Top Five Things You Can Do to Legally Protect Your Company

By Jennifer A. Mansfield

Social media has had a vast and positive effect on business marketing. A quick tweet or Facebook posting can reach billions of consumers at almost no cost to the company.

Below is a list of the top five things your company can do to protect itself legally in this new communications world. This list is by no means comprehensive. But it can provide a useful jumping off point for getting your legal social media house in order–and potentially saving your company millions in liability.

1. Have a Security Plan–and Follow It.

New media present new means for a company’s employees, through wrongdoing or inadvertence, to release confidential or sensitive information. Hackers are also a constant threat. The improper release of confidential information can lead to unwanted publicity and legal exposure. Make sure your computer data is protected.

The FTC has taken the position that if a company is not taking reasonable steps to protect personally identifiable information (PII) in its possession, it is participating in a deceptive act under federal law. Are your company’s data–including laptops–encrypted? If the PII of your customers is too easy to access, you may be facing the FTC in the future.

Thus, due diligence in selecting and monitoring your IT security vendors is essential. Establish policies on how PII is handled and be sure the policies are followed. Technology continues to evolve at a rapid pace. Consequently, your company should review its IT systems and vendors on a regular basis.

2. Have an Emergency Breach Plan.

Notwithstanding all the efforts your company may make, hackers will always exist and people will make mistakes. Since a good defense is often a good offense, the company should plan for the worse case scenario–a breach. The plan should include a checklist of who should be contacted internally at the company, and who legally needs to be contacted outside the company. Create an emergency response team, including key personnel from IT, risk management, legal, and PR. Have key contractors in place BEFORE you need them, and a list of critical steps that must be taken to both mitigate the breach and complete the required legal notifications.

Having a plan developed before a breach could save both time and money later in the event a breach occurs.

3. Have Terms of Use and Privacy Policies for Your Websites.

Government regulations concerning advertising or communicating to others via social media can impose restrictions and regulation, as well as safe harbors from liability. Terms of Use and Privacy Practices govern not only how your company interacts with its website users, but are also tools to ensure that your company is complying with applicable regulations.

When drafting Terms of Use or Privacy Policies, keep in mind that according to the FTC, your Terms of Use and Privacy Policies are contracts between you and your website users. So, be honest and realistic. It might sound like great advertising to boast that you have the most up-to-date data security programs and procedures to protect your clients’ data, but is that a promise you can keep? How often would you be required to buy more software or hardware to keep that promise? If you have a breach, would an investigator conclude that your system was the “most up-to-date” available at the time of the breach? Terms of Use and Privacy Policies are not marketing tools; they are contracts. Careful thought must be taken when deciding what a company can promise to its social media users.

4. Have Employment Policies That Address Social Media

Employers are increasingly using social media to support their recruitment efforts and to research job candidates. But sometimes employers will receive information via social media that they cannot lawfully consider when hiring, such as race or religion. If the employer receives that information anyway, it must take steps to ensure that it does not base hiring decisions on the protected status. Company policies should be implemented setting out what information can be considered when hiring, and whether or when an Internet search will be conducted on candidates.

Social media posts on company sites also provide fertile fodder for disparate treatment claims. A mid-level manager’s discriminatory animus or statements could support a discrimination claim against the company. While employers should not be held liable for comments made on non-work related social media sites they don’t know about, they are potentially liable when they learn about harassing posts, but do nothing to stop the conduct.

Workplace use of social media can also bring federal labor law claims. Even in right-to-work states like Florida, the law protects employees’ discussions of the “terms and conditions of employment.” For this reason, the National Labor Relations Board has ruled in a number of cases that employers have violated the National Labor Relations Act by firing employees for their social media posts reacting to the terms and conditions of their employment. Likewise, the NLRB has found employee policies that violate the act when they can be interpreted to prevent or punish employees for speaking about the terms or conditions of employment with their coworkers. Therefore, even non-unionized companies should consult an attorney before firing someone over a social media post or implementing social media policies.

