Blog

As the founder of a small business consultancy in Austin, Texas, Sara Christensen often used her own social media platform to offer industry tips and career advice. The entrepreneur and 25-year-old business veteran documented the hiring process for a social media marketing manager in her Instagram Stories and after an interview shared a photo of her story with an applicant (head cut off to protect her identity). in bikini. She captioned it: “PSA: Don’t share your social media with a prospect if that’s the type of content. I’m looking for a professional marketer – not a bikini model. ”The applicant complained and Christensen deleted the position. She admits it was a mistake. Only 57 people had seen it, but that didn’t matter – there really is no deletion from the internet. The applicant had saved a screenshot of the post and shared it on Twitter. The story became “Body Shame Female CEO Job Candidate” and caught fire, from ABC’s The View to NBC Nightly News, with Christensen generally slamming for the position.

But it wasn’t over yet. They meet anonymous internet trolls from all angles: they post bad reviews that undermine their customer list, send threatening letters directly to their customers, bombard them with more than 50,000 emails, texts and voicemails, publish and send their home address and personal information Death threats. “We see the headlines when an incident happens, but we don’t see the consequences,” says Christensen. She is from Minnesota and moved back last year to start over. Now Christensen talks about the real costs of the termination culture and advises companies on how to defend themselves against it. “Most people think, ‘I run a company with high integrity. I would never do anything stupid, ”says Christensen. “I’m here to tell you that all you need is a mistake.”

She shared some of her hard-earned wisdom.

• The media can be complicit

Some media outlets consider Twitter the primary source of stories. They pick up on controversial and outrageous stories – like cancellations. When the mainstream media picks up on demolition culture stories, it reinforces them and makes them aware of even more people who are engaging in attacks on your business.

• Protect personal information

Dropouts can easily find out your home address, cell phone number, names and addresses of family members, your car and much more. Now is the time to remove this information to protect your physical safety and that of your family.

• Develop a password strategy and stick to it

It is time to stop using your dog’s name plus the number “1” as a universal password. Develop a strategy for your entire company that protects your most important resources should hackers attempt to access them. Long, complicated passwords can be a nuisance, but they keep you safe. Using a password manager like LastPass can make this a lot easier.

• Be prepared

Don’t rely on a general contingency plan to protect and prepare you – you need a proactive cancellation culture contingency plan that is specific to your business and organization and is specifically tailored to the cancellation culture. Creating a plan now is the single most important measure you can take to avoid a cancellation and to lessen its blow.

• The culture of abandonment isn’t just about nasty comments on social media

Yes, terrible things are posted on social media, but the real harm is being levied directly on your company’s assets. These are assets that you have been building for years, assets that you cannot quickly rebuild after the mob retreats. Dropouts infect your website with malicious code that over time destroys it. They’ll swarm out to create tons of bad reviews. They will get in touch with your customers and demand that they stop doing business with you.

Read more in this issue

• Integrity doesn’t protect you

Don’t think that because you are a good person and run a clean, highly integrated business, you can avoid the quit culture. Attacks can start for seemingly random reasons, and often because you haven’t done anything. Once started, these situations are difficult to tackle or stop.

The demolition culture is not reserved for famous people. It attacks companies of all sizes and in all sectors. Unlike the President of the United States or well-heeled celebrities, most companies cannot intercept these attacks without permanent damage.