How to Use Cloud Apps to Streamline Your Marketing Campaign

Running a successful marketing campaign is contingent upon several factors. This includes realistic goal setting, organization, communication, execution, and keeping track of metrics. In the past, there were limited tools and resources to aid in a marketing campaign. These tools were primitive and many lacked efficiency. Fortunately, cloud apps have changed the marketing landscape and are ideal for business owners looking to streamline their marketing campaigns and their progress.

Let’s discuss the benefits of cloud apps and some of the best ones available for streamlining marketing campaigns.

Data Storage

Perhaps the most beneficial part of cloud apps is their ability to safely and securely store data. Whether you’re using spreadsheets, documents or forms, information can be conveniently saved and accessed whenever necessary. Since this data is in the cloud and not saved onto a computer, disc or USB, there are no worries about it being lost or destroyed.

Even if your computer has a meltdown, all data from your marketing campaign could easily be retrieved online. In an uncertain world where there’s always the potential for curveballs and human error, cloud apps offer marketers a peace of mind that critical data will never be lost.

It’s also relatively secure because the cloud can only be accessed by authorized individuals with the username and password.

Convenience

If you’re coordinating multiple people into your marketing campaigns, it’s important that everyone can quickly access the information they need. For instance, one person may be in charge of SEO, another in charge of social media and another responsible for email marketing. Using a cloud app allows each person to log in and work on whichever aspect of the campaign they need to from any location that has Internet access.

This means that a small business can efficiently run its marketing campaign with employees across the country or even the world. Since many cloud apps are also available on mobile devices like smartphones and tablets, this allows employees to complete tasks while they’re on the road and increase productivity.

Low Cost

Although big companies may have the funds to pay for elaborate software to run marketing campaigns, many small to mid-sized businesses are on a limited budget. Since many cloud apps are inexpensive or even free, they’re a great solution for staying on track without breaking the bank. Many cloud providers also operate on a pay-as-you-go basis, so there’s no need for long contracts and obligations. Besides this, updates and upgrades are usually part of the package, so there’s no need to pay additional fees.

Now that you understand what the inherent advantages of cloud apps are, let’s discuss some of the more popular products on the market.

Google Drive

This is the preferred choice of many marketers and business owners because it’s simple, effective and free. According to TechCrunch, Google Drive had over 10 million users as of mid 2012 and this number is likely to keep growing. It’s easy to use and allows you to create documents, spreadsheets, folders, forms, drawings and presentations. The interface has a minimalist aesthetic with a clean, white background.

Projects can be stored according to title, the last date they were modified, opened or edited for efficient organization. Unlike some more complicated apps, this platform is also highly intuitive and the basics can be learned by most people very quickly. This makes it practical and minimizes the learner’s curve. If you want to upload existing documents from your computer, it’s easy to do. Due to the large volume of free storage, it’s equipped to handle the data needs of most businesses.

My favorite part of Google Drive is the fact that it allows team members to collaborate simultaneously on the same document. This means the whole team can view and edit a spreadsheet together, improving collaboration and reducing headaches.

Many people also use Google Calendar, which is perfect for keeping track of deadlines and keeping things on schedule. It will also notify you via email when a project is due or of other important information.

HootSuite

When it comes to running a social media marketing campaign, this is one of the most popular and effective platforms. It allows you to manage profiles on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, FourSquare, Mixi and even Myspace. In a nutshell, HootSuite makes it easy to monitor user engagement and track the progress of a social media campaign.

For Facebook, you can monitor feeds and coordinate posts with greater ease. On Twitter, it’s simple to schedule tweets, track how many mentions a profile receives, favorite tweets, etc. Integrating HootSuite with Google+ makes it possible to monitor circles, comments and user activity. It also provides more control over publishing to maximize the impact of a campaign.

This platform incorporates a highly sophisticated analytics program to help marketers uncover information about their demographic. Data can be broken down by geographical location, language and posting source to gain insights. By integrating various social media profiles with this app, it will produce comprehensive analytics reports that can be broken down daily, weekly or bi-weekly. This makes it easy to spot trends and make the adjustments to better optimize a campaign.

Evernote

If you have a lot on your plate and are always coming up with ideas, this app can be very helpful. It can be accessed via computer, tablet or smartphone and allows you to store a variety of media. During a brainstorming session, you can conveniently make notes to view later. You can save images, important websites, files, snapshots and documents from one central location. Once data is saved, it can conveniently be retrieved on any compatible device regardless of where you’re at.

Collaborating on projects and sharing notes with employees is simple, which helps capitalize on new ideas while they’re still fresh. Evernote also has a feature that allows you to search for whatever you’re looking for via tags. Consequently, it can hasten any project and eliminates having to manually search for information. Basically, this cloud app is ideal for small marketing teams that need to quickly share information and boost productivity.

Regardless of the location of team members, everyone can work alongside one another to accomplish the most tasks with the least amount of effort. Since everything is stored online, there’s no need to worry about broken computers or losing valuable information.

Asana

When communication between employees is critical and there are tight deadlines, this app can come in handy. Asana is all about productivity and ensuring that each team member completes their tasks on time. Through Asana and email notifications, time sensitive information can be sent and received quickly. Individual employees can receive tasks, which can be prioritized according to importance.

Since you can view other team members’ tasks and priorities, this can reduce wasted time spent at meetings and more time can be dedicated to actually getting marketing done. If you’re behind on a certain project, you will know before it’s too late and you can take the necessary steps to get back on track. Like many other apps, Asana can be used on a variety of mobile devices for streamlined access to information. Basically, this app is intended to improve communication and boost productivity.

Cloud Apps Photo via Shutterstock

Users may remain vulnerable despite Oracle Java patch release

It was well into the afternoon before Oracle today released the significant group of security patches it pre-announced last week. Of the 40 patches in this update, fully 37 of them "may be remotely exploitable without authentication." However, evidence suggests most enterprises weren't drumming their fingers with impatience.

Odds are, in fact, most organizations will ignore this patch. Despite the release of a new version of Java with updated security features along with a Java patch update made available in mid-April, a Web security firm found nearly 93% of Java users remain unpatched to that version of the software.

Websense Inc. said Oracle's Critical Patch Update, released on April 16, included 42 new security fixes covering Java SE products. Of these, Oracle said 39 of the vulnerabilities could be remotely exploited without authentication; two are applicable to server deployments of Java.

Two days after the release, Websense reported less than 2% of users had adopted the Java patch update, known as Java SE Version 7, Update 21. One month into the release, Websense said the number of live Web requests using the most recent version of Java was a mere 7%.

"This leaves the majority of users still vulnerable to the dangers of exploit code already in use in the wild," Websense said in a June 4 blog post.

The San Diego-based company said its ThreatSeeker Network was used over the last seven weeks to track usage of the most recent version of Java. The tool collects content contained within webpages, documents, executable files, mobile applications, streaming, social media and emails.

As word of the Java patch update's availability spread via word of mouth and through Oracle's Java Auto Update, Websense said, "We've noted that some organizations [were] then willing to apply the patch." Still, 92.8% of Java users remain vulnerable.

Analysts said the ideal solution would be for companies to disable Java within the browser. "The challenge there is that many [organizations] don't even know what applications actually require Java to run, and disabling this would cause many apps to no longer function," noted Rick Holland, senior analyst for security and risk management at Cambridge, Mass.-based Forrester Research Inc. "Taking the time to take a full inventory of their application portfolio requires operations cycles that many companies don't have."

These operational challenges are among the reasons for delayed deployment of Java patch updates, Holland added. "Many companies have relatively mature patch and configuration management programs when it comes to the Microsoft suite of products, but once you start moving beyond these to third-party apps, the operational challenges become more acute," he said.

