Social Media Essentials

Everyone pretty much has at least one social media platform, whether it is Facebook, Linkedin, Instagram, Twitter- some oldies - Myspace or Bebo. These platforms enable us to share with family, friends and colleagues our memories, successes and so much more. The majority of us use these  more often than we want to confess, however, do we actually know how safe they are?

Let's start with arguably the biggest social media giant, Facebook.

Facebook 

We share so much of our life here; new job, engaged, married, got into University, had a baby, new car,  birthday, mobile numbers, travelling, etc. All this information is stored online, so that people can keep up to date with your life, however, this is a lot of information to have online. You’ve probably heard all about the Facebook Cambridge Analytica scandal, if you haven't, search it, you will get a fright. It begs to question how is our data used and how can we protect our privacy?

For Facebook, here are a couple of tips;

• Have a look at our blog on Facebook Privacy Settings, make sure you are not giving too much away.
• Don’t accept accounts of strangers, fake accounts are being used to spread malicious malware, spam and impersonate you. 
• Pictures and links can also infect your device with malware, report anything suspicious you see. (Have a look at this article about Kim K being this years most dangerous celeb to search, Click Here).

Twitter 

Twitter is a social media platform that shares short tweets on anything and everything, it connects people with the same interests as you and helps you keep up to date with topics that you find interesting or Memes.

Tips for Twitter;

• NEVER, click on links sent via Private Message (Especially if you do not know the sender), these can be phishing attacks (blog on phishing coming soon).
• Limit the use of third party companies that have access to your personal data (Blog for third party access coming soon).
• Make yourself private so that not everyone can access and see your personal information and tweets.

Linkedin

Linkedin is more of a business platform, it keeps you in contact with people you’ve worked with, helps you connect with people you want to work with or companies and people you want to explore.

Tips for Linkedin;

• Remember millions use Linkedin and can see your profile, filter the information you share.
• Limit the use of third party companies that have access to your personal data (Blog for third party access coming soon).
• Pictures and links can also infect your device with malware, report anything suspicious you see. 

Instagram 

Instagram is a popular platform where you can share pictures and videos, it is becoming more and more popular for companies to promote their brands, they can tag the website and prices to make it easy and convenient for users to browse.

Tips for Instagram:

• Limit the use of third party companies that have access to your personal data (Blog for third party access coming soon).
• Don’t expose your location whether it’s at home, work or on your holiday. Especially not if your account is public. 
• Following on from that, it is best to keep your account private, limiting strangers access to your pictures. 

Snapchat 

Snapchat is a messaging app, that allows you to communicate with friends via snaps as videos and pictures that will disappear after the defaulted time.

Tips for Snapchat;

• Be a ghost, DON'T share your location!
• Stick with Friends Only - It should automatically be by default.
• Hide your profile from Quick add.
• Customise who you want to see your story.
• Don’t share your Snapchat Code.

Moreover, I can’t stress enough that you should already have the following on EVERY social media accounts:

• Two-Factor-Authentication - See our blog on setting this up;
• Unique Password - (Check out our blog on passwords and LastPass);
• Always log out - Blog coming soon.