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IN THIS ISSUE... eighteen
WHY “DISTANT JOB” IS DIFFERENT FROM OTHER COMPANIES twenty two
SUPER SMASH BROS: THE SMASH IS BACK! twenty five
ACCESS: DIVOOM VOOMBOX TRAVEL twenty six
ACCESS: MPOW HEADPHONES thirty
FORGET THE ‘LIKES’: HOW TO MARKET USING TODAY’S FACEBOOK
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TECH COMPANIES JOIN IN ON AN EFFORT TO PREVENT FUTURE HEARTBLEED BUGS Some of the biggest tech companies have joined together in an effort to prevent another bug such as Heartbleed from happening again. The companies have joined together to each pledge $100,000 a year for the next three years to the Core Infrastructure Initiative, a group formed by the Linux Foundation. The tech giants involved in the initiative include Amazon, Microsoft, Google, Facebook, NetApp, Rackspace, Qualcomm, VMWare, IBM, Intel, Dell, Cisco, and Fujitsu. According to a report from the New York Times, the money given by each company will be used to help developers work on open-source projects full time, pay for security audits, and computing and testing infrastructure.
“This is not just about the money, but the forum,” said executive director of the Linux Foundation, Jim Zemlin. “Instead of responding to a crisis retroactively, this is an opportunity to identify crucial opensource projects in advance. Right now, nobody is having that conversation, and it’s an important conversation to have.” The Core Infrastructure Initiative will start with OpenSSL, which was where researchers discovered the security flaw two weeks ago. More than two thirds of Internet servers use the free OpenSSL encryption tool, which is managed by only a small volunteer staff and one full-time developer.
DATA CENTER FIRE CAUSES GLOBAL OUTAGE FOR SAMSUNG DEVICES
MICROSOFT WILL BRING THE XBOX ONE TO CHINA THIS SEPTEMBER
GOVERNMENT REQUESTED TELCOM DATA EVERY 60 SECONDS IN 2013
Last April, many Samsung devices, including its smart TVs and smartphones, went offline for more than four hours due to a global outage.According to CBSNews, the company experienced a fire at its data center in Gwacheon, South Korea. The fire, which was extinguished after seven hours, started on the fourth floor of the data center, and then spread to the above floors. The cause of the fire has not yet been determined, but authorities are looking into the incident. “We will fully cooperate with the authorities to figure out the exact cause of the fire and the level of damage,” said Samsung SDS.
The Xbox One will be making its way to China soon, making this the first gaming system to move into the country in 14 years.“Launching Xbox One in China is a significant milestone for us and for the industry, and it’s a step forward in our vision to deliver the best games and entertainment experiences to more fans around the world,” says Microsoft’s corporate vice president of marketing and strategy, Yusuf Mehdi. China recently released its censorship rules for console games following the ban 14 year ban that was removed earlier this year. According to GameSpot, the Chinese government’s censorship rules will not allow games that promote gambling, drugs, violence, or obscenity, as well as “anything that harms the nation’s reputation, security, or interests.” Microsoft will release the Xbox One in China this September, making the console available in 42 countries worldwide.
AT&T and Verizon received more than one government request every 60 seconds in 2013. In comparison, the Canadian government requested information from telecom companies once every 27 seconds. “In its first-ever transparency report, AT&T reported receiving 301,816 requests for user data from state, local and federal authorities. Verizon’s inaugural transparency report, meanwhile, shows it got 321,545. That’s the equivalent of 1.2 requests every minute,” says the report. However, these stats exclude two major telecom companies, T-Mobile and Sprint, because the companies did not release data for 2013. If you were to look at 2012, AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon received around 2.2 requests every minute. This excludes Sprint due to the fact they declined to give a specific number. If smaller telecom companies such as CenturyLink and Frontier were to submit data requests, the number would likely be higher and more accurate
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GOOGLE STOPS AD SCANNING IN STUDENTS USING GMAIL THROUGH APPS FOR EDUCATION
AOL SECURITY BREACH RESULTS IN UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS TO CUSTOMERS PERSONAL DATA
HACKERS EXPLOIT SECURITY VULNERABILITY IN INTERNET EXPLORER
Google will no longer be scanning students and school staff’s Gmail accounts for ads, announced the tech giant recently via blog.Google has taken extra steps to ensure privacy to students, teachers, and administrators using Apps for Education by removing ad scanning and the enable/disable toggle for apps. “We’ve permanently removed all ads scanning in Gmail for Apps for Education, which means Google cannot collect or use student data in Apps for Education services for advertising purposes,” says Google. Google will be hosting Hangout on Air on May 1st at 9 am PT where the company will discuss the changes made and answer any questions. Currently over 30 million students, k-12 and college, and faculty members use Gmail through Apps for Education.
