TrustyCon: Malware expert Mikko Hypponen kicks off conference on \"trust\"

On Thursday, famed malware researcher Mikko Hypponen wasted no time addressing his decision to pull out of the RSA Conference.

Instead of presenting his talk on governments developing malware at RSA, he delivered his speech in an AMC movie theater directly across the street from one of the conference's massive venues in San Francisco's Moscone Center.

The largely filled 400-seat theater contained a lineup of speakers, such as Hyponnen, that pulled out of their RSA Conference talks after a December Reuters exposed an alleged $10 million deal between the National Security Agency (NSA) and security firm RSA, which led to the company using a weakened algorithm in one of its security products.

“RSA should have known better,” F-Secure's chief research officer Hypponen told attendees at the Trustworthy Technology Conference, called TrustyCon.

In its first year, the event was described by organizers as a “trust conference” - as opposed to a security conference.

“The suspicions had been floating around for years,” Hypponen said, referencing the flawed algorithm and RSA deal.

“And I'm not going to speak at the RSA Conference in the future either,” he later added.

Hypponen, who had spoken numerous years at the well-known RSA Conference in the past, said he distinctly remembers “being proud about seeing his name on the wall” during his first talk.

“Today, I'm happy not to have an RSA Conference badge on me,” he said.

After addressing his decision, he dived into his talk on how governments, which have entered into the space of writing malware, have completely transformed the level of sophisticated cyber threats users now face.

In his presentation, he gave an overview of the evolution of malware, from something often “written by 15-year-olds for fun,” in the early 90s, to the likes of Stuxnet and Flame, conceived and developed by nation states.

“If someone would have told me that 10 years ago, I would have thought it was a movie plot,” Hypponen shared, while ironically delivering his talk in front of the big screen featuring his PowerPoint presentation.

Upon increasing revelations about the U.S. government's ability to spy on, or target, the data of users around the globe, he said that it was a “failure” on the industry's part that there weren't many major internet service providers or software firms in Europe as compared to the U.S.

This fact puts global users in a dependent position with American companies, which often manage online services or handle data for worldwide users, Hypponen explained.

He later said that security is taken for granted when firms, who are hit by major breaches or cyber attacks, hardly ever suffer major consequences with lasting impact on the business - such as their stock significantly dropping or the company folding.

Security professional Alex Stamos, who helped organize TrustyCon, supported Hypponen's call to action for the security community.

“We are failing,” Stamos said of the industry, before introducing Hypponen.

He added that the community must stop blaming users for security shortcomings, and find ways, in spite of sophisticated actors, to latch onto avenues for “building technology that people can feel comfortable using from day to day.”

This article was originally published on SCMagazine.com.



RSA 2014: CTO demos mobile Wi-Fi hack to capture sensitive app data

At RSA Conference 2014, a CTO demonstrated a number of relatively easy ways that mobile devices can be pwned by attackers.

Of note, Jeff Forristal, CTO of San Francisco-based Bluebox Security, showcased one Wi-Fi attack method that could trick smartphones into connecting to spoofed service set identifiers (SSIDs), used to uniquely identify wireless networks.

Forristal presented the findings on Wednesday during a session, called “Predatory Hacking of Mobile Devices: Real Demos.” Throughout his talk, he emphasized the ease with which smartphones could auto-connect to fake networks leveraged to steal users' sensitive data.

To carry out the hack, Forristal said a Wi-Fi radio (used to broadcast "available," but spurious SSIDs) would be needed. In addition, a software access point, another radio, would be used to trick devices into taking the bait and connecting, he said.

With a third cellular radio, Forristal was able to verify the connection by giving mobile devices the information they requested. He noted that all of the tools needed for the hack were completely legal, and easily purchased.

A Wi-Fi pineapple, for instance, which can be purchased for around $100, was one of the devices that Forristal mentioned.

“This thing was purpose built for Wi-Fi shenanigans,” he told the crowd.

By exploiting security issues in Android or iOS devices (a WebView JavaScript callback issue in Android, and an iOS secure sockets layer verification error) and using the available tools, an attacker could launch man-in-the-middle attacks to glean clear text data exposed by mobile apps, Forristal said.

Information such as device IDs, GPS location data and international mobile station equipment identity (IMEI) numbers, were exposed by the popular weather app AccuWeather that was targeted in the demo.

Last July, Bluebox exposed a major vulnerability in Android devices which could allow an attacker to hijack any legitimate app without modifying its digital signature. And at this year's RSA Conference, Forristal demonstrated how a number of risky activities, combined with known flaws in devices, could further open devices to attacks resulting in data theft.