Users may remain vulnerable despite Oracle Java patch release

It was well into the afternoon before Oracle today released the significant group of security patches it pre-announced last week. Of the 40 patches in this update, fully 37 of them "may be remotely exploitable without authentication." However, evidence suggests most enterprises weren't drumming their fingers with impatience.

Odds are, in fact, most organizations will ignore this patch. Despite the release of a new version of Java with updated security features along with a Java patch update made available in mid-April, a Web security firm found nearly 93% of Java users remain unpatched to that version of the software.

Websense Inc. said Oracle's Critical Patch Update, released on April 16, included 42 new security fixes covering Java SE products. Of these, Oracle said 39 of the vulnerabilities could be remotely exploited without authentication; two are applicable to server deployments of Java.

Two days after the release, Websense reported less than 2% of users had adopted the Java patch update, known as Java SE Version 7, Update 21. One month into the release, Websense said the number of live Web requests using the most recent version of Java was a mere 7%.

"This leaves the majority of users still vulnerable to the dangers of exploit code already in use in the wild," Websense said in a June 4 blog post.

The San Diego-based company said its ThreatSeeker Network was used over the last seven weeks to track usage of the most recent version of Java. The tool collects content contained within webpages, documents, executable files, mobile applications, streaming, social media and emails.

As word of the Java patch update's availability spread via word of mouth and through Oracle's Java Auto Update, Websense said, "We've noted that some organizations [were] then willing to apply the patch." Still, 92.8% of Java users remain vulnerable.

Analysts said the ideal solution would be for companies to disable Java within the browser. "The challenge there is that many [organizations] don't even know what applications actually require Java to run, and disabling this would cause many apps to no longer function," noted Rick Holland, senior analyst for security and risk management at Cambridge, Mass.-based Forrester Research Inc. "Taking the time to take a full inventory of their application portfolio requires operations cycles that many companies don't have."

These operational challenges are among the reasons for delayed deployment of Java patch updates, Holland added. "Many companies have relatively mature patch and configuration management programs when it comes to the Microsoft suite of products, but once you start moving beyond these to third-party apps, the operational challenges become more acute," he said.

5 Tips Every Mobile Professional Needs To Keep Their Smartphone Secure

Brought to you by AVG Technologies, the provider of Internet and mobile security, privacy and optimization to 150 million active users. There’s nothing small about small business in our eyes. Get more information how AVG can help your small business simplify IT management - go to http://www.avg.com/cloudcare/us-en/homepage.html.

5 Tips Every Mobile Professional Needs To Keep Their Smartphone Secure

Mobile security is one of those things that many business owners don’t really want to talk about because they don’t see it as a major problem. This is exactly the kind of attitude that’s going to breed new types of threats added to the ones we already have. The importance of mobile security is difficult to fathom specifically because phones really didn’t have any danger of being hacked until recently.

The truth is that the tiny device you hold in your hand is in as much danger of being breached as your PC. Some would argue that mobile devices actually present an even bigger danger because of their physical portability. Since they’re small, you are able to take them with you wherever you go, making you easily capable of losing them. You can’t imagine that same thing happening to your desktop PC that sits neatly in your office.

Businesses are often quick to underestimate the impact that a data breach could have on a phone or a tablet. Your phone most likely stores your login sessions, passwords, digital wallets, and daily use applications. It’s a tiny storage place for all your personal information. If you leave a phone like that without any security, you’re putting something in your pocket every morning that leaves you openly exposed. Even if no one steals your phone, you’re probably also using the Wi-Fi network in your local coffee shop to log in to social networks like Facebook and Twitter, which can be sniffed by someone who’s also connected to the same network via another wireless device.

Exposing yourself is quite easy. On the other hand, shielding yourself from such exposure takes a little know-how:

• Get an app that can remotely wipe and locate your phone or tablet. Do this also for your employees. In case you or your employees ever lose your devices, the only thing standing between someone else’s hands and all the personal data in them is just thin air, literally. The best defense against this is the ability to wipe all the data from the phone as soon as you notice it’s missing.
• Password-protect devices. It may be a little annoying to type a password every time you activate your phone’s screen, but this method will give you plenty of time to do something about your lost phone before a perpetrator has any chance of getting access to what’s inside it.
• Do not modify your smartphones security settings. Also, discourage employees from doing this to the devices they bring to work. Jailbreaking, rooting, or tampering with the security settings undermines built in security features, which  make the device more vulnerable to malware.
• Install an antivirus product and keep it up to date. Having the most updated antivirus software on your smartphone keeps it one step ahead of any malware that can creep in even from the most trusted sources.
• Make sure that your phone is in a pocket or bag that’s secure and close to your body at all times. Don’t let the device leave your sight!

Let’s not forget that one of the top reasons for data compromise in smartphones is the user’s behavior and gullibility. Keep an eye out for signs of things that can’t be trusted. For example, an Android app that doesn’t come from Google Play should be looked at with scrutiny. If a site directs you somewhere else, consider it a red flag. Don’t forget to pass this information along to any employees. When you open your eyes and read between the lines of everything your mobile device does, keeping it secure becomes more simple!

5 Tips Every Mobile Professional Needs To Keep Their Smartphone Secure

Brought to you by AVG Technologies, the provider of Internet and mobile security, privacy and optimization to 150 million active users. There’s nothing small about small business in our eyes. Get more information how AVG can help your small business simplify IT management - go to http://www.avg.com/cloudcare/us-en/homepage.html.

5 Tips Every Mobile Professional Needs To Keep Their Smartphone Secure

Mobile security is one of those things that many business owners don’t really want to talk about because they don’t see it as a major problem. This is exactly the kind of attitude that’s going to breed new types of threats added to the ones we already have. The importance of mobile security is difficult to fathom specifically because phones really didn’t have any danger of being hacked until recently.

The truth is that the tiny device you hold in your hand is in as much danger of being breached as your PC. Some would argue that mobile devices actually present an even bigger danger because of their physical portability. Since they’re small, you are able to take them with you wherever you go, making you easily capable of losing them. You can’t imagine that same thing happening to your desktop PC that sits neatly in your office.

Businesses are often quick to underestimate the impact that a data breach could have on a phone or a tablet. Your phone most likely stores your login sessions, passwords, digital wallets, and daily use applications. It’s a tiny storage place for all your personal information. If you leave a phone like that without any security, you’re putting something in your pocket every morning that leaves you openly exposed. Even if no one steals your phone, you’re probably also using the Wi-Fi network in your local coffee shop to log in to social networks like Facebook and Twitter, which can be sniffed by someone who’s also connected to the same network via another wireless device.

Exposing yourself is quite easy. On the other hand, shielding yourself from such exposure takes a little know-how:

• Get an app that can remotely wipe and locate your phone or tablet. Do this also for your employees. In case you or your employees ever lose your devices, the only thing standing between someone else’s hands and all the personal data in them is just thin air, literally. The best defense against this is the ability to wipe all the data from the phone as soon as you notice it’s missing.
• Password-protect devices. It may be a little annoying to type a password every time you activate your phone’s screen, but this method will give you plenty of time to do something about your lost phone before a perpetrator has any chance of getting access to what’s inside it.
• Do not modify your smartphones security settings. Also, discourage employees from doing this to the devices they bring to work. Jailbreaking, rooting, or tampering with the security settings undermines built in security features, which  make the device more vulnerable to malware.
• Install an antivirus product and keep it up to date. Having the most updated antivirus software on your smartphone keeps it one step ahead of any malware that can creep in even from the most trusted sources.
• Make sure that your phone is in a pocket or bag that’s secure and close to your body at all times. Don’t let the device leave your sight!

Let’s not forget that one of the top reasons for data compromise in smartphones is the user’s behavior and gullibility. Keep an eye out for signs of things that can’t be trusted. For example, an Android app that doesn’t come from Google Play should be looked at with scrutiny. If a site directs you somewhere else, consider it a red flag. Don’t forget to pass this information along to any employees. When you open your eyes and read between the lines of everything your mobile device does, keeping it secure becomes more simple!

