Ah, the lovely world of social media! As websites including Facebook (News - Alert), Twitter, LinkedIn and many more continue to gain followers by the thousands; many people have some pretty strong opinions about the ways in which these sites should be utilized, as well as how much of a say employers should have in regards to what employees are posting on their individual pages.
I recently took to the streets to discuss some of the latest headlines within the industry that is hot like fire. As Facebook revealed plans to involve users in a new privacy policy vote that pertains to how the company will target outside ads to individuals based upon multiple characteristics including things they routinely post about, hobbies and interests, one social networking fanatic stated, “I don’t think that’s a problem. I think that is kind of good because it might give you an idea of something you didn’t know before or might be interested in doing.”
Additionally, a huge issue that deals with social media is the ways in which it used in the business environment. With major companies including GM, Target (News - Alert) and DISH Network openly voicing their opinion that employees shouldn’t be posting anything unfavorable about the company even on their own personal pages, a TMCnet viewer stated, “I personally would never talk about my work life on a social media network like Facebook. However, coming from a business perspective, I feel like you need to have some kind of control over what your employees are saying on such a public stage. At the same, you can’t really be ‘Big Brother’ and tell them exactly what to post.”
As cyber attacks are rampantly occurring, even social networking sites such as LinkedIn (News - Alert) are being hacked, as just this week the company was infiltrated by a Russian-based group who stole over six million passwords.
“This seems as some sort of point of concern. Whenever I am going to login, it definitely is going to raise some concern for me whether I want to use that website or not.”
Be sure to stayed tuned to TMCnet for next week’s edition of the Social Scene!