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Social Networking and SEO for Improving PR Today

Any business needs good PR in order to keep growing. Of course, PR today doesn’t look a whole lot like it did a decade or two ago thanks to the growing importance of new media. Whether you are relying entirely on new media for your PR or taking a mostly traditional approach to public relations, there are a couple of key things that you need to be doing to improve the PR for your business. The first is to engage in social networking and the second is to utilize the power of SEO.

Social Networking for PR

Social networking can be used for a variety of different purposes. A good business today is on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter at the very least and uses these different sites in different ways in order to grow business. Even if you are using these sites in a detailed manner, yet, you do need to be on them to enhance your PR.

One of the best things about these sites is that they offer an easy platform for promoting good news about your business. They do what they traditional press release used to do but in a much more frequent and simple manner. If your blog gets linked to or a product gets a good review or even if you just have a productive day, you can share that information on these sites. It’s a great way to toot your own horn so others want to support you.

And, of course, these site naturally lend themselves to having others promote what you’re doing as well. The joining, friending and sharing features on these sites all give people a chance to tell others that they like what you’re all about. That’s better press in many ways than any form of traditional PR can offer. What PR is all about is maintaining your public image and these sites are a great way to do that.

SEO for PR

In today’s world, you also have to concern yourself with the use of SEO in your PR efforts. How does SEO for your site influence your public image? Well, at a basic level, the more positive attention that you get from search engines, the stronger your public image will be. However, it’s more than that. It’s the fact that good SEO gets you noticed for certain keywords which means that your image will be associated with those things. Plus, good SEO today incorporates things like images and videos, which give you an opportunity to connect with the people who are checking out your site.

New media is crucial to PR today even if you aren’t entirely focused on the online component of your PR strategy. By properly using social networking sites as well as modern SEO techniques, you can enhance the image that others have of your business.

New Next Gen Firewall Technology Provides Full App Control and Malware Protection

SonicWALL - a 19 year-old organization that has become a leader in network security - debuted its new firewall technology product at Interop Las Vegas 2010.

The new product, Project SuperMassive, becomes the industry’s first next-generation security platform and technology capable of detecting and controlling applications, preventing intrusions, and blocking malware at up to 40 Gbps without introducing latency to the network.

What makes this so special is that it promises to operate at more than 10 times the speed of today’s fastest technologies.  Project SuperMassive is, therefore, capable of protecting the world’s highest performance networks from malware of all kinds. As many companies are being forced to choose between performance and security, Project SuperMassive promises to make that frustrating choice a thing of the past.

SonicWALL’s Project SuperMassive is designed for enterprise organizations with high performance networks that are currently struggling to deploy the latest technologies.  Examples of these technologies are Web 2.0, data center consolidation, and converged communications.  However, Project SuperMassive is designed to allow organizations to embrace these technologies in order to enhance workforce productivity, business collaboration and effectiveness without compromising security or performance.

In the past, security has often been viewed as a barrier to business innovation with available security technologies.  Now with Project SuperMassive’s 40 Gbps technology, that concern is a thing of the past.

Cloud Computing Lessons Learned from the Executives

While attending Interop 2010 in Las Vegas, I had the opportunity to sit in on a session about Lessons Learned in implementing cloud computing.  The moderator over this discussion was Killian Murphy, who had just started as the Director of Product Management at VMware two days prior to the session.

The executives sitting on the discussion panel were:

Colin Hosert, CIO and CISO, Escape Media Group

Donald Army, Sr Director Network Services PRN

Jim Vitek, eCommerce Director, Dominos Pizza

Jeremy Edberg, Operations Manager, reddit.com

Kowsik Guruswamy, Co-founder and CTO, Mu Dynamics Inc

One take away for me is that we’re really still a long way from standardizing what cloud computing means to every organization, how it is best implemented and utilized, and how we ensure that data is secure in the cloud.

Some interesting factoids from the discussion:

• Small company pluses: low cost, high scalability

• Big company pluses: allows an end around through the red-tape purchase process of servers

• Escape Media Group findings: migration was a big plus using the cloud, extraction was a big plus for the initial migration and for the ongoing ability to move data/files around.  However, they ran into testing issues.  They should have run heavier test traffic throughout because bigger loads once they went live brought the cloud service down.

