Freelance Writing: Bitches, Snarkys, Politicos Need Not Apply

Over the past year or two I’ve noticed a trend in social media circles and blogs that I find a bit disturbing and counter-intuitive. More and more I’m seeing a tendency for folks to label themselves as being bitchy or snarky and seeing this as a cool thing. I guess in some arenas this may be an okay thing but more and more I’m seeing this trend in folks who I know are freelance writers.

In this age of Twitter accounts and Facebook pages a lot of freelance writers are using social media to get the word out about their services or the most recent post on their blog. I’m all for it. I use them myself. I do think that there is a right way and a wrong way to go about using these tools. Remember, they are just tools and if used improperly they can maim and destroy.

The self labeled bitchy/snarky folks have either forgotten or don’t understand that what you put on the internet stays on the internet. We’ve all heard stories of folks who have lost their job because of a Facebook status or a Twitter tweet. Even if you are a self employed freelance writer, you take the chance of being “fired” because of bitchy, snarky or volatile political statements you put on social media sites or your own blog for that matter. A savvy client will do research on the internet prior to hiring a writer. This is especially true if their project is large, sensitive or is for a large corporation. Do you think they will be interested in hiring someone if they discover that @snarkysnark is you?

Take the time right now to have a look at your Twitter profile stream and your Facebook status Newsfeed. Look at these things from the potential client perspective. Are you turning away clients because of your strong political views and the accompanying rants? Is your last snarky blog post so filled with sarcasm that you come off as bitter and a jerk? Bad news all the way around if you are trying to attract clients.

I would love to say that I’ve never been guilty of these crimes, but your honor I’ll have to take the 5^th on this one. I’ve put stuff on Twitter that I hope just gets buried and never sees the light of day. With that said, these are foibles or momentary lapses of reason. I certainly didn’t tweet them with a proud declaration of “Hey, look! I’m being bitchy! I’m being snarky! Ain’t I the bomb?”

Consider social media to be like sitting at a great big dinner table. On such occasions, discussing religion or politics is never a good idea. A recent horrific event caused me to unfollow about 40 folks who tweeted such whacked out political views that I decided I just didn’t want to see anything more from them. In my mind, they were a write-off. Most of them weren’t freelance writers but a few of them were.

Looking half a century in the face, maybe I’m just too old fashioned. I don’t understand how it could be cool to be so sarcastic and negative. I think there is no place for it in the world of a professional freelance writer.