Here at Saba, we help to promote the use of social media and web 2.0 technologies to help your business succeed. The use of social media technologies although comes at a risk. Once you have submitted information such as messages, posts, or tweets, it can be pretty difficult to take it back. Unless you delete your post seconds after you have posted it, chances are that someone will have read it by then, copied it, forwarded it, or tweeted about it. This means that once you hit the submit or send button, you are no longer in control. This can be a great opportunity for companies, allowing them to take advantage of viral marketing, but what do you do when a potentially embarrassing piece of information gets posted? Ideally, honesty is the best policy and explaining your error in full sincerity will help to maintain a personal reputation or company brand from getting dragged on the floor. In worst case scenarios, deleting your current account can be your only option. This may also be the best option to get rid of that old sophomoric account with all the embarrassing weekend party pictures of you and your friends before going to a job interview (yes, they check that stuff). Note, deleting your account will not get rid of those instances in which your info has already been copied and saved onto other servers, but will only delete the content on your account.

A new service has been made public called the Suicide Machine. This service has made it possible to delete your choice of social media account or all of your accounts with minimal time invested.  Those who may take advantage of this service are those who are tired of social media, and want to just get away, those suffering from cyber stalkers, those who’s page was meant to be temporary, those who’s page has been inactive, or those who want a fresh start. This service can also be used to be sure your account has been completely deleted not just unpublished, but used with caution. Deleting your network means that all of that hard work you put into finding those connections will be lost. Meaning that friends wont be able to connect with you, or your customers will have lost access to you. If your company brand stands on the premise that you are reliable and always there….your brand may also be hurt by such actions. Deleting your account is only preferable on the rarest occasions when all other options are unavailable.

Otherwise, deleting your online accounts manually can be a difficult task. Just figuring out how to do it, can be difficult, and once you figure it out, you will likely have to fill out a lengthy questionnaire and be put on a long list for scheduled deletion. Two weeks later, your account is unpublished, not deleted. If you happen to log in within those two weeks, your cancellation will be canceled. This is only true because social media websites are not in the business of deleting accounts. They strongly discourage it, so will make it difficult for the average user.

A Time Magazine article reports that facebook is not happy with the technology, and has asked the company to stop accessing their site. Although the suicide machine has only helped slightly over  1000 people, facebook sees the potential for losing its share of the marfket.

If you want to start fresh with a new Social Media, Web 2.0 strategy that works, let Saba give you a free evaluation of your current strategy, or brand. We will research to find out what’s the best way to approach your market online. Call us today 866.937.1717.