JetDesk: Let Go of Traditional IT With Cloud Based Support |  |
- JetDesk: Let Go of Traditional IT With Cloud Based Support
- What Can You Afford: Benefit Versus Cost
- Thomas Cohn: Legal Challenges For Online Affiliate Marketing #AMDays
- Are 87 Percent of Small Businesses Using Social Media Wrong?
- Twitter Move Impacts LinkedIn and Facebook
| JetDesk: Let Go of Traditional IT With Cloud Based Support Posted: 25 Sep 2012 01:00 PM PDT Many small businesses use the cloud for just about everything – storage, sharing, collaboration, and more. But many haven't considered actually using the cloud for IT and maintenance, even though that type of service might be helpful to plenty of small businesses. That's where IT support company JetDesk comes in.
Mike Jones, Co-founder of JetDesk:
Founded last year, JetDesk offers a variety of IT support options that could be especially useful for small businesses that don't have the resources to enact traditional IT or for those whose employees work remotely and thus require a different type of IT solution. Ryan Stevens, Co-founder of JetDesk:
JetDesk has partnerships with large companies like Dell and Microsoft, so that companies that use the service can continue working with their well-known programs while receiving IT support in the cloud. Says Stevens:
Other features include security and virus protection, file sharing, and more. Monthly prices vary based on amount of storage and software upgrades needed. The company also offers phone and online support, in an effort to make the whole IT experience as hassle-free as possible. Says Jones:
The post JetDesk: Let Go of Traditional IT With Cloud Based Support appeared first on Small Business Trends. |
| What Can You Afford: Benefit Versus Cost Posted: 25 Sep 2012 11:00 AM PDT Every camera is not equal. Neither is every computer, cell phone, printer, email marketing software or administrative assistant. And it would be easy to assume that a higher price tag means better quality (I had a sales person feed me that line recently). But experience teaches you to dig a little deeper.
It's not that you're trying to be cheap. It's just that the small business reality, especially in this economy, boils down to a few questions:
It's not about having the latest and coolest BlackBerry, Android or iPhone, it's about effectively and quickly communicating with your team in and out of the office. Bottom line behavior means labels come second to outcome. In the small business setting, there is no room for fluff. Every purchase must deliver on core needs or it's a waste and a shame. About That Price TagWhat if you decide to add video marketing to your communication strategy? As you prepare to launch or update your YouTube page, you may discover a need (or desire) for a better camera and sound equipment. Before the wallet hits the counter, you have to ask yourself, "What do we really need?" Is the bargain basement version of the product or service enough, or is it too simplistic? Is the high-end, high-dollar option too much or just right? Chances are:
Meaning you don't need a two thousand dollar camera and four digit sound equipment. You probably need a product somewhere in the middle. The same is true for most small business purchases. Do the research, because you can't afford to pay for features that you'll never use. Imagine The Shot Photo via Shutterstock The post What Can You Afford: Benefit Versus Cost appeared first on Small Business Trends. |
| Thomas Cohn: Legal Challenges For Online Affiliate Marketing #AMDays Posted: 25 Sep 2012 08:00 AM PDT Welcome to this interview of Thomas Cohn, a well-known consumer regulatory attorney, former Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Regional Director, and 17 year FTC veteran. At Affiliate Management Days East 2012 (on Oct 9-10, 2012), Thomas will be speaking on FTC and State actions versus affiliates and merchants and how to comply with consumer laws to avoid regulatory scrutiny. * * * * *
Thomas: There’s a big direct threat on the state level (sales tax legislation). On the federal level, there are only indirect threats such as the limited situations in the “Rockefeller Bill” that became ROSCA. Beyond legislation, there are new FTC regulations implementing legislation, like the MARS Rule (banning advance fees for mortgage assistance) and the Business Opportunity Rule (more stringent disclosure requirements, covering more types within definition). But the threat even bigger than legislation or regulation, is simply the continual increase in enforcement actions by state AGs and the FTC against deceptive online marketing, and against the roles played in it by not just merchants, but also affiliates, networks, and others who allegedly play a role in helping to apply the deceptive practices against consumers. Question: Can you give us an example of a case involving legal compliance? Thomas: The actions that FTC has brought in the last 12 months have highlighted the FTC’s awareness of deceptive tactics in affiliate marketing, and its increasingly aggressive stance in going after them. Whether they involve merchants, affiliates, networks, or other third parties whom the FTC believes are “assisting and facilitating” these tactics. This includes FTC cases against merchants like Central Coast Nutraceuticals, Jesse