To Do And Not To Do On Social Media

-Pratiti Nath

Social Media enables us to connect with people, share our lives, conduct business, exchange ideas and information. All of this in a quick and hassle free manner. It isn’t devoid of certain drawbacks. Similar to all other modes of communication like telephone, SMS or letters , social media too is plagued by certain problems. These problems can only be countered by following certain decorum. Here are some common social media etiquette to keep in mind while using any social media platform.

 1. Choose a proper profile picture and name

You are very fond of your pet and have it as your profile picture. You are book-lover and choose your favorite character as your name on social media channels. While these things display your likes and your personality it raises a question about your genuineness. Remember this may appear in Google search when someone searches for your name. Always opt for a decent genuine picture of yours along with your name. If you don’t want your picture in the public domain refrain from adding any instead of relying on pictures of places or superstars. In case of a business account make the company logo or the company building showing the name as the profile picture. Share your vision in the about yourself section and the company tagline for cover picture.  

2. Separate your personal and professional life

Similar to your real life, your virtual life should have separate forums for professional and personal spheres. You definitely don’t want your boss browsing over your late night clubbing or weekend beach gateway pictures. Leave it for your friends. Likewise you don’t want to bore your friends with unnecessary work details. Having separate accounts for your business or work related handle and for your personal use is the key. If you are not one of those who can handle multiple accounts then customize your posts. Control who can view your posts.

 3. Do not write posts when you are angry or feeling low

You are feeling low tweet, a philosophical quote or a sorrowful vague post. While these posts might serve the purpose of relieving the burden of your emotion, they don’t go down well with others. Frequent such posts will often lead to people associating negative attributes (like complaining) with you. Hence, they will start avoiding you. Think before posting such things. Think of its viability after a few months. If it isn’t then discard it. If you cannot do without posting such things customize them to “friends”, “only me” or any other that you prefer. 

 4. Refrain from tagging and sharing pictures of others

You uploaded a picture of your friends chilling on beach and that landed her in trouble in her office. You have posted an old nostalgic picture of your high school batch mate. He isn’t comfortable of it. Thus, refrain from sharing pictures of others without their consent. People have a definitive way of projecting themselves in public which might not gel with your perceived view. Hence, always ask before posting. Another problem is of unnecessary tagging. Don’t tag people to pictures when they aren’t in it. Nobody wants to see a picture of your cat tagged along with 50 people and 20 comments. 

5. Refrain from Oversharing

People need not go through everything you find interesting on Facebook. Of course you find those memes and short stories hilarious. You need not share each and every item you like. Restrict the number of posts you share. Only share the ones which you find of utmost importance. Oversharing will clutter other people’s news feed leading people to ignore or unfriend you. 

6. Restrict from badmouthing anyone.

You had a fight with your partner or had a bad day at office and you start lamenting it out on Social Media. Remember these are public forums and hence the thing you are posting is available for everyone to see. Thus, refrain from making resentful posts or badmouthing anyone. 

7. Do not jump on the bandwagon and start a debate war.

Social media is a platform for sharing things and connecting with people. One such way of doing it is sharing your views and opinions about current affairs. Be tolerant and understanding of other people views and opinions. Your friend changes his profile picture in solidarity of the Paris attack whereas you didn’t. Politely disagree with his views and convey your message privately. Don’t start a debate over it. Some friends have shared something about your favorite superstar and you find it offensive. Instead of quarreling it out in public discuss it privately. If possible ignore such things.

8. Refrain from spamming people with gaming requests/friend requests/apps request.

You like to play online games and can’t help people sending request. While you might not control these things, you can certainly control the number of such requests you send. Prevent from recommending unnecessary pages and apps to people. In case your friends do so, convey it to them that you don’t like it or stop notifications from those apps. 

9. Refrain from making personal conversations on posts

Suppose you have uploaded a picture of yourself in a restaurant. You friend likes it and starts asking questions about it. Gradually the conversation starts drifting to other things. Now, this could irritate others who have liked/commented on your pictures and getting cluttered by your notifications. The best way to deal with such things, is politely answer the first question and then allow the conversation to flow on a private chat. If you are bogged by such notifications from anyone’s profile just turn off future notifications from them.

10. Check your grammar, spelling, facts and don’t overuse abbreviations/hashtags

The things which you post will remain online in the future. Anyone can view it by searching about the topic. Hence, you should be absolutely sure about facts before posting them. Read the full document or view the full video before making a comments about it. Grammatical errors and typos can make you seem insincere. Use abbreviations but don’t flood your entire writing with it. It might make you cool in your friend’s circle but it puts a question mark on your credibility. Hashtags are important to make people notice certain issues or points. Thus, hash tagging is for particular words or phrases. Don’t hashtag every word in the sentence. 

