More than 1.6 billion people use social media every day, and sites like Facebook and Twitter have become a vital component to most business marketing campaigns. Social media isn’t going away any time soon; in fact, it is becoming more ingrained into our lives by the minute.
Social media marketing might be a central part of your overall strategy, for very good reasons. It offers unique and lucrative opportunities to connect with your target audience online. However, if you have employees using your corporate accounts, you should take the time to adequately train them on proper use of social media. The following are just a few of the hazards your company could face.
Phishing. You receive an email from Facebook, directing you to click a link and log in … Only that wasn’t Facebook who emailed you. It was a hacker, phishing for your login credentials, which he has now gleaned from you. Your account can be used for nefarious purposes or even shut down. Remember that you should never follow email links and provide login information for any website. Open a separate web browser and check on your social media accounts that way.
Social Spam. It’s important to remember that users generate the content on social media sites, and those users can be anyone! Be careful about accepting friend requests; look at the account first to see if it appears legitimate. Otherwise you could be tagged in questionable posts or pictures, or these fake accounts could “spam” your posts with negative comments. If an employee manages your social media account, make sure they know to review friend requests carefully, or handle that matter yourself.
Link Jacking. Many websites incorporate Facebook “like” or Twitter “follow” buttons, to help viewers conveniently connect with them on social media. However, sometimes these links are fake, and install malware on your computer instead. If you want to like or follow someone (or a company) on social media, go directly to their social media profile and click the button there. Also, make sure your employees know they shouldn’t click these buttons while browsing the web, especially if they’re logged into your company social media account at the time.
Questionable applications. Sometimes, those innocent-looking games and quizzes are anything but innocent! Yes, it might be fun to find out what kind of vegetable you would be, or maybe you really need a new goat for your game… But save the extraneous applications for your personal account, if you use them at all. Accessing these from a company social media account could compromise your login data or personal information.
These potential problems sound alarming, but remember, they’re relatively easy to prevent. Social media marketing is becoming vital to the success of most businesses, so no one is saying you should give it up. However, you definitely should safeguard your accounts and treat them as the valuable company resource they are. Remember to restrict login information to employees on a need-to-know basis only, and thoroughly train them on safe social media use.
