July 8, 2013

5 Social Media Mistakes You Weren't Aware Of




What could be the worst thing that can be happened to you on social media? I'm just afraid of social media itself. It's not in your control, you don't know what's happening behind the scenes, but still its users are not afraid to feed their personal EVERYTHING to it. Is it trust? Or 'cause nothing terrible happened to them so far? Just think about that for a moment.

Users commit mistakes. Eventhough you are very careful about what you have been doing on social networks, some of your actions can make you vulnerable. Let me take this opportunity to point out some mistakes I've been noticing on social media.


1. You Don't Know Mr. Social Network


Ugh... It doesn't makes sense. Does it? You already know how to post status updates, beautiful photos, hilarious videos and engage with your friends. Sometimes you tweak a setting or two too.

BUT have you thought about whom you are sharing with? Who else can view your profile? Where your information being stored? Who owns the content you share on social networks?

Everybody loves to think they are safe online until the worst happen for them. Have you heard of the common expression that everyone would love to put on the table when something goes wrong? They all starts with "I didn't know".

I didn't know my personal information has been exposed to everyone.

I didn't know I'm not the exclusive owner of my own content anymore.

I didn't know non-friends could download my photos.

I didn't know I could back up my account.

I didn't know I could be sued for posting someone else's photo with no attribution.

You can make all the excuses, but it doesn't recover the damage. Know what is your social network capable and incapable of. Plan for the worst, hope for the best.


2. Lack of Privacy Concerns


Let me ask you something. How many of you would give your email address to a sales representative to help you in return by sending exclusive offers and all the stuff you can make use of?

You are seriously care about your privacy and who you share your email address with. Probably you will refuse to give it away. But you feel really safe to share your personal email address on social networks?

Let me guess. Is it because you are only surrounded by friends on your social network? AH... Privacy settings! You are smart enough to hide it from people you don't need it to be seen too?

Run through your social profiles again and make sure you haven't posted any personal information that you shouldn't have. If you have added such personal information and made them hidden from everyone else, yet you are at a risk.

Just publish information that doesn't make you vulnerable even a hacker could manage to take control of your profile ;) Isn't it funny when a hacker spend a lot of time to hack in and find nothing more but what everyone knows about you?

Remember, you are being tracked almost everywhere online. Take a look at these browser extensions if you would like to improve your privacy online, including on social networks.


3. You Feel Secured


How come feeling secured be a mistake?

Users tend to think that all the security measures is a responsibility of the social network itself and comfort themselves believing their profiles are already secured. People behind the social networks always trying to add layers of security to keep their end users happy too. But they don't enforce all the new security features as some settings could interfere with the preferable user experience. Such settings will be optional and no one will be set them up for you, unless you do.

Security holes are everywhere. Social networks offer workarounds as they find the holes. But never expect to be 100% secured.

Unless you can't keep up with all the security updates of your social networks, make sure to review your security settings regularly and keep them configured to the maximum security.


4. FFFlooding


Imagine you log in to your Facebook account and you find the news feed is full of updates posted by one person. Feels like you have been friended with only one person or just landed on someone else's profile ;)

I'm aware that this can be happen unwittingly. You might come online for a certain period of time and share what you find on social networks. For that time period, your updates are all over the news feed. It doesn't mean you are being productive. Give it a break!

There are lot of FREE choices out there to schedule your social updates eventhough you are not present online at that moment. Be consistent with your updates. My favorites are Buffer and HootSuite, and I use them to schedule updates instead of sharing right away.

Find out your favorite tool and stop flooding on social networks. You will find more engagement happening with your social updates too :)


5. You Don't Invite


Have you been getting requests to join groups, communities or pages on social networks? How about receiving updates you never asked for?

I don't mind receiving requests, 'cause it leaves us the choice to accept or decline. But I've seen that users add others to specific groups and communities without their knowledge or permission, instead of sending requests or messages inviting them.

Further, sometimes users promote their stuff to others, not because it can be helpful to them but just to get attention. I do tend to ignore such and I know most users do, but some of my friends never forget to send greetings right away.

Your intentions might be good and you may never feel bad for adding to someone else's group / community either. But it doesn't work for everyone.

