We’ve previously seen just how important it is to employ good security measures when using social networking sites for your business. The two main common sense security tips involve making sure your email is secure, as well as choosing good passwords for your social networking accounts and not using the same password on different websites. But there are also some security tips that are unique to social media that you should employ as well. Take a look at them if you use or are considering using social networking services for your business needs. These will help make your use of social media sites in the course of your business activities a lot safer with less potential for problems caused by malicious software, hackers and other security breaches.

• Be careful with apps and plugins that you install

There are many plugins and apps that were developed for social media sites, especially for Facebook. For example, you can find apps that let you post to numerous social media sites at the same time, as well as integrate your website content better with your social media accounts. While they may be useful, there have been some rogue apps that were detected. Usually, Facebook is good at finding and removing those, but before this happens some damage could get done. For example, rogue apps could steal compromise the security of your profile, as well as post spam messages on your or your friends walls. Before you decide to use an app, you will need to do a bit of research about it to make sure that it’s actually a legitimate tool and not some piece of social media malware. Simply Google the name of the app or plug in. If it’s something legitimate, then you will find some websites, blog posts, or online news articles that talk about it in the form of reviews and information, as well as some background information on the developers of the application. If it’s something rogue, then you will probably find cautionary messages that have been posted in many places on the web to warn social networking site users about it, that way you would know that it’s an app that should be best avoided. Doing a minute or two of research of Google could save you a lot of trouble, so this is not a step that should be skipped.

• Beware of impersonation

Since no identity verification is required to join social networking sites, there’s little out there that could stop a cyber criminal from creating a fake account and impersonate someone that you know, such as a client, business partner, etc. If you discuss things with someone on a social networking website, make sure that you actually know the person that you’re dealing with and that you’re sure they are who they claim to be. This is something that is easy to do and simply requires a bit of common sense on your part.

Facebook and Twitter have become a part of the lives of a great number of people, so it only makes sense to try and use those services to get your message out to your target audience. So all you have to do is sign up for them, and put up a few links to your website, and the traffic will just pour in, right? Wrong. There are a lot of things to consider before diving into marketing your site through socian networking services.

The most important thing to remember whether you’re thinking about a Facebook or Twitter account is that there has to be an actual human being running the account. There is plenty of software out there that will post updates about your website to either service automatically, but that software should be used alongside a person making regular updates, not instead of a person making regular updates. Just remember, the key word in social networking is “social”. People use Facebook and Twitter to connect with other people, and giving them that connection is a big part of using social networks effectively as marketing tools.

When using Twitter, make sure you take the time to talk to your followers. If someone @ replies you, be sure to answer their question or address their statement. Same thing goes for direct messages. If you have a healthy number of real tweets crafted by a real human being, your followers are way more likely to click on links to your site when you tweet them.

Facebook works a little differently. When you’re setting up a Facebook page, you should take a minute, and think of something elated to your niche, and create a page about that rather than about your specific website. For example, if you have a website that sells luggage, start a Facebook page about travel. Once the page has a good number of fans, start throwing in some links to deals on your site in between posts about travel. That way you’re certain to reach your target audience in a meaningful way.

If you’re careful to give your social marketing campaign a friendly, human feel rather than just letting software post updates to Twitter and Facebook for you, you will drive more traffic to your links, and get more attention from your target audience. With no sign up fees or other costs involved, Facebook and Twitter can be affordable, and powerful marketing tools if used correctly.