March Madness, sometimes prefixed by the word “Mega†(for a good reason), is a pay-per-view coverage of games within the NCAA Men’s Division I Basketball Championship. So, why am I talking about basketball on a business site? Very good question!
There are a lot of people around the country who are big fans of sports. Some of them are employees working for you, and they’re probably inclined to watch the series to make sure they squeeze as much juice out of it as possible.
Why is this a problem, you ask? Have a look at a report by Challenger Gray that shows in this event alone, millions of hours of productive work are lost due to employees being distracted by their use of office computers to watch the footage. This is not exclusive to March Madness, of course. Three things happen during major events coverage during working hours, according to GFI Software’s blog:
Since employees are using bandwidth to stream videos onto their devices, they’ll take up a lot of valuable bandwidth that you could otherwise allocate for other endeavors. Streaming can take up to 10 Mbits of your traffic per minute.
Employees will be monitoring these events to see results. This will distract them and make them unable to produce as much work as they normally do, cutting in on your productivity.
Your network may be compromised by one of your employees if he/she becomes a victim of a hacker’s lure. Hackers often take advantage of big events to make fake websites and plugins that promise to show live coverage. It ends up leading to a virus download very easily!
So, how do we deal with these problems? GFI Software â€" which, by the way, is a web filtering company that deals with these kinds of issues â€" comes back to the rescue:
Tell your employees not to do it. Communicate with them. Tell them that they should avoid streaming stuff in the middle of work time.
Bring in the artillery and deploy software that will filter malicious websites and lets you place caps on how much your employees can download. You can limit streaming to half an hour or 100 MB per day, for example. And if you don’t want to get into legal trouble, block gambling websites also.
Configure the software, if possible, to alert you of any activity that could raise a red flag (i.e. someone trying to access a gambling site or a social network), which will allow you to decide on a course of action for these activities.
Of course, you should allow your employees to have some wiggle room in the workplace, as this has a positive effect on productivity, but you should also be able to make sure that they don’t get carried away. Tools like GFI Software’s web filtering solution will help you properly maintain an orderly workplace while letting employees have a little bit of fun.
This week President Obama nominated billionaire hotel magnate Penny Pritzker (pictured, right) to be the next Commerce Secretary.  He als0 nominated longtime Obama confidant Michael Froman (left) as U.S. Trade Representative.
Given these two nominations, some observers are suggesting that the President’s proposal to reorganize several government agencies under one umbrella is just not going to happen.  In January 2012 President Obama had announced plans to consolidate  the Commerce Department, U.S. Trade Representative, the Export Import Bank and the Small Business Administration, among others.  Then during the 2012 presidential election a variation of this proposal was floated that suggested creating a new Secretary of Business.
Juliet Eilperin in the Washington Post says “Forget about it.† She notes that while the reorganization proposal still has White House interest, it’s not looking likely to happen.
Let’s hope she’s right.  Tucking the SBA  under the wing of the Commerce Department would dilute support for small business, as I wrote back in 2012:
The SBA was founded by President Eisenhower in 1953.  Its intended function?  â€Aid, counsel, assist and protect, insofar as is possible, the interests of small business concerns.â€
*** We need one agency with the words “Small Business†in the title to remind everyone of the commitment to small businesses.
We need it focused not on the so-called high-growth startups that so many policy-makers are so enamored with, but on the mainstream small businesses that keep body and soul together in the United States.  It’s not the Startup Administration â€" it’s the Small Business Administration.
And we don’t need it diluted and distracted with Commerce Department concerns.  ***  The SBA has been a role model the world over for how to support small businesses.  Let’s not change that now.
Others in the small business community were likewise alarmed and opposed when the plan was first announced.  After all, what do small businesses and companies the size of Amazon or General Electric have in common?
The needs of Main Street small businesses are very different from the needs of large corporations and also very different from high-growth startups. Â Small businesses would just get lost in the shuffle, said Dan Danner, President of the National Federation of Independent Business, back then.
In the latest webinar from Infusionsoft, Rocket Your Company To Success, The Rocket Company, Infusionsoft Ultimate Marketer 2013 winner, shares their marketing strategies that propelled their business from $0 to $2,000,000 in just a few short years. Â In this webinar you will learn:
How The Rocket Company grew revenue 832%
Effective strategies for building your lead list
How to deliver happiness to your customers
Best practices to engage your customers for life and boost referrals
In the webinar, Rocket Company shares how Lifecycle Marketing helped them boost sales and productivity in their company.  The Rocket Company Founder, Casey Graham, and Chief Operations Officer, Michael Lukaszewski , will teach small businesses:
How to use magnets to attract and capture leads
Effective sales and marketing strategies for building a list
Personalized follow-up that converts leads into customers
Best practices to engage customers and increase referrals
You can view the replay of the webinar here. Also, once you register, you will automatically receive a free download copy of the ‘Rocket Your Company To Success’ e-book.  The e-book is filled with all the great advice from The Rocket Company that you can take and use in helping your own small business grow!
