Thursday, 15 June 2017

The top 4 security risks facing your business on social media today

Image courtesy of  ZoneAlarm

With ad revenues generated from social media expected to exceed $35 billion in 2017, and the number of active users to over 2 billion, there has never been greater incentive to hackers, scammers and other rather unsavoury folk to look for ways exploit your business on social media. A fact backed up by ScamWatch stating that the number of scams reported on social media reached 155 034 in 2016.

In this article I will take a look at the top 4 security risks your business faces on social media today and why it is imperative that you address them sooner rather than later.


1. Scams


Very imaginative people are tasking themselves with thinking of different ways to try and scam your business and its employees, as a result there are always new and creative scams hitting social media. Usually all of these scams have the same ultimate objective, to get you to hand over private information from which they can profit.

The main social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram are generally very secure; the issue is that we humans are not so resilient. For this reason most of the scams on social media use something called social engineering. TechTarget define social engineering as: "an attack vector that relies heavily on human interaction and often involves tricking people into breaking normal security procedures". This deception is only made easier by the large amounts of personal information that is available on social media, it is a lot easier to trust someone if they know significant amounts of information about you or your business.

Although the major platforms are getting better at detecting and removing malicious content, scams still slip through the net. For example, during 2016 a scam hit Facebook in which new profiles were created that were exact copies of real user’s accounts. Once created, the scammers would set about inviting the cloned user’s real friends to the fake account, after building their friend list they would post malicious posts or even message their 'friends' asking for money or other information.


2. Malicious apps and software


Malicious software in particular has been in the news lately, due to the latest version of the WannaCry ransom ware causing chaos by infecting NHS computers and servers.

In addition to desktop software, malicious mobile apps have become common place. In fact, Google regularly removes malicious Android apps from their Google Play store, with over 130 being removed in March this year alone.

The latest game or photo app you downloaded could be doing more than just occupying you on the train or making your photo’s look fancy, it could also be helping itself to your personal information. I don’t mean to scare you into deleting all of the apps on your phone, however a bit more diligence when choosing which apps to download would be a good idea, in particular when downloading apps that connect with your social media accounts.

For the everyday user this does not pose too much of an issue, however if you have your business’s social media accounts linked to your mobile, it could potentially cause you serious problems. You would not want just anyone being able to post from and change the settings of your business's social media pages.


3. Not having a social media policy


If your first thought when reading the title of this section was “what an earth is a social media policy”, pay close attention to what I have to say, by not having a social media policy in place you could be inviting disaster. A social media policy is: “A code of conduct that provides guidelines for employees who post content online either as part of their job description or personal brand” (SproutSocial). Your social media policy should cover a range of topics, including;


  • The goals and objectives of your business on social media
  • Who can use the company’s social media accounts
  • What can be said (and what cannot) on social media
  • Employee use of personal social media at the office
  • Smartphone app use
  • Customer engagement guidelines, for example how to handle criticism (Click here to see Aaron’s recent blog on this topic).


Not having a clear social media policy leaves room for interpretation in what should be posted on your businesses social media pages, as well as making it difficult to inform employees of the best practises when it comes to social media security. A social media policy is not something to create then leave in a draw for a rainy day, if created correctly it should form the basis for training new employees on the company’s social media.

The best approach to take is to have your business’s social media co-ordinated by one person whom is also responsible for keeping the social media policy up-to-date. This means hiring or designating a social media manager, who has oversight of all of the businesses activities on social media and can prevent potentially damaging content being posted.


4. Untrained employees and human error


Following on from not having a social media policy in place, untrained employees or employees that are simply not paying attention can be very damaging to your business. As I mentioned earlier, the biggest vulnerability to any system is, and has always been the human one.

US Airways discovered this in 2014 when an employee posted an X-rated image to the company’s Twitter feed. The company managed to escape the scandal relatively unscathed however had to fend off tough media coverage for weeks after the incident. This is a perfect example of where human error can easily put a business in a very difficult situation.

Adequate training of the employees that handle your business’s social media can reduce the chance of these types of events taking place. However due to human nature this will never be completely removed as long as we are using people to run our social media accounts.

If you are wondering what your employee training should cover, these topics are a good place to start; the dangers of using social media for anything confidential, clicking on strange links, accepting friend requests from people you don’t know, leaving accounts unmonitored and using apps that are not created and distributed by trusted companies. Employees also need to know how to use each site’s security and privacy features so they can lock down or remove any information they don't want to be publicly available.


