As your digital marketing partner, and in recognition of Cyber Security Awareness Month, we want to remind you about an often-overlooked part of your social and digital planning: security.
Below are a few tips to keep in mind when setting up your accounts or if you already have them up and running. It’s always better to be safe than to find out later how hard it is to recover accounts!
1. ALWAYS USE A COMPANY EMAIL ADDRESS
Always use company email addresses when registering your social media accounts. Having a social media account registered to a staff members email address can lead to issues such as password recovery, restricted account access, and important emails from the social media platform being missed. Having the emails go to a permanent company address that management always has access too will keep important emails all in one place and negate issues that come up when staff members change jobs and move on.
2. CONNECT ACCOUNTS TO TRUSTED KEY STAFF
It’s a best practice to always have multiple key staff connected to your Facebook Page, Business Manager, and any other social platform or scheduling tools. Check the page roles section of your Facebook Page and make sure that you have at least two trusted senior staff members as Page Administrators. Do the same with your Facebook Business Manager. Also make sure that staff have the correct roles on social media accounts – not everyone needs to be an administrator! Put your team into the page roles that make the most sense for their job.
Losing access to your social page or Business Manager accounts is extremely hard to recover. We’ve worked with clients who have lost access in the past and establishing ownership on the accounts again can be a long and difficult process. It can hold up ad campaigns, social media outreach, and even result in losing the accounts entirely. Making sure your brand is set up properly from the start will pay dividends in the long run!
3. DO NOT CLICK SUSPICIOUS LINKS IN MESSAGES
Never click on a suspicious link you receive in a social media message, comment, tweet, or otherwise. There is always the risk that these messages are phishing attempts, which could result in losing access to your Facebook account, page, and business manager. Only click non-suspicious links sent by trusted people.
We have seen attempts by would-be scammers who have created fake accounts that mimic official Facebook ones, that then send messages over Facebook Messenger to unsuspecting page managers telling them to click a link to investigate page complaints. These are phishing attempts and not how Facebook would contact you regarding any page issues. Clicking these links could compromise your page. Beware and do not click! When in doubt, reach out to your Martin Waymire team for guidance.
4. USE SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGEMENT TOOLS FOR ACCESS AND APPROVALS
Not everyone who works on your social team needs to be able to post directly to your accounts without going through an approval process. It may be tempting to hand social media work to recent or current college students familiar with the technology, but there is risk in brand message consistency, access, and responsiveness when key staff are not directly involved in approvals and posting. Using a social media account management tool, such as Sprout Social, allows for safeguards to be put in place that allow for posts to go through an approval process that your team implements.
These tools can also help to keep personal social media accounts separate from your company work ones. This will reduce the chance for unexpected posts to appear on your brand’s pages. And it will keep your social media team sane not worrying that they’re going to mix up posting to the wrong accounts.
This October, take a moment to review any existing social pages that you have established for the above best practices. And if you’re planning to launch a new page, keep these tips in mind.
Your Martin Waymire team is here to provide guidance and strategy along the way, partnering in your ultimate safety and success.