In the latest webinar from Infusionsoft, Rocket Your Company To Success, The Rocket Company, Infusionsoft Ultimate Marketer 2013 winner, shares their marketing strategies that propelled their business from $0 to $2,000,000 in just a few short years. Â In this webinar you will learn:
How The Rocket Company grew revenue 832%
Effective strategies for building your lead list
How to deliver happiness to your customers
Best practices to engage your customers for life and boost referrals
In the webinar, Rocket Company shares how Lifecycle Marketing helped them boost sales and productivity in their company.  The Rocket Company Founder, Casey Graham, and Chief Operations Officer, Michael Lukaszewski , will teach small businesses:
How to use magnets to attract and capture leads
Effective sales and marketing strategies for building a list
Personalized follow-up that converts leads into customers
Best practices to engage customers and increase referrals
You can view the replay of the webinar here. Also, once you register, you will automatically receive a free download copy of the ‘Rocket Your Company To Success’ e-book.  The e-book is filled with all the great advice from The Rocket Company that you can take and use in helping your own small business grow!
Nearly all (98 percent) small businesses use wireless technologies in their operations, a 2013 AT&T small business technology poll says.
Details of the poll released recently also reveal how dependent upon wireless technology most small businesses have become.
For example, the survey shows two-thirds (about 66 percent) of those businesses would be unable to survive or would be severely challenged without wireless.
“For small businesses today, wireless solutions have become part of their DNA,†said Cathy Martine, AT&T executive vice president of small business solutions in a release earlier this year.
The poll also reveals additional details about the choice of wireless technology for many small firms.
Smartphones - Small businesses depend on their smartphones - and usages keeps growing. The poll found 85 percent of small businesses use some kind of smartphone in their operations (even if it isn’t the latest generation). That’s double the number five years ago.
Tablets - Just over two thirds (69 percent) of small businesses now say they use tablets in their operations. That’s a bit up from the 66 percent of small companies that said they used the devices last year.
Interestingly, the use of tablets increases with the size of the business. Ninety percent of firms with between 51 and 99 employees use tablets, while only seven in 10 (69 percent) of firms with 50 or fewer employees do so.
Newer businesses are also more likely to use  tablets.  The survey found 80 percent of small businesses less than two years old use tablets in their operations, while just 69 percent of those two years and older use them.
Mobile apps - Despite all the hundreds of thousands of apps available today, only 31 percent of small businesses in the survey say they use apps in business.  But of the ones who do, almost half say they couldn’t live without them.
The survey paints a picture of tech-savvy small businesses far removed from the old stereotype of small businesses as  technology laggards.  Small business owners are probably not surprised by the popularity of wireless technology in business operations. It brings productivity and allows small business personnel to be mobile instead of stuck in the office all day.
AT&T’s 2013 Small Business Technology Poll was conducted with 1,000 small businesses in 50 states and the District of Columbia surveyed from December 18 through December 27, 2012.
Nearly all (98 percent) small businesses use wireless technologies in their operations, a 2013 AT&T small business technology poll says.
Details of the poll released recently also reveal how dependent upon wireless technology most small businesses have become.
For example, the survey shows two-thirds (about 66 percent) of those businesses would be unable to survive or would be severely challenged without wireless.
“For small businesses today, wireless solutions have become part of their DNA,†said Cathy Martine, AT&T executive vice president of small business solutions in a release earlier this year.
The poll also reveals additional details about the choice of wireless technology for many small firms.
Smartphones - Small businesses depend on their smartphones - and usages keeps growing. The poll found 85 percent of small businesses use some kind of smartphone in their operations (even if it isn’t the latest generation). That’s double the number five years ago.
Tablets - Just over two thirds (69 percent) of small businesses now say they use tablets in their operations. That’s a bit up from the 66 percent of small companies that said they used the devices last year.
Interestingly, the use of tablets increases with the size of the business. Ninety percent of firms with between 51 and 99 employees use tablets, while only seven in 10 (69 percent) of firms with 50 or fewer employees do so.
Newer businesses are also more likely to use  tablets.  The survey found 80 percent of small businesses less than two years old use tablets in their operations, while just 69 percent of those two years and older use them.
Mobile apps - Despite all the hundreds of thousands of apps available today, only 31 percent of small businesses in the survey say they use apps in business.  But of the ones who do, almost half say they couldn’t live without them.
