Social Media for Business

Chapter 14 Staying safe

Key areas we will cover in chapter 14:

• ✓ staying safe as an individual
• ✓ security for your business
• ✓ geotagging.

Once you have opened various social media accounts for your business, use them. If you let them go to waste and nobody takes responsibility for them, you may not be aware if they ever get breached with malicious posts and messages going out on your behalf. The notes that follow are not meant to scare you, but to arm you with knowledge so you and your business can stay safe online.

Security for your business accounts

We all make mistakes, and human error is something we need to be aware of. A staff member posts to the wrong account (it has happened — it should have been their personal account) and suddenly something is on your company page you’d rather the world didn’t see — and it was completely accidental. By using a platform such as Hootsuite, you can monitor the posts being sent out — including who sent them — before they go, giving you peace of mind that posts won’t accidentally go wrong.

Malicious posts — perhaps from a disgruntled employee — are another thing to consider. A bad day at the office can be catastrophic if employees are able to rant and rave publicly, as some team members did at HMV when they were being made redundant.

It’s wise to implement a social media policy regarding what can and can’t be posted. Usually, a simple sentence such as ‘not bringing the company name into disrepute when using digital channels’ inserted ...