Fast food chain McDonald’s found itself in hot water Wednesday after someone hacked into their Twitter account. The tweet criticized President Donald Trump, saying “You are a disgusting excuse for a President and we would love to have Barack Obama back, also you have tiny hands”. The tweet was deleted 20 minutes after it was posted, but it had already been retweeted hundreds of times.
This is not the first time a company’s social media account has been hacked and caused controversy. This type of hacking on major corporations has been on the rise to spread politically fueled messages. While a swift response helps resolve the situation, it does take a lot of damage control to repair a company’s image and reputation. Being a presenter, hopefully you won’t ever be hacked, but you are capable of overcoming it. Here are some ways you can use your presentation skills to handle hackers.
Control Your Narrative:
At Ethos3, we talk a lot about storytelling and narrative. Research shows stories are easier for audiences to remember. But this technique can also be used to come up with a strategy for dealing with hacking. If one of your social media accounts gets hacked, come up with a series of responses for any feedback you will most likely receive. Stick to talking points that explain how you are handling the situation, how you are sorry for the situation, and what changes to you are implementing to prevent the situation from happening again.
Use Data:
Use your situation to raise awareness about hacking. Do some research on your own company to show how often you have prevented hacking attempts. Or look up national numbers on how often hacking is happening in the U.S. to show how this is a serious problems. Instead of playing the victim, be the advocate for protecting business from hacking with evidence to back it up.
Create a Call to Action:
Turn your advocation into action. Let your game plan to combat hackers be a call to action for other businesses to do the same. Create a step-by-step guide that you can share online or between colleagues so that more and more people can learn how to prevent their accounts from being vulnerable to hacking. This puts you in a position of being a leader of a cause that is growing to be more important to more people.
While it is difficult to deal with the problems hacking can cause, it is not the end of the world. Many corporations are stepping up their cyber security and dealing with hacking issues head on. You can do the same, but in a more impactful way because you are a presenter. You already know how to captivate an audience with storytelling, data and calls to action. Apply these skills if you ever end up in a hacking situation of your own.
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