Useful Tips for Social Media Profiles

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Social media has made it easier for friends, family and businesses to share information to a larger audience. Such platforms as Facebook (which as of Oct 2013 has over 1.26 billion members), has created a venue for businesses to reach their target markets.

Unfortunately, social media has also become an avenue for malicious deeds. The amount of information available to the public should be controlled, but what exactly is the limit?

How is social media an easy target?

• Based on a research study, out of 10 people who use social media networks, 4 of these people are victims of cybercrime.
• Of the 6 who reported that their profile has been hacked, 1 of those is telling the truth.
• Out of the 10 who clicked on a social media link, one of them is a victim of false or fake link.
• When using social media, only 50% use the security settings so they can control who can view their information and what information they what to be shared.
• Accepting friend requests or following people whom you don’t even know personally is one of the reasons why it is to target the social media network. Based on the report, 36% accept friend requests from those they do not know.

How to prevent from being a victim of these social media fraud?

Some examples include:

• Your personal information should remain private. If in case you share them with others, information should only appear to your friends. Manage you your settings really well to avoid being a victim. If a business page, promote information only related to that account, by no means should your own personal information be available.
• Create a good password for your safety. Your password should compose of 8 characters with a combination of alphanumeric in lower and upper case. These should not relate to your name, your birthday or to any of your personal information. It is a must to have different password for different social media platform. If one of your accounts is hacked, your other accounts would remain safe.
• Examine closely friend requests outside your network as you don’t know their true identity. To be safe, only accept and follow people whom you know and are real.
• Online applications that want you to sign in to your account should be treated with caution. You might be giving someone access to your personal information without you knowing it. So you would know that the application is legitimate, search for the application before you even click on it. If there is trouble accessing the application, then don’t grant access to this application.

In all cases use your good judgment, whether for business or pleasure, the finer details of social media design and content is well worth the extra attention.