Ty's Tech Blog

For those of you involved in social media, you have probably seen the evidence of a social media scam. I admit, they can be pretty easy to fall for. However, knowing what to look for will help you avoid these traps. Here are some samples of what to look out for.

Back when Osama Bin Laden was captured, there was a video scam going around on FaceBook that when someone clicked on the video, the user’s account would be hacked and then the scammer would have access to all of their information. It would also post the video on the user’s “wall”, hoping some of that person’s friends would click on the link as well. The reason this particular scam worked so well was because it took advantage of our own inquisitive human nature. The video Supposedly showed the actual video of Osama being killed. So naturally, A LOT of people clicked on the link to the video and then BOOM, they lost control of their account.

One way to tell if a video or link is a scam is to see if a lot of other people have posted the same link. The more people who post it, the more likely it is a scam. Also, looking at the content of the message will help as well. If it looks fishy, it probably is. Some other links that get a lot of attention are borderline pornographic, so definitely beware of those. If you are really curious, search Google for the video or article and see what happens. If it is a scam, a blog post or article that provides details about the scam will be one of the top results. You can also contact the person who posted the information either via phone, e-mail or direct message. They will likely say either “I don’t know what you’re talking about” or “yeah, it’s a scam”.

I have seen some strange things on Twitter as well. Here’s a good one. You may receive a notification that you were mentioned in an article and there is a link to it. The alert you receive would look something like this.

“@YourTwitterHandle check out this article you were mentioned in! http://bit.ly/adi234″ (note: this is not a real link)

Beware. Because of URL shortening services like bit.ly and others, it is very hard to tell if the link is real or not because it doesn’t show you where you are being directed. A simple rule is, if the message is pretty vague or if you don’t know who the sender is, move on. The more generic the message, the more suspicious you should be.

Common sense should rule when engaging in your social media. Always think twice about clicking on a link, because you never know what dangers lurk behind that seemingly harmless URL. Hopefully these examples which I have provided will help keep you and your accounts safe.

For a while, I had a tough time getting my arms around the idea of telling people where you are via services like FourSquare, FaceBook Places, Glympse, etc.  But I think I am starting to see the benefit of these services on a couple different levels.

 All three of the aforementioned services are very similar.  They allow you to “check-in”, or in other words, show  your network (ie. followers, friends, etc) where you are.    Here is how these services can benefit you.  Say you are  looking for a good place to eat while you waiting for a show.  You can quickly pull up all of the restaurants that are  near you, and some of them might have special offers (which are clearly marked) if you “check-in” with them.  For  instance, I was at a deli the other day and was able to save $1 off my meal because I “checked-in” there.   Also, when  you check-in to a place and your network sees this, you may get a response from them about their experience at  that establishment.  You may even find out that a friend of yours is nearby and they may want to meet up with you.  That “friend” could also be a potential or current client.

Another benefit of using one of these services is that you are opening a bit of a window to who you are without saying it which is a big component of social media as a whole.  For instance, one can imply that by checking in at a baseball stadium that you might be a fan of baseball.  This is good to notice when you see other people checking in at a venue, particularly your clients, good friends or family.  When it comes time to get them a gift, you can purchase a gift card from one of their favorite businesses.

Glympse is a tad different from the FourSquare and FaceBook Places concept  in that it shows your followers a real-time map of where you are.  So if you’re driving to meet up with people, they can see where you are and estimate how long it will be before you arrive.  Now, this takes a bit of pre-planning on your part as you have to register where you are going before you start your journey.  This could be useful way to track your kids or other family members as well.

Please take note that it is important that you control where these things post and who has access to see them.  I personally keep it limited to FaceBook because there I know who is going to see the information whereas on Twitter and other social media platforms, I don’t always know who is watching me.  So I have to be careful.

I suggest that you try these services out and see what you think.  They are all free and you don’t HAVE to check-in anywhere.  You are in total control.