Cyber Series – How to manage your company’s Twitter presence

Tuesday 11 July 2017

Article by Lindsey Helfman

In light of the recent terror attacks in Britain and elsewhere, social media platforms are being put in the spotlight in terms of how they can better monitor the content that their users are posting, as well as how companies can protect themselves. Specifically, Twitter has suspended more than 636,000 of their accounts in violation of promoting terrorism , yet despite deactivating an account, terrorist groups often operate multiple accounts under various aliases. In terms of terrorism, disabling accounts are not the entire solution, only part of it. Another part is putting out counter-narratives which deconstruct radical ideologies and expose flaws in terrorist reasoning. The more sophisticated these counter-narratives are, the more powerful and convincing to the audience.

Separately, Twitter has looked into using artificial intelligence technology to block hate speech.security “The social media giant is teaming up with IBM to use its Watson artificial intelligence technology to track and stem abusive messages” the Telegraph wrote . By running an algorithm, it will reduce online harassment. With every new tweet, the machine technology will improve upon its search-and-block feature . Of the tweets in question, those accounts will be identified as engaging in abusive behaviour and can be so much as blocked from Twitter.

As for protecting your business or company on Twitter, it is a matter of being smart and logical. The best advice given to companies in terms of data breaches and hacks is to have the necessary tools and preparation in place to prevent an actual breach itself before you’re in the midst of one. As straightforward as it sounds, it can be taxing to set up.

To start with, putting someone in charge for employees to report to for social media is a proactive strategy. Designating one person to be responsible for your company’s social presence can help to mitigate risks. It allows for the brand and its content to be consistent online, which is very important. If you must allow multiple users access to the account, then you must select a group of employees you find trustworthy. When giving access to one account to numerous people, privacy precautions must be put in place.


One form of precaution, specifically for Twitter, is two-factor authentication . Two-factor authentication is very beneficial when dealing with a shared company account. One may be hesitant to give more than one person access to an account, as it results in more liability and responsibility. TweetDeck , a Twitter management app, can be used to manage a main account through team members.  In contacting 31 news-outlets, it was discovered that “the easiest way to enable two-factor authentication on shared accounts is by using the teams feature on TweetDeck and then using the app to manage and run the account.” By doing this, each admin will have to use their personal Twitter login to access the TweetDeck, which then prompts them to log into the shared account. This two-part process ensures an extra verification factor to protect an account from hackers. “The main account user creates team members by adding Twitter users as contributors or administrators of the shared account.”

With a lack of resources, and people, it ultimately may come down to hiring someone to monitor these channels for you, which costs money. Hiring a third party service or delegating an employee to monitor and protect your company’s social media outlets is not something trivial. It is a detailed and consequential task which requires an attentive mind and a knack for technology. Twitter itself had teams of a few hundred employees who monitored accounts, but even still, they were unable to report extremist content to the law enforcement agencies. Eventually, this may have you rethinking the costs and benefits of having a Twitter account at all – that you should simply delete your Twitter account rather than incur the costs it takes to maintain this account. Yet bumping up your account’s security and leveraging the latest AI technologies is a simple and cost-effective way of managing your company’s Twitter presence.

 Lindsey Helfman is currently interning at AmCham in Sydney. 

Click here and here to read the other instalments in our ‘Cyber Series’, looking at Google, YouTube and Facebook.

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