(Former) Birmingham Mail reporter Adam Smith recently became a YouTube 'sensation' for all the wrong reasons. While in the USA working as a volunteer for Barack Obama's campaign, Smith was filmed, drunk, claiming that he filed copy while drunk and plagiarised the BBC website. Smith wasn't the first and won't be the last person to fall foul of his employer after being caught out online while off duty.

Aside from the foolhardiness of Smith's antics, 'his' video opens up two key questions:

1. The permanence of online content may mean that Smith's reputation suffers permanent damage
2. Churnalism -  does this point to more lazy journalism?

What goes online tends to stay there. Therefore individuals and companies need to be acutely aware of their online reputation. Anything untoward, no matter how old can help form potential customers views and inform buying decisions. This is why at Metrica we recommend that our clients pay careful attention to their online reputation. Managing this reputation and engaging with any sources of negative content can turn around what could petential do permanent damage. Our best in class clients take part in the online and CGM conversation to answer questions, put their side of the argument and to provide customer support. A social media engagement team can manage customer service issues and help prevent problems from arising. Pointing out inacurracies can also help, with bloggers or hosts removing incorrect content. For Smith, he may find that his future employment prospects are now limited by this affair.

We also blogged about "churnalism" recently. Smith's suggestion that he was pasting content from the BBC website for his Birmingham Mail article may or may not be true. If true, it is extremely worrying. However, I have no reason to doubt the integrity of the vast majority of journalists.What all organisations need is to ensure they are capturing all online content, including social media, to ensure that they can manage any potential disasters quickly and effectively.