Ensuring the Social Media Privacy of Your Children

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Let us face it – denying your children access to social networks will be impossible. Introducing a strict ban means that they will create social media profiles without even telling you.

Teaching children social media privacy at an early age is essential to keep them safe online. Be a modern parent and help your youngster understand the benefits and the dangers of using popular social networking websites.

Have the Talk, Don’t Ignore the Problem

Ignoring the problem means that you will be putting your child at risk.

Talking about safe social networking and the possible dangers will be challenging but otherwise, your child will grow up thinking that sharing all kinds of personal information online is acceptable.

Sit down and discuss the specifics of social media privacy. Doing that at an early age will instill some healthy habits. There is no need to be overly negative or to forbid anything. Just make sure that your child is aware of the dangers.

Monitor the Information that Your Child is Sharing

You should be in control of the information that your child is sharing via social networks. There are many people who will use the profiles of teenagers for stalking purposes. Whether you use a social media app or you do manual editing, get in the habit of controlling the information.

Your child should never post information about their age, their address or the school that they study in. A predator could easily use that data to figure out the location of your child at any given time.

The same rule applies to monitoring photo and video uploads.

Set Limits

Make sure that your child understands the limits. The kind of behavior that is unacceptable offline is also inappropriate in the online realm. Social media privacy depends heavily on your child’s behavior.

Peer pressure will force children, especially teenagers, into committing stupid mistakes. Revealing photographs and video clips have no place online. There should be some guidelines for social media usage and it is up to you to do the enforcement.

Be a Role Model

The social media privacy of your children will depend on your online behavior, as well.

Be a role model by creating the right kind of social networking profile for yourself. Lead by example and keep your profile clean. The manner in which you add online friends is also going to affect your child. Be careful!

Your child will have a social networking profile sooner or later. You need to get involved in the process right from the start. Let your kid know a bit more about the dangers but keep a positive attitude. Being open to new trends is essential for the relationship you have with your child.

The Benefits and Uses of Private Social Networks

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Sharing all kinds of information with the entire world is a bad idea, especially if you are trying to succeed in the corporate world. Social networking has facilitated interactions but it has also resulted in the lack of privacy. The private social network comes as a perfect alternative to traditional social media.

Problems with Traditional Social Networks

Social media privacy is nearly non-existent in traditional networking websites. Even if you adjust the privacy settings, some information will remain public.

Performing a simple online search about yourself will reveal the amount of information that goes public without your knowledge or permission. Adjusting privacy settings in traditional social networks is a painful and slow process. Whether your information is used for marketing purposes or whether it is poorly protected, the results could easily be a breach of privacy.

Secured Communication

To ensure your social media privacy, you should simply join a private social network. Private social networks can be created on the basis of company affiliation, academic institution, neighborhood or lifestyle preferences.

The private social network allows you to communicate with other similar-minded individuals or professionals without the rest of the world learning about it.

You will interact and exchange ideas in a safe and private environment. This privacy will enable you to make the most of the conversation and to share information that you will typically be hesitant about.

Control over Content

An open social network gets tons of content updates on a daily basis. Some of the content could be valuable, some of it will be spam. Controlling this volume of content would be a mission impossible.

Smaller volumes of content that has higher quality are a main characteristic of the private social networks. These networks are easier to moderate and keep in excellent condition. Members will benefit from the information shared by other and any kind of problematic upload is going to be exceptionally easy to deal with.

Private Social Networks can be Used to Establish Connections

A private social network is the perfect option to build relationships between the employees of a company or to communicate with customers.

The fact that the social network is closed creates a sense of belonging. The community enjoys this safe environment and the fact that only a limited number of people can become members.

Brand recognition and company values become easier to enforce in this private environment. Customers can ask questions, employees will increase their qualification and the company will ultimately create value through its social networking campaign.

General social network have revolutionized the web world but their public character is also creating some problems. Closed social media are a wonderful alternative, especially for individuals having specialized needs and interested in maintaining their privacy. Social media privacy is nearly non-existent and the creation of private websites has addressed a market need that was previously left without a viable solution.

