The European Banking Authority (EBA) has confirmed it has fallen victim to the ongoing Microsoft Exchange attacks.
With a total of four highly valuable zero-day exploits, previously unreported vulnerabilities that give cybercriminals a head start in any attack campaign, the attacks against on-premises Microsoft Exchange servers were always going to be a big deal. Those initial attacks, which prompted Microsoft to publish an emergency out-of-band security update, were attributed to a nation state-sponsored group identified as HAFNIUM. The nation in question is China. However, Microsoft has now confirmed that it “continues to see increased use of these vulnerabilities in attacks targeting unpatched systems by multiple malicious actors beyond HAFNIUM.”
One of those attacked outside of the U.S. was the European Union’s banking regulator, the European Banking Authority. On March 7, the EBA issued a statement confirming that it had “been the subject of a cyber-attack against its Microsoft Exchange Servers.”
While stating that a full investigation was underway, the EBA went on to add: “As the vulnerability is related to the EBA’s email servers, access to personal data through emails held on that servers may have been obtained by the attacker. The EBA is working to identify what, if any, data was accessed. Where appropriate, the EBA will provide information on measures that data subjects might take to mitigate possible adverse effects. As a precautionary measure, the EBA has decided to take its email systems offline. Further information will be made available in due course.”
Further information was, indeed, made available by way of an update on March 8. “The EBA investigation is still ongoing and we are deploying additional security measures and close monitoring in view of restoring the full functionality of the email servers,” it read. “At this stage, the EBA email infrastructure has been secured and our analyses suggest that no data extraction has been performed and we have no indication to think that the breach has gone beyond our email servers.”
“The exploitation of the 0days in question required some specific conditions and thus raises questions what exactly happened at the EBA,” Ilia Kolochenko, chief architect at ImmuniWeb, said. “Another key question is when exactly the EBA was compromised?” Kolochenko points out that if the intrusion happened after the disclosure but prior to the emergency patch, the vulnerable systems should have been immediately disconnected to prevent exploitation in the wild. “The EBA is likely not the last victim of this hacking campaign,” he warns, “and more public authorities may disclosure incidents stemming from exploitation of the same vulnerabilities.”
I have approached the EBA for further comment.
Meanwhile, Mark Bower, a senior vice-president at comforte AG, said that “the capacity for attackers to extract sensitive data from emails, spreadsheets in mailboxes, insecure credentials in messages, as well as attached servers presents an advanced and persistent threat with multiple dimensions.”
Although it should be reiterated that, at this point in the investigation, the EBA is saying that “no data extraction has been performed and we have no indication to think that the breach has gone beyond our email servers.” Bower, like Kolochenko, warns that more incidents will be reported. “Affected entities and their supply chain partners will see a persistent secondary impact as a result over a long period of time,” he said.
I’ll leave the final word to John Hultquist, vice-president of analysis with Mandiant Threat Intelligence. “Though broad exploitation of the Microsoft Exchange vulnerabilities has already begun, many targeted organizations may have more to lose as this capability spreads to the hands of criminal actors who are willing to extort organizations and disrupt systems.
The cyber espionage operators who have had access to this exploit for some time, aren’t likely to be interested in the vast majority of the small and medium organizations. Though they appear to be exploiting organizations in masses, this effort could allow them to select targets of the greatest intelligence value.”
Update March 9
The EBA has now published a third update, which I reprint here in full:
“The European Banking Authority (EBA) has established that the scope of the event caused by the recently widely notified vulnerabilities was limited and that the confidentiality of the EBA systems and data has not been compromised.
Thanks to the precautionary measures taken, the EBA has managed to remove the existing threat and its email communication services have, therefore, been restored.
Since it became aware of the vulnerabilities, the EBA has taken a proactive approach and carried out a thorough assessment to appropriately and effectively detect any network intrusion that could compromise the confidentiality, integrity and availability of its systems and data.
The analysis was carried out by the EBA in close collaboration with the Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-EU) for the EU institutions, agencies and bodies, the EBA’s ICT providers, a team of forensic experts and other relevant entities.”
