The first thing to do when the business is looking for social media privacy is to look at what the particular platform asks the user to provide before using the platform. The truth about social media platforms is that each one. Asks for you and different information. This difference in information is what makes a social network. Privacy friendly or privacy unfriendly. The truth about most major social networks is that they are made without the user's privacy in mind. This means that the social networks are not well made because they rely on advertising to make their money. Therefore, they cannot change the structure of their website because they have run too long with their current monetization model for them to change their website would effectively close of business. Therefore, a person should not expect a social media business to make the changes necessary to provide the privacy that the user may and should want.

Not only does the user have to worry about the social network revealing information about the user itself. These are also has to worry about who they trust with their information. There are many applications on the social networks that grab information from a user's profile. This information could be used in a variety of ways, including target marketing. This target marketing is based off the interests and information that the application pulls from the profile. This means that the advertisements that are shown to the user are highly targeted for that person which increases their likelihood of buying that product or service. This means that a user they spend more money on the social media system. Therefore, privacy can save a person a lot of money as they will not be tempted into buying something that they would normally be predisposed to buying.

Finally, the user themselves must decide what information to share and what information should never be shared on social networking profiles. A good rule of thumb is to assume that everything that is said on the social media profile is common knowledge and will be shared with everyone. The truth is that there is a lot of litigation that is happening right at this moment about the privacy of social networks. There are many businesses that want to use the information from the social networks to hire and fire employees based on what is inside their social profiles. Whether or not the user likes it or not, this is a morally gray area in the courts eyes at this moment. Therefore, it makes a lot of sense for a user to be very careful what they say on the social networks because every word that a person says, even in their own private messages, may be used against them in the future.

If a person is smart about the social networks they can effectively safeguard their privacy. This privacy is very important because of financial reasons. Not only can hackers get control of this information and possibly steal someone's identity, but regular marketers will use the information to craft highly effective offers and sales that will be hard for the user to resist. The only way around this is to be very careful what is shared on the social networks.

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, https://www.bizbuilt.com/socialmediaprivacy.

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Social networks are fond of telling you how many friends or contacts you have. That just appears to encourage "contact farming" where people try and get to the top of a list for the number of connections they have amassed. "I've got more friends than you," people appear keen to say. Some business people even promote the need for you to get as many contacts as possible, citing serendipitous examples of people who met online and discovered a joint interest which led to them becoming multimillionaires, or some such fantastical notion. Others, meanwhile, suggest that it isn't the quantity of contacts you have, but the quality of the people you are really connected with.

Chasing numbers is a fruitless task, really. You may become top of the charts for your town in terms of the numbers of friends you have, but do you actually, honestly, know all of them? For some people, yes, they know everyone in their contact list, but for others their list of followers or friends is so huge, they have no chance of knowing them all.

The Dunbar Number is the theoretical limit of the number of friends you can really connect with; it is 148. Essentially, if you have more than 148 followers on Twitter, or more than 148 Facebook friends, or more than 148 connections on LinkedIn, then you cannot possible know them all. That's the theory and there is some limited evidence which supports this notion in terms of online social networks.

New research, however, adds a twist to the "numbers game" on social networks. Researchers at Michigan State University looked at the notion of "social capital" and online social networking activity. Social capital is basically what we feel we get out of our social groups. Imagine you have a group of close friends, you meet regularly and you discuss how you can all improve your businesses and careers. You might feel you get a great deal out of that group. But you also have another group of people you meet regularly, perhaps parents at your child's local school. You meet them once a week, but you feel you get less out of them than your business friends. The parental group has less social capital than the business friends group.

So, the researchers at Michigan wanted to know was there any difference in the social capital depending on the strategies people followed on social networks. Some people connect with anyone, building up quantity rather than quality. Whereas others focus on sharing things with their contacts.

The study found that the greatest social capital was found amongst the sharers. In other words, you get the most out of people on social networks who share the most with you.

If you want an online strategy for your business this has a clear message - share stuff, share more stuff and share even more. The more you share, the more you will be valued.

Graham Jones is a psychologist who investigates the way people use the Internet and how people shop online. His research can help you make the most of the Internet, particularly if you are hoping to make money online.

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