Social networking - the dangers

Last week I blogged about using Twitter as a marketing tool for educational institutions. Having talked up the positives I thought I should complete the picture by discussing the risks involved in using social networking tools as part of your marketing strategy.

As discussed briefly last week, Twitter is just one of a fairly new batch of social networking web sites. Put simply these are web sites that enable people to join and connect easily with others. Unless you have been living on another planet you will have heard of some of the big players in this area, including MySpace, Facebook and Twitter.

Many businesses, including educational institutions, are now using these social networking tools as part of their marketing strategy. It can work very well if done properly.

One of the emerging risks in this area is a form of web based identity theft. There are increasing instances of educational institutions having their brand used on social networking sites without permission. Corporate branding is used to establish official looking user groups and sub communities, often with a commercial gain in mind.

A recent post on squaredpeg.com provides alarming details of highly organised misuse of college/univeristy intellectual property (i.e logos) to establish "Class of 2013" groups on Facebook. It makes for interesting reading and tracks the unfolding discovery of the extent of the scheme. Many of the groups alrady had hundreds of unsuspecting students as members. Presumably many of them thought that they had joined an "official group" started and/ir moderated by the institution in question. At last count over 200 colleges in the US had been affected.

This type of behvaiour is akin to identiy theft. And the real concern for institutions is the loss of control of their corporate identity and the very high reputational risk that comes from having that identity hijacked by an outsider.

I guess the moral of this story is that institutions need to be aware of how their brand is being used in cyberspace. Even if you don't use social networking tools as part of your marketing strategy it is very important to have a sense of the presence your school has on the web. The cost of doing nothing could be very high.