I’m a three-decade veteran technology journalist and have been a contributing editor at PC Pro magazine since the first issue in 1994. A three-time winner of the BT Security Journalist of the Year award (2006, 2008, 2010) I was also fortunate enough to be named BT Technology Journalist of the Year in 1996 for a forward-looking feature in PC Pro called ‘Threats to the Internet.’ In 2011 I was honored with the Enigma Award for a lifetime contribution to IT security journalism. Contact me in confidence at davey@happygeek.com if you have a story to reveal or research to share.
Microsoft Corporation was hit by a cyberattack that affected 30,000 US organizations. Small businesses and the Government were the victims of this attack.
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Over the past decade, social media platforms have experienced tremendous growth in ways that not many people could have predicted. Today, these platforms have become avenues for marketers and business owners around the world to foster relationships with their audience and boost their brand exposure.
In addition to growing brand image and building relationships with customers, you can also leverage the power of social media and ecommerce to increase your online sales. So what are the best social media and ecommerce tactics that can be used to increase sales?
Why advertise on social media?
Advertising has been around for a much longer period of time than social media. It has been reaching consumers via TV, radio, even billboards for decades now. So why is advertising on social media so integral to a business’ success now?
The main factor behind the sudden growth in social media advertising is quite an obvious one. The vast growth of the platform means that more and more of a brand’s target audience are available in one place. However, this isn’t the only element pushing brand’s towards an online advertising campaign.
Another decisive factor is the specificness of social media advertising. People willingly give social media large quantities of information on their background and daily lives. This means it is easier for a business to target the exact type of person they want to reach with an advert, and tends to lead to increased success at the same time. This is especially true when you leverage social proof marketing.
In fact, social media ads are possibly some of the most refined there has ever been, reaching customers in niches never previously thought of. And with each platform offering different ways to connect with consumers, social media advertising is well worth taking advantage of.
Know the right networks to target
When social media is mentioned, most people think of Facebook. However, Facebook is not the only platform you can promote your online business on; there are other networks with high volumes of users you should consider too.
Knowing the platform where your audience spends most of their time will help you come up with a marketing strategy that suits the network. It will also help you to directly engage with your main social media audience, and improve the relationship between your brand and your customers.
Here are the main networks and their suitable audience:
Facebook
As one of the largest platforms in terms of customer base, Facebook is great for brand recognition, especially with younger generations. It is a platform that allows your ads to be seen by the most substantial numbers, whilst it also allows you to interact with customers with ease through messenger and your page.
Online businesses can benefit from Facebook by focusing on strategies that help them improve their brand exposure. In addition, you can also boost sales by using retargeting ads and advertise to those who have previously shown interest in your brand or your products.
Instagram
Instagram is ideal for brands who priotorize visual advertising, due to its focus on images, videos and other visual content. It is also the perfect platform for bridging the gap between consumer and brand, due to the interactivity of the site. You can communicate with customers through various mediums on Instagram, including stories, your page, and influencers.
Through influencers, Instagram allows you to make extensive use of celebrity endorsement. Influencers can give your products the extra boost they need during an ad campaign, to really push sales through the roof. You just have to make sure you choose an influencer that is truly representative of your brand and product, otherwise their use could end up having a detrimental effect on your brand, and campaign.
Twitter
Twitter is great for growing your brand name thanks to the popularity of hashtag usage. You can use it to run competitions such as giveaways, or simply to draw attention to your campaigns.
In addition to hashtag campaigns, you can also run standard feed advertising campaigns. These campaigns can be used alongside the hashtag campaigns to maximise their effectiveness.
Pinterest
This is a great platform for brands that sell beauty products. This is because research has shown the majority of Pinterest’s frequent users are women. Similar to Instagram, Pinterest allows brands to focus on the visual side of advertising so a detailed use of images is vital for success.
As you can see, different platforms attract a type of audience, thus requiring a different approach with your marketing strategy. Prior to deciding where to market your products, it is important that you learn where your audience is most active when online. Once you have this information, you can come up with a marketing strategy that will boost your online presence, sales, and brand recognition.
Use the right ads
There are a wide range of advertisement possibilities when it comes to social media marketing. And with each platform offering different capabilities, it is important to find the right way to reach your audience.
A good example of the variety of options on offer, is Facebook. Facebook offers extensive detail in their targeted ads, which is for finding new prospects who fit your demographics.
However, Facebook doesn’t offer this in one form. You can choose to use an ad in a video, within the users feed, or even use sponsored posts.