Always be polite, even in simple things. Your actions will define who you are.


What are the terrible or unacceptable mistakes you have been noticing on social media?




Awesome! Thanks for coming by and taking your time to read this post :) I hope you have learnt something today. Now you can share it with your friends and I'd love to hear from you too.






Related Posts and Categories


Category,





Comments

* Make sure your comment is genuine and comply with our commenting guidelines.

* Review your email and reply notification settings to receive replies via email.


Harleena Singh said...

Hi Mayura,

You chose the right mistakes most people make on the social medias. I'd also add they tend to share their own stuff and not promote or share their fellow bloggers post, which is kind of only self-promotion.

I do see a lot of this and I hope people understand that the term 'social' means being social - it's always more about others than yourself. And you can easily do that through Buffer or Hootsuite as you mentioned.

Yes, some people have an excuse of not knowing about the ways how social media works, but you need to learn the right ways and work towards it. Security is another major issue you raised and that's something I need to work on as well. Oh yes...if we don't have our privacy settings sorted out, we are bound to land in a thick soup sooner or later.

Thanks for sharing these social media mistakes with us and making us aware. Have a nice week ahead :)

Bren Lee said...

Great post Mayura!


I often wonder about how much I share online and really had to start watching more of what I was doing. I schedule a lot of things and now that G+ has that Do Share option, I'm loving it! Prescheduling stuff for me is important do to my day job. Don't want them to think I'm playing online all day while I'm suppose to working, right? :)


Some people do share a bit too much but that's on them. You can only "advise" them to what they are doing may not be in their best interest.

Corina Ramos said...

You're right Mayura, we get so caught up in our every day blogging responsibilities that we tend to forget the security, that is until something happens, right. Thanks for reminding me to check my privacy settings in all my social profiles. :)


My personal hang up is spam. I get flooded with tweets about buying fans and followers. It's so obvious it's a bunch of bull and what I can't grasp is that the person sharing that is already ruining their online reputation before they can make one foot print.


In my niche I have to keep my readers updated on jobs so my posting may be more than usual. I love HootSuite to schedule my posts...a real time saver for me!



Thanks for this informative post. Have a wonderful new week.

Sylviane Nuccio said...

Hi Mayura,


Yes, you are right. As long as we put our stuff out there it's not safe. Or at least not entirely.


I always try to put the least information possible on Social Media. I never fill out the whole thing, lots of it I just leave out, because they just want to know too darn much.


You're right, when something happens the first thing we say is I didn't know, but we should know, and be safer.


Thanks for those tips, Mayura :)

Lisa Buben said...

Hi Mayura, the Facebook update one made me laugh, I know some folks who can flood it up in seconds. You can even ue the Facebook scheduler now. When someone does that I don't read all the postings. Just a few. Who has time for 10 in a minute, right? I agree with Harleena on those bloggers who only share their own stuff and if you tweet them they never respond - why be there, right?
I get so many requests to join groups that I have to be very choosy or I 'd never be able to visit any of them. How many do you belong to? I should add mine up someday too:)
As for privacy, I believe there is no such thing and anything you write online can be found by anyone anytime.
Excellent points here Mayura.

Sue Neal said...

Hi Mayura - a great post on a subject I feel very ignorant about. I think the trouble is, social media has become so complicated that it's difficult to know how to protect yourself. I'm fairly careful what I publish and I never give my email address away. One of the problems is knowing which requests for contact to accept or deny and I sometimes worry I've made connections with too many people I know very little about, but I always feel mean saying 'no'.

Unacceptable practices? I get very irritated by people who just flood you with their own content and promotional stuff - like tweets that just have links to sales pages - I just sent two stroppy replies to people on Twitter about that telling them to pack it in.

Apart from my paper.li, I don't schedule any posts yet - I'm just not organised enough, but it's also because I don't like the feeling of the car driving itself - I prefer to have my hands on the steering wheel. Guess I'll come around to it in the end ;)

Thanks for some helpful tips, Mayura - making us think, as always :)

Sue

Your Daily Finance said...

