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In an age of instant messaging, you should take a lot more than an instant to consider what exactly it is you're communicating. Recent news reports tell us that controversial bloggers, Amanda Marcotte and Melissa McEwan, hired by the John Edwards US presidential campaign, are in trouble. Their previous blog posts are being used to claim that they are "anti-Catholic vulgar trash-talking bigots," among other things....
Content is a record. What differentiates content from other forms of information is that it is formal and recorded. It isn't a conversation in a cafe. It isn't a chat at a bar. Blogging may well be conversational, but a key difference is that it leaves a record that others can peruse.
Conversations tend to happen in context. People who converse usually know each other and are often picking up from a previous conversation. Conversations often leave things out because they were covered in previous conversations. Conversations often occur within groups, communities, clubs, gangs.
One of the first things a community decides is where the boundaries are. Who is in and who is out? Who is the enemy? Who's the friend? Who's to be hated? Who's to be admired?
If you want kudos from a community one of the best strategies is to attack the enemy. In certain communities, the more vicious you can be the better. People will think you're authentic, honest, truthful, real. Break the taboo and say all those things that those cowards won't say in print, won't say on the radio, won't say on TV.
What happens when your enemy (or your future boss) can read everything? What happens when they can take what you've said out of context, reshape it and fire it right back at you? What happens if you've rushed to judgment without the facts? What happens if you didn't wait long enough to make sure?
We are constantly pressurized to respond instantly. But never has there been a time when responding instantly carried so much danger. An email written in haste, a blog post fired off, can be repented at leisure after you lose your job or fail in an interview.
Blogging is a wonderful form of communication but you must have something to say and you must say it well. I scan a lot of blogs. Some I just discount immediately. After the first 30 words I know they're not for me.
Other bloggers will peak my interest. I'll go back occasionally over a period of weeks, perhaps months. A select few will be chosen for regular visits. Most will fall by the wayside. I'll decide that this blog is not really very useful, that the blogger has a few interesting things to say, but that's it.
Blogging is a literary form. Great writers and great thinkers who love writing make great bloggers. There are many great thinkers who don't write well. There are great writers and thinkers who don't have the time to write.
Blogging is a long-term investment of time, energy and creativity. It is also about discipline, about getting the facts
right. Sure, there is impulse involved, but the impulse should not drive you to write something that will make you look foolish in a year's time.
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Comments
Gerry - Bloggers all leave "official tracks" that may come back to haunt them. So do those who post (or get posted in) videos that may not put them in the most flattering light. Or, as we've seen recently, let themselves get snookered by Borat. Potential employers can and will hold things against you. A friend of mine recently took a pass on hiring two young marketers who had blogs that revealed a) a drinking habit; b) the inability to manage a budget. The blogs may have been completely exaggerated, but the prospective manager didn't want to take the risk. I don't necessarily agree with this, but it will be happening more and more.
I'm a little surprised that John Edwards' campaign got so caught out here, but we're likely to see more and more of these scenarios play out. Bloggers will get more cautious - or hide their more outrageous ideas behind a curtain of anonymity. Or there'll be a "statute of limitations", or forgiveness of youthful indiscretions. It will be interesting to see how this all unfolds.
Posted by: Maureen Rogers | 02.12.07
Gerry - It sometimes seems like decorum is a lost art. However, as with other things in life, this will find a way to correct itself in the future. Either we'll get to the point where people mind their manners, or we'll get to the point where no one cares any more.
Which world do you want to live in?
Posted by: Cam Beck | 02.12.07
But I think we should be careful not to be TOO careful. After all, the whole point of blogging is to re-introduce candor into our public discussions. If we become so self-conscious that we second-guess every post, we risk a return to the same homogenized, risk-free blandness we've been trying to escape.
Posted by: Jonathan Kranz | 02.12.07
Last week on her boston.com blog, Maura Welch pointed to the New York Magazine cover story about the increasing trend of 12-17-year-olds to reveal their private lives online. Maura writes how those of us slightly older (!) than that demographic shake our heads at their stupidity, but Maura adds, "...perhaps younger people are the only ones who get that 'a truly private life is already an illusion.' The article reviews three changes that set the younger generation apart from the older one: They 'think of themselves as having an audience.' They have 'archived their adolescence.' And 'their skin is thicker than yours.' In essence, every young person in America has become, in the literal sense, a public figure."
Read Maura's full post here:
http://www.boston.com/business/blog/filter/2007/02/say_everything_1.html
All that to say... I suspect that Cam is right. This trend will find a way to correct itself -- but I'm not sure any of us will be leading that charge.
Posted by: Ann Handley | 02.12.07
And that's a great reminder of what those wonderful Google search rankings that our blog posts' receive, are missing; context.
Posted by: Mack Collier | 02.12.07
Gerry,
I agree with Cam that decorum is important and with Ann that we may not lead that charge.
Am I conflicted? Well, sure. Aren't most bloggers?
Postings are most interesting when they reveal the writer behind them. And doing so requires some risk.
Is Paul hurt at Hee-Haw Marketing because he cusses. I suspect he might be, but his cussing is part of his charm. When I write about my days as a rock 'n roller, readers will naturally assume I possess certain character traits, but I'm not going to stop sharing stuff just because I might lose a potential job through assumptions. What about all those posts we create that criticize something a business does? You better believe other businesses are reading and will be reluctant to use our services.
I see it this way: We have two choices. 1) Be safe and risk dullness or 2) tell it like it is and expose ourselves (in word) hence potentially losing clients.
I prefer the latter. That said, I hope my writing reflects not only honesty but also at least an acceptable level of decorum.
By the way, if you are anything like me, I prefer to lose business that can't handle the truth. If they are frightened by honesty, their values are such that I can't help them.
Posted by: Lewis Green | 02.12.07
Some great comments here. Reading them makes me feel I know less about this whole subject of blogging--but in a positive way.
The young generation have a different way of living and viewing things. They could be making a lot of old mistakes, and they could be breaking new ground.
There is this obsession with reality today. But is it leading to better discourse? Or are the right wing blogs becoming more right wing, and the left wing blogs becoming more left wing?
But as Jonathan points out, "we need to be careful not to be TOO careful." Marketing talk, for example, can easily become incredibly bland and meaningless.
I think we all play a role here in finding a good balance. I know what Ann is saying--I don't think there'll be any single figure who will lead the way. But I do believe in the "wisdom of crowds" and we are all part of the big crowd that is the Web.
Posted by: Gerry McGovern | 02.12.07
While blogging is not intended to be one-way communication in the classic sense, it certainly behaves like it.
"Permanent Record" hasn't been so scary since secondary school!
Posted by: Mark Harrison | 02.12.07
Whether you agree with her or not, Amanda should've learned this lesson a long time ago -- especially if she wanted to go political. But in the end, Edwards is to blame for bad judgement. Marcotte is what we knew she was. Problem is, Edwards apparently didn't know -- or care.
http://timothyjohnson.blogspot.com/2007/02/edwards-made-common-sense-blunder-with.html
Posted by: tim | 02.13.07
I concur that blogging should be looked at for the long-term benefits. I have moved my company's blog to our domain and over made a commitment to post regularly. What a difference!
My blog home page is now the most visited portion of our site other than the main site page.
Now that is has increased in popularity I feel compelled to keep it fresh. It is a beast that must constantly be fed. Not much worse for a blog than to see the last post was 3 months ago.
Posted by: Shell Harris | 02.16.07