Haphazardly using Wi-Fi or Bluetooth connections, or downloading malicious or “leaky” apps, are a prime example of how mobile devices could be exposed, he explained.

“Every single one of those activities carries risks and opens up attack surfaces,” Forristal said.

This article was originally published SCMagazine.com.



98 Percent of Mobile Malware is Aimed at Android Users

mobile malware study

Ninety-eight percent of mobile malware is aimed at Android users, a report from security experts Kaspersky Labs says.

This is largely because of the popularity of the platform. But the study also notes the “vulnerability” of Android’s architecture as a reason the mobile operating system is vulnerable. And most of this malware is aimed at stealing money, including targeting credit card information.

The report also says the mobile malware economy has moved from individual actors to more organized groups of programmers and developers mostly designing malware for profit.

The study notes:

“It is safe to say that today’s cybercriminal is no longer a lone hacker but part of a serious business operation. There are various types of actors involved in the mobile malware industry: virus writers, testers, interface designers of both the malicious apps and the Web pages they are distributed from, owners of the partner programs that spread the malware, and mobile botnet owners.”

According to the study, a total of 143,211 new modifications of malicious programs targeting mobile devices were detected last year. Also, nearly 4 million installation packages were used by cyber criminals to distribute mobile malware. In the last two years, Kaspersky has identified 10 million unique malicious installation packages.

Malware is spread primarily through apps downloaded from third party sites other than Google Play though a recent report also indicates the amount of Google malware on Google’s store is also increasing.

Of course, being aware that your mobile device is nearly as vulnerable as your computer is the first step in protecting your business from being the next victim to an attack. We’ve recently noted that although mobile devices are increasingly being targeted, device makers are investing in defenses, too.

Image: Securelist/Kaspersky



CrowdtiltOpen Allows Free Crowdsourcing on Your Own Domain

The free, open-source crowdfunding site was launched last week. Unlike Indigogo, Kickstarter and similar sites, CrowdtiltOpen allows for full customization of the look and feel of your business’ crowdfunding site. You can even use your existing domain or another one.

For startups or companies looking to expand their profile by launching a crowdfunding campaign, this may be an ideal option. The company says that you can raise more money, establish your brand, and establish longer term relationships with your supporters through CrowdtiltOpen.

CrowdtiltOpen has several templates created for you to use, according to the company website. It also allows for HTML and CSS tweaking to get your crowdfunding pages exactly as you need them.

Crowdtilt’s Ajay Mehta writes that CrowdtiltOpen is doing for crowdfunding what WordPress did for blogging:

“By making powerful crowdfunding accessible, we’ve hopefully just scratched the surface of how organizations are using CrowdtiltOpen … and we can’t wait to see what the next year holds. [WordPress] changed blogging by making tools powerful enough for brands and individuals to create their own experiences. It’s time for crowdfunding to grow up, the same way that blogging has, over the past decade.”

CrowdtiltOpen allows your business to start a crowdfunding, pre-order or donation campaign through the platform. The site says it will handle the “back end” of your crowdfunding site, including processing payments and donations for non-profit organizations. The customizing of the look and feel is up to you.

Since it’s an open-source platform, CrowdtiltOpen is free to use. There are third-party services that can be integrated into your campaign, like ones that manage your payments and shipping. All campaigns provide analytics which tell you who your customers are. Successful campaigns only pay standard credit card fees.

This project started as Crowdhoster last year. Crowdtilt allowed hundreds of companies and non-profits toexperiment with the Crowdhoster platform. The company claims that some of the most successful crowdfunding campaigns have been launched through Crowdhoster. That includes a campaign for Soylent, a food/drink, which raised $2.1 million from about 20,000 contributors.

Crowdtilt says the company is working to integrate Bitcoin payment options for campaigns. It’s also developing a way to purchase multiple rewards in a single transaction.

Image: CrowdtiltOpen



CrowdtiltOpen Allows Free Crowdsourcing on Your Own Domain

The free, open-source crowdfunding site was launched last week. Unlike Indigogo, Kickstarter and similar sites, CrowdtiltOpen allows for full customization of the look and feel of your business’ crowdfunding site. You can even use your existing domain or another one.

For startups or companies looking to expand their profile by launching a crowdfunding campaign, this may be an ideal option. The company says that you can raise more money, establish your brand, and establish longer term relationships with your supporters through CrowdtiltOpen.

CrowdtiltOpen has several templates created for you to use, according to the company website. It also allows for HTML and CSS tweaking to get your crowdfunding pages exactly as you need them.