Following the warning last week of spoofing attacks, AOL recently issued a security update warning customers of a security breach in their network.According to the post on AOL’s blog, hackers gained unauthorized access to customers email and home addresses, address book, passwords, and answers to security questions. “We believe that spammers have used this contact information to send spoofed emails that appeared to come from roughly 2% of our email accounts,” says the post. Customers financial information such as debit and credit cards appear to not have been accessed in the attack, assures AOL.
Hackers recently exploited a security flaw that was discovered in Microsoft’s Internet Explorer. Cybersecurity firm, FireEye, discovered the vulnerability, where they said hackers had already exploited the flaw in a campaign called “Operation Clandestine Fox” that was designed to attack U.S. financial and defense companies. Versions 6 through 11 of Internet Explorer were affected by the flaw, with Microsoft noting that it was aware of “limited, targeted attacks” aimed at exploiting the vulnerability. According to NetMarketShare, the five versions of the web browser affected make up 55 percent of the PC browser market. “An attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could gain the same user rights as the current user. If the current user is logged on with administrative user rights, an attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could take complete control of an affected system. An attacker could then install programs; view, change, or delete data; or create new accounts with full user rights,” said Microsoft in a security post.
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SUCCESS TIPS FOR RUNNING A SERVER By Garen Arnold
Love it or hate it, technology is going to be your best and worst enemy when you’re running and maintaining a server. A lot of companies invest hundreds and even thousands of dollars when operating their own servers. But, at the top of the ladder sits web hosting companies that need to ensure that they are taking all the necessary precautions to maintain the stability of their servers. Nothing is worse than hoping for the best, but failing to plan for the worse case scenario. Failure to do this properly can cause loads of headaches, loss of clients, time, and most importantly heaps of money. In this article I am going to talk about planning for the worst case scenario and setting yourself up for success. >>>
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Budgeting Your budget is one fundamental thing you need to keep in mind when managing a server, or number of servers. Anyone that is successful in business knows their numbers like the back of their hand. It’s vital that you know your numbers and know them well. Hardware. Know the cost of the hardware you’re going to be purchasing. Remember that once you buy a piece of hardware it doesn’t mean it’s going to be around forever. Technology is moving at such a rapid rate, so what was once the industry standard could be out of date in 6 to 12 months. In fact, put a realistic timeline on how much use you expect to get out of it. Don’t purchase your hardware on a credit card in hopes of making a big return in order to pay for your hardware. I think it was Dave Rampsy that said never use a credit card to get to the next level with your business. In fact, don’t be afraid to shop around or purchase second-hand hardware to start your first server. Software. Keep in mind that some software is “open-source” and will not require a licensing fee. So it’s up to you on whether you want to use Windows or Linux. However, other software will require you to pay a monthly, or even yearly, fee. Keep in mind that in order to stay ahead of your competitors you’re going to have to keep upgrading your software on a yearly or bi-yearly basis. Bills. Keep an Excel spreadsheet that shows exactly how much money you will be budgeting for your electricity bill, Internet bills (gigabit ethernet connection), rent, parts and labor, marketing, and tech team to manage your servers. Keep in mind that these numbers should be tentative. Sure you can save money on expenses, but pay extra for awesome manpower, software, and hardware that is the backbone behind your business. Emergency fund. Obviously, it would be wise to have an “emergency fund”. This will cover any unexpected expenses that you need to spend. This could be anything from buying new hardware, hiring new techs, spending money on customer support, etc. To save money you should have a plan in place when you’re going to be purchasing new software and hardware. Take advantage of Christmas time and holidays when companies are running a 50% to 70% off sale.
