Security on Social Media - It's Important!

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We're all on social networks in one form or another, whether we're connecting with friends and family on Facebook, following our favorite Twitter feeds, or sharing our favorite photos with others on Instagram. However, it's not as safe as it might be made out to be. Accounts can be hacked, and identities can be compromised, and it can all happen before you know it.

It's important to be secure on social media -- to protect your personal brand, but more importantly to protect your identity.

In a piece titled 15 Social Media Security Tips by Robert Siciliano of McAfee, numerous pieces of advice are given out that should undoubtedly be followed. Of the fifteen, I believe that there are a few tips in particular that should never be ignored by an individual or brand that's active in the social space.

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Siciliano says, "think before you post. Status updates, photos, and comments can reveal more about you than you intended to disclose. You could end up feeling like some silly politician as you struggle to explain yourself." (Siciliano, 2013) As an individual or brand, it's important to keep in mind that if you even have to think for a few moments if what you're about to share is a good idea or not, then it's probably not the best idea. From a brand standpoint, this could be sending out a post that could be offensive to mass amounts of people. However, from your own personal standpoint, the same rule applies. Think about it -- if you were to post anything on Facebook or Twitter, for example, that gave away any of your personal information, you could be at a security risk on social. Think before you post!

Another great piece of advice that's shared is "don’t click on short links that don’t clearly show the link location. Criminals often post phony links that claim to show who has been viewing your profile. Test unknown links at Siteadvisor.com by pasting the link into the “View a Site Report” form on the right-hand side of the page." (Siciliano, 2013) This is especially true, and is paramount in the social space. Both brands and individuals need to be trusted on social media, and that begins with being 'valuable' to your followers. The more valuable content that you can share with your fans and followers, the quicker and greater you'll be able to build trust amongst them, and one key aspect of that is with shortened links. (Kerpen, 138) We've all seen them, where you receive a tweet and the link might look a little suspicious. To be more reliable from a personal or brand standpoint, it's probably best to just shorten URLs to be custom to your domain -- it's easy.

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However, perhaps the most important security tip that Robert Siciliano shared was in regards to geolocation apps, where he says, "Geolocation apps such as Foursquare share your exact location, which also lets criminals know that you aren’t home, so reconsider broadcasting that information." (Siciliano, 2013) Stop for a second.

Raise your digital hand if you've ever heard someone say to you that they think 'check-in's' on social media are "creepy," because then people know where you are.

Even though I can't see anyone, I'm going to confidently assume that each and every hand is raised.

Geolocation and social media has always been a controversial subject in terms of privacy, however, there are preventative measures. For example, you can use "do not track" features on these apps, to block sites from following your activity on social media.

To add, from my own professional experience, 'check-ins' are outstanding, as they can be both great for consumers and brands. From a consumer standpoint, we've seen that there can be incentive from using these apps, such as rewards, badges, and more. However, from an organization's standpoint, it's outstanding. From working on various social campaigns over the years, I've seen plenty of traffic come to a client's website via a social network like FourSquare.

What do you think about security on social media? I'm looking forward to reading your comments below!

Questions for you

1.) In 15 Social Media Security Tips, Robert Siciliano mentions geolocation applications like Foursquare; applications that allow other users to know where you are and where you've been. The author compares it to being a security measure, because then people will know that you're not home. With geolocation applications like Foursquare, what positives do you find from a social marketing standpoint?

2.) One security measure that people commonly take on Twitter is to protect their account, so that their tweets are private, and only accessible if they're a follower of that particular account. From a social marketing standpoint, what do you see as the positives and negatives of this?

References

Kerpen, D. (2015). Likeable Social Media. New York, NY: McGraw Hill Education.

Siciliano, R. (2013, January 27). 15 Social Media Security Tips. Retrieved February 20, 2017, from blogs.mcafee.com.