Your Safety Online

The growth of social media has brought so many positive aspects to society and to the lives of its users. Social media provides users with ways to bring families and friends together, along with providing users ways to connect to those with similar interests. 



As trends and the interests of users change, social media platforms change along with them, and that is why it is always important to think about security and privacy on these platforms. Your business is an extension of you, meaning that your personal and professional life can mix, and that is why one must know how to change settings on their personal and business accounts to protect not only their online accounts, but the integrity and reputation of their business as well. 

Trolls or disgruntled customers are not the only problem that plagues social media. Crypto scams, phishing attacks, ads scams, impersonators, and hackers are other social media dangers that business owners need to be aware of. 

Another danger is that of password stealing. Passwords can be obtained quite easily by hackers. They can gain access to your passwords using malware, phishing, and gaining access through public networks. If you are unaware of phishing, it is when someone imitates a family, friend, or entity. 

Malware is another issue to be aware of. Most often, this comes in the form of emails with advertising within it. Once you click on it, they may get access to sensitive information. Compromised websites are another form of malware. Make sure to pay attention to what the email address is and determine its validity. 

The dangers listed above may not be directly linked to your social media platforms but, the information that can be acquired by hackers. Taking precautions like using two-factor authentication, using phrases for passwords, or using different passwords for each platform can protect your personal information against internet thieves. 

We all know how toxic users of certain platforms can be, and it is not just an internet troll, hacker, or phisher that business owners need to deal with, it is also customers who felt slighted by your business, so making sure that a plan is created to mitigate any potential risks is paramount. 

Whether you have social platforms or not, one thing you as a business owner should start with is creating the social media policy for your business.

Creating a social media policy for your business will answer the following questions: 

• How will the business be portrayed online? 
• Who is responsible for managing those platforms? 
• Who has access and the abilities to create and post content? 
• What are the rules regarding the use of personal information on social media? 
• Who is responsible for damage control/crisis management? 

At Optimize, a plan like this is still necessary, but we want to create that plan with you. That does not get you off the hook entirely, though. Settings on your platforms can be changed to protect your business on social platforms like Facebook, Google, and Yelp in the meantime. 

On Facebook, you can limit your content’s visibility, decide whether consumers can message your business on Messenger, who can be tagged in the post, if your business is recommended by others; country restrictions, which limits where your page can be found, and even age restrictions and a profanity filter, in which you choose what words will not be permitted in posts, comments, reviews, etc. 

On Google, you can decide what notifications you want to receive. You can also toggle messaging on for customers who may have a question regarding services and pricing, vehicle service updates, or more to reach out if they have questions about services. Another feature of Google listings is that you can determine who can access it, as well as make changes to the listing. 

On Yelp, you can toggle messages from consumers on or off. If messages are toggled on, you can receive some of the following information: Name, vehicle info, and what the consumer needs to have done to their vehicle. 

Security by creating a foolproof plan is one of the biggest steps you can take to ensure that your platforms are secure and create a level accountability with these platforms. Creating a plan and adhering to it is the first step to feeling protected online. Although security is not always guaranteed but knowing about these dangers and acting against them should provide a level of comfort that not all business owners share. 

At Optimize, we can help create a plan that works best for you so that you can focus more on your business, and we can focus on your image.