Social Networking Safety Tips
First, let's start by stating the obvious. Social networking is a
great way to find new friends who share the same interests as you
do. In fact, making friends is the reason social networking exists
and why it is exploding in popularity.
It's great to find people who love talking about the same things that
you love talking about. It's why specialized bulletin board services
were so popular in the early 1980s, when interaction was limited to
just posting messages to be read and hopefully responded to. Now, with
online chat capabilities, that communication can be instantaneous and
continuous, instead short, terse and intermittant.
Social networking sites allow you to meet people from all over the world,
not just in your neighborhood or city. That's one of the neat things
about chatting on social networking sites. You can hold text conversations
with people across the continent, across the ocean or halfway around the
world. You can't do that with any other form of communication. And it's
almost impossible to meet people from so many different places and countries
if you don't make use of the social networking phenomenom.
What's really great is that there are over a hundred different social
networking sites out there. And that number is increasing almost every
week. The largest of the sites have millions of members, while even the
smallest of the social networking sites has memberships in the hundreds
or more. With so many sites and so many members, you're bound to find
people just like you that you want to meet online and to chat with.
Many people on social networking sites host events in their home cities,
or even at vacation resorts like Disney World or on cruise ships. It's
a great way to have a vacation and meet like-minded people and have fun.
If you end up wanting to host/organize an event, you can post notices of
these events on the social networking pages.
Some businesses are now using social networking sites to promote their
business and their products and services. It's a great way to look for
new clients, and to let potential clients that "you're out there" and
available to meet their needs. You can even discover new trends and new
needs that you can move your business into, and you'll have that
awareness of these new trends and needs well before your competitors do.
Many social networking sites are free. This provides excellent value
since you're not paying anything for the opportunity to meet hundreds
of people who share your same interests. While many are free, there
are some sites that charge a fee. One would think that the sites with
a fee would provide extra services and benefits. You need to learn what
these sites are like, and if they are worth any fees that you must pay
If you sign up with a social networking site, you need to take precautions.
For example, never post private information about yourself. While most
sites enable you to restrict access to your profile to only certain people,
you may find that criminals can get around any restrictions and use the
private information that you post against you. Careless posting of private
information can and does lead to identity theft and financial loss. Also,
make sure that you don't post anything that might end up causing you
embarrassment or humiliation. Also, if you meet people for the first time
through a social networking site, you need to be careful -- meet in a public
place, let people know where you will be going, who you will be meeting and
when you expect to get back.
Social networking is probably here to stay. It's still growing in size, and
in popularity. It's a great way to make new friends all over the world. How
great is that!
Copyright 2008 Mirroreyes Internet Services Corporation.
20081030