Three Massive Mistakes that can kill Your Personal Brand Online

Over the past ten years, I have seen many incidents when putting forward the wrong foot on social media, has destroyed many a promising career. The latest incident in Hungary, when camera woman Petra Laszlo tripped a Syrian refugee and his seven year old son in view of the world's cameras, highlights just how important it is to consider your every move (and word) in the digital economy. 

Here are three mistakes you should avoid online (and in the real world) at all costs, if you wish to have a long and healthy career, each illustrated by a horror story of just how costly one of these mistakes can turn out. Please make time to read these and to watch the videos inserted, as it will help you to examine your digital footprint and reevaluate your social behaviour. 

1. Thou shall not do Harm to Others 

Mr Alghadab, 52, originally from war-torn Deir ez-Zor in Syria, and his son suffered bruises when they were tripped by a Hungarian camera woman last week, as they were attempting to escape the crush of a large crowd of refugees.

Said the father: "There were thousands of people and they were holding us there until a coach came to take us to the border. It was a very small area with a huge crowd. People started to lose patience and wanted to walk the 10 km to the border - the police were standing there to stop people going."

'It was chaotic, people started to push. I didn't see where it came from, I didn't know if it was a camerawoman or a policeman.

I just felt myself falling to the ground.' Mr Alghadab, who has since seen the footage of the incident and another clip of Ms Laszlo kicking a young girl, added: 'How can I forgive her?'  

Soon after the footage surfaced on Tuesday, Laszlo was fired from her job as a camerawoman for Hungarian news site N1TV. She now also faces criminal charges for breaching the peace. It does not help that she has since apologised and claimed 'something snapped' inside her and that she was not

"a heartless, racist children-kicking [camerawoman]. I do not deserve the political witch hunts against me, nor the smears, [or] the death threats."

It is highly unlikely that she will find a new job anytime soon, and her action will follow her for a long time to come. And, by her own admission, her "life is ruined."

2. Thou Shall Not Bully Your Neighbour

Adam Smith, former CFO and treasurer of medical supplies manufacturer Vante, caused an online stir when he put up a video of himself bullying a Chick-fil-A drive-thru employee in Tucson on YouTube.

Smith berates the worker about her company in the video, which was initially titled ”Reduce $’s to Chick-Fil-A’s Hate Groups.” "I don't know how you live with yourself and work here," he tells the employee at the window. "I don't understand it. This is a horrible corporation with horrible values. You deserve better."

 Without hours of posting his video on Youtube, Smith's voicemail and inbox were overflowing with hatemail and his employer took swift action to disassociate themselves from the social media fallout. Smith was fired the very next day and the company released the following statement: 

"The actions of Mr. Smith do not reflect our corporate values in any manner. Vante is an equal opportunity company with a diverse workforce, which holds diverse opinions. We respect the right of our employees and all Americans to hold and express their personal opinions, however, we also expect our company officers to behave in a manner commensurate with their position and in a respectful fashion that conveys these values of civility with others."

Later, Smith himself explained how he wound up on the graveyard of social media casualties: "When I first thought about participating in this protest, I was really excited. I felt purpose in standing up against Chick-fil-A's funding of anti-human rights groups. I felt like it was the right thing to do — the human thing to do.

"After recording the conversation, my enthusiasm in standing up against Chick-fil-A was very high, and in that moment, I decided to post the video.

For me, and at that moment, the main goal of supporting the gay community outweighed the collateral damage that Rachel became. And I literally just saw Rachel as collateral damage."

Regrets Smith: "We have to stop rationalizing our destructive actions this way. We have to start seeing people as people. We aren't ever going to make social progress by personally attacking people. I'm clearly guilty of this."

Unfortunately for Smith, his apology did not help his career much, as he had to leave the state of Arizona and relocate to Portsland, Oregon, in search of job prospects, only to be fired by his next employer two weeks into his new job, when the company learnt of his notorious Youtube fame. Ever since, his family of four kids has been living on food stamps and his outlook for finding employment is dim. 

3. Thou shall not Lie Online

As much as social media may tempt you to embellish your achievements and impress people into liking you, in a desperate attempt to keep up with the Joneses, online lies tend to catch up with their owner online sooner rather than later. And when they do, they tend to be magnified, thanks to the so-called Internet Streisand Effect (named after American entertainer Barbra Streisand, whose 2003 attempt to suppress photographs of her residence in Malibu, California, inadvertently drew further public attention to it). 

One terrifying example of the Streisand Effect is Aleksey Vayner, a Yale University student who composed a 7 minute video of himself when he applied for a job with the investment bank UBS. Amused by Vayner's apparent puffery, an unknown member of UBS staff emailed his application materials to other investment banks. The video was posted on various blogs, then YouTube, where it became an immense viral Internet phenomenon. 

The video opens with a staged interview between Vayner and an offscreen voice. However, the "interview" ultimately consists of a single question, to which Vayner gives a lengthy, rambling response. Using considerable amounts of business-speak jargon, Vayner praises himself and shares his various insights on success, talent, and overcoming adversity. Interspliced with the interview are clips of Vayner performing various feats, such as: 

• Bench press: 495 pounds (225 kilograms)
• Downhill skiing with jumps
• Tennis serve: 140 miles per hour (225 km/h or 63 m/s)
• Ballroom dancing with an attractive female dancer
• Karate chop: seven bricks broken

Unfortunately for Vayner, it turned out that most of his achievements celebrated in the video, were embellished, to say the least. Legal threats by Vayner against UBS, YouTube, and various blogs only provided further fodder to the controversy. One blog, IvyGate, became famous from its disputes with Vayner. When Vayner emailed a cease-and-desist letter demanding that IvyGate remove "Impossible is Nothing" links from its website, the blog instead published the threat and taunted Vayner to sue them. In further investigating the incident IvyGate learned and published that:

• Youth Empowerment Strategies, a charity Vayner said he started, claimed a "four star" rating by Charity Navigator on its website, when in fact the charity did not exist .
• Vayner Capital Management LLC, a hedge fund Vayner says he started, had a complete website describing its personnel and investment strategies. The firm did not exist and the website content was plagiarized from a firm in Denver, Colorado.
• Women's Silent Tears, a book Vayner self-published on the Holocaust, contained passages lifted verbatim from various Internet sites. Vayner claimed that the text was a "pre-publication copy"

Admittedly, these three commandments of protecting your personal brand online, are not always easy to maintain, in the face of constant encouragement by your peers to blow your trumpet and keep up with the social Joneses. However, reminding yourself of the personal branding fallout from committing one or more of these online branding mistakes, would be well worth your time. 

How should you protect Your Personal Brand Online?

In a nutshell, here are the three rules on how to protect your personal brand in the face of the constant temptation to get excited and raise your opinion over matters that could land yourself and your career in hot water. 

1. Think Twice: Before hitting the Enter button, think twice about whether your submission is in line with your personal values and whether it could backfire on social media. 
2. Remember you are on Candid Camera 24/7: Unfortunately, this is becoming truer by the day, as every smart phone carrying person has the ability to record your words and actions in public - and many will do so if they suspect any wrongdoing on your part. 
3. Consult your Sounding Board: Especially when you are about to post a personal video on Youtube and feel strong about voicing your opinion, consult a person you trust with sound judgement and let them assess the potential for collateral damage before proceeding. 

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