Be careful what you blog and how you blog it

As the kittens are posing: See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil.

There are people who are not afraid to say anything. The moment that they think of something that they feel like writing, they would have it already and before you know it, it’s a blog entry. That is one of the perks of blogging — instant publishing.

There are a lot of topics that you could write about. From your shopping experiences to the topic of pets and there is also work — but that may depend on your company and the nature of your work and your contract.

A person might get fired for blogging. One of the classic examples is Heather Armstrong of Dooce.com. There is even a term such as ‘dooced’ because of this incident. Her employers found out that she has been writing about her experiences in the company.

You have to be careful about what you blog. It does not have to be something about your work and/or anything that has to do with it (especially financial matters and top secret projects). It could be something about other people too. You might be misconstrued as spreading malicious lies about someone even though you are simply airing out your opinions. That is why some people try to maintain a low profile. They want to avoid trouble as much as possible.

It is difficult to avoid being sarcastic sometimes. But think about it. You don’t always have to name people. You could write about your reflections on the situations. Some bloggers advice ambiguity if you really want to rant on and on. And there are also those who create a different online persona altogether so they could make a parody of their own lives or their workplace. However, the most logical advice I have heard so far is this: If you want to keep something private, don’t write about it in your blog.

Originally posted on November 2, 2010 @ 5:26 pm