Crowdtilt’s Ajay Mehta writes that CrowdtiltOpen is doing for crowdfunding what WordPress did for blogging:

“By making powerful crowdfunding accessible, we’ve hopefully just scratched the surface of how organizations are using CrowdtiltOpen … and we can’t wait to see what the next year holds. [WordPress] changed blogging by making tools powerful enough for brands and individuals to create their own experiences. It’s time for crowdfunding to grow up, the same way that blogging has, over the past decade.”

CrowdtiltOpen allows your business to start a crowdfunding, pre-order or donation campaign through the platform. The site says it will handle the “back end” of your crowdfunding site, including processing payments and donations for non-profit organizations. The customizing of the look and feel is up to you.

Since it’s an open-source platform, CrowdtiltOpen is free to use. There are third-party services that can be integrated into your campaign, like ones that manage your payments and shipping. All campaigns provide analytics which tell you who your customers are. Successful campaigns only pay standard credit card fees.

This project started as Crowdhoster last year. Crowdtilt allowed hundreds of companies and non-profits toexperiment with the Crowdhoster platform. The company claims that some of the most successful crowdfunding campaigns have been launched through Crowdhoster. That includes a campaign for Soylent, a food/drink, which raised $2.1 million from about 20,000 contributors.

Crowdtilt says the company is working to integrate Bitcoin payment options for campaigns. It’s also developing a way to purchase multiple rewards in a single transaction.

Image: CrowdtiltOpen



RSA 2014: \'BYOD is not going away\'

Speakers at this week's RSA Conference in San Francisco stressed that the Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) trend is changing - not ending.

Coming on the back of reports of companies returning to corporate deployments or even embracing Choose Your Own Device (CYOD) schemes, SCMagazineUK.com spoke to Good Technology CTO Dr Nicko van Someren and Domingo J. Guerra, president and co-founder of mobile security start-up Appthority, to gauge the state of BYOD in business.

Van Someren, the former chief security architect at Juniper Network and also ex-CTO of nCipher, was keen to point out that BYOD isn't going away, and instead will be just one of many different deployment models for embracing mobile devices in the workplace.

He added that businesses have gradually shifted from initially wanting email access on their personal mobile devices, to now using them to run fully-functional applications for specific lines of business.

“It's been a bit of a journey - they started out with calendar, then email and now they want to open attachments and apps suitable for lines of business,” he told SCMagazineUK.com in a meeting just outside the Moscone Convention Centre.

“We see [the trend] going from this initial push of ‘let's get data out and in a way we can control' to moving to mobile-first.” Guerra, of Appthority, added that he too is seeing a mobile-first approach with enterprises starting to roll-out a handful of custom apps into their enterprise application stores.

Indeed, with a third of all workplace devices expected to be personally-owned by 2018, Someren is adamant that BYOD is now mainstream, with many businesses realising its value.

“There's going to be a wide spectrum of deployment models - BYOD is not going away, plenty of enterprises recognise the value to capex, that users like their devices and that they check their work email more often.”

But managing this via MDM tools has become too cumbersome, says Someren. “The buzzword for many years has been MDM, but the problem with it is that it has the wrong D. Mobile Device Management is a very blunt tool and the underlying problem here is data management.

“Device management might be part of it, but it's not the entire holistic solution.”

Appthority's Domingo J.Guerra added in an interview with SCMagazineUK.com that while some industries - and countries (he notes Germany as having stringent privacy laws) are backing away from BYOD, it is merely one choice of many in IT's arsenal.

A bigger issue however - he notes - is that whitelisting and blacklisting apps is becoming increasingly difficult in an age where top apps come and go in a short space of time.

“We analysed the top 100 apps on the App Store and found that 57 of them had disappeared [from the charts] within six months. There's not a lot of sticking power and white lists don't work for very long.”

As a further concern, Guerra said that there's “confusion” over ever-changing terms like MDM, Mobile Application Management (MDM) and Enterprise Mobility Management (MDM).

Malware threats live large

But defence is just one side of the coin for mobile security, as evidenced at the RSA Conference where speakers talked often of the rise of mobile malware.

Trustwave's Neal Hindocha demonstrated how hackers can track "touchlogging" on iOS and Android devices - even those which haven't been jailbroken or rooted - while reports outside of the show from FireEye and Kaspersky detailed cyber criminals increasing focus on attacking mobile platforms.

In a brief exchange with SCMagazineUK.com at the San Francisco conference, Lookout Security researcher Marc Rodgers detailed how mobile malware is changing. And while he said that cyber criminals often go for the ‘long-hanging fruit', he added that they will do anything to get their hands on personal data.

