This morning courtesy of business.ca, the online Canadian Technology News site, we have a timely item in answer to the question, "How do you stop a disgruntled employee blogger?" by Vawn Himmelsbach. You can see it here. The following two tidbits are my favorite parts and they are attribited to Stephen Turcotte, president of Backbone Media.

Keep lawyers out of the social media as much as possible… don’t automatically turn it over to the PR department. If this disgruntled blogger is a developer, for example, they probably want to hear from a developer, not a PR person.

I can think of a couple hundred dozen other reasons why they wouldn't want to hear from a PR person, can't you?

Meanwhile, some advice I would add is try reading the adversarial blog with an open mind. Sometimes, not always, the blogger has a valid point or two. Also, if you have a corporate blog of your own (don't be ridiculous, Sterling) you have a platform and presumed audience with which you can make your case.

You know, I think we're all genetically predisposed to disgruntlement. The words fired and disgruntlement have a way of snapping together in real life like H2 and O in nature. Some angry or disappointed people feeling hard done by are going to blog. Some will cross the line. Some may even break the law. That's different. But if someone has a legitimate gripe, he or she has a right to write about it. You have a right to read it. Then you can call the cops, the lawyers, the PR team and all the rest if you want, but you should first consider joining the conversation. Since there are at least two sides to every story, tell yours.

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