Mediaboss Marketing

The Dangers of Social Networking

By: Dave Flang

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The Dangers of Social Networking - Video

Social networking has provided us with the ability to keep in contact with old friends and relatives, as well as trusted colleagues. It allows us to share personal and professional information easily, including photos and life events. While this is wonderfully convenient, it is important to be cautious about what you are actually sharing on social networking. While everyone knows that sharing photographs of a personal nature is not advisable, you must also be aware of the statements you post. There is no expectation of privacy on social network sights, such as Facebook. The golden rule is to avoid putting anything online that could reflect bad on your business or you personally. You must also be aware that what you post online can actually cost you financially.

In February of 2014, a Facebook posting by his daughter cost Patrick Snay, 69, an $80,000.00 settlement he won in an age-discrimination lawsuit according to the Miami Herald. The settlement came with a confidentiality agreement prohibiting Snay from disclosing the terms and existence of the settlement. Snays daughter, only days after the agreement, posted to 1,200 Facebook friends that Mama and Pap Snay wond the case against Gulliver. Gulliver is now officially paying for my vacation to Europe this summer. SUCK IT. As Snays daughter was a recent graduate of Gulliver, her posting, in effect, announced to current and former students that Gulliver lost the case with its former headmaster, violating the confidential terms of the settlement, and thus, rendering the settlement void, after an appeal by Gulliver to a Motion to Enforce the Settlement.

It is not just a potential settlement that can be lost through social networking, however. There have been many stories of people losing their jobs over Facebook postings. In May of 2013, a Chilis waitress lost her job when she posted Stupid cops. Better hope Im not their server, with a picture of Oklahoma County deputies arriving at the restaurant. The deputies in the photograph had spent five hours of their day volunteering on a funeral procession and the posting cost the restaurant business from the law enforcement community and the waitress her job. Others have lost their jobs by posting about their bosses or co-workers online. In May of 2013, a Denver employee was fired for complaining about his working conditions online after a co-worker reported his conduct.

More and more lawsuits are being compromised by postings on Facebook and other social networking sites. For example, if you are involved in an automobile accident and like to brag on your Facebook page about speeding, that can come back to haunt you later. Divorce cases frequently bring up social networking posts for purposes of child custody and determining the suitability of one parent. Deleting a post doesnt necessarily protect you either. Through subpoenas and computer forensics, often referred to as e-discovery, those posts can still be retrieved and used against you in a Court of law.

The moral dont post anything on social media you wouldnt want the whole world to see.

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Social Networking: Is the potential cost worth the rant?

Lawrence LeBlond for redOrbit.com Your Universe Online

Several studies have so far pointed out the positive and negative effects social networking has on people. While Facebook has offered millions of people a way to connect and interact in a way that may have not been otherwise possible, the social giant has also been a home for cyberbullying.

In a new study, researchers from University of California, San Diego have found that feelings displayed on Facebook are contagious. Publishing a paper in the journal PLOS ONE, the team analyzed over a billion anonymized status updates from more than 100 million Facebook subscribers across the United States and found that positive posts beget positive posts and negative posts beget negative posts. They said that while both are common on the site, the positive posts are more influential.

Our study suggests that people are not just choosing other people like themselves to associate with but actually causing their friends emotional expressions to change, James Fowler, professor of political science in the Division of Social Sciences and of medical genetics in the School of Medicine at UC San Diego, who is lead author of the study, said in a statement. We have enough power in this data set to show that emotional expressions spread online and also that positive expressions spread more than negative.

An abundance of scientific literature exists on how feelings among people can become contagious through direct contact with family, friends and even strangers. Because little is known about the emotional contagion in online social networking, Fowler maintains that his study, and others that may follow, is a good stepping stone in determining what can be transmitted via social media.

Working with Lorenzo Coviello, a PhD student in the electrical and computer engineering department at UCSDs Jacobs School of Engineering, along with several other researchers from UCSD, Facebook and Yale University, Fowler analyzed anonymized status updates from the top 100 most populous US cities over a period of 1,180 days, between January 2009 and March 2012. The team did not view any usernames or words that were posted. Instead, Fowler and his team relied on automated text analysis using a software program known as Linguistic Inquiry Word Count, which measures the emotional content of each post.

Then, to determine the causal relationship between posts, the team ran an experiment using a natural element: rain. They found that rainy weather changes the tenor of posts in reliable fashion. Rainy days increased the number of negative posts by 1.16 percent and depressed the number of positive posts by 1.19 percent.

