On Friday, tragedy struck when an armed man went on a shooting spree at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut and claimed the lives of 27 people, at least 20 of which were children between the ages of 5 and 10. The gunman, identified as 20 year old Adam Lanza, shot himself dead afterwards. This was the second highest death toll inUSschool shooting history next to the Virginia Tech shooting in 2007.

Needless to say, the dreadful incident devastated the entire nation, but what's even sadder is the fact the journalists and bloggers used social media along with their influence, to spread unconfirmed information which later turned out to be false.

See, while the story was still developing, CNN initially (and mistakenly) identified the shooter as Ryan Lanzo (instead of Adam). Shortly after his name was released, netizens scoured the web and social networks to grab whatever information they can find about him. It wasn't long before his Facebook photo was broadcasted across numerous high profile blogs, including Gawker and BuzzFred, and what came next was a whole lot of misled reactions from Internet users. Terrible) comments, heated debates, and even Facebook pages of hate towards Ryan started popping up.

And when the truth that it was actually Adam who was the shooter finally came out, the damage had already been done. Sure, it can be argued that journalists and bloggers were only trying to do their jobs which is to get information out to the hungry public. But does that excuse poor fact-checking or posting the photos and social media links of a "suspect" when the facts weren't confirmed yet? No. Or at least, it shouldn't. As Lance Ulanoff pointed out in his Mashable post, Covering Conn. Shootings: Let's Be Right, Not First:

No one waits for the facts anymore, least of all online media. It is "find and run with it." All apologies can come later. It's just media, after all. Just digital words and images, easily changed with the stroke of a key. People will read the update or the updated post. So it's all good, right?

Except it's not.

What's crystal clear is that, in these situations, whatever information is put out there will instantly grow legs and run off on its own. Whoever reports the misinformation has absolutely no control over what happens next. They can't run around the neighborhood and grab the newspapers off newsstands, though they often act as if they could.

You may think that this type of lesson would only apply journalists or news bloggers, but the fact is anyone who puts out content online should learn from this incident. Whether you're a small business blogger publishing tips for entrepreneurs, or an SEO helping others keep up with Google, remember that as content producer on the Internet, you have a responsibility to your audience.

People visit your website because they want to learn. They want to get tips, news, and advice that they can actually use. With that said, avoid making the mistakes the above-journalists did. Before posting anything, always verify your sources and avoid misleading your audience. Always put your users first and remember that without them, you wouldn't even have a website to begin with.