SAFEGUARDING YOUR BRAND ON SOCIAL MEDIA

Posted by Renato Cruz Sogueco | Jul 25, 2017 | Accounts and Handles, Facebook, Floriology Magazine, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Reputation Management, Twitter | 0 |

Protecting your brand online starts with your domain name—by now (hopefully), you’ve secured a domain refl ecting your business name, such as renatosflowers.com for my make-believe shop, Renato’s Flowers. Your online brand extends to social media. Have you secured user handles for the major social media outlets?

Using my example, secured handles for the “renatosflowers” user or handle would allow customers to access your accounts with branded URLs such as the following:

❋ facebook.com/renatosflowers
❋ pinterest.com/renatosflowers
❋ twitter.com/renatosflowers
❋ instagram.com/renatosflowers

Although you may not be using these social media outlets, it’s still important to secure these handles considering that ANYONE could secure them with just an email including your competitors. A great tool to use to check this ASAP is namecheckr.com. You just input your preferred handle and this tool verifies availability—indicated with a
check mark. Luckily for me, “renatosflowers” is still available.

Best practice is to ask your web host or provider to create a generic email such as social@renatosflowers.com. This is the account you’ll use to secure these new social media accounts. You can then forward this to your account as the owner. This is a safeguard, so if you hire someone to manage social for the business, you just forward this email to their account as well … so, if they leave the business, you’ll still have access.

About The Author

Renato Cruz Sogueco

husband, father, writer, technologist, organic farmer, golfer, artist, skier, scout leader, fisherman, patron of the arts, foodie, traveler, great friend, pianist, aquaponics grower, beekeeper, lumberjack, sailor, gadget hound, ballroom dancer, handyman

Introduction

Hello! I’m Renato and serve as Vice President of Digital Strategy and Education at BloomNet, a premier florist services company. My primary role is to serve BloomNet’s member florists by developing customized services and solutions focusing on search engine optimization (SEO), search engine marketing (SEM), social media, content marketing and mobile strategy to help them build web sales and engage customers. I also serve as lead educator for new technology, digital marketing strategy and business, consumer and demographic trends at the Floriology Institute in Jacksonville, FL.

Prior, I served as Chief Information Officer (CIO) for the Society of American Florists (SAF), the floral industry’s trade organization providing marketing, technology and government relations for flower growers, suppliers, wholesalers and retailers.

I regularly evangelize technology and marketing benefits and best practices through a weekly blog at floriologyinstitute.com, a monthly column in Floriology magazine, articles in state and regional floral association publications, presentations at floral industry events, monthly webinars, on social media and chat (yes, on the phone) with BloomNet members to help solve their challenges.

I served as an active volunteer for the American Society of Association Executives (ASAE) where I chaired the ASAE Technology Council, was a founding member of the Young Professionals Committee and continue to be active as a Diversity Executive Leadership Scholar (DELP).

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