With the dawn of the Digital Age, the world—and particularly the business world—has changed. Ever since Turing invented the first digital computer to break the Enigma code, the world has been set on an irreversible course, bringing us closer and closer to full digital integration. We are closer to it now than ever before, and this creates brand new problems in nearly every business field. One of the biggest problems that we have seen of late is the control of digital assets, which can be tricky due to their incorporeal nature.
Assets of the digital sort are those that are important to a company, but they are not necessarily tangible. To make a few examples, here are some digital assets that a company might make use of today:
While none of these might seem consequential at first glance, they have specific uses that can be both beneficial and hindering to a company’s image, depending upon how they are used. YouTube, for example, can obviously be used to broadcast video information regarding the company from viral videos to informational commercials. It is a great way to not only put a face on your company, but also to show the faces of your individual employees. The result can be very pleasing, and the same can be said for various social media accounts. These build relationships with the customers and in the end, can help you to make sales that you never thought possible.
The problem with digital assets comes into play when an employee makes the unfortunate choice to depart your company. What assets can that employee take with them? Are they owed anything other than their severance package? For example, if they actually created the company Twitter account, and they hold the password, should they take it with them? What about Facebook or YouTube? While these assets might not seem incredibly important, they can be. For example, what if your company has a LinkedIn account that contains a list of clients? What about all of your followers on Facebook? How will you get those back? Your presence in the digital realm could easily be threatened by a single person with too much power.
The best way to cover your assets, of course, is to make sure that you separate company property from personal property from the start. If someone creates a social media account, make it known and legal that the account belongs to the company, not the individual who started it. There are a plethora of cases in court right now that revolve around this very issue, making it not only important, but something that you should be quite aware of in your own company. Start reviewing your assets today and make sure you don’t stand to lose any.
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