I found the chapter “How to Not Get Dooced” from Naked Conversations one of the more interesting aspects of the couple of the chapters we had to read. As social media has blossomed in the last few years (think YouTube, MySpace, Facebook, blogs, and even Google and other search engines), so has a certain level of embarrassment and even damage. Why? Most of the people currently coming up in the professional world have been involved in social media since its inception. That means that there could be 5, 6, 7 years worth of searchable material available online for potential employers or background investigators.  Anybody who thinks that HR has better things to do than Google an applicant is sorely mistaken. It happens all the time and more often than not, incriminating evidence will definitely be a factor in not hiring somebody. So, perhaps that chapter helps provide a cautionary tale for the next time you decide to post pics and a description of you and your pals doing bong hits and Jack chasers.

But enough of my curmudgeonly ramblings. Working for a large IT contractor, I know for a fact that employees get “dooced” for posting material that is contrary and/or damaging to the company line. A couple years ago our HR folks wrote a guideline supporting the use of employee blogs–and thankfully they included details about what is acceptable and what is not. Common sense is not as common as some may think, so the guidelines probably helped a lot of people stay out of trouble. The caution, of course, is that you should have some logic in what you post. You don’t give details of bids, finances, proprietary information, government secrets, policy, etc. A little logic goes a long way. I think that companies that support blogging, but give due caution, are operating in the best way for the company and employee alike. A well-written blog can work wonders by inadvertently providing some nice free PR or advertising. A poorly written blog that scathes against the company or client can be destructive for everyone.

And on the note of destructive, here’s a tale I just heard today that boggles my mind. And shows a great example of when somebody should be dooced. I am currently heading up the technology end of social media for my client, working on a team that is trying to implement some new technology for the Air Force (everybody else on the team is military). During today’s meeting we were discussing blogging and how some soldiers have used it while deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan. One sergeant who just returned from Iraq told us about an Army lieutenant whose use of a blog almost had deadly results. Apparently, the lieutenant was very dedicated to his blog and used to write about everything that happened, and he did it promptly. One day there was a mortar attack on the base by some Iraqi insurgents. Following the attack, the lieutenant went to his computer and wrote a blog basically criticizing the attackers for their lousy aim and stupidity. He said they could have done much more damage if they had moved their coordinates over 10 feet. Care to guess the result? The next attack that came in was moved over 10 feet and hit the sweet spot that the lieutenant wrote about, causing a large amount of damage, but luckily no loss of life. It didn’t take long for the higher ups to track back to the source of the information leak and promptly discharge the lieutenant.

What’s my point? Be careful with what you post because anything and everything can come back and bite you on the ass. As Scoble said, deleting a post does little to erase the permanent record. Somebody can always find out who said what, and when. And there’s often photographic evidence to corroborate. Perhaps your blog can’t cause potential loss of life, but it can very well cause lost profit or loss of face for you or your employer.