Posts Tagged ‘social media’

I love social media.  I use all the tools I can to grow my following and my business.  But in this day and age you need to be careful and protect yourself from unscrupulous people on the web who want to hijack your account.  So what is a savvy and phenomenal business woman to do to protect herself from trojans, phishers, hackers and imposters floating around Facebook ?  Read my tips to learn more.

Watch For Suspicious Activity

Are you seeing suspicious activity in your News Feed, or on your wall or better yet in your inbox?  If so, delete it.  Delete posts from your wall and from newsfeeds that you find iffy.  If you get an email with a suspicious link delete it.   And, whatever you do, DO NOT CLICK ON THE LINK!  If you make the mistake and click on it you pretty much have handed over your account to someone else.   Remember that hijackers are coy and deceiving so it may appear that it is legitimate even when it is not.

Remove Friends As Appropriate

Remove friends who post suspicious links to your wall or that are contained in emails.  I know I can hear some of you saying, “But they are my friends”.    Still delete them because the person who is sending you the link is more than likely NOT your friend but the person who has hijacked your friends account.  Be safe and remove friends when needed.  Once your friend has regained control over their account you can always add them to your friend list .

Turn off Facebook Chat Feature

Personally, I hate chatting.   I find it a huge waste of time.  Send me an email or better yet pick up the phone or Skype me.   Never mind what a huge distraction it can be when you are trying to post an event, update your profile or post information for your followers.  But the real reason I mention this is because you don’t ever want to be chatting with someone you don’t know.  Hopefully, you know all of your Facebook friends, but I know that some of us “friend” people that we don’t necessarily know because we are trying to grow our list and build a following.  So, just play it safe and turn it off!

Hide your year of birth

Don’t show your year of birth. This may or may not make a difference. I’m not one to be shy about my age or how old I am… however, I heard from an identity theft expert that not disclosing your year of birth is just another way of protecting yourself from identity theft.

Keep Private Information Private

Just because you are using social media doesn’t mean everyone needs to know everything about you.  The line between personal and professional is definitely blurred.  So decide what you want to share on Facebook, twitter and the like and think carefully before you share something.

By following this simple tips you can ensure that your Facebook account is safe and that you are being smart and protecting your account.

Are you afraid of Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook? Are you desperately trying to forget that these social media sites even exist?  Does the thought of having to use them send shivers up your spine?  Do you think that you’ll have to devote countless hours to “staying connected?”

Well I understand how you feel; I used to feel the same way.  But what I have come to realize is that social media is not as time consuming as you might think.  A few simple tips can help you manage all you social media tasks and bring you and your business a ton of recognition and new contacts.

Follow these tips to make it easier for YOU:

1.   Don’t put yourself on every possible social networking site.  It’s too much all at once.  Instead pick one or two to start with and build up from there. Master each site first before you add more.  Hopefully, you have set up a plan for your activities; now evaluate the ROI.  If you are not getting a big enough ROI reevaluate your activities.

2.  Use applications that streamline social media tasks. Use Google applications to help keep productivity high and applications like Tweet Deck to keep tweets organized and streamlined. Read blogs and websites in RSS Reader.  If you are not using RSS Reader reconsider using it; it will make reading feeds more manageable.

3.  Use effective time management strategies to keep it manageable. Set a consistent schedule for when you engage in social media activities.  Use a timer to keep you to the schedule you set for yourself and keep you on track.   And don’t live on your blog, email, facebook or twitter accounts!  Check in once or twice a day.

By following these three basic steps you can gain control and mastery over social media and formulate a strategy that will help give you the expsoure you are looking for.  When all else fails give over your social media tasks to a qualified Virtual Assistant or Social Media Expert. It may be well worth the time and investment so that you can focus on even more important aspects of growing your business.