Instagram, which is now run by Facebook, also offers a wide range of options. Stories are a fantastic way to draw your audience closer to your brand, and allow you to use engagement techniques through video, polls, and more. If you want to show your audience what goes on behind the scenes, and the products you offer, stories are ideal.
On the other hand, Instagram also offers standard feed posts similar to that of Facebook, or sponsored content within posts, such as an influencer wearing a jacket from a brand that is then tagged.
Retargeted advertising is essential reaching back out to customers who come to your website but do not finish performing an action. For instance, a customer might have added a product to their cart, but failed to finalise that purchase.
Retargeted ads encourage your prospect to get return to a store, or website and complete their purchases. Big draws for customers tend to be limited promotional offers, or discounts.
Remember to check out how your retargeted ads are performing on each platform and make adjustments appropriately.
To create a successful social media campaign, you need to think carefully about the ads that are more likely to appeal to your prospects. Each brand will have a different audience, therefore there is no perfect strategy that covers every brand.
Use relevant hashtags
It’s with the help of hashtags that most platforms classify a wide range of posts into different sections. Using relevant hashtags will improve your website’s organic traffic as more of your target audience will come into contact with your posts.
With hashtags, the important thing to do is to spot what’s trending in your niche, and integrate those hashtags into your posts.
While this is a great way of expanding your brands reach, do not overdo it. You may incorporate a few hashtags in your posts, and they will have a largely positive effect. However, if you overdo it, you risk being labelled as spam. This will have a detrimental effect in both long term and short term.
Hashtags can also be implemented within your advertising campaigns. They can help to give your posts a clear narrative for your customers to follow. In addition, they can also draw one person into the entire campaign, even if they only come across one hashtag, and choose to click it.
All in all, hashtags can be a great way to depict your brand through social media. They can help to highlight your brand values, whilst taking up very little budget. They can also help your campaigns to increase in longevity and impact.
Use giveaways
Who doesn’t like free things? Giveaways and competitions are a fantastic way to draw in the crowds to your website. Contests can get people interested in your brand with just one short campaign, and also give you an opportunity to get people signed on to your newsletter.
By encouraging people to sign on to a newsletter, or to enter their details when joining a campaign, you can collect all important customer information. This could allow you to retarget them with offers in the future, or simply to remind them to join further initiatives that could create further interest.
Pro tip: Remember to make sure that any individual who stands to win must like or follow your page. This will expose them to the brands posts in the future.
Work with influencers
In most cases, influencers are people who have a sizable following on social media. You can use these influential people to promote your product to their audience online.
When deciding on which influencers to reach out to, it is important that you consider whether or not their following fit your target audience demographics.
For instance, if you are in the men’s clothing brand, ideally you will want to look for male influencers who discuss fashion, or similar products. Whilst you wouldn’t want to target a female gaming influencer, as her following would likely be the opposite of what you need.
It is also worth considering whether you want to work with micro-influencers, who generally do not have a mass following, or someone with a much larger group of followers.
It is worth noting that influencers with larger followings tend to have less specific demographics. You may be exposed to more engagements and clicks, but it is less likely that they will be relevant. Conversely, micro-influencers tend to have a more specific audience who share similar interests, which means they may have a better ROI.
Encourage your customers to leave reviews on social media
Social media is rapidly turning into a platform where people go to search for reviews of products and brands, prior to making a decision on a purchase.
A recent study showed that 91% of respondents were influenced to buy something by positive online reviews. This shows the importance of encouraging happy customers to post their reviews regarding your store on your social media profiles. It also highlights how a positive review could be the difference between someone buying, and someone not buying a product from you.
However, this is not an overnight task. You have to actively encourage customers to share their experience after buying from you.
Many customers will choose not to leave reviews, even with your encouragement. Therefore, it could also be worthwhile to offer something in return for a review, such as a discount on a future purchase, or early access to new products. Incentives can not only get you the review you were seeking out, they may also encourage a customer to use your brand again, especially if their review is actually positive.
You can also make reviewing easier for customers by embedding a share button on your thank you page or even a note with the delivery of their purchase. By making it easier to review the product, customer reviews will become more frequent, and brand engagement may even increase.
