As in real life, so too in digital, you need to secure your assets. You are strongly advised to claim your online real estate, including your:

• domain name (the website address or URL)
• Twitter handle
• account name in LinkedIn, SlideShare, Google Plus and Facebook.

Even if you don’t want to go social now, securing your digital assets is a defensive strategy. From a company point of view it’s non-negotiable. Imagine an online crisis occurs and you are forced to go online to defend your reputation, only to discover someone else owns your brand names online, possibly the hijacker who caused the problem in the first place.

There are three kinds of reasons you should own your name, business name and close variations on it:

• defensive — to prevent parody, spoofs, impersonation and digital hijacking
• online reputation management — to manage online crisis and build reputation
• forward-looking — to allow you to activate a social media presence when the time is right. Do you really want to be Jane-Citizen1957ab, rather than Jane Citizen?

Defensive: parody, spoofs, impersonation and digital hijacking

A defensive strategy needs to recognise several areas of vulnerability.

Parody and spoofs

Social media is rife with spoofs and parodies — some hilarious, others malicious. There’s no one ‘right’ way to respond to these; indeed some people believe parody is an important part of a healthy democracy.

Spoof accounts gain loyal followings and are so highly valued that platforms have developed guidelines for how to properly manage them. I love the colour good parody adds to online life, like the funny extrovert at the office who can lift the mood of everyone around them.

@LordVoldemort7, named for the infamous Dark Lord of Harry Potter fame, has over two million followers and makes characteristically sardonic observations, such as his Christmas 2013 message: Santa was a Hufflepuff. Harmless social commentary.

Professionally you need to guard against parody that makes you look out of touch or allows others to influence your reputation negatively. Parody may not be malicious but it can be inconvenient or damaging.

For example, in my home state of Victoria in 2013 during a leadership crisis the then Premier, Ted Baillieu, unexpectedly resigned. His successor, @DenisNapthineMP, declared on Twitter: ‘at least I’m not burdened by high expectations’. The announcement was made by a fake account, ‘not currently the Member for South West Coast in the Victorian Parliament and Premier of Victoria’. It was the last thing a party knee deep in crisis needed. A political party is a brand. Securing the names and titles of party representatives as though they were business trademarks could have prevented it. When I last checked, the not-member account had been suspended.

But legitimate news outlets had tried to communicate with the new Premier through the account (figure 7.1).

Ironically, many spoofs backfire when traditional media outlets think they are legitimate sources. Even established, well-regarded media outlets sometimes get it wrong. Both CNN and The Huffington Post reported stories based on tweets from a fake North Carolina Governor. The spoofer used the blunder as an opportunity to reinforce the importance of source checking (figure 7.2).

British news anchor Jon Snow fell for a fake tweet claiming CNN host Piers Morgan had been suspended. With the growing use of social media we will likely see more such spoofs in future.

Impersonation

Many platforms go to some lengths to distinguish spoofs from impersonation. Twitter guidelines state: ‘You may not impersonate others through the Twitter service in a manner that does or is intended to mislead, confuse, or deceive others’. The guidelines emphasise that spoof accounts ‘should not be the exact name of the account subject without some other distinguishing word, such as “not,” “fake,” or “fan.” The bio should include a statement to distinguish it from the account subject, such as “This is a parody,” “This is a fan page,” “Parody Account,” “Fan Account,” “Role-playing Account,” or “This is not affiliated with …” ‘

Done well, it’s like the daily cartoon in a traditional newspaper. With over a million followers, Elizabeth Windsor @Queen_UK (FICTIONAL/SATIRE) ticks all the boxes. The account transparently states it is fictional and the tweets are often clever and in good taste (as the Queen herself would be) (figure 7.3).

There are different views on how to deal with impersonation. Some people are happy to let parody accounts run alongside their own and consider them a compliment.

If a business is being spoofed there may be legal issues to consider. In some countries you have to actively protect a trademark from being misused. I’ve heard numerous stories from colleagues whose organisations were impersonated where a simple tweet or call to the offender about trademark violation, rather than any hardline legal tactics, resolved the issue. I’m sure this is not always the case, but it’s a good starting strategy.

Social media platforms have processes in place to deal with violations. On Twitter brand mark and trademark complaints, breach of privacy, copyright complaints, impersonation and name squatting are all violations of its terms and can be reported. Twitter also allows you to verify that you are who you say you are if your account is at risk of being parodied (in other words, you’re pretty important), although this service is not available to the general public. Facebook allows users to verify accounts. But a verified account distinguishes a real from a fake account, which means you need an account to compare it with in the first place. Twitter and Instagram only accept violation reports from people who are signed up.

There are legal channels to deal with practically any online issue, but prevention is easier and cheaper. This is a fast-evolving space; both users and platforms are constantly adapting as we learn more about how people behave online.

Hijacking

The now notorious hijacking of the corporate Twitter account of UK music retailer HMV by sacked employees in 2013 reinforces that corporate accounts require controls, manageable through dashboards like HootSuite, SocialOomph and Sprout Social, to name a few. In this case sacked employees briefly took over the company’s Twitter account and posted several frustrated messages before the company regained control and deleted them (figure 7.4).

Do marketing directors need to know how to shut platforms down? It should be an essential part of corporate governance practice.

So yes, it does take time to go to each social media platform and sign up, especially if you have to do so more than once to secure a variation of your name. It can be even more frustrating if a platform allows only one account per email address. Who needs yet another password to remember? But it’s pain for gain.