“Bad guys are already targeting devices for data, we know they have been targeting laptops for a while because a laptop with data is worth more on the black market than the hardware itself. The same thing has now happened to smart devices. A smartphone with data is worth 3 times its price on the black market without data.”

Larry Ponemon, founder and analyst at the Ponemon Institute, touched on this recently in an interview with SC.

“I believe the insecure app problem will get much worse in terms of stealth and sophistication of mobile malware,” he said via email. “This problem is exacerbated by the BYOD movement. Despite the predicted rise in mobile risk, I don't have much faith that end users will proactively defend their smartphones or tablets from criminal attacks.”



RSA 2014: \'BYOD is not going away\'

Speakers at this week's RSA Conference in San Francisco stressed that the Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) trend is changing - not ending.

Coming on the back of reports of companies returning to corporate deployments or even embracing Choose Your Own Device (CYOD) schemes, SCMagazineUK.com spoke to Good Technology CTO Dr Nicko van Someren and Domingo J. Guerra, president and co-founder of mobile security start-up Appthority, to gauge the state of BYOD in business.

Van Someren, the former chief security architect at Juniper Network and also ex-CTO of nCipher, was keen to point out that BYOD isn't going away, and instead will be just one of many different deployment models for embracing mobile devices in the workplace.

He added that businesses have gradually shifted from initially wanting email access on their personal mobile devices, to now using them to run fully-functional applications for specific lines of business.

“It's been a bit of a journey - they started out with calendar, then email and now they want to open attachments and apps suitable for lines of business,” he told SCMagazineUK.com in a meeting just outside the Moscone Convention Centre.

“We see [the trend] going from this initial push of ‘let's get data out and in a way we can control' to moving to mobile-first.” Guerra, of Appthority, added that he too is seeing a mobile-first approach with enterprises starting to roll-out a handful of custom apps into their enterprise application stores.

Indeed, with a third of all workplace devices expected to be personally-owned by 2018, Someren is adamant that BYOD is now mainstream, with many businesses realising its value.

“There's going to be a wide spectrum of deployment models - BYOD is not going away, plenty of enterprises recognise the value to capex, that users like their devices and that they check their work email more often.”

But managing this via MDM tools has become too cumbersome, says Someren. “The buzzword for many years has been MDM, but the problem with it is that it has the wrong D. Mobile Device Management is a very blunt tool and the underlying problem here is data management.

“Device management might be part of it, but it's not the entire holistic solution.”

Appthority's Domingo J.Guerra added in an interview with SCMagazineUK.com that while some industries - and countries (he notes Germany as having stringent privacy laws) are backing away from BYOD, it is merely one choice of many in IT's arsenal.

A bigger issue however - he notes - is that whitelisting and blacklisting apps is becoming increasingly difficult in an age where top apps come and go in a short space of time.

“We analysed the top 100 apps on the App Store and found that 57 of them had disappeared [from the charts] within six months. There's not a lot of sticking power and white lists don't work for very long.”

As a further concern, Guerra said that there's “confusion” over ever-changing terms like MDM, Mobile Application Management (MDM) and Enterprise Mobility Management (MDM).

Malware threats live large

But defence is just one side of the coin for mobile security, as evidenced at the RSA Conference where speakers talked often of the rise of mobile malware.

Trustwave's Neal Hindocha demonstrated how hackers can track "touchlogging" on iOS and Android devices - even those which haven't been jailbroken or rooted - while reports outside of the show from FireEye and Kaspersky detailed cyber criminals increasing focus on attacking mobile platforms.

In a brief exchange with SCMagazineUK.com at the San Francisco conference, Lookout Security researcher Marc Rodgers detailed how mobile malware is changing. And while he said that cyber criminals often go for the ‘long-hanging fruit', he added that they will do anything to get their hands on personal data.

“Bad guys are already targeting devices for data, we know they have been targeting laptops for a while because a laptop with data is worth more on the black market than the hardware itself. The same thing has now happened to smart devices. A smartphone with data is worth 3 times its price on the black market without data.”

Larry Ponemon, founder and analyst at the Ponemon Institute, touched on this recently in an interview with SC.

“I believe the insecure app problem will get much worse in terms of stealth and sophistication of mobile malware,” he said via email. “This problem is exacerbated by the BYOD movement. Despite the predicted rise in mobile risk, I don't have much faith that end users will proactively defend their smartphones or tablets from criminal attacks.”



Wix Small Business Breakfast Features Brooklyn Design Shop co-Founder (March 5th - NYC)

Wix and Infusionsoft are excited to host the second Small Business  Breakfast in New York City on 5 March 2014.

