As someone who has had my Twitter, Pinterest, and Tumblr accounts hacked into, I understand first-hand the necessity of social media security. Luckily my experiences could all be corrected by a few deleted posts and a change of passwords. However, as the social media world continues to evolve and grow, the issue of keeping our internet identities secure is becoming increasingly important. Here are some tips on how to keep your social presence safe:

Create a social specific email

Your email address is probably well known and somehow connected to most of the things you do on the internet (online shopping, banking, bill pay, iTunes, etc.). If someone wants to hack your social media account, half of the work is basically done for them if you use your everyday email to log into your accounts. It's good practice to create a second email, specific to your social accounts. If you work in social media this is especially important because you may  have your personal social media accounts linked to your clients accounts, which puts them at risk if your account ever gets tampered with.

Use strong passwords

Many of us are guilty of slacking on the strength of our passwords on social sites. What's worse is not that we use the same poorly created password across multiple platforms. Can you guess what the #1 most popular password of 2012 was? Password! Your password should never be a word that can be found in a dictionary. To create a strong password, use a combination of letters, numbers, and special characters. Checkout Microsoft's Secure Password Checker to test the security of your own passwords.

Turn on Facebook's Log in Approvals

This practical feature can be found in Facebook's security settings and when activated, it will prompt you for a code every time you log in from a new computer. This is also a smart feature to have set up if you have client's accounts linked to your Facebook.

 

Link your social accounts to your smart phone

This is a suggestion from Twitter's blog, but other social applications including Facebook offer this security option. If your email and password ever get hijacked, linking your phone number to your social account should be a backup plan to help you reclaim your accounts.

I hope these tips help you and your social media accounts to stay safe.