Safe, secure and social: how to protect your business social media accounts

13 Dec, 2021

In 2021, maintaining a social media presence is much more than something to do in your spare time – it’s a must for businesses in every industry. In fact, if your business is lacking a social “footprint”, you could end up buried in a pile of yesterday’s hashtags.

This said, social accounts can also be incredibly detrimental, particularly if an unwelcome visitor gains access. Following social media management best practice is the key to protecting your business from a hacker’s advances. It’s also important to remember that the same rules also apply to all staff members with user permissions – and that this could implicate hundreds or even thousands of employees in large corporations.

While there is no single solution that will guarantee 100% security across accounts, even simple adjustments can significantly decrease the likelihood of a security breach. In order to achieve the highest possible levels of security, every user with access to and permissions on your company social media account should follow set guidelines.

Here are five key actions you can take to raise the security standard for your business’ social media accounts.

Implement 2-factor authentication (2FA)

According to Microsoft investigation, 2FA is one of the most reliable security measures around, blocking 99.9% of automated attacks. 2FA enhances your security by requiring users to provide at least two forms of identity verification when accessing a secure service or account for the first time on an unknown device. Authentication options include push notifications, hardware security keys, or our team favourite, an app like Google Authenticator.

Change up your passwords

You can never be too careful when setting passwords. Even if you include the right number of characters and a mix of upper and lower case letters, numbers and symbols, the security of your business account can be easily compromised. That’s why it’s so important to change all account passwords regularly, and make sure every person in your team with backend access to your company accounts does the same.

Update your applications

If your social media applications are out of date, you could be leaving your accounts vulnerable to security issues and bugs that have been fixed in more recent software versions. The next time you receive a notification for a new app version, take a moment to make the update and enjoy the peace of mind of knowing that you’re covered – until the next update arrives.

Put the right permissions in place

User permissions dictate who can access and make changes to your business profiles. This is hugely important to the security of your business, and because you put so much trust into team members with social media access, these permissions need to be regularly checked and updated. If a team member with social media access decides to leave the business, their access to the company page should be revoked as part of the offboarding process.

Get familiar with Facebook Business Manager 

Facebook and Instagram are the most popular social media platforms for businesses and consumers, and Facebook Business Manager makes it easy to manage them both. Business Manager simplifies the process of maintaining account security and streamlining social media operations – and if your business profile does get caught up in a security breach, Facebook’s refined resolution process will be on your side.

Protecting your organisation’s reputation online requires an investment of time and energy – and one worth making for the long term benefits of reach in your community.