Final thoughts on Social Media and Ecommerce
If you are looking to improve your social media advertising, following these six tactics will help you on your way to success. By building brand recognition, trust and general awareness you will be able to bridge the gap between your brand and the customer. This will encourage purchases in both the short term, and the long term, whilst also helping you to better understand those who show interest in your brand.
Once your social media efforts are paying off, it’s time to measure your results and see how you can improve your online presence and sales even more. Jamie’s article does a great job in explaining how you can get started with tracking and measuring your social media ROI. Check it out!
Jacques van der Wilt is the founder and CEO of DataFeedWatch, a leading global feed management and optimization solution that helps online merchants optimize their product listings for 1,000+ ecommerce channels in more than 50 countries.
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The evolution of social media has given brands the opportunity to connect with their audience like never before.
For us, this means the ability to further our brand presence and voice, drive sales, and direct traffic all through utilizing our social media channels as an extension of our site.
Building a successful social media content strategy is more than just posting on every platform—it’s all about determining which platforms align best with your business.
There are so many different channels out there and more constantly popping up. (Seriously, it’s exhausting!)
Test what platform works best for you
My advice is to test out each platform and make it your goal to find a select group of social media channels that will really make an impact for your brand and drive ROI.
But when we tested it out as a new channel for AppSumo, it didn’t give us the ROI we hoped for. Because our audience demographic didn’t align as well on TikTok as it does on other channels like our Facebook Group, we decided our time was better spent focusing our efforts elsewhere.
And it was the right decision.
Here’s a graph of our Facebook Group engagement based on Posts, Comments, and Reactions from Jan. 1, 2020, to Dec. 8, 2020. During that same time, we saw a 19.72% increase in our number of total members.
Example of progress from social media content strategy
Set realistic social media content goals
It’s so important to set realistic content goals for your brand, figure out what the top priority is, and understand how your social media content strategy can help you reach those goals.
We set specific quarterly goals.
Whether you want to convert customers to buyers, drive brand awareness, or increase community engagement, the strategy you implement should be focused on those goals you set for yourself.
I found that when I focused on working towards a specific goal, I saw a noticeable improvement in our overall social media.
There’s no one-size-fits-all approach and each social media platform you use may have a different goal.
Finding a social media content strategy that works best for your brand takes time, iteration, and patience. Consistency really is key when growing your social media presence!
Have a good understanding of who your target audience is when outlining your social media strategy. I find it helpful to do some research on your followers when determining what type of content will resonate best with them.
For example, in looking at AppSumo’s Facebook and Instagram data, I found that the majority of our audience is male and in the 25-44 age range. This is incredibly helpful when planning content out and trying to reach new target audiences.
By understanding our audience demographics, it helps us to determine which platforms we want to focus on.
Based on this data, we prioritize Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Youtube in our social media efforts.
Think quality over quantity when you’re determining which platforms you want to utilize for your brand.
Demographics can help form a social media content strategy.
In regards to the competition, I always suggest taking a look at what at least three competitors are doing on social media—this provides a great baseline for what works, what doesn’t, and which areas you can provide more value in than the competition.
To get started, find businesses that are in a similar industry, offer similar services, or what similar to what you aspire to be, and start your research from there.
What to look out for
Try to answer a few key questions:
What platforms are they using?
What type of content are they posting—videos, links, educational, photos, etc.?
How often are they posting?
What is their social media goal?
What are their strengths and weaknesses?
Once you have a good understanding of how your competitors are using social media, you can use this information to build out your own strategy.
Identify the gaps in their social media presence and use this to your advantage.
When you have this information under your belt, it’s easy to find ways in which you can improve and stand out among the competition.
We noticed that our competitors weren’t using video to promote their products and services. We decided to test this as a content strategy and saw a noticeable improvement in this metric.
Take a look at these results after we started creating daily videos:
Know your monthly gained subscribers to help form a winning social media content strategy.
When to Post
Consistency is key in regards to your social media presence.
When planning out content, I always do some platform-specific research to determine the best days and time to help maximize our reach with each time we publish.
At AppSumo, we make note of popular days and times, and schedule our most important content around them.
It’s an easy way to help me plan, create, and manage all of our content in one place.
Tools We Use
We wouldn’t call ourselves AppSumo (where I work) if we didn’t namedrop some of the awesome tools we use for social media.
