The Power of Words

By Terry Whalin @terrywhalin



I live near Denver, Colorado and
watch some local news on Channel 9.  Countless times I've watched Marty Coniglio
give his weather forecast. He has been with the station for 16 years. Like many
in journalism, Coniglio is active on Twitter. Last week, he sent out a tweet
comparing federal troops to Nazis. Here's the details in the Denver Post article. He is no longer
employed at the station. As I read the story, it reminded me that our words
have power.






The
Danger of A Habit




As a reader, I have been reading
and listening to books for years. Each time I write a short review (normally
less than 150 words) and post my review on Amazon and Goodreads. I've written
over 1,000 Amazon reviews
and over 600 reviews on Goodreads (where I have 5,000 friends and my
reviews get a lot of attention and reading). I read and listen to many different
types of books. Recently I listened to part of a bestselling book—which was
filled with hatred (in my view every sentence). As an editor, I often evaluate a
book based on a short portion. In this case, I decided not to listen to the rest
of the book and wrote that information into my short review. I followed my habit
and posted the review on Amazon and Goodreads. There are hundreds of reviews for
this book and my review joined those reviews.




The final portion of my habit is
to post my review with the cover on social media. I have over 200,000 Twitter
followers, over 18,900 connections on LinkedIn and over 4900 Facebook friends. I
didn't think about my posting because it is a habit. The reaction
surprised me but I should have known when I did it. I spent about 48 hours on
Facebook monitoring, deleting and even blocking some people (when you have 4,900
“friends” it is no big personal loss to block some people). My short post was
consuming way too much energy and time. I deleted the post on all of my social
media platforms. In a few minutes, it was gone. Did lots of people see it? Yes
and I learned even with a habit to think about each post.




I temporarily forgot some
critical things about the Internet and social media. While you may be writing
the material for yourself, other people read it. part of the social media
process is other people are going to respond and react to whatever you said.
Also these words are often out online forever. In this volatile, on-edge world,
common sense reminds of the small talk advice: “avoid religion and politics.” It
also applies to our social media. From this experience, I was reminded our words
matter. In fact, our words have power and people read them. It's good to use
caution and wisdom with what you put online.




As you write today, be aware your
words have power to heal or to harm. Let me know your thoughts about this subject in the comments
below.




Tweetable:




When you write, are you aware your words have power? Get the details of what this prolific editor and writer is learning about the power of words. (ClickToTweet)









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