What do Gas Masks, The NFL Draft, a Social Media Mistake and $7 Million Dollars Have in Common?

If the title tripped you up, you probably didn't watch the NFL draft last night, and you probably aren't up to speed on the plot lines that occurred. In reality, what happened wasn’t so funny. It should make everyone challenge how their social media accounts are protected and monitored.

Laremy Tunsil, who at one point was a potential number one draft pick fell to number 13, costing him an estimated $7 million dollars, all because his Twitter account and Instagram account were compromised. Both accounts were posting what can only be described as damaging content, or a social media mistake. On Twitter, a video was posted of Tunsil smoking, what is believed to be marijuana, out of a gas mask (below).

While on Instagram, text messages were posted showing Tunsil receiving financial assistance from the Ole Miss coaching staff.

In fairness, Tunsil was no stranger to discord, including domestic violence and lawsuits by his former step-father, who is believed to be a potential source of both the account takeovers and the video that was apparently shopped to numerous outlets, including Deadspin.

But there is a lesson to be learned for everyone from a high school student to a Fortune 10 company. What you do on social media and how those accounts are protected can have lighting fast consequences, both in your personal life and to your brand.

It goes without saying that this kind of incident should make everyone question how secure your organization’s and executives’ social accounts might be. In addition to the potential risk they could be breached, consider the information that might be leaked from the private communications that are recorded on those networks. For organizations that interact with their clients through social media in a customer support/satisfaction fashion, such as retail, banks, utility companies, restaurants, etc, this should be a major concern.

What would the fallout be if your account was taken over? Don't be prone to a social media mistake.

You can see the original post on his Linkedin.