Cyber Stalker!

There is so much advise out there about how to grow and maintain your network. What happens if you want to get rid of someone in your network? Unfortunately, not all connections are good ones. Just like in person networking and communication, there are those individuals who are not the best the be around.

The best thing about online social networking is how vast your reach can extend. This could also be the worst thing about it as well! Making yourself easy to find, connect with and putting yourself out there are key ingredients to a successful networking strategy. The sad thing is your reputation can be easily compromised if you have an individual who is not as conscientious as you are about what you post.

So what do you do when you have someone who doesn’t seem to go away? Speaking (or writing) from recent experience, I know what it is like to have that person who is determined to get to you. As many feel, my reputation is hugely important to me. Social networking has been a wonderful way to further solidify it. While one cannot control what others do, you have direct control over your actions.

Here are a few suggestions about what you can do to safeguard yourself and network:

• Try to reach out directly to the person in question. You’d be surprised at how just talking to the individual can make a big difference.
• Report any abuse to the social networking site’s customer service. Some of the larger online social networks have links that can easily mark a person’s activity as spam or abuse.
• Ignore the person’s communications. If the person sends you a message directly, simply ignore it. If a public message is posted about you, ignore it too. Sometimes the best reaction is no reaction at all.

Fortunately, my experience was a less severe one. My loved ones and I were not in any immediate danger. If you do feel that there is a danger, the tactics above may no longer be appropriate. Getting local authorities involved might not be a bad idea.

My online social networking experience has been a fantastic one. I’ve met such wonderful people and established relationships with people I would probably not have met otherwise. You’ve got to take the little bit of bad with the whole lot of good! I wouldn’t change anything about my online journey!