Are you secure online? or Do you just think you are?
In teaching social media training sessions, I discuss online security and safety. I especially discuss sharing personal information and privacy settings on Facebook and other social networking sites, i.e. LinkedIn and Twitter.
More often than not, clients and attendees are absolutely convinced their social media profiles are safe and secure. I immediately have them check a few Facebook settings. Then they start to listen closer and start making adjustments to their privacy settings. I haven’t found anyone that doesn’t have at least one thing they should be doing differently. A new set of eyes can provide a perspective and insight you hadn’t thought about.
Before I get started, I need to recognize Michelle Ketterman of The Inventory Experts. Her company inventories residents and business property, furnishings, equipment and valuables. In case of theft, fire, flood, tornado, etc …. Her clients will be able to quickly get their inventory to their insurance company and get all their damaged inventoried items replaced promptly and at a the right value. As Michelle says, “a picture can be worth literally a $1000.” Every time I hear her say this I snicker. What a tagline …. that is another whole blog post! LOL!
While Michelle’s focus is on offline security, she suggested I write a blog post about online security, specifically relating to social media because like many others, she thought her profiles security settings were configured correctly. Needless to say, she realized how unsecure her settings actually were after only 10 minutes of reviewing basic settings with me. With the seemingly constant changes, as part of her normal business, Michelle now has me regularly double check her social media security settings.
I couldn’t cover everything one post, but the following are the most common security threats:
- Date of Birth. Facebook requires your date of birth, and often people have it set to visible to their Facebook friends. Change this setting to make the year of birth not visible. Several of my clients use a fake year making them a few years younger or older.
- Address. Don’t list your physical address on Facebook and don’t share your real city if you live in a small town. i.e. Frisco, Rockwall, Royse City, Allen, etc…. List a major metroplex area like Dallas, Fort Worth, San Antonio, San Francisco. You get the idea. Yes, again, they could probably go out to Google and find your exact address, but let’s not make it easy on them for Pete’s sake!
- Information your friends are allowed to share about you. See One of My Facebook Secrets for details how to view and correct this issue.
- Friends. Restrict who can see your friend list to at those that are at least your friends already. You can even break this list down further and make it so they can only see mutual friends.
Passwords
- Check Microsoft’s website for a strength test on your password .
- Still want more on passwords – read this blog post – How I’d Hack Your Weak Passwords by John Pozadzides
Do you need a Facebook Privacy Tune Up? In one hour I show you hands-on techniques to optimize your Facebook Privacy Settings (order the Social Media Evaluation). This social media consulting session can focus on what you choose to discuss from Facebook Privacy to content to share on Twitter. You can also get a Tune Up of your Facebook Profile and Privacy settings that I complete independently. Contact me for details Lissa@LissaDuty.com.
In my consulting sessions, the client tells me their needs and the training is focused on those areas. Yes, you read that RIGHT, a social media consultant that will teach you what you want to learn, vs. what they think you need to LEARN!
Now it’s your turn – share a tip below regarding something you learned about your online security and how you fixed it! Look forward to hearing from you!
Always think about how secure you’re social media stuff is, always use different passwords.
Good article. Be aware though, that Facebook’s TOS requires accurate information including birthdates or they can close the account. Hiding the year should be sufficient and would prevent that from happening to someone.
Sandy, thanks for your comment! You are absolutely right on this! I actually advise my clients of this when they changed the year on date of birth. Some still do it anyway.