Along with the free linked tools, here are some personal favorites for my day-to-day work:
Agorapulse. This one’s an awesome way to manage your social media and schedule it in a clean way. I don’t have to dig through comments because the Social Inbox lets me filter through important messages. Plus, Agorapulse’s one-click reports are super-helpful for me to track metrics.
Canva. Canva is a powerhouse. This one’s great for inspiration and a lifesaver when creating graphics that don’t require a ton of graphic design skills. I like to incorporate these graphics into our Instagram when I can.
Crello. An AppSumo Partner, Crello is a great alternative to Canva and helpful for ideas. I use it to create graphics for Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. It’s got awesome animations and requires no design skill.
Figma. I use this to create templates for things like our Instagram stories (blog shares, deal shares, etc.). It’s also great for quick and on-the-fly design edits for graphics.
Brand24. An internal marketing team fave, for sure. This one’s great for filtering all AppSumo content on the web. It shows you all mentions of specific keywords on your social media channels, even when you weren’t tagged.
Engage with Your Audience and Grow Your Following
Now that you’ve built out your content strategy, the goal is to continue to grow your following. (You’re not out of the woods yet!)
How often to post
The most important thing to remember when trying to grow your social media is to maintain a minimum number of posts per week based on days when your users are most active!
At AppSumo, we post about six days per week with a minimum of 2-3 posts a day.
How to create content for engagement
My advice is to create content that allows your audience to engage directly. I found that when I utilized interactive content, such as polls, we had significantly higher engagement.
Take a look at some of our recent polls, which directly ask our audience what types of content they would like to see more of. This is a super-easy way to promote engagement and actually get feedback directly from your audience.
Here’s us getting the conversation started:
The audience engagement doesn’t end with the content itself! Engage with them in the comment section, posts you are tagged in, and through direct messages.
One fun way to engage your audience is by creating a hashtag specific to your brand. That way, users can share the love when they post about your brand or products.
At AppSumo, we have a few: #AppSumo, #TacoToolsday, and #6FigureSumoling. This is a great way to get your followers talking about your brand and to see what is being said about your products, even when they don’t specifically @ you!
Understanding what your audience likes will lead to more engagement, followers, and a cohesive feed! It seems simple, but creating content your audience actually wants to see can do so much for your social media strategy.
For example, on Instagram, I dive into our insights and take note of what content has the highest ‘Reach,’ ‘Shares,’ ‘Saves,’ and ‘Comments. These metrics are really great indicators of which content has performed well based on what our audience likes. That also gives it a boost with the algorithm and helps it reach a bigger audience:
To make the most of these analytics, I dive into our insights weekly. This helps me optimize our content and understand what works for the future!
In Conclusion
Building a successful social media content strategy takes time, but all the effort is worth it when you establish an audience that actually wants to connect and engage with you. That sort of reward will build upon itself tenfold!
Remember that consistency is key when trying to grow your social media presence. You should also keep in mind that finding the right strategy for your brand involves a bit of trial and error. (Trust us—we’ve had our share of hiccups at AppSumo. It’s all part of the learning process.) Set specific but realistic goals for your social media content strategy, listen to your audience, and the growth will follow.
Now get on that social media success track! Till next time!
Get started on saving time and energy on your own social media management! Check out our free trial of Agorapulse to help you schedule, track, and measure all your social media efforts.
Video is all the rage today. It’s due to its effectiveness in driving reach and engagement. In fact, most social media platforms have started to give video content more visibility in feeds.
The introduction of Reels and IGTV on Instagram and Facebook Watch is a testament to the fact that the appeal for videos has only increased over the years.
About 85% of internet users in the US watched online videos in 2018, and a majority of internet users say that the trend of watching more online videos will continue, even after the COVID-19 outbreak ends.
With so much video content being uploaded by the minute — over 500 hours on YouTube in 2019 — it’s going to be difficult to stand out from the crowd.
To do so, you need to create stellar videos. How can you do so? You need to understand the key elements of a social media video. What are these key elements, you ask? Let’s take a look at them.
Main Elements of a Social Media Video
Here are the main elements of a social media video that can help improve engagement.
1. The Social Platform
When you’re creating any video for social media, it’s important to know which platform you’re creating it for. Why?Because each social platform has different audiences, and what may appeal to users on one platform might not on another.