The survey paints a picture of tech-savvy small businesses far removed from the old stereotype of small businesses as  technology laggards.  Small business owners are probably not surprised by the popularity of wireless technology in business operations. It brings productivity and allows small business personnel to be mobile instead of stuck in the office all day.
AT&T’s 2013 Small Business Technology Poll was conducted with 1,000 small businesses in 50 states and the District of Columbia surveyed from December 18 through December 27, 2012.
Nearly all (98 percent) small businesses use wireless technologies in their operations, a 2013 AT&T small business technology poll says.
Details of the poll released recently also reveal how dependent upon wireless technology most small businesses have become.
For example, the survey shows two-thirds (about 66 percent) of those businesses would be unable to survive or would be severely challenged without wireless.
“For small businesses today, wireless solutions have become part of their DNA,†said Cathy Martine, AT&T executive vice president of small business solutions in a release earlier this year.
The poll also reveals additional details about the choice of wireless technology for many small firms.
Smartphones - Small businesses depend on their smartphones - and usages keeps growing. The poll found 85 percent of small businesses use some kind of smartphone in their operations (even if it isn’t the latest generation). That’s double the number five years ago.
Tablets - Just over two thirds (69 percent) of small businesses now say they use tablets in their operations. That’s a bit up from the 66 percent of small companies that said they used the devices last year.
Interestingly, the use of tablets increases with the size of the business. Ninety percent of firms with between 51 and 99 employees use tablets, while only seven in 10 (69 percent) of firms with 50 or fewer employees do so.
Newer businesses are also more likely to use  tablets.  The survey found 80 percent of small businesses less than two years old use tablets in their operations, while just 69 percent of those two years and older use them.
Mobile apps - Despite all the hundreds of thousands of apps available today, only 31 percent of small businesses in the survey say they use apps in business.  But of the ones who do, almost half say they couldn’t live without them.
The survey paints a picture of tech-savvy small businesses far removed from the old stereotype of small businesses as  technology laggards.  Small business owners are probably not surprised by the popularity of wireless technology in business operations. It brings productivity and allows small business personnel to be mobile instead of stuck in the office all day.
AT&T’s 2013 Small Business Technology Poll was conducted with 1,000 small businesses in 50 states and the District of Columbia surveyed from December 18 through December 27, 2012.
Earlier this month we talked about cloud based accounting apps to help small business manage their books. Drilling down further, here are some useful applications that offer a digital solution for managing paper based expense receipts. With these apps businesses and their employees can store physical expense receipts digitally in one place. These receipt management apps offer the following main advantages:
You will no longer have to keep track of a box full of business expense receipts or risk losing a receipt amidst heaps of paper
You can  do away with paper expense claims by your employees
These apps are a time saver as you will no longer have to manually search for or consolidate information on your business expenses
Here are your some great options:
American Express’ Receipt Match: This is a free app for all American Express Business card holders. To feed in the receipt, all you need to do is either login to your Amex online account and upload the receipts or simply email the details of the receipt to a given address. You can also take a photo of the receipt from your mobile (a feature that comes quite handy when you are on the move) and submit the image via Receipt Match mobile app. The software matches your physical receipts with transaction details that appear on the credit card statement and displays the information online. You can also add notes to each matched expense, view matched and unmatched receipts in one place, and download the information in a report format.
Shoeboxed.com: This is the complete document management app for all your business documents, business cards and receipts. For as little as $10 a month, you can mail receipts to shoeboxed.com in their secure postage paid envelope or use the web uploader or send them receipt images using the free mobile app iPhone and Android (the free app offers limited image uploads). They will scan and upload all your receipts in a usable format that can be accessed on your online shoeboxed account. Here’s the best part - all information is verified by human operators to ensure accuracy and the files are downloadable in a variety of formats including excel and pdf.
Neat Receipt: The neat receipt (costs $179.95) comes with an easy to use portable scanner which scans all your receipts and auto populates the information under various headers. All the stored information can be easily accessed via key word search, exported to customized report formats, shared via outlook, and uploaded onto your Quickbooks software.
If your business is inundated with managing expense receipts, then these apps are definitely worth your consideration.