You can also create email aliases, for example on Gmail by putting characters behind a plus (+) sign after your username. For example, my gmail address is [email protected]. I can create [email protected]. I only recently found out about this and wish I had known years ago.

Online reputation management

Online reputation management (ORM) is such a big deal that it’s earned its own acronym, surely a sign that it has come of age.

There are two ways to approach ORM:

• proactively — generating high-value content and search results
• reactively — managing negative comments.

Both are important, and you need a fully integrated digital and social media ecosystem to do either. You have an online reputation, whether or not you’re aware of it and whether or not you like it; it’s yours to manage.

Forward-looking: activate a social media presence when the time is right for you

Finally, owning digital and social media assets puts you in the right place to go social when you’re ready.

Learning by doing is the most effective way to understand the power of social media, but you can start by listening and watching. Having said that, if someone says hi because the algorithms in their digital ecosystem have found you, think about saying hello back.

Social media is not pyramid selling, where everyone you meet is a potential buyer for a cleaning product and those who aren’t interested are dispensed with quickly. There are professional benefits that flow from relationships with influencers, but there are also just so many people who are interesting and worth knowing. I constantly connect online and in real life with people who have nothing to do with my work, simply because we stumble upon one another and find one another interesting. This is part of its magic.

Over-sharing and the future of reputation

Finally, an issue I know is on the mind of many is over-sharing and how it impacts people down the line. It comes up so often when I coach board directors or senior executives, or just in general conversation, that I decided to cover it here. It goes something like this.

Millennials are digital natives familiar and confident with technology. Combine this with the rise of big data (everything we do is stored), the current trend for over-sharing, behavioural traits associated with adolescence (risk taking, short-termism) and the relative newness of social media (it is yet to have its Three Mile Island, so to speak), and many fear the online behaviour of Millennials will have a negative impact in the future, including on career prospects.

My view is that, as with any period of dramatic social change, they are all growing up in the same boat. We’re in this boat too. There may be some intergenerational prejudice by those who control access to jobs for graduates, but let’s look at this in context.

Were you from an era of thick-framed spectacles and Harry Highpants? Did you wear bell-bottoms or kaftans? Has your long hair continued to haunt you as you moved through university into professional life? I hope not.

We may look back and blush at photographs of our hippy heyday of Cuban heels and headbands, but we should no more condemn them than those of us in nappies. They mark our progress though different behavioural phases. We can look at them and say, that was appropriate for my age then and the time I was in. Then move on.

Remember too that as this issue plays out it will have relevance to billions of people, not just outliers. Let’s hope that compels us to deal with it sensibly. For those in positions of power who have to weigh up the enormous amounts of data on prospects it’s healthy to focus on their legitimate skills, acceptable behaviours and potential, over youthful ‘mistakes’.

We should also be cautious of throwing stones. Technology is creating unprecedented levels of interconnectedness and though there are many positives, there will be unintended consequences. For example, as the Internet of Things continues to grow and products become interconnected, I will be able to step on a scale and automatically share my weight with a select group on Facebook.

If I am doing the Michelle Bridges 12-week fitness program I may feel motivated by the support I receive. But how would I feel if my health insurer accessed it? Could it be used against me? We are thinking through the legal and policy issues associated with advances after the fact. The creation of a technology drives us to think about the policy, not the reverse. This will happen more, not less, as the speed of technological innovation increases.

Don’t forget that data scraping, cookie tracking and breaches of user privacy by technology companies, governments and others mean that a lot of personal information about you is already out there. This is not about whether there are sordid details that might appear on the web. Comments like ‘If you don’t do anything wrong you have nothing to worry about’ miss the point that your life is your business, not that of others, provided you are not doing harm or acting illegally.

Recruiters, for example, use search to find out details about prospects. This is legitimate. But you may not want them to know your age or that you’re a single parent or that you need monthly dialysis, because these don’t impact your ability to do the role well. Many biases are unconscious and can prejudice people even if they are unaware of it; ageism is a classic example. This assumes there aren’t any deliberately nasty people out there who want to harm you. There are countless stories of aggrieved ex-employees or spouses who have sought to damage reputations not for legitimate, well-founded reasons but because it satisfied a darker emotional need.

Professional privacy

So does moving online mean you have to give up privacy?

There are mixed views on this. Many would say that if you’ve used email or text (unless you had your own servers) the question is moot, since all of that information is already stored.

As far back as 2010 technology heavy-hitters like Eric Schmidt (Chairman, Google) and Mark Zuckerberg (CEO, Facebook) declared that privacy was dead. Many people assumed we should accept this as a baseline from which to go forward.

Many large technology companies have breached users’ privacy and are being sued. Some have also been compelled by law to provide details of users to security agencies or courts.

But users are saying that’s not good enough.

We’re at the start rather than the end of the privacy debate. Privacy advocates like Mark Weinstein argue that social media companies can be profitable without resorting to data scraping or tracking cookies. He says people should be able to be sociable while still retaining their privacy. I agree with him that these are not mutually exclusive ideas. Just because you want to reach out to someone in Alaska you find interesting, it does not mean you’ve agreed to become a public commodity.

Minding your Ps and Qs is important in real life and online. Use good judgement. Professionals should respect boundaries around what’s commercially confidential as well as what’s socially acceptable. This has nothing to do with technology but everything to do with human behaviour.

Chapter summary

Securing your digital and social media assets is vital for managing online crises and to prevent parodies and spoofs.

A strong, engaged online presence will help you to be found by search engines and to build your reputation as an engaged professional or business.