5 Ways to Avoid BYOD Nightmares

Ten or 15 years ago, managing your information technology was simpler in one sense.  A company decided on its computing environment -- its designated operating system, devices and software -- and that’s what employees used.  Period.

But then along came the BYOD trend.  BYOD, which stands for “Bring Your Own (computing) Device” to work, has swept America in the past five years.  Employees got used to using technology in their personal lives - so much so that that they didn’t want to give it up when at work.

We all seem to want the flexibility to work from home and while on business travel, using devices we individually feel comfortable with.  And of course we all want to use the coolest new mobile devices rather than staid company-issued laptops or desktop computers.

If your business is like ours, you’re now under pressure to allow employees to use their own smartphones, tablets and laptops for work.   A study last year found that 95% of large companies surveyed allow employees to use employee-owned devices for work.  It’s now become ingrained in the workplace.

The BYOD trend has benefits, to be sure.  It makes for happier employees.  They can be more productive while working outside the office.

BYOD Trend Challenges for Small Businesses

But the BYOD trend also poses extra challenges for businesses:

Control - One obvious thing is that it is harder to control your IT environment.  With companies relying more on technology to conduct business, there’s simply more to manage to make sure everything works as seamlessly as possible.  Top that off with employees using a variety of devices and operating systems … and complexity multiples.

Personal vs. Work - Then you have the morphing of personal activities with work activities when people use a single device for both.  The question becomes how to partition them. How do you keep personal email separate from work email in a way that employees don’t resent, and that protects both the company and the employee?

Mobility - Your team may work from different locations, such as their homes, or they may simply do more work while out in the field or on business trips. They will be using mobile devices and that brings added challenges. Mobile security is one of them - and that can be as simple an issue as a tablet getting lost.  One honeypot study found that when mobile devices where intentionally lost, in almost all cases the data was accessed, either for illicit purposes or simply to discover the owner.  If a mobility-related incident resulted in losses, the average was almost $250,000.

Security - Small businesses in general face more IT security challenges than ever before.  According to one study, companies with fewer than 250 employees were the focus of 31 percent of all cyber attacks last year.  And with so many different devices, and so many of them being mobile devices, security concerns are multiplying.

So, What Can You Do?

A lot, actually.  The most important thing is:  do not turn a blind eye to BYOD devices.

Recognize that the IT environment is very different today.  It calls for new policies, employee education, adoption of up-to-date best practices, and last but not least, implementing device management tools and other technology solutions designed for a BYOD environment.

Here are 5 steps to take to operate in a BYOD environment:

1 .  Require Notification

The whole idea behind the BYOD trend is giving greater freedom to employees. However, there are ways to achieve a sense of freedom, without abdicating control altogether.   For one thing, make it a policy that all devices have to be “registered with” or brought to the attention of your  IT administrator or any outside firm that assists you with IT, so that device management solutions can be enabled.  Some employers exert more control by creating a list of  ”approved BYOD devices.”  While this poses some restrictions on employees, at least it meets them halfway.  You have to know who is using what.

2.  Adopt Best Practices

For instance, require mobile devices to be secured with a password-protected screen lock when not in use.  Also, require employees to notify the company immediately in the event a mobile device is lost or stolen.  These and other best practices will help protect your business.

3.  Create a Policy

With freedom comes responsibility. Create a written BYOD policy for employees. This could be in the form of a memo, incorporated into the employee handbook, and/or placed on the company intranet.  Make employees aware of what is acceptable, and what’s not.

4.  Educate Employees

Take the time to educate employees about the challenges and risks.  You’ll get more cooperation if they understand the “why” behind rules.  A lunch and learn session or simply bringing up the topic in staff meetings can go a long way.

5.  Implement a mobile device management solution

This is probably one of the most crucial things you can do.  A mobility management solution gives you a way to manage multiple devices and applications, from a central dashboard.  It enables you to view the “big IT picture” and treat BYOD devices as integral points in your IT systems - not something separate or unrelated.

Look for one that offers robust security and that protects important company data.  Security certainly will be at the top of the list.  But you also want the ability to monitor and manage mobile devices.

Beyond that, some mobility management solutions can help you manage expenses, too, through consolidated reporting.  You can manage different devices and different plans through a single dashboard.

Advanced security specifically for mobile devices, such as capabilities for remote wipe of data in the event a mobile device is lost, and data encryption, can create peace of mind.

Data archiving solutions can also add to convenience. They help you meet disaster recovery and legal archiving requirements, and further secure your IT assets.

Bottom line:  there is a lot you can do to allow employees the freedom and flexibility to use devices they prefer.  You don’t have to sacrifice protection of your business assets or create an unwieldy logistical situation in doing it.

Shutterstock: BYOD Message, Mobile, BYOD at Work

5 Ways to Avoid BYOD Nightmares

Ten or 15 years ago, managing your information technology was simpler in one sense.  A company decided on its computing environment -- its designated operating system, devices and software -- and that’s what employees used.  Period.

But then along came the BYOD trend.  BYOD, which stands for “Bring Your Own (computing) Device” to work, has swept America in the past five years.  Employees got used to using technology in their personal lives - so much so that that they didn’t want to give it up when at work.

We all seem to want the flexibility to work from home and while on business travel, using devices we individually feel comfortable with.  And of course we all want to use the coolest new mobile devices rather than staid company-issued laptops or desktop computers.

If your business is like ours, you’re now under pressure to allow employees to use their own smartphones, tablets and laptops for work.   A study last year found that 95% of large companies surveyed allow employees to use employee-owned devices for work.  It’s now become ingrained in the workplace.

The BYOD trend has benefits, to be sure.  It makes for happier employees.  They can be more productive while working outside the office.

BYOD Trend Challenges for Small Businesses

But the BYOD trend also poses extra challenges for businesses:

Control - One obvious thing is that it is harder to control your IT environment.  With companies relying more on technology to conduct business, there’s simply more to manage to make sure everything works as seamlessly as possible.  Top that off with employees using a variety of devices and operating systems … and complexity multiples.

Personal vs. Work - Then you have the morphing of personal activities with work activities when people use a single device for both.  The question becomes how to partition them. How do you keep personal email separate from work email in a way that employees don’t resent, and that protects both the company and the employee?

Mobility - Your team may work from different locations, such as their homes, or they may simply do more work while out in the field or on business trips. They will be using mobile devices and that brings added challenges. Mobile security is one of them - and that can be as simple an issue as a tablet getting lost.  One honeypot study found that when mobile devices where intentionally lost, in almost all cases the data was accessed, either for illicit purposes or simply to discover the owner.  If a mobility-related incident resulted in losses, the average was almost $250,000.

Security - Small businesses in general face more IT security challenges than ever before.  According to one study, companies with fewer than 250 employees were the focus of 31 percent of all cyber attacks last year.  And with so many different devices, and so many of them being mobile devices, security concerns are multiplying.

So, What Can You Do?

A lot, actually.  The most important thing is:  do not turn a blind eye to BYOD devices.

Recognize that the IT environment is very different today.  It calls for new policies, employee education, adoption of up-to-date best practices, and last but not least, implementing device management tools and other technology solutions designed for a BYOD environment.

Here are 5 steps to take to operate in a BYOD environment:

1 .  Require Notification

The whole idea behind the BYOD trend is giving greater freedom to employees. However, there are ways to achieve a sense of freedom, without abdicating control altogether.   For one thing, make it a policy that all devices have to be “registered with” or brought to the attention of your  IT administrator or any outside firm that assists you with IT, so that device management solutions can be enabled.  Some employers exert more control by creating a list of  ”approved BYOD devices.”  While this poses some restrictions on employees, at least it meets them halfway.  You have to know who is using what.

