On the Risks of Web 2.0 Blogging
I had a chance to talk to Celia Jones when she was in Toronto a few weeks ago.
Celia is a marketing director, and a really brilliant one at that.
I remarked, sometime between my second and third crantini, about the precariousness of the professional Web 2.0 -ness. Specifically, I quoted something I had heard just the previous week at eMetrics Toronto – “Once you post something on your blog, it’s out there forever”.
If you’re reading that quote as though it’s a good thing — good for you. That was opposite of what a speaker at eMetrics was saying.
I explained to Celia that the risk of even starting a personal blog, on a specific topic, can be fairly significant. Even if it’s not branded with the company you keep – the WAA or your employer, there is certainly an element of ‘professional splatter risk’. I went onto argue that so many don’t blog – don’t participate, for that explicit reason. The fear, or the insecurity, of sounding like an idiot.
Many say they don’t have time. I believe half of them.
We get pieces like his one:
And, while I applaud Chris Anderson for having the courage to do what most tongue wavers won’t, I have to admit, this wasn’t exactly the best prognostication. The opposite of his thesis is the case in the face of huge amounts of data. It’s when you have a deluge of data that you really need the Scientific Method.
On balance though, nobody is going to really remember Chris Anderson for the post. They’ll end up remembering him for something great that he does. Unless it’s a real catastrophic failure, like an Enron or something, nobody really remembers. His article got a whole bunch of people talking, and it actually re-affirmed the importance of the Scientific Method for so many people. A lot of good stuff came out of Chris Anderson’s post.
And so, that’s how I ultimately made my decision to really start blogging on the subject that I have a real passion for. I decided that the downside risk of saying something incredibly stupid is far exceeded by the upside benefit of sharing an idea, a discipline, a method, or an argument with the community, and people who might not even be in your community. The benefits of having many people, coming together and talking about something, anything, is far superior than the risk of becoming totally silo’d off.
I will say however, that I learn all the time, and I have intention of ever stopping. This means that some of the views I previously stated in my blog will have changed over the years. There’s that temporal risk, but in the final analysis, I think it all comes out in the wash.
Thanks Celia, let’s consider the risk managed.