The featured expert is Stephanie Joy Benedetto Co-Founder and Business Director of Paper No. 9, a Brooklyn-based design lab specializing in bespoke sustainable textiles and limited edition products. Paper No. 9 was a 2013 WGSN Global Fashion Awards finalist and has been featured in Vogue, WWD, InStyle, Drapers, Interview, Fast Company, Huffington Post, and New York Magazine - The Cut.

The co-hosts are Annie Malarkey, Community Outreach Manager for Wix and Ramon Ray the Marketing and Technology Evangelist at Infusionsoft and Smallbiztechnology.com.

Check out more information at http://www.smallbizbreakfast.com



Customer Service Matters Much More Than You May Think

Customer service is a big “elephant in the room” for so many businesses out there. It’s really not easy to train yourself or your employees with the virtues required to be a well-rounded, service-minded personality - a person with all the necessary attributes to make patrons to your business happy each and every time.

Learn From the Baby Boomers…

One thing that’s caught a lot of young entrepreneurs off-guard as they’ve built their business is the fact that there’s an aged segment of customers out there (baby-boomers) who care just as much about the customer service experience they receive, as they do the quality of the product you’re selling them.

Scott Hume, Editor at BurgerBusiness, says:

“Baby boomers, guys like me, really value good service and a good experience.”

Gen Y and Gen Z individuals often don’t have the same expectations. To them, the concept of chivalry is a foreign one, and they’ve learned not to expect too much, particularly with regard to value-added-service.

Does that mean if your business sells more to one and not so much (or at all) to the other, that you should develop customer service practices that suit that specific demographic? Absolutely not. Even if your target demo doesn’t expect much of you, they’re ten times more likely to come back and do business with you next time, if they have a decent experience.

This is a universal reality across all businesses, regardless if you sell tangible or intangible products.

Poorly Misunderstood Benefits From Providing Top-Notch Customer Service

1. Getting it Right the First Time Generates More Profits

Poor service can be about how the order system functions, how the sales staff treats prospects, how you develop and then satisfy consumer expectations of your product/service, or simply the overall perception they’re left with after doing business with you (i.e. did they feel treated fairly or rudely).

What does this have to do with saving money, you ask?

Poor service = Poor quality = Poor Profits

It’s all about reworking. Every time you have to rework something it costs you money. If the customer feels like they were deceived, treated rudely, or any of their expectations weren’t met, it’s likely they’ll demand a refund, a redo, or a freebie - if you’re lucky. They may simply not come back and certainly won’t recommend you. One time sales rarely a rich man make.

Every rework costs you money, unless the customer’s the type to only give you one chance. Then you just lost a repeat customer and the word-of-mouth marketing they could have provided you. Indeed, poor service quality directly affects your bottom line.

2. When They Come Back and Bring Others With Them, You Make More Money

In most businesses, return customers and word-of-mouth are what will make you successful. Using the burger analogy, let’s run with a fictional customer service scenario about two different burger joints:

Exhibit A: The first burger place (Let’s call it “McGurdy’s”). Customers are greeted with a smile and the staff is taught to take their time answering any and all questions the customer might have. Each staff member is paid above minimum wage and the atmosphere is one of teamwork and positivity.

The burgers aren’t going to be featured on Gordon Ramsay’s signature menu at Caesar’s Palace, but the health standards are excellent, the service impeccable, and the food is on par with other fast food joints.

Exhibit B: The next burger place (“The Burger Pit”) makes the best burger mankind has ever tasted. This little shop is run under the thumb of one man; a surly old fella who screams orders at his staff, who get paid the minimum pay allowed by law.

The customer service staff jumps every time the old fella yells, often interrupting the customer service flow and interaction. The old man screams at staff for “talking to customers for too long” and tells customers who complain to leave his store and never return. The health standards are impeccable under the iron rule of the old fella, service is slow and disjointed, and the burgers are a fantastic experience to say the least.

Which would you choose? Naturally, customers will choose the best burger on the planet, no? After all, the quality of the product should dictate popularity. But it doesn’t.

Customers want to feel respected and listened to. Very few return customers would go to the Burger Pit over McGurdy’s because going to get the best burger means their patience is likely to be tried to the extreme, and they might have a downright unpleasant experience. The majority will go where the combination of product quality and service are best (a “happy medium” in the absence of a business that truly has all elements of their product and service covered.)

3. Staff Turnover Will Burn a Hole in Your Pocket

Franchise businesses understand this concept very well, yet they deal with more turnover costs than most small businesses make in a year. The small business owner has to learn this lesson the hard way, often letting ego get in the way of good judgement. The “take it or leave it” approach to staff management will eat a hole in your profits every time.