• Reddit.com findings: had a physical data center through May 2009. Actual migration ended up just being some down time on a Friday night with some tweaks following.  Overall the migration wasn’t too difficult - can depend on your expectation and preparedness going in.  The less you’re expecting things to be just like your data center the easier the migration will be.

• Domino’s Pizza findings: Superbowl Sunday is always difficult - they try to ensure that they have a little more server power than their normal peak.  On Superbowl Sunday the stores are just about as busy as a typical Friday night, but the one central web ordering point is were the stress happened.  They’re working toward attaining a provisional infrastructure to be able to handle the largest loads, but they’re not quite there yet.

• Reddit.com findings:  29% reduction in monthly costs immediately following the move to the cloud.  This has continued for the past year even though traffic has quadrupled.  Agility is much better, they’re ordering fewer machines, and flexibility is huge.

• Problem diagnosis issues:  reddit.com found problem diagnosis to be a big pain.  They have to determine if it’s the cloud’s fault or their own fault.  It’s always been reddit’s fault every time so far even though they assumed it was Amazon’s fault (their cloud provider).  Escape Media Group stated the same problem resolution issues.

SEO Tips for Local Optimization

If you have a website then you most certainly implement some type of SEO to get your website noticed. The problem is that everyone else on the web is doing the same thing. That’s why it is important to get focused on who you want coming to your website and then optimize the site with that in mind. Local SEO is a top way to achieve this because it allows you to target the customers who are located near you.

Why Local SEO?

Even if you ultimately want to reach a global customer base, it helps to have a strong base of local customers. Local customers are increasingly interested in supporting local businesses. This is especially trendy today in the era of Groupon-style websites that specifically attract attention for local businesses. Getting a loyal local customer base will help you grow your business to whatever size you desire

So How Should I Do Local SEO?

Some of the most important tips for you to follow when doing SEO for local optimization include:

• Start with your keywords. You probably already have your site optimized for the keywords specific to your industry; now you need to re-optimize with the local level in mind. For example, if you’re a Houston luggage company then you want to change keywords like “luggage” to “Houston luggage” and “Texas luggage”. Remember to include your new local keywords on title pages and in your blog.
• Make sure to spend time on local links. Keywords matter but SEO is more about making the right online connections these days. You want to link to other local businesses. You should network with the people who own these businesses so that they will want to then link back to you.
• Get yourself added to local lists and directories. Depending on the industry that you’re in, you may be able to market yourself to get added to local lists of services or even local directories. Your Houston luggage company may get added to an article of top stores in Houston or to the local government’s list of top travel resources depending on how good you are at marketing yourself. Make sure you are added to local directories including Google Maps and City Search.
• Engage in social media interaction at the local level. Social sites like Facebook and Twitter let you know where people are located. This allows you to befriend and follow people who are relevant to your local region.
• Provide information that is relevant to locals. If you provide high-quality information on your site that is relevant to the people who live in your area then you will attract their attention. This will attract more inbound links and social media promotion, increasing the value of your site at the local level. One great way to check out what people in your area want to know is to use Google Trends and Twitter Trends for your specific area.
• Add your address to your site. You want to list your address several times in your site and blog so that people know where you are. This helps with basic SEO as well. Also, make sure that your address is up to date with the site WhoIs.net.

Don’t Neglect the Bigger Picture

When doing local SEO, don’t do it at the expense of attracting a bigger market. You want to continue to do the general SEO that you’ve been doing all of this time. Simply add the local SEO to the work that you do to increase attention for the site.

As the Cloud View Matures, Reality Sets In

The latest and greatest thing is never as clean and clear cut as you’d like it to be.  There’s usually a catch, right?  Right.  In the case of cloud computing, it’s so far been big concerns over data security and the lack of any standardization.  News from a recent survey on cloud computing as reported by Art Wittman for Informationweek paints a new picture of concern as reality begins to set in for CIOs everywhere.

Now the realization among many CIOs is that what is an up front major savings realized when moving to the cloud can easily mean unwanted expenditures in the out years as it pertains to the applications being moved to the cloud.  Indeed, what looks like a good deal in years one of two of moving to the cloud won’t look good in years four and five.  Unless the application itself changes, the total cost of moving an application to a service provider will usually increase the overall cost of the application over the long run.

