Jailhouse Tips for Surviving Online

Being online is not unlike the prison underworld. It can be brutal, savage, and unforgiving, and requires street smarts to survive.

Sitting in your cell alone, or not being involved in the online space, is no longer an option. If you don’t participate personally, someone else will on your behalf. In the long-term you can expect identity theft (or simply mistaken identity), smear campaigns, and social ostracization.

Michael Allison, a recent PR grad in Canada, said,

Think of social media’s value in a way where you can’t not make time for it.

Even if you don’t go online your competitors will. With some disastrous consequences.

So let’s get started.

Get Affiliated

The lone sheep is in danger of the wolf.
- Chinese Proverb

Just like in jail, the person who doesn’t affiliate themselves with a powerful or influential group online is likely to get picked on. Unlike jail however, affiliations should not be racially based.

Professional groups and associations in your area of interest are always the best place to start. You have the added bonus of informal mentoring and networking from your peers. More importantly, they can help show you the ropes.

If you operate a blog, join a group aggregate. This has the added bonus of increasing your readership. Link to others in your collective, and you will see the link love flow. Your feed can potentially be reproduced on countless sites, expanding your influential exponentially.

Get Social

Online influence and presence is largely a matter of how well you are known, and how well you know others. Use social media sites to interact and familiarize yourself with persons and groups of interest.

Facebook is one of the more popular sites, and is increasing in usage even beyond the younger demographic that it started with. Businesses are clearly making their presence known on Facebook. But other sites offer more sophisticated and professional profiles, with LinkedIn topping the charts in popularity. Ziki is one of my new favourites because it imports your blog and podcast posts for you.

All the social media can get overwhelming at times. Use an RSS reader for your blogs. I use FriendFeed to keep track of tech-savvy contacts, because it groups updates from blogs, social media sites, and other sources.

Own Yourself

If you don’t claim your name online, someone else will claim it for you. Invest in purchasing your name url if you can afford it, i.e. www.omarha-redeye.com. You can create a personal site there, or simply redirect it anywhere you like. In a worst case scenario, a competitor may purchase your name simply to discredit you.

Posing as a competitor online is far too common a tactic. Use ClaimID to let people know which links are really yours, and which ones are posing as you or is someone with a similar name.

There are free strategies available to help you own your own name. Explore and see which work best for you.

Hired guns are available. Reputation Defender will try to protect you and remove slanderous content. But few malicious posters will willingly comply with these requests.

When to Call the Guards

Security online is worse than the most decrepit and neglected prison. The guards rarely come when you call, and usually aren’t very interested in what is going on.

Legislation regarding online behaviour is usually rather antiquated. Politicians typically don’t know enough about technology, and don’t care enough to pass enough laws to regulate it.

Clear instances of threats of violence and intimidation should be reported to the authorities. Litigation is an option for clear cases of slander or libel.

And Finally, Relax

But the best protection is being surrounded with affiliates. There really is power in numbers when it comes to working online.

The one difference between prison and the Internet is that you can actually have clean fun on the Internet. Try not to worry too much about the bad guys once you cover all the bases, and go and enjoy yourself.

August 11, 2008 | Filed Under Omar Ha-Redeye 

Comments

6 Responses to “Jailhouse Tips for Surviving Online”

  1. Jo on August 12th, 2008 6:43 am

    Mobbability? Reminds me of going off to boarding school!

    What do I do about a Romanian site that copies my blog wholesale and adds my original address in small print? They even use the same name but with a blogspot instead of a wordpress address.

    @badgergravling thinks I should stop them. I am not sure how or even why?

  2. Omar Ha-Redeye on August 12th, 2008 6:54 am

    Like anything, don’t take this as legal advice.

    Intellectual property online is a huge issue. The fact that the site is probably using an off-shore server makes this a little more complicated.

    There are ways to issue orders for content to be removed. But from my experience, this just results in the same material popping up somewhere else in a very short period of time.

    A better strategy is to avoid trying to control the Internet as a whole and focus on promoting your content.

    How many readers do you really think they will get?

    Optimize your site instead, and promote your url. Look at them as a service that is providing a free mirror for you and showcasing your material on your behalf.

  3. Jo on August 12th, 2008 7:21 am

    Cool Omar, I had wondered if I was being too cynical in appreciating the link love and improvement in my page rank!

  4. John Carson on August 12th, 2008 11:13 am

    Nice one guys. Blogged.
    http://blogs.gcigroup.com/fineprint/

    John.

  5. Omar Ha-Redeye on August 12th, 2008 11:41 am

    Mobbability:

    The ability to collaborate and coordinate large scales.

    I don’t care what industry you are in. Tapping into large markets and having connections in many different industries over a vast geographic expanse can only be an asset.

    Social media is a must for everyone who wants to succeed in tomorrow’s business world, and those that get a head start are gaining a valuable competitive advantage.

  6. JF Ruiz on August 12th, 2008 6:20 pm

    Great you love what we do @ Ziki.com. Really inspiring article, thanks. I wrote a very likeminded article in the train some days ago ;)

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