Earlier this month we talked about cloud based accounting apps to help small business manage their books. Drilling down further, here are some useful applications that offer a digital solution for managing paper based expense receipts. With these apps businesses and their employees can store physical expense receipts digitally in one place. These receipt management apps offer the following main advantages:
You will no longer have to keep track of a box full of business expense receipts or risk losing a receipt amidst heaps of paper
You can  do away with paper expense claims by your employees
These apps are a time saver as you will no longer have to manually search for or consolidate information on your business expenses
Here are your some great options:
American Express’ Receipt Match: This is a free app for all American Express Business card holders. To feed in the receipt, all you need to do is either login to your Amex online account and upload the receipts or simply email the details of the receipt to a given address. You can also take a photo of the receipt from your mobile (a feature that comes quite handy when you are on the move) and submit the image via Receipt Match mobile app. The software matches your physical receipts with transaction details that appear on the credit card statement and displays the information online. You can also add notes to each matched expense, view matched and unmatched receipts in one place, and download the information in a report format.
Shoeboxed.com: This is the complete document management app for all your business documents, business cards and receipts. For as little as $10 a month, you can mail receipts to shoeboxed.com in their secure postage paid envelope or use the web uploader or send them receipt images using the free mobile app iPhone and Android (the free app offers limited image uploads). They will scan and upload all your receipts in a usable format that can be accessed on your online shoeboxed account. Here’s the best part - all information is verified by human operators to ensure accuracy and the files are downloadable in a variety of formats including excel and pdf.
Neat Receipt: The neat receipt (costs $179.95) comes with an easy to use portable scanner which scans all your receipts and auto populates the information under various headers. All the stored information can be easily accessed via key word search, exported to customized report formats, shared via outlook, and uploaded onto your Quickbooks software.
If your business is inundated with managing expense receipts, then these apps are definitely worth your consideration.
Technology moves at the speed of sound and social media resides in the technological realm.  As a result, social management must be nimble and ready to evolve and adapt at the same speed in which technology moves. Justyn Howard, CEO and Founder of Sprout Social, joins Brent Leary to discuss changes in the way social management is being performed and what current social trends are revealing about the future of social management.
* * * * *
Small Business Trends: Can you tell us a little bit about yourself?
Justyn Howard: I was in enterprise sales for a software company in the learning management space, a company called Learned.com. I had been in the enterprise software space for six or seven years before getting involved with Sprout. I was always on the sales and marketing side, but very close to the software and technology space.
Small Business Trends: For those who don’t know what you do at Sprout Social, can you tell them what Sprout Social actually does?
Justyn Howard: Sprout Social is a social media management platform, we provide a Web based platform for our business customers. There are a little over 10,000 across the globe. We help them to effectively and efficiently manage their social channels.
Small Business Trends: What is the biggest change over the years across for tracking social engagement and creating these new metrics?
Justyn Howard: The biggest change really has been at the macro level. It has been about how organizations are thinking of social and the metrics associated with it. So zooming in a little bit, what that means is, early on we saw a lot attention and effort spent around measuring volume of conversations and sentiment on Twitter and Facebook primarily at the time.
What we are seeing now, and somewhere we spent a lot of our resources, is the next step. Saying, ‘How do we tie social, social metrics and social analytics back to our long standing business objectives? Let’s set aside some of the newness and some of the mystery around social. Let’s find ways to apply the measurement from those channels back to business goals and priorities we have had forever. Things like customer retention, customer satisfaction, cost of sale, cost of support for the customer channel and growth in sales. Things that have always been very key and critical to an organization.’
Small Business Trends: You put out a report that talks about how responsive a person has been. Can you talk about that in terms of why that is important in social?
Justyn Howard: We have introduced something in Sprout called the Engagement Report. We introduced a public version that is free for anyone to sign up and get a report card if you will.
The purpose of those reports is to understand most companies, within any reasonable size of customer base, have people on social media who are trying to get some type of response from them. Whether it is for a customer service inquiry, sales inquiry or just plain brand evangelism. They want to have a conversation with that organization.
Then name of the campaign for the public site was ‘Be Present,’ and the idea there is very much to have a two-sided relationship. What we are measuring are the conversations where people are trying to interact with your brand. How responsive are you? What kind of time frame is involved in your responsiveness?
One of the things we found when we introduced this data was, as you grow into larger organizations, you respond to a smaller chunk of your audience. But you do it much quicker, which is interesting to think about. Those are the types of things we are exposing in these new reports.
Small Business Trends: A lot of companies start out with social from a marketing and branding perspective. But you have integrations with companies like Zendesk, that tie listening and analytics back to customer service. What does that mean from a customer service perspective?
Justyn Howard: There is a growing population of consumers that, when they think about how they are going to interact with a brand or have a question answered, their preference is going to be to turn to social media channels. If they are out and about and they have a problem, it is going to be easier for them to send you a tweet than it is to find your website, find your 800 number and sit on hold.
