You have to be careful what you say nowadays. A case in point revolves around a post I recently made on a blog that tracks the industry my company is in. I was commenting on the site about a particular business model we use and how it has simplified our billing, etc. Another poster asked me what software we used to track some specifics. I replied back with the name of the software, but added a caveat that we were in the middle of implementing a different solution.

Wow! You would think it was a presidential press release! Within 12 hours, I had 2 phone calls, and several emails from upper level vice presidents of the company we were dropping. And this company has over 20,000 users (I'm told).

There are a few interesting lessons to be learned here, I think. First, if you don't want anyone to know what you are doing, don't email or post anything regarding the information you are trying to keep from the public. While this particular information regarding our software change is by no means top secret, I really didn't need this particular interuption from our business of providing excellent customer service. Secondly, you never know where your comments will end up, no matter how benign they may seem. A few little comments started a firestorm from upper level management in a company much larger than mine.

So, the moral is, don't post anything you don't want known. ANYWHERE. Social networking performs at the speed of the Internet.

To your success,

Tim