Most business owners will know that joining social media is one of the best ways to promote their business online. Social media can be a great way to not only engage with customers in an informal capacity but to also reach audiences that your company may not have had access to before. However, there are some inevitable drawbacks to such accessible and wide-ranging online platforms.
Below are the real risks of using social media, explaining why you need to be careful as well as ways to protect yourself in the event of something bad happening.
Hacked accounts
You may have heard the odd tale about infamous celebrity accounts that have been the victim of social media hackers. In the case of celebrities, it is often a malicious attack to discredit their reputation. However, more worryingly, the most common reason for hacking is to request a ransom. While the differences are subtle, a hacked social media account can also have a profound effect on a business’ reputation. Hackers sometimes use their unauthorized access to gain private details, but to also contact people on the platform to request details. If a customer has had a negative experience as the result of a hacked business account, this could begin to erode away at the company’s reputation – particularly regarding security.
A great way of preventing this is to ensure your social media platform passwords are sophisticated and not conveniently basic. Protect your social media accounts by choosing a strong password and changing them often. You should also use a two-factor authentication method, such as a fingerprint. One great means of protecting your social accounts, although it sounds obvious, is to keep any sensitive data offline. Do not share anything that’s too personal. It’s best to be safe than sorry.
Data loss
Some social media platforms have been the victim of large-scale cyber attacks, which has resulted in personal and private information being stolen from some users. Just like any business, social media platforms can be vulnerable to online attackers. It has mostly been personal accounts that have been the victim of these very rare attacks, and these platforms are very quick to ensure that glitches are fixed. As a result of it being a social media platform, instead of say, a retail site, no credit card details were allegedly lost, which prevented it from being a much more severe global scandal. If you are worried about the data protection of your global offices, enlisting the guidance and assistance of a firm such as IT security Reading will help to ensure you have the framework in place to protect your business’ online presence.
Targeted phishing
Having your brand’s name out there is vital for promotional purposes. It ensures that people know how to contact your business, where to find you and what your brand message is. However, this can have the negative side-effect of making your business more easy to impersonate. The more information online, the more possible for online phishing scams to behave as your company and represent you – whether you’d like them to or not! The reason they use this method is to gain access to private information of unsuspecting members of the public who believe that they are really communicating with your company, when actually, they are talking to a scammer.
With the right precautions, using social media is perfectly safe to use. However, to ensure that it remains safe, it is wise to take precautions and implement the right procedures to ensure that hackers don’t get hold of your business’ details, or indeed your followers or customers.
Source: https://www.mikegingerich.com/blog/what-are-the-real-risks-of-using-social-media/
