Can a corporate blogger use the "F-word?"

If Fortune and The Economist can print these words in their publication (two of the most reputed ones) then I think that discussing about it is a moot point!

If swearing is a part of who you are in real life, then I for one would not want that person to write in any other way. Authentic/genuine posts by real people are why I read blogs and not the stuffy traditional “white collar” media.

Wow, you got a lot of comments on this. I am a mother. Also a foster mother. When my kids and fosters were little, I explained to them that there was no such thing as a “dirty” word. In fact, the word fuck comes from an old English word for planting (there’s that Ph.D. bubbling up in me), and you would be surprised how many currently “dirty” words come from acceptable old ones. (Details on demand).

But I did tell them there were things people didn’t want to hear, and part of the fun of life was to figure out who didn’t want to hear those words and correctly avoid them. Period.

“If you want someone to be authentic, how could you possibly get upset with them for blogging the way they (presumably) speak — whether that is stuffy and formal or profanity-laced and energetic?”

Speaking, ideally, is a two-way street… it’s not just all about the speaker, spouting off whatever little thing happens to be in his head at the moment.

Watch the listener, tune your speech.

Tim’s F-Bomb made me look twice at the product. It’s been blogged by about a zillion people already, but when he said it was fucking cool, I went, “Really?” And I went to the Sun pages and checked it out.

I frequently use potty-mouth words in my cartoons, but rarely in the text bits of my blog.

Why alienate a portion of your readers? I agree with Jeremy Toeman and Nathan M. You may feel genuine and open but if you’re writing for more than close friends and family, you should take into account the fact that a blog is a conversation.

In the professional world, it’s best to leave vulgarities out if you don’t want to exclude those who find it distasteful.

We could also debate the Puritan background, I’m sure, but I’m proud to call them my ancestors: industry, love of freedom, self-discipline and selflessness. I wish America could still crown its soul with self-control.

People that use those types of adjectives to describe something show their lack of education of the english language. You mean to tell me Tim was incapable of using any other word? Perhaps one even more descriptive. It also shows a lack of respect for his audience. (“See how cool I am! I can swear and get away with it!!!”)

Those of us who are corporate employees blogging in our personal time do have to be careful about some things that we say, but not this. We have to be careful about mentioning proprietary stuff, or saying things which are directly harmful to the company.

I agree with the others above – authenticity has really created the new communications medium through blogging, and perfectly polished prose is more distrusted as just another PR ploy to manipulate. Corporations should thank their employees who using blogging to put a real, human face on the company.

His blog clearly indicates he doesn’t speak officially on behalf of his company — so, this lite bon mot can’t be held against him. If you don’t like that kind of language, just don’t read his blog. If it’s offensive to you, then you’re probably not in his target audience anyway.

It’s simply inappropriate and shows a lack of polish, especially in a corporate setting. I doubt that you’ll offend anyone by NOT saying it, but you’ll simply never hear from the people who you do offend.

As a communicator, we want people to hear our message, but bad language can close the communication channel so fast we don’t even realize they’ve tuned out.

@17: “you shouldn’t use it while representing a corporate entity.”

Tim, on every page of his blog, says: “The opinions expressed here are my own, and neither Sun nor any other party necessarily agrees with them.” He’s not representing a corporate entity, and through what you said may be true, it doesn’t apply here.

Alls i know is the f word is special

http://www.funlol.com/funpages/historyoffword.html

@37. Hey, that’s great. All this says is while they may be his opinions, the use of that type of language simply says they are not well formed.

I believe that using the f-word in a blog or during a presentation is unprofessional, especially if one is representing a company. That being said, I agree that profanity attracts hype, and may be plus, sometimes.

Scoble, your use of the word ‘corporate’ was, I think, a bit misleading.

Since Tim’s blog is hosted on his own server, and predates his employment at Sun, it certainly doesn’t seem to fall into the same category as some others, say those hosted at blogs.sun.com….and he’s careful to point out that his site contains a mix items from his personal and professional life.

Deeby: if you can be identified as a corporate employee, as Tim can be, you are doing a corporate blog. Sorry.

It’s just the same as if people know who I am and who I work for and I get drunk at a party. I’m still representing the corporation there and can get fired or suffer career consequences because of my actions. (I’ve seen people fired for stuff like that).

I’m presently writing a dissertation about the ubiquity of profanity in popular culture. Of course, corporate language gets a mention as well. How do other bloggers feel about the heinous, corporate speech that passes for English in the boardrooms of the world? Isn’t that as unacceptable as swearing?