You’re probably wondering: How the heck did we get here? What does this have to do with good customer service and how poor service can cost me loads of cash?

Most employees, including front-line service employees, want to take pride in what they do. Also, every one of those employees is, and will again be, a customer at some point in their life.

Question: So they’re not happy because you don’t care about the service level - what are they going to do?

Answer: They’ll be less passionate about their job, making the customer’s experience even worse. Eventually, they’ll quit. Creating a positive, customer-focused environment is key. If your service levels are up to par, the majority of new hires will stick around longer-term, even if you’re in a high turnover industry like fast food.

How much money does turnover cost your business?

A lot more than most inexperienced managers and business owners think. Most employees are worth at least a couple of thousand (just in paperwork and training costs) after their first few days on the job.

Customer service matters - much more than you may think.

Customer Service Photo via Shutterstock



RSA 2014: Clarke, Hayden call for changes in intelligence-gathering

“When you find a vulnerability in encryption software you should fix it, not exploit it,” former U.S. cyber security advisor Richard Clarke said Tuesday during a packed session at the RSA Conference in San Francisco.

The thinly veiled reference to the controversy regarding the alleged shady deal between the National Security Agency (NSA) and security firm RSA drew scattered applause from the audience. Clarke also acknowledged that last year's revelations by Edward Snowden implied that as technology has advanced and grown, so had “the potential for a police surveillance state.”  

Beyond that, both Clarke and General Michael Hayden, formerly director of the NSA and of the CIA, downplayed concerns about the NSA “spying” scandal, stressing the program is both legal and not unexpected. Both men expressed doubt that other countries, including our allies, didn't know that spying was going on with Clarke characterizing the outrage as being as disingenuous as Peter Lorie in Casablanca when discussing gambling at Rick's.

“A lot of people knew it was going on and are doing it too,” Clarke said. Hayden noted that the program had been authorized by two presidents and received the required nods from Congress and the judicial branch.

While both speakers took jabs at Snowden, with Clarke at one point saying “it makes my blood boil” to hear supporters call him a whistleblower, they agreed that NSA bore responsibility for the steady stream of revelations. “If NSA had better internal security, none of this would have happened,” said Clarke.

The former government cyber security guru's 300-page Review Group on Intelligence and Communications Technology requested by President Obama made 46 recommendations for tightening NSA security and improving transparency of U.S. surveillance activity.

Clarke noted that both goals could be met more easily if senior policymakers in government “learn about intelligence and how it's collected,” clarify “what they want collected and not collected,” and then give NSA clear guidance.

This story was originally published on SCMagazine.com.



Create A Digital Velvet Rope To Boost Business

The Internet is many things, but there’s one thing that it isn’t: Exclusive.

Every tween from Albany to Zanzibar can access just about any location on the web. That makes it difficult for marketing professionals to capitalize on a basic human motivation: The desire to be part of an exclusive group.

New York City’s Studio 54 made the “velvet rope” famous back in the heyday of disco. Everyone who wanted to be somebody queued up behind the velvet rope with the hopes of being granted access to that mirrorball-bedazzled hallowed dance floor.

How can you reproduce that kind of emotional response at your website?

Simply put, you have to create “exclusivity,” either real or (somewhat) imagined. The desire to become part of the “privileged few” will help turn casual visitors to your site into regular users, customers, and names for your mailing list. Apple is a company that has worked hard to create the feeling of exclusivity around its brand of products. Here are some techniques that will work for you:

Early access. Give someone who signs up for your mailing list early access to downloading a white paper packed with great information. This is like sharing a secret with someone; it builds a special relationship between the people involved. It’s also a good technique because at some later date you can use the content for a more general purpose.

Members-only perks. This is a variation on the early access strategy. You can have pages on your site or privileges that are only available to those on your mailing list. This can be a message board, posting reviews, uploading photos, or the ability to ask you a question. Another members-only early-access perk would be advance notice of sales.

If you do this, we’ll…. If you’re promoting something like a webinar, you can mention special offers that will only be available to those who participate. “Only those who attend the webinar will receive free copies of the slides and a transcript of the session.” Or you can say, “At the end of the session, we will give you a link to a 50 percent savings on our newest widget.”

We only have space for 25. Put a cap on how many of an item you’ll sell or how many people can enroll in your event. Be honest about what you do. Adding something like, “This will not be available again until March 2015” is a way to give you the ability to re-offer the item/service and it also creates an additional sense of urgency.

