Playing ostrich is not a reputation management strategy
Seeing the mistakes of their peers in nationwide headlines has many scared to engage in public Internet use at all. Problem is, avoiding that altogether is just another way to create issues for yourself.
Ahh, we can hear you now…“But if I don’t create social media profiles or publish anything under my name, then how can I run into trouble?”
Simple really. If you’re not proactive in securing your online presence – creating profiles, publishing information about yourself, and generally making the info you put out easy to find – someone else will do it for you. This ranges from the automatic, ie. search bots pulling up anything with your name in it (old arrests or since-dismissed accusations are some of the most common we see), to the malicious, like someone purposely creating false social media accounts to post derogatory messages, and everything in between.
Although we caution you to take your time and please, please understand that everything you put out there may as well be permanent, having a full online presence that you own is an absolute must for crisis management today.
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For more resources, see the Free Management Library topic: Crisis Management
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[Jonathan Bernstein is president of Bernstein Crisis Management, Inc., an international crisis management consultancy, author of Manager’s Guide to Crisis Management and Keeping the Wolves at Bay – Media Training. Erik Bernstein is vice president for the firm, and also editor of its newsletter, Crisis Manager]
– See more at: http://managementhelp.org/blogs/crisis-management/2015/03/31/bored-snapchats-cost-rbs-chairman-a-job/#sthash.cPPgP12A.dpuf
Jonathan L. Bernstein, founder and Chairman of Bernstein Crisis Management, Inc. has more than 25 years of experience in all aspects of crisis management – crisis response, vulnerability assessment, planning, training and simulations.
Erik Bernstein is president of Bernstein Crisis Management. Erik started with BCM in 2009 as a writer and subsequently became social media manager for the consultancy itself as well as for a number of BCM clients before moving to the president position.