What is the first thing you do when you hear about a brand, a person, or an organization? You head straight to any social media site, be it LinkedIn, Facebook, or Instagram, to find details about them. That is exactly what we do, and when we don’t find them, we quickly believe that they are presumably fake or do not exist. It says a lot about how we perceive a brand and the necessity of digital presence. An organization that is not on social media is probably living under a rock far away from modern civilization and further away from its target customers.
Today every organization is striving to establish a dynamic social media presence and connect with its target groups. However, most of them pay little to no attention to the risks associated with using social media.
So, what is social media risk? Sam is a renowned life coach with a massive social media following. An imposter creates a fake account using his name and charges money from his followers in exchange for a fake subscription plan. The incident stirs a rage amongst Sam’s followers, and consequently, he loses followers and business.
This is a classic example of social media risk where Sam’s identity was misused, and his followers were violated. Social media risks take into account a variety of risks, right from cyberbullying, identity theft, and data breach to fake and imposter accounts tarnishing your brand image. Such risks arise from the use of social media sites for doing business.
Most organizations are focused on planning a social media strategy that would help them reach the magic figure of followers and subscribers. Hence they often ignore how to safe keep their social media accounts.
We have listed down some points to help you in times of social media crisis:
- Do not leave any of your social media accounts unmonitored. Regular monitoring helps prevent and detect compromises.
- Get your social media profiles verified, especially with the blue tick. This is non-negotiable for influencers.
- Provide proper training to your team so that they can suspect any malicious activity and take preventive measures at the earliest.
- Remember to check if your brand complies with the location-specific data privacy and protection laws. Adhere to the prescribed regulations. If needed, get a legal team on board to evaluate and approve the content before it is made public.
- Get in touch with experts who understand the social media risks and show you the correct way forward. New-age audits such as social media audits, and web presence audits are on the rise as companies strive to live a social life. A social media audit reviews your business’ metrics to assess growth, define the scope of success, provide a guideline on improving social media presence, and evaluate any risk associated with the use of social media. Furthermore, it checks if the organization adheres to the industry regulations and provides suggestions to mitigate the risks
