Blake Dowling
There are few certainties in life; in the blink of an eye, good times can turn very, very bad.
One decision made 14 years ago that came back to life in a bad way was from former Secretary of State Mike Ertel.
At this point, we are not sure if the picture (from 2005) ever existed on social media or someone was just holding it — such as the anonymous person who leaked it.
While there are plenty of life lessons here, let’s focus on just one: Whatever goes up on the internet is going to stay there for a long, long time. Even with professionals on the case, it is still very hard to remove all traces of a cyber footprint.
Years ago, I wrote about “revenge pornography,” and it took legislation in Florida to help victims get those images off the web.
So, let’s not dwell on character or intent here; we are going to focus on the fact that the internet does not go away.
The emphasis will be on two areas: 1) What I call “insta-pain” and 2) Resurrection.
Insta-pain of the internet goes like this — You work for the Florida State Athletics Department and to celebrate the legacy of Martin Luther King, you alter a picture (just a little bit) and launch it on social media.
It’s quickly perceived by the digital masses to be in poor taste, so within the hour, it is deleted.
But guess what? It is still found instantly with a Google Search, as the offending image made the news around the nation on that day. It will be on the internet forever.
Everyone from ESPN and Sports Illustrated to USA TODAY picked it up.
Insta-pain it is easy to fix, with protocols and policies for social media; some sort of checks and balances in place, especially if you have a large audience or are positioned where everything you put out will be highly scrutinized. This includes all politicos.
The court and jury of the cyber-verse are waiting to pounce at the slightest misstep. Or, in this case, a rather large one.
Don’t put an intern in charge of the social media account, it is your digital brand and should be treated as an original Monet.
Moving on to “Resurrection.”
Say it’s 2005, and you posted something on Myspace. (Remember that? Well, guess what, it is still out there.)
When I was in college, there were no social media; but for all you 20- and 30-somethings working in The Process, you had better perform a personal cyber-audit — just to make sure that picture of you from Gasparilla 2002 is not still floating out there.
What is lurking in your cyberland can jump back into today quickly; what you thought was acceptable (or amusing) at 21 might be very different at 35.
Hopefully, if you take away anything from today’s piece, it is the following: have a few checks and balances for your social media — to avoid the insta-pain.
Perhaps a quick social media audit also might be in order before running for office. Social media land mines are everywhere, some of the platforms themselves are to blame (see Facebook data leaks, Parts 1-6). With others, we walk right into them and can be avoided with just a little extra thought in advance.
Post safe out there, campers.
Congrats to Laurel Lee on the Secretary of State gig. I hope everyone has a great weekend.
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Blake Dowling is CEO of Aegis Business Technologies. He can be reached at [email protected]
