The use of social media in business has grown significantly in the last few years. And the beauty of social media is that it’s so varied – with one platform completely different to another.
We love social media – especially LinkedIn and Twitter. But those platforms don’t suit everyone – Instagram and Facebook are great for B2C businesses showing off their great products.
But like everything online, social media is not without its risks. Here are a few things to be aware of – have you considered these social media risks for businesses?
Business Social Media Risks
Hacking
Successful social media hacks can have seriously negative consequences for your brand. Rude or malicious posts by hackers are there for everyone to see – and depending on the size of your brand, this can spread very quickly. Damaging posts could contain links with malware, infecting your followers’ devices or accounts. It can take a long time for your reputation to recover after such events.
To protect your accounts’ security, make sure you use strong, unique passwords. And make sure your staff do the same: if an important member of staff’s professional profile is hacked, it can have the same consequences. Where possible, use two-factor authentication to really help with security.
Compliance breach
With different members of staff running social channels, there’s a risk of them releasing confidential data. Whether it’s a photo of the office with sensitive information in the background posted on Facebook or an upload of the wrong file shared to LinkedIn, there could be serious consequences.
Sharing sensitive information could result in breaching certain laws and compliance regulations. You could be faced with fines, as well as a damaged reputation.
Your reputation
We’ve touched on this already, but you do need to be careful with anything you post coming back to bite you. You need to make sure you’re posting the right sort of things to social media, based on your business’ values and tone of voice.
Some brands see social media as a great opportunity to have a bit of fun. Look at the likes of Innocent or Aldi. And that works well for them. But that tongue in cheek approach, having a bit of fun with their competitors may not work so well for a legal firm, who may want a more formal tone of voice.
Overuse
Be carful not to overuse social media. The last thing you want is for your customers or potential customers to unfollow or scroll past your content because they’re seeing it too much.
Find a balance that works for you. If you want to post more often, make sure those posts add value, and aren’t too repetitive. Don’t just share the same articles over and over again.
Inconsistency
At the same time, you want to make sure you post often enough to social media. Having an active social presence is better than people finding your pages, only to discover you haven’t posted since 2016. They might think that your whole business is inactive, just based on your social presence.
If you don’t have dedicated social media staff, the thought of regularly posting on social media might sound like a hassle. But it doesn’t need to be. Use a tool to schedule regular posts – this can take as little as half an hour a week. And make sure to monitor your accounts for follows and mentions!
Social media can be a great tool for businesses to share useful information, and allow their customers to get to know them better.
To keep up with ACUTEC on social media, be sure to follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter!