We are seeing this shift. I think it is really starting to pick up steam over the last eight to twelve months. I don’t think it is something that most organizations had anticipated three years ago, but it’s not up to them. The customer has decided that this is a place where they want to have their questions answered and be supported. So how can organizations effectively manage that and turn that into an opportunity to give the customers a remarkable experience?
Small Business Trends: I like what you said about applying new social metrics to traditional business goals and objectives. What are some that you see companies using?
Justyn Howard: We are still in the early days. I think that technology has certainly come a long way, but there are a lot of advances that I think we will see over the next 18 to 24 months that are going to help.
Now there is a focus on, ‘How is social growing our sales channels? How is social helping customer retention?’ We are seeing other key stakeholders in those “social†discussions.
We know as a customer service team, what key drivers are for us to be effective in terms of resolution time or the cost to support a customer or customer retention. Those departments know how to measure those things. You know there is some technology involved and there is going to be some manual process involved while technology catches up. But by bringing those stakeholders into the conversation, we can then apply what is going on in social. Whether it is uptake in conversation that leads to an uptake in sales or there are different ways that you can look at that data and tie it back to your business metrics, your KPI.
Small Business Trends:Â Any future trends to look out for?
Justyn Howard: There is going to be a consolidation of tools and platforms. The current environment is very much what I call, ‘bring your own application.’ Meaning, people who are managing social channels within organizations will use the tools that they are comfortable with. Maybe the same tools that they use to manage their own personal channels, etc.
The challenge that creates when you are looking to have a cohesive strategy, is that it becomes very difficult to support and measure. It is very difficult in terms of audit trail and all those sorts of things that a more progressive organization needs.
The other is I think we are going to continue to see a trend toward social as just another channel. It happens to be an amazing channel and one that is very different than any that we have ever had before. But it is another channel to communicate with our customers.
Small Business Trends: Where can people learn more about Sprout Social?
This interview on social management is part of the One on One interview series with some of the most thought-provoking entrepreneurs, authors and experts in business today. This interview has been edited for publication. To hear audio of the full interview, click on the player above.
There are a lot of free avenues for creating buzz and getting people interested in your product, with social media. The key is in tapping into social media tactfully. You don’t want potential customers thinking you’re invading their social space with unwanted and unsolicited advertisement. So, how can your promote your business with social media...
There are a lot of free avenues for creating buzz and getting people interested in your product, with social media. The key is in tapping into social media tactfully. You don’t want potential customers thinking you’re invading their social space with unwanted and unsolicited advertisement. So, how can your promote your business with social media without being too invasive?
Wrapping your message in a palatable wrapper is difficult, but it pays off big. Look at K-Mart’s Ship My Pants campaign. The ad’s been seen over 17 million times, and it’s because they used humor to educate their audience on their business’s newest features.
Formstack was kind enough to send us a few ideas for how you can get your message out there in a palatable and interesting way. Check it out:
Link a “Pinterestâ€-ing picture to your product. Don’t think of Pinterest as just a resource for crafters and engaged people. Pinterest can be a powerful tool for your small business, if used appropriately. Create a pin-able photo showcasing your product or a way someone can utilize your product to fulfil a personal need. Do you sell handmade jewelry? Snap a professional photo of a model wearing your gems and pin your photo from your product form or company website. Every time someone clicks on the pinned photo, they will automatically be directed to your website.
Extra, extra - Tweet all about it! Twitter’s user base is growing every day. If you seek out the right niches, Twitter could be a powerful platform for marketing your product. Utilize the Formstack Twitter integration, and your Twitter account will post a Tweet every time someone purchases one of your products. Research relevant hashtags for your industry, and include those in your automated Tweets to maximize their exposure. You can also promote your product by adding social share buttons on your product form, which users can Tweet out from their personal accounts.
YouTube … or you don’t. YouTube isn’t just for cover singers and cat videos. Creating a YouTube video for your product is a solid way to increase awareness of your product or brand. Let’s say your company sells a wood adhesive. Film a how-to video using the adhesive to create a cool project, like a wooden lantern. Post it on YouTube using previously researched title keywords and tags, and link to your product form in the description. Anyone clicking on the video to learn how to create the project will see your link, and this could lead to some new customers.
If they “Like†it, then you shoulda put a link on it. Like Pinterest, Facebook has the ability to grab a user’s attention with a funny or interesting photo. Have you entered the world of memes yet? If you don’t know what I’m talking about, just Google “Bad Luck Brian.†A well-crafted meme based on your product or industry is easily liked and shareable. In addition, if you include a link to your website or product form in your initial upload, that information will go anywhere that meme is shared! I can haz sales?!
Technology and data storage developments have left the data protection regulatory model outdated.
