Social media has gone from being another marketing tool to a major communication channel and a source of revenue for businesses. As such, losing access to a business account can never be a good thing. Your ads stop running, your messaging doesn’t get out there, and you lose trust with your customers.
Yet the number of businesses losing access to their social media accounts is on the rise. This has meant there’s significant demand for fast and reliable account recovery services, but many of the standard platforms fall short and leave businesses in the lurch.
Social Rescue provides businesses with the resources needed to safely and legally regain access to their compromised social media accounts through secure processes. Let’s take a closer look at how Social Rescue became a leading provider of business-grade account recovery support.
Why Business-Grade Account Recovery Is More Important Than Ever
It used to be that you could submit a couple of support tickets or follow the instructions on a social media FAQ page to regain access to your accounts. That couldn’t be further from reality now.
As social media platforms have grown, so have their policies. Rules and regulations are stricter than ever, and enforcement is usually automated. This sounds great in theory, but it can also leave legitimate account users shut out in the cold with very little explanation.
How did Social Rescue respond? They make sure that they understand the platform rules and regulations in detail before verifying who really owns the social media account. Then they present all the information they have gathered in a way that aligns with the platform’s internal review processes.
What “Business-Grade” Account Recovery Actually Means
“Business-grade” can sound a little vague, but what we’re really talking about here is a level of support for accounts that have a financial or operational value attached – not just social value like a personal social media account might.
Proper business-grade account recovery is going to include:
- Clear and verifiable identification of the rightful owner of the account
- The proper handling of sensitive business data
- A properly-defined workflow
- A team that knows what it really means for a business to lose two-factor authentication access
- An understanding of why the social media platform disabled the account according to their policies
- Knowing what to do with/about linked social media accounts
This isn’t an exercise in trial-and-error.
Professional recovery teams have set procedures to follow to help get businesses back into their accounts as quickly as possible without mistakes or delays.Then they perform security audits and give businesses guidance on how they can avoid their accounts being compromised again.
Top Reasons Business Accounts Get Hacked or Disabled
Many small businesses think cyberattacks are their biggest threat, and with good reason. Huge percentages of small businesses are hit by cyber attacks every year.
The three most common reasons why business accounts are hacked or disabled include:
1) Phishing attacks
Phishing is when a fake email or message is sent by a scammer. They look official and trick you into giving your login credentials over to the attacker, where they quickly change your password and email info, locking you out of the account.
2) Email security
An email address associated with your business social media account can quickly become compromised. In a lot of instances, phones or other two-factor authentication apps aren’t as secure as they need to be, and your information is used and abused.
3) Automated enforcement
Your business account can be flagged as violating the platform’s policies, even if the account manager hasn’t intentionally broken the rules. You’ll need to demonstrate compliance and prove ownership of the account before you can get back in.
Don’t Panic. Go With Structured Recovery
You’ve lost access to your account. Panic sets in. You try everything at once – multiple appeals, frantically putting in information – all in vain.
Don’t panic if you lose access to your business account. Instead, go with a team of pros who have a more structured recovery process in place. You want a team that:
- Gathers the right documentation
- Clearly demonstrates who owns the account
- Follows all the platform-specific guidelines to a tee
You don’t want the needless back-and-forth. You need a team that knows what they’re doing.
With that comes the need to prove to them that you actually own the social media account you are trying to gain access to. This might seem like a pain, but it protects your business and the social media platform from fraudulent claims.
Practical Steps to Protect and Recover Your Social Media Accounts
Here are some practical steps you can take to protect your account and make the recovery process easier:
1) Act fast, but be careful
Secure the email account linked to the social media platform before you do anything else. Change the password and take a look at the recent login activity. Write down everything that has happened in detail.
2) Don’t make these mistakes
Don’t try to recover your account on multiple devices or using multiple methods all at once. Slow down and make sure the information you put in is accurate.
3) Use stronger digital protection
Unique passwords and two-factor authentication are your best friends here. Make sure every password is different and limit access to accounts to those who really need it.
4) Prepare before a crisis happens
Your social media accounts are your business property. They should be treated like it. Keep records of when your accounts were created and who by (including any linked contact info). Having this all to hand can save you time if you ever need to recover the account.
Account Recovery and Online Brand Security
Don’t look at account recovery as a one-time fix that’s only needed in an emergency. It should be thought of as a broader part of your approach to online brand security. You can get the upper hand by training up your team members about the cyber threat and what some common risks are for businesses. You should also think about your access policies, too.
When you and your team understand how accounts are compromised, you can make sure that any security gaps in your own business are closed up as best as possible.
Choose Professional Account Recovery
Professional account recovery services exist because social media platforms are now an intrinsic part of how most businesses operate. When your account is compromised, you need to call in the pros to sort it out.
Professional account recovery services are there to protect what has undoubtedly become one of your business’s most important digital assets – its social media accounts.