In closing


This blog post is by no means a comprehensive list of all of the security risks facing your business on social media. However, it is a good insight into the risks that you should address as a priority. Although in this article I have tried to focus the social media specific threats to your business’s security, it goes without saying that it is also important to ensure that you address general security risks, such as using poor passwords for your accounts.

If a lot of the points I have covered have been new to you, start by getting a social media policy in place that address all of the above and you will be in a much better position.

I would love to know your thoughts on this article as well as what you think the other major security risks from social media are, let me know in the comments!

George Rudge - Social 365

Thursday, 8 June 2017

The Dos and Don'ts of Handling Criticism on Social Media



Image courtesy of Business of Apps

Social media can be fantastic for any business.

You can finally tell people who you are as a business, engage with your audience, establish trust and (what we all ultimately want) generate leads and sales.

Engaging with your audience is a great way build a reputation online.

However, what do you do if something doesn’t go quite to plan?

Let’s say you get a negative comment or review, how are you going to manage your reputation and solve the dispute?

You can do this in a few different ways, but beware, only one way is the correct way. 


1. Ignore everything 


This might sound a bit silly if you’re a business owner or social media manager. Why would you ignore people who have an issue with your product/service?

But, this does happen. (I know, I was just as surprised as you!)

Often, there is the idea of “If I just leave it, maybe it’ll go away”.

One of the big issues with receiving complaints on social media is that once they are there, they won’t go away. (unless you make them, which I will talk about in a second).

You need to handle them. If someone called your customer service number or sent you an email you wouldn’t just ignore it, and you can’t ignore it online either.

Why do some social media managers just ignore complaints?

I have no idea. Honestly. It baffles me.

But it does happen, and now you’re reading this, I hope it won’t be you!

2. Delete them


Now this is even more surprising.

Imagine you work in a big office. A client writes a letter of complaint and hands it to reception, and as the clients stands in front of them, the receptionist screws up the letter and throws it straight in the bin.

It wouldn’t happen! (At least, I hope it wouldn’t…)

But for some reason, people are more than happy to delete comments on social media.

This is one of the worst things you can do, I’ll tell you now.

Minus the fact that it doesn’t actually solve the situation, the customer is more likely than not to be even more angry after seeing their feedback removed!

What is the next likely step for that customer? They tell their friends list or followers about it. 

You don’t want to lose potential business just to save face.



3. Get aggressive


Image courtesy of ChromeSpot


One of the most common mistakes some business owners or social media managers make is being personally insulted when receiving a complaint.

Most of the time, if we take something negative to heart, we respond from our emotional side rather than our logical.

This can often lead to getting aggressive or defensive.

Once again, if you do this, the problem is likely to just spiral out of control.

Don’t forget: the customer is always right.

Another thing to remember, is that your followers will likely see the interaction. You need to think about the knock-on effect of being aggressive to a complaint.


4. Offer a weak apology


Time for another scene setting activity.

Imagine you’re a very annoyed and dissatisfied customer. You write a complaint. The company says, “Thanks for your response, we will take your feedback on board” and that’s it.

Would you be happy?

You wouldn’t to feel that way, so why would you want your clients feeling like it?

Let’s not forget, the issue still isn’t actually resolved.

This leads me on to the final response you can give, and what I think is the only real way to resolve negative feedback on social media.


5. Offer a sincere apology and resolve the issue


Your first response when receiving criticism should be “How can we make this right?”

How can you do this?


Offer then a genuine apology.

Something as simple as showing that you care about your customers and want to make sure their issue is resolved can turn an angry, frustrated customer into your biggest fan.

Seriously.

Imagine if you were handing a face-to-face complaint. You would handle it professionally, genuinely, and offer a solution.

The same goes for social media.

With online reviews, everything is public. Their initial comment. Your response. Their response. Everything.

If you can show that, yes you do get the odd complaint, but you handle them with professionalism and sincerity, the chances are your business is not going to be negatively impacted.

Use one of the other 4 solutions I set out above, and you may see a big hit to your profits.

Even angry customers can become an asset.

Mistakes happen. No one is perfect, even large corporations. We all make mistakes and we all get criticism from time to time.

It's how we handle criticism which separates the successful businesses from the "would-be's."


With internet access at the touch of our fingertips, it is even more important to monitor your brand reputation.

How you handle criticism is ultimately your choice, but you can show how amazing your business is by how you deal with negativity comments.




Aaron Savage - Social 365