LinkedIn and Branding : The Business-networking site

LinkedIn is a great platform where you can create your professional identity. When I say ‘professional’, I do not mean only software developers (or should I say ‘techies’?). LinkedIn is a great platform for students too. Students can connect with different Universities around the world through LinkedIn University pages, lay a path for their professional careers. By now you must have noticed that I use the word ‘professional’ over and over again. I do so because LinkedIn is not a social networking site, instead it is a business-networking site.

 

Unlike Facebook, Twitter and many other social networking sites, LinkedIn is not the place to share personal updates. LinkedIn is the place to build and develop professional relations/connections, showcase your achievements, success stories, areas of expertise. LinkedIn is basically presenting the ‘Professional YOU’ to the world. One important thing to do in LinkedIn is to keep your account active by regularly updating your profile/skill set. It is also important to maintain connection with active users. Here are some do's and don'ts when using LinkedIn.

Coming to security breaches in social media sites, LinkedIn is no exception. Do you know that a year ago more than 200,000 LinkedIn account passwords have been hacked? So, be smart when you set your LinkedIn password.

QR code - The next generation barcode

Have you ever wondered what a QR code is? I did when I first heard of it. So, what is a QR code? I would say it is next generation barcode (hmm, interesting! isn’t it?). There are many interesting things to know about QR codes. QR codes are first designed for automotive industry, but today they are everywhere, in magazines, on business cards, on buses, on billboards, on train tickets, on gravestones (Yes, you read it right. Can you believe it!!)

With MasterCard rolling out the first trial of its QR mobile application which allows people to interact and initiate payments via QR codes, Google testing its login authentication via QR codes, the future of QR codes seems quite promising.

But hold on, don’t just go around and scan every QR code you see. Some QR codes may contain malicious websites in a new avenue to steal identities and commit fraud. Unlike spam e-mails or malicious websites, we cannot judge whether a QR code can be trusted or not by just looking at it. So when you scan a QR code and the website asks you to enter your personal information/credit card information or notice something phishy, quit the code immediately. Here are some of the tips by AVG anti-virus cautioning us about malicious QR codes.  

QR codes give us a lot of information but only when used with caution.  

Social Networking and Security...or lack of when promoting your brand

 

When some one says social networking, I instantly think of Facebook. I have been using Facebook for quite some time now and I always had the question “How secure is my data on a social networking site?” Well, no one can assure data security on such big platforms. The best we can do on our end is to protect our data with some privacy settings and strong passwords.

 Talking of data security, I remember an incident where one of my friends lost her mobile phone. You might be wondering what it has to do with social media and data security. It does have relation because, she used to access her Facebook account from her mobile phone. So who ever has her phone has access to her Facebook account? Unfortunately, Yes! This is an eye opener for me and from then on I’m careful while accessing social networking sites form my phone/tablet or public computer systems.

Recently the Facebook account of a Syrian telecom company, Syriatel has been hacked. You can fine the full story here . We hear a lot of such stories every day. Especially like, a company’s sensitive information getting leaked, false information about a company or its products getting published on their social networking site and so on. Such incidents directly affect the brand reputation of the company.

So the question is ‘How to avoid cyber-attacks and keep our data secure? Here is an interesting blog which might give us some insight on networking security awareness .

Make sure to check privacy settings of your social networking account.

Be Aware, Be secure!

Usha