Business Is My Business

Being in a C-level management position is never easy. While the pressure of steering the ship through shark-infested waters is still there, there are added responsibilities in this digital age we live in that have never existed before. The challenge is not just turning a profit for the investors, but also protecting the intangible items, like reputation and intellectual property, from trolls and hackers. Having a rock solid team in place is key, but every high level member should have a basic understanding of what is being protected and what the level of threats are.

1. Digital Content Management: Anyone that has ever hit the delete key while typing a college paper understands why protecting digital content is important. For a business, the content is so much more than a simple 3-page biology paper. Digital content can be anything -- print, video, audio, and images -- that a company has produced over time. It needs to be created, obviously, but it also needs to be cataloged, edited, and stored, both physically and in a secure cloud-based system. In fact, many large corporations are hiring digital librarians and digital archivists to manage their immense collections. 

2. Technology Escrow: Living in a digital age means passwords -- lots and lots of passwords. Technology escrow services exist to store all that intangible information. Materials such as passwords, encryption information, source code, and the files or scripts required to re-build your operating system all need to be safeguarded by uploading them to a secure organization that specializes in protecting your data. Think of it as 'backing up' the entire company.  

3. Online Reputation: There is an old proverb that states, "Bad news travels fast." Whoever wrote that had never seen the power of the internet, where good news travels fast, and bad news takes milliseconds. The online reputation of your business is more important in this day and age than in any other. Knowing what people are saying about your business and how to best spin that information to the company's benefit could be essential to its very survival.

4. Social Media Presence: Two decades ago, no one would have imagined that people could upload videos of their cat for the entire world to watch at their leisure -- or that anyone would want to watch. A business needs to have an active, branded presence on as many social media channels as apply to its target market, from the old standbys like Facebook and Twitter to the up-and-comers, like SnapChat and Periscope. While entire teams of digital marketing professionals are often required to manage social media channels, knowing the basics is important for everyone on the team.