Caveat blogger, Part 2
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Part One of Caveat Blogger (located here), our coverage of the issues surrounding employees who keep blogs, provides the context and introduces some of the more salient points that employers should keep in mind, and employees should heed to keep their job. Part Two picks up and offers some bullet points for employees. Many employees that lost their jobs, would not have, were their comments and photos kept offline. Under the guise of “Don’t Get Fired” we offer the following for employees who blog:
- You are personally liable for anything said in the blog – you might have a great company, one that stands up for employees and employees’ rights. Even this company, though, won’t go to bat for you if what you write leads to a lawsuit. More importantly, you will be the one sued, not the company.
- Do not be anonymous; own your identity and associations – I know of a blogger that maintains an anonymous blog, but the author discusses topics completely outside of the company, industry and any clients, prospects, competitors, etc.. When in doubt, and especially if you blog about any of the just mentioned relationships.
- If you want a very personal blog, do not discuss work; do not use anything from work or reference it – a delta flight attendant was fired for posting some suggestive pictures. By TV standards, especially daytime soaps, the pictures were nothing special, but they were taken on company property and the astute viewer could make out which company it was. Many laid back companies would have not taken issue, but putting on a big corporation, that is public, and not tech savvy, it’s understandable why they reacted the way they did.
- Expect that your employer will find and read your blog – it’s easy to think that your blog will be seen just by you and those you show, but it almost never works that way. The best bet is to write as though your boss, your boss’ boss, and legal will read it.
- So, while it’s your blog, you have a much larger constituency than just you, your friends, and family – this is really just a reminder that you will feel a sense of ownership to your blog, and you should. It will reflect you, but just because it is a blog doesn’t mean anything goes. You are not an island; blogging may feel like driving a car with its control and outer layer, but like road rage, blog rage is bad. Play well with others on the road, in this case the blogosphere.
- Rule: If it can go in a commercial, it’s ok to share; when in doubt, do not disclose – this speaks to a blogger that got fired from Google in just one week. He didn’t say anything bad, but he was much too transparent with his information. That’s why this rule exists to help provide a sanity check on what to share about your company, when in doubt. It’s complimentary to the guideline in Part One that discusses posting criticisms.
Here are some examples of what not to say on your blog:
- “I hate that the Tech Producer doesn’t know how to use email. He’s the goddamn TECH Producer, for crying out loud. Dude just wanders all over the office, on foot, asking for updates and fixes to bugs only he can replicate.”
- “You’ve got to be kidding right? You can’t just hand me a 17-slide PowerPoint document and expect me to ‘make it look good.’ You may as well gorge out my eyes with burning sabers of methane gas and ceremoniously sacrifice my body over an open barbecue pit in the name of good taste.”
- “…demands employees that are 90th percentile material, so what’s with the 50th percentile compensation? the packages would’ve been decent when the company was pre-IPO, but let’s be honest here… a stock option with a strike price of $188 just doesn’t have the same value as the ones of yesteryear. even microsoft adjusted their base salaries to 66th percentile years ago…”
Here are some best practices for employees who blog. This by no means a comprehensive list, just some to get the flavor.
- Do not comment on current or potential clients – this probably goes with out saying, but it was the mistake I made. I commented on what I thought was a benign topic, one that was unrelated to anything we might do together and one that did not give out any useful information (nothing on pricing, policies, associations, etc.) Nonetheless, that they were mentioned at all was enough to cause discomfort. Learn from my mistake and play it safe by keeping your clients out of your blog unless you get their permission.
- Don’t make your company look bad; objectivity is essential – again, it might be your blog, but you aren’t the only one reading it; there is no law that says you can’t be judged by your colleagues and superiors for what you say.
- Put a disclaimer – I highly recommend adding something such as “Please note that the opinions on this site are my own and do not necessarily reflect those of my employer.” It won’t keep you out of legal trouble, but it’s the blogging equivalent of not talking, walking, or jiggling change when someone is about to hit a shot on the golf course.
- Don’t plagiarize and always cite – Most people wouldn’t want to see them being the subject of a post title on a well-read blog such as my friend Josh was in TechCrunch’s “Go to hell, Josh Stomel.” Were Josh given a little guidance prior to blogging, the incident could have been avoided. Fortunately, it’s now just an internal joke, but other employee bloggers might not have the same fortune.
- Keep it PG-13 at worst – blogging might be about personal expression, but learn to express your views as though your young nieces were present. Keep the F-bombs unarmed.
- Have something to say – if you are going to run a blog where you mention your job, your company, etc., try to add value rather than just take up space because you can. If you want to just play, then keep it purely personal and act like a contestant on a game show, i.e. don’t mention your company’s name if discussing your work.
To conclude, here are some things to remember from our discussion on employee blogging.
- Employers, it will happen with or without your permission
- Standards have yet to fully emerge – this suggests employers should default to more flexibility and employees should default to added caution
- Employee blogging is more powerful than a company blog but more risky – they have more power because they often are seen as impartial, but riskier because companies can’t specifically control what will be said.
- Many of the bloggers fired wouldn’t have been were it not for the public nature of blogging – you can blog, have fun, and share without firing. Employee bloggers can be well-known and have a large following. The Journal of Science, though, will never have the same readership as Star or People. As an employee, if you want to say whatever and try to get a huge following, just realize you might do so at the expense of your job.
Resources:
Employee Blogs
- Yahoo
- Microsoft
- Forrester
- Warner Bros.
- Business 2.0 Columnist
- Edleman
Other Useful Sites
- Charlene Li’s Best Practices Reports – Blogging: Bubble or Big Deal Business Blog Consulting
- Major Blog Search Engines – Technorati, Google Blog Search, Feedster
- Corporate Blogging Policies Compared
- Top Blogs – Technorati, Bloglines
- Heather Armstrong – “Dooced”
- Queen of the Sky Blog – Fired Delta Attendant
- Mark Jen – Fired from Google, now at Plaxo
- Blogophobic Companies
- On the historical front – ClueTrain Website and Wikipedia entry