In a recent SC Magazine webcast, the question was asked whether data protection was keeping up with the evolution of technology. An answer given by former information commissioner Richard Thomas was a simple ‘no'.
Thomas, who served as information commissioner between 2002 and 2009 and now works on several government bodies and is a consultant at law firm Hunton & Williams, said that when he started there was not internet access at the office and this changed in the time he was there.
“There were so many developments, we saw Google come on the scene and we saw Facebook and huge changes in technology and the cost has come down and the capacity to store data has enlarged massively, so there are dramatic changes in technology and in business models that go with that,†he said.
“The law has not kept pace. I made myself a bit of a reputation during the last three or four years of my time as information commissioner saying that the 1994 European directive that governs European law at the moment and which underlies the UK's 1998 act was not fit for purpose and it was a mainframe directive that didn't accommodate the modern world at all.â€
Thomas also said that he had likened it to the way things were done in Germany in the 1960s and 1970s, and that it needed to be reviewed. “Even though the laws are supposed to be technology neutral, I am not sure that they are, or have kept pace,†he said.
Commenting, Jonathan Armstrong, partner at law firm Duane Morris, said that it was a ‘yes and no' to the answer from him, as it has kept pace with general principles that have kept up with changes in legislation but some aspects are looking tired.
He picked out that the concept of processor and controller had changed, especially with cloud and outsourcing, and with the new changes in the draft, he said "it will tire more easily".
The proposed 24-hour breach notification law will be a challenge for smaller businesses, but not for enterprises.
Speaking on a recent SC Magazine webcast, Stephen Kerslake, group information security manager at Virgin Media, said that it was not impractical, as the bigger organisations that would have to subscribe to it already have resources in place to support it.
“For example, all the major telcos in the UK have 24/7 security operating or network management facilities whereby a report can be generated instantly,†he said.
“More so, that report will be generated from monitoring network activity across their entire infrastructure and on the detection of a malpractice or an incident, they could very quickly determine what the circumstances were and what needed reporting.
“So I don't think it is unrealistic in our terms, where it may be unrealistic is with a small-to-medium enterprise for example, who don't have the necessary resources.â€
Asked if this meant that a ‘one size fits all' template did not work, former information commissioner Richard Thomas, now a consultant at law firm Hunton & Williams, said that he agreed with this. He said that at the moment, it is only the telcos that have a legal obligation to report a breach to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), and others are encouraged to report where necessary.
He said: “The worry is, if it becomes mandatory for all organisations to report all breaches, that is really quite burdensome for small and medium businesses, and some larger ones.
“I also worry about the burden on the ICO's shoulders. When you have this blanket approach it becomes very difficult for any regulator to set priorities and work out what is really important, and focus resources on those areas where you need to intervene and take action.â€
In agreement with Thomas was Jonathan Armstrong, partner at law firm Duane Morris, who said that 24-hour reporting was not unrealistic and that some companies limit the number of insiders who know about a breach.
He said: “I'd rather they put their finger in the dyke and stopped the breach and stopped worrying about reporting. In the US, the time doesn't run until law enforcement leave the scene and I would like to see that. Also, if all data is encrypted, should it really be reported? Most of the US statures have that as exemption.
“You also need to take into account notification fatigue; the US has got itself into a mess as people report relatively trivial breaches, so whenever a serious breach happens, people just bin the envelope. That increases the burden on everyone.â€
Thomas said that the real priority is not to take steps to notify people, but to stop the breach. Kerslake also said that an online facility for organisations to report into the ICO would be better, and said that this could be used as an awareness facility on what is important in terms of reporting and what is not.
When: Tuesday - May 14, 2013 from 9:00 AM to 11:00 AM
Where: Virgo Office Suites - 4th Floor, 575 Lexington Ave, New York, NY 10022
We know it’s not easy managing and growing a business. That’s why Regal Financial NYC and Infusionsoft are joining together to bring you practical insight on how you can GROW YOUR BUSINESS through smart financial strategies and marketing best practices.
Every growing businesses wants access to capital (loans, more favorable credit, etc.) Anthony Davenport, Founder and President of Regal Financial, will show you how your business (big or small) can get the financing you need to grow.
Ramon Ray of Infusionsoft, will teach you Lifecycle Marketing: a 7 step system which helps you attract traffic, capture leads, nurture prospects, convert to sales, deliver and satisfy, upsell and get referrals. Lifecycle Marketing is all about DATING your leads and MARRYING your customers. It’s about converting prospects into customers and customers into loyal customers (repeat buyers).
When: Tuesday - May 14, 2013 from 5:30 PM to 7:30 PM
Where: Virgo Office Suites - 4th Floor, 575 Lexington Ave, New York, NY 10022
How small business owners can bring in new customers and keep the ones they have through their personal brands and network.
