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9 things to do NOW!

While I slept soundly during the night of January 21 to 22, 2012, my Twitter account got hacked.

I woke up Sunday morning to a slew of warnings from followers (thank you) and panicky emails. That’s the rub with getting an account hacked or pirated: usually you don’t even know about it unless someone tells you.

Act quickly to stop propagation

1: Change your Twitter password

2: Review the applications that interact with your Twitter account and unauthorize those you don’t know or don’t use often. If you are curious about new apps, you’ve probably approved many services to see what they offer and forgotten about it if you’ve not used them. It’s time to clean up!

3: Change the passwords for the applications you wish to keep linked to Twitter and reauthorize their interaction.

4: To be on the safe side, change all your social media passwords (LinkedIn, Viadeo, FB and so on) as well as your administrator access codes to your Web site and blog.

Deep clean your system

5: Clean out your browser’s on-line and off-line cache (if you don’t do it daily as you should!)

6: Again, better safe than sorry, run a thorough check on your PC. I use Kaspersky Pure, which is one of the most powerful and reliable ones on the market. A fully-functional 30-day trial is available for download. Checking my PC (complete analysis + object analysis) took the better part of Sunday. My PC was clean, but now I’m sure. Time well spent.

Everything returned to normal quickly, save that I was unable to send or respond to Direct Messages (DM). From the list of sent DMs, it didn’t seem like my hacker had annoyed more than 45 of my followers. False hope, apparently. Being blocked from sending DMs suggested that he indeed had reached the 250 per day limit. Monday morning, all services were restored.

Restore trust

Just because folks know these things happen (and probably already happened to them – or will!) doesn’t mean your ereputation hasn’t been affected. You need to restore your followers’ trust – in you, your Tweets and their links and in your network security measures.

7: Respond to every Tweet or email you’ve received warning you of the problem or asking if you are really behind that strange DM. If you can’t DM them back, post a public Tweet. This will help warn others and show you are taking care of the problem.

8: Start interacting again normally as soon as you’ve secured your accounts and are sure nothing strange is lurking on your PC.

9: Blog about it. Making as many as possible aware of the risks, how to prevent them and how to solve them will help stem propagation and make it tougher for hackers to get their jollies.

My take-away to myself

Thou shall not skip your monthly password changing routine, no matter what (holidays are not an excuse).

Thou shall not click on any links while using HootSuite on your cell phone outside in the cold  because your cold fingers touch the wrong link.

Thou shall test new apps, but remove their authorization promptly if you don’t use them.

Thanks, everyone, for your warnings and may this post help others stay safe!

Please share it!

Neither sending nor accepting such invitations are smart networking or business development moves. An on-line professional network’s value lies in its credibility, your own E-reputation depends on it.

Connecting with individuals you don’t know, but would like to get to know, is easy:

• You can ask for an introduction through someone you know in common
• You can send a message introducing yourself and explaining why you’d like to connect
• You can ask to connect with those with whom you share membership in discussion groups on these platforms

If you claim you’ve done business with me to connect with me, I am going to wonder about your business ethics and your networking goals.

And because my on-line network’s credibility matters, I won’t dilute it by adding people I cannot say one word about if called upon to introduce them to my colleagues, clients, acquaintances, or friends. It’s all about credibility and respect.

In sending an unfounded invitation to connect, you’ve wasted your time and mine.

I welcome new connections. I enjoy and look forward to meeting new people and sharing with them. I am a firm believer in the power of networking.

Please tell me about yourself. Tell me why you want to connect. What synergies may we share? What mutual interests can we promote? What may I discover from you that would benefit me? What may I offer you that you would benefit from?

I don’t want you to be just one more name in the race to the 500+ club. I want to know about you. Don’t be shy, you are worth it.

Enfonçons le clou : j’ai adoré le proverbe proposé par Frédéric Bascunana sur le blog de Joël Chaudy :

L’e-Réputation est aux entreprises ce qu’un lumbago peut représenter pour une danseuse étoile la veille d’un ballet.

Entreprises, vous veillez à votre image de marque. Vous investissez des sommes et des énergies conséquentes à concevoir votre présence en ligne, à rédiger avec soin vos messages clés, à peaufiner votre référencement naturel, ou à créer un blog pour renforcer le lien entre une de vos marques phares et ses fans.

Mais il y a une chose qui me dépasse.

Si vous avez fait le choix (pas forcément optimal -  parlons-en !) de ne pas confier la rédaction ou la traduction dans d’autres langues de vos contenus si soigneusement préparés, de grâce ! Allez au bout de cette logique limitative !

N’oubliez pas la balise “notranslate” dans l’entête de vos pages HTML ! En un clic de souris, votre image de marque et vos efforts pour séduire le prospect par le sérieux et la pertinence de votre expertise font “pschitt”.

C’est dommage, non ?

Surtout quand, en l’occurrence, la page présente le Département Image des entreprises et institutions d’une des agences de conseil en communication françaises les plus renommées.

Publicis Consultants

Le Groupe Yoplait, présent dans une cinquantaine de pays, a lancé un blog d’entreprise au printemps 2008,  Bravo la petite fleur.

Que penseraient des consommateurs américains qui s’efforcent à suivre les “niouzes” de leur yaourt français favori en lisant l’anglais charabia ci-dessous ?

Blog de Yoplait

Evitez les lumbagos !

Confiez le contenu visant un public étranger à des professionnels ou ayez le réflexe <meta name=”google” value=”notranslate” />

Digimind’s 56-page study examines in detail how new media have changed the landscape.

