Everyone is at risk of being hacked. There is no fool-proof way to prevent your accounts from being accessed by individuals who should not have your information. The best way to protect your account is to create a strategy and always be aware of the information that is sent out from those accounts. When it comes to social media - word spreads fast. If you are hacked, it is almost guaranteed that everyone will know about it, see the information that is posted and possibly respond to it before you can even halt the posting. This is an unfortunate occurrence but don't fret - you can fix this. As long as you move quickly and have a crisis management plan in place. 

What is a crisis management plan? Every large organization or business should have one. [Check out our blog on crisis management plans and how to start one.]

First, establish a password that is not easily "guessed". Rather than using a common word or name, use a phrase. Maybe add in a number of punctuation to make it more unique. You could have several different types of hackers; what many would call 'professional hackers', disgruntled ex-employees or activist groups who may disagree with what you stand for and take action. Make sure you are prepared for any form of hacking. 

When it comes to social media and contests - they BLOW UP. What do I mean by this? Log on to Facebook and search around for a little while. You are bound to find a few contests on some of your favorite brands' pages. The best way to get the news out about a contest online is to use social media. Facebook and Twitter are the main platforms to find contests on. With Twitter you can use a hashtag to track the submissions and Facebook you can use a specific page. 

What is LinkedIn? If you are in business - listen up! LinkedIn is a professional networking site that allows, updates, resumes, portfolios, job postings and business pages.

It seems to be that Google+ pages are becoming more important to businesses. Since the creation of Google+, the number of business pages has grown and there seems to be more businesses gravitating towards the new social hub. Some social media experts made comments early on that Google was "trying too hard to be like Facebook" and wanting to trump the social media giant with a new wave of socializing. Today, Google+ is a great way for people to find your business via Google Places AND another SEO result! 

With all Facebook's changes to the timeline, people's profiles, cover photos, ads and pages - there is so much to learn once those changes take effect. Facebook pages have the ability to reach hundreds or thousands of people, depending on how well you promote the page and publish content that people will want to know. There are several ways to create a promoted post - either from the Facebook page itself or from the ads dashboard.  

When you are creating a page that will be shared on Facebook you need to use the Facebook Open Graph standards html meta tags and "hint" your page with images that Facebook will know to use on a wall post. Here is an example of a post without good html references to show the correct image when your new content get viral attention. 

While attempting to merge two Facebook pages for a client, we came across a major issue - the pages cannot be merged the way we wanted them to be. We created a page for their new location, wanted to maintain the same audience from the previous business since the two were coming together as one. After requesting the pages to be merged, we noticed that there are more rules for the merging of two like pages. Facebook provides a simple "merging pages" page, but there is no indication that further approval would need to be taken. 

When it comes to reviews, sometimes they can make or break your business. The best way to prevent reviews from "breaking" your business is by responding to them properly. It is never ever a good idea to delete a review, no matter how bad it is. Always take the higher road and apologize for any inconvenience, ask for contact information, offer them something that will bring them back into your business and then personally take care of the problem. All of these review sites give you the option to respond to reviews. I highly recommend that you take the opportunity to interact with your travelers and reviewers. It could be the difference between a one time customer and a lifetime customer. 

What is ySocial? Here at Thrive, we realized that YMCAs have a very unique position on Facebook and Twitter. Just like any organization, YMCAs want their members to know what is going on at each location, fundraisers and events, pool closings, fitness classes etc. Since the booming growth of social media, alerting members of this information has become much easier. 

Social media is a constantly growing platform. As soon as a new social app or site catches attention, it spreads like wildfire - the whole point of social media. The newest fad is Vine. What is Vine? Twitter launched the video-sharing app, Vine, designed to allow users to create a short film of 6 seconds. Each short video runs on a loop, functioning much like an Instagram feed, showing friends and their videos.