They're Talking About You...

Andy Beal points to a great article in The Globe and Mail that explores the reality of watching your reputation be shaped online by bloggers. For the everyday folks that aren't used to being picked apart by bloggers, discovering yourself being discussed can require the sudden growth of a very thick skin. It also further cements the idea that anything you say to anyone may end up as fair game for a blog post. While that means it's good for your average joe to consider their words carefully, it's even more important for someone that runs a business.

Globe and Mail writer Hal Niedzviecki pens the words that more and more people find themselves thinking...

Like most of the creative people I know (excepting the growing number who are, themselves, bloggers), I've pretty much ignored the blogosphere, not once stopping to wonder if what is said on it might have an impact on how my work is received. It's not that I think blogs are unimportant. It's just that I never thought anyone would bother to blog about me.

The article is an excellent read, both for those who blog and those who have been blogged about. It's an even better read for anyone that has yet to find themselves on the receiving end of someone else's blog rant. While it can be exciting to think you or your business has becoming important enough to be blogged about, it can also be sobering to realize that not everyone thinks you are as brilliant and charming as your mother does.

Add in the fact that blogs have a way of popping up on search results pages and this isn't something to be taken mildly. Niedzviecki writes about this concern as well:

Apparently barely-on-the horizon writers, filmmakers, sculptors, photographers and journalists are fair game. Which means that I and my colleagues need to start thinking about whether what is said in a blog could in some way affect our careers.

So once again I say...no matter how small your business is, no matter how far below the radar you think you operate, take the time to conduct once a week searches for yourself and your business on a few blog search engines. How you respond to what you find is up to you, but you can't even begin to formulate a plan if you don't even know what's out there.