All of us on ActiveRain know the power of social media. Maybe you don't do it all -- but many of us use multiple channels to market ourselves and our business. We FaceBook, LinkedIn, Tweet and blog. The POWER is evident when referrals start to flow in from AR, when "friends" ask us to help them find a house, and when we tweet a new listing and another agent sets up an appointment immediately.

The DANGER has been publicized here as well, but I just want to remind everyone that what you write --on your facebook page, on your "members only" blog, is not private. Potential clients may be turned off by what you write, and past clients may recognize themselves in your stories.

Remember CONFIDENTIALITY? If you write a blog post about a past or current client, do you try to disguise the facts? What if someone sees themselves, or their very private situation, in your post? Are you ready for that? Are you ready for the email that asks, "Is that me?"

How about just plain INSULTING to a client? A realtor posted on her FB page this week that she "Conquered the IMPOSSIBLE client." Immediately someone asked jokingly (or not) "Is that me?" Agent: "No just an unreasonable seller who wouldn't didn't want to be realistic about their list price...finally got them to see it my way!!" Tell me: how would you feel if you were that seller, and you read that? Or if a friend of a friend passed it on to that seller. That's not too hard to understand how THAT could happen.

This week a friend of mine posted a bit of a rant on FB about how she went to Dunkin Donuts Sunday morning and they told her they had NO donuts. No kidding. No donuts! Seems the truck delivering them was late.

So it kicked off  a chain of funny/not so funny posts about DD and how she should complain. I know the owner of our local DD stores. So I emailed the owner directly about the FB conversation, and (being the smart owner) he contacted the woman thru FB and then the next day he called her to apologize and offer her a way to make it right. SMART. Today she posted on FB that the owner contacted her and made it right. Good PR for Dunkin Donuts again. And he learned about a problem he might not have been told. I will bey you THIS Sunday the driver won't be late with the donuts!

Now think how 5 years ago that whole paragraph could not have happened. No Twitter, No Facebook. No social media, really. She might have verbally repeated her story, but only a few people would have heard it. It's unlikely the owner ever would have heard about it. Now with one post she reaches hundreds of her friends, who reach hundreds of others.

Bad PR can spin out of control, if you don't contain it. The Dunkin Donuts story has a good ending. What if your brokerage, or you as an agent, are badmouthed on Facebook or Twitter? You've got to be monitoring the sites and keep your ears open so you know what is going on, what is being said. Then you can make it right, if something does go wrong.

I had my own IS THAT ME moment a few weeks ago. I invited my new agent, Bob, to AR and he is now on here reading blogs and writing his own (he had his first blog post featured last week). The prior week I wrote about how hard it was to get into houses these days, and the difficulty in getting listing agents to schedule appointmnets. I wrote about Client 1, Client 2 and Client 3. Bob emailed me and asked if he was Client 2. OOPS. He was! Not a big oops. The blog wasn't about Bob and it was clearly about my 50% track record in getting in houses to see them. Nothing embarrassing at all about me or Bob (I mean Client 2). But it was still strange to get an email that asked that question. And it was a good reminder to me. Bob is a member, and that was a members only post, but don't forget the public could (if they want) figure out how to join AR and be reading your posts. It has happened on here before.

We all have clients from hell. And we don't always behave like ladies and gentlemen. But watch what you say online, or it just may come back to slap you in the face later, if not land you with a lawsuit.

Just be careful.