Now that the flower industry has pretty much caught on to the importance of social media for your business success, it is important to start talking about security and how to protect all of the hard work and investment you have put into building a floral digital community and channel of communication.
As we all know, social media is a hot topic, and supporting your brand can be challenging. Entrepreneurs, business owners, and marketing professionals need a good social media strategy to be successful in marketing. Social media management also helps brands find new leads, reach new customers, and raise brand awareness. Effective social media strategies must include strong account security measures to keep cybercriminals out of businesses and their social media accounts. The following are ways to protect yourself and your company’s social media accounts from scammers:
With complex passwords, it’s almost impossible for human eyes to guess the password. While the number of characters required in a password may vary, it’s a good idea to have at least eight characters with a combination of uppercase, lowercase, and symbols. Also, avoid using words (or any other simple alphabet) and numbers as passwords, as some hackers use them to guess passwords. If you forget a password, you can use the password reset feature on your social media accounts.
As a marketing professional, you’ve probably seen or used social media sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Pinterest for your business. You may not realize that you may be at risk of social media scams. Identity theft, phishing, hurting a brand’s reputation, and pretending to be someone else are some of the most common scams on social media. Knowing how to protect yourself from these types of scams is essential. There is another scam that asks you to vote for something and captures all of your information.
This is an essential security feature that most modern social media sites have implemented. You must create a password with at least one character that isn’t used anywhere else and set up a secondary login system. Most modern social media platforms require you to use a PIN or password with a second code, such as one sent via text message or email. This way, if you log into your account on any mobile device, the only code required would be on your keychain and not the device itself.
Sharing your personal information online, such as your home phone number and address, is one of the social media scams you should avoid. This information can be used by criminals to hack into your accounts or break into your home. The same goes for sharing any company’s business information publicly. Criminals may use this information to damage the brand’s credibility or steal confidential data.
If you’re using any social media site, it’s a good idea to use Google Alerts. This high-tech tool can let you know when a certain word or phrase comes up in your social media or newsfeeds. With Google Alerts, you have the power to monitor mentions made about your brand throughout the web. This way, you can easily find out if your site has been hacked or someone is impersonating you.
For every social media scam you find, note the details in your browser history. As a business owner, this information will help you figure out if there has been any fraud. For example, if you’ve noticed that someone has posted a comment from your account, and when investigated, it turns out that the account was impersonating you. This is a clear sign that your network has been hacked!
The social media space is ripe for business fraud. With every new technological advancement, a new form of cybercrime emerges. It’s essential to protect your online reputation and online business accounts from business scammers. If you use the tips above, you can protect the online reputation of your brand and make your social media presence stronger.
New Bloom Solutions is here to help provide business solutions and consultations to protect your business social media accounts. Contact us or visit our website for more information.