Social Media Marketing Tips

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Social media marketing is big these days. Billions of users regularly tweet, post, like, share or comment on different networks, and every business desires to reach out to them. Here are some social marketing tips that should help attract eyeballs and attention on both public and private social networks:

Organize An Event

Many experts recommend organizing an event or private parties once every 4-6 weeks and allowing fans to have a blast. The event can be as long as 24 hours and can have several sub-events that provide fun and information. For example, fans can be allowed to post links to their websites, there could be a lucky draw (every hour) for the best comment, whitepapers or ebooks can be given away, and more.

Attach Funny Images With Facebook Posts

Facebook has over one billion users and any comment can go quickly viral so long it appeals to the users. Try and sauce up your comments with a cartoon or a humorous image if you want users to take off on it. You will see many comments, likes and shares, and therefore more brand exposure.

Focus on 1 or 2 Platforms

The giant social networking sites are Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest and LinkedIn. You should choose 1-2 of these and focus on it instead of posting on all the platforms without driving any meaningful engagement. Choose the platforms that are frequented by your customers, and stay away from the rest. Take your user engagement to a new level on a couple of platforms and you will see results in the space of a few months. You can focus the rest of your energy on private social platforms.

Involve Social Influencers

Social influencers are online all their working hours, passing on valuable feedback to their followers through blogs and social media. You should track such influencers and understand their target audience.

Once you’re done, you can start by sharing the influencer’s comments and posts with your audience. Once you get the influencer’s followers coming over to read your posts, you should develop original and valuable information for them and give it away. Who knows, even the influencer also may share your content. If that happens, you will suddenly see a surge in traffic and number of followers. This is one chance that’s worth taking.

Give Away Valuable Stuff On LinkedIn

LinkedIn is a business-minded social network and you can capitalize on it by giving away valuable information. People on LinkedIn want to enhance their skills and are always open to new information. Just ensure that you give it to your contacts, group members and followers, and not to the public. That way you will get many new followers and you can then start adding value to your brand.

These marketing tips should help you drive engagement on public and private social networks.

How To Safeguard Your Online Privacy

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Online privacy is a big concern because if it is compromised you can be hacked or tracked or even be hounded by predators. Social media attracts millions of users from all over the world and hackers and malware makers know that they can now hack into many accounts that are more vulnerable and increase their ill-gotten gains. Here is a primer that will help you protect your online privacy and keep the evil folks at bay:

1. Protect Your IP Address

An IP address is allotted to every computer that’s hooked to the Internet. This address can reveal your exact physical address and even identify you, and the bad news is that hackers can get to it easily. This is one reason why Google has opted to “anonymize IP addresses.” If your IP address is being leaked on the Internet, it is time you fixed it by buying an IP address blocker or by downloading browser plugins (for Mozilla and Chrome) that will help you mask your address.

2. Manage Your Cookies

Every site plants cookies on your computer to know more about you and to track your online activities. They use this data to deliver targeted marketing messages. You cannot do without cookies if you want to enjoy a true browsing experience. However, you can always manage your cookie collection by deleting it every few days, depending on your browsing habits.

3. Deleting Browsing History

You may feel that browsing history is irrelevant and therefore it can keep accumulating. However, you’re wrong there. Here’s an example: keeping your browsing history intact, go to Google and search for a keyword that you have already searched before. Now, check the results’ page and you will see sites marked in gray, which indicates that you have already opened such sites. At the bottom of such results, you will see a line that says: “You visited this page on _/__/__.” This implies that Google is tracking your browsing habits. All major sites do this. They can even disclose your browsing habits to 3rd parties for a fee. This is why you should delete your browsing history on a periodic basis.

4. Commonsense Browsing

Don’t give out sensitive information like bank account number, SSN, etc., on any site. This is not the kind of information to like or share. Delete your browsing history, cookies and temporary Internet files every once in a while, and empty your recycle bin after deleting these. Don’t open sites that are reported as dangerous by your browser. Do not post rash or inflammatory comments. Install a firewall and an anti-virus software.

Follow the guide above to ensure that your personal data is not stolen or misused by any website and to protect your online privacy. Good luck.

