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When running a business, it’s crucial you keep all your pages secure – from point of sale to social media accounts. Protecting your Facebook business page is vital to prevent hacking, which could jeopardize private data and harm your brand image.
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While Facebook business settings offer security and encryption features to protect your page, there are other actions you can take to further protect your data.
Read our guide on how to edit security settings on business Facebook pages and how to secure your account.
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You can, but it might not have the effect you’re hoping for. Making your Facebook business page private will restrict who can view it, rather than improve its security. If your page is private, the public – i.e. your customers – will not be able to find or view it, which hinders your business.
However, Facebook’s privatization feature is a good option for when you wish to edit your page without anyone viewing it while it’s in progress. This can be helpful if you’re just launching your business.
Here’s how to make your Facebook business page private:
Open and log in to Facebook
Click ‘Pages’ on the left column – if it is not immediately visible, you may need to click ‘See more’ and then ‘Pages’
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Click on the page you wish to manage
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Under ‘Manage Page’ click on ‘Settings’
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Under the ‘General’ tab you will find ‘Page visibility’ and its status – if the page is published it will state ‘Page published’
Click ‘Edit’ and click ‘Page unpublished’, followed by ‘Save changes’
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Anyone who is an administrator of the page will be able to view it, whether or not it is private.
If you are concerned about who can see specific information on your page, you can use it to create private groups and events. Private events allow you to invite only selected individuals. This could be useful if you’re launching events for specific locations and only want to invite the locals, or if you can only host a limited number. As the general public will not be able to see the event, you can keep its details private.
Here’s how to create a private event on a Facebook business page:
Open and log in to Facebook
Under the ‘Events’ tab, click ‘Create New Event’
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Select whether you want the event to be ‘Online’ or ‘In person’
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Under the ‘Privacy’ tab select ‘Private’ or ‘Public’ – note that once your event has been made public, you cannot later make it private
Update the information, such as event name, description, time and date, and images
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Click ‘Create Event’
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Invite guests using their name, number, or email address
In exactly the same way as you would when securing your personal Facebook account, you should create a strong password for your business. This should include lower and upper-case characters, numbers, and symbols. The password should have no connection to your personal life or business, and ideally not be a word. You can use a password generator to create a unique password comprising a mixture of these characters and digits.
You should also not use the same password for any other account – whether personal or for business.
Using a password manager can help streamline this process and improve security. The tool will store all of your lengthy passwords, helping you easily and safely access your accounts.
Applying two-factor authentication to your Facebook account will improve the security of your page. Two-factor authentication means that anyone signing in to the account must complete two steps to gain access – as opposed to the traditional single step of inputting a password.
Facebook offers two methods of two-factor authentication:
Login codes from a third-party authentication app
Text message codes from your phone
Activating this option will ensure that anyone trying to log in to your account will also need access to your phone or other device. You will also have the option to set up approval of login attempts from recognized devices, the use of a recovery code, or using your security key on a compatible device.
Two-factor authentication is often applied by default, but you should always double-check and update your settings. Here’s how to set it up:
Visit ‘Settings & privacy’
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Click ‘Settings’
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Click ‘Security and login’
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Under ‘Two-factor authentication’ you should find ‘Use two-factor authentication’ – click ‘Edit’
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Select the options you wish to use
When using a Facebook business page, there are different levels of access you can grant people. The platform offers five roles with varying permissions: Admin, Editor, Moderator, Advertiser, and Analyst.
Here’s what each role can do:
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To tighten security and ensure only those you trust can access your page, be selective to whom you grant these permissions. You should also regularly review your access permissions, removing previous members of staff or those who have changed roles within the company.
You can assign roles via your Facebook business page settings. Here’s how:
Visit ‘Pages’
Click ‘Settings’
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Click ‘Page roles’
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Go to ‘Assign a new Page role’
Type their name or email address in the box and assign the role to the right of the box
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Click ‘Add’
When establishing a Facebook business page, you should grant admin permissions to more than one user. In the event that an admin account has been hacked, having another account with admin authority will prevent you from being locked out of the page.
As Facebook grows in popularity, competition among brands grows. Everyone wants to attract more fans and engage with more potential consumers. One way to encourage more engagement is to link your social media profiles, such as Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest – which all require access to your Facebook page. These social media platforms are not the only third-party apps to have access to your accounts – there are plenty of websites that ask you to sign in via your Facebook account or connect to your profile. Ensure that you are only allowing access to well-known applications and regularly check which ones still have access.
Here’s how to review which third-party apps have access to your page:
Visit ‘Settings & privacy’
Click ‘Settings’
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Click ‘Apps and websites’
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Under ‘Active’, select the app you wish to view and click ‘View and edit’
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You can then make any changes to the access they have, or remove the app
Learn more about apps security directly on Facebook.
Moderation should be a key consideration as it will ensure that the experience of visiting your page remains safe and welcoming for users. This can be done by ensuring valuable content is posted regularly and does not get undermined by spam postings or other unsuitable activity.
You should regularly check your page to see what users are posting, being sure to delete any activity you don’t deem suitable. You can also moderate your page by blocking certain words – when someone uses a word on your page, it will automatically be marked as spam. Here’s how to block words:
Visit ‘Settings’
Next to ‘Page moderation’, click ‘Edit
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Type the words you want to block and separate them with commas – you will need to type both singular and plural words if you want to block them both
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Click ‘Save’
You should also consider using one of many community management platforms that allow you to control and filter incoming messages, both private and public. If you can’t afford a third-party social media management tool, then regularly monitor your page. Immediately block any users that appear suspicious, for example, those who make multiple posts that are abusive or unrelated to your business.
Producing and distributing good content is a key to success on social media. You want to avoid the unpleasant surprise of discovering posts on your Facebook page that should not appear there.
Pay attention to who is posting on your page – admins can view page authors – and use pre-scheduling options. If you plan your communication ahead, not only will you save some time, but you can control it better, with the option to review the copy and plan when it will go live.
Many businesses consider the best browsers for security and privacy on desktop, but pay less attention to mobile. If, like millions of other Facebook users, you and your team access your page via mobile, you should consider installing an application that will block access to Facebook when necessary.
This is handy in case your mobile phone is lost or for simply preventing your friends or family from jokingly posting on your behalf when you leave your smartphone unattended. Avast Mobile Security protects your Facebook for free with a security code.
You should consider creating a policy that sets out minimum security standards for staff who use their personal devices for business, and include a section specifically on social media.
With the Business Hub, you can keep your business data private even outside of Facebook. The all-in-one platform helps you to protect your business data, including customer information, and keep your entire network secure. What’s more, it’s available to try for 30 days completely free.