I know a lot of people that make some if not all of these mistakes. i have made a few of them myself. With the internet you are the one at fault for not knowing something. No one is going to feel sorry because "you didn't know". Security is a big issue as with people giving so much information about themselves and family members, post pictures etc. I know you are trying to connect but you have to remember there are people who are looking for any little way to get something from you.

Donna Merrill said...

This is all a bit scary, Mayura, but it's things we all need to take into account when working online. Like you say, everyone likes to think they're safe, secure and doing the right thing all the time.



But just going about your business without ever check you privacy settings, or considering if you have a right to post certain photos, etc... you feel like you're doing your business safely, but you might be fooling yourself, and hiding behind those little words... "I didn't know". While they may be easy to say, they don't really protect you like you wish they would.

Mayura De Silva said...

Hi Harleena,

Gosh... Self-promotion! Important addition Harleena :) It's popular too. Well, we do love to getting attention for our content as bloggers through promotion, but self-promotion is not the best way to do it unless the space is merely available for self-promotion.

It's funny that some users just use social networks to promote themselves ;) Misunderstanding its existence. Sometimes they just don't get it and keep doing the same thing over and over again eventhough they find no improvement.

Absolutely dear :) When some of my friends find something wrong with their social profiles, they just start with blaming the social network. It's good when it's working for 'em. But when it's broken, it's the worst thing ever happened to 'em. Sad things is, they start to know about social network when something bad happened.

Privacy and security should be main concerns but I find users are not aware of it much at some points Harleena :) As the settings bound to change in anytime, we gotta make sure they are configured properly and nothing's left out. You know, social networks always tend to have their excuses ready when things go bad :)


Thanks for coming over and contributing your thoughtful comment with many helpful advises dear :)

You have a nice week too Halreena :)


Cheers...

Mayura De Silva said...

Hi Bren,

I know you are always active on social networks posting informative stuff :) I don't find them as too much though. Just imagine what if your account get hacked dear :) Do you have something in there that no stranger ever wanna find out? I think that question alone will help you :)



Ha ha... Of course ;) But when they feel like you do both pretty well, you might be awarded as the most productive person there ;) Thanks to pre-scheduling.

How true! I've seen some just don't think the information they post can go around the World. One scary moment was a friend of mine found a fake profile and it had all the personal information with photos she has posted online. The photos were shared only with her boyfriend. As the fake profile comes into play, it went all public.


Thanks for coming by and adding your helpful thoughts on this matter Brenda :)


Cheers...

Mayura De Silva said...

Hi Corina,

"I was busy" ~ Actually, that's another popular excuse we would love to make :) If we engage everywhere and have dozens of profiles online, the excuse can be valid. But yet it's an excuse, no?

Spammers always knocking on the door :) As you find spammers at Twitter, you better report them as spam Corina. So such accounts will be blocked and reviewed by Twitter. You will find less spam, as the spammers most likely share the same contacts they have been spamming with others spammers, unless they compromised. Reporting as spam just takes few seconds.

You got it right dear :) Using such tools can be really effective and saves your time too. Well, compared to online news sites, you are not doing too much, eh?

Thanks for stopping by and adding your thoughts and experiences on this matter Corina :)



You have a wonderful week too! :)


Cheers...

Mayura De Silva said...

Hi Sylviane,

Absolutely dear :) Online is not a safe place, but you can feel it is.



You are being wise there. They are asking too much :) It's alright for some business purposes and you can still be tricky. But if we put all the information just because they ask for, it has a potential for us to be regret at some point. Sometimes we might never know that someone used to watch over us :)


Exactly! It's all our responsibility to assure our safety and security dear. I've come across "I didn't know" phrases several times, but it was too late. Social networks just offering the opportunity, not looking after us :)

Thanks for coming by and contributing your thoughts on the usage of social networks Sylviane :)


Cheers...

Mayura De Silva said...

Hi Lisa,

My first days! I used to be one too :D lol... I just thought of sharing content of others but then I got to know I'm flooding all over. But now I'm happy that I'm aware of it :)

Yeah, who'd read all of 'em? Now that's a very good point as I believe they are expecting attention on all of 'em ;) Sometimes it's just bugging me and I scroll all the way to the bottom.