Your budget is one fundamental thing you need to keep in mind when managing a server
Latest Technology
One thing that a lot of people don’t consider when developing or maintaining a server is having the latest hardware. Think of it this way, if you buy a motherboard that is going to be out of date in the next six months you’re going to be spending more money in the long run. For example, let’s take a real live scenario; lets say you buy a cheap motherboard that doesn’t allow you to upgrade the RAM, hard drive, and CPU. Chances are you’re going to have to buy a whole new motherboard when you want to upgrade different components on your server. This will be even more money in the long run. One trick a lot of server technicians use is to max out the RAM on their servers from the very beginning. RAM is relatively cheap compared to some of the components you will need to purchase. Remember that hard drives with a higher RPM will preform better than lower RPM hard drives. Any extra cache will insure that your server is running smoothly at times when the workload is being pushed to its limits. So, weigh the pros and cons to any kind of hardware you buy. Read the reviews and forums online to see what others are using. Don’t just make an impulse buy and certainly don’t be afraid to shop around for the best deals. Is it going to be flexible and allow you to expand your resources, or are you going to be stuck with an expensive chunk of metal in the near future? I tend to pay top dollar for hardware that supports much more resources than I currently need, but don’t go completely overboard with your first purchase.
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Running Maintenance Whenever you operate and maintain a server take a couple weeks to learn the ends and outs of all the configurations of the software and hardware. Don’t make the mistake of purchasing something and rushing to get it online as soon as you can. A lot of server technicians make the mistake of rushing into it, and think they can just learn it as they go. A good rule of thumb is test and monitor your software and hardware on a weekly basis. Your small updates can be done each week or so, but for bigger maintenance issues you want to wait until you see a low server load time. Make sure you monitor your usage statistics to give you a full scope of when high and low times are being used on your server. For many, they tend to run and update the validated database, rebuild fragment indexes, update SQL servers, and make sure everything is configured correctly in their system catalogs, and most importantly, free of corruption. You can do all the updates on a backup server and configure your server to “maintenance mode” while you do all the updates.
Communication
Communication is one component that can either make or break your business. If you don’t have good communication with your clients, you will ultimately fail. Think of it this way, if you’re paying a company to support your data on their server and complications occur (and they will) and the company doesn’t make any effort to let customers know what is going on; would you want to do business with them? Whenever someone has a problem or issue with their website the first thing they will do is jump on the phone and try to contact you to see what is going on. Every hour, minute, and second that you leave them in the dark puts a negative connotation on your business. Yes, this means you’re going to have to setup a toll free number, hire people to answer the phone, and even integrate “live chat”, maintenance emails and bulletins, and forums on your website.
Disaster Recovery
A lot of companies will have two nameservers, one as a primary server and the other as a secondary server. However, it might be worth your money to buy a third and fourth server just to play it safe. Hardware goes out from time to time and having the extra added resources at your hand can quickly resolve any problems or issues that may arise. On average, IT companies lose an average of 80k to 90k during disasters. It would be well worth your time to do your research on companies and software that will safeguard all of your data. Always plan for the absolute worst case scenario. Think of purchasing DR (disaster recovery) software as an insurance policy for your server. Don’t expect things to go as planned 100% of the time. It’s very important that you have a disaster recovery plan in place. You need to back up your servers every 12 to 24 hours. To play it safe, you can have your software create backups every 15 minutes for maximum security. A lot of companies use a remote server backup service that automatically backs up your files. This means that no matter what happens to your physical server, your files should be safe on a remote server. A lot of server technicians make the mistake of falling into the trap of not backing up their files remotely.
