to be expressive when I would like to be...

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  • This is probably the best solution. I can put the inappropriate accounts in a separate account, remove them from my main account, then just use my main twitter account directly in tweetdeck at work and setup my tweetdeck at home to use my tweetdeck account, which can hold both of them. That way, I don't need to transfer my safe accounts to a second account.
    – Nzall
    Jun 12, 2014 at 14:25
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    If, for some reason, you are unwilling to use two accounts, you can use Lists. At work, only look at the "worksafe" list.
    – Jenny D
    Jun 12, 2014 at 14:25
  • @JennyD Very good advice. Since OP already said he uses TweetDeck, lists are probably the best option. I primarily use them to manage such issues.
    – Adi
    Jun 12, 2014 at 19:42
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When I want to check social media at work I use my phone. It's very unlikely that somebody will see my screen, the interface is just inconvenient enough that I'm not going to spend a lot of time on it (but can still see what I need to see), and corporate IT policies/proxies/etc aren't relevant.

For your Twitter case, if you want to follow up on stuff (e.g. linked articles from those IT bloggers) using your computer, you'll know if it's safe to load Twitter out in the cube farm in front of everybody because you'll have just seen it on your phone.

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  • This is a good option for some, but for others, mobile phones are more likely to get them in trouble, depending on company policy...
    – StackExchange What The Heck
    Jun 12, 2014 at 18:29
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    @yochannah mobile phones don't work for all, but I inferred that a company that already allows use of Twitter at all (a) doesn't have overly-restrictive IT policies and (b) trusts its employees to be reasonable with time-management. YMMV.
    – Monica Cellio
    Jun 12, 2014 at 18:35
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My answer will address social networking at work at a larger scale.

Even when your boss gives you the green light to be on twitter, facebook, etc you still have to manage your time and ensure this activity is not disruptive to your productivity or the productivity of others.

In this case the concern of potentially wildly inappropriate posts is a very big concern in the "impacting others" category. There's always that risk someone in your feed could post something genuinely offensive completely derailing a coworker.

Separation of work and home

Based on what I've seen in the past their are two solid approaches to dealing with this.

Create Separate personal and professional accounts or create separate personal and professional feeds.

The idea is simple all your games, late night, comedy, etc. goes into your personal set. This should never be opened at work.

All your profession related stuff Tech groups, productivity stuff, etc goes in your professional feed. This is the ONLY feed you should ever open at work.

Separate accounts is preferable for purposes of networking and keeping your personal life personal.

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