Exactly Lisa! :) I think still some users are trying to figure out what is being socialized is. We already know that spammers tend not to respond but bug us. But it's sad when real people do the same. Not sure why they are on social networks at first place :)

Well, I'm in 4 groups Lisa :) 3 of them are based on my schools. I'm not fond of groups much either, but it's really productive when right folks in. Else it will steal lot of your time especially when you manage it :)



You are right dear :) Online privacy was dead long ago. But still we need to aware of privacy controls made available for us 'cause we can't give up Internet, right? :)


Thanks for stopping by and adding your helpful thoughts and tips on this matter Lisa :)


Cheers...

Mayura De Silva said...

Hi Sue,

I can relate to that very well dear :) I'm careful about who I am connecting with, especially on Facebook. But sometimes people just send requests away to increase their friend count.

If you are concerned about Facebook, I'd like to recommend enabling follow feature Sue :) It will buy you time to accept the request until you make sure you need to friend with him / her, and they will be following your public updates since they send the request. But you don't follow their updates until you accept them :) Secure and No-heart-broken approach.

Ugh... They are irritating. The best way to respond them on Twitter is reporting 'em as spam Sue. Very easy to do. They will be reported to Twitter and will be reviewed for spammy behavior. If they come clean, they will be active again. But I never seen it happening so far though ;)

You are reminding me of myself back then Sue :) Really! I always love having things under my watch and control. Yet I do when I can too. Honestly, I didn't like it after scheduling for first time either. But within few days you will realize you were overwhelming yourself until you learn how to schedule :)

Mind you, I'm mostly scheduling on Twitter and Facebook / Google+ brand page. If you want give it a try, you can start scheduling tweets with Buffer ;)

Sometimes you just need to sit back and relax Sue :) It feels like the car driving itself and you are not safe anymore. But the driver is in front seat and will take you to the exact destination ;) Have a nice ride!

Thanks for coming over and instilling your thoughts and experiences on using social networks Sue :)



Cheers...

Mayura De Silva said...

Hi Thomas,

Me too mate :) Well, we tend to do mistakes, but what matters is learning through them, right?

Exactly! We tend to underestimate the risk we are in when it comes to online, but we are too cautious offline. May be we don't see the picture beyond the web page :)

Security has been the biggest issue I can ever think of Thomas :) No excuses will be valid in the end. Plus, Internet plays a major role in our lives by now.

That's a very good point mate. We need to aware of whom we connect with. Sometimes it could be a fake profile too. Things can be undone once we post online. Eventhough we delete 'em after all :)



Thanks for coming by and adding your helpful thoughts on this matter Thomas :)


Cheers...

Mayura De Silva said...

Hi Donna,

Yeah, It's getting bit more complicated dear :) But we just don't wanna give up and stop using social networks, right? If we just aware of our own social profiles and what they are capable of, I think no one would be vulnerable eventhough they have no control over it.

Ha ha... How true Donna! :) Often people like to comfort themselves and forget the truth. But if we are true to ourselves and respect others, I think such malpractices can be easily avoided, at least for some extent. It doesn't matter being socialized online or offline, we are dealing with people, no? :)



Thanks for coming over and contributing your thoughtful comment on this topic Donna :)


Cheers...

Sourav said...

Hi Mayura,

The first four points that you have mentioned holds good for so many of my friends on Facebook. They use Facebook, but they are not aware of the different security and privacy features that are offered to them. Some of my close friends come running to me whenever they face any problem with Facebook, as if I am their FB guru. Sometimes I do feel proud, but most of the times I get annoyed because the problem could have been easily solved by my friend only.
I know none of us are completely safe, even the ones who have taken all the available measures for safety. But unless we take these measures, it becomes all the more easy for the hackers/crackers.

And nowadays with the new "what are you doing" smiley feature, people are making status updates about their eating also, 4-5 times a day. Gosh! How much more do we have to see??? Next time when they are going to the bathroom, maybe they will make a status update about that.

Mayura De Silva said...

Hi Sourav,


Yeah mate :) Sometimes they are helpless when it comes to privacy and security settings. But it shouldn't be though. Most of the cases, if they could assure their safety and would have been aware of security flaws or risks, the damage could have almost minimized.