Willms and LeanSpa. The ten FTC cases brought against individual affiliate marketers, and the two FTC cases against affiliate networks. Other third parties may be vulnerable, too: lead generators, list brokers, payment processors and call centers have all been targeted by the FTC. There may be more investigations and/or actions against such third parties. Question: What can affiliate managers merchants do to ensure compliance with the laws and avoid regulatory scrutiny? Thomas: Take a look at the enforcement actions cited above that have final orders requiring monitoring, and see how onerous these are to actually implement! Then realize that while these don’t apply to everyone, just to the named defendants, you should still consider them in your risk calculus. Finally, come up with a robust monitoring program that you actually can and will follow, by checking out both merchants and their offers, and affiliates’ published content, before doing business with them. Then, after offers start running, periodically check up on at least those merchants and affiliates that are performing the best, to see just why they are the top performers. Are there any deceptive/false/unsubstantiated product claims, including testimonials/endorsements? Are there deceptive formats? Are there inadequate or missing negative option/free trial and/or continuity/rebill disclosures? If so, either enforce modifications or terminate the relationship. Question: What can the affiliate marketing industry do to ensure its growth, regardless of the emerging legislative challenges? Thomas: Same as above. Make sure both merchants and affiliates stay as compliant as possible, or stop doing business with those who don’t. The best way to ensure growth is to stay on top of the content being published by reasonably monitoring merchants’ and affiliates’ advertising. While online privacy is a perennial hot topic, affiliate marketers and affiliate networks may not be affected much by whatever behavioral targeting legislation is eventually passed. The more immediate privacy-related issue is data security. If you “say what you do” with your consumer data, then you better ensure that you “do what you say.” Any major hacking attack or other data breach could quickly bring an FTC investigation and/or enforcement action. Question: If you were to leave affiliate managers with just one piece of advice today, what would it be? Thomas: Compliance monitoring. It doesn’t have to be perfect, but has to be reasonable and consistently implemented. The FTC doesn’t care about cloaking/masking or other difficulties that affiliate networks/managers face in monitoring affiliates. The FTC’s view is that, if network profits are based on traffic that converts, then the network must do better to ensure compliant affiliate content. * * * * * Affiliate Management Days takes place October 9-10, 2012. More information about Affiliate Management Days being held in Ft Lauderdale, can be found here. Or follow the hashtag #AMDays on Twitter. There’s still time to register using code SBTAM150 to receive $150.00 off your pass. Be sure to check out the rest of the interview series from #AMDays. The post Thomas Cohn: Legal Challenges For Online Affiliate Marketing #AMDays appeared first on Small Business Trends. |
| Are 87 Percent of Small Businesses Using Social Media Wrong? Posted: 25 Sep 2012 05:00 AM PDT Vocus teamed up with Duct Tape Marketing to survey 400 decision makers at small- and medium-sized businesses to learn about their struggles and successes using social media. Specifically, the survey sought to discover the social sites most used by small businesses (SMBs), how they were managing their efforts, challenges they were facing, and the metrics they were using to judge success. While the results were strong in affirming the power of social media for SMBs, they also made me wonder whether or not many business owners were looking at social media correctly. First, the findings. As Vocus notes in its post about the survey, there was a lot of good news revealed here.
Time and time again in the survey we're shown that SMBs are using social media, they're engaging with their customers, and that most feel social media has helped their organizations. Interestingly, even those that said social media was not helpful also admitted they had invested little effort. But how are SMBs using social media sites? To me, the findings in this section were particularly interesting. According to the results:
Essentially, SMBs continue to use social media as another push method for selling to their customers. It's a broadcast medium the same way direct mailings and email newsletters have been in years prior. Just 46 percent of SMBs said they use social media to handle customer service issues. To me, that may represent a missed opportunity if business owners aren't using social channels to reach out to customers in a more pro-active way. It also represents a chance for SMBs to see even more of a benefit should they start using social media as a vehicle for customer service, and not just promotional efforts. Another area of the survey I found especially interesting looked at the metrics SMBs are using to gauge their efforts. Basically, how are SMBs judging "success" and what does "success" look like to them.
