How to protect your beauty business Instagram account

Social media accounts big and small are being hacked, I’m seeing it almost every day on the platforms, in my emails, in my DM’s and recently in nail and beauty group posts.

You may think this doesn’t apply to you because you’re too small, you only have a few hundred followers but it does and I’m going to explain how and what responsibilities you have to your business and your followers.

I’ve been saying for years that data is king Queen. In your salon and on your social media why? 

Because people follow you and build trust with you and your brand. This is the exact reason these scammers are going after your accounts big or small. 

It is no longer a scam that focuses on stealing big accounts to on-sell them to other businesses. It has turned into a mass $ making scheme targeting as many accounts as they can to scam your followers out of their hard-earned money. This is why you MUST protect yourself and your followers by ensuring you have gone through the steps to protect your account the best you can. 

There are 2 ways I’m seeing business owners succumb to their tricks: 

1. They receive a message from a friend (the friend has been hacked) asking for help, and once you respond they say they are locked out of their account. They then tell you they need to send a one-time code to your phone/email etc. and can you pass it on to them (again playing on the trust the victim had with that account). But what they are really doing is trying to log in to your account and you’re giving your own 2-factor authentication code to them to do it – not some special ‘my friend is locked out code’.
2. The account is accessed because the two-step authentication wasn’t set up – and you have probably reused your password across multiple platforms. 

Now, I don’t want to shame anyone that has had this happen, it would be devastating to have your hard work taken away and feel hopeless with little to no support from Instagram gods to help you get it back quickly. But putting out a message saying “oops, this has happened here is my new page” really isn’t looking out for the followers, it’s only looking after your business. Because I believe you have an obligation to do all you can to protect your account and your followers from being scammed by ensuring you have all the necessary steps to protect your data, and by data I mean the inbox and connections you have made on Instagram. 

If you haven’t set up a strong password (long and never used before) and 2-Step Authentication on your account you are missing a major step in protecting your asset and your followers. 

It is a hard but great lesson to not rely on Instagram as a point of contact for your business. You must have an email list ( Yep, me again reminding you of that task you have been putting off) 

If you haven’t set this up I have a step-by-step here to help you do it right now. You will need your phone and email address

I have a program called LastPass which alerts me when a password and email have been found on the dark web. This happens when a business has poor security on its websites. Think suppliers, competition websites etc and then you go on to reuse that password on other websites. A BIG NO-NO, this is why it’s a big problem. 

These scammers are betting on you being lazy and reusing weak passwords in other areas of your life and they send out the systems to try over and over again to get into any big platform they know they can use to gain money or access to more people.

 How Do You Protect Your Beauty Business Instagram Account?

The first step is to sign up for a password management system- I use Last pass https://www.lastpass.com/ but there are plenty of other good ones out there, check them out and see what works for you.

You can manage all your passwords and it can help generate strong passwords for you to use at any time. It also can auto-fill and scan the dark web to alert you when your data has been compromised 

Then to help lock down your accounts on social media I highly recommend setting up two-step authentication using the Google Authenticator app you can find this on the app store for both iPhone and Android. Follow the instructions once you download it and you are all set to go. 

Other safety measures to take into account for your business 

1. Don’t allow a 3rd party to access your account, this means staff and assistants. I know in the beauty and hairdressing world it is pretty common to have staff answer dm’s and post on your behalf. But this isn’t a great business or security practice. So, how do you get around this? If you’re using a password manager you can share passwords with assistants where they can access the account but can’t view the password itself. But you still run the risk of them taking over your account. Which has to happen to business when things turn sour. 
2. Don’t take bookings through your Instagram account, always refer people to your website and have them book their appointments online. This saves a lot of time energy and back and forth.
3. I hear you say but it’s too hard and they have questions before booking, yep i get it and that is why your content and your website should be answering those questions before they get to the booking stage. This is a part of the connect and engage stage of my 5 step method inside the academy. 
4. Building your Instagram account shouldn’t be the main goal of your business. You need to have it set up as a gateway to your business but moving people off Instagram and to your website should be the main strategy for your account. This helps build a strong business and attract your ideal clients to be paying customers and not just followers. 

If you are sick of playing to the algorithm and looking for a more sustainable business you should join the Beauty CEO Academy an online course where I walk you through step by step to turning your overwhelming business into a profitable business to support your life and goals.