While I’ve followed the story about Mark Zuckerberg dissing the iPhone, it wasn’t really of much interest to me–or to you.

Until today.

For those of you unaware, the Facebook CEO posted the following to his Facebook page:

For a CEO with a high profile such as Zuckerberg, that probably wasn’t the smartest of things to do. After all, journalists didn’t just write about Mark Zuckerberg making the claim, no, they wrote about the Facebook CEO dissing Apple.

Now, what’s the Radically Transparent way to nip this in the bud? Make an apology on Facebook? Stage a coffee shop group hug with Steve Jobs? Be seen showing off your iPhone to your friends in a trendy LA nightclub? Hmm, all not bad.

Certainly the best way to nip this in the bud is not this approach:

Yep, Zuckerberg thought he could make this controversy vanish by simply deleting his post. Oh, if it were that simple. Not only is this not the equivalent of the flashing Men-In-Black pen–we won’t all simply forget it happened–but it keeps the story going. Why did he delete it? Did Apple pressure him? Blah, blah blah.

Online reputation management tip #137: Deleting a post only ever works, if you have an explanation or apology to go along with it!

So remember, just like elephants, the web never forgets.