Your facebook page is a corporate asset

07 February 2011

The boundaries of what constitutes a corporates asset changed a long time ago.

I'm sure we all remember the news stories of multinationals forking out huge sums of cash to enterprising web squatters back in the mid-1990s. After that the corporate world woke up pretty sharpish to the value of a URL and went a bit crazy buying up every dot whatever was offered (remember how .tv was going to be The Next Big Thing and turn Tuvalu into the webhosting equivalent of the square mile?)

Well, we're not talking about a 90s style URL goldrush here but we do have some timely advice on protecting your social media and online marketing assets.

1) Whether you intend to use it our not, make sure you stake your claim to your company name in every key channel and networking platform. Yes, it can be time consuming but you don't need someone faking obscenities on Twitter in your name or bookmarking inappropriate content on Digg to make you look bad. It happens, so invest a little time reserving as many profiles as you can. You could spend a week doing it so at least start with the obvious ones - Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin company profile, Stumbleupon, Digg, YouTube, Scribd and Slideshare.

2) Keep the log-in details and passwords. It sounds obvious but these things are easily lost so don't make it the responsibility of one person. Make a list of all the details you have and keep them safe and secure.

3) Set up an approval structure or only provide access to reliable trusted people.