Every other day, it seems a new company's online security has been breached. Most recently, Fox and Paypal made the headlines among many others. But one recent scare really caught my attention... Pfizer's Facebook fan page password got hacked.
Sound crazy? It's actually not surprising at all. The culprit? A weak password.
Personally, the Pfizer story shook me to the core because they blamed the PR company. Although I am not in the PR business, I am Dashlane's Community Manager and we fall under the same essential category - Communications. Generally speaking, Community managers are the ghost writers for the brand's message. We update their pages, spread the gospel, and hope that you are listening. And many of us don'twork within the security realms of the company itself.
And this is where the problem lies.
Now you (the brand) might be saying, I have nothing to worry about: our Twitter password is secure as can be. While this is step one and of course extremely important, you still have something to worry about.
Let me tell you why...
With the rise of Social Media Management tools like HootSuite and TweetDeck this one Twitter login becomes obsolete, as every person on the team most likely has their own personal account on the management tool they are using to make their updates.
That means multiple people can access your Twitter account using their own password created individually outside your control. For example, "SocialMediaSuzy's" password for Hootsuite is different than "SocialMediaJohnny's" password for Hootsuite, yet both can access the brand's Twitter. Unless each one of these passwords is extremely secure, they can be hacked, putting the brand at serious risk.
Facebook is even more problematic because there is no single login for a Fan Page. Anyone who has admin access to the fan page can update. You better hope that everyone on that team has a secure password. As you can also update your fan page through a Social Media Management tool the same problem as above persists here as well.
The bottom line is Community Managers and Social Media Professionals need strong passwords just like everyone else!
TIPS FOR SECURE COMMUNITY MANAGEMENT
1. Enforce the use of secure passwords
2. Only let those who are trusted in on the Social Media Management software
3. Chose your admins wisely
4. Use different secure passwords for all of your social media accounts
5. Sign up for the Dashlane beta version - believe me it will make your life alot easier!
Photo Credit: Knoe.com