Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/177159
How about the woman who answered a Facebook survey asking if she believed in God? The woman answered no. Seemingly innocent,except that she was a teacher at a religious school.When her supervisor saw her response, she was fired from her job the next morning. The concept of branding has historically been important only inside the walls of advertising agencies and corporate marketing departments. Companies spend billions of dollars each year to protect and promote their brands.They buy media on the airwaves, in print, and online, all with the goal of disseminating their key messages—their brand promises—to potential and current customers. Memorable Moments continued occurs. The great benefit of Web 2.0 is that anyone can be a publisher of information and the world is the stage. The great danger of Web 2.0 is that anyone can be a publisher of information and the world is the stage. What makes Web 2.0 so dangerous is that not only can you share information and distribute it on a global scale without the benefit of an editor—what you say online can be archived and searchable by anyone…forever. Meaning that one online mistake can come back to haunt you theoretically for the rest of your life. Crazy? Not at all. Tiger Woods, Brett Favre, Michael Phelps and other celebrities have all had their reputations A Big Thanks Pictured from left to right: Out-going Board Members Paul Parr of Hockenbergs, Omaha, Neb.; Jerry Hyman of TriMark USA, Inc., South Attleboro, Mass.; Jim Bedard of Buffalo Hotel Supply Co., Amherst, N.Y.; and Jack Lewis of Mission Restaurant Supply, San Antonio, TX. 18 FEDA News & Views tarnished because of what surfaced about them online. Think it can't happen to you? Think again. There are countless examples of everyday people who have posted seemingly innocent messages online only to have those messages come back and cause real damage to the individual's career and reputation. For example, did you hear the joke about President Obama? A business executive did and posted the joke to his Twitter account. Pretty funny until the Secret Service showed up at his office because the joke—taken out of the context of being told in person with your buddies at the bar—was viewed as a legitimate threat on the President's life. Every Employers' Nightmare What is a brand? Quite simply, it's the unstated promise a person believes he will experience if he associates with a specific company and/or product. CocaCola's brand promise is"fun and refreshing." Nike's brand promise is "kick-butt on the competition." Volvo's brand promise is "safety." These are the images they hope to conjure up when you think of their products and they've spent billions of dollars to help develop that unstated promise within each one of us. In today's information-rich and publisher-easy world, if you post anything online then you're disseminating your message to the world and, by default, are promoting your brand—your personal brand. Unlike big companies, promoting your personal brand costs virtually nothing. But unlike big companies, where countless hours are spent thoughtfully planning the brand, your personal brand can be broadcast to the world with the simple click of a mouse. What is your personal brand? If I only know you by your Tweets, blog comments, or Facebook posts, what is the unstated promise I believe you represent? What is the unstated promise I believe I will receive if I associate with you? Does your personal brand complement or conflict with the image you've worked so hard to craft in your personal life? What most people truly don't understand is that the Web, by its very essence, is not anonymous.The Web, by