Seventy six percent of SMBs see success as increased foot traffic, 70 percent see it as customers hearing about them via social media, 67 percent view success in terms of likes and follows. Again, while these metrics make for good baseline numbers, they're not what is most important when it comes to judging whether or not your social media activities are successful. It's concerning that it's not until the very bottom of that graph that we see 42 percent of SMBs using social media are tracking conversions. Some quick math tells me that 58 percent of SMBs are not. As a SMB, you always want to be tying your actions down to conversion metrics. Likes and follows are great, but if that's not resulting in more people converting from your website, you're missing the larger goal. While it's certainly encouraging that 87 percent of small business owners believe that social media has helped their business in some way, I can't help but wonder if that number would be higher if SMBs were using social media for considerably more than just another push medium or if they were focusing their efforts on metrics related to conversions rather than generic likes and follows. Sure, we all use social media to promote our brands and daily activities, but the opportunity in social media to right perceived wrongs, to better customer service, and to learn more about the people that we're serving should be a top priority. What do you think? Am I being too harsh? Or is a maturation process for SMBs and social media on its way? The post Are 87 Percent of Small Businesses Using Social Media Wrong? appeared first on Small Business Trends. |
| Twitter Move Impacts LinkedIn and Facebook Posted: 25 Sep 2012 02:30 AM PDT File this one away under the heading of unintended consequences. A decision by Twitter to discontinue an agreement that allowed Twitter users to share tweets automatically through their LinkedIn news feed has ended up benefiting its two chief social networking rivals. With the big three social utilities–LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter–also serving as important marketing and communications tools for small businesses, it remains to be seen how the change will affect business user strategies. Social ShiftHot off the press. The immediate winner in the Twitter/LinkedIn split seems to be LinkedIn, because many who once automatically shared tweets on both platforms have now chosen to share content on LinkedIn only. Sharing content on both platforms now takes an extra step that users apparently feel is too much of a hassle. Venture Beat LinkedIn to Facebook. The real surprise, however, came when stats showed that another well-known social media network has benefited significantly from the dissolved relationship between LinkedIn and Twitter. Stats for July, the month after Twitter ceased allowing users to sync tweets with their LinkedIn accounts, showed Facebook received a 1000 percent jump in LinkedIn referral traffic. HubSpot Blog Tweet no more. But wait. Before you decide to abandon Twitter for another social media platform for your business communications and marketing, it might be wise to look at some recent research comparing how users interact with brands on social networks like Facebook and Twitter. Across the board, surveys showed Twitter users are more likely to purchase from, recommend, and visit the Websites of brands they follow than those following brands on Facebook. Web.com Tools and TechniquesLinkedIn’s new look. LinkedIn has become an even better place to raise brand awareness for your business, thanks to improved company pages and better mobile access. Join Certified Internet Marketing Specialist and Certified Social Media Specialist Denisse Marie on this general walk through of the new features and how your business can benefit from them. If LinkedIn wasn’t the place you thought about first for maximizing your online business presence, this article might just change your mind. DenisseMarie.com On autopilot. There are several tools that allow you to automate at least some of your activity when marketing and communicating through social media channels. Regardless of controversy over how much social media engagement should be automated, productivity is the main objective. Here social media consultant Jose Jimenez gives an overview of one of the more popular tools and looks at its pros and cons. The Digital Post Early ProjectionsThe social economy. A new economy based on social technologies will change business practices in more areas than just communications and marketing. Blogger John Twohig predicts that these technologies will save businesses trillions of dollars in the future, from co-creating products to deriving customer insights. Tweak Your Biz The social business. Transforming your company for social business isn’t easy. In fact, blogger and entrepreneur Joey Strawn compares it to training for an endurance run. There will be plenty of scars and some soreness in your organization when it is over, but your company will be the better for it. Emerging social media platforms and tools are one part of this development. Now it’s time to create a business that can take advantage of them. Social CRM Insider The post Twitter Move Impacts LinkedIn and Facebook appeared first on Small Business Trends. |
Question: What are the major affiliate marketing threats that you have seen evolve over the past few years on the legislative front?
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