Despite the small percentages, the team noted that it wasnt large numbers they were looking for, but rather showing that a random variable such as rain can be used as an instrument in measuring the effect of a change in a users posts on another users posts. To ensure the rain was not affecting the friends of friends, the team restricted their analysis to friends who lived in different cities where it was not raining. And to ensure that it was not a topic contagion, they removed all weather-related status updates from their analyses.

So, the team implies, the change in emotional expression by those experiencing rainy weather did have an effect on their friends who were in dry cities. They found that each additional negative post yielded 1.29 more negative posts among a users friends, while each additional positive post yielded an additional 1.75 positive posts among friends.

The team said that this study likely underestimates how much emotion spreads through a digital social network.

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When It Rains It Pours: Facebook Feelings Can Spread Easily

In using social media to promote your business online, one can be faced with many options as to what platform to begin with, as there are myriads of them and each one is as useful as the other.

For this article, it is even more difficult narrowing down the social media platforms, due to space constraint; and it is for this purpose we will start with just four platforms.

Social media sites fall in the following categories: social networks, bookmarking sites, social news, media sharing, micro-blogging services, blogs, forums and wikis. Sometimes, a social site may fall into two categories, but each has a different purpose and can help your business in different ways.

As I mentioned earlier, do not overwhelm yourself with managing multiple accounts if you do not have the time to update all. Start with one and increase your usage over time. Here is an insight into four social networks to help you decide which to start with

Blogs

This is one of my favourite means of online business promotion. It allows you to engage with your target market on areas of similar interests so others get to recognise you as an expert in your field. Secondly, blogs are great for businesses too, as you can share updates on industry news, corporate culture, employees and stakeholders, product launches, etc.

Besides, there are diverse ways of making money off your blog when it starts to garner traffic. There are many other reasons. Blogs can either be part of your website as a page so visitors never have to leave your business website; or you can get a free blog separate from your website via free content managing systems such as wordpress.com, blogspot.com, etc. Blogs can be run by almost any business as its use varies widely.

Tip: To get the most out of blogging, publish useful articles frequently.

Twitter

Twitter is a popular micro-blogging site known mainly for its 140-character post updates. The beauty of Twitter is that you can customise your business page to reflect the personality of your brand, share posts publicly or privately through Direct Messaging, all in 140 characters or less. Twitter is called a micro-blog because it combines the special functionality of blogging (regular content updates) in as few words as possible.

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Business owners dilemma when going social

Boston, Massachusetts (PRWEB) March 12, 2014

With a new exciting entry into the social networking space, COUPLEOPOLY is primed to take the existing concept and put a fresh new spin on it.

For the past few months the social start-up designed for couples has only been available to a select group for registration and access. Having completed a rigorous testing phase, the web site is currently open for early registration by interested couples prior to its full release.

It is a fact that there are a lot of different social networking sites on the Internet today. Each of the existing offerings provides specific functionality to its base of users. There are also common functionality that they all share such as photo upload, followers and updates. COUPLEOPOLY is similar in some of those offerings to our users, as well as options which no other social networking platform does, says Michael Sullivan, Founder of COUPLEOPOLY, LLC, about the current online social networking landscape and this exhilarating new venture.

Even though the current economy is not very accommodating to start-ups, the story of this one is very intriguing. The site was built during the past year from the ground up by a husband and wife team from a small town in Massachusetts. The original premise of the site was to allow users which may have a hard time finding new couple friends a means of doing so. However, once development began the idea blossomed into a site that caters to all relationships.

The major areas of interest available at COUPLEOPOLY are the advice column, socialization with other couples, relationship profiles with infographics, search capabilities and an online magazine.

Another noteworthy area is the sponsor page. This is where the advertisers on the site are featured all together for users to view. Because this web application is being offered for free, they are currently looking for sponsorship from businesses to support this rapidly growing enterprise. This is an attempt to build community and offer advertising that applies directly to its demographics and their interests. Interested businesses can request information via email: ads(at)coupleopoly(dot)com.

When asked the question: Will your site be competition for Facebook? COUPLEOPOLYs founder says No, but it isnt intended to be either. We know there is a niche market out there that isnt currently being catered to by the other major players in this space. We believe that Facebook is for individuals while COUPLEOPOLY is for couples.

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COUPLEOPOLY Offers Fresh Alternative to Facebook Through Introduction of New Social Networking Site for Couples