Buzz Marketing with Blogs: Post Now, Regret Later?

Post Now, Regret Later?

I was reading Darren Barefoot’s blog today and enjoyed his post about an old Geocities page he created years ago. This reminds me of a point made earlier this week at the Business Blog Summit: Many bloggers (corporate or otherwise) worry that they’ll post something and come to regret it later. It’s a real issue, especially if there are incriminating photos of you during the ‘80s out there on the Web. It’s certainly why I was never much into participating in newsgroups and mailing lists in the early Internet days. You won’t find posts from me in the alt.sex archives!

It’s especially an issue for people who go on to become public figures, like politicians, or whose personal opinions might make their professional lives harder, like journalists. But, at the same, time, if you don’t participate in the digital world, you risk becoming invisible, or simply not being able to respond effectively if you get discussed online. If you’re afraid now about what people will think of your opinions in the future, maybe you need some new opinions!

The best strategy may just be to buy yourname.com, post your resume and contact information and make sure that when someone Googles you, you have a chance of being able to speak for yourself. And then stay out of questionable circumstances (like sexual chat rooms and mailing lists) and be prepared to defend what you say online later in life.

My favorite anecdote in this area comes from one of the students I taught online journalism at the University of Southern California. During a discussion about controlling your own digital image, she Googled herself and discovered a page she had created in 5th grade (yes, it made me feel old that she was making Web pages in 5th grade) and that was hosted by her elementary school. The page wasn’t all that embarrassing—she had a drawing of a horse on it and a few words about herself—but because it had been online so long, it came back very high in the search results for her name. Since she was planning a career as a reporter, she decided it needed to come down, and contacted the school, who were happy to pull it off the Web for her.

Anyone out there have embarrassing search results when they Google themselves? I’d love to hear about it!

Posted by Susannah Gardner on 01/27 at 01:27 PM • Blogging Tips

Comments

These might not be embarassing (I think I actually sound intelligent in these e-mail) but these are almost ten years old! So don’t forget when you post to a newsgroup that the archive can exist for a long, long time.

http://archives.mac-mgrs.org/archive/1995/19951206160830.txt
http://archives.mac-mgrs.org/archive/1996/19960223085739.txt

Posted by Tris Hussey on 01/27/05 at 03:02 PM