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This is part of the the book BLOGTASTIC! Growing and Making a Difference Through Blogging. You can read the table of contents and follow the book on this page:
See the table of contents for the book here: BLOGTASTIC project
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BLOGTASTIC: There are few second chances online
If you say something inappropriate to your friend, it can be costly. You can easily damage a friendship or relationship. If what you said was really inappropriate, you may even change your relationship forever. At that point, you can apologize and beg for forgiveness, but you can never take back what you said. You may tell yourself that the relationship with your friend will eventually limp back to normalcy. However, things will never truly return to the way they were before.
Anywhere on the web (and the blogosphere,) sensitivity is an order of magnitude higher. Think about it. The moment (well, almost) you hit the “publish” button, these things will happen:
• Your email subscribers will be sent an email with the text of your post;
• Your RSS subscribers will get a copy of your post;
• Syndication sites (eg: social networking sites such as Facebook); and
• Web crawlers will soon fetch all or part of the post.
The instantaneous electronic signals travel far and wide. Likely, your words will travel far beyond your imagination. More importantly, your words will travel well-beyond your control. Once you press send, you can’t easily undo your actions. Even if you delete what you wrote, you would still leave footprints everywhere online.
This example is about John Mackey’s (CEO of Whole Foods Market) participation in forums using the handle Rahodeb (an anagram based on his wife’s name Deborah.) John posted about Whole Foods, it’s competitor Wild Oats and even about his own hairstyle. John continued posting for eight long years under this pseudonym.
Sneak preview of the kinds of messages posted on the forums:
“Would Whole Foods buy OATS? ….Almost surely not at current prices. What would they gain? OATS locations are too small.”
“…Wild Oats Management clearly doesn’t know what it is doing. . . . OATS has no value and no future.”
You can imagine what kind of a PR nightmare this incident created for Whole Foods.
Your blog is your personal publishing platform. However, it should not be treated like your diary where you can vent your private anger and frustration. Really, your blog is your public personal publishing platform. This platform can lead to power and influence. However, if you misuse your blog, it can also hurt you.
Blogging Tip: Say whatever you want, but be willing to accept the consequences.
Your actions and words have consequences—both on the blog and off the blog. Sometimes the risks of saying something stupid are mild, but sometimes misspoken words can cause irreversible damage. It’s your life, and you must assess these risks before you open your mouth.
Rajesh Setty is an entrepreneur, author and speaker based in Silicon Valley. He maintains another blog called Life Beyond Code and tweets as @UpbeatNow
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