Are you taking these safety precautions on Facebook?

Facebook is an incredible tool for keeping in touch with family and friends. And with us! But as with any online activity, you’ll want to take some important safety precautions when using this popular social media site. Here are some great ways to protect yourself and your business while using Facebook:

Create a strong password and update it periodically. A strong password is the best way to help prevent someone from gaining access to your account. Go here to manage your Facebook account settings and here to change your password.

Avoid using too much personal information on Facebook. Posting a photo of your children on their first day of school? Consider posting a photo without the name of their school in the background. Think about any personal information that you provide in a post before you publish it to make sure you’re not providing too much information, especially if you have children.

Control who sees your information. Use your privacy settings to control who gets to see your posts and timeline or specific posts.

Unfriend people you are no longer comfortable sharing information with. If you’d like to remove a Facebook ‘friend’, go to that person’s timeline and click the gear icon on the right side of their timeline and select “Unfriend.” You can take the additional step of blocking someone from your timeline. In this case, that person will no longer be able to see your timeline or find your timeline in search results. To block someone, go to the block list in your Privacy Settings, use the “Report/Block” option under the gear icon on the right side of their timeline.

Use Remote Session Management. If you use Facebook on a variety of devices, this will help close any Facebook session that you may have left active on any computer or device. Learn more about this and other security measures you can take to protect your account.

Don’t announce that you’re going on vacation. Excited about your big vacation or holiday trip? Let everyone know about it and post photos after you return, not before you go or while you’re there. That lets everyone know your home is empty. Studies show that thieves do monitor social media.