Indeed! It's not safe there at all. You are right mate :) Even we know we are dealing with risks, if we can take available measures then it will makes things harder for anyone who wanna take control of the account or personal information. Only the necessary information need to be published.


lol :D That's very true. It's too much of sharing. I used to know a couple who always share what they were doing at the moment on Facebook, including the location too. It's just too much. But it's on 'em :)


Thanks for coming over and sharing your thoughts on the usage of social networks Sourav :)


Cheers...

Debbie Doglady said...

Hi Mayura; This is great advice, as always. I never use my real last name online or specify my exact location. (of course, anyone can check the IP address and get it, but, not that many will bother doing that). Also made sure to purchase the "Whois Privacy" from my web host, because I didn't want my name, address and phone number out there. Also using a separate email address for social networking, apart from my personal email. Guilty as charged with the "flooding" though. I must get into the habit of scheduling posts. Thanks for the reminder!

Arleen Harry said...

I think we are all vulnerable on the internet, carrying credit cards, passports, or any important documents. If someone wants to hack in your site or your computer they can. I recently ran a scan by Copyscape.com and found two companies, one in Malaysia and the other in China that had verbatim copied my main site. Yes it freaked me out, but what you are doing do, suit them in a foreign country. Three weeks ago I got a call from my credit card company telling me someone was on the line from another state requesting they send a card to them. They had my credit card number and social security number. Unless you live in a bubble, there are just some things out of your control.

Reginald Chan Xin Yon said...

Hey Mayura!


Thanks for sharing the info :) Very much detail and appreciate that. For me, the biggest and dumb-est mistakes were:


1. Not considering social media as SEO (I do now)
2. Not sharing enough (think of myself too much)
3. Hate socializing real life (I still do but only socialize with bloggers and friends on the net - weird!)
4. Thought FB was for people who are ... free (opps!)


Gosh, I could list a whole list long! But guess you get the point. And the list you had above?


I think I done all those...at least once :D


Thanks for sharing!


Reginald

Adrienne said...

Hi Mayura,

Sorry that I'm late getting by. I actually read your post the other day but lost my internet connection so I lost everything.



I always tell people what you put on the web stays on the web and you just "think" it's safe. Just like a lot of these sites sharing your personal information that was for your eyes only. I mean really! But without reading their policies then most people think what the heck, no one will bother me.


I only give out certain information online and I believe I've done my best to not share things I shouldn't. I'm sure we've all had our moments in the beginning where all of this was a learning process but for those who aren't aware like I wasn't when I first came online this post will be a great education for them.


As always thanks for sharing and great information. Have a great weekend.


~Adrienne

Mayura De Silva said...

Hi Debbie,


They are good reminders for everyone dear :)


Actually people are not aware of WHOIS and how it can expose all your personal information to everyone. I didn't made them private though, but listed all my contact information used for business purpose. Now it makes me think too ;)

Using a separate email is wise enough :) I can't think of my personal email account being flooded with all that spammy and promotional emails too. And it doesn't cost you anything either :)


Scheduling seems like a no-benefit idea at first but when you know how to make use of it, you will glad you did it Debbie. Well, give it a try!

Thanks for coming over, and sharing your thoughts and practices online Debbie :)


Cheers...

Mayura De Silva said...

Hi Arleen,

Indeed! We are almost vulnerable since we start fetching our personal information online 'cause we can't predict what hackers might be thinking of. How about ending up personal details in a profile on a porn website? We might never know :)

As I go through my blog stats and explore where my traffic originates from, I've found some people copying my content too. I'm sure you know how it feels. If I can report them, I go ahead and do it. But sometimes we are just helpless. We gotta be responsible of our own content dear :)

Gosh... I'm glad that financial institutes have restrictions and special procedures on such situations. No one wanna find out their credit card being used by someone else without their knowledge. You are right! Things can go beyond our control too. But we better be watchful :)

Thanks for coming over, and contributing your thoughts and experiences you had while being online Arleen :) Remind us the risk of being online.

Cheers...

Mayura De Silva said...

