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 :)
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?
