Earlier this year the expression “loose lips sink ships” took on a digital meaning when a Ketchum VP declared Memphis was not his kind of town.

Prior to meeting with executives at Fed Ex (headquartered in Memphis) the VP tweeted his true confession that he “would die if he had to live there”. A Fed Ex employee picked up the tweet, and sent news of this transgression to a wide array of senior leaders at the company defending not only his city, but also the company. For more on this check out Peter Shankman’s blog http://shankman.com/be-careful-what-you-post/.

Talk about your Facebook photo album at your bricks and mortar water cooler, and be prepared for the fire hose of opinion for or against social networking and its tools. Interpretation is in the eye of the beholder, and ironically the Ketchum story is used by both sides as evidence to embolden their position.

For those who remember when the length of one’s hair was a symbol not only of what generation you hailed, but also how progressive your thinking, participation on social networking sites has the same power to instantly divide.  Compliance officers are not known for their comfort with transparency or privacy, and a nightmare come true for them is exemplified by the Ketchum incident.

They should lose sleep at night.  After all it is what they get paid to do. The rest of us should sleep soundly knowing we are helping move our organizations and ourselves to an informed viewpoint about the ways and means of web 2.0 collaboration.

For better or for worse the vows of the digital age are written.  We all agree to uphold these vows knowingly or unknowingly whether we are online or not. Even if you don’t tweet someone who does who is standing next to you as you make an off-hand comment may unleash the full force of connectivity in less than a New York minute.  What do you do?

Opting out entirely is one solution, but there is no guarantee you won’t be found anyway.  Turning back the hands on this clock is harder to do than you think. Unless you are willing to unplug altogether (more on this later as I have friends who have done so) choosing how you engage is a better strategy.  The first step to a powerful choice is educating you on how to be a “good” digital citizen.

As they used to say when I was making my living on a trading floor “the trend is your friend”.  This refers to market motion up, down or sideways, but in motion nevertheless. To wish the market move a different direction than it is moving, is futile.  It has a mind of its own. True, the mind may be nothing more than the sum of all those participating, but the market acts alone.  The same is true of the trend of participation in the digital space.

Facebook users now exceed 200 million, and the bulk of these users are over 35.  For better or for worse these numbers will impact how you and I live and work.  Better to be cause in the matter of this impact than at the effect.  How to be cause in a way that works for you and your organization begins with playing with the tools yourself. If you are not currently on at least one social networking site, get yourself on one today. However, be careful what you say. You never know who is listening.