Author: William S. Dickinson

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Social Media Scams and Hoaxes

Social Media scams and hoaxes come around every year and unfortunately, unsuspecting Social Media users are perpetuating and helping spread these erroneous tales.

Social Media Scams And Hoaxes

Who Are Creating These Social Media Scams and Hoaxes?

Unfortunately, with tremendous popularity, also comes a dark side. Virus writers and other cybercriminals go where the numbers are and the most popular Social Media sites are Twitter, LinkedIn, and the biggest, Facebook.

Social Media Scams And HoaxesWhy Are Social Media Scams and Hoaxes Created?

By empowering users to share and connect, social media platforms open the door for a variety of different security and privacy concerns.

Make no mistakes about it, Social Media scams and hoaxes can do damage. If not direct damage to your pocketbook, it can do damage to your reputation — both personally or professionally. In fact, one of the fastest ways to get singled out by your employer is falling for these tricksters.

“As any security professional will tell you, allowing your employees to use social media sites on corporate networks could make your system increasingly vulnerable.” ~ SecurityIntelligence.com

Social Media Scams And HoaxesSo, How You Can Protect Yourself Against Social Media Scams and Hoaxes?

According to several consumer protection agencies, most scams start with an approach through contact you weren’t expecting. If someone contacts you out of the blue – whether over the phone, through the post, by email, on a website, in person or on social media – always consider the possibility that it may be a scam.

Beyond the basics above, I suggest keeping your personal information “locked-down” and not exposed to public view. In fact, because some sites, e.g. Facebook, like to prompt you to secure your account with your contact information (usually your cell phone), I would go one step further and make your settings so that only you (and not even your friends) can see your details. If your friends need to contact you, they will have all the info needed, and as such, there is no need to share it on Social Media.

What To Do If You Suspect Social Media Scams and Hoaxes?

The #1 thing to do if you suspect you are the target of Social Media cams and hoaxes is to change your password(s) and sign out of all devices!

Social Media Scams And Hoaxes
The Seven Biggest Social Media Scams And Hoaxes Of 2018!

According to SecurityIntelegence.com, the seven biggest hoaxes and scams of 2018 have been as follows:

1. Catfishing
Catfishing is an internet scam in which a cybercriminal creates a fake online profile to seduce a victim into a fictitious online relationship — usually to get money or other benefits from the victim.

2. Profile Hijacking
The Facebook profile hijack is another take on using a fake profile for nefarious means. In this case, cybercriminals often use the attributes and details of real people — like their photos, hometown and occupation — to set up profiles pretending to be that person. 

3. Lottery Schemes
A ruse emerged earlier this year involving fake profiles that appeared to belong to top Facebook executive Mark Zuckerberg. The cybercriminals sent messages to other users informing them that they’d just won lottery prize money.

4. Quizzes That Mine Your Information
Which “Stars Wars” character are you? What city were you meant to live in? Which celebrity is your soulmate? Sound familiar? These are all popular quizzes that have been widely shared on Facebook, imploring users to take a few minutes for what seems like harmless fun.

5. URL-Shortening Cons
While URL shorteners are very useful for sharing a website link within a tight character limit, such as Twitter, they can also be used to mask a malicious page

6. Chain Message Hoaxes
Social media app Snapchat has run into a problem with chain message hoaxes, according to Tech Advisor. The ruse here involves trying to alarm users about something terrible that is going to happen to their data within the app.

7. Money-Flipping
Money-flipping is a growing financial scam on Instagram and other social media channels. Criminals seek to extort money from users by convincing them to make a bum investment.

This is a summary; read the entire blog from SecurityIntelligence.com here

Lastly, on this subject, reach out to me directly. Nothing beats “peace of mind” like a good phone call. Go to my contact page and send an email or, if you are within North America, call me direct at 1-888-502-3523.

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You Never Get A Second Chance To Make A First Impression!

You know the saying: “You never get a second chance to make a first impression”; and equally, it is reasonable to say that, what your customers say about you (especially online) matters, right?

When consumers have something to say, everyone can hear it – everywhere. How good is your social media listening? Are you managing your online reviews? Why are your customers leaving? Can you discern what’s really important for your business?” ~ Cargo Digital

A First Impression Is All About ReputationFirst Impression

Your online reputation is essential and with today’s online review sites being so prevalent, the need for reputation management is crucial!

So, what is your reputation? What are people saying about you?

“It takes many good deeds to build a good reputation, and only one bad one to lose it.” ~ Benjamin Franklin

Often overlooked because of its non-tangible life within a business, the long-term reputation of perception is always at play; and perception is never a negotiation, it is always one direction in the marketplace. That direction is from the angle of the consumer.

A First Impression And Subsequent Reputation

First Impression factors are distinct and represent the actual character — or behaviour in many cases — of the company.  There have been many examples across the business landscape over the years, and there are some great lessons to learn from others’ mistakes.

“BP [learned] this the hard way. The energy giant [had] striven to portray itself as a responsible corporation that cares about the environment. Its efforts have included its extensive “Beyond Petroleum” advertising campaign and a multibillion-dollar initiative to expand its alternative-energy business. But several major events in the past [few] years are now causing the public to question whether BP is truly so exceptional.” ~ Harvard Business Review February 2007

Reputation And Brand Management

First Impression And The 4-Truths Of A World-Class Reputation

1. Business Rationale: Building and protecting corporate reputation has a direct business impact.

2. Strategy Informed by Intelligence: Most firms do not need more data; they need better intelligence from the data they get.

3. Management and Accountability: You can’t manage reputation from a corporate silo. Reputation and support are driven on a day-to-day basis by the actions and communications from people across the organization.

4 Activation: Building trust and support are done across three influencer channels: a) what people experience directly with your company, b) what you say through your marcoms, and c) what other people say about you.

Let’s talk about your reputation and how you are making a first impression. You can contact me directly here.

 

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Networking and Answering “So, what do you do?”

Networking. How do you do it effectively; and “what is the importance of being able to answer the question, “So, what do you do?” in a concise and interesting way?” queries and answers the team at Shepa Learning Company.

“Here’s an example: you are at a company reception with your significant other (who is off talking to someone else) and the person next to you asks what your partner does for a living. You should be prepared, rather than fumbling around for an answer.

“She works at an analytics/data company. I don’t really understand exactly what she does. It’s complex, algorithms and all that.” This is not a good answer.

“Stephanie is a data scientist with Meto Technologies. She designs machine learning models. Major brands use her models to accurately predict a customer’s next purchase. She’s a math wizard.”

The latter answer makes you look smart too. :)” ~ Shepa Learning Company

Networking To Sell

Further, being clear with your messaging makes it easier to sell. If you can connect with the emotional relevance, you will have a much higher close rate with your prospects.

“People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it.” ~ Simon Sinek

Networking with Cortex Marketing

Networking Is An Art

Networking is an art because it requires imagination. In-person interaction — not social networking, which is a chapter by itself and complementary to in-person networking — is an indisputably critical part in the hunt, and it’s easy to make mistakes.

“Building a network that works is both an art and a science. It is an art in that it requires basic human skills in communication, connection, authenticity and the ability to be ‘in the present’ and engaged with people and conversation. Building a network strategically requires an ongoing analysis and audit of the people within the network and a sustained curiosity around the levels of diversity and connectivity within the group. It’s about seeing the lines that connect people and ideas to create opportunity.” ~ Janine Garner, entrepreneur and Fortune 500 mentor and author

Networking With Me

I love making new connections. You can find me on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook… not to mention that I always ask people to connect with me outside social networks, or simply be bold and call me direct at 1-888-502-3523.

Cheers to your success!

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