Join Judy Sahagian and Ramon Ray for 2 hours of inspiration and insight in how to BOOM YOUR BUSINESS by leveraging personal branding and networking. While traditional marketing is good, most small businesses rely on word of mouth marketing for new customers. If you are not able to network and build your personal brand, your word of mouth marketing will fail (or not be as effective as it could be).
Ramon will share 5 successful strategies he’s learning in building his personal brand. Judy will share her proven strategies for being New York City’s most connected real estate professional. Join them and learn!
When: Tuesday - May 14, 2013 from 9:00 AM to 11:00 AM
Where: Virgo Office Suites - 4th Floor, 575 Lexington Ave, New York, NY 10022
We know it’s not easy managing and growing a business. That’s why Regal Financial NYC and Infusionsoft are joining together to bring you practical insight on how you can GROW YOUR BUSINESS through smart financial strategies and marketing best practices.
Every growing businesses wants access to capital (loans, more favorable credit, etc.) Anthony Davenport, Founder and President of Regal Financial, will show you how your business (big or small) can get the financing you need to grow.
Ramon Ray of Infusionsoft, will teach you Lifecycle Marketing: a 7 step system which helps you attract traffic, capture leads, nurture prospects, convert to sales, deliver and satisfy, upsell and get referrals. Lifecycle Marketing is all about DATING your leads and MARRYING your customers. It’s about converting prospects into customers and customers into loyal customers (repeat buyers).
When: Tuesday - May 14, 2013 from 5:30 PM to 7:30 PM
Where: Virgo Office Suites - 4th Floor, 575 Lexington Ave, New York, NY 10022
How small business owners can bring in new customers and keep the ones they have through their personal brands and network.
Join Judy Sahagian and Ramon Ray for 2 hours of inspiration and insight in how to BOOM YOUR BUSINESS by leveraging personal branding and networking. While traditional marketing is good, most small businesses rely on word of mouth marketing for new customers. If you are not able to network and build your personal brand, your word of mouth marketing will fail (or not be as effective as it could be).
Ramon will share 5 successful strategies he’s learning in building his personal brand. Judy will share her proven strategies for being New York City’s most connected real estate professional. Join them and learn!
A very big Twitter shoutout to @askairasia for their exemplary social media customer service. Thank you again, see you in the sky
Since cavemen first started bartering for the roundest rocks, “word of mouth†advertising has been the gold standard of commercial promotion. Unsolicited endorsements from unbiased sources carry a lot of weight. Does the same principle now apply to the “140 characters of Twitter�
The tweet we quoted above highlights two areas of increasing importance to businesses of all sizes:
The customer service value of social media, and
The potential promotional benefits of social media communication.
Best Buy has grabbed onto Twitter with its @twelpforce. Apparently, anytime members of the company’s Geek Squad aren’t driving around in cool little cars, they’re monitoring this Twitter account and answering questions. When tech questions can be answered in 140 characters, it’s pure gold for the company.
Of course, that brings us to the dark side of trying to manage customer service through Twitter. Sometimes significantly more than 140 characters are required. For this reason, it’s important to be able to move the conversation to a more appropriate platform and provide a variety of channels for initial customer communication as well.
Before we leave the topic, don’t think that all customer service through Twitter has to be oriented toward problem solving. We heard about a customer at the Four Seasons Hotel in Palo Alto, California who was tweeting about how much he was looking forward to the hotel spa when he arrived. He included @FSPaloAlto in his tweet. The hotel saw the comment, communicated with him and got his spa reservation on the books. Savvy companies are proactive in their use of social media.
The other side of this is that problems can be immediately broadcast far and wide, which makes it important, especially for larger companies, to establish a separate Twitter account for customer service issues. On Twitter, even when a company is able to quickly resolve a problem, there’s a good chance that followers won’t see the “happy ending.â€
Other social media, Facebook for example, do not have this limitation. A friend once had an issue with a small company that sold inkjet printer supplies. He couldn’t get off their email list by using the unsubscribe link. He found them on Facebook, aired his gripe and the issue was resolved. He thanked them publicly on their Facebook page.
It doesn’t matter if you use Facebook, Twitter, or another social media network - social media is one of the five customer service trends that every company should be aware of and using.
We want to point out one more cool aspect of unsolicited positive buzz that is created on a business’s Twitter feed. Highly paid advertising copywriters are always trying to distill their messages down to short and pithy sentences and phrases. With its 140-character limit. Twitter users do that automatically!