Web 2.0 tools have generated a new paradigm that allows customers, consumers, patients, politicians, citizens, business companies, leaders, executives, employees and trades-unionists to express themselves freely on the net. They can unite into communities, talk amongst themselves, and exert pressure on other groups. All this sharing and working together happens in real time, independently from the daily publication of newspapers or the ritual of television newscasts.

A study published on the American blog 97th Floor showed that 29 of the Fortune 100 companies were the subject of “negative” content, as shown on the first page of results found on Google, when you enter their name as a query on the search engine.

(DIGIMIND-WP_ONLINE_REPUTATION.US.2008.pdf, p.20 and 7)

***

How is the role of CCO changing and how are these new responsibilities triggering opportunities for language professionals to support their clients’ needs and objectives?

Corporate communications departments are adding new media and reputation management to their basket of responsibilities at a rapid pace.

Between September and December 2008, Weber Shandwick and SpencerStuart, with KRC Research, conducted their second annual survey on the Rising CCO, polling 159 senior corporate communications professionals (101 from North America, 46 from Europe, and 12 from Asia).

According to the results, for 38% of North American respondents and 46% of European ones, corporate reputation management is now the third most time-consuming part of a CCO’s responsibilities, after media relations and internal communications. One in five European CCOs added a Reputation Management function to their department in 2008 and European CCOs expected it to be their leading priority in 2009.

This shift leads to a reshuffling of the weight of various communications tools used in corporate communications. Media Relations remain the most relied upon resource for 84% and 74% of North American and European CCOs respectively in 2008. However, 18% of North American CCOs, but only 7% of European ones, responded social media/blogging were among the top three tools their department relied on most.

Looking forward, roughly 25% of global CCOs claim the blogosphere will be a significant challenge for their departments, with 30% and 26% of North American and European CCOs respectively expecting social media/blogging to grow most in importance in 2009. As a result, 41% of North American CCOs, but only 22% of European ones, added a social media/blogging function to their departments. It seems some corporate communications departments are going to have to play catch-up in 2010.

The challenge is indeed daunting. It calls for

the capacity to handle the extremely large volumes of information being broadcast: every second in the world, an average of 1.4 blogs are being created, 15 posts added to blogs, 160 instant messages exchanged, more than 500 webpages added or modified and more than 1,000 videos exchanged on YouTube… Even if you continually select which sources have potential influence, a huge amount of power is needed to process these sources.

(DIGIMIND-WP_ONLINE_REPUTATION.US.2008.pdf, p.31)

Weber Shandwick and EIU’s June-July 2008 survey “Risky Business: Reputations Online” points out nearly 60% of global executives expect their on-line reputation management to become more rigorous. This suggests corporate communications departments will need to become more systematic in monitoring and responding to Internet buzz as well as more proactive in their Web 2.0 participation.

***

How does this changing landscape open opportunities for language professionals – copywriters, translators, or intercultural specialists?

Traditional media afford companies the leadtime necessary to “get it right” if they so choose. Smart ones, recognizing the added value of communicating with foreign stakeholders in their own culture and language, make it a point to “think internationally” from project start. For others, producing materials such as their annual report in other languages comes as an afterthought. Rushing the translation/adaptation phase often results in lack-luster and sloppy copy that affects a company’s image.

The increasing role of social media and blogging in corporate communications compresses the timeline drastically. Moreover, it raises specific new challenges for companies acting internationally.

[R]eputation is no longer based purely on what is said in the mainstream media, but increasingly, and perhaps primarily, on what is communicated on the internet. Companies need to professionalize their internet intelligence and integrate it in their mainstream media surveillance processes, turn it into a real “management tool” for corporate communication and products.

(DIGIMIND-WP_ONLINE_REPUTATION.US.2008.pdf, p.32)

Integrated web intelligence services can help companies survey and classify the increasing volume of data sprouting on the WorldWideWeb, yet addressing a potentially harmful buzz or leveraging a burgeoning positive one still calls for interculturally specific human assessment and response.

Language professionals with the right industry expertise are choice partners for corporate clients operating internationally. Beyond their traditional role of crafting or translating copy used in traditional media (press releases, static websites, annual reports, brochures and so on), language professionals can offer new services to their clients, such as:

• Defining corporate editorial and language charters, to ensure harmony in tone, style, and terminology regardless of author or publication platform
• Monitoring and analyzing specific influential blogs and social communities, or even acting as moderator or discussion leader for company/brand on-line communities
• Collaborating with in-house project teams responsible for writing blog posts, responding to comments and taking part in social media platforms to produce multilingual adaptations in almost real-time.

Clearly, a compressed time-line combined with the need for innovative language services will change the traditional (often time-consuming) modus operandi between client and specialist, typically based on a quote for a particular document and set of specifications. This piecemeal approach is not suited to the changing paradigm. Both parties need to rethink how to work together, with a broader scope and longer view. Package-based and/or subscription types of business models are one alternative.

Companies need to recognize professional language and cultural services are an investment in their image and their turnover. Re-polishing a tarnished reputation on the Internet takes time and costs a bundle: digital archives are eternal and Web surfers unforgiving.

The frontier between traditional and new media is starting to look like lace.

How are language experts and their corporate communications clients working together to leverage the opportunities offered by this changing space?

Special thanks to Elizabeth Rizzo, Vice-President, Reputation Research at Weber Shandwick in New York, for sending me the full presentations of two surveys referred to in this post, “The Rising CCO II” and “Risky Business: Reputations Online”.