Social Networks, Not Surprisingly, Deemed ‘Insecure’

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By: Doug Bedell

People may be using social media as a prime communication channel, but in doing so, they trust it least of all the communication modes available these days. This finding in a Pew Research Center report on privacy, amplified by a post on BetaBeat, should be prompting anyone sponsoring a social network to insure it’s as safe from intrusion as possible. Whatever users post is up to them, but they ought to feel they’re at a safe place to do so, not one subject to exploitation (once we fully understand what that may mean).

“Across all channels of communication — including texts, emails, cell phone calls, landlines and instant messaging clients —," BetaBeat notes, “social media came out as the leading champion of distrust, and the only method of communication that a majority of people gave the condemnation of ‘not at all secure.’”

If we’re going to rely on social media as the new media, we’ve got to understand and respond to privacy concerns as cogently as those green-eye-shaded city editors once did.

In other words, PR folks, don’t take launching, or using, a social network for outreach lightly.

(Photo via BetaBeat and Getty)

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About the Author

Doug Bedell has a background in journalism and PR and is the owner of Resource Relations LLC in Central PA, focusing on organizational and crisis communication. He’s the community manager of SimplyFair.net, a social network on fairness. On the Web, Doug’s at www.ResourceRelations.com. On Twitter, he’s @DougBeetle.

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