Tips for Improving Your Social Media Security

Are you paranoid about the safety of your images, content, friend lists, and social media security on your accounts? Today, some people manage 1-5 personal accounts (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Snapchat) and 1-5 business accounts, sharing a wealth of personal and professional information. It’s crucial to follow basic security rules to safeguard your information and identity.

1. Use strong and distinct passwords:

   A unique password for each account, social media and otherwise, that you have online, is essential.Moreover, steer clear of using passwords containing personal details (such as your pet’s name, your kids’ names, or your childhood home phone number). Instead, opt for a random combination of numbers, letters, and punctuation that hackers cannot predict.

2. Use two-factor authentication:
   

   Just another thing to do right? Nope. An essential thing to do! By simply adding your phone number or a backup email address to your accounts you can easily enable two-factor authentication and thus prevent hackers (or angry ex’s, or snoopy parents…) to access your accounts if they find out your password.

3. Be cautious with third-party applications:
   We can’t count the number of times we download an app only to be asked to grant that app permission to see our friend list or post on our behalf on our social media. While you might be tempted to say yes yes yes and get sharing all the cool things you are up to automatically through these apps, we would highly recommend being very selective when it comes to authorizing third-party applications to access, read and share on your social media platforms. Take five minutes now and login to all of your social mind platforms to check and see who you maybe have inadvertently granted permission to already. You might just be surprised at what you find.

4. Don’t be friends with everyone:
   

   We have all experienced it – a complete stranger, albeit handsome, tries to add us as a friend. They have limited information on their profile, you have no mutual friends and you have no idea how you know them. Rather than clicking ‘accept’ and hoping that it is the man of your dreams, kindly decline. Often fake accounts are used for anything from cyber bullying, to creating clone accounts (this actually happened to one of our Skyfall Blue staff members!) or send you files that are corrupted with a virus.

5. Get familiar with your privacy social media security:

   Numerous business owners overlook social media security, never exploring privacy settings. If you’d rather limit visibility, adjust settings to close friends and family instead of public.

Too scared to tackle the world of social media for your business alone? Call our team today and learn how we can do it in a safe, effective and impactful manner for you.