"Say It; Forget It, Write It; Regret It" -Marilyn Millan

How many of you have ever said or done something that you instantly regretted? Marilyn Millian, the Judge on the People's Court has the famous saying "Say it; forget it, write it; regret it." We are now in the digital age, and once something is written or posted there is no going back.


Just take a look at one of the first additions to Donald Trump's new Presidential Twitter page. The background looks like it was a picture from the inauguration, but what the internet did not forget is who's inauguration the picture was actually from. It did not take long for the people, and the internet, to realize that this photo was not from President Trump's inauguration, but from President Obama's in 2009. President Trump's Social Media team did not think before they acted.

Groundswell was truly at work. Groundswell is the power that people have collectively through technology. So even though, within the hour of President Trump's original background post, the background was changed to what it is on the right, there was no going back. There were multiple articles, blog posts, tweets, and shares of what it was originally. In the digital age that we live in, there is no escaping the groundswell. Below is just one Twitter account that captured and shared the Twitter fiasco that President Trump's social media team created. This tweet alone has almost 16 thousand retweets. With each retweet, the number of people seeing it exponentially increases.

With written communication,  in this case what is written or posted on the internet, the writer loses control. Interpretations are left up to the viewer or the reader and it is completely subjective. There is less control with the digital age and that is because of the groundswell. From the example of the Twitter background, this shows us that companies need to be very careful about what they post, but also how they react to what is posted.

A companies' brand is no longer what they say it is, but what people say it is. The power has truly changed. Companies have to accept that the groundswell exists, and start using it to their advantage. This means they need to start being proactive and connect with the people. Hear what they are saying about your brand, and use that as ways to improve it.