From large brands and small businesses to celebrity personas and spam bots–and yes, even a few real people–nearly everyone has now made a social footprint in one way or another. And it’s fair to say, companies and marketing professionals have a firm handle on what it means to tweet or make a status update. We have the goods, we have the service, but do we have the security?

Protecting oneself online, too, is nothing new. Consumers are (hopefully) aware of how to keep their personal information safe and secure while online, but when it comes to social media, it seems we leave the back door open. As our lives become increasingly intertwined, brands and the marketers behind them need to consider social media security. Luckily, developers have taken note of this gap in social media tools and services.

One example of services now being offered in this area is Social iQ Networks. Founded by a group of professionals with backgrounds in security, software development, and marketing Social iQ Networks provides a cloud-based service that gives brands a solution to discover, optimize and protect their social media presence and accounts.  Essentially, Social iQ provides a hub of all social accounts, allowing users the ability to set overall protections and alerts on all accounts, based on five areas of risk it has identified.

The Areas of Risk Social iQ Helps Flag

Social Account Sprawl – The Social iQ solution gives brands a clear understanding of how many social accounts, of what kind, on what platforms and for what purposes they may have. It also has the ability to discover and categorize all social accounts, as well as identify the purpose and messaging of each. Research group Alitmeter found that on average, enterprise class corporations had 178 social media accounts and that number is likely to grow if unchecked.

Social Account Tampering, Hacking and Misuse – Users have the ability to identify account risks and opportunities within the Social iQ Networks. That includes control over third-party application access, notifications of account setting alterations and ability to remediate abuse and misuse centrally and automatically.

Social Benchmarking – Social iQ Networks helps brands identify clear metrics and benchmarks for its social media efforts. Users can accurately compare account activity between owned or competitor channels, as well as the ability to monitor social trends across platforms.

Security, Compliance and Acceptable Use Content Moderation – Brands have the ability to protect all social accounts and what’s being said on them. With prebuilt categories for security, compliance and acceptable use content from text to full or shortened URL links, brands can receive notifications of negative content, malware links, spam, racism, hate, click jacking, abusive language and excessive adult content.

Social Tool and Content Optimization – Social iQ Networks aims to protect the brand and protect the audience. Within the tool, brands can review which publishing tools are used by the company and audience, as well as identify content trends and notify users when content moves off topical relevance.

Intelligent Security In-Use

Social media tools come and go, but a few are here to stay. Social iQ, I believe, will be sticking around. Our earned media group here at CMD was given a guided tour of the tool, and it was clear that for large corporations, this social security system would be beneficial. With the use of Social iQ, a marketing manager within a large company would have the ability to monitor who has access to all the branded accounts, regardless of whether the channel was being monitored internally or by an external marketing agency. Plus it allows the company to set parameters for all channels, again regardless of who is managing or monitoring them.