In earlier times, almost all travel was adventure travel. There were risks at every step: kidnapping and banditry, disease, unsatisfactory medical care, attacks from animals.
In the best of circumstances, travel was exotic because it was so often mysterious. The world was much larger. One could not reasonably expect to rely on one’s own mother wit or prior experience.
A genre soon emerged and evolved to meet the need: travel literature. The standard, from the 19th century into the Internet Age, has been the Baedeker.
Richard Torrenzano and Mark Davis are highly respected communications professionals. They have explored the further reaches of the Internet and returned with a Baedeker for our time: Digital Assassination: Protecting Your Reputation, Brand, or Business Against Online Attacks.
Serve to Lead examines the unparalleled leadership and service opportunities of the new digital world. Unsurprisingly, those opportunities are accompanied by new risks.
Andy Warhol declared, in the mid-20th century, that everyone would have fifteen minutes of fame. Torrenzano and Davis warn, at the dawn of the twenty-first century, that everyone can face fifteen minutes of shame.
Hardly a day passes that the Internet is not ablaze with flaming posts launched amid scandal or revelation or vitriol. Scarlett Johansson, the beautiful, gifted actress, recently found herself embarrassed by intimate photographs released online. By all accounts, this was not a made-for-Hollywood case of “losing” a video tape in order to get publicity. A hacker subsequently confessed to breaking into her phone and email accounts. Her privacy has been spectacularly compromised.
Digital Assassination identifies a series of “swords” which you may encounter in your social media journey. The authors demonstrate that history can provide a lot of instruction, at least for perspective. They also recognize that there are unique aspects of the Digital Age. They offer a credo: In a digital world, age needs to approach technology with greater skill. Youth needs to approach technology with greater wisdom.
The book does not simply identify the threats; it also offers “shields.” Each is a serviceable approach to reputation management. If that sounds rather grand–Madison Avenue-speak–consider that everyone has a reputation to manage online today. The only question is Who Will Manage Your Reputation?
Torrenzano and Davis have put together a Baedeker with a difference. Armed with their guide, you can emerge unbowed–and, hopefully, unscathed– from the risk of digital assassination. Even more importantly, you will be better equipped to craft your own identify, in ways both apparent and profound.
Digital Assassination is a must-read for anyone navigating today’s social media seas.
Richard Torrenzano & Mark Davis | Digital Assassination