2.  Adopt Best Practices

For instance, require mobile devices to be secured with a password-protected screen lock when not in use.  Also, require employees to notify the company immediately in the event a mobile device is lost or stolen.  These and other best practices will help protect your business.

3.  Create a Policy

With freedom comes responsibility. Create a written BYOD policy for employees. This could be in the form of a memo, incorporated into the employee handbook, and/or placed on the company intranet.  Make employees aware of what is acceptable, and what’s not.

4.  Educate Employees

Take the time to educate employees about the challenges and risks.  You’ll get more cooperation if they understand the “why” behind rules.  A lunch and learn session or simply bringing up the topic in staff meetings can go a long way.

5.  Implement a mobile device management solution

This is probably one of the most crucial things you can do.  A mobility management solution gives you a way to manage multiple devices and applications, from a central dashboard.  It enables you to view the “big IT picture” and treat BYOD devices as integral points in your IT systems - not something separate or unrelated.

Look for one that offers robust security and that protects important company data.  Security certainly will be at the top of the list.  But you also want the ability to monitor and manage mobile devices.

Beyond that, some mobility management solutions can help you manage expenses, too, through consolidated reporting.  You can manage different devices and different plans through a single dashboard.

Advanced security specifically for mobile devices, such as capabilities for remote wipe of data in the event a mobile device is lost, and data encryption, can create peace of mind.

Data archiving solutions can also add to convenience. They help you meet disaster recovery and legal archiving requirements, and further secure your IT assets.

Bottom line:  there is a lot you can do to allow employees the freedom and flexibility to use devices they prefer.  You don’t have to sacrifice protection of your business assets or create an unwieldy logistical situation in doing it.

Shutterstock: BYOD Message, Mobile, BYOD at Work

3 Steps To A Guilt-Free Vacation

I am blogging on behalf of Visa Business and received compensation for my time from Visa for sharing my views in this post, but the views expressed here are solely mine, not Visa’s. Visit http://facebook.com/visasmallbiz to take a look at the reinvented Facebook Page: Well Sourced by Visa Business. The Page serves as a space where small business owners can access educational resources, read success stories from other business owners, engage with peers, and find tips to help businesses run more efficiently. Every month, the Page will introduce a new theme that will focus on a topic important to a small business owner’s success.For additional tips and advice, and information about Visa’s small business solutions, follow@VisaSmallBiz and visit http://visa.com/business.    

3 Steps To A Guilt-Free Vacation

With so many things on our to-do lists, the idea of taking a week or two off to lounge by a pool all day seems preposterous. Without our presence on site to supervise everything, our businesses will fall apart, we assume. At the very least, we’ll return from vacation to find tasks have piled up while we’ve been away, causing us to work three times as hard playing catch-up.

On those rare occasions we do take a day or two off, we spend the day checking our e-mails and talking to clients by phone. All of this constant connectedness has a price: in a study of 13,000 middle-aged men, respondents who skipped vacations for five years in a row were 30 percent more likely to have a heart attack than those who took one week off per year.  A separate study of women found that vacationing women were eight times less likely to suffer coronary heart disease than women who skip vacations for six years or longer.

Vacationing has psychological benefits, as well. Small business owners can easily put in 15-hour days, working nights, weekends, and even holidays. Being constantly connected to work has consequences, namely burnout. Taking a week or two off will likely result in you returning refreshed and recharged, ready to take on the challenges that lay ahead. Before you go another year without a week off, here are three steps to a guilt-free vacation.

Step 1: Choose a Week

One of the biggest deterrents to annual vacations is choosing a week. Some of my colleagues have a set week each year that becomes “vacation time.” Whether they rent a condo at the beach or fly across the world, that’s time they set aside to enjoy family. Having a pre-scheduled week allows clients, employees, and colleagues to plan in advance to work around that one week per year. Even if you like to be more flexible in your vacation times, force yourself to choose at least one week per year and put it on the schedule well in advance.

Step 2: Set Automatic Replies

When you leave for vacation, set an “away message” on your work voicemail and e-mail. Let callers know that you are away from the office and will have limited access to messages. Leave an alternate number of an employee who can provide immediate assistance and let callers and e-mailers know that you’ll attend to messages as soon as you return. Doing this will free you up to truly enjoy yourself while you’re away.

Step 3: Leave the Cell Phone Behind

One of the best things about taking a cruise is that it disconnects you from the real world in a way a trip to the coast never can. If possible, leave your work phone at home, but if you absolutely can’t disconnect from your clients completely, at least leave it in your hotel room, safely packed away. Give yourself a time of day each day to check for emergency messages and enjoy your day. If there are messages, do not respond unless it is an absolute emergency. Remember, time away is good for your help.

You’ll be amazed how understanding your customers are when you tell them you’ll be out of touch for a week. Many of them take annual vacations themselves. Any client who is angered by your need to get a week off every now and then probably isn’t a client you would want to work with long-term.

Most of all, one of the best ways to fully enjoy your vacation is to have a staff member you can trust to run things in your absence. If you are a one-person shop, consider hiring an answering service or a temporary worker to handle small administrative tasks in your absence. You’ll be much more relaxed on your vacation if you know someone is taking care of clients while you’re gone.

In recognition of the 50th anniversary of National Small Business Week, Visa Business created the following infographic highlighting eye-opening facts about small business owners and examining important small business trends.  

     

3 Steps To A Guilt-Free Vacation

I am blogging on behalf of Visa Business and received compensation for my time from Visa for sharing my views in this post, but the views expressed here are solely mine, not Visa’s. Visit http://facebook.com/visasmallbiz to take a look at the reinvented Facebook Page: Well Sourced by Visa Business. The Page serves as a space where small business owners can access educational resources, read success stories from other business owners, engage with peers, and find tips to help businesses run more efficiently. Every month, the Page will introduce a new theme that will focus on a topic important to a small business owner’s success.For additional tips and advice, and information about Visa’s small business solutions, follow@VisaSmallBiz and visit http://visa.com/business.    

3 Steps To A Guilt-Free Vacation

With so many things on our to-do lists, the idea of taking a week or two off to lounge by a pool all day seems preposterous. Without our presence on site to supervise everything, our businesses will fall apart, we assume. At the very least, we’ll return from vacation to find tasks have piled up while we’ve been away, causing us to work three times as hard playing catch-up.

On those rare occasions we do take a day or two off, we spend the day checking our e-mails and talking to clients by phone. All of this constant connectedness has a price: in a study of 13,000 middle-aged men, respondents who skipped vacations for five years in a row were 30 percent more likely to have a heart attack than those who took one week off per year.  A separate study of women found that vacationing women were eight times less likely to suffer coronary heart disease than women who skip vacations for six years or longer.

Vacationing has psychological benefits, as well. Small business owners can easily put in 15-hour days, working nights, weekends, and even holidays. Being constantly connected to work has consequences, namely burnout. Taking a week or two off will likely result in you returning refreshed and recharged, ready to take on the challenges that lay ahead. Before you go another year without a week off, here are three steps to a guilt-free vacation.

Step 1: Choose a Week

One of the biggest deterrents to annual vacations is choosing a week. Some of my colleagues have a set week each year that becomes “vacation time.” Whether they rent a condo at the beach or fly across the world, that’s time they set aside to enjoy family. Having a pre-scheduled week allows clients, employees, and colleagues to plan in advance to work around that one week per year. Even if you like to be more flexible in your vacation times, force yourself to choose at least one week per year and put it on the schedule well in advance.

Step 2: Set Automatic Replies

When you leave for vacation, set an “away message” on your work voicemail and e-mail. Let callers know that you are away from the office and will have limited access to messages. Leave an alternate number of an employee who can provide immediate assistance and let callers and e-mailers know that you’ll attend to messages as soon as you return. Doing this will free you up to truly enjoy yourself while you’re away.

