When a business owner or marketer uses social media, they have an obvious goal: to promote the brand’s message and connect with a large audience. It’s an important aspect of their overall marketing campaign.
However, they often forget about the importance of securing all business social media profiles. Nobody wants to assume that their brand’s Instagram account would get hacked. It can happen. A competitor may use black-hat marketing techniques to jeopardize your rating in the industry. They will publish inappropriate content from your profile, and you’ll never know who to blame. Profiles also get hacked when they accumulate a large number of followers. Hackers sell them to wanna-be influencers, who will delete all content on the profile, change its name, and start with a large base of followers.
It’s time to think about protection. We’ll give you a few important tips to follow.
How to Secure a Brand’s Social Media Accounts
- Start with Your Computer and Other Devices
When you use social media for work, you have to be serious about it. Nobody should have access to your devices, other than a trusted assistant. Don’t use random computers to access professional accounts.
Check this guide to learn how to secure your computer, so no one will steal sensitive information from it.
- Have a Password Strategy
Use strong passwords, which will be different for each account you use. Hackers don’t usually try to guess passwords by luck. However, if they break one of them and you use the same pass to all profiles, they will do more damage to your social media campaign.
A strong password should include capital letters, special characters, and numbers. It shouldn’t be too complicated; you should still be able to remember it.
Don’t stay with the same password forever! Change it a few times per year, and especially when some of your employees with access to the profiles leave the company.
- Use a Special Email Address
Do not use your main email account to create social media profiles, even when it’s for professional purposes. If a hacker manages to compromise a single profile, the sensitive data from your email would be endangered, too.
Create a special email account that you’ll use exclusively for the brand’s social media accounts. The password strategies stay the same for your email.
- Be Careful with Page Roles
When you maintain professional social media accounts, you might need to share the login details with multiple members of your team. No matter how much you trust them, you should still control the way the roles are assigned.
Limit the number of people with access to the accounts as much as possible. Assigning an admin or manager is a great idea; the other team members will be allowed to access the profile through their own accounts. If any of them leave the company, the admin will quickly change the roles and restrict their access.
- Follow Legitimate Profiles
When you follow people through your social media business accounts, make sure their profiles are legitimate. It’s wise not to follow unverified accounts and people you don’t know. Hackers will often create fake accounts, and you don’t want your profiles to catch their eye if you follow them.
- Stay on Private Wi-Fi Networks
Never log into your business social media channels from a public Wi-Fi network. This is a rule that you should follow for your personal accounts as well, but it’s especially important when you’re dealing with sensitive data. Instruct the admin and anyone who uses your business accounts to do the same.
Hackers are able to create fake Wi-Fi networks, which make it possible for them to steal login information from anyone who uses them. Business devices and accounts should never be used on public networks.
Keep Business Social Media Accounts Secure
We should never take the online world lightly. Just because you’ve never been a victim of a hacker’s account doesn’t mean the possibility is not there. When it comes to business accounts, employing common sense is not enough. You need a social media security strategy, which will keep sensitive data secure.
Author Bio: James Dorian is a technical copywriter. He is a tech geek who knows a lot about modern apps that will make your work more productive. James reads tons of online blogs on technology, business, and ways to become a real pro in our modern world of innovations.