Web Savvy Marketers

You are here: Home / Blog

Stay safe on social networks

Is there a danger to accepting  unknown blog subscribers and Twitter followers?  The short answer is yes.  But if you have a blog and you are communicating via social networks, presumably one of your goals is to spread your business or organization’s message.  So where do you draw the line?

I received this TWITTER Question from a client: “Is there a danger to me in being Followed by someone who rarely tweets, follows a lot of people, has few followers? Do I need to block these people or is it sufficient to not follow them back. Sometimes, I can see that Twitter has suspended them for improper activity. What is the danger? What are they doing?”

If you suspect danger, trust your instincts.  You can set your Twitter settings to restrict access to only those people you approve. Consider how you use your Twitter account — if it is used to communicate with a business community and the goal is to build community you probably want to attract as many followers as possible.  If your account is of a more personal nature you probably don’t have the need to allow unknown followers access to your account.

If you see that Twitter has suspended someone for improper activity it means they have violated Twitter’s rules.  It could have involved impersonating someone else, spamming, threatening someone, copyright issues or any number of other issues that Twitter includes in their Rules.  I would probably block anyone that Twitter has suspended or that you suspect of being involved in any of these activities.

I’ve put together a list of basic safety tips to help you stay safe while communicating with virtual strangers online through your website, blog or social networks.

1.  Don’t give away personal information.

  1. Don’t provide home address or phone number on your website or in your profile
  2. Don’t tweet or post that you’re away from home — don’t post vacation photos until you return home — no need to inform the world that your house is vacant
  3. Don’t include personal information like your birth date in your profile.  Birth dates are helpful to idenity theives.

2. Be careful with social networking “apps”. When those Facebook applications tell you they need to access your personal profile in order to work — you might think twice about how important it is to use that application.  See Facebook Application Privacy for details and set your limits based on their information.

3. Watch out for “Phishing”.  Whether a social network post or an email, always assume that the identity of the poster could be an impostor–especially if the message seems out of the ordinary.  Be suspicious!  Assume any link that leads you to a login page to be suspect. See “Fraudsters Target Facebook With Phishing Scam”.  If you receive a message from a “friend” that you suspect is a “phishing scam”, both you and your friend should change your account passwords.

4. Do NOT use the same username/password combination on all your accounts.  If a thief obtains your username/password to your Facebook account, make sure it doesn’t also give him access to your bank account, Amazon or Paypal accounts.

5.  YOUR BLOG: Review your blog’s user and discussion settings.  If using WordPress the subscriber level by default allows them to read, comment and subscribe to your RSS feed.  There doesn’t seem to be too much danger in that.  However, I think it’s wise to review your subscriber list frequently and delete any suspicious addresses.

More information about online safety can be found at the following links.

Web site safety building safer websites

11 tips for social networking safety

The cobbler has new shoes

Designing a website for a client and designing one for yourself seem to be two different animals.  For one thing, the clients pay better.  Maybe that’s the reason why the cgwebhelp company site has taken so long to get redesigned.

Finally the new site is in the works and will soon be replacing the old look.  Say goodbye to the dancing header and the snappy tune – it is no more.  Say hello to the new site with a focus on staying connected–through my blogs, at cgwebhelp.com and websavvymarketers.com, and through Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.

I look forward to your comments and your feedback. –cg

Avoid the Click, Click, Clicks

Are you struggling to write highly effective content for your website? Go easy on blaming yourself. Writing for the web is very different than writing for print.

Web writing has to be different because we don’t read web pages in the same way we read a book or magazine. The light given off by a computer screen can be harsh on our eyes. We may struggle with glare and inaequate contrast between the letters and the background. We may also have trouble adjusting our screens and chairs for comfort.

Plus reading on a computer reminds us of looking at a TV, another box that emits light. And a mouse seems like a television remote, also a device for controlling a light-emitting box. So most of us treat web pages with the same short attention span we bring to TV programs. It’s click, click, click away.

The typical web reader will quickly click off your website if the page seems boring or complicated. She scans text, avoiding areas of densely written content and can easily miss information. To slow down the clicking:

  • Get to the point fast. Think like you’re writing an ad.

  • Use short sentences and paragraphs.

  • Include informative subheads.

  • Put information in lists with bullets or numbers.

  • Put key information in bold.

 

Mara Braverman
Braverman Marketing & Communications, LLC

If it Seems too Good to be True…It Is!

I’ve been hearing more and more about people getting scammed by on-line companies when attempting to set up their own site. In fact, I recently spoke with a client that spent $4,700 plus $39.95 a month for a website and several months later has nothing to show for it. Now don’t get me wrong, there are many legitimate companies out there on the worldwide web, but if they’re talking large returns with little or no sales, marketing and effort – it’s not going to happen.

