Privacy on the social media systems has become a large issue. This is because there have been many times in the last few weeks where people and businesses have overstepped their bounds as it relates to the platforms. This begs the questions of how private are the social networks and how private should they be?

Social networking is a relatively new phenomenon in the world. Although, the idea of social networking has existed for many years, it was not until recent when the technology became available as it is known right now. There were bulletin boards and even e-mail itself that handled some of the things that people can do with the social networking systems. However, social media platforms are the first technology to grab such a large market share. In fact, it is hard to find someone who does not at least have a profile on the major social networks. That is just how big they have become now in the world today.

The size of the social networks and the amount of people using the systems now warrants the bigger companies' attention. They are all focused on, "how do we use this medium to make more money or do things more efficiently." There is nothing wrong with this thought process, however, businesses have started to use the social media systems inappropriately.

There have been cases of people who have been asked to surrender their social media login information to companies so that they could keep their jobs. This is a gross overstepping of the boundaries between work and personal life. However, in the current climate of rules governing social media, this is legal. This is because no rules have been made about the separation between where a person works and how a person lives outside their work. Politicians are clamoring to make sure rules are in place, but the system is slow. Therefore, a person must be careful with what social media networks they enter and how they manage what they say on those networks.

The real question in all of these fights is how private should the social networks really be, and what is considered public and what is considered private on the social media systems. Technically, social media could be considered public domain because of the amount of users who use the system. The status updates are available for everyone to see on the social networks, therefore, an argument could be made that the social networks are intended to be public domain. However, the users of the systems know better, the social network updates they post to the system are intended to be private and only for those friends and family they select on the networks. However, this is a battle that must be settled in the court room.

In the future, it will become clearer about what is the acceptable use of information contained on a social network. Therefore, there will be a clear cut way of making sure that the courts know what was intended for privacy. This may be as simple as setting the profile to default to privacy on every post and keeping the profile hidden unless the user chooses someone to be in their network. Whatever the case may be, it is smart of the user to keep everything as hidden as possible on their social network because that privacy will keep them out of trouble in the future.

Scott Buendia consults for Bizbuilt.com. All the views and tactics in this article are tactics and ideas of the author; they do not necessarily represent the ideals, beliefs, or trademarks of Bizbuilt.com. Visit his card on Bizbuilt here.

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Social networking or social media is heading towards a more business friendly environment. The bigger social media sites were generated with the individual in mind. The features of the current social media networks may not only be ineffective for businesses but also detrimental to developing strong business contacts. These social networks may cause businesses to lose money because they may be too open for businesses to use for everyday business.

A business networking system must be close ended. For a business social network to be effective, it must be like a real Rolodex. When a business meets another business for the first time, they do not want to show off their whole Rolodex on the first meeting. Unfortunately, this is how most of the bigger social networks have built their platform.

Most of the users can see each other in their "friends" and "followers" areas. This can cause some businesses to lose their competitive advantage based on the relationship they have with another one of their business associates. For example, a business may have spent months searching for a wholesale distributor of a certain product. This distributor may be delivering that product at an unbelievable discount that the business can use to generate a great amount of revenue. It would not make sense for a business to reveal who that distributor is to everyone they meet. However, this is exactly what happens in most social networking sites. The full contact, "friends," and "followers" list is revealed to anyone who becomes a friend or follower of a business.

Generally, any update that any person makes on the regular social media networking systems will push down the updates from any other user (this includes other business entities and potential consumers). This fact alone can mean that a business may miss an important piece of information from a vendor or even a client who wants to make a buying decision. Any information by any person can and will be pushed down by any update in the major social media networks and this is a massive problem for businesses. A business needs a clean social network where contacts cannot see each other unless designated by the business and the stream of communication can be controlled to the point where only pertinent information is seen by the business and not mixed with personal information from personal contacts.

A business owner will likely own more than one business. This means that having one social media or social network profile is not an option for most businesses. Every business needs to be treated as a separate business and have its own profile. This allows a business to avoid a phenomenon called "piercing of the corporate veil" where a business is legally associated to each other by not properly maintaining the borders between two or more businesses. This means more assets can be at stake when a company has legal troubles. Having separate accounts for social media can be very useful for this boundary between businesses and avoids future problems that have to do with litigation.

In the future, social networks will be created with business use in mind and personal use as an afterthought. This change will allow businesses to make better use of the social media systems and allow them to have different profiles and keep contacts from seeing each other on the systems. These businesses will be better prepared for developing contacts through the internet and create a global marketplace that is better suited for the needs of business owners everywhere.

Scott Buendia consults for Bizbuilt.com. All the views and tactics in this article are tactics and ideas of the author; they do not necessarily represent the ideals, beliefs, or trademarks of Bizbuilt.com. Visit his card on Bizbuilt here.

View the original article here