Security Practices: Keep Your Social Networks Safe!

Security breaches aren’t limited to Target and Kickstarter. Social networks can just as easily be a target for hackers—and as your association becomes more prominent online, the target on your own back could grow.

In today’s Social Media Roundup, learn about an upcoming guide to protecting your accounts and more:

Safeguarding Social Media

A service to protect your business as you scale up social media: http://t.co/c8ft7DPcL4  (opens in a new tab)

— Hootsuite 🦉 (@hootsuite) February 27, 2014  (opens in a new tab)

Moving beyond a tough password: If your association is in the midst of ramping up your social media efforts, it’s worth taking a second to step back and consider your security protocols.

“While businesses have adopted social media in record numbers, the lack of governance puts enterprises at risk for online security and compliance breaches,” Greg Gunn, the alliances, business development, and platform vice president at HootSuite, said in a press release  (opens in a new tab).

The popular social media platform will be hosting a webinar on using the new security tools on March 11  (opens in a new tab). (ht @hootsuite  (opens in a new tab))

Keeping Trolls at Bay

How do we handle member complaints in our online community? – #assnchat  (opens in a new tab) http://t.co/slcP6O8LP5  (opens in a new tab)

— Ben Martin, CAE (@bkmcae) February 27, 2014  (opens in a new tab)

Better living through community: The internet and social networks allow for communication on a previously unimaginable scale—and for your association, that means a limitless opportunity to address problems and concerns brought up by the community. Online, many bring up legitimate issues, but that’s not always the case.

“More often … these incidents turn out to be much ado about nothing: just someone with a vendetta or an axe to grind looking for attention,” Ben Martin writes at Online Community Results  (opens in a new tab).

https://twitter.com/SociousSoftware/status/439071278075744258

One way to keep unnecessarily hostile remarks to a minimum is through good community management. Conveniently, Socious’ Joshua Paul has a helpful step-by-step rundown  (opens in a new tab) of how to get more feedback and interest from your audiences.

“Testing various aspects of your online community’s engagement funnel can help your business or membership organization optimize your processes throughout each step of the experience,” he writes, laying out how you can perfect that funnel.

Among his recommendations are keeping better track of registrations, raising the quality of your site’s copy, and fine-tuning landing pages based on user experience, not your own preference. (ht @bkmcae  (opens in a new tab), @SociousSoftware  (opens in a new tab))

Do you have any advice for dealing with trolls? Share it below or send a tweet to @AssociationsNow  (opens in a new tab).

(iStock/Thinkstock)