Utilising social media to promote your business or brand is now a common part of any marketing strategy. Many brands will spend lots of time, effort, and potentially money trying to build a strong brand presence and positive image online. However, this hard work can all be undone in moments if your social media campaign isn’t properly managed. We’ve highlighted our top tips to help keep your brand safe while using social media.
Educate employees
It’s more than likely that the majority of your staff is on social media in some form, whether it’s Facebook, Twitter, or any other platform. As a result of this brands need to keep an eye on how their employees are using social channels to minimise the chance of any negative effects they could have on the brand. It is important to make sure all employees are educated on social media best practises and the potential dangers of misusing various social channels. After all, your employees are an extension of your brand, so their presence on social media may reflect upon your organisation.
Be responsive
Social channels are often the first impression many customers will get of your brand, so it’s key to make sure it’s a good one. Twitter is an easy way for customers to connect with a brand so it is important you have a strong, consistent presence to make customers aware you will respond to them if they contact you this way. Platforms such as Twitter can be great for boosting your brand’s reputation if customers are praising you, as potential customers will be able to see all the positive reviews. However, these platforms can work in the opposite way if you have customers writing about bad experiences or talking negatively about your brand. In these scenarios, it is best to attempt to carry on this conversation out of the public eye to reduce any negative impact. Having a dedicated team who will quickly respond to any social interactions, both positive and negative, is a great way to show off your brand’s fantastic customer service.
Watch out for fakes
One of the biggest dangers to brands using social media channels is the number of fake accounts that are set up to hijack a company’s social media campaign. Despite their best efforts, it is near impossible for social media platforms to control the number of fake accounts online. It is believed that up to 2% of monthly average users (MAUs) on Facebook are fake, 5% of Twitter MAUs are fake, and 8% of Instagram accounts. These numbers alone don’t sound too worrying, but 2% of Facebook’s MAUs is approximately 31 million accounts! These accounts are often set up to deceive customers, making them believe they are dealing directly with your brand, something that could seriously impact your company’s reputation. Make sure your customers are aware that your account is a legitimate one.
General security tips
Cybersecurity is a hot topic at the moment with reports of massive data breaches popping up all over the world. Social media accounts can be a gold mine for cyber attackers, meaning brands need to do everything they can to improve their security. Here are a few general security tips you should bear in mind:
- It sounds basic, but ensuring your accounts have strong, unique passwords will reduce the chance of unauthorised users gaining access.
- While on the topic of passwords; you should regularly change/update them to help boost your security.
- Where possible, use multiple levels of authorisation for logging into your accounts.This could be a code that is emailed to a dedicated address, or a message sent to a mobile. Once again, this will make sure you are fully aware of each time someone tries to access your account.
- Restricting who has access to your social media accounts will reduce the likelihood of your details falling into the wrong hands. Limiting access to only a select few employees will give you greater control over the safety of your account.
Social media is something in which every business should be investing as it can massively benefit your company’s reputation and bolster marketing efforts. However, it must be treated with care, as an unorganised social media campaign can do more harm than good.
