By Princess Jones
Social media snafus can haunt your brand for a long time. What’s worse than making a misstep in front of your entire audience? Having someone hack your accounts and do it for you. If your brand depends on social media to promote its products and services, it makes sense for you to take security measures against it.
Two-step authentication can be called many things — login approvals, login verification, etc. But all of those things just mean that if someone tries to log into your account from an unknown browser or device, they will need to provide a secondary code as verification before they can proceed. This means that even if your username and password become compromised, the unauthorized user will still need a second factor to access your account. Most of the major social media accounts currently offer it.
Once you’ve logged into Facebook, click the lock icon on the right side of the screen. Then click “See More Settings.” Click “Security” on the left side of the screen. On the next page, click “Edit” next to “Login Approvals.” Check the box next to “Require a security code to access my account from unknown browsers.”
Click through the next two dialog boxes to get a security code sent to your mobile phone number. Enter the code when you receive it. Here, you’ll be asked to enter your current password again to confirm the change.
For the first week of using login approvals, you can turn off the feature without entering a security code. After that, no new logins without the code If you’d like to start now, click the box next to “No thanks, require a code right away.” Within a few minutes, you’ll get a confirmation email.
Starting from your Twitter profile page, click your profile picture on the top right side of the page and click “Settings” in the drop down menu. Click “Security and privacy” on the menu on the left side of the page. Check the box next to “Verify login requests.”
Verify the phone number associated with your account and click “Send code” when prompted. When you get the code, type it into the screen and click “Submit.” Click “Continue” to finish the process. You’ll get an email letting you know that you’ll need a code to login from now on.
Start by logging into your Google account dashboard. Click “Signing into Google” and then click “2-Step Verification.” (You’ll probably have to log in again.) At the top of the next screen, click the button to turn on two step authentication.
You’ll have a couple of options on how to setup your authentication–text/voice message, the Google authenticator app, or by using Google prompt. If you choose the text/voice option, you’ll have to input the number and wait for your code to be sent. If you use the app, you’ll download the app and using the barcode reader to set it up. And if you use Google prompt (which is a pop-up that shows up on your Android device to confirm that you are trying to login), you will pick a device to use.
If you choose the text/voice or the Google authenticator app, enter the code into the setup screen to confirm it’s working. If you use the prompt method, you just tap “Yes” on your phone to confirm. You’ll get an email to confirm you’ve set it up properly.
After you log into your LinkedIn account, click “Manage” next to Privacy and Settings. Scroll all the way down to the bottom of the screen and click “Change.” Click “Turn On.” (You’ll probably be asked here to enter your password for security reasons.) When you get the code, enter it into the field on the computer screen. You’ll get an email for confirmation that you now have two-step verification.
