If you are looking to make sure that your business social media accounts are secure, you are going to need to start with a detailed social media policy catering to the company and its employees. Because of the increased reliance on social media tools for business marketing and communications, security aspects of social media are more significant than ever. Although there are clear benefits of using social media there are also risks involved that you need to take into consideration. More than half of organization had to deal with an incident of some type in the last year. So, take steps to protect your organization against social media threats.

Develop a social media policy

When a business is using a social media network or is getting ready for it, the first thing you will need is a social media policy. Here are some guidelines you should consider including that cover responsible social media use. The guidelines will not only provide protection but will ensure that PR and legal issues are dealt with in a coordinated fashion. Your social media policy should also be simple to understand. The social media policy should include:

  • Rules specifying not posting confidential information
  • Details on what is allowed from a personal use perspective
  • Brand guidelines indicating how to talk about the company
  • Social media activities to avoid such as FB quizzes that ask for personal information
  • Who is responsible for managing company social media accounts
  • Guidelines detailing allowed authentication methods to the social media accounts
  • Awareness around avoiding scams, and other security threats
  • Who is to be notified in case of social media security concerns or potential legal issues

Social media security awareness

Even when you have the greatest social media policy in place it can be ineffective if your employees are unaware of its contents. Training will provide your employees an opportunity to ask questions, engage, and acquire a sense of how important it is to follow this policy. These security training sessions will also provide opportunities for reviewing the latest trends, including scams and tricks, on social media networks. You may discuss if there are any sections of the security policy in need of an update. Make the training fun and interactive to keep your audience engaged. Use something like Kahoot to help with audience participation. This training should also equip the employees to use these networks more effectively for the benefit of the business.

Limit access to improve data security

Although many organizations tend to be focused on security threats coming from outside, keep in mind that your employees are a major source of data breaches as well. Therefore, having limited access to social accounts is a great way to limit potential negative impacts. You might have entire teams working on messaging, creating posts, or customer service. However, this does not mean that everybody should know the passwords or have access to the authentication tokens of the social media accounts. It is crucial to have a proper system in place that can revoke access to these accounts if needed. Smaller companies may not have password and authentication management tools deployed. If that is the case and your employees do need to share social media passwords, here are two options to consider.

One option is to use a tool like BitWarden to create and share secure a password database. Another option to consider is using an encrypted Zip file. You can learn how to unzip files when the passwords are sent. However, make sure your employees always check the option to encrypt the Zip file to secure the data using encryption!

Own your band online

It is a good idea to have your brand handle reserved for all social media network accounts even when you have no intention of using them immediately. It allows you to keep a consistent presence across different networks thereby making it easier for people to locate your service offerings.

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