Becoming a popular social media influencer can be very rewarding. Building up a large following has a lot of perks, from the simple validation it can give you as a person to the revenue you can make through advertising and simply having a platform to sell any of your own products or services. While this is a goal for many on social media, it’s important to remember that this lifestyle has certain downsides, too. The more popular you become, the more chance you have of attracting unnecessary hate from other people. This negativity can range from simple trolling online with mean comments being left on your social media accounts to very serious threats and even attempts to harm you or disrupt your life. This is why it’s so important for influencers to have a good handle on their safety and security. Here are some steps you can take to minimize your security risks as an influencer.
Understand The Risks
As you grow in popularity, it’s important to stay as aware as possible of the potential risks. As mentioned before, the more famous you become, the more you invite certain people who may take umbrage with your activities. Of course, nobody is saying that everyone should like you or that everyone should appreciate the work of influencers or their prevalence in modern society, but there are some people out there that take it much further than simply not liking the world of influencers. There are many dangers of being an influencer today, which comes down to the lack of privacy you might have. You’ll constantly have diehard fans searching for you, and you might end up being shocked when people start to come up to you unexpectedly when you’re just going about your daily life.
Take Precautions
It’s important to keep your wits about you when out and about as an influencer. Ideally, you should always be traveling around with people you trust and stick to public spaces. Let people know where you are going, and what you’re going to be doing so you can be sure that someone knows where you are at all times. But as well as this, you need to minimize any threats beforehand too. Some important precautions you can take are not revealing your address online and not revealing where you’ll be going or for how long. Consider using a virtual PO box, for example, if people want to send you things, whether they’re brands or fans, using a service such as that found via https://physicaladdress.com.
Act On Serious Threats
If you have received negative messages that you find problematic or threatening, try not to worry, as these messages are often just bluster. However, you should still report anything like this to the police as it’s better to be safe than sorry. It’s also worthwhile having some form of emergency plan in place so that you know how to act quickly and calmly when something negative occurs. It is so important for influencers to protect themselves, and this includes having quality cyber security in place for their social media platforms and websites. Don’t forget to inform those closest to you that they must also take precautions and act if they get wind of anything suspicious.