Enlist the endorsement of a noted Twitter personality. If you want to introduce something new, connect with a person who is big on Twitter or a blog and say something like, “Only @exclusiveguy followers will get a link to download the beta of our new Android app.”

Google used this kind of “VIP access” to create buzz during the rollout of Google+, Gmail, and more. To get in on the early versions you had to be a friend-of-a-friend. There’s one more lesson we can learn from Google regarding this marketing technique: User expectations will be high when they sign up for something they feel is exclusive. Make sure what you offer is sign-up-worthy.

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.

Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/saxonmoseley/24523450/ ”Queue,” © 2004 Saxon Moseley, used under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/

China Based Huawei Introduces Five New Devices, Eyes U.S. Market

huawei

Chinese smart device maker Huawei unveiled a raft of new products at the GSM Association Mobile World Congress (MWC) over the weekend in Barcelona.

The company is the world’s third largest maker of smart phones and tablets right now, and that’s all without much activity in the U.S. But that may change soon. The company unveiled a smartphone, a 7-inch phablet, an 8-inch tablet, a mobile hotspot, and a wrist activity tracker at the event. Company leadership said that making headway in the U.S. is its next goal, according to a Reuters report.

If Huawei can eventually gain a footing in the U.S. market, it could be a boon for small business owners who feel they’re spending too much on technology. Huawei devices are known for their affordable prices but few mobile carriers are actually offering the phones and tablets.

At MWC, the company unveiled its new smartphone, the Ascend G6 4G. The new smartphone features a 4.5-inch LCD display, weighs 115 grams and is 7.85 millimeters thick. It  features a 5 megapixel front-facing camera and an 8 megapixel camera mounted on the rear of the device, too.

The company is also planning a 3G version of the Ascend G6 smartphone in a few weeks and 4G version available starting in April. There was no word on pricing but one review suggests that it could retail for about $330 US.

In addition to the smartphone, Huawei also unveiled its new 7-inch phablet device called the MediaPad X1 and an 8-inch tablet called the MediaPad M1.

Businesses might use the devices as a way to keep connected in an ever more mobile work environment. The company calls the MediaPad X1 the slimmest 7-inch phablet of its kind. It weighs 239 grams, is 7.18 millimeters thick and has a 13MP rear-facing camera. But it’s uncertain when the device will be available in the U.S.

The 8-inch MediaPad M1 is touted as an entertainment device, But it is loaded enough to get work accomplished, too. The device supports multi-window display so you can stream video while getting some work done at the same time. The device also has fast download and built in WiFi routers. The device will come to developing countries first before hopefully being available in the U.S.

Huawei also introduced its first mobile WiFi hotspot device, the Huawei E5786.

The company also unveiled its first wearable device, the TalkBand B1. It has a curved 1.4-inch screen and fits around the wrist. It can make and receive voice calls and can be synced to compatible Apple and Android devices.

Image: Huawei



3 Types of Social Media Marketers. Which One Are You? All About Me, Never Around or Givers

There’s three kinds of folks who are using social media, three kinds of social media marketers.

They are:

1. All about me

2. Never Around

3. Givers

(use the comment section below to give a shout out to your favorite social media marketer - at the end of the week I’ll send one of them, on your behalf, a gift card!)


These folks could represent yourself, a colleague, someone you follow on Twitter, a page you like on Facebook.

Watch my video about it below as well!

All About Me

These are people who ONLY Tweet about themselves. Who only post on Facebook abut themselves. When they post something on Instagram you know it’s a coupon to buy more of their products. These folks will most likely never succeed online.

Never Around

These are folks who hardly ever do anything on social media. They might Tweet like once a month or every quarter when they’re forced to by their PR company or their 13 year old marketing intern. They never engage, never post - they wonder why they only have 3 followers and why social media “is not working for them”. These are the heads of companies who are “too busy” to post a photo on Instagram. These are newbie small business owners who are waiting for the “perfect opportunity” to Tweet!

Givers

Givers are what we all want to buy. They know their audience, share with their audience what most benefits the audience, they share about other people (other businesses, etc) and they of course share what THEY are doing as well. They are givers.

Givers will always succeed in social media. When you share about others, others want to share about you. This was reinforced to me by Jeffrey Hayzlett last week at an NSA NYC meeting.


Check out Gary Vaynerchuk’s Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook.

Check out Ann Handley’s Content Rules

Check out Ramon’s Facebook Guide to Small Business Marketing

Watch how Melinda Emerson, Shashi Bellamkonda, Brian Moran , Gene Marks, Anita Campbell and Rieva Lesonsky are all about sharing online.

