YouTube generation may find their online past coming back to haunt them

- Web users are leaving a personal history of opinions and behaviour that can be easily found on the internet

- Recent US mid-term elections are an example of web content coming back to haunt candidates

- Gerry McGovernís new book Killer Web Content published by AandC Black on 29th November

Gerry McGovern, a expert on managing web content, has warned that Web users are leaving a personal record and history on the web, which may one day come back to haunt them.

In the US there have also been concerns that employers may be using the web as a means of ëunofficiallyí checking up on potential employees.

Amongst recent high profile casualties is a Google employee who lost his job after posting candid comments about his job on his blog, while in another incident a Delta Air Lines flight attendant and blogger lost her job after posting pictures of herself in uniform.

Gerry McGovern says:

ìEverybody who writes emails and blogs, or who leaves voicemails, needs to think a lot more about what they are writing and saying. The Web gives the impression of this informal, casual place, but thatís a mirage. Itís like a court of record, where everything you write can be used for youóor against youóat some future point.

ìThe Web has become a global memory bank. Before the Web came along, denial was a reasonably strong strategy, but that is no longer a case. The Web is rolling 24 hours a day, 365 days a year and so much information is being recorded that can later turn up on Google or YouTube.

Most individuals and organisations have simply not come to terms with the content revolution that has swept through our world over the last twenty years. There have never been as many people reading and writing, and videoing and viewing. Itís almost like a right of passage today for young people to do a blog or make a video.î

He cites the recent US mid-term elections as an example of how powerful the internet has become in distributing and recording words or actions by candidates that proved detrimental to the campaign.

ìEmails, instant messages, voice mails and video clips all contributed to the embarrassment or downfall of several US political figures. Senate candidate George Allen was caught on camera making a remark that was branded racist. Democrat John Kerryís alleged slur on US troops in Iraq was also filmed. And Mark Foley and preacher Ted Haggard were trapped by instant messages and voice mails.î

In his new book ñ Killer Web Content ñ Gerry McGovern urges individuals and organisations to think more carefully about what they publish on the Web, and realise that what they are creating will have a life long after the point at which it came into being.

ìI publish therefore I exist,î explains Gerry McGovern. ìI publish well and my career will progress. I publish poorly and my career will perish. People who are bad writers and bad spellers are leaving a record of their work on the internet that can be easily tracked. When you get an email that is poorly written it has an impact on what you think of the person who wrote it. Particularly if itís the first communication you have received from this person.

ìEmail culture means we are under pressure to be reactive and impulsive and to put less and less thought into what we are doing. However, in the age of the content record, you canít afford not to think deeply about what you write and the situations where you will be recorded. The lesson to be learned is: What is written in haste, edited in panic (or not at all), will be repented at leisure.î

If you would be interested in speaking with Gerry or if you require more information please contact Findlay Robertson or Truda Spruyt at Colman Getty on 020 7631 2666 or mobile 07742 090218. Email firstname@colmangetty.co.uk