Think before you comment - what you say echoes for eternity
Published October 29th, 2005 in E-PR‘Tis better to be silent and be thought a fool, than to speak and remove all doubt - Abraham Lincoln
A lot of people advise never to send an email or post an entry on a blog that you may later regret. The over-riding principle of common sense should always dictate that if you’re not sure, then CYA by not sending/posting it. (Cheers to Blake for putting another acronym into my PR vocabulary - CYA = Cover Your Ass)
One thing also worth pointing out to people is to also before careful when posting comments on other people’s websites. For example, I’m after coming across this post on John Wagner’s site about PR practitioners having to play to people’s egos and be the ‘bigger person.’ If I had a bad day and posted a comment along the lines of ‘I feel your pain’, I’d be leaving myself open to criticism.
If a client came across my comment, then they’d start to wonder whether I was talking about them. Worse yet, if I moved agencies and a new client came across it, they might think that I could be talking about them. Like my post title says, what you say echoes for eternity. You should think before pressing the button on any online communication that may hang over you in the future.
Technorati Tags: Blogging, Blogs, Piaras Kelly, PR, John Wagner
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I’m a college student in the US, and we are required to maintain a blog for one of my PR classes. Although I’m enjoying the experience and learning a lot, it’s scary to think of the things I’m writing about coming back to bite me in the butt. Not that I’m writing anything extremely controversial, but you never know if you’ll be in a position in the future that will make you regret the things you have written. Especially online, where it can never be destroyed!
It’s good to be careful when posting on others blogs…you certainly don’t want to burn any bridges you may need to cross down the road. But I still think people should be honest when they disagree, and let someone know. There’s a way to do that and still be tactful.
And of course, I don’t think companies should ever be blogging about clients! It doesn’t matter if it’s a made-up scenario with the names changed, it can lead to serious trouble.
Congrats on being named to Technorati’s top 25 blogs on branding!