Who Knew Social Media Could Be So Painful?

Protecting Your Virtual Assets

It’s been a long time since I created my virtual, online presence. When I opened Harvest Moon Massage Therapy in 2008, I used trusted online providers that did the security part of website protection for me. As this website matured and moved platforms to accommodate Alabama Barefoot Massage Training Center, I again used trusted sources with built-in protection, so I didn’t have to worry.

Around the same time I opened Harvest Moon Massage Therapy, social media exploded. I made myself a Facebook account because that’s what we were all doing and FOMO. In 2010 I created what was then referred to as a “Fan Page” on Facebook for Harvest Moon Massage. I remember thinking it would be a great place to advertise my little micro-business for free/cheap. And it was. I was so excited about it that I was asked by AMTA-AL Chapter to teach other massage therapists to do what I had done with this tiny, little Facebook page. They also recognized the value of an advertising platform that worked rain or shine, 24/7 for free.

One of the things I never thought too hard about was how a Facebook Business page could be considered a capital B, capital A, “Business Asset”. Maybe because of the slow, creeping growth of social media, what started as a small business presence had grown into a significant part of how I marketed my business to the public. I had loosely in the past considered adding an extra admin to the Facebook page, but I didn’t know anyone who would want to fool with all the extra notifications and such so I put it off. Hold on to your hat, cause here it comes. BAD MOVE! Colossal mistake…probably a rookie mistake too.

Catastrophe Strikes

I got hacked, my Facebook profile got hacked. Well, technically I got scammed, then hacked, then deactivated by Facebook. It was horrifying, terrifying, a really, really bad thing. If you didn’t already know, Facebook support is crap. I talked to so many bots and automated responses it wasn’t funny and brought me to tears a few times. Getting an actual person to respond to my appeals and emails wasn’t much better. I experienced for the first time ever the circular email of never-ending confusion.

It was bad enough that my personal profile had been hacked, but I also lost control of my Facebook pages, aka, Business Assets. Keeps getting worse and worse, eh? Yeah…I filed admin appeals and requests and went around and around and around for more than six weeks.

A Miracle

One day about 5 weeks out from the hack, I got an email from Facebook asking didn’t I want to review all these 714 notifications from my old account. So, with almost no hope that this latest appeal would work, I clicked the link and went through yet another appeals process. I literally had so little hope I just went about my day. Three days later, I opened my computer and suddenly Facebook is in my face asking do I want to log in to my old account. Wait, What? WHAT? WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY?

And wonder of all Christmas miracles, I was in my old account. Things had changed, I won’t go into it, because my only order of business at this point was quickly adding as many new admins to my biz pages as I possibly could. Because this couldn’t actually be real, could it? Could the Facebook botgods have actually given me my account back with all related privileges and permissions? I fully expected at any moment for a bot to take over and lock me out again because this doesn’t happen. Anyway, cut to why I’m telling you this big, long story.

Protecting Your Virtual Business Assets

Before we can protect our virtual business assets, not just your website, we need to figure out what and where they are. Now that I’ve been through this experience, I would define a virtual business asset as anything online that represents my business, drives people toward my business, and/or I use to manage my business assets. Social media accounts definitely fit into that definition and it’s pretty hard to miss where that stuff lives online. So how do you protect these business assets that live on social media platforms? Especially when every single one of them are individual platforms with different rules and logins and security systems. Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Pinterest, YouTube, LinkedIn, and those are just the ones at the top of mind.

Here is a general list that I hope will help you start designing your own virtual business asset security plan.

Strong Passwords

Make sure you have strong passwords and a different one for each account. Seriously, don’t use the same password for every account you have. Each platform has different rules for what makes a strong password in their system. Follow their guidelines and then make it a bit stronger. Also, consider using a password vault app. They will help you keep track of all your different accounts and passwords and can add another layer of protection.

2-Factor Authentication

2-Factor Authentication is where you first enter a password, then have a secondary piece of information you provide to prove you’re who you really are. Did that make sense? You might know it as where you get a text message and then enter the code from the text message to log into an account. There are other ways that second part happens. Sometimes it’s your fingerprint, face scan, or an email with another code. If your platform has the option for 2-factor authentication, turn it on.

Administrative Redundancy

Find someone or multiple people to become backup admins for your business accounts. Unfortunately, every platform has different policies and methods to add backup admins. AND you’ll need to be careful that you don’t accidentally violate the platform’s terms of use and get banned.

Security Checkups

If you’re like me, this sounds like torture. I sure didn’t know I was signing up for this when I signed up for that first little Facebook account. But if it keeps me from getting into a mess again, I’ll figure out how to review each of these platform’s latest security changes and make sure my account is safe. I don’t know yet if this will be a yearly, quarterly or monthly exercise.

Here’s a list of articles I found helpful while trying to figure out how to design a security checkup plan for my business accounts.

3 Steps to Secure Your Facebook Business Account From Hackers
7 Failsafe Ways to Safeguard Your Facebook Business Page from Phishing and Hacking Attempts
Instagram Security Tips

In Conclusion

I hope this has been helpful and given you enough information to get started with a plan to make your virtual assets more secure. Don’t wait like I did, and if you find something really cool and helpful on this front, let me know!