As a Social Media Virtual Assistant, much of my work day is spent helping clients learn how to use Twitter, Facebook and Linked In to help market their business.
A large part being effective on social networking sites is to connect with people, and more so, people in your target market and sometimes large numbers of people.
Especially if you are a business that can connect with and remotely serve clients.
With most clients, starting on social media can be intimidating because you are 'meeting' people you don't know.
One of the most common issues new clients have is that "They don't know these people" who have started following them or asked to be a friend on Facebook or a contact on Linked In.
For so many years we have heard how the internet can lead to horror stories for some people -and now we are telling you to 'friend' or 'follow' people you have not met.
Can you do this and stay safe? Yes! If you follow a these 5 steps you can keep yourself safe and at the same time make connections worthy to you and your business.
1.
Talk to people and be yourself, but never give out too much personal information - things like birthdates and home addresses should be well protected.
In fact, I use a standard 'fake birthday' for all accounts I have.
Don't give out details on where you live and when you go out of town.
Use privacy settings on Facebook to help control what people not connected to you see.
2.
Change your password on a regular basis and don't use the same one for all your social networks and use different ones for your email accounts.
First thing hackers will try once they get in your account is to see if your email account assigned to that social network has the same password.
Your reputation is at stake; make a list of passwords if needed.
3.
Be wary of emails/messages from others that make it seem like they know you more thank you think - especially if they include a link.
This is a common way for hackers/spammers to get login information.
4.
Monitor your own identity.
I always recommend having a Google alert setup for your own name and your business name, even products.
Know when people are talking about you.
Engage them - if they have issues your product/service can help with, let them know.
5.
When talking to others, use their real name (first name) then they will know your contact is genuine and not a mass message, encouraging genuine responses as well.
It is these engaged responses on social media that will help you grow your business.
Following these steps can help lessen any concerns you may have when it comes to using social media and putting yourself online and allow you to make the contacts that can help drive traffic to your website and grow your business.