A MARKETER'S ADVENTURES IN THE DIGITAL-LAND
A middle-aged marketer, Alice is bored
while using traditional media, when she notices a digital Rabbit run past. She
innocently follows it down the rabbit hole when suddenly she falls a long way
to a curious hall with many locked social media doors namely Facebook, Twitter,
Linkedin, Pinterest etc. Which door should she open to avail these attractive
marketing opportunities and what should she expect? Is there any danger behind
those doors?
She opened the door which was labeled
as "TWITTER" and saw a small blue bird which chirped to her
"TWEET ME". She felt so naïve after reading several tweets about a recent high-profile AP Twitter hack
which brought her to my blog about precautions to stay safe in the Twitter
world.
Which companies could be hack worthy?
Not
everyone has millions of Twitter followers, and not everyone's tweets or hacked
Twitter accounts can move markets. Still, every social media user must take
basic precautions to protect social media passwords, to avoid ugly hacks and
stolen personal information, not to mention sparing followers from spam.
How does a hacker attack a social media account?
Hackers are very clever. They pretend to be your friend. One of the sneakiest hacker tricks of late - those direct messages or Twitter mentions that appear to be from a connection, and ask things like, "hey, is this you in this picture?” It's tempting to click on the accompanying link and when users do, suddenly, a hacker can have entry.
What can a company do to keep its Twitter Account safe? 1st step is to hire a Gate Keeper:
Your
password is your gate keeper or the watch guard. Use a password that is hard to
break in preferably a combination of numbers and letters. If your password is a
cookie. Use zeros for Os and 1s for Is. Microsoft has a solid password security page that can help you to create a "safe"
password. Change your passwords every quarter, at a minimum. And don't write
your passwords on a machine that's not secure.
Have
a different one for each social media account. That way, if hackers get into
one platform, they can't get access to all of them. Social Media managers often
find it difficult to memorize all of those number, letter and symbol
combinations, consider an app that can manage them like "one
password" for Apple, Android and Windows, or "one safe" for
Apple products.
Hesitant
to experiment with social media Alice asked, "Why does my brand need a
social media presence?" There are multiple reasons rather benefits of
social media. But I believe, one of the most important benefits of social media
is to listen to your consumers better. Marketers can stay in touch on a daily basis
with what
people are saying about you and your brands. So, track your handles through
Twitter search, or, if you're business, an enterprise listening tool like
Salesforce Radian6 is really helpful.
Be alert and agile at all times:
For example, AP Twitter
account quickly responded by saying that "That's a bogus tweet" to
the "an erroneous tweet" posted through their account claiming that
two explosions occurred in the White House and that President Barack Obama is
injured. Moments later, the @AP Twitter account — with nearly 2 million
followers — was suspended. Immediately following the false tweet, the Dow
Industrial Average lost about 140 points. These losses were immediately
recovered.
What
would you do right now if you found out your Twitter account was hacked?
- Keep an email list
ready to send to if you need to take action.
- Keep all your passwords
file safe so you can easily login to your social profiles and change the login
information ASAP.
- Practice a Fire Drill i.e.
take some time to do at least a mental run through so you're prepared when a
crises arises.
Consult trusted experts:
When evaluating social
media solutions keep data integrity at the top most priority. Talking about
data once it is posted it is forever because even if you delete information
from your account there are chances that someone has already saved or retweeted
about it. Be cautious of what you post.
By using Hootsuite Security, you can setup secure
profiles so that you have to approve everything that gets posted onto any of
your accounts, and setting up limited permissions makes certain that employees
can only create drafts of all your social media messages. Finally, this tool allows
you to turn on HTTPS, which will encrypt your information so that hackers
cannot see your information if they try to break into your accounts.
Avoid
Add-Ons: Download carefully especially while updating softwares. It’s
easy to download an add-on or click “ok” when asked if the add-on can have
access to your account. This is one of the easiest ways for a hacker to get
into your account and take your password and personal information.
Exit
for once and for all:
And
if you've simply stopped using an online platform, account or service, delete
it completely.
Sources:
http://nbcnews.to/127Xm9l
Header image is a Bella
Pilar creation
Images sourced from Tumblr
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