Having been around social networking for a while, although I admit I am a fledgling to twitter I have noticed that a lot of new networkers are not protecting themselves so I thought I would just help you guys out by giving you a few tips. Even though you may not be networking for marketing purposes this can help you too so keep reading.

The biggest threat comes from Facebook. It’s a great networking tool and the increase in their ability to let you self advertise has brought more and more marketers over to facebook.

As any social networking site Facebook does have its draw backs but more so because it is so widely used and is now so big that it would be the second largest country in the world if it was a country. Facebook is a challenge to hackers and although the facebook creators and staff and game developers endeavour to keep the site safe............... it’s sadly not always so.

You can help make facebook safer for yourself with just a few little tweaks. Ok so just a little bit first about having good antivirus on your computer. If you haven’t got one then why? I have two because unknown to us simple folk one antivirus software doesn’t catch them all. Even though it may say email protection, real time protection, anti-virus, anti-spyware. It may not cover other element systems, programmes on your computer.
They can’t work on everything that’s damaging out there so different antivirus software work on different virus, Trojans or spy bots and all the other malicious nasty things that can ruin our computer or internet experience. One of the virus protectors should be set to work in real time whilst you are browsing the internet.


Here are the two main antivirus software I use and they are both free. (You can buy them if you want)

Superantispyware

AVG

Oh and another one that I also use

ad-aware

Make sure you protect your computer some of the information on it is worth a fortune to you so make sure you back up periodically onto disk or memory stick. Let’s get on with protecting yourself on Facebook Security settings Our aim as marketers on facebook is to let the people that like or friend us see our information and what we are about as well as the products or tips we offer. When we put something up on live feed we hope that there settings allow their friends to see what we have put and if they like they can come over to our profile or page also.

So for a marketer the settings are very important as to who can see and who can’t but luckily facebook has made this easier by putting each setting in individual settings. We can set our pictures /status updates for example to only friends if we want to keep a little more privacy. As a marketer we do want friends of friends to see our updates because we are trying to get more traffic to our page. If they can’t see you on others live feed they won’t come. Obviously don’t put pictures on the internet if you don’t want others viewing them in the first place. You can stop people seeing pictures you’ve been tagged in on your privacy settings but not ones you have put up in your pictures yourself.


You may see a link like this in your facebook inbox Sam Bloggs Angela OMG! http://www.yourinavideo.com 10/08/2010
Or it may even look like a bit.ly link rather than a full URL.
Only open it if it’s a trusted marketer you know or trusted potential customer or friend but you can always check it out by sending a message back asking if they sent you the video in the first place and then open it if they verify it.

You’ll soon learn the different between a bonifide mail and a spoof Groups I don’t know how many times I tell my kids, nieces, nephews to stop joining groups such as “I like the month of August because it’s sunny” or “I love my kids “. It’s ok to join groups such as Internet Networking where you can vet the page before you hit the like button What to look for in pages that aren’t true and can be a potential spybot or viral threat.

•They have no administrators or information noted down the left side
•Often have no profile picture
•No live feed
•Nowhere for you comment ( although some legit pages have this )
•Don’t have an unlike button at the bottom of left side column

If you have joined any groups like this then you can expect problems with your computer or whilst you are going around your Facebook. A big problem that became evident a while ago was the fact that you joined these groups you mistakenly thought it was ok at first but they had a sleeping code attached to the group that woke up say when 500 fans joined the group and hey presto your facebook started freezing or other problems within facebook. Another thing to be aware of is facebook links that take you outside of facebook, they look like facebook but they are nothing to do with them.

I’ll give you a link at the bottom of this article that will give you more information. I know facebook sounds a total nightmare and why would you want to market within a social network that could potential be such a threat to your business. Well the good news is that there are a lot of people out there besides facebook itself that strive to keep you safe whilst networking.

Here’s a link to a site I have been a member of for a while and it keeps me up to date with potential threats for Facebookers. It is mainly for gaming fans but its forum is a source of good information and how to combat those threats. It is now an external site to facebook but it is safe I assure you. You can sign in using your facebook account. Just look for the blue facebook logo at the top of the page.

Keep safe and here is the link
Keep Safe