Be Careful when blogging

Pardon my rant.

WAV Group has been blogging for a long time.  We believe that it is an excellent way to stay connected to our clients or potential clients, and to showcase the type of (hopefully) thoughtful approach we have to our consulting business.  We also are endeavoring to keep clients informed about new ideas in the real estate technology industry - some good, some not so good.  We also like to celebrate the success that companies have and publish press releases.

Recently we watched some situations of blogging gone bad.  This happens innocently as people make disparaging comments on blogs.  Indeed, it seems to happen frequently whenever an MLS makes a system change.  Change by its very nature challenges everyone to judge if the change is good or bad.  But consider this.

In many cases, there are people attached to the companies and products that are being disparaged.  These people have careers and families.  Sometimes blog comments go too far and become personal attacks, which we believe are inappropriate.  As such, WAV Group takes great care to review every comment made to our blog and from time to time we request that comments get edited so that the constructional part of the comment comes through and the destructional component of the comment is removed.  We also do not allow anonymous comments.

So here are a few things to consider in blogging.

Don’t blog rumors

Don’t blog news before it is released - it is awful for people to find out about their company before any announcement is made

Avoid allowing anonymous comments on your blog.

Consider approving comments before they are published.

Avoid saying things on your blog that personally attack people.