3 Reasons your Company Needs a Social Media Policy

The following guest blog was written by Bennet Hammer, a Social Media Security Consultant in Naples, FL.

Social Media use by employees is increasing at a staggering pace. It’s hampering productivity and, in some cases, is harming the reputation of many businesses. With 2.2 billion active social media users and 30% global adoption, the increased usage and adoption is putting businesses in a difficult position in terms of social media security. Should they eliminate social media usage in the workplace entirely? The need for a social media policy in business is becoming more important than ever. With 35% of viruses stemming from social media, it’s absolutely time for employers to take a step. Here are 4 reasons that your company needs a social media security policy:

1. As social media adoption grows, so does the threat.
   From a pure security perspective, you need to make sure that your employees aren’t opening your business up to potential threats like malware, viruses and other breaches. In February of this year, a Facebook malware outbreak infected 100,000 users in only two days. The Trojan virus used tag targeting, and tagged 20 of the infected users friends in a pornographic video. Because “friends of friends” were also able to see this, the click-bait was extremely effective, spreading like wildfire.

2. You need to protect your data and proprietary information.
   With the use of social media by employees within the corporate network, viruses and malware have the potential to spread throughout your organization and could compromise user credentials and valuable business and sensitive customer information as well. By having a policy in place that educates your employees on the appropriate use on social media during work hours and warns against suspicious click-bait tactics, you can prevent what would be a potential companywide infection.

3. You could receive hefty regulatory and compliance fines.
   Depending on your industry and the type of data that you house on your servers and network, breaches that compromise that data could make your business subject to hefty regulatory and compliance fines. HIPAA is just one example, where fines can amount to over a million dollars. This is in addition to any class-action lawsuits that you may experience.

When it comes to social media, you don’t have to shut it down. Employees are going to be using social media in your organization and giving them a policy protecting them and your business is a great way to be proactive without limiting access. As social media becomes more and more engrained in our everyday lives, businesses must take action in order to stay ahead and protect their data, their customer’s information and the business.

For more information about social media security policies, please visit Hammer IT Consulting’s website.