Companies should implement clear policies that address which employees can use social media in the workplace, what types of materials they may post, and that the company expects all employees to safeguard proprietary and private information at all times.

Employee policies should also include the proper use of intellectual property. Many people have the mistaken impression that if they find a photograph or video on the Internet, it’s okay to reuse it. But the copyright to any creative work on the Internet presumptively remains the property of the creator or the creator’s assignee. Companies, therefore, need to be careful before lifting material off the Internet and using it for themselves.

5. Train Your Employees Regularly

The above steps will be meaningless without training your employees. Company managers should be trained in employee privacy rights, laws against discriminatory communications in the workplace, federal labor relations laws, and other legal issues protecting employee communications. Appropriate Internet use on company time should become a regular part of new-employee training, and should be reinforced through company in-services and written internal communications.

With proper training and risk management, social media can provide a low-cost and reasonably safe environment for companies to expand their businesses and engage their consumers.

By Jennifer A. Mansfield

She is with the Data Security and Privacy Team and National Media Practice Team of Holland & Knight LLP and is resident in the firm’s Jacksonville, FL office.

By Mary Fisher

Your company’s success on the Internet is closely tied to how well you understand and implement Search Engine Optimization techniques. Google Juice is the value that Google assigns to each element on your website, that helps position it on the search engines. While there is no perfect recipe, knowing the proper ingredients to Google Juice will give you the greatest shot at a high-profile presence on the Internet.

Let’s look at some of the ways in which you can optimize your site for better search engine ranking without paying thousands of dollars to Google.

Google Rules When It Comes to SEO
Search Engine Optimization, or SEO, is the art of pushing your website ranking higher on the search engines. Google makes the rules on the Internet, since 70% of all Internet searches are done using Google search engines. And so, we must follow the rules or subject ourselves to banishment from rankings. If you employ SEO techniques Google doesn’t approve of, they may simply delist your website entirely, and then no one can find you in Google. This can happen to any business. If you don’t want to be in Google purgatory, it is imperative you have an experienced and knowledgeable company handle your SEO.

Google likes to mix it up and regularly change the way in which it ranks websites, without telling us what it is doing. One thing is for sure, however, linking your website via the other websites that Google owns—YouTube, Google Places (maps), and Google + (Google’s answer to Facebook), has become increasingly important.

Your Domain Name (URL)
Include good keywords and avoid acronyms or hard-to-spell words. The suffix “.com” is preferable to any others. Use words in your domain name that people would use to search for your company, and it will provide the most Google Juice of any technique listed (such as www.JacksonvilleRacingBikes.com).

The Page Title
Every single page of your website needs a unique title containing important keywords that pertain to that particular page’s content or main topic. This ensures that every page of your website can be seen by the various search engines.

Lots of Backlinks
These are links to your company’s website from other websites, particularly those that are pertinent to your industry. A lot of Google Juice is given to backlinks (sometimes called inbound links) that come from popular websites that have a high number of visitors, and are relevant to your business. Have your website listed on directories like Manta, Merchant Circle, Hotfrog, Bing Local, Yahoo Local, and Google+ Local.

Internal Cross Linking
Create hyperlinks from keyword phrases from one page of your website to another.

Keyword Rich Text
Use keywords and phrases in your text that the average person would put into the search engine to find your site, such as your products and services. Target different keyword phrases on each page. Don’t forget to include, on your homepage, the geographic regions you serve and your current business physical address. (You would be surprised how many addresses are not up-to-date.)

Bold Subheads

Each and every page of your website should use properly coded bold subheads in the verbiage using important keywords. Good examples for a retail fish market are:  We Sell Only Fresh Mayport Shrimp, Fresh Oysters Available on Fridays, Retail Seafood Sales, and Fresh Seafood Daily.  Also, make sure your Webmaster codes your bolded subheads as <h1> headers.