Hi Reginald,


Aha... You got that from the bloggers' perspective :)


For bloggers and webmasters, social media can be listed as another marketing platform too Reginald. It depends on how they gonna use it. I tend not to follow that route though, as I mostly prefer spending time with my friends :)

I'd say not sharing enough of others' content mate. Personally I hate self-promotion and glad my friends are not that type :)


Socializing is the core concept of social networks and I love that. But, over time, I can see how people and businesses using it for different purposes :) Some are really creative eventhough they just promote their businesses. I like that too. I think if we build quality relationships and not focus on just numbers, that will definitely drive us few more steps ahead in the social world :) Just like we do offline.


lol :D I haven't got that one though mate. Who are free? You mean, like teenagers?


Thanks for dropping by and sharing your thoughts and perspectives on social networks Reginald :)


Cheers...

Reginald Chan Xin Yon said...

I think it all happens because I had really bad experience with friends in real life.

Sad story huh. That's why I have more online friends than real friends.

Epic story of Reginald :)

Mayura De Silva said...

Hi Adrienne,

Gosh... NO! You don't wanna apologize for that dear. I know how it feels when dealing with connectivity issues ;)

Absolutely! We have seen how Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram had to change their plans due to privacy and security issues Adrienne. AND even power users never bothered to read their policies and terms, but deleted their accounts once they got to know about the whole story. But just deleting won't be the end of it as they have it all in their servers :)

I find you are much concerned about online activity Adrienne :) Gladly, lot of my friends too. I believe educating through our experiences can do good for 'em. But I know of certain users who wouldn't mind doing it all over again after being hacked too. May be, I don't know, they just don't find any risk :)

Thanks for coming by and adding your thoughts and concerns about using social networks Adrienne :)


You have a lovely weekend ahead too! :)


Cheers...

Mayura De Silva said...

So sorry to hear that Reginald. Different experiences for different people :) Now that's why sharing comes in handy.

I'm glad you are enjoying your time with online friends mate :) Extend and try to meet 'em offline too.

Cheers...

Reginald Chan Xin Yon said...

Yes certainly! However...most friends I have are not from the same country. Oh well...maybe one day.

Cheers mate!

Mayura De Silva said...

Well, same goes for me if you ask about online friends though ;)

Yeah, may be one day in future!

Cheers...

Sherman Smith said...

Ok Mayura,


I'm guilty of not checking my privacy settings, and this is definitely a great remind to be more careful. I have gotten my account hacked before and should know better. God must be telling me something LOL.


Thanks for the reminder and sharing these mistakes!

Neamat Tawadrous said...

Hi Mayura,


Great Informative post about the mistakes committed on social media.


All the mistakes you shared are valid and I see them all the time and I will add one which really annoys me. Some people tag me on a post or a photo without my permission and I keep getting notifications about and from everyone commenting on that post. It is really annoying that I have to untag myself. The same goes to people who add you to groups without your permission.


You said it right Mayura, we should all exercise politeness and respect in social media as it is called "social" and it is about others not ourselves.


Thanks Mayura for a great post and a great reminder to all those using social media networks.


Be Blessed,




Neamat

Tim Bonner said...

Hi Mayura

I'm often so busy promoting other people's stuff I forget to promote mine some of the time!

I see quite a few people in my Twitter stream who overly self promote and never give anything back or engage with me.



I'm gradually getting rid of those people from my stream though.


I remember one of my worst mistakes was adding my complete home address history to Friends Reunited.


I'm not sure if you've heard of that network but it was very big in the UK a few years ago and you could keep in touch with school friends etc.


I've since removed all personal data from social networks!

Mayura De Silva said...

Hi Sherman,

Ha ha... Now you MUST take action as you already published you haven't taken a look at your privacy settings mate ;)

Oops... You got hacked once too? You know, sometimes we need reminders, more than once. Isn't it? :) I have couple of friends I can think of who are not aware of privacy concerns too.

I hope you have gone through yours again mate :) Be safe!

Thanks for coming by and sharing your thoughts and experiences Sherman :)


Cheers...

Mayura De Silva said...

Hi Neamat,

Ah... NO! That's really annoying. I know how it feels when you tagged by someone without permission + without even being in that photo and get loads of notifications from it. Very good one Neamat :)

However you can take control of tagging for some extent through settings dear :) Check out Timeline and Tagging section in Facebook settings and make necessary changes.



