Anyone in the digital media landscape can tell you that everything is constantly changing and changing quickly. With digital platforms rapidly evolving, so do best practices. In such an ever-changing landscape, it is important to acknowledge that, while specific best practices may change, the fundamentals these are built upon remain consistent. While we’ll dive into more digital constants in future Neon Notebook articles, today’s focus is on account security and maintenance.
Account Security
We’ve all heard these security best practices before:
- Create a Unique Password.
- Regularly Change your Password every few Months to Minimize Risk.
- Enable Two-Factor Authentication.
- Be Cautious of Phishing Attempts.
There’s a reason every article on this subject mentions them, they do help keep your account secure. But at the same time, it can be hard to always keep track of your password if it is unique and changing. And worse, it can feel like you are putting yourself through unnecessary hassle, but they are incredibly worth it when the alternative is potentially spending hours working with support to try to regain access to your account. Whether it be the account of your business or for yourself, safe is always better than sorry.
Account Maintenance
While I expect you instantly knew what I meant when I said account security, I do think account maintenance warrants a bit more of a discussion. Put simply, these are ideas on how to keep account details current and work with the automated tools so that you hopefully never have to reach out to a platform’s support team. Here are some tips on account maintenance:
- Always Keep your Contact Information Current. You never know what email or phone number a platform may choose to be key for recovering your account. You would hate to get locked out of your social media account and the key to get back into it is your old college email you don’t have access to anymore (trust me…).
- Do Not be Afraid to Reset your Password. Many platforms will lock down your account as a security measure if you enter your password incorrectly too many times. If you can’t remember your password after one or two attempts, just reset it.
- Make Sure Multiple Current Employees are on Business Accounts. If an account is important to your business, it’s important that it is not only tied to a single person. If someone ever leaves a role, make sure to add another employee on and that they know how to get into the account.
- Don’t Forget Connected Accounts. For example, if you run a business on Meta, you obviously need access to the Facebook and Instagram profiles, but if your business has a Meta Business Manager, it is important you transfer access to that as well.
- Remove Former Employees. Every now and then it is important to go through and take off employees no longer connected to the business.
In Summary…
While many things change in the digital industry, account security and maintenance are here to stay and are important for running your business or just keeping access to your personal accounts. While it may feel like a waste of time and you have other priorities, neglecting account security and maintenance is opening up yourself or your business to greater risk. Although it may not feel like a priority now, it will be an urgent priority when you are locked out of your accounts you need access to, so don’t let it get to that point. Minutes today can save hours down the line.