Conclusion
Clearly, you can see that running and maintaining your own server is a big responsibility. A lot of beginners and even intermediate server technicians make the mistake of setting up a server without clearly thinking of everything that needs to be carefully planned out. As you can see, your budget is the backbone behind running a data center that is going to be safe and reliable. It’s certainly important to have the latest software and hardware. When you experience problems you will need to be able to communicate with your clients. The easier you can make your tough times, the better it will be for you. Always have a disaster recovery plan in place and make sure you carefully plan out how you will handle different situations.
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REVIEW
SHARON KOIFMAN President, Distant Job
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HOW "DISTANT JOB" IS DIFFERENT THAN FREELANCING & IT OUTSOURCING COMPANIES By Garen Arnold
H
ave you ever found yourself trolling oDesk, eLance, or Freelancer.com in search of finding the best candidate for your technical jobs? All to commonly webmasters can spend weeks on end finding people that say they’re experienced in MySQL, ASP.net, PHP, etc. Once the contract is awarded to the other party, you will soon find that their technical know-how isn’t much higher than yours. It seems to be a common trend that can cost you lots of valuable time and money. In this article I am going to talk about Distant Job, an offshore provider that can aid in completing your technical task. What A Common Outsourcing Company Does? Traditionally, outsourcing companies are there to take on projects that a company might have not had the expertise to handle in house, but with globalization and exposure to emerging markets, outsourcing has become mostly about saving cost. The process usually involves taking on a specific project description where they provide cost and time estimation. Once it’s been approved the client could only wait and pray that everything will come out right.
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Here Are The Problems With That Methodology: • You have to work with an unfocused manager. In most outsourcing companies a manager works on multiple projects at the same time which can lead to major confusion. • They do not understand your working culture and process. It’s very hard to work with a company that does things differently than your own. Even if they are capable of providing quality work, it might be very different from your standards. • You have no real control over the quality of work. Without continuous communication, it’s very hard to understand what is done on your project. • Deadlines are cumbersome when working with outsourcing companies. 9 times out of 10 tasks don’t get completed in the allotted time. Thus, your deadlines are essentially pointless and no one really abides by them. Deadlines are there for one simple reason, to set a date and complete it, period. Who Needs These Services? • Companies that are looking to improve their talent pool. • Companies who cannot find amazing people locally. • Companies that are looking to lower their labor cost. • Companies who are looking to expand on different departments in their business. Why Should You Use a Remote Placement Agency A remote placement agency is a company that focuses on finding the best talent in emerging markets such as Romania, Ukraine, India and Brazil. The obvious benefit in those countries is finding educated people that have a lower cost of living which directly affects their cost, but there is also the benefit of not limiting yourself to one location which permits anyone to find better people faster. Unlike outsourcing companies that take on projects with precise descriptions and not so clear timelines, a remote placement agency like Distant Job puts all their efforts on finding and filtering the best talent in that market so they can work directly for the client. It is based on the philosophy that the best managers for any project are located internally within a company. It is shown that if a remote staff works under the same conditions as any local employee he will do as well, if not surpass them. Why surpass? Based on Cornell research, it is shown that the virtual worker works without interruption and has “Higher satisfaction, lower absenteeism and higher retention.” Working under an unfocused manager that does not understand the culture of the company and does not interview, motivate and train the employees cannot bring the same results. When it comes to bidding freelance sites, websites such as Elance and Freelancer.com are built in a way that forces candidates to outbid each other. Chances are that if you have candidates with strong qualifications that have high standards and know their value, they will already have a job. Even if they don’t, they will give up very quickly on the bidding sites because they will continue to loose projects due to under bidders and people that know how to market themselves better. . To find a great candidate