Another consideration for CIOs is that the cloud provider may have poorer security or reliability than your own organization thus turning a cost savings into a potential risk-taking nightmare.  After all, this is your critical apps and data we’re talking about.  Beyond all this, there are integration, configuration, and customization costs to consider.

CIOs have matured in their thinking toward cloud computing.  While cost savings was once sited as the top reason for considering moving to the cloud, that has been replaced at the top by the ability to roll out business technology quickly to the masses.  It is a new, mature and sobering view of cloud computing and it should be viewed as good news as CIOs everywhere are forgoing the pie-in-the-sky view of cloud computing and are thinking forward in reality mode.

Can Twitter Be Your Emergency Notification System?

In this age of instant notification, social networking, and rapid-fire technology, Disaster Recovery Journal brings up an interesting thought.  Can a social media outlet like Twitter serve an organization as their primary emergency notification system?

The answer may be … well, maybe.

Let’s look at the Pros:

• Social media sites are very popular - Twitter attracts up to 25 million unique visitors every day
• Social media expands information delivery
• It’s free
• Tweets are instantaneous and broadcast information in real time

And now the Cons:

• Social media sites are susceptible to attacks and security threats
• Despite the popularity and traffic on Twitter, more than 60% dump the service after the first month of use
• During the Haiti earthquake crisis, an overload of tweets took the site down for 90 minutes
• Posted information is not verified

Considering the possibility of security issues and downtime, the concept of using a popular social media site such as Twitter as your only notification track is likely not a wise move.  It’s true that it’s free, fast, and easy to use.  There is no doubt that Twitter supports an extremely high level of real-time information exchange.

However, relying entirely on social media for emergency notification is likely a dangerous proposition.  Twitter or a similar social media site may provide a nice supplementary notification system, but it would not be wise to utilize it as your only notification system.

In Times of Crisis Can You Retrieve Your Disaster Recovery Docs in a Flash?

Disasters don’t make appointments.  And most organizations fail to ensure that all key personnel have access to the most up-to-date versions of disaster recovery and business continuity documents.

“They’re on my desk at the office” is a common response when a key person is contacted at home during a crisis.  Or worse, no one is quite sure where the latest version of every key document is located.  Everyone has a copy, but few have the same version - or the right version.

A few additional common problems with disaster recovery/business continuity documentation:

• Contact lists contain people who are no longer employees
• Missing or out-of-date vendor lists are included in the documents
• Inaccurate or out-of-date equipment and network documentation is included
• If the system is down and the latest version is electronic and stored on the office system, it is inaccessible

The solution for all of this?  It’s as simple as utilizing a device that has plummeted in price over the past couple of years:  the USB flash drive.  The concept is simple - put the entire set of key documents on flash drives and distribute these to all responsible business continuity personnel so they are accessible when needed.

The benefits may be obvious, but lets review them here:

• Flash drives have become a very low-cost option for high capacity storage.  8Gb drives can be found for less than $20.
• The general population won’t have access to these proprietary documents
• Flash drives are a very stable and reliable storage media

Of course, you’ll have to run the use of a flash drive through your company’s business continuity or disaster recovery testing process.  And confirm that the use of such a device for storing these critical documents meets your company’s policies on disaster recovery.  But with the right processes and practices in place, the use of a USB flash drive might ensure that your business is up and running quickly rather than everyone running around looking for the right documents while thousands upon thousands of dollars and data are lost during critical delays.

Detailed Templates for Managing IT Projects

No one ever said the life of a project manager was glamorous or easy.  The spotlight - not the limelight - is on them 24/7 and at times it seems they have to answer to everyone …. including some very demanding customers.

Method123 seems to be bent on making the project manager’s job a little easier with their own product offering.  The Project Management Kit is Method123’s full-featured suite of project management templates that will help project teams produce the documents, forms and reports necessary to tie up many of the loose ends of projects.  Many of these templates help take care of project documentation that should be created for every project but is often skipped because there just isn’t enough time (or sometimes desire).

More than 50 templates, plans and forms are included, covering the entire Project Life Cycle.  CEO and company co-founder Jason Westland has more than 15 years in the industry and has put all of his - and his staff’s - expert experience into making these templates as useable as they are necessary.

