The moment I heard about blogging, I smelled trouble. I suspected that these online journals--in which the writer spouts off about whatever is on their mind—could become a favorite tool of upset workers. Even if not meant to be critical, if a blogger’s posting contains comments that reflect badly on their company or the writer, or pinpoints unmentionables like company secrets, bloggers can stir up a hornet’s nest.

Sure enough, there have been dozens of cases of workers warned or fired because of something they wrote on a blog. In a survey by Proofpoint, over 57 percent of executives at 332 large companies said they were concerned about blogs as a source of trouble for their companies.

And although the balance between free speech and an employer’s rights is still up for grabs, generally, if you’re an “at-will employee” you can be let go at-will as long as anti-discrimination laws aren’t violated.

What you once wrote can come back to bite you in a job hunt or after you’re gainfully employed. Assistant professor of Informatics at Alexander Halavais, of the University of Buffalo tells of a student who posted comments accusing a company of fraud. After getting his first job, his employer asked him to remove his online accusations since the company was a client.

Personal blogs that detail how you spend your personal time or your political views can be risky during a job search, says Kirsten Dixson, of Brandego, a Web portfolio and blog developer. Most are repositories for personal rants or musings, she says and you can’t take a highly personal blog and suddenly reframe it for your professional goals.

But enough said on the bad things about blogging. Let’s talk about what good blogging can do for your career. Like any form of communication, if used strategically, it can boost and build your reputation.

Blogging can be a shrewd form of “personal brand management,” says Halavais. You just need to know how to manage your public face.

That starts with knowing the difference between personal blogs and blogs focused on a subject related to your job, company or career.

“Personal blogs are windows into you as a person,” says blogging expert David Meerman Scott. “Corporate blogs can help you build your business if you provide valuable content that addresses your customer’s problems, getting “your readers to think: ‘This guy is smart. I want to learn more.’ In the corporate arena, blogging is thought leadership. If your blog has a positive effect on your company’s reputation then it is very beneficial to your career.”

Some CEOs use blogs to share what they think about their industry and business by posting entries on such sites as blogwriteforceos.com.

Then there are job search or career management blogs. These “must be 95% focused on establishing one’s thought leadership around specific topics relevant to their target audience,” says Dixson. She suggests including such content as work samples, a downloadable resume and information on industry trends.

Overall, if you’re going to post your reputation on-line, choose blogs that educate, not blogs that entertain as you can be seen as a resource or a rebel, says Gerald Flournoy, Director of IT Solutions for the Millennium Technology Group in Plantation, Florida. Think about which one your present or next employer will value more. He too warns that “blogs are digital diaries which can not be held under lock and key and become part of the blogosphere.”

So look before you leap. Don’t blog with the intention to hurt others or bring negative attention to an individual or company.

The other good news is that many headhunters and CEOS are looking for creative people, he says. And blogs are one source to discover that. “We in the IT industry look in all kinds of places for innovative thinking, “so remember to ‘dot your I’s and cross your T’s’—we are watching.”

© by Andrea Kay