Social media is a wonderful thing – it’s opened up a world of possibilities in terms of communication in our personal lives, but within the world of business too. Today, it allows us to broaden our scope of marketing and reach more potential customers than ever before.
However, just like everything else in the world of technology and innovation, social media comes with risks and potential problems. Whether you’re a parent trying to monitor your child’s access to the internet or a business owner attempting to monitor employees’ activity or your business’s online presence, it can get pretty tricky very quickly.
Luckily, there are still ways that you can enjoy the benefits of social media without having to spend your life worrying about the risks.
Here are 5 ways that you can mitigate the risks of social media in business.
Keep an Eye on Inactive Social Media Accounts
If you’re in the process of starting up a new business or even just a new branch of an existing company, you may choose to create social media accounts in the meantime to secure the handles. There’s nothing wrong with doing this, however, you need to make sure you still keep an eye on inactive accounts.
Inactive accounts often become the targets of hacking and other kinds of cyber-attacks. If you’re unlucky, your account may be used to conduct unsavoury business, and even send out fraudulent messages under the name of your business.
So, if you are going to create an account before you’re ready to use it, just make sure you keep an eye on it. There may be security in place, but it won’t be as stringent as that which protects you at sites that offer esports betting in Australia and other similar money-driven pursuits.
Train Your Employees
While you’re younger employees may be well aware of what to look out for when it comes to dodgy content and enquiries on the internet, older users may not be quite as tech savvy. These days, we find that lots of older people are still caught out by blatant phishing attempts – they click on emails and links that end up wreaking havoc on the company’s internal system.
The best thing you can do as a business owner is train your employees and teach them what to look out for. Some of the most important things include not clicking on links in emails from unknown senders, being wary of anyone that contacts you as a supposed trusted partner (like a bank) and not being drawn into completing funny and cute little quizzes online. If your employees are aware of what to look out for, you’ll save yourself a lot of stress.
Adjust Your Privacy Settings
Social media can actually be a safe place if you know what to do and how to use it. Most platforms provide users with lots of settings to be able to choose how they want to run their accounts – such as whether or not they want to be private, sharing location information and so on. Make sure that you have somebody who knows what they’re doing check out your settings and adjust them accordingly.