TikTok and Instagram are platforms where you’d typically have millennials or Gen Z. On the other hand, on Facebook and Twitter, you can find a wider user base. So, it’s crucial to tailor your videos for each of these platforms.
Similarly, what may work on all of these platforms may not work on LinkedIn at all as it’s a professional social networking platform. And that’s not all. Each platform also has a different set of video formats that work the best on them.
Facebook vs. Instagram video formats
For instance, if you’re uploading a video to Facebook, you’d likely upload a landscape version of the video for Facebook Watch. On the other hand, if you’re creating one for Instagram, options like Reels, Stories, and IGTV prefer portrait modes.
Resizing your videos can be challenging. However, by using tools like Boosted, you can simplify this task as the tool will automatically size all the videos you create based on the dimensions that work best on the social platform of your choice.
Pro Tip: It’s equally important that you upload your videos directly to the platform instead of sharing them from one platform to another.
2. Video Length
The length of the video is an important parameter that you need to be mindful of. While scrolling through feeds, users may not devote a lot of time to your video unless it catches their attention.
That’s why you need to ensure that the most impactful parts of your video are right at the beginning. The idea is to hook the user to your video so that they watch the rest of it.
But wait, there’s more.
The platforms that you upload your videos to impact the video length as well. For instance, if you’re uploading a video to Instagram, you’ll be faced with multiple options.
How long should Instagram videos be?
If you’re posting a video on Instagram Stories, the maximum length per Story is 15 seconds. On the other hand, if you’re uploading it to Reels, the video needs to be 30 seconds long. However, IGTV videos can be as long as 60 minutes.
So, while developing your video, make sure that you know where you’re going to post it so that you can drive social engagement through it.
3. Video Graphics
The graphics that you use in your videos are equally important.These visuals can help you captivate the attention of your audience. That’s why you need to do everything that you can to ensure that they appear exactly like you want them to.
With nearly 70% of YouTube watch time coming from mobile devices, it’s clear that you need to design your videos for mobile devices.But how?For starters, you should try to use simple video graphics that can be easily viewed on mobile devices. Also, you need to ensure that the various elements within your video are spaced well enough for the viewers to be able to distinguish them.
The same applies to video thumbnails. When you create them using a tool like Canva, make sure that you check how they will look on smaller screens. In addition, mobile devices may not always be connected to WiFi. Many users may be using data to browse the internet and watch videos.
However, while people are on the move, data speeds might fluctuate. As a result, they may not be able to stream videos at the speeds that they would typically get over WiFi.
If your video file size is large, it’s likely that the video may not load well. When this happens, your viewers may move on to the next post. After all, no one likes to wait a long time for videos to load.
How can you avoid this?
You can create videos that have smaller sizes. This will make it easier for the viewers to stream them.
To ensure that all of these things are taken into consideration while creating videos, ensure that your content marketing strategy outlines the steps needed to be taken for mobile devices.
4. Video Sound
As mentioned above, most people watch videos on mobile devices. And when they do, it’s highly likely that they will be on the move or in public places too. In such a situation, not everyone uses earphones to watch the videos.
As a result, people tend to watch videos without sound. In fact, a survey found that 69% of consumers in the US watch videos on mobile devices without sound in public places. But here’s the thing — 25% of them even watch them without sound when they’re in private places.
So, if you want your video to appeal to this huge chunk of your audience, you need to ensure that it gives the same effect without audio. While you’re designing the video, try adding subtitles or text to get the message across without any sound.
Pro Tip: Before you upload the video, go through it without the audio. Try to see if it’s still equally engaging. If so, you can go ahead and upload it.
Final Thoughts
Creating social media videos can help increase your reach and drive engagement. However, to craft videos that can do so effectively, it’s critical to understand the key elements of these videos and use them to your advantage.
You need to design your videos based on the platform and also change the dimensions accordingly. Also, it’s equally important to decide on the video’s length as it’s dictated by the format in which you’re going to upload it.What’s more?
The video graphics need to be designed for mobile devices, as most videos are watched using mobile devices.Finally, a huge number of people watch videos without sound. So, you must ensure that the videos appear equally engaging without it too.