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in the sea of talent, you will need a company that will head hunt and filter for those unique talents that are still within offshore salaries but can provide huge results for the company. Distant Job specifically hires IT specialists and teaches them how to become better recruiters. They speak the same lingo as the candidates which gives them the edge in finding those unique talents. The Process With Distant Job The process at Distant Job is very simple. They require that you fill out a form with the required details of the job. They have all these categories; administration, database, mechanical, multimedia, programming, technical, and web design. It makes no difference if you’re using the Windows, Linux, or Mac operating system because all their IT techs are trained on each one. There is also no need to train them on applications because each tech is fluent on whatever application you specify. Once they have received your request they then begin searching for suitable candidates. They go through strict procedures of interviewing and evaluating potential employees. Typically, it takes anywhere from 3-4 days for an easy mandate. For a hard mandate, the process can take 7-14 days to complete. As a client of Distant Job they will send out CVs and evaluations in your inbox. With this email you will get a detailed description of the candidate. They also like to multiply the hourly rate by 172 to show you what you can expect to pay for the employee per month. Once you have reviewed their evaluations of each potential employee they can then start the interview process. After the interview you can make the decision on whether or not you think they will be a suitable fit to your business. Rather than conducting dozens of interviews, you can easily find the right candidate for the job. Distant Job will not stop searching for the right candidate until you are 100% satisfied. Join the revolution of remote staffing Just because you want to cut cost and work with offshore countries no longer means that you do not have to compromise on your processes and core values just because you want to cut costs and work with offshore companies. As a manager, you should be able to talk to your staff at a time that makes sense to you so you can train and motivate them. If you have a certain way of communicating or certain management methods like agile, you cannot compromise on them. CEOs, presidents and managers have their own unique way of running their company and those methods are what truly defines the business itself. Yet for some strange reason when it comes to offshore work, that entire culture is forgotten because the talent is cheap, remote or unknown. The evolution of Outsourcing is not outsourcing at all. No longer are you expected to offload projects to another company just because you want to work with lower cost. You can simply work directly with those people and can even get them to work during your office hours. With an IT specialized remote placement agency like Distant Job you might never need to compromise on your most important asset, your employees.
GAMER
THE SMASH IS BACK!
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intendo’s wildly popular fighting game series, Super Smash Bros., will be receiving its fourth title later this year, in which many of the characters from previous Nintendo franchises will be fighting against each other.
Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U was first announced in 2012, but was not fully revealed until June 2013 where Nintendo showed the first trailer for the game in its online presentation, Nintendo Direct. Since the first reveal, producer Masahiro Sakurai has promoted the game by posting daily screenshots of various characters, stages, and moves on Nintendo’s Miiverse. During the latest Nintendo Direct, Sakurai revealed new details about the game such as new game modes and the character roster.
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Super Smash Bros. will feature two different modes of online play, “For Fun” and “For Glory.” “In “For Glory,” only Final Destination stage variations are available. There are no platforms, elevated areas or items in this mode. It is a nice, clean battle between characters. In “For Fun,” all stages are picked randomly and all items and power-ups are available,” says Sakurai in a press release from the company. So far there are 29 confirmed characters that will be featured, they are as follows: Mario, Donkey Kong, Link, Samus, Kirby, Fox, Pikachu, Bowser, Pit, Villager, Mega Man, Wii Fit Trainer, Pikmin & Olimar, Luigi, Peach, Toon Link, Sonic the Hedgehog, Marth, Rosalina & Luma, Zelda, Kind Dedede, Lucario, Little Mac, Diddy Kong, Zero Suit Samus, Sheik, Yoshi, Charizard, and Geninja.
