Very scary! Brings to mind all we know and say about managing reputation and how quickly things can go awry.

It also makes me think of when I was a child, and toys were not as well screened for safety as they are today. My Dad gave me a miniature steam engine. You’d put water in a tank and pellets of fuel underneath. Light the fuel and the boiler would drive a wheel. You couldn’t do much else with it, but for a kid my age, it was fascinating. I was old enough to know that if I stuck my finger in the flywheel, it would get hurt. However, it did not occur to me that if I were to touch the top of the boiler, it would be hot. One touch taught me that!

My point is that with new media, we’re a bit like kids with a new toy. It frequently is difficult to play out future scenarios with variables that are new to us. And all the new social media tools are new variables. Your experience and those of others help us all see how these situations can play out and that there is danger hidden within the allure.