Advocate marketing technologies are software platforms and tools designed to identify, mobilize, and reward an organization's most loyal customers and brand advocates. These technologies facilitate the creation and management of advocate marketing programs, which leverage the enthusiasm and influence of existing customers to promote products or services through word-of-mouth marketing, social media sharing, and other channels. Critical features of advocate marketing platforms often include:

• Identification and segmentation: Identifying potential advocates based on their engagement, loyalty, and social influence.

• Engagement and gamification: Creating challenges, rewards, and incentives to encourage advocates to participate in marketing activities.

• Content creation and sharing: Providing advocates with easy-to-use tools for creating and sharing content about the brand.

• Tracking and analytics: This method measures the impact of advocate marketing activities on brand awareness, lead generation, and sales.

Why It's Important to Know If Your Organization uses these Technologies:

Understanding the use of advocate marketing technologies within your organization, both sanctioned and unsanctioned, is crucial for several reasons:

• Data Privacy: Advocate marketing platforms collect and process advocates' personal information, including contact details, social media handles, and engagement data. Organizations must ensure their platform complies with relevant data protection regulations (e.g., GDPR, CCPA). Unsanctioned use can lead to non-compliance and potential data breaches.

• Security Vulnerabilities: These platforms, especially cloud-based solutions, can have vulnerabilities that hackers could exploit to access sensitive advocate data or disrupt marketing campaigns. Regular security audits and updates are essential to mitigate risks.

• Brand Reputation: Unsanctioned or poorly managed advocate marketing programs can lead to negative brand perception if advocates are not adequately vetted or if their activities are not aligned with the organization's values.

• Fraudulent Activity: Unauthorized individuals could impersonate advocates or engage in fraudulent activities to gain rewards or incentives from the program.

Influitive and Cybersecurity Concerns:

Influitive is a popular cloud-based advocate marketing platform. While Influitive emphasizes security, organizations should be aware of potential risks associated with any cloud-based platform:

• Data Breaches: Influitive stores and processes sensitive advocate data in the cloud. Organizations must ensure that Influitive's security practices are adequate and regularly reviewed.

• Third-Party Risks: Influencers may use third-party services for specific functionalities. Organizations should assess the security practices of these third-party vendors.

• Account Security: Ensure strong password policies and multi-factor authentication are implemented for Influitive accounts to prevent unauthorized access.

ThreatNG: Identifying and Managing Risks from Advocate Marketing Technologies

ThreatNG can be crucial in identifying and mitigating the risks associated with advocate marketing technologies like Influitive.

• External Attack Surface Management (EASM): ThreatNG continuously scans the internet to discover all externally visible digital assets associated with your organization. This includes identifying any instances of advocate marketing platforms used for managing advocate programs. ThreatNG can help assess the security posture of these platforms and identify potential vulnerabilities.

• Digital Risk Protection (DRP): ThreatNG monitors the dark web, social media, and other online channels for mentions of your organization, brands, or sensitive data. This includes detecting any leaked credentials or discussing potential security flaws in your advocate marketing platforms.

• Security Ratings: ThreatNG provides a comprehensive risk score by analyzing your organization's external attack surface and digital risk profile. This score includes an assessment of the security posture of your organization's advocate marketing platforms.

Example Workflow with Complementary Solutions:

1. ThreatNG Discovery: ThreatNG identifies an unauthorized Influitive community forum where advocates discuss sensitive product information.

2. Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) Integration: ThreatNG sends an alert to your SIEM platform, triggering an incident response workflow.

3. Data Loss Prevention (DLP) Integration: ThreatNG alerts your DLP solution to monitor and potentially block the unauthorized sharing of sensitive data on the forum.

Overall Benefits:

By implementing ThreatNG, organizations can:

• Gain Visibility: Discover all instances of advocate marketing technologies used by your organization and partners.

• Mitigate Risks: Identify and address security vulnerabilities, data breaches, and fraudulent activities.

• Protect Brand Reputation: Ensure advocate programs are aligned with organizational values and adequately managed.

• Enhance Security: Continuously monitor and improve the security posture of advocate marketing platforms.

• Ensure Compliance: Comply with data protection regulations and avoid potential legal issues.