Each template contains:

• Helpful hints and tips
• Detailed instructions
• Charts and tables
• Real-life examples for many template sections to make completion of the documents much easier for even inexperienced project managers

The kit is available for immediately download at www.method123.com/project-management-kit.php.  The regular price is $295, but special offers do come up from time to time which include special PM guide books, etc.  Purchasing the kit all at once gets you every template offered and saves you $136 over the cumulative individual purchase prices.

A sampling of the templates offered include:

• Business Case
• Feasibility Study
• Project Charter
• Project Office Checklist
• Phase Review Form
• Project Plan
• Resource Plan
• Quality Plan
• Risk Plan
• Acceptance Plan
• Communications Plan
• Statement of Work
• Request for Information
• Request for Proposal
• Project Closure Report
• Post Implementation Review
• Expense Form
• Quality Review Form
• Change Request Form
• Project Status Report

For more information visit Method123’s website at www.method123.com.

One Laptop Per Child Gave Us the Netbook - Now This

The 1/18/10 edition of Forbes magazine has a nice article on Nicholas Negroponte, the man and mind behind the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) non-profit organization.  You know the one …. they were going to create the $100 laptop for educational purposes in impoverished third-world countries.  The problem is, the laptop ended up costing $188 and with 1.4 million shipped so far it is only 20% of the way to its 7 million-unit projection and losing steam fast.

But Negroponte is a visionary and one has to look at this situation not as a failure but as a created opportunity for the world.  Mega-giant Intel was once a partner of OLPC, then became a competitor and created the Classmate - which is similar to the OLPC model called the XO.  Two million units of the Classmate have been shipped so far.  As Mary Lou Jepsen, one of the designers of the original XO states, “Go ahead.  Compete with us to save the world.”  I guess competition isn’t such a bad thing.

Let’s consider what else has happened as a result of the push for the small $100 laptop.  The XO didn’t hit it’s original price target of $100, but it did prompt a clump of good-things-in-small-packages PCs built by Intel, Asus, HP, Dell and just about everyone else.  All were trying to jump on the “netbook” wave and we’ve all been benefiting from this new niche laptop market ever since.

Negroponte’s next vision is for a $75 computer.  By 2012 he’s shooting for a touchscreen tablet PC for low-income school children that will use less power than a small light bulb and will be unbreakable, waterproof, and half as thick as an iPhone.  $75.  Says Negroponte, “Essentially, we want it to be a single sheet of plastic.  No holes, no moving parts.  We want it to be so simple that it hardly has a design.”  For skeptics, Negroponte argues that he doesn’t necessarily need to build it.  “We’re at a stage now where we just have to threaten to build it,” says Negroponte.

And the rest of the industry will create their own competition to make it happen….

Should You Go with a Managed Services Contract?

The millions of small businesses worldwide with 20 to 100 employees represent a huge need for providers who offer managed services, but small businesses generally have a low awareness and understanding of managed network services and their business benefits.

So the question begs to be asked…does your small business need managed IT services?  First, let’s define what Managed IT Services are or what a managed service provider does.

What are Managed Services?

A managed service provider (MSP) provides delivery and management of network-based services, applications, and equipment to enterprises, residences, or other service providers. Managed service providers can be hosting companies or access providers that offer services that can include fully outsourced network management arrangements, including advanced features like IP telephony, messaging and call center, virtual private network (VPNs), managed firewalls, and monitoring/reporting of network servers.

Contract or As Needed?

It’s common for small businesses to rely on third party providers for IT support, but often on an as-needed basis.  These economic times are very uncertain, so is it wise to enter into a long-term contract to handle these IT needs or to do so only on an as-needed basis?  It’s likely that you are carefully scrutinizing all strategic decisions right now and it may be hard to convince your board or yourself that taking on a managed services contract is the right thing to do.

The main questions to consider are:

• Can it help me cut costs?
• Will it make my company more competitive?
• Will I be able to utilize my employees more efficiently?
• Will it allow me to serve my customers better and more efficiently?
• Will my profits increase?
• What are the risks?

These are very important questions to consider and must be asked.  When reviewing your business and IT needs and definitely when discussing a managed service contract with a provider, these - at a minimum - should be the questions you present to them.

Educate Yourself First

Listen carefully and don’t let a smoke screen cause you to make a poor decision.  Go into any discussion or negotiation in an educated manner.  Be sure you understand the technology, what your options and needs are and whether the MSP can provide what you need.  Don’t go overboard if it’s not what you need - you’ll end up spending money for no benefit.