Step 3: Leave the Cell Phone Behind

One of the best things about taking a cruise is that it disconnects you from the real world in a way a trip to the coast never can. If possible, leave your work phone at home, but if you absolutely can’t disconnect from your clients completely, at least leave it in your hotel room, safely packed away. Give yourself a time of day each day to check for emergency messages and enjoy your day. If there are messages, do not respond unless it is an absolute emergency. Remember, time away is good for your help.

You’ll be amazed how understanding your customers are when you tell them you’ll be out of touch for a week. Many of them take annual vacations themselves. Any client who is angered by your need to get a week off every now and then probably isn’t a client you would want to work with long-term.

Most of all, one of the best ways to fully enjoy your vacation is to have a staff member you can trust to run things in your absence. If you are a one-person shop, consider hiring an answering service or a temporary worker to handle small administrative tasks in your absence. You’ll be much more relaxed on your vacation if you know someone is taking care of clients while you’re gone.

In recognition of the 50th anniversary of National Small Business Week, Visa Business created the following infographic highlighting eye-opening facts about small business owners and examining important small business trends.  

     

How Do Your Business’s Hiring Plans Stack Up?

Is your small business ready to hire or does it have any immediate hiring plans? If not, you’re in line with the majority of small and midsized companies in the U.S., according to the latest Sage SMB Hiring Outlook Survey from Sage North America.

According to Sage, 25 percent of SMBs overall say they either have hired or will hire in 2013, while 47 percent expect staffing to stay the same. Only 7 percent have cut or plan to cut staff this year. The rest still weren’t sure of their hiring plans.

The survey polled businesses with 99 or fewer employees. Companies with more than 20 employees were significantly more likely to have already hired or have hiring plans. Thirty-four percent of companies of this size had hired or plan to hire, while 34 percent planned to keep staffing levels the same. In comparison, just 18 percent of companies with fewer than 20 employees had hired or plan to hire, while 55 percent plan to keep staffing levels the same.

However, size wasn’t the biggest factor in whether a company has hired or will hire this year. Increased demand for its products or services was the primary influencer, cited by 81 percent of companies that are hiring. Larger companies (with 20 or more employees) were also more likely to be hiring because they felt optimistic about the economyâ€"36 percent cited an improved economic outlook as a reason they were hiring.

The biggest reason companies aren’t hiring?

Not surprisingly, it’s lack of demand for their products or services (40 percent), followed closely by economic uncertainty (39 percent), non-healthcare-related costs of doing business (26 percent) and continued uncertainty in Washington (20 percent).

Prior Sage surveys reported taxes and regulations hampered SMB growth, but this survey shows that although both taxes and regulations are factors in hiring, they aren’t top factors for not hiring. Small business owners are a sensible lot, and what’s happening in their own companiesâ€"not factors outside their controlâ€"is the primary driver for their choices.

There’s also some heartening news among the companies that have hired or plan to hire this year: A whopping 82 percent plan to bring on full-time employees, while 29 percent plan to hire part-timers, 19 percent plan to hire seasonal workers and 10 percent plan to hire contract workers.

As small business owners know, hiring full-time employees is a leap of faith since full-timers typically cost more than other types of employees in terms of training, benefits and wages. Plus, few entrepreneurs relish bringing on full-time workers only to lay them off againâ€"so business owners are typically feeling pretty confident before they bring on new full-time staff.

The prevalence of business owners who are committed to full-time hiring means a significant percentage of entrepreneurs are feeling optimistic about their futuresâ€"and that’s good news.

Hiring Photo via Shutterstock

How Do Your Business’s Hiring Plans Stack Up?

Is your small business ready to hire or does it have any immediate hiring plans? If not, you’re in line with the majority of small and midsized companies in the U.S., according to the latest Sage SMB Hiring Outlook Survey from Sage North America.

According to Sage, 25 percent of SMBs overall say they either have hired or will hire in 2013, while 47 percent expect staffing to stay the same. Only 7 percent have cut or plan to cut staff this year. The rest still weren’t sure of their hiring plans.

The survey polled businesses with 99 or fewer employees. Companies with more than 20 employees were significantly more likely to have already hired or have hiring plans. Thirty-four percent of companies of this size had hired or plan to hire, while 34 percent planned to keep staffing levels the same. In comparison, just 18 percent of companies with fewer than 20 employees had hired or plan to hire, while 55 percent plan to keep staffing levels the same.

However, size wasn’t the biggest factor in whether a company has hired or will hire this year. Increased demand for its products or services was the primary influencer, cited by 81 percent of companies that are hiring. Larger companies (with 20 or more employees) were also more likely to be hiring because they felt optimistic about the economyâ€"36 percent cited an improved economic outlook as a reason they were hiring.

The biggest reason companies aren’t hiring?

Not surprisingly, it’s lack of demand for their products or services (40 percent), followed closely by economic uncertainty (39 percent), non-healthcare-related costs of doing business (26 percent) and continued uncertainty in Washington (20 percent).

Prior Sage surveys reported taxes and regulations hampered SMB growth, but this survey shows that although both taxes and regulations are factors in hiring, they aren’t top factors for not hiring. Small business owners are a sensible lot, and what’s happening in their own companiesâ€"not factors outside their controlâ€"is the primary driver for their choices.

There’s also some heartening news among the companies that have hired or plan to hire this year: A whopping 82 percent plan to bring on full-time employees, while 29 percent plan to hire part-timers, 19 percent plan to hire seasonal workers and 10 percent plan to hire contract workers.

As small business owners know, hiring full-time employees is a leap of faith since full-timers typically cost more than other types of employees in terms of training, benefits and wages. Plus, few entrepreneurs relish bringing on full-time workers only to lay them off againâ€"so business owners are typically feeling pretty confident before they bring on new full-time staff.

The prevalence of business owners who are committed to full-time hiring means a significant percentage of entrepreneurs are feeling optimistic about their futuresâ€"and that’s good news.

Hiring Photo via Shutterstock

4 Tips On How To Make The Most of Earned Media

Making your earned media an effective source of new traffic can sometimes be a difficult process to manage.

You have a great third party endorsement whether it be a positive review or great press coverage. But one earned media placement only goes as far as the immediate audience and it may not be the right audience.

Here are a few tips to make the most of your earned media.

1. Keep Track of It
You may find a number of earned media placements are not the result of your direct PR efforts, in which case are you certain you’re aware each time your brand is mentioned in the press?  Set up a mechanism for routinely gathering this information (daily, if possible).  Google Alerts is a simple solution.

2. Amplify It
Think of content marketing like oral storytelling; once the story’s been told, it can be passed on to other audiences in ways organic and paid. Let your goals dictate which channels you pursue for each piece of earned media. For example, if your goal is to drive conversions, that means attracting the most qualified audience. Outbrain’s solution to increasing the circulation of your story is placing it in front of engaged audiences on some of the most high-traffic areas of the web - premium publisher sites. Driving traffic to your earned media has a number of other benefits beyond sheer reach. The more people engage with it, the longer the shelf-life for your content.

3. Repurpose It
One of the undervalued aspects of earned media is that the parties producing it have different perspectives and ideas about your brand, product, the market etc. For this reason, earned media can be a springboard for owned media. If a piece of earned media highlights a problem, misconception, or even a positive asset related to your business that you had never considered before, use it as an opportunity to generate your own content addressing those issues or demonstrating those assets.

4. Further Media Relations
One of the most important audiences to reach, regardless of your consumer base, is other media outlets. Compelling earned media can open up further organic media relations, improve your media pitches and lead to more overall placements [see how Fleishmann Hillard did this], all the more reason to amplify it and increase its overall visibility. If your press contacts have been reading about your brand recently or have just seen your name pop up in a couple of key places, they might be more receptive to your pitches or otherwise including your brand in their editorial.

4 Tips On How To Make The Most of Earned Media

Making your earned media an effective source of new traffic can sometimes be a difficult process to manage.

