You may not know this, but my first "real" job was in the music industry. I guess you could have called me a Music Journalist, but I never liked the word "journalist," so I used to tell people that I wrote about music. I did my first gig in 1989, where I interviewed Tommy Lee from Motley Crue (the band was on the cusp of releasing Dr. Feelgood). From there, I spent well over ten years interviewing every musician you can think of, and writing record reviews (which became CD reviews – which became "spins") mostly in the hard rock and alternative rock genre.

I loved my job. Free concert tickets, free music, and the ability to have fascinating conversations with people who were living their personal brands. There was one part of the job I hated: giving albums a bad review. I did it… but not often, and the reason fits well into why you need to pay attention to what you Blog about. My general sentiment was that those who know me (or read me) understand the type of music I liked. If I’m reviewing a band, I’m doing it to tell you why I think it’s a worthy purchase. Instead of dissing a disc, I just preferred to not write about it all. So, if you liked an artist and I didn’t review their disc, odds are you knew that meant I was not a fan.

This Blog – Six Pixels of Separation – is the same.

I respect each individual and their respective Blogs. I think Bloggers do have their own rules. Personally, I’m doing what I can to avoid Blog postings that revolve around bad customer service experiences or criticizing a company. I’ve done it in the past, but I’m doing what I can to avoid them going forward.

Why?

Because you never know. Take this example: I complain about a company. Other Bloggers pick it up. It ranks high on natural search results for that company’s name. I know Twist Image will never work with said company because we already have a client in the same space. The CMO from the company I complained about leaves their position and now takes on the CMO role at my current client’s company. The account goes into review because this individual is holding a grudge.

It can happen. You don’t know what you don’t know, and people can (and are) petty.

So, I’m taking a page from my music industry days and doing everything I can to take the high road. I think there are enough people Blogging about bad customer experiences and we can all decide who we want to be customers of. The bigger lesson is in charting a course for your Blog and deciding the type of content you want to put out there and how it will look/live in five years time.

When I decided to not write bad album reviews, I had to approach my Editor and have a conversation about it. When it comes to a Blog, remember, you are the Writer and the Editor, so be sure to have a solid Marketing game plan and reason to (or not to) Blog about something.