Photo Alt Tags
Place alt tags on every photo on each page of your website. For example, an alt tag on a photo that shows an interior designer measuring a wall might read, “Measuring a wall for wallpaper.” That way, if someone entered that description into Google, that company’s photo would appear in Google results and someone might click on it.

Meta Description
This is a short description of your business, which shows up in Google’s search. It must be succinct as Google will only show about 140 characters. For example, if you Google my company name, the meta description you will see on Google is:  Mary Fisher Design, 24-year-old Jacksonville, FL, graphic design, web and advertising agency. Brochures, logos, web sites, search engine optimization.

Refresh Text Often
Update your website regularly with changes such as new awards, staff changes, testimonials, news releases, and new services.  Adding a blog to your site and posting often is a great way to keep it fresh.

Link to Social Media Sites
Internet users expect to see links to main social media sites such as LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and Google+. Update your contributions to these sites three to five times per week, and your spot on Google and Google Places will reflect it by moving you higher in rankings.

Slow-Loading and No-Loading Pages
Make sure your site is fast-loading since it helps populate quickly and rank higher, particularly on mobile devices. Google now down-ranks slow-loading websites. Also, you never want to design your website, or any part of it, using Flash.  Not only does Google have a difficult time cataloging a Flash website, but the site cannot be viewed at all on iPhones or iPads.

A Warning on Graphics
Do not put important text inside of graphic elements on your website. Here’s why: Google cannot read them, and so it cannot help your rankings. If you can highlight copy with your mouse on your website, then it is text—which is good. If you cannot, then it’s most likely within a graphic element—which is bad, and needs to be changed.

Expect about two to three months before you see results of your efforts on Google.

Mary Fisher is CEO of Mary Fisher Design, a 24-year-old marketing, design and web development firm. She is a past president of AIGA (the Professional Association of Design). Fisher was named “Women in Business Entrepreneur of the Year“ for 2007 by Women Business Owners of North Florida.

Where should you invest your money and resources?

By Cathy Garland

Technology investment decisions may seem daunting to a small or medium business owner. There are many options and vendors anxious to get their solutions into your environment. It’s easy, however, to make decisions that you come to regret without a clear plan of how technology will be used to support and advance your business initiatives.

In the late 1990s, software vendors started churning out products that transformed business computing. Technologies such as email, and databases that stored a multitude of data, were seen as innovations.  Today, it’s BYOD, data warehousing, and the cloud. The many flavors of each can be mind boggling if you’re unsure of technology initiatives, or unless you have a strong technology partner who can assist.

There are multiple questions to be answered in order to be confident of technology investments:

• What is the purpose of the purchase? Is it meant to run the business or build the business?
• What is the true “all-in” cost to purchase and support the investment? (Don’t forget training for staff and support)
• What is the lifecycle of the purchase?
• What is the ROI? Calculate hard and soft costs.

So, where do you start? With investments that either:

• Replace or reduce manual effort
•  An analysis should be performed regarding how much effort is required to fulfill a task, as well as the likelihood of errors.
  •  If you buy a piece of software that replaces a task that takes 15 minutes per day – where is the payoff?
  •  If you buy a piece of software that replaces a task that takes 10 hours a day – the payoff is more obvious.
  • There are utilities and other software applications that automate manual processes, which are cost effective and provide a hands-off approach.
• Ensure business continuity,
  • What is the cost of downtime? How long can you be down before you suffer a financial loss?
    • How do you know your systems are down? Are you alerted so you are able to notify customers (if needed), or do your customers inform you?
  • What is the loss of reputation worth? How do you evaluate this item?
  • Do you consider outsourcing IT Support?
• Help your company grow,
  • Don’t get so caught up in running your business that you forget to work on building your business.
  • Don’t forget that technology exists for a reason. A number of the solutions are tried and true business innovators that can put you in a positive light with your clients, existing and potential.
• Protect your assets
  •  