These are the essential habits one needs to keep in mind while using social media platforms. Abiding by these rules one can easily prevent any nuisance from occurring.

5 Tips To Stay Smart Online

-Pratiti Nath 

Internet, a boon of this century has made our lives easier and brought our dear ones closer. It has made knowledge accessible to people from every social strata. So much so that, it has become a necessity of this age. One such component of the internet is SocialMedia, where you can connect with a friend sitting miles apart and share your thoughts & opinions, exchange files, photographs & videos. The increasing trend of social media usage has led to a growing propensity for social media fraud. Here are some aspects of it and how to prevent them. 

1. Theft calls from fictitious accounts

You use social media website to connect, right? You’ve logged into Facebook and decide to complain about your banking problems to the bank’s homepage. That can prove to be detrimental, as a Pune resident Nehal Deodhar had found out when she was robbed of Rs.50,000  from her account.

Problem

Be sure about sharing your financial details (account number, pin code, branch name etc.) on these platforms as it is very risky and you might just end up like Nehal. Make sure the account you are interacting with is an authentic one.

Prevention

Best way to go about this is to contact them through the bank’s original website or personally get to the bank. 

Research has showcased a rise in these kind of cyber frauds  from 75% in 2013-14 to 77% in 2014-2015.

2.  Fake accounts with  malicious intentions

Problem

So you’re quite active on Facebook. You browse through different offers, educational institutes or beneficial incentives. Well, beware of their authenticity. Some, if not many of these accounts turn out to be fake. Often fraudulent people make such an account pretending to be a representative of an influential organization.

However, most of these are nothing but dopes to lure people. The organization might turn out to be non-existent and their website a fraud. Their contact information would also be false.

Prevention

• Do not disclose too much of your personal details. 
• Try to run a background check about their authenticity (validity of the institution, actual location, and knowledge of people about it). Generally on social media we tend to be in a herd of like-minded people. 
• Look for mutual friends who know them. Contact them personally and see if their words match up.

3.Identity theft and harassment

You are an outgoing friendly person who regularly indulgences in sharing your whereabouts and opinions on Facebook.  You “check in” the places you visit disclosing your locations and preferences and you use auto-fill up option while logging in, just to be hassle free.

Problem

Fraudsters know your personal details and preferences through this auto fill option. Your account can be easily hacked or worse someone can open a fake account in your name. You’ll be unaware of this fake account of yours until they start harassing people from your friend list. They use your personal information and your old pictures for this purpose. 

Prevention

To avoid such situations, 

• Discard the auto-fill up option and log in manually.
• Change your password time-to-time and don’t use the same password everywhere.
• Refrain from making immediate check-ins, disclose information some hours later. 
• Don’t make your phone number, address and email-ids public. Restrict it to “only me”. 
• Restrict making personal photographs “public”, instead change them to “friends” settings. 
• Also do not allow applications to post on your behalf.

4. Stealing information via instant messaging platforms

Here, platforms like whatsapp, hike, Wechat are your go-to-need apps. Beware, this might land you in trouble. 

Problem

Your photographs & videos can be stolen and used later for malicious purposes. People can impersonate you, using your personal information. 

Prevention

Best way to prevent this is to use your smartphone wisely. 

• Restrict the use of public sharing wi-fi connections. 
• Always remember to logout. 
• Don’t share explicit videos and photographs. Restrict sending files in a group chat. 
• Install identity theft detection apps and
• Refrain from using location tracker apps.

5.Via online shopping apps.

When shopping online via phone or desktop, trouble might be brewing near you. 

Problem

Fraudulent people might steal your personal details, banking details and contact information from these platforms. 

Prevention

• Be sure to log out after every transaction. 
• Never enlist your debit/credit card to the payment gateway rather manually enter the card number during every transaction. 
• Make sure your password is long and constitutes various characters. Change your password time-to-time.
• Don’t use your personal preferences (nick name, pet’s name, date of birth, mobile number, favorite color/book/cuisine etc.) as passwords; instead use random combination of characters.

These are some of the frequently used methods of social media fraud. 77% of it is done by furnishing fictitious information & identity theft, 18% by fraudulent contact information and 4% by already established fraudsters.

 Keep them in mind and be more vigilant.

Stay Safe! 

Source:http://epaperbeta.timesofindia.com/index.aspx?eid=31807&dt=20160314