I love social media.  I use all the tools I can to grow my following and my business.  But in this day and age you need to be careful and protect yourself from unscrupulous people on the web who want to hijack your account.  So what is a savvy and phenomenal business woman to do to protect herself from trojans, phishers, hackers and imposters floating around Facebook ?  Read my tips to learn more.

Watch For Suspicious Activity

Are you seeing suspicious activity in your News Feed, or on your wall or better yet in your inbox?  If so, delete it.  Delete posts from your wall and from newsfeeds that you find iffy.  If you get an email with a suspicious link delete it.   And, whatever you do, DO NOT CLICK ON THE LINK!  If you make the mistake and click on it you pretty much have handed over your account to someone else.   Remember that hijackers are coy and deceiving so it may appear that it is legitimate even when it is not.

Remove Friends As Appropriate

Remove friends who post suspicious links to your wall or that are contained in emails.  I know I can hear some of you saying, “But they are my friends”.    Still delete them because the person who is sending you the link is more than likely NOT your friend but the person who has hijacked your friends account.  Be safe and remove friends when needed.  Once your friend has regained control over their account you can always add them to your friend list .

Turn off Facebook Chat Feature

Personally, I hate chatting.   I find it a huge waste of time.  Send me an email or better yet pick up the phone or Skype me.   Never mind what a huge distraction it can be when you are trying to post an event, update your profile or post information for your followers.  But the real reason I mention this is because you don’t ever want to be chatting with someone you don’t know.  Hopefully, you know all of your Facebook friends, but I know that some of us “friend” people that we don’t necessarily know because we are trying to grow our list and build a following.  So, just play it safe and turn it off!

Hide your year of birth

Don’t show your year of birth. This may or may not make a difference. I’m not one to be shy about my age or how old I am… however, I heard from an identity theft expert that not disclosing your year of birth is just another way of protecting yourself from identity theft.

Keep Private Information Private

Just because you are using social media doesn’t mean everyone needs to know everything about you.  The line between personal and professional is definitely blurred.  So decide what you want to share on Facebook, twitter and the like and think carefully before you share something.

By following this simple tips you can ensure that your Facebook account is safe and that you are being smart and protecting your account.

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