Being a social media manager is about being seen. Your job is to attract likes and views for your client or business. It’s easy to forget that sometimes, being seen is a bad thing. That’s especially true when it comes to your online data.
When handled incorrectly, social media can expose private or sensitive information to hackers, scammers, and online criminals. Your main job as a social media manager is to get your content seen. But you also need to make sure you’re not showing more than you meant to. Knowing how to install a VPN, hide IP address, set up robust authentication, and recognize online attacks can help protect your clients and keep you safe online.
In this article, we’ll go over some of the top privacy tips every social media manager should know. Implement these practices to keep your data safe while you get the word out about your brand.
1. Use a VPN To Secure Your Connection
The first step to online safety is to use a Virtual Private Network, or VPN. A VPN scrambles your online data by turning it into a code that can’t be read by anyone, including your Internet service provider. That means if anyone packs into your connection, they won’t be able to see what you’re doing.
A VPN protects your network, especially when you are accessing from a public access point like a co-working space, café, or airport Wi-Fi. These networks are extremely vulnerable to data breaches, as they can be accessed by anyone.
A VPN also hides your IP address, which can expose your physical location. Hiding your IP address can protect you from anyone trying to learn more about you to steal your data. It can also allow you to access services that may be blocked in your country. You can post on social media apps in different places in the world that may not be available where you are.
A VPN can also protect you against being tracked by advertisers. Keeping your data private helps to prevent advertisers from tracking your behavior and targeting annoying ads at you.
Install a VPN on any device you use to post on social media, and you can protect your data from hackers, scammers, and spammers, and have access to a whole world of social media opportunities.
2. Create and Maintain Strong, Unique Passwords
Passwords can be annoying – especially when you forget them. But as your first line of defense against unauthorized access to your information, they are critical.
As a social media manager, you may be handling not just your own passwords. You may also have passwords for clients and businesses so that you can log into their social media and post as them. This is a big responsibility, as it makes you vulnerable to giving away their data.
Here are some best practices around online passwords:
- Never reveal your password to anyone.
- Use different passwords for different accounts. That way, if one password gets exposed, not all your accounts will be compromised. To help you remember them, you could include something about the specific app you are using in the password itself.
- Use multifactor authentication (MFA). Often accessed via a mobile phone app, MFA makes it far more difficult for someone to break into your account. Even if they have the password, they would also need your phone to get access.
- Use long passwords. The longer a password is, the harder it is to crack. Use a minimum of 16 characters.
- Don’t use information that can be guessed. Things like your birthday or your pet’s name aren’t that hard to find out. Instead, use things that no one knows about you or, even better, nonsense phrases. Someone might guess that you use your cat’s name and the year you were born as a password. They are unlikely to guess “j7DhK976TqU_facebook”.
- Use a password manager. Long, complex, unique passwords are hard to remember, and if you have multiple accounts to manage, it’s easy to forget. A password manager stores your password in an encrypted form so that it can’t be accessed by anyone else.
3. Recognize Phishing Attempts
Phishing means criminals using scam emails, text messages, social media messages, or phone calls to trick victims. Usually, the idea is to make you visit a website which may give your computer a virus. Or it may ask for a login, then steal your information.
Phishing attacks are designed to be hard to spot, so you need to be on your guard. Scammers will pretend to be a legitimate company like a bank or a government agency. But remember that these agencies never contact you through social media, and generally use email only to tell you to go to their secure system.
Verify any link before you click it. Hover over the link to preview the URL and check if it matches what you expect. If in doubt, contact the organization and verify that it’s actually them. Using a VPN can also help encrypt your traffic and keep you safe from these attacks.
4. Use Secure Wi-Fi
Using public Wi-Fi is a major vulnerability. Scammers use “evil twin” networks and man-in-the-middle attacks to create fake networks. Then when you sign into the network, the scammers can put a virus on your device or access your passwords and browser history.
If possible, avoid connecting through private networks, such as those in airports, restaurants, cafés, and co-working spaces. If you have a good data plan on your phone, you could use it as a more secure Wi-Fi network.
If you do have to log into your accounts using a public network, make sure you use a VPN to encrypt your traffic and keep you safe from scammers.
5. Limit App Permissions
There are hundreds of apps designed to help you manage social media accounts, from scheduling platforms to analytics dashboards. These tools require permissions to access your accounts, but not all of these permissions are necessary.
Regularly check the permissions you have granted to third-party apps to access your social media accounts. Remove permissions for tools you’re not using, and make sure the information they access is necessary.
Stay Safe on Social Media
Getting seen on social media is difficult enough. Trying to stay invisible to hackers and scammers makes your job even trickier. The key to staying safe as a social media manager is to adopt a combined approach. Good practices like strong, unique passwords, multifactor authentication, and general awareness all work together to help reduce the chances of you becoming a victim.
The easiest step to making yourself safe online is to install a VPN. Protect your privacy and your client’s data while you build visibility online.