When you post your comments, blogs, articles and web content it's there to stay. Even content that you have deleted is in a cache somewhere and anything that's published on a public site you can't erase.
It's easy to forget that every tweet you post is on Twitter not just today - but forever.
I know of someone who used to like a glass of wine or two (or three) in the evening and posted something on a social network that he didn't even remember doing the next day. When asked he said "I remember thinking that, but I didn't actually post it - did I?" The administrator took his post down, but by that time lots of people had read it and it was the subject of a heated discussion in the forum. The post has gone, but the discussion remains for posterity.
Today information comes at us all at the speed of light - the information that's available to us in a single day is more than most of our grandparents got in their lifetime. Everything you say online reaches the furthest locations on the planet - in seconds.
Don't fall into the trap of thinking 'private' forums are a safe place to let off steam; treat everything you say online as in the public domain. It takes time to build up your image, brand and reputation - and can be demolished in a single tweet, Facebook post or LinkedIn comment.
