Social Networking and Brand Security

You can't escape social networking these days. Everyone you know and everything you do is on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Probably all three. It makes sense, then, that Internet advertising is no longer just a matter of weird sidebars and popup ads. Companies have social media pages purely for advertising their product and interacting with customers (and there are now social media pages about companies' social media pages).

While this adds a more personal feel to mass advertising, it has its drawbacks. Being more exposed socially can put brands in the spotlight for reasons they never intended. Twitter has allowed companies to have short personal conversations with consumers, but embarrassing tweets (like those collected here and here) show that the actions an individual takes in about thirty seconds can cause a company grief for years (some of the tweets listed were from 2011 and are still being mentioned today). Once your hilariously embarrassing and tasteless comment is on the Internet, it's there to stay. Deleting the original post doesn't matter; hundreds of people will have screencapped, archived, or quoted it already.

Twitter: a great place for mistakes that last forever

So how do companies avoid these risks to their brands? Social media management sites, such as HootSuite, have begun to emerge and are becoming a necessity for larger businesses. These services link with multiple social media accounts, allowing companies to keep a closer eye on how the world is seeing them. HootSuite also recently announced it was partnering with Nexgate for added security. This partnership has lead to features that will "help prevent hackers from hijacking your social media accounts by setting alerts when account changes are made, and by allowing you to immediately lock your accounts" (source).

Social media is no longer something reserved for personal use; it has grown to be an integral part of running a successful company. HootSuite alone has 7 million users (and 774 of the Fortune 1,000 companies), and millions more people are using other social media management tools. These numbers show that social media in the workplace is here to stay, and that smart companies will do everything in their power to get a positive social media image out to the public.