Additionally, Nintendo’s hit game will have “silky-smooth” 3D graphics with 60 frames per second with a new mode, Smash Run. In Smash Run, up to four players will have five minutes to explore a dungeon where they will fight enemies and collect enemy powers. Once the five minutes is up, the players will enter an arena where they will battle each other with their newly acquired power ups. Assist trophies and Poke Balls will be featured in both versions of the game, with the addition of a special Poke Ball, Master Balls, which contain legendary Pokémon such as Arceus and Xerneas. Both versions will be identical with the exception of two differences, aesthetic and stages. According to IGN, the 3DS version will have a black outlines around everything to
help players see better on the small screen, while the Wii U is more vivid and colorful in its HD format. Also, each version will have exclusive stages that fit their platforms. Currently there have only been 12 confirmed stages for the Wii U and 16 for the 3DS, but more stages and details are expected to emerge at the E3 conference in June. Nintendo’s upcoming title is sure to be another big hit for the company. In 2008, the company announced that Super Smash Bros. Brawl, the third game in the series, had become the fastest selling game in the American market with more than 1.4 million copies sold in just one week. Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS will be released in summer 2014, with the Wii U version releasing in winter.
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Branded iPad & iPhone apps for your brochures, magazines, catalogs & more Reach millions worldwide via the App Store Create a new marketing & distribution channel
ACCESS
DIVOOM VOOMBOX TRAVEL THE GOOD The small size of the Voombox makes it perfect for traveling. This device is lightweight, durable, water/ dust resistant, and comes with a clip so you can carry it around where ever you go. THE BAD Although the Voombox does get quite loud, it tends to sound distorted at high volume levels. There is not a auto-shut off feature on the device, so if you forget to turn it off it will be dead by the next use. THE VERDICT Good choice if you are looking for a low-priced travel speaker. It is small enough to fit anywhere and delivers impressive volume. Divoom’s Voombox is built to be long lasting, so you should get your money’s worth. SPECS Price: $49.95 Colors: red, blue, green, and black Battery Capacity: 500 mAh Battery Charge Time: 2 hours Wireless Range: 10 meters Talk Time: up to 6 hours Weight: 9.6 ounces Dimensions: 45r x 45H mm
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ACCESS
MPOW HEADPHONES THE GOOD MPOW’s Bluetooth 4.0 Stereo Foldable Headphones are great for on the go. They fold up to fit almost anywhere. This headset is lightweight and easy to use. The buttons are user friendly, making Bluetooth pairing effortless. THE BAD The actual earpiece is made out of a spongey material that is not as high quality as the rest of the headphone. Also, the headset is bulkier compared to other over the ear headphones on the market. THE VERDICT For being as budget friendly as this wireless headphone is, they are very durable and most importantly, comfortable. The battery life is great and the sound quality is excellent for what you are paying. Highly recommend trying these out if you don’t want to spend hundreds of dollars on wireless headphones. SPECS Operation Range: 30 feet Talk/ Playing Time: up to 15 hours Battery: 300 mAh Li-on battery Weight: 0.25 pounds Bluetooth Mode: Headset/ Handfree/ A2DP/ AVRCP Bluetooth Standard: Bluetooth V4.0
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BRAND
Forget the ‘Likes’
How to Market Effectively Using Today’s Facebook By Jonathan Sellers
It seems nothing changes faster than the big social media platforms -- Facebook, Twitter, Google+. No sooner do marketers figure out how to best promote a product or business than they change the rules! That has been especially true for Facebook, which had to find new ways to make money after going public two years ago. Twitter has also been making changes since its IPO in November, but most of them – including a visual redesign, tagging people and uploading multiple photos – are geared toward user friendliness. Even Google+, owned by Google, which went public way back in 2004, is constantly tweaking. But the tweaks bringing the most squeals of protest are those being made by Facebook. Basically, it has taken away users’ ability to reach – for free – all or even most of the people they’ve worked so hard to attract to their pages. So, do brands and businesses just abandon the platform and the audience there? 0
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“No – they just have to change how you use Facebook,” says Jonathan Sellers, a social media strategist at EMSI Public Relations, (www.emsincorporated.com). “In the past, the goal was to get as many people to ‘like’ your page – or to ‘friend’ you if you were using a personal page for marketing purposes,” he says. “Forget likes. Now, Facebook makes you pay to get people to like your page by charging you to promote your posts, and then it makes you pay again to get your posts in front of them. That seriously devalues the like!” Only 5 to 10 percent of people following your business or brand pages – sometimes even less! – will see what you have to share if you don’t pay for extra visibility via a “boosted post,” he says. “So the focus should shift from working to get people following your page to getting your content to your market.”
