How to Keep Out of Trouble When Blogging for Business

3. Employee abuses. One of the amazing—and frightening—things about the digital age is the speed with which information can be shared. How can your employees cause trouble on the digital highway? First, there are the employees’ personal blogs. Blogging can be fun (and addictive). There’s a serious question as to how much time employees may take on the job to fill out their personal blog entries. This is not a new issue - handling personal matters on company time using company equipment came up with the advent of email, and with the telephone before that. Can your business withstand the loss of productivity? Second, there’s the issue of what employees write, whether it’s on their personal blogs or a company blog. To what degree are they expressing their dissatisfaction with their job, their co-workers, and your company? Even worse, how easy it is for them to post confidential information (plans, photos, documents, diagrams) or divulge company trade secrets?

Some things you can do: (1) Have an employee policy on computer use that specifically addresses blogs (don’t forget email and Internet use, too). (2) Let your employees know your position on blogging and what will be deemed acceptable—whether for personal or company blogs. Do this in person. This can go a long way to relieving employee concerns about what they can and cannot do in the blogosphere. (3) If you have a company blog, develop a protocol for reviewing (and possibly removing) posts on the blog. Identify the kinds of information that will not be permissible on the company blog, such as regulatory investigations, product launches, and customer information. Consider allowing only specific or senior employees to actively participate on the company blog.

4. Personal privacy violations. In some states, disclosing private facts (those that have not been disclosed previously) about another person can be a violation of law, especially if the issue is not one of legitimate public concern. If you’re blogging for business, another person’s sexual orientation or extramarital affair might not be a likely topic of interest for your blog. However, the rules are a little different if the other person happens to be a public figure, such as a politician or celebrity, or (in some cases) a high-profile business leader.