Social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram started out as a way to connect with friends, family and people of interest. But anyone on social media these days knows it’s increasingly a divisive landscape.
Undoubtedly you’ve heard reports that hackers and even foreign governments are using social media to manipulate and attack you. You may wonder how that is possible. As a professor of computer science who researches social media and security, I can explain – and offer some ideas for what you can do about it.
Bots and sock puppets
Social media platforms don’t simply feed you the posts from the accounts you follow. They use algorithms to curate what you see based in part on “likes” or “votes.”
A post is shown to some users, and the more those people react – positively or negatively – the more it will be highlighted to others. Sadly, lies and extreme content often garner more reactions and so spread quickly and widely.
But who is doing this “voting”? Often it’s an army of accounts, called bots, that do not correspond to real people. In fact, they’re controlled by hackers, often on the other side of the world. For example, researchers have reported that more than half of the Twitter accounts discussing COVID-19 are bots.
As a social media researcher, I’ve seen thousands of accounts with the same profile picture “like” posts in unison. I’ve seen accounts post hundreds of times per day, far more than a human being could. I’ve seen an account claiming to be an “All-American patriotic army wife” from Florida post obsessively about immigrants in English, but whose account history showed it used to post in Ukranian.
Fake accounts like this are called “sock puppets” – suggesting a hidden hand speaking through another identity. In many cases, this deception can easily be revealed with a look at the account history. But in some cases, there is a big investment in making sock puppet accounts seem real.
Trolls often don’t care about the issues as much as they care about creating division and distrust. For example, researchers in 2018 concluded that some of the most influential accounts on both sides of divisive issues, like Black Lives Matter and Blue Lives Matter, were controlled by troll farms.
More than just fanning disagreement, trolls want to encourage a belief that truth no longer exists. Divide and conquer. Distrust anyone who might serve as a leader or trusted voice. Cut off the head. Demoralize. Confuse. Each of these is a devastating attack strategy.
Even as a social media researcher, I underestimate the degree to which my opinion is shaped by these attacks. I think I am smart enough to read what I want, discard the rest and step away unscathed.
Still, when I see a post that has millions of likes, part of me thinks it must reflect public opinion. The social media feeds I see are affected by it and, what’s more, I am affected by the opinions of my real friends, who are also influenced.
I have focused primarily on US-based examples, but the same types of attacks are playing out around the world. By turning the voices of democracies against each other, authoritarian regimes may begin to look preferable to chaos.
Platforms have been slow to act. Sadly, misinformation and disinformation drives usage and is good for business.
Failure to act has often been justified with concerns about freedom of speech. Does freedom of speech include the right to create 100,000 fake accounts with the express purpose of spreading lies, division and chaos?
Taking control
So what can you do about it? You probably already know to check the sources and dates of what you read and forward, but common-sense media literacy advice is not enough.
First, use social media more deliberately. Choose to catch up with someone in particular, rather than consuming only the default feed.
You might be amazed to see what you’ve been missing. Help your friends and family find your posts by using features like pinning key messages to the top of your feed.
Second, pressure social media platforms to remove accounts with clear signs of automation. Ask for more controls to manage what you see and which posts are amplified. Ask for more transparency in how posts are promoted and who is placing ads. For example, complain directly about the Facebook news feed here or tell legislators about your concerns.
Third, be aware of the trolls’ favorite issues and be skeptical of them. They may be most interested in creating chaos, but they also show clear preferences on some issues.
For example, trolls want to reopen economies quickly without real management to flatten the COVID-19 curve. They also clearly supported one of the 2016 US presidential candidates over the other. It’s worth asking yourself how these positions might be good for Russian trolls, but bad for you and your family.
Perhaps most importantly, use social media sparingly, like any other addictive, toxic substance, and invest in more real-life community building conversations. Listen to real people, real stories and real opinions, and build from there.
technostaan.in – March 6
indianexpress.com – February 16
youtu.be – December 18, 2020
dev.to – November 24, 2020
crowdsecurity.medium.com – November 17, 2020
theathletic.com – October 7, 2020
idahonews.com – July 27, 2020
hostio.solutions – May 30, 2020
alkanyx.com – April 13, 2020
internetgov.news – December 27, 2019
seo-gold.com – December 8, 2019
Caitlin Bacher
Market & Hustle
