Words Can Hurt: Be Careful of the Online Comments You Post

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Remember the childhood rhyme "Sticks and stone may break my bones but words will never hurt me"?

It is NOT true. Words can be very hurtful.

Twice in the last few days I have been sent private LinkedIn messages asking me to deal with hurtful comments on two separate discussion threads on the LinkedIn group that I founded and manage.

In one case it was a matter of perspective. The offending comment that referred to "morons" appeared to me not to refer to a specific person although

I understand why that person thought the word did. Yet regardless of who the word referred to, it is not a nice way to refer to others.

In the other case the comments attacked someone's opinions rather than politely disagreeing and giving the opposite opinions.

Regardless of who we are, all of us should be careful of what we write on discussion threads or blog post comments.



Here is my quick guide for writing non-hurtful comments:

1. Before posting, read over your comment to make sure that you have expressed your opinion in a positive rather than negative way.

2. If you have used any words that could be deemed by others to be offensive, such as "morons," find a better way to express what you mean.

3. Be careful about making sweeping statements, such as saying "there is no …." or "everyone believes …."

4. Remember that comments should be helpful to others and not hurtful.

When you post comments, do try to remember the saying "do unto others as you would have done unto you." As thick-skinned as you may believe you are, you really do not want people saying offensive things to you. Try not to say things to others that can be perceived as offensive.

© 2011 Miller Mosaic, LLC

Phyllis Zimbler Miller (@ZimblerMiller on Twitter) has an M.B.A. from The Wharton School and is the co-founder of the marketing consulting company www.MillerMosaicLLC.com

The company offers consulting on book publishing and book marketing – see http://www.millermosaicllc.com/book-m... – as well as builds WordPress websites for authors – see www.millermosaicllc.com/call-to-action-websites

You can learn about Phyllis' fiction and nonfiction books – including her ebooks – at http://budurl.com/PZMbooks