Facebook’s inexpensive ads and “boosted posts” actually offer some great benefits, he notes. Here are three he says we should be taking advantage of: • Flexibility. Facebook allows you to create ads and boost posts for any number of reasons. For example, you can create content designed to drive people to your website; get them to engage with you; to sign up for an event; or even track visitors. • Targeting. Did you know that when you create an ad on Facebook, you can choose the specific types of people you want to see the ad? Targeting on Facebook goes far beyond the traditional demographics of age, sex and location. You can target people based on their interests. Are you a sports bar owner in Miami who wants to attract Chicago Bears fans to watch the games at your place every week? Facebook makes it super easy for you to reach people who live in your ZIP code, who are over 21 and who love the Bears. • Reporting. Facebook offers very detailed reporting so you can rest assured that you will see exactly where your ad dollars are going. There is a slight learning curve to figure out the best ways to utilize the data, but it’s there for you. “This experience should be a lesson to all of us that we cannot become too dependent on any single platform,” Sellers says. “They’re all going to continuously evolve to find the best mix of optimal user experience and profit.” Writer’s Bio: Jonathan Sellers is a social media strategist at EMSI Public Relations, a social media marketing and national pay-for-performance PR firm. A graduate of the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga, Sellers specializes in online content marketing strategies, driving engagement through blogging best practices and use of multiple media formats including video, photos and graphics. He has managed online marketing initiatives for companies in a variety of industries, including health care and advertising.
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TEMPTED TO BUY SOCIAL MEDIA FOLLOWERS? By Marsha Friedman
WHY LESS IS MORE If you get spam emails, you’ve probably seen subject lines like this: “Buy followers for cheap!” “Look more legit – Twitter followers $2.99 per 1,000” Boosting your following on social media for just a few bucks can be tempting. Popularity increases perceived value, so a large audience conveys clout and credibility. It’s also an endorsement of you and your message by other individuals, businesses and entities using platforms such as Facebook and Twitter. But paying for those followers can have the opposite effect. Cheap “followers” are often dummy accounts, overseas users (many businesses pay low-wage workers overseas to create fake accounts), and inactive accounts. And there are plenty of free online tools that can quickly tell you how much of an account’s following is fake. >>>
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If you’re a celebrity or politician, that can make for embarrassing headlines. If you’re a business or individual trying to market yourself or build a brand, it can make you look downright untrustworthy. On the biggest platforms, the money spent on followers will ultimately be wasted. Twitter and Facebook now routinely delete fake and inactive accounts. Those 40,000 Facebook “likes” you bought can disappear in a matter of days. And the sudden drop in numbers will alert any real followers you have that you’ve been artificially bulking up. Fake followers also defeat the purpose of social media marketing: They’re not real people who are going to spread your message and who might eventually do business with you. Their only value is in making it appear that you’re popular. Until you’re not. Don’t succumb to the come-ons for cheap followers. Even if it’s just a dollar, it’s a dollar wasted – or worse. If you’ve never bought followers, it’s likely you have a few fakes and inactive accounts following you anyway. That’s not your fault; they’re out there and most people have some! It’s a good idea to periodically do some housecleaning and get rid of the accounts that aren’t doing anything for you. Our in-house team of social media strategists at EMSI Public Relations shared their thoughts on how to do this for the largest platforms – Twitter and Facebook: For Twitter, use free online tools to see what percentage of your followers are good accounts. We use fakers.statuspeople.com to see what percentage of followers on an account is genuine, inactive or fake. If 80 percent or more of your following is good, you don’t have to worry about appearing disreputable. And keep in mind, the tools that tell you how many fakes you have are neither foolproof nor entirely accurate. That said, fake and inactive followers don’t do you any good. Engaging users – having them
