Highly Confidential – This message will self destruct in 5…4…

How many of you have accidentally carbon copied a personal contact into a business email? How many of you have ever had to explain that your “pocket” called your best friend and left a voicemail of an entire business lunch? These are common occurrences that leave clients and companies defenseless when it comes to the very important issue of client confidentiality. For example, a former client of Brand Iron happened upon an email trail in which a former employee of Brand Iron called the client “a pain in my ass.” Needless to say, this wasn’t a breech of confidentiality, but a careless mistake none the less. It is safe to say that this employee no longer works here. Sloppy email etiquette is always to blame with some of the most notorious confidentiality mistakes.

Email: The Post-Postal Predicament
To avoid common email privacy pitfalls, it is important to look at your current email set up. It is easy to safeguard your email if you follow a few easy rules…

1. Turn Off Auto Populate
Most people do not realize that auto populate is one of the most commonly misused areas of email. This tool, while it may seem convenient, is very dangerous.

2. Apply an Email Disclaimer
We have all seen them. They are normally a little lengthy and we skip right over them. They normally look something like this…

CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE: This email message, including any attachments, is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure, or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply email and destroy all copies of the original message. Thank you.

If you were to be sued for the contents of an email, it is not certain whether an email disclaimer could fully protect you from liability in a lawsuit, but it could certainly help in some situations. Particularly, “breach of confidentiality” can be avoided by a simple disclaimer that warns the receiver that the email is confidential and proprietary.

3. Implement a Company Email Policy
If you feel that your company is still exposed by employees that will not use the appropriate “email etiquette,” impose an email policy. According to a recent article by an affiliate of The Wall Street Journal, “Thirty-eight percent of companies said they employ staff to read or analyze outgoing email messages, and that jumps to 44% of companies with 20,000 or more employees.” This is just the tip of the email iceberg.

The article goes on to say that almost a third of companies have fired an employee in the last 12 months for violating the set email policies. Email is no longer being overlooked by the industry giants. This means that smaller companies should take notice and follow in these same traditions. Brand Iron values client confidentiality, and we strive to always check, double check, and check again when it comes to client emails. This is what creates the bond of trust between a client and its marketing firm, however, once the trust is lost, it is much harder to gain it back than taking the correct precautions from the start.

written by Nicole Salerno, Marketing Intern

Great tools that you are NOT using

Part 1: RSS feeds

The tools are out there, and more importantly, they are easy to use. I wanted to share with you tools that I use on a daily basis that keep me sane. This, and the soon to be released, “Part 2: News Alerts” are both great ways for you to keep up-to-date in your industry and your life.

RSS feeds
These are a big help if you check multiple websites or blogs, daily or weekly. Instead of going to your favorite web hot spots for news, RSS feeds allow the news to come to you. A good way to illustrate this is your email inbox:

Imagine checking multiple email inboxes depending on who sent you a message. For example, to find out if your friend, Theodore, sent you an email – you would go to his specific inbox to see if he sent you anything new. Pretend that you had to do that with every one of your contacts, multiple times a day.

This may seem silly, but if you are not using RSS feeds, this is how you are currently getting your news. Instead of checking multiple sites and blogs in hopes of new information – you can let your news come to you. You will tailor your subscription list to the sites you visit or the sites you want to stay updated on.

Here’s an example of mine:

In terms of branding and marketing, keeping up-to-date on what you competition is doing is very valuable. Make sure that your products and services continue to be unique in the eyes of your consumers. Scout the landscape with RSS feeds and stay one step ahead of the competition.

To begin, you’ll need to sign up for a free Google account and start exploring Reader (Google RSS subscription monitor). Online instructions will teach you everything you need to set up your subscription list.

Post a comment on this blog if you have any questions.

Written by Josh Barker, Brand Iron Brand Wrangler