The Pitfalls of Social Networking Sites

Our class has been wrapping up the semester by discussing various types of social networking sites and how they can be utilized for promotion.

I am a member of some of these social networks, and have certainly seen some companies do a very good job of reaching and engaging their audiences. During our discussion today, however, it became clear that there are many many misuses and even abuses of social networks by intrusive advertisers and scam artists can become all users remember.

This is easy to understand being that users expect to be "safe" in online communities where the believe they are among friends. An article in the Los Angeles Times today discussed this problem and reported that phishing scams of all sorts have been increasing across several popular networking sites.

Most of the scam artists try to learn a member's login name and password by setting up fake log-in pages, and then try those names and passwords on email and financial sites in the hopes that the passwords are re-used.

With this malicious activity on the rise, it seems users will be even more cautious about receiving unsolicited communications or being aggressively targeted for product advertising. If companies want to be successful on social networks it is essential for them to gain the trust of their audiences and stay away from anything that even remotely resembles these abuses.