You have a great third party endorsement whether it be a positive review or great press coverage. But one earned media placement only goes as far as the immediate audience and it may not be the right audience.

Here are a few tips to make the most of your earned media.

1. Keep Track of It
You may find a number of earned media placements are not the result of your direct PR efforts, in which case are you certain you’re aware each time your brand is mentioned in the press?  Set up a mechanism for routinely gathering this information (daily, if possible).  Google Alerts is a simple solution.

2. Amplify It
Think of content marketing like oral storytelling; once the story’s been told, it can be passed on to other audiences in ways organic and paid. Let your goals dictate which channels you pursue for each piece of earned media. For example, if your goal is to drive conversions, that means attracting the most qualified audience. Outbrain’s solution to increasing the circulation of your story is placing it in front of engaged audiences on some of the most high-traffic areas of the web - premium publisher sites. Driving traffic to your earned media has a number of other benefits beyond sheer reach. The more people engage with it, the longer the shelf-life for your content.

3. Repurpose It
One of the undervalued aspects of earned media is that the parties producing it have different perspectives and ideas about your brand, product, the market etc. For this reason, earned media can be a springboard for owned media. If a piece of earned media highlights a problem, misconception, or even a positive asset related to your business that you had never considered before, use it as an opportunity to generate your own content addressing those issues or demonstrating those assets.

4. Further Media Relations
One of the most important audiences to reach, regardless of your consumer base, is other media outlets. Compelling earned media can open up further organic media relations, improve your media pitches and lead to more overall placements [see how Fleishmann Hillard did this], all the more reason to amplify it and increase its overall visibility. If your press contacts have been reading about your brand recently or have just seen your name pop up in a couple of key places, they might be more receptive to your pitches or otherwise including your brand in their editorial.

Twitter Chat #SmBizEdge: Startup Tips That Make the Difference in Success

It’s Small Business Week in the United States, and in honor of that we invite you to participate in a live Twitter chat on Tuesday, June 18, 2013 at 8 p.m. EST, presented by FedEx Office.

The topic is:  Startup Tips That Make the Difference in Success. We’ll be discussing what it takes to be successful when starting a business and growing it.

We hope you’ll join in and pose any questions you may have.  Or if you have any Read More

The post Twitter Chat #SmBizEdge: Startup Tips That Make the Difference in Success appeared first on Small Business Trends.

Presentations: How to Make Your Message Stick

With over 350 Powerpoint presentations given each second across the globe, how does one go about making theirs stand out from all the others? This infographic by Slideshop provides some valuable advice and tips on how to make your presentation or message stand out.

The post Presentations: How to Make Your Message Stick appeared first on Small Business Trends.

Which Sole Proprietors Cheat on Their Taxes (According to the IRS)?

If you are non-native-English-speaking man who runs a construction or real estate rental business, hires a tax preparer rather than doing his own taxes, and thinks that making money enhances social status, beware. Research by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) indicates that you are among the sole proprietors most likely to cheat on your personal income taxes.

Running your own business is one of the best ways to pay less in taxes than you owe, a recent New York Times Read More

The post Which Sole Proprietors Cheat on Their Taxes (According to the IRS)? appeared first on Small Business Trends.

Speed Up Your Mobile Browsing with Dolphin

When you browse the Web on a cell phone, you want it to be fast. You may think that all you need is a faster connection to speed up browsing, but it could be something as simple as downloading a better Web browser built for mobile. This review of the Dolphin browser is for the increasingly-mobile business owner who wants to be more productive and is looking for lifehacks to get there.

I’ll start out by saying that I love Read More

The post Speed Up Your Mobile Browsing with Dolphin appeared first on Small Business Trends.

Review of Hootsuite: Manage Social Media From A Single Dashboard

Last year we published a list of 20 Social Media Monitoring Tools. One of the more popular tools on that list is Hootsuite. Today we give you a deep dive into Hootsuite:  what it is and how it can make you more productive with social media.

If you are looking for a tool that lets you manage all of your social media accounts and presence in a single place, and collaborate as a team on them, then Hootsuite should be at the top of your list to investigate.

Hootsuite is a Web-based tool (although it also can be used on popular mobile devices- see screenshot above).

You take a few minutes to set up a Hootsuite account;  then connect your various social media profiles.  After this one-time setup, you will be able to use it.  Here are 4 essential functions that Hootsuite performs:

1. Manage Your Social Accounts in One Place

You do this from the Hootsuite dashboard, without visiting each site separately or using a multitude of different mobile apps.  This includes replying to others, retweeting, “liking,” sharing and responding to private messages, and otherwise carrying out activity on your social accounts.

The activities that you can perform vary by social media platform. You won’t be able to do every single thing for your Facebook Page, for instance. But we’ve found that we can do 90% of our day-to-day social activities from within Hootsuite.

You can manage Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, LinkedIn, Google Plus, MySpace, WordPress and Mixi â€" individual profiles and business pages.

2. Schedule Updates

The built-in calendar is one of the most important features. Use it to schedule posts to your social accounts.  In other words, you can keep your accounts active. More importantly, you can be efficient by scheduling all your social updates at one time for, say scheduling once a day or once a week. In other words, you can “batch” your work. Then you aren’t constantly interrupting other activities to update social accounts throughout the day or week.

There’s also an auto-schedule feature that will automatically schedule your tweets and updates to go out at optimal times.

Running a marketing campaign and have a lot of updates to make over a period of say, two weeks?  You can actually upload a CSV spreadsheet for all the messages.

If you prefer “set it and forget it” automation, you can add RSS feeds to automatically update social accounts every time a new article goes out from your company blog, for example.  You can set it to post one item at a time (recommended) or more.  You can direct it to check for new items in the feed and post them, once per hour or up to once per day.

3. Communicate and Collaborate as a Team

You can assign tasks, such as responding to a tweet or a private direct message, to a team member, as seen above.  No emails or separate instant message instructions needed. Assignments are right there within the Hootsuite dashboard.

Also, because multiple users can use Hootsuite, everyone can “see” what activity is completed or hasn’t been done yet.  Again, no communicating via email or messaging programs to find out if someone followed up on that Twitter customer complaint yet, or not.   How many users you can have depends on which product level and upgrades you have purchased.

4. Get Analytics and Reports

Fragmented results here and there don’t do much to help you analyze and understand how well social media is working â€" or not.  For that, you really need to see a bird’s eye view of activity over a period of time, and be able to compare it.

Many social media platforms now offer analytics.  But who has time to run and grab those analytics from Facebook Insights, or a multitude of other social sites?  Hootsuite’s built-in analytics and reports  give this kind ability to track your progress and understand what’s working best, in one place.

Best of all, you can get weekly reports emailed to you.  These are extremely helpful.  For instance, here at Small Business Trends we review the analytics reports in staff meetings from time to time.

What I Like About Hootsuite

The company keeps investing in enhancements to its platform.  Hootsuite just keeps getting better.  And that’s not always true with products.

Here are two aspects that are particularly impressive:

Integration / Interoperability With Other Marketing Applications

You’re not limited to managing just the 8 social media platforms Hootsuite currently covers. You can extend capabilities to other social media sites and even other programs, by adding “apps” from the Hootsuite Apps Directory.

For instance, you’ll find apps for social sites such as Instagram, Tumblr, Flickr, Scoop.it, YouTube and several more (see screenshot below).

Then there are apps that offer some level of integration or interoperability with popular marketing and CRM programs that businesses use.  There are apps for ConstantContact, Nimble, HubSpot, Salesforce, ZenDesk and more.  What exactly the apps allow you to do with Hootsuite varies by app.  For a description of one such app, see our write-up about the Batchbook and Hootsuite integration.

Most apps are free.  Some, like the app for Salesforce, require an additional monthly fee. But even the paid premium apps are relatively inexpensive. Apps usually cost less than $5 per month per premium app.

