The Elusive Fish — Creative Services

The other day, I was asked, “when was the last time you posted an article to your blog?” I was embarrassed to answer ‘not since May.’ Actually, the last post was mid-June, but still far too long to be riding on tweets from Twitter alone.

So let’s have at it, and leap right into the fray.

Mitch Joel and David Jones both have excellent posts a couple days ago around the issue of younger PR & Marketing bloggers with less experience, and are they potentially shooting themselves in the foot by issuing absolutes without fully understanding the topics on which they speak.

Mitch raises the specter of how an inexperienced ranting may reflect years from now when Google still dredges the article to the forefront. “…go back and look at some of the stuff you wrote five years ago,” Mitch advises, “I know that my opinions at that moment may not reflect my current state of mind.”

Now, I’m sure that Mitch isn’t advocating self-censorship when he advises people to “be a little more careful what they post.” I agree. Don’t post in haste and don’t post in anger. The rule I hold for myself is that I never put into writing anything I wouldn’t feel comfortable defending in front of a boss or a judge.

Use the cup of coffee rule. Before you hit ‘publish‘ or ‘send‘, go out and get yourself a cup of coffee. When you’ve come back, reread what you’ve writ. Is it really the writings you want preserved for all time, or is it the ravings of a crazy person? If the later, make judicious use of the delete key.

Dave asks if those with experience should step in.

If I’m about to burn my hand on the stove, I’d hope that one of my more experienced peers would shout me a warning. But I also know that sometimes the only way to truly learn is when you actually go ahead and burn that hand on the stove. Sometimes no matter what was said, or who said it to you, it really doesn’t sink in that the stove is hot until your fingers are sizzling away on it.

Which brings us back to the question of, what happens if three years from now the first thing that shows up on Google is that you burned your hand on the stove? How do you keep yesterdays published mistakes from being tomorrow’s roadblock?

Three words: tend your archives.

Two or three times a year, take a day off from your usual blogging and review your archives. Slow news days or days when you’re in the creative doldrums are perfect for this. Reading through and reviewing your works of past can be a good way of building perspective on how far you’ve come and just which way you’re headed.

Now - as you read you are going to find factual errors, you are going to find places where you made mistakes, and you are going to find at least one or two instances where, in retrospect, you made a complete ass of yourself. Make note of these posts, because it is time to tend to them.

Now - no matter how tempting it may be, don’t delete the post. Don’t try and hide it. The idea is to come clean, not sweep under the carpet.

Where there are factual errors, correct them. Strikeout the text that is wrong, and add a parenthetical comment that explains your mistake. It’s difficult It’s quite easy to do, and most blog systems will kindly date stamp your strike through to make it clear when the change occurred.

Where new information later became available, add an update to the post and link to the newer information.

Where you absolutely cringe and regret the words you wrote … well, that will be the subject of your blog post today. You are going to write a message to your younger self and explain why they’re wrong and point out exactly what’s led you to recognize those mistakes. Be ruthless with your past self. They’re the one person that can’t hound you in comments. And once you’ve fully explained to your past self whey they were wrong, post an update to the original post that links to your newer understanding on the subject.

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This entry was posted on Thursday, September 13th, 2007 at 11:59 pm and is filed under Communications and Marketing, Social Media, Text, Web Design and New Media. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.