Why Opt For A Private Social Network?

Public social networks are buzzing around with people and information overload. There is far too much excitement happening there as friends and contacts chip in with their opinions every now and then. This may work great for those in a chatty, friendly mood, but all this buzz irritates people who are in the mood for serious business. Such folks want to read relevant comments or discuss critical issues without the whole world commenting or liking what they have to say.

These folks should create their private network to interact within their niche. Here are some of the features and advantages of such networks:

Features and Advantages Of Private Networks

They allow you and your company/organization to create a closed community, which can only be accessed by those you choose or by those who have a username and password.

Members can post sensitive data, secure in the knowledge that it can only be viewed by authorized personnel (members).

Organizations such as churches, a group of parents, private clubs, colleges, college clubs, etc., can create their private network, which can only be accessed by their members. Each member can be given a username and password.

Sharing of information in the public can be dangerous – there are all sorts of online predators hanging around and seeking out vulnerable targets. Just in case you do not know – modern cameras tag photographs with the latitude and longitude of the place. If you write nametags on such pictures, a predator can easily learn more about his possible victim’s location and get to him easily. Private networks eliminate such risks by granting access only to authorized and known people.

Private network apps are available for iPhone and Android device users, and as you know, most smartphone users around the world use such phones. Therefore, we can easily say that such apps can help bring globally-located co-workers closer.

Such apps provide the administrators or creators with a web admin panel, which allows them to control what’s going on inside. The creators also don’t have to employ IT personnel because the admin panels are intuitive. Administrators can control content, admit new people, throw out abusers or unwanted members, set up an editorial calendar, and do much, much more.

One private network can support multiple groups. This means it is possible to have an inter-department group within a larger intranet.

The users’ attention is not diverted because there are no pesky ads around.

Private social networks enable critical and productive communication and help the organization become more productive. If you are sick and tired of using your “immobile” Intranet or public social networks for employee or vendor communication, now is the time to switch over to private social media.

4 Great Social Media Apps For Business

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Contrary to what you may think, social networking for workers is not a complete waste of productive time. There are a few social media apps out there for business owners, office workers, managers and teams that have the capability of enhancing workplace productivity and profitability. If you’re not the believing kind, here’s the list of the top 4:

1. Evernote - https://evernote.com/

Evernote allows users to jot down their thoughts or ideas or action items from meetings, and then tag and organize them, and save them for later viewing. Users can create different folders for business and personal notes and set reminders per note. This helps them follow up on the note within its deadline. Users can sync notes from mobile with their computers (or the other way round) to ensure that all records are updated immediately.

Users can also format text easily and share their notes on social media sites. However, no office worker will likely share a note from a meeting – personal notes can be shared though. Evernote is a virtual Post-It app that can increase productivity and that is why it is strongly recommended.

2. Google Mail Multiple Account Checker

Many business owners own multiple Gmail or Google App accounts for a variety of reasons – maybe to keep personal and business emails separate, or a different email for every website, etc. Checking mails on multiple accounts can cause headaches and consume time, and this is where the multi-account checker steps in to help. The checker, which works as Chrome Plugin or extension, tracks unread messages in all Gmail accounts and displays them conveniently on your screen. You have to enter, just once, each account’s credentials after the installation. The app allows you to read the messages without leaving what you are doing.

3. Wunderlist - https://www.wunderlist.com/

The app helps you create to-do lists. You can use it to write action items during a meeting, shopping list, employee work allocations, priority items, and more. The app contains a reminder module that alerts you in time. Once the task is done, all you have to do is click the checkbox to cross the item off your list. You can also share non-sensitive lists with your contacts. This app works somewhat like Evernote.

4. Mint - https://www.mint.com/

Mint is a business budgeting app that helps you plan your finances by connecting to your bank account and analyzing your spending and earning patterns. The analysis will help you control your expenses and thereby remind you to generate funds when the bank balance is drying up. Mint helps you manage your working capital requirements by monitoring and analyzing your cash flow. This is one secure app that is popular with many business owners.

These, in our opinion, are some of the top social media apps.