I like the fact that Hoosuite has been open to allowing these kinds of apps, through its developer program.  It makes Hootsuite more useful as a central dashboard and management tool.

Different Pricing Levels to Meet Different Needs

Another positive aspect of Hoosuite is that it offers different pricing and feature levels.

There’s a free level, for a single user to update 5 social profiles.  This is good for a really small startup or sole proprietor.  It’s also a risk-free way to try out Hoosuite.

The Pro version, currently $8.99  a month  - the price recently went up â€" can be used with a small team of two users.  Additional users can be added for a fee.  The added users can vary â€" anywhere from $10 to $15 for the third user, and $15 to $30 each additional after that.  It all depends on whether you are under the “new” pricing or old.

Note that some of the features in this review may only be available at the Pro level.

With Pro you can manage an unlimited number of social profiles.  You receive an enhanced analytics report, and can choose an unlimited number of apps.  There’s a 30-day free trial of this version, too.  The Pro version is what most small businesses likely will use.

The Enterprise version is for, well, large enterprises.  Pricing is not even available on the site for Enterprise.  The Enterprise version adds advanced features, such as advanced security, geo-targeting, advanced customer support. It also adds Hootsuite University, an online training program for social media and learning to use Hootsuite.

There’s a discount of 10% for annual billing instead of monthly, for some savings.

What I’d Like to See Hootsuite Do Differently

While I like the different levels of Hootsuite, some small businesses may consider it expensive to purchase certain add-ons ala carte.  The cost can really add up.

Hootsuite University is one such add-on I’ve heard people kvetch about.  Ala carte it’s $21 per month.  Small business teams really could benefit from training. But the pricing model poses a challenge.  Small business owners I’ve heard from are concerned that once you sign up for a monthly fee, if team members don’t use it, you could find your organization a year later paying for a service that’s rarely been used - just because somebody forgot to cancel it.  A one-time fee per user would solve that issue.

Another pricing issue is the limitations and expense of using vanity URL shorteners for brand enhancement of your links shared.  For instance, at Small Business Trends we’ve started using our own URL shortener of http://SBT.me.    Hootsuite allows custom URLs â€" but only if you sign up for Owly Pro.  That costs $49.99 per month.

Small businesses will be very cost sensitive about social media tools. Just 39% of small businesses say they get ROI from social media. Of those the majority isolate the dollar value to under $1,000 per year.

Still, at the base price of under ten bucks a month, Hootsuite Pro delivers excellent value. The base price should be affordable by most small businesses.  Just be careful about those add-ons!

At Small Business Trends we are paid customers of Hootsuite. We did not get any special consideration for this review.

More About Hootsuite

As mentioned, Hootsuite is a Web-based based app, and can be used from most modern browsers.  There are extensions (“hootlets” or “hootbars”) for Chrome and Firefox browsers.

Hootsuite offers mobile apps so that you can manage your social presence from an iPhone, Android devices and the iPad.

HootSuite Media, Inc. was founded in 2008 by Ryan Holmes, who is also the company CEO. Its headquarters is located in Vancouver, BC, Canada.  It has over 6 million users, who send 3 million messages a day through the dashboard.

Overall, Hootsuite is the gold standard today for managing your social media accounts.  It offers a strong affordable mix for small business users.

Review of Hootsuite: Manage Social Media From A Single Dashboard

Last year we published a list of 20 Social Media Monitoring Tools. One of the more popular tools on that list is Hootsuite. Today we give you a deep dive into Hootsuite:  what it is and how it can make you more productive with social media.

If you are looking for a tool that lets you manage all of your social media accounts and presence in a single place, and collaborate as a team on them, then Hootsuite should be at the top of your list to investigate.

Hootsuite is a Web-based tool (although it also can be used on popular mobile devices- see screenshot above).

You take a few minutes to set up a Hootsuite account;  then connect your various social media profiles.  After this one-time setup, you will be able to use it.  Here are 4 essential functions that Hootsuite performs:

1. Manage Your Social Accounts in One Place

You do this from the Hootsuite dashboard, without visiting each site separately or using a multitude of different mobile apps.  This includes replying to others, retweeting, “liking,” sharing and responding to private messages, and otherwise carrying out activity on your social accounts.

The activities that you can perform vary by social media platform. You won’t be able to do every single thing for your Facebook Page, for instance. But we’ve found that we can do 90% of our day-to-day social activities from within Hootsuite.

You can manage Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, LinkedIn, Google Plus, MySpace, WordPress and Mixi â€" individual profiles and business pages.

2. Schedule Updates

The built-in calendar is one of the most important features. Use it to schedule posts to your social accounts.  In other words, you can keep your accounts active. More importantly, you can be efficient by scheduling all your social updates at one time for, say scheduling once a day or once a week. In other words, you can “batch” your work. Then you aren’t constantly interrupting other activities to update social accounts throughout the day or week.

There’s also an auto-schedule feature that will automatically schedule your tweets and updates to go out at optimal times.

Running a marketing campaign and have a lot of updates to make over a period of say, two weeks?  You can actually upload a CSV spreadsheet for all the messages.

If you prefer “set it and forget it” automation, you can add RSS feeds to automatically update social accounts every time a new article goes out from your company blog, for example.  You can set it to post one item at a time (recommended) or more.  You can direct it to check for new items in the feed and post them, once per hour or up to once per day.

3. Communicate and Collaborate as a Team

You can assign tasks, such as responding to a tweet or a private direct message, to a team member, as seen above.  No emails or separate instant message instructions needed. Assignments are right there within the Hootsuite dashboard.

Also, because multiple users can use Hootsuite, everyone can “see” what activity is completed or hasn’t been done yet.  Again, no communicating via email or messaging programs to find out if someone followed up on that Twitter customer complaint yet, or not.   How many users you can have depends on which product level and upgrades you have purchased.

4. Get Analytics and Reports

Fragmented results here and there don’t do much to help you analyze and understand how well social media is working â€" or not.  For that, you really need to see a bird’s eye view of activity over a period of time, and be able to compare it.

Many social media platforms now offer analytics.  But who has time to run and grab those analytics from Facebook Insights, or a multitude of other social sites?  Hootsuite’s built-in analytics and reports  give this kind ability to track your progress and understand what’s working best, in one place.

Best of all, you can get weekly reports emailed to you.  These are extremely helpful.  For instance, here at Small Business Trends we review the analytics reports in staff meetings from time to time.

What I Like About Hootsuite

The company keeps investing in enhancements to its platform.  Hootsuite just keeps getting better.  And that’s not always true with products.

Here are two aspects that are particularly impressive:

Integration / Interoperability With Other Marketing Applications

You’re not limited to managing just the 8 social media platforms Hootsuite currently covers. You can extend capabilities to other social media sites and even other programs, by adding “apps” from the Hootsuite Apps Directory.

For instance, you’ll find apps for social sites such as Instagram, Tumblr, Flickr, Scoop.it, YouTube and several more (see screenshot below).

Then there are apps that offer some level of integration or interoperability with popular marketing and CRM programs that businesses use.  There are apps for ConstantContact, Nimble, HubSpot, Salesforce, ZenDesk and more.  What exactly the apps allow you to do with Hootsuite varies by app.  For a description of one such app, see our write-up about the Batchbook and Hootsuite integration.

Most apps are free.  Some, like the app for Salesforce, require an additional monthly fee. But even the paid premium apps are relatively inexpensive. Apps usually cost less than $5 per month per premium app.

I like the fact that Hoosuite has been open to allowing these kinds of apps, through its developer program.  It makes Hootsuite more useful as a central dashboard and management tool.

Different Pricing Levels to Meet Different Needs

Another positive aspect of Hoosuite is that it offers different pricing and feature levels.

There’s a free level, for a single user to update 5 social profiles.  This is good for a really small startup or sole proprietor.  It’s also a risk-free way to try out Hoosuite.

