How to Protect Your Businesses Identity on Social Networks

Nowadays, every business benefits from being present on social media networks. Various companies strongly leverage social media to promote their business, communicate with their target audience and make their promotions, as well as marketing campaigns more effective. Small businesses and startups use it in an attempt to make a name for themselves and attract as many customers as they can. However, with all the benefits social media offers for businesses, there are plenty of risks that hide beneath the surface.

In addition, many business owners are aware of the risks, but are quite confident that nothing bad will happen to them. On the other hand, many startup and small business owners believe they lack the sufficient funds to properly protect their business identity online. Nevertheless, you can protect your identity if you're careful enough and if you take the necessary steps to ensure its protection, without a need for hefty investments. Here are a few ways to protect your business identity on social networks.

Protect your accounts

As a business owner, you understand the importance of having social media for your company. You should also understand how dangerous for your company it would be if someone with malicious intent got a hold of your social accounts. That's why understanding the risks is the first step in protecting your business identity on social networks. Many businesses build their online presence on more than one social network in order to promote themselves and attract customers.

Having a single email address and password for each network may seem convenient and easy to remember, but it puts you at risk of losing all of your accounts if someone cracks your password. Make sure you don't use weak passwords and under no circumstances should you use the same password on multiple accounts. Also, use MFA (multi-factor authentication) to add another layer of security to your log-in, such as a code sent to your phone.

Don't reveal too much information

Regularly supplying your audience with news, updates and content on social networks is always a good way to engage with them. However, revealing too much information about your company or the upcoming projects can hurt your business identity. Social networks are a public place and any information you reveal can spread fast across all channels and even be used against you if you're not careful enough.

For example, you need feedback on your product prototype so you decide to ask your audience on social networks for their opinion. Later you found out that your competitors have already made the same product and are already selling it. If you haven't protected your intellectual property or patented your idea, don't post information about it in public places. Your competition won't play fair and they'll take what they can get in order to outrun you on the market. If you find yourself in a similar situation, you can consult with legal representatives with experience in these matters, such as Bordas & Bordas attorneys.

Set up a social media policy

Having a social media policy helps you set up ground rules, regulations and procedures for handling your company's social media activity. That way you protect your business identity and you keep your employees in check from posting anything harmful or revealing sensitive information. This policy also implements appropriate behavior guidelines for employees using social networks. After all, everything your employees do or say on social media can directly reflect on your business.

In addition, the policy allows you to monitor content that's about to be posted on social networks and regulate your future posts. That way, no information will be made public without your approval. Your social media policy should clearly outline your company's message and culture on social networks, as well as responsibilities and best practices for social activity. If you want to protect your business identity on social media, you have to establish protocols that will ensure guidelines for proper behavior and employee accountability.

Train and educate employees

Once you implement a social media policy you have to let your employees know about it if you want them to follow the regulations. Make sure you educate your employees about potential security risks of their behavior and actions on social media and how it may reflect on your business. That way, your employees will be more careful when posting information about their work or workplace.

Also, make sure you clearly outline what the policy consists of, such as best practices, social media awareness, appropriate behavior and so on, so that your employees can better understand which rules and regulations they have to follow. However, employees can oftentimes get carried away and forget about the rules. That's why you should monitor your employee's social media activity to make sure they're not breaking any.

Protecting your business identity on social media networks is quite a difficult task. However, if you're careful enough and most importantly aware of the risks, you'll be able to protect your business identity from potential harm.