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respond to, retweet, favorite and “like” your content – is what helps create future customers. Clean house by running your account through ManageFlitter.com. This app identifies which of your followers are fake, among other details, and allows you to easily remove them. Review those who have liked your Facebook page. Businesses, brands, artists and others using Facebook to interact for promotional purposes use pages specifically designated by Facebook for that purpose. People simply “like” your business page rather than submit a friend request as they do with personal pages. The number of likes you have indicates the number of followers you have. Again, since the value of the platform is getting people to engage by sharing and “liking” your content, it’s better to have 500 engaged potential customers than 10,000 followers in India. Review who’s following you by going to the Admin Panel in the upper left-hand corner of your community page and clicking “see all likes.” Go through the list – you may recognize names of regular customers or people who often “like” or comment on your content. Check the user profiles of the ones you don’t know, or who look less than genuine, to decide if they’re real people. The list gives you the option to remove anyone with the click of a button. If you haven’t purchased followers, cleaning house once in a while shouldn’t be much of a chore. Your reward will be having a higher percentage of engaged users who will actually help spread your message to other potential customers or clients. About Marsha Friedman Marsha Friedman is a 24-year veteran of the public relations industry. She is the CEO of EMSI Public Relations, a top public relations firm that provides PR and social media services to businesses, professional firms, entertainers and authors. Marsha is the author of Celebritize Yourself: The Three Step Method to Increase Your Visibility and Explode Your Business.” Tune into her weekly Blog Talk Radio Show, EMSI’s PR Insider every Thursday at 3 p.m. EST. Follow her on Twitter: @marshafriedman.
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3 MAJOR SINS OF SALES MANAGEMENT By Ginny Grimsley
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t’s a simple fact of business: Without sales, no one else downstream can do their jobs, says veteran sales manager and business speaker Jack Daly. Because of how vital sales are to a company, CEOs frequently tend to misuse their best people, he says.
“There are three sins that minimize the sales management role, which ultimately holds the company back from achieving its growth,” says Daly, author of “Hyper Sales Growth,” (www. jackdaly.net). “When they misallocate key players, small to medium-sized businesses tend to go into one of two directions. They either stay small to medium, or they go out of business. When you ask why, it most often comes down to a violation of one or more of these three sins of sales management. Having the right people in important spots is absolutely the secret to success.” To ensure continued growth, Daly says the people at the top must avoid the following: Sin No. 1 … is committed when the CEO or owner wears the hat of the sales manager. If you are doing that, you’re essentially relegating both the CEO job and the sales manager job to part-time status. In effect, you’re saying, “I’m going to grow my business part time.” If you want your business to grow, you must grow your sales force, and you need someone doing that full time. Sin No. 2 … is to make the best salesperson the sales manager. It can work, but seldom does. The usual scenario, however, is you lose your best salesperson and get a mediocre sales manager. The role and the responsibilities are entirely different. A salesperson’s role is to win new customers and nurture the ones you have, thereby differentiating you from your competitors. The sales manager’s job involves recruiting, training, coaching, building and developing. Being effective at one of those jobs is not an indicator that a person will be equally effective in the other. Salespeople are used to immediate gratification, involving a dealto-deal routine. Sales managers, by contrast, must take their time to recruit, train and coach. A salesperson might easily become disenchanted with the pace of the new role and look for another sales job, perhaps with your competitor. Sin No. 3 … is probably the most grievous of all. The best salesperson is made a sales manager, but he or she is also required to continue booking business. It’s absolutely ruinous. The person’s focus will remain fixed on the customer, as that is how their compensation is driven. Accordingly, the sales team will be underserved, missing the opportunity for leveraged growth. The key to growth is to put the right people in the right places, Daly says. “Since sales drive business, it’s essential to match skills and personality types to the jobs, and to ensure the people can focus on their roles,” Daly says.
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