Nothing Personal

Say, you are at a party, a family reunion or simply hanging out with friends and somebody approaches you offering to sell their products or services. How do you take it? It is fun isn’t it? What? You don’t like it? Really?

Well, let’s imagine the same scenario in the Social Networks you use: are you trying to sell something to your peers, family and friends? If not, great. You are managing your circles in an appropriate way.
If yes, by now you should be aware that there is a place for that. Actually, there are many places for that. In the real world it is not very suitable to mix business and pleasure, and this same standard applies to Social Networks: it does not matter how polished your on-line presence or the goods you are offering are, if you are mixing potential clients with friends, the latter soon will not be there and will try to avoid you like the plague.

The least we can do when we do this is explain on our posts why we are offering such items, or re-invite people in our contacts indicating that your particular profile will be advertising and updating on products constantly. This way, the commercial-bound contacts can stay in your circle or group, and the people who have a warmer relationship with you can opt-out.

The absolute best is to put things in the proper places by:
+ Creating a Website which only intent is to do all the advertising, marketing and updating on what you are selling
+ Opening a Blog with the same intention a fully developed Website would have
+ Creating a Page –or at least a Group- within Facebook, for example; this one can do some of the basics a Website can do, and depending on your on-line ability, it probably would be easier to maintain
+ Use the appropriate ‘Social Networks’ for your service or products: Focus, Linked-In, Xing, Google+, MeetUp, etc.

Do this and you won’t have any problems knowing whether you are socializing or selling. When the lines are blurred between who is a friend or a customer it becomes difficult to establish a particular type of conversation. Trying to exchange words and information becomes awkward for them and for you, and then sooner or later they make a decision on whether you are a friend or a salesperson; once that is decided it stays like that for a long time, probably forever.

Have you had those salesperson experiences on-line? What do you think about the people that do that? Are they still your contacts or friends?

Remember, if your on-line presence in Social Networks is purely business related, do just that. Go all out on selling only, and interact just like a business person.

Nothing Personal.

Nothing Personal

On reviewing a few reports on the state of Internet Security, lately I have observed a pattern nobody seems to want to talk about. Perhaps the overuses of such issue and the constant reminders about it have become common and invisible signs for our IT-avert and strained eyes.

Here we go again: most security breaches both at home and at the workplace happen due mainly to human error.

Although I am also tired of repeating the same long list of safe actions on visiting Websites, opening email attachments, replying to certain messages and all that jazz; this time I would like to focus on something that should concern you: your personal information. Even better, these are only a few tips to protect your financial information.

1. Financial institutions will never contact you via email asking for your personal information, they already have it when you signed up the contract. Do not provide anything personal to messages that look legitimate; but are not.

2. Whether you receive electronic or printed statements for your credit cards and banking accounts, peruse them carefully every month, and clarify charges you don’t identify as soon as you review your statement.

3. Change passwords every few months, at least make an effort to change them every six months or annually. Select easy to remember passwords for you, but that are complex and difficult to guess for everybody else; a longer than 7 characters combination of numbers, uppercase and lowercase letters is best. Dare I suggest you base them on your name, the institution, a date and even perhaps a sequential number in a way that only you know? For example, I would set something like this for Uberbanken Bank: user name “hector_curiel” password “HC1999UberBank01”.

4. The same way you shred confidential paper based documents and expired credit cards, make sure no personal information is being given away when you dispose of external Hard Drives, USB flash drives, and obviously computers. Make sure the contents of such devices are erased and if at all possible, destroy the Hard Drives.

5. When connecting wirelessly to the Internet, make sure the signal you are using is encrypted. If not possible, at least make an effort not to transmit any confidential information in the form of email –or similar- messages; also avoid on-line banking when this is the case.

As you can see, all it really requires is a little bit of common sense. If you start educating yourself on best practices at work, at home, and when using public facilities; the virtual world will become a safer place for us all.
A simple search on the internet for what you want to know, and depending on your Internet literacy and needs, will take you to places such as these:
http://corp.support.com/blogs/post/7-common-sense-ways-protect-your-online-bank-account
http://www.tdameritrade.com/security/onlineSafetyTips/onlineSafetyTips.html
http://www.commonsense.com/internet-safety-guide/
http://ask-leo.com/how_do_i_stay_safe_in_an_internet_cafe.html

Enjoy and use the Web appropriately and you’ll help us all, starting with yourself.
Nothing Personal.