This article was taken from the January 2014 issue of Wired magazine. Be the first to read Wired's articles in print before they're posted online, and get your hands on loads of additional content by subscribing online. "When hacks happen it becomes a major PR catastrophe," says Ryan Holmes, who founded social-media management system HootSuite. Here's his advice on keeping your reputation intact.
Set up securely
Your intern might not be the best person to launch the social-media accounts you hope will reach thousands. It's safer for a senior staff member to set them up, with the help of an IT administrator who knows how to choose a bombproof password. Holmes recommends LastPass: "It creates a hash algorithm which nobody's going to guess."
Centralise your access
Hacks don't always come from the outside -- HMV's Twitter feed was hijacked by rogue employees who live-tweeted as they were made redundant. You can minimise this risk by centralising your accounts using services such as HootSuite or MediaFunnel. With this, you can limit employees' access to the combined dashboard, so they never have the logins.
Audit your accounts
If your company has multiple departments, it's likely to have many profiles across Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and so on -- and you might not know them all. "Each of these will gain followers if it's coming from a brand," says Holmes. Conduct a regular audit to monitor who's making accounts where. You need to know who's listed as administrator on each account.
Plan for the worst
Practise your response to a social-media hack. If the hacker has locked you out, have contact details at the ready for the relevant support services. "If you don't have a centralised management system, you need to reach out to Twitter or wherever," says Holmes.
If you can access the profile, he recommends asking followers to disregard it until further notice.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
