The Biggest Risk to Social Media Stocks Right Now

A successful hack of The Associated Press' Twitter feed led to an erroneous report that there had been an attack on The White House, resulting in injuries to President Obama. The market briefly plummeted on the fake report.

Like it or not, social media have become our default news gathering mechanism. Facebook , Twitter, and LinkedIn all have a responsibility to secure their networks more than they do now. Breaches move too fast not to, says Tim Beyers of Motley Fool Rule Breakers and Motley Fool Supernova in the following interview with The Motley Fool's Erin Miller.

In the interim, social media monitoring services are an interesting back-up. Like an early warning system, they alert us when unusual events are making their way across the networks so that we can act to counter false claims or actively combat hacks. Salesforce.com is a leader in this space via its Radian6 business, Tim says.

Are you investing in social media? Please watch this short video to get Tim's full take, and then leave a comment to let us know which social media stocks you're betting on (or against) now, and why.

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The article The Biggest Risk to Social Media Stocks Right Now originally appeared on Fool.com.

Fool contributor Tim Beyers is a member of the Motley Fool Rule Breakers stock-picking team and the Motley Fool Supernova Odyssey I mission. He owned shares of Salesforce.com at the time of publication. Erin Miller had no position in any stocks mentioned. Check out Tim's web home and portfolio holdings or connect with him on Google+, Tumblr, or Twitter, where he goes by @milehighfool. You can also get his insights delivered directly to your RSS reader.The Motley Fool recommends Facebook, LinkedIn, and Salesforce.com. The Motley Fool owns shares of Facebook and LinkedIn. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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