How Social Media Can Kill Your Personal BRAND – Warning to Everyone!

This recent blow really caught me and my friend off-guard. Just a while ago, my friend (HR pro) told me that

A rip-off account from Friendster being used to ruin the HR pros online BRAND

someone assassinated her online profile – Facebook and Friendster were the ones being used to ruin her profile and online BRAND. And how the suspect did it are as follows:

• First, the culprit searched/accessed her Friendster profile – I would assume the person was in her network for a long time already since he/she was able to access personal photos of the victim, or if not, the suspect asked to be included in her network. And so, knowing or say assuming that the suspect worked for the same company – as what the suspect placed in her/his profile,  the victim approved the friend request.
• The suspect then created a fake profile using the victims’ profile and personal photos coming from the original public profile (that includes some personal information) – you can check the screen shot of the fake profile.
• To ruin her personal brand, the suspect used obscene photos he/she have gathered online – to spice up the profile, the suspect dropped a few unreachable contact numbers.

As for my assumption, since the profile was created/updated first week of December 2009, I would assume that the suspect is really connected with the Company. So that everyone may know, the victim is handling Employee Relations – who facilitates termination -  so, this  might be job related.

With the experience, I don’t think this is fair for us HR because for a fact that HR is just a mere facilitator and a consultant when termination is really necessary. We also have a grievance committee to help us asses the case at hand of which members are from different levels of the Organization. HR don’t just recommend termination if we don’t have a solid evidence at hand, and this is why HR job is really complicated. Mind you, a Supervisor have already asked me for a “fist-fight” outside the Company.

So, what can we learn from this experience?

• First, limit your social media profile to people whom you really know.
• Scrutinize every friend request – ask questions if it’s really necessary.
• From time to time update/evaluate every friends you have in your network.
• Don’t forget to engage with your network – talk to them, write on their walls and take time to ask them questions (pro-active approach).

As for the case updates, we are now approaching legal authorities to teach this person a lesson. We’ll see if our case sticks because if this one sticks this will serve as a warning shot to those people who don’t know the ethics of using social media.

Lastly, if you have something in mind for us to expedite and solidify our case, please feel free to use the comment section.