Those of you who are using Twitter and not taking the time to “clean house” could end up paying serious consequences. Not only in business, but in your personal life and your community.

People shop the social networks. People you go to church with, people you work with LOOK for you online. That last thing that you want to happen is to have your credibility or character called into question if someone runs into inappropraite content in your Twitter profile. Whether you realize it or not, there is questionable material showing up in Twitter profiles more and more each day. Everything from x rated content, to fake Twitter accounts leading to pages containing viruses and spy files pop up all the time.

Here’s a scenario that should get the point across. Let’s say you’ve just submitted a resume’ to a new company because you’ve recently lost your job. Let’s then say that your resume’ is impressive and exactly what the company you are petitioning for employment is looking for. Now let’s say they run over to Google to type in your name. It just so happens that your Twitter profile shows up in the results from their search.

As Twitter is gaining more popularity by the day the person holding your fate in their hands clicks on your Twitter profile and starts looking around. They look to see who you are following, then they go and look to see who’s following you. They are suddenly horrified and embarrassed when four out of the 20 images listed on your first follower page contain images with x rated or other offensive content. Do you suppose that is going to have an effect on whether or not you get the job you need to keep your home from going into foreclosure? Is that really a risk you want to take?

Here’s another scenario. Let’s say your pastor or other spiritual leader in your life were to find you on Twitter one day. What is there impression going to be if they see offensive content in your Twitter profile and it looks like you’ve done nothing to manage it?

The hardcore Twitter users know that sometimes stuff shows up you need to delete, but the new Twitter user or even those who don’t use Twitter don’t know this. All they know is that they found you online and saw that you were associated with questionable people and material. Is that a rumor that you really wanted started in your name? Try explaining what they saw on your profile to the 9 year old who happens to find his/her school teacher, bus driver, lunch lady or Sunday School teacher online… good luck with that!

Bottom line is this friends, make sure you are keeping a tidy Twitter account, it’s of utmost importance! Until Twitter decides to do something about the garbage that infiltrates it every waking hour of the day, you have to… your reputation depends on it.

Have fun with Twitter and the social resources, but pay attention to what’s going on so you can keep yourself and your family safe! I’m already hearing horror stories that run along these lines from Internet marketers and friends, so protect yourself at all times.

Cheers!

Rex