When it comes to creating or re-designing your website you’d be more productive if you focused on the planning of the site and hired someone else for the programming. Deciding before hand exactly what you want from your site and clearly communicating that with your web partner is the most effective way to build a website.

Too often people decide what they want their site to do for them after they’ve created it. For example a site that’s created to drive sales is much different than one that’s strictly for informational purposes. It’s imperative to determine the direction in advance so that you don’t end up having to re-design and re-program the site afterwards. In addition, what you want from your site will determine the type of tools used.

The bottom line is… If someone contacts you from an on-line company, look them up. A simple Google search can provide you with a lot of information. In addition, although these companies may promise incredible deals, nothing can replace the one-to-one relationship with an established, local company. It’s always nice to be able to speak to someone whose name you know.

Deep Six All Clichés

For the health and well-being of your business writing, deep six all clichés. It’s as plain as the nose on your face.

As far as the eye can see, they multiply like rabbits. It’s hard to swallow the hare- brained idea that we cannot avoid these old as dirt phrases. Rely on clichés and people will think your elevator doesn’t go to the top floor or that you’re a few fries short of a Happy Meal. Don’t you see eye to eye with me on this?

Say what you will, clichés bore us to tears. Even if you must burn the candle at both ends, find substitutes for them. Doing so is more than a feather in your cap. It means your copy can fire on all cylinders and won’t read flat as a pancake. Even a writer as dumb as a bag of hammers, knows that variety is the spice of life and that clichés have lost their salt.

So drag those squealing, stinky rodents of writing to the paper shredder and show no mercy. And don’t shred on me, I’m just the messenger.

What Net Neutrality Means to Small Business

The internet, in it’s short history, has been a great equalizer for small businesses. Small businesses are free to put up websites that promote their business, sell their products, services and applications and are assured that their information is served to the consumer in the same way that everyone else’s content is served. It gives all businesses the possibility to attract a worldwide market. Many of today’s internet giants–think Google, Yahoo, E-bay–started out as small businesses with great ideas. Because their ideas were allowed to be served to the public in a fair way, they were able to develop into highly successful businesses.

Some of the major network operators are trying to change that. They want to set up a tiered payment system for content providers. Theoretically, the premium fee would ensure the fastest download speeds. And lesser rates would result in slower websites. What does that mean? Network providers could decide what content is shown on their networks and at what price. Suppose AT&T decided they wanted to expand their web hosting business. They could effectively eliminate the reach of web hosting competitors’ sites by raising their rates or slowing the delivery of their material to an unpalatable crawl.

Given the fact that there are actually very few network providers in the US — especially in rural parts of the country — shouldn’t we be trying to ensure that everyone has access to all information on the internet no matter what network they can access. In some parts of the country consumers may only have broadband access through one provider. Even in populated areas the choice is usually limited to the phone company or cable provider for the area. Shouldn’t we ensure that your website is as accessible to everyone as your competitor’s website?

Do we really want want big business deciding what is available on the internet? If not, we need to ensure that net neutrality remains in effect. Please support the Internet Freedom Preservation Act of 2009.

Keep consistent styles in your WordPress posts

pastetextThere is nothing that screams amateur like a website with a mishmash of fonts and styles.  Sometimes people copy and paste posts from a document they’ve already created in Word.  Unfortunately that can also copy the Word styles and fonts into the WordPress document.  In order to keep your styles and fonts consistent in your WordPress posts,  click the “paste as plain text” icon in the toolbar.  It will delete all the Word code and paste nice clean text into your post that will use the styles in your WordPress theme and keep your blog looking well-designed and professional.

Kill That Buzz

Creating a buzz about your company is a good thing but using buzz words in your marketing copy is not. Buzz words are those words everyone else is using: crispy to describe potato chips; state-of-the-art to describe technology; quality to describe any product. Yes, you can still use these words, but if you do, back them up with proof. Better yet, come up with a new way to describe the same thing: noisy potato chips; out-in-front technology; or the valedictorian product of its class. Old buzz becomes a drone.

Two business limericks for fun

There once was a writing project from hell,
You can imagine, it didn’t go well,
The client was upset,
I, the writer, had regret,
Do I hear music or is that my death knell?

E-mail, e-letters and e-zines are great,
Paper is saved and docs aren’t late,
But I must warn you,
One thing I won’t do:
If you offer your hand I won’t e-shake

Our Location

222 Pitkin Street, Suite 125
East Hartford, CT 06108
Phone: 860-432-8756

Talk to Us

Follow us, subscribe to us, email us, or call us at 860-432-8756. We’ll use our Super Savvy Tool Belt to stay in touch however you prefer.

Sign Up for Email Updates