Watch your words

Blogging is huge, there is no doubt about it. The problem that comes with blogging is taking the risk of exposing company secrets or offending people you work with that happen to find your blog. I post funny things that happen on my job but I don’t post the persons name or my exact employment location. I try to keep it general so that it can apply to anyone’s job.

CNet has an article that explains most of the dos/don’ts to consider when blogging. It covers some of the things that could possibly get you fired, which has happened at Delta Airlines, Friendster and Google (just to name a few). Does someone getting fired for a blog post happen a lot? No, but it does happen. You can be disciplined, or even fired, if you are writing your blog from your house on your own time because there is a public look that every company wants to maintain. If you are leaking secrets or being malicious, you are causing the company you work for to look bad.

That being said, blogs can be a great resource for companies. Jonathan Schwartz, president of Sun Microsystems, has a blog as well as Robert Scoble of Microsoft. These blogs draw people into a feeling of openness in a company because they give some info, but not everything, about what’s going on at a company the reader is interested in. Not all companies need that kind of PR but it can be a good thing for tech companies.

Give a person a fish and you feed them for a day; teach that person to use the Internet and they won’t bother you for weeks. -Author Unknown

08.Mar.05 General