The Pro version, currently $8.99  a month  - the price recently went up â€" can be used with a small team of two users.  Additional users can be added for a fee.  The added users can vary â€" anywhere from $10 to $15 for the third user, and $15 to $30 each additional after that.  It all depends on whether you are under the “new” pricing or old.

Note that some of the features in this review may only be available at the Pro level.

With Pro you can manage an unlimited number of social profiles.  You receive an enhanced analytics report, and can choose an unlimited number of apps.  There’s a 30-day free trial of this version, too.  The Pro version is what most small businesses likely will use.

The Enterprise version is for, well, large enterprises.  Pricing is not even available on the site for Enterprise.  The Enterprise version adds advanced features, such as advanced security, geo-targeting, advanced customer support. It also adds Hootsuite University, an online training program for social media and learning to use Hootsuite.

There’s a discount of 10% for annual billing instead of monthly, for some savings.

What I’d Like to See Hootsuite Do Differently

While I like the different levels of Hootsuite, some small businesses may consider it expensive to purchase certain add-ons ala carte.  The cost can really add up.

Hootsuite University is one such add-on I’ve heard people kvetch about.  Ala carte it’s $21 per month.  Small business teams really could benefit from training. But the pricing model poses a challenge.  Small business owners I’ve heard from are concerned that once you sign up for a monthly fee, if team members don’t use it, you could find your organization a year later paying for a service that’s rarely been used - just because somebody forgot to cancel it.  A one-time fee per user would solve that issue.

Another pricing issue is the limitations and expense of using vanity URL shorteners for brand enhancement of your links shared.  For instance, at Small Business Trends we’ve started using our own URL shortener of http://SBT.me.    Hootsuite allows custom URLs â€" but only if you sign up for Owly Pro.  That costs $49.99 per month.

Small businesses will be very cost sensitive about social media tools. Just 39% of small businesses say they get ROI from social media. Of those the majority isolate the dollar value to under $1,000 per year.

Still, at the base price of under ten bucks a month, Hootsuite Pro delivers excellent value. The base price should be affordable by most small businesses.  Just be careful about those add-ons!

At Small Business Trends we are paid customers of Hootsuite. We did not get any special consideration for this review.

More About Hootsuite

As mentioned, Hootsuite is a Web-based based app, and can be used from most modern browsers.  There are extensions (“hootlets” or “hootbars”) for Chrome and Firefox browsers.

Hootsuite offers mobile apps so that you can manage your social presence from an iPhone, Android devices and the iPad.

HootSuite Media, Inc. was founded in 2008 by Ryan Holmes, who is also the company CEO. Its headquarters is located in Vancouver, BC, Canada.  It has over 6 million users, who send 3 million messages a day through the dashboard.

Overall, Hootsuite is the gold standard today for managing your social media accounts.  It offers a strong affordable mix for small business users.

Call for vendors to share incident data to better help users

Vendors with vast incident data repositories could help users if they shared what threat data they had with their competitors.

Speaking to SC Magazine, Amar Singh, CISO at News International and head of the UK security group at ISACA, said that detection is a huge issue for businesses due to the scale of the data that they are collecting and this is a challenge for businesses, as they have to dig into the data to find out what happened even post incident.

He said: “There is so much data in an organisation, it is not an audit as it is not being done and there is no central depository for that, and that creates interesting challenges as you will only find out when the media tells you something has happened.”

Singh said that sharing information is really important and predicted that in future it will take place more, but that the biggest problem in relation to information sharing is that it may lead to something being released. He said that the vendors are "repositories of unbelievable information that can be shared", but that they need to work together, as it can help any organisation in any sector improve their security posture.

He said: “Maybe all these companies need to sit down with the government, but I think that they are talking about a different type of threat; well most organisations need to work together to come out with an acceptable single [policy] and that is really key here.

“Everyone is working on their own and then they relax as you cannot exchange anything. That is pretty sad, as what is the point of having a UK-specific exchange medium? It would be great if these huge repositories holding information could be shared correctly so users could improve their security postures. Starting with baby steps could lead to a significant difference to organisations.”

Check Point is one vendor that believes in the principle of companies anonymously sharing threat data, and released its ThreatCloud service in 2012. 

Gabi Reish, head of product management at Check Point, said: “Check Point strongly believes in the value of sharing cyber threat data and feeds as a way to mitigate attacks and, just as importantly, expedite our response to attacks (which today can stay undetected for months or years).

“This collaboration should be done between customers, with mechanisms such as Check Point ThreatCloud facilitating the sharing of attack information and newly-discovered attack vectors between users. In addition, this collaboration should be based on sharing of feeds and findings between vendors. Check Point is taking steps in this direction in order to enrich ThreatCloud's knowledge with intelligence collected by other vendors.”

Imperva launched the crowd-sourced threat intelligence service ThreatRadar Community Defense in April of this year. Amichai Shulman, CTO and co-founder at Imperva, said: “We actually are getting data from other sources today - we buy some and we source some through open source groups as well as from our customers.

“Since we see the value in sharing threat data between customers of the same vendor, it makes sense to aggregate shared threat data from different, competing vendors. I think that in practice we are not going to see this happening in the application security area any time soon. This has to do with inherent fear of ‘helping' the competition as well as the natural evolution of such data exchange programs. In addition, for competitors to share directly would require standards for normalisation of data.

“The issues [Singh] raised are valid points that can be solved once individual vendors get more proficient with using their own data and agree to standards. Only then, there's a chance that organisations (including ourselves) begin to tackle the psychological barrier of sharing information with the competition. It is important to note that we are in the early stages of this with gathering data from other sources today. It took a while for anti-virus vendors to work it out.”

Nawaf Bitar, general manager of the security business unit at Juniper Networks, told SC Magazine in April that Juniper was very willing to share information with partners and users, and it had agreed to collaborate with RSA on sharing threat intelligence for its Junos Spotlight Secure and the RSA Live system.

Henrik Davidsson, director of security sales EMEA at Juniper Networks, said: “By sharing data among all vendors, we will be able to better identify the bad guys early, preventing attacks. This way, users will have the protection of the IT security industry at large and not just one vendor.

“At Juniper, we already share our knowledge of potential risks with partners and we agree that the industry needs to think hard about how we can collaborate to truly protect all users and enterprises.”

Security disconnect in business shows differences between executives and technicians

There is a disconnect between executives and technicians when assessing how secure a company is from cyber threats that reveals differing views on the challenges and successes.

According to a survey of 3,037 individuals - 1,944 technicians and 1,093 executives - by FireEye and the Ponemon Institute, 32 per cent of executives described their organisation's cyber security posture as excellent, in comparison with 18 per cent of technicians.

The report found that 23 per cent of executives, compared with just three per cent of technicians, felt their organisation's cyber security strategy was not aligned with its overall business objectives.

Greg Day, chief technology officer of EMEA at FireEye, said: “Low awareness of current risks and lack of communication are evidently rife in UK organisations. This is particularly concerning as it impacts the ability to make smart investments - without which effective defences against advanced, targeted attacks cannot be built.

“The upshot of this report is that the level of investment in cyber defences is simply not aligned with the escalating threat level in the UK. The striking disconnect between executives and technicians suggests that businesses are ill-equipped and unprepared, despite the fact that targeted and sophisticated attacks are skyrocketing.”

Executives and technicians were slightly more aligned on the increase in attacks on their business, with 41 per cent of executives and 46 per cent of technicians reporting this. Further, 69 per cent of executives and 76 per cent of technicians indicated that their organisation had suffered a data breach in this period.

“The fact remains that organisations with intellectual property and other sensitive data within their networks are a lucrative target for hackers, and with the stakes higher than ever, enterprise teams must unite and make sure that they are all on the same page, in order to reduce the overall risk,” Day said.