Here’s a video where I speak about this (below) or here - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F525L1mRcQU



Are You Discriminating Against Women Employees Without Even Knowing It?

The collaboration between Getty Images and Sheryl Sandberg’s Lean In organization to make stock photos less sexist is getting a lot of publicity. It’s also a great example of how stereotypes find their way into our minds. When we see businesswomen portrayed in photos as weak, ineffective or overtly sexualized, it has a cumulative effect on how we think about women in the workplace.

A Pew study about men and women at work reveals how stereotypes about working fathers and mothers are having a negative effect on women in the workplace.

Discrimination Against Women in the Workplace

The intensive investigation into how men and women balance work and family found that even when men and women do the same things to care for their families, such as cutting back hours or taking time off from work, it disproportionately affects women’s career progress more than men’s.

Could you be discriminating against female employees who have children without even knowing it?

Overall, 27 percent of working parents in the study say being a working parent made it harder for them to advance in their jobs. Just 7 percent percent say this made things easier.

However, there was a major gender gap:

  • 51 percent of working mothers with children under 18 say parenthood has made it harder to advance in their jobs.
  • 16 percent of working fathers with children under 18 say the same.

While you might think Millennials would be better at the whole “balancing act,” in fact, Millennial working mothers were even more likely to say that having children hinders their career advancement, and the gender gap was even bigger for them. Fifty-eight percent of Millennial mothers, compared to 19 percent of Millennial fathers, say being a parent makes it harder to advance in their jobs.

Of course, part of the traditional justification for women’s careers being negatively affected by motherhood is that women are more likely to take time out of the workforce to raise children. About half (53 percent) of working mothers with children under age 18 have taken a significant amount of time off from work, while 51 percent have reduced work hours, to care for a child or other family member.

However, the study found that taking time off, reducing hours or refusing a promotion in order to care for a family member was far more likely to hurt a woman’s career than a man’s. Thirty-five percent of women who took significant time off to care for a family member say it hurt their career, while just 17 percent of men who did the same say their advancement was hampered.

Are You Guilty of Stereotypes Against Working Moms?

Is a mom who takes time off, needs flexible hours or refuses a promotion seen as unreliable and uncommitted?

While for a man, do you see these acts as short-term needs that you’ll have to accommodate for a little while, but soon dad will be “back in the saddle” and ready to commit wholeheartedly to work again?

Just because you’re offering flextime or time off doesn’t mean you can’t be guilty of stereotyping. Are you offering working dads more challenging assignments or bigger clients, while assuming working moms won’t have time or dedication for such career-advancing projects?

Next time you think about who to promote, take a long, hard look about whether gender issues are entering into the equation. You might be surprised at what you find when you’re willing to look at the whole picture.

Discrimination Resentment Photo via Shutterstock

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Have You Ever Been to a 3D Printed Fashion Show?

3dprintshow

There are many ways 3D printing can be used in small business. It can be used to make prototypes, do small scale manufacturing and even industrial designing. And recently, a big show in New York City gave a glimpse of the full range of possibilities.

New York Fashion Week is a pretty well known event. But there was a new type of fashion show taking place in NYC recently, and it was a little unorthodox. 3D Printshow is an event that fuses fashion and other types of art with 3D printing.

3D Printshow originated in London in 2012 and has since expanded to five additional cities worldwide, including New York.

The NYC event launched with a fashion catwalk featuring 3D printed clothing from more than 20 designers. But the four-day event included more than just a fashion show. There were workshops and speakers to teach guests about 3D printing and how it can impact different types of businesses.

Creator Kerry Hogarth spoke with Popular Mechanics about the event:

“The show is designed not as a trade show. It’s designed as an experiential thing. The idea is that you show people where the technology is and where it’s going. The show is built to bring together the creative world and the manufacturing world and business and engineering, all in one platform, to talk about what’s possible and also [for people] to show their work.”

3D Printing has many potential business applications, particularly in creative fields. Movie studios can use it to create special effects and props. And thus video creators have similar options when creating creative content. Artists can use it to create sculptures or models. Designers can use it to create head-to-toe wearable art. The technology has already allowed for great advances in the medical field and a handful of other industries.

Last year UPS announced it would the add the printers to some of its stores so that businesses didn’t have to absorb the cost of purchasing one of these machines.

But even though it’s already been put into use by some businesses, it remains a new technology. Some businesses may still be trying to determine if and how this technology can  benefit them.

The 3D Printshow and similar events can provide creative and more practical entrepreneurs with the inspiration to use the technology to benefit their businesses in new ways. It will be interesting to see what innovations in business use will arise as a result.

Image: 3D Printshow