13 Best Practices For Social Media Security

On hearing the term “social media threats,” most of the people can only think as far as to fake accounts, trolls, fake followers that are bought online, or maybe the fake news and accusations that go viral in seconds across social media platforms.

However, in this process, what is most often forgotten is social media security. People fail to realize how it can be used to cause damage to a company and its customers through online threats like fake business accounts, brand impersonation, phishing attacks and scams, ID theft scams, and so on. This leads us to another fact that most of these threats are run through social media platforms only.

The most significant vulnerability of an organization is the human factor. Contrarily, there are human activities online that are disguised as regular social media activities. Now, this is precisely where usually a top-level of social engineering is in action as cybercriminals execute all kinds of online scams, frauds, thefts, and schemes with the aim of yielding confidential data and financial information for their own profit.

Some Common Examples of Social Media Security Threats

Here we have listed some of the most commonly known social media security threats. However, there are hundreds of thousands of such risks that exist out there.

• Often cybercriminals post malicious links on platforms like Facebook and Twitter to navigate users to sites that will automatically install malware into their devices without them even knowing.
• Cybercriminals use fake social media accounts to post fake discounts and promotions that set people up for phishing scams.
• Attackers impersonate CEOs to obtain personal information from the customers who believe they are talking to a real corporate executive.
• Several cases have come forward where the hackers spread false information to manipulate the stock price of a company.
• Cybercriminals create unauthorized business profiles intending to sell it to the brand that wants control over their rightful content.

Consequences of Social Media Security Scams

When a social media security scam takes place successfully, both the targeted brand as well as its customers might have to pay an enormous price. These include:

• Financial Loss – Attackers can gain access to business accounts via social media scams to con unaware customers and rob thousands of dollars from them, as well as execute credit card scams before the authorities detect and stop their ploys.
• Customer Distrust – When consumers find out that the supposedly legit brand social media account they have been following and engaging with for so long is actually fake, they might not be willing to take the chances of interacting with that brand in the future.
• Reputation Damage – When the word gets out that a reputed brand has allowed a social media security threat to sabotage their company, the bad press can scare off many potential customers and dwindle their consumer base for good.

13 Best Practices For Social Media Security

Now that we have discussed the threats and their potential consequences let’s move on to the best practices that will help you ensure your social media security to keep your business and customers safe.

1. Social Media Policy

Enact an official social media policy and make sure it is conveyed across your whole company. This document should clearly outline how your business as a whole and your individual staff should carry themselves while engaging in any kind of social media activity. This will help in establishing a consolidated social media brand and lay out guidelines for online messaging from a business point of view.

2. Social Media Accounts Password

Make sure you change your passwords for all social media accounts frequently (at least once in a month). Never repeat them or use basic info like names, birthdays, anniversaries, important dates, or buzzwords as passwords. Randomize them.

3. Two-Step Authentication Method

You should at least employ a two-step authentication method for all your social media accounts. This is a widespread yet secure login method where users will have to verify their identity using “two steps” before accessing your account. This involves entering the password and then the code which will be sent to the phone number or email address linked to that account.

4. Social Media Manager

Hire a dedicated social media manager who will monitor all your social media accounts continuously. You can appoint a full-time, part-time, in-house, agency, or a freelancer to do the job.

5. Examining Connections

Examine your friends, followers, or connections regularly to remove fake accounts. Weed out accounts that appear fishy or keep uploading repetitive posts, or publish negative content.

6. Training

Conduct annual training for all your employees to educate them about social media security, its importance, and methods to keep it intact. This will be a smart investment towards your online security, which will strengthen that ‘human factor’ for your business, which is often regarded as the biggest vulnerability of an organization for online scams and network security troubles.

7. Send Out Approved Content Only

Ensure that all your social media posts go through a strict content approval process before publishing anywhere online. You can let your social media manager looking after your accounts take care of this approval process too.

8. Employ a Security Software or Fully-Managed Service

Install security software or get a fully-managed service to add an extra layer of protection against all sorts of hacking attempts, phishing scams, and other threats. The more your shields you have, the more secure your business will be.

9. Avoid Posting Company Holidays

Listing your company holiday times on social media platforms might send out information about vulnerable periods where there will be no employee working to deal with hacking attempts or other such potential break-ins.

10. Never Post Personal Information

Refrain from posting any personal information regarding your staff or your customers. This will help you avoid any potential online impersonation or identity thefts.

11. Weed Out Malicious Posts and Accounts

Instruct your social media team to search and remove malicious posts and profiles proactively. For example:

• Posts containing suspicious links directing users to unauthorized websites bearing the organization’s brand.
• Accounts supporting any kind of hate speech or symbols.
• Profiles mimicking the names of CEOs without any official registration.
• Posts encouraging users to download unauthorized files.
• Posts misrepresenting a brand or its customers.
• Profiles that claim to be speaking for a brand without any legitimate confirmation.

12. Perform Security Audits

Have your team carry out security audits regularly to check things such as your account’s current security and privacy settings, security threats, user posting rights, user access, and so on.

13. Deactivate Inactive Accounts

Make sure you delete any social media accounts that you are not using anymore or that haven’t been active for a long time. This will help in avoiding them from getting hacked and used to access or manipulate your currently active accounts.

Conclusion

By now, you must have understood how important it is to realize social media security threats and take appropriate measures to ensure you don’t become the next victim or target. So have you implemented any of these best practices yet? If not, then go ahead and draft your social media policy, train and educate your employees, and put these practices into action right away to safeguard your organization and its reputation against all these digital threats out there. We hope this information helps!