Aside from promoting your business, you should also consider the necessity of data privacy in social media marketing.
One of the best marketing tips for business owners is to use social media platforms to reach a broader audience. More than half of the world’s population uses social media. With the right application of digital marketing solutions for business, you’ll quickly get your ideal clients or customers. But aside from promoting your business, you should also consider the necessity of data privacy in social media marketing. While it’s the individual’s primary responsibility to handle the information they share, you also play a vital role in protecting your audience’s data privacy.
We’ll guide you on navigating data privacy in social media to protect your business and your audience.
Implementing the best practices in data privacy compliance
To maintain your business’s integrity and your audience’s trust, safeguarding data privacy shouldn’t be ignored. For stricter compliance with data privacy in social media marketing, implement the following practices:
Conduct a data audit
Data gathering is essential for every business. This is one of the keys to understanding customer behavior and arriving at informed decision-making. But so is data auditing.
By conducting a data audit, you’ll gain a broader grasp of how your business collects information from your audience and how it’s processed. This allows you to identify whether your data-collecting processes are transparent and justifiable for your audience.
Create a clear data privacy policy, consent, and disclaimer
In the world of digital marketing in the Philippines, some business owners neglect to create a precise data privacy policy, consent, and disclaimer. Some deem these documents unnecessary, while some lack awareness. They don’t realize the potential harm of a data breach until it’s too late.
For example, business owners need to trendjack social media to keep their brand more visible and more engaging to their audience. Trendjacking is one of the top marketing tips for business owners. Tendjacking encourages them to capitalize or piggyback on a trending topic, strategy, event, hashtag, music, etc.
A prime illustration of a popular social media strategy that many business owners are currently trendjacking revolves around user-generated content. In this strategy, business owners encourage their audience to share their photos and personal stories about their experience with the brand — leading to increased data collection among consumers.
Some business owners mistakenly believe that because their audience willingly shares their photos and personal stories on their social media platforms, using this content in their advertising campaigns is acceptable. However, this constitutes a lack of consent and a data privacy breach in social media marketing, especially if you don’t outright tell your audience.
Are you familiar with cases where artists, celebrities, and influencers lodged complaints against brands that used their photos and testimonials without permission in their advertising, resulting in substantial fines for the companies involved? So before you trend jack and gather data among your audience, create a transparent data privacy, consent, and disclaimer first to prevent legal consequences.
Implement robust data protection measures
As a business owner, you need to invest in robust data protection measures so the data of your business and audience won’t be hacked or leaked. Invest in reliable software tools to safeguard all your data from any vulnerabilities. Or better yet, hire a data protection officer for your company. This will relieve you of the technical aspects of data protection, as data protection officers possess expertise in data encryption, security software, software patching, firewalls, data privacy compliance, and other relevant areas.
Only collect relevant data from your audience
When conducting a brief survey or poll for your business, requesting irrelevant or excessive information from your audience is unnecessary. In most cases, details like full names, locations, and income levels are not required. Collecting only essential data ensures that your audience’s information remains protected in case of a data compromise or breach.
Train your employees in data security practices
While having a dedicated data security officer is undeniably valuable, it’s also important to recognize that the responsibility for data security is a collective effort involving every member of your company. To ensure data privacy in social media marketing and prevent data breaches, equip your staff with the right knowledge on basic data security. You can seek help from a cybersecurity or data security professional to help train your staff in various aspects of data security, including recognizing threats, following best practices, and complying with security policies and regulations.
What happens if you ignore data privacy?
Failing to protect your audience’s data privacy in social media marketing can lead to dire consequences for your company. It can result in reputational damage, losing people’s trust, legal matters, and even financial losses.
One great example of this is the Cambridge Analytica Scandal in 2018. Mark Zuckerberg has been called to court because his platform, which is Facebook, aided Cambridge Analytica in gathering the personal information of millions of Facebook users for the purpose of targeted political advertising. He acknowledged the issue that he failed to protect the data privacy of its users and agreed to pay a hefty fine of $725 million.
Your reliable social media marketing partner
When it comes to everything social media, including handling data privacy in social media marketing, Eight Media is the best digital marketing company to call. We know the importance of digital marketing in business at our core and have provided effective marketing tips for business owners, leading them to success. If you want to boost the visibility of your business through social media, contact us today!