Absolutely! I don't think someone can gain respect without giving it Neamat. We find some people trying to stand out by being irresponsible, impolite and rude, but that just uncover his / her true image and simply knocked out from the rest.


Yet mistakes happen and I think we all need to aware and improve our social behavior, even online :)


Thanks for coming by and adding your valuable thoughts into this discussion Neamat :)


Cheers...

Mayura De Silva said...

Hi Tim,


Well, that happens mate :) It's really nice to hear how supportive you are. But you can take a look at how others promote your content too. You will find that you weren't left behind at all.


Ugh... Self-promotion? Over and over? I won't stare at it anymore Tim. I just unfollow 'em. Well, that's what I do though. Glad to hear you are getting rid of 'em too.


Self-promotion is good. But being promoted by others is the best in my opinion :) Don't you think?


Revealing home address may not do harm much Tim. But who can count on it? I've heard of terrible stories happened to girlies and children after revealing 'em. You know, evil eyes can be everywhere. Better be safe online mate :)

Thanks for coming over and contributing your thoughts on online safety and usage of social networks Tim :)


Cheers...

Karmakar said...

Hi Mayura,

Thank you for the great post.. I believe the 3 rd point "You feel Secured" was awesome... :)

I was shocked and was forced to think "Am I doing the same mistake"... :)

Really appreciate it... :)

tiroberts said...

Very open and truthful post, Mayura.


I agree, social media can be scary and extremely intrusive Especially if you don't have right knowledge of "what" and "how" to handle yourself on it.


For me, social media is a way to get closer with my community and engage them more. I don't really mind sharing bits and pieces of my personal life with them because I feel like it makes me more "relatable" and further encourages trust.


One thing that you mentioned, thought, that I absolutely can't STAND about social media is people flooding my stream. If I experience that, I'm very quick to unfollow the person. I try not to do this as well and consciously keep in mind my followers streams.


If I know that I'm going to be participating in a Twitter chat or something like that, I'll be sure to post an update letting them know and apologizing before hand about the back to back updates they'll be seeing.


I also try to use the twitter chats I participate in as a way to engage them even more and I invite them to join in the conversation. That way they don't really mind the consistent update because they're part of the chat as well.


I also try not to only share my own content. I like to mix it up and share a variety This keep my followers from getting board while getting an array of valuable info from other great bloggers.


This is my first time visiting your blog, Mayura and I'm loving what I've seen and read so far. I’ll be sure to share this piece with my social circle. I’ll also comment and share it with the BizSugar community.


Keep the great content coming and I look forward to connecting with you more soon.


Ti

Mayura De Silva said...

Hi Karmakar,

You're welcome mate :)

Ha ha... I admit that sometimes I tend to feel the same way but again switch the thought as I recall risks and how my friends got their accounts hacked mate :)

Yet we are not secured if an authorized person from the social network can watch us secretly or share our personal information with someone either :) Better not sharing sensitive information online.

Thanks for coming by and adding your thoughts into the discussion Karmakar :)


Cheers...

Mayura De Silva said...

Hi Ti,

Thank you dear :) I'm glad you enjoyed it!

You got it right there! If we unaware what's going on and how to protect ourselves while being on social networks, UGH... then most likely we are endangering ourselves.

Ha ha... Absolutely! Being anonymous on social networks is not the way to go. We need to go ahead and connect with wonderful people out there and bits and pieces will definitely help in that process. But hey, not sensitive information though :)

Letting followers know before you start Twitter chat or something? :) Wow... That's a really nice suggestion Ti :) It never hit me until you mention here. Now that's being more polite and followers will appreciate that for sure. I'm gonna add that into my list too. See, I'm learning from you ;)

Sharing our own content would be alright, but moderately. Else others won't get to know much about what's going on with our blogs, no? However excessive sharing will definitely considered as self-promotion and eventhough we think that it will get more traffic for us, usually it will create a different image about us. When you can get others share more of your content by publishing interesting content, that's where I find the best is happening :)

You're most welcome here Ti! Thanks for coming over here and adding more value to the discussion through your thoughts and practices dear :) I really appreciate spreading the word around too!

Cheers...