Brands have used social media to access massive markets and grow their online presence. Many also consider it a powerful marketing tool for attracting and connecting with customers and establishing good relationships. But while social media offers such amazing opportunities, it works like a two-edged sword. It can make or break your business’ online reputation.
Social media security can be tricky for many companies, from safeguarding sensitive online details to preventing unauthorized profile access. Besides that, holes in social media protection measures can hurt your reputation. It can be human error, account neglect, or compliance violation. Let’s go through the best practices for protecting your business’ reputation on social media.
Review password policy
This should be a basic task that your team regularly does. Keep your business accounts secure from unauthorized access or impersonation by creating a stronger password policy. Set minimum requirements such as complexity. In general, it must be between eight and 20 characters with numbers, special characters, and upper and lowercase letters. You can also consider implementing a single sign-on to reduce floating passwords when you log on to multiple systems. This might restrict flexibility and convenience for operations, but it can assure a higher level of security. Keep your passwords confidential by updating them regularly and limiting access.
Check the quality of your content
Writing content and posting them on your social media pages is not as simple as it looks. You need to perform a spell check and fact check, too. It protects your brand’s entire credibility. Hiring professional proofreaders is the best option, but not the most budget-friendly. If your team will do it, spend time confirming the validity of the claims and checking up definitions and spelling. Skipping these due to budget limitations or strict time can cause more damage. The audience will question the accuracy of every content you produce,.
This cannot only ruin your online reputation but can also lead to boycotts or lawsuits. Experienced content marketers have an accuracy checklist, which includes reviewing names and titles, dates, emails and phone numbers, and places. Your accuracy checklist should also contain sources, statistics and figures, quotes, superlatives, definitions of little-known terms, and controversial statements.
Back up and preserve content
Backing up your social media posts or content is primarily useful during instances of account hacking. Also, social networks can fail or shut down anytime, and you want to have copies and records of everything your brand owns. To reduce the impact of account hacking or content loss, you must regularly archive all your data. If you can keep them in multiple secure storage systems, do it. Or you can work with a company that specializes in electronic records management. They can provide secure recordkeeping for your social media channels. Such experts can archive social media data without flagging or locking the accounts. You can even use these services in case your business is likely to face liability suits.
Establish a social media policy
Everyone on your team must know how to be mindful of their social media activities, from posting to sharing. To protect your brand’s reputation and security, create a strict social media policy that your people should follow. Include the legal risks relevant to usage rights for employee disclaimers, disclosure process, and posting materials. Writing a good vision statement can guide your social media team in deciding what can and cannot be shared.
Speaking of your team, write the guidelines for specific roles such as content editor, customer support, and branding manager. To create a social media policy and minimize resistance, get everyone’s input. This is also helpful for establishing a closer company culture.
Utilize social listening
In protecting your business’ credibility, it’s good practice to monitor mentions of your brand or company online. A lot can happen on social media, so you need to know what people say about your brand. Equipped your team with social listening tools for convenient tracking. Employing technology can help you to better manage negative feedback, from customer and employee complaints to false claims and oversharing. What’s more, social media listening tools can catch full-blown trolls and potential red flags. You can also consider repurposing testimonials of satisfied customers and even determine the best industry topics and trends to use for your social media content. By addressing these things, you can avoid further damage to your brand.
Ignoring the security of social media pages or campaigns cannot only damage your business’ reputation and erode brand trust. But it can also lead to revenue damage and decreased ROI. Use this guide to create appropriate processes for brand protection and reduce social media threats.
