Before you get offended by someone’s blogging, you need to ask yourself three things:
1. Is this post even about me/us?
“It’s a feature of our age that if you write a work of fiction,
everyone assumes that the people and events in it are disguised
biography — but if you write your biography, it’s equally assumed
you’re lying your head off.” —Margaret Atwood
Good bloggers write from experience, but—for the love of good ideas—not every good blog post is a secret revelation of a writer’s life! And before you think the following post was inspired by any recent event or my work as a Guru, please reread the above. What I have done, as they do in many works inspired by reality, is taken the experiences of many, many, many others people and events, edited, combined, and omitted to protect anonymity but preserve the meaning.
2. Is there any truth to this post?
If the answers to both of the above are clear “yes” answers, silencing the blogger is only treating a symptom. The person writing about the problem is only holding a “mirror up to nature”, so to speak. If you want to change something, don’t ask the blogger to change how he or she sees the world; change the reality that he or she is blogging. What do you accomplish by pulling a post? The truth is already out there. The reality of bad customer service, poor morale, a ruined friendship, or whatever, still exists. Why not fix the underlying problem?
3. Is this post completely untrue?
Consider the work and reputation of the person posting it. If the blogger’s work seems to be credible, you may want to follow-up to set the record straight. (Tip: Sometimes it’s worthwhile to submit corrections privately to the blogger and allow time to him/her to self-correct instead of posting publicly. It allows both of you to save face.) However, if the blogger has a reputation for distorting facts or being disgruntled, it may not be worth your time to intervene. You will probably get nowhere with the blogger, and most readers will probably disregard whatever he or she has to say anyway.
Image Credit: writing… by envina
Great post Nikki! Spot on.
The Air Force came up with a great flow chart on how to deal with disgruntled bloggers: https://bit.ly/2K3gN
Well said. Many issues aren’t clearly black or white. If a post seems offensive, wrong-headed or otherwise problematic, it’s then especially important to read it carefully. Your point about knowing if the post is directed at you is particularly useful and can help us understand the context.
For instance I just blogged, Is Flash evil? No, but Flash-based sites can be a marketing nightmare. in which I laid out some of the basic problems Flash has with SEO. I knew it might stir up some controversy among Flash developers, and I did receive one particularly negative comment. I don’t know what this commenter’s background is. But if he’s a Flash developer who excels at SEO, then it wasn’t meant for him. It was instead meant for Flash designers, many of whom are quite talented, who don’t know much about SEO and therefore don’t factor it into their site development process.
It’s all about context and we tend to read things through the perspective of our own experience, but I think it helps to also understand the perspective of the writer and to try to react accordingly.
Great post! alot of times there is some truth to the post…but not always.
Thanks everyone! If you are writing something worth reading (like Head of Marketing and Heidi), it doesn’t take long before you hit on something that hits a little too close to home.
The question is, if it hits a nerve do you shoot the messenger o do you fix the problem?
And when the messenger gets it all wrong (as Web Managersays can happen once in awhile), the tool Ann points out is a good one for when and how to take action.
You’ve got to be thick-skinned to be a blogger, otherwise you’d think that no one would be reading you anyway and what would be the point of writing?
I am very much glad on your thought of writing. I like…very much