It was quite interesting that I got a message couple of days ago on Facebook, from a girl who is not on my friend list, about hiring me as a network marketer. I do not know who she really is and how she got all of my information on Facebook. I've never heard of or seen any recruitment on a social media platform like this before. So I thought it was funny because it's quite competitive and hard to find a job nowadays, and I even got a job offer on Facebook.
Social networking websites and social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin have been exponentially growing for the past decade. Social networking provides incredible opportunities for businesses to show the world their products and services. It also provides a great chance to interact with people at anywhere and at anytime. There are many benefits that businesses or companies can benefit from social media such as online customer services with quick responses and feedback, online conversations between clients and companies, and even online consulting. Moreover, many companies even use social media to build business relationships with customers, potential clients, employees, and investors.
However, it is quite important that companies should know how to protect their copyrights and trademarks when promoting their brands through social networking sites and social media platforms because a business brand is as valuable and important as its products and services. In my opinion, on top of those benefits, there are a lot of potential challenges coming along with social media, including
data security, privacy concerns, and personal information leaks. An example of data security and privacy concerns is on March 11, 2012, Chinese spies created a fake Facebook to friend NATO officials (Protalinski, 2012). Also, Facebook admitted that they have leaked 6 million users' information such as phone numbers and email addresses (Shih, 2013).
Therefore, I think it is significant that companies should be aware of these issues and take measures to minimize their personal data and use to be exposed to on social media. There are several ways, in my point of view, that are useful for privacy and data protection such as use strong passwords, review privacy settings frequently, provide little personal information and use browsers with security tools like AdBlock, and NoScript. Finally, always be careful with your information and data when you're online.
Work Cited