Megan Totka is the Chief Editor for ChamberofCommerce.com. She specializes on the topic of small business tips and resources. ChamberofCommerce.com helps small businesses grow their business on the web and facilitates connectivity between local businesses and more than 7,000 Chambers of Commerce worldwide.
What’s a good name for a cute little business conference cartoon dog? It’s more work than you think.
Here’s what I went thrgouh before landing on Fifi:
Pookie
Snookie
Mr. Waggles
Buttons
Snuggles
Duchess Ophelia T. Wigglebottom
Snoofy
Monet
FrooFroo
Some are servicable and some are too “trying-to-be-a-funny-name†and some are confusing. I’d originally thought Fifi would be overdone like Fido, but in the end it was the best shorthand for a little tiny dog in this business conference cartoon.
What’s a good name for a cute little business conference cartoon dog? It’s more work than you think.
Here’s what I went thrgouh before landing on Fifi:
Pookie
Snookie
Mr. Waggles
Buttons
Snuggles
Duchess Ophelia T. Wigglebottom
Snoofy
Monet
FrooFroo
Some are servicable and some are too “trying-to-be-a-funny-name†and some are confusing. I’d originally thought Fifi would be overdone like Fido, but in the end it was the best shorthand for a little tiny dog in this business conference cartoon.
What’s a good name for a cute little business conference cartoon dog? It’s more work than you think.
Here’s what I went thrgouh before landing on Fifi:
Pookie
Snookie
Mr. Waggles
Buttons
Snuggles
Duchess Ophelia T. Wigglebottom
Snoofy
Monet
FrooFroo
Some are servicable and some are too “trying-to-be-a-funny-name†and some are confusing. I’d originally thought Fifi would be overdone like Fido, but in the end it was the best shorthand for a little tiny dog in this business conference cartoon.
Despite the average number of serious vulnerabilities per website declining in 2012, 86 per cent of all websites tested were found to have at least one serious vulnerability that exposed it to attack.
According to correlated vulnerability data from more than 650 organisations' websites by WhiteHat Security, ‘serious' vulnerabilities per website went down from 79 in 2011 to 56 in 2012. Serious vulnerabilities were defined as those in which an attacker could take control over all, or some part, of the website, compromise user accounts on the system, access sensitive data or violate compliance requirements.
However, the report discovered that 86 per cent of all websites tested were found to have at least one serious vulnerability that exposed it to attack every single day of 2012. Of those serious vulnerabilities, 61 per cent were resolved on average, and only 18 per cent of websites were vulnerable for fewer than 30 days. On average, resolving these vulnerabilities took 193 days from the first notification.
Jeremiah Grossman, co-founder and chief technology officer at WhiteHat Security, said that the collective data shows that many organisations do not yet consider they need to proactively do something about software security, and all too often there is a ‘wait until something goes wrong' approach.
“This needs to change, and we believe there is now an opportunity for a new generation of security leaders to emerge and distinguish themselves with an understanding of real business and security challenges,†he said.
“Our hope is that they will address these issues we have identified and base their decisions on a foundation of data to improve the state of web security over time.â€
The two most prevalent vulnerability classes in 2012 were information leakage and cross-site scripting, identified in 55 per cent and 53 per cent of websites respectively.
Despite the average number of serious vulnerabilities per website declining in 2012, 86 per cent of all websites tested were found to have at least one serious vulnerability that exposed it to attack.
According to correlated vulnerability data from more than 650 organisations' websites by WhiteHat Security, ‘serious' vulnerabilities per website went down from 79 in 2011 to 56 in 2012. Serious vulnerabilities were defined as those in which an attacker could take control over all, or some part, of the website, compromise user accounts on the system, access sensitive data or violate compliance requirements.
However, the report discovered that 86 per cent of all websites tested were found to have at least one serious vulnerability that exposed it to attack every single day of 2012. Of those serious vulnerabilities, 61 per cent were resolved on average, and only 18 per cent of websites were vulnerable for fewer than 30 days. On average, resolving these vulnerabilities took 193 days from the first notification.
Jeremiah Grossman, co-founder and chief technology officer at WhiteHat Security, said that the collective data shows that many organisations do not yet consider they need to proactively do something about software security, and all too often there is a ‘wait until something goes wrong' approach.
“This needs to change, and we believe there is now an opportunity for a new generation of security leaders to emerge and distinguish themselves with an understanding of real business and security challenges,†he said.
“Our hope is that they will address these issues we have identified and base their decisions on a foundation of data to improve the state of web security over time.â€
The two most prevalent vulnerability classes in 2012 were information leakage and cross-site scripting, identified in 55 per cent and 53 per cent of websites respectively.
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Small Business Trends: Can you tell us a little bit about yourself?
