Social media marketing has become the cornerstone of most modern marketing strategies. This makes sense when you consider there are literally billions of social media users across the most popular platforms, giving businesses the opportunity to shrewdly advertise their products and services while developing strong customer services. The blog post lists 13 social media safety tips to keep you safe on social networks. Read on to know how to stay safe on social networks.
Consider a situation – you post a private picture of your bachelor party showing some cozy moments with your female colleagues. Think how would your fiancé react when she will discover the snap. A humor goes dirty without any reason.
When you are using social networks, carelessness and immaturity are the last words you can tolerate. While using the social networks, you should follow stringent social media safety practices to escape any inconvenience later on.
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13 Social Media Safety Tips for Millennials
However, the fact that social media platforms are so widely used also means they are a massive target for cyber-attacks such as identify fraud, data breaches, malware, ransomware etc.
This means marketers need to ensure they have robust security measures in place to avoid falling victim to cybercrimes that may have a huge impact on the reputation of the business. Here are thirteen social media safety tips that ever marketer should know about in 2020:
1. Develop a Robust Social Media Policy
Not all social media marketing teams work around a social media policy yet setting one of these up is highly recommended not just for security purposes but to help outline the overall goals of social media marketing strategies. There are many details to include in a social media policy, including guidelines regarding branding, copyright, roles of marketers, and of course security.
Social media safety tips help the marketing teams understand what security protocols are in place and what they must do to minimize security risks, so be sure to include things like how to identify and deal with various security threats, not to mention how to prevent them in the first place
For instance, you can include how marketers must use strong passwords and two-factor authentication, how to use password managers and other security software, and what social media posts require approval. Develop the social media policy around your current marketing strategies and be sure to focus on the various security processes you require.
2. Use a Password Management Service
While setting up a strong password is an obvious security measure for social media marketers, managing these passwords can be quite difficult, especially when managing several different social media accounts.
It’s a good idea to have different passwords for each account too, as this means all the different accounts will not be compromised should one account be hacked, as the passwords are all completely different.
Therefore, using a password management service is a great way to keep on top of all your different social media passwords. These services securely store all your different passwords and include a master password for easier management of each account.
In fact, it’s recommended that you constantly change your social media passwords to keep security tight. A password management service makes this much easier, as you have a single resource where you can access all the newly changed passwords, so you don’t need to worry about forgetting any new passwords.
3. Set Up Two-Factor Authentication
You may have very strong passwords on your different social media accounts but don’t stop there. Taking advantage of additional security measures like two-factor authentication is highly recommended for your marketing department, as it provides an additional layer of security for each account.
Two-factor authentication is a log-in process for social media accounts where you need to provide more than just a password. After entering the password, you’re prompted to give an additional passcode, which is usually sent to the phone that is registered to the account.
Marketers will need a dedicated phone to link to each account for this process, although certain social media platforms do allow multiple numbers to be linked to a single account. Make sure the necessary people have access to this to ensure they can log into social media accounts and do their work!
All the big hitters like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat have two-factor authentication options, so take the time to set these up for each of your accounts. Yes, this will mean it takes a little longer to log onto your accounts but the improved security makes it worthwhile.
4. Establish Approval System for All Social Media Content
There are instances when social media security issues arise in-house. Whether as part of your marketing team or an outsourced contractor, sometimes the wrong posts or content are published and can have a negative impact on the business.
To avoid any problems with posts that should never be made by marketers, it helps to have an approval system for all social media content. You want someone you can trust to have the final approval on most posts, as this ensures that the content falls within your current guidelines and isn’t offensive or inappropriate.
This is especially useful for larger marketing departments and for businesses that outsource their social media content to outside contractors, guaranteeing that everything that is published under the brand name is pre-approved before publication.
Doing so can help put out fires before they even begin! You may want to use software that allows marketers to create draft posts that require approval before publishing to help streamline this process. Always have the final approval made by a trustworthy marketer!
5. Monitor Privacy and Security Settings
Social media platforms provide an array of privacy and security settings, so always take the time to monitor these settings when you set up the accounts and continue to check back to ensure no changes have been made.
For example, rather than having basic security questions in place you can adjust the security settings to have a very complex question and answer that is much harder to hack. Sometimes a malware attack occurs and changes security settings without you ever noticing, which is why it is important to frequently monitor all security settings for every account.
Privacy settings is also something to consider for your accounts. From limiting who sees the content you publish to how the social media companies handle your data, there are various privacy settings you will want to comb over to ensure they are appropriate.
Sometimes when automatic updates are made to a website or application, privacy and security settings are reset, meaning you should always check in on these settings and make sure they within your company guidelines.
6. Invest in a VPN
A virtual private network (VPN) is one of the most valuable security tools you can use as a social media marketer. Given all the senstive data you’re handling each day, you want to have robust security measures in place to avoid cyberattacks. According to BestVPN, VPNs offer premium quality encryption that take your cyber security to a new level.
For instance, it provides a secure network where you can make social media posts on devices outside of the workplace and even on public networks, allowing posts to be made any time and any place without fear of data leaks or hacking.
Simply put, any sensitive information that goes through a VPN is completely secure, so you can rest easy knowing that all your data remains protected.
7. Use Antivirus Software
VPNs aren’t the only security technology you should be embracing – there are lots of resources available to help keep your social media marketing safe and secure!
An antivirus software is one of the more obvious security solutions but should still be used by all marketers. Malware and spyware attacks are frequently made on social media accounts, with accounts belonging to businesses being one of the big targets due to all the data they have.
So, ensure that every device used for marketing work has a robust antivirus software in place. This includes mobile devices, which are becoming more targeted because people are overlooking the importance of antivirus software on their mobile devices – don’t make the mistake of leaving devices open to attacks!
That’s not all though, as there are many newer types of security technology that marketers should embrace. For example, digital protection services provide 24/7 security monitoring for social media accounts, helping to better manage security out of work hours.
These service providers monitor social media accounts around the clock and contact you whenever there is a security risk. For instance, if your social media account is hacked at 4am in the morning and starts spamming links on your accounts, you’ll be immediately notified and can take quick action.
They can detect most security threats from the offset, including malware attacks, hacking, scams linked to your accounts, and other fraudulent activities.
8. Effectively Manage Friends, Contacts, and Followers
Social media platforms are teeming with fake accounts that may have malicious intent. Sometimes these hide in plain sight, monitoring your accounts and waiting for the perfect opportunity to attack. Even if they don’t attack your accounts directly, they may target your customers using fraud, so it’s important to regularly manage any friends, followers, and contact on your accounts.
In fact, you should regularly clear out these various contacts, including accounts you are following, as the more people you connect with, the greater the security risk. Don’t be afraid to block followers that appear to have fake or fraudulent accounts! The last thing you need is for someone associated with your brand to be responsible for cyberattacks.
9. Privacy and safety setting
Once you have done the initial sign-up in any of your favorite social networks, the second most important thing I would suggest is fixing the privacy cover. Every social network has its own privacy and security settings to let users have a firewall. These settings enable users having full control on what they post online and how people see the stuff posted.
10. Think Then Post
Once you post something it goes viral in minutes. You only remain with aftershock and impact. Before posting news or a feed, scrutinize its value addition. Ask yourself if it’s appropriate to do such posts.
Your posts convey a lot about you to the outside world. It appears as a testimony of your thought process and mindset. Refrain from posting stuff that are violent, obscene and meant to spread nuisance. This is evidently pertinent to maintain your positive online reputation.
11. Avoid Posting Personal Info
When relationships are made using ‘tweets’ and ‘Likes’, its credibility is always subjected to the serious scrutiny. It sounds cynical but realistic. I hardly believe that an individual Facebook user knows all the five thousand friends he/she has in his/her friend list.
The takeaway is – Avoid posting very sensitive and personal information, images or other content unless necessary. It gives stalkers an opportunity to intrude in your personal space. Why one should make pictures of his last candle light dinner public he hosted last weekend to impress his love interest?
12. Learn To Manage Friends
Not all the friends you have on your social networks are equal. Some of them are your colleagues, some are your school mates and some are from your hometown. You can arrange them in different lists by setting your priorities.
Similarly you can allow them access of your profile and the social media content posted within the set parameters. The takeaway is – Don’t permit common access to everyone in your personal ambit.
13. Feeling Uncomfortable? React
Social networks are the crusaders of openness and free communication. This openness backed with certain limitations. Never ever confront anyone with some posts, views or arguments that aren’t true or made intentionally.
A social network is there to share views and not for confronting other to settle scores. If something hurts, raise voice. If a friend of yours bothers you constantly, take no time to unfriend or block him. You too as well must not indulge in a practice of maligning someone’s reputation on the social networks.
Social Media Safety Tips: Conslusion
Social networks are the crusaders of openness and free communication. This openness backed with certain limitations. Never ever confront anyone with some posts, views or arguments that aren’t true or made intentionally.
A social network is there to share views and not for confronting other to settle scores. If something hurts, raise voice. If a friend of yours bothers you constantly, take no time to unfriend or block him. You too as well must not indulge in a practice of maligning someone’s reputation on the social networks.
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I just started working in a new job, and I already had a cybersecurity workshop. We talked about cyber attacks, hacking and security tips. They also showed me how to install and use LastPass and Surfshark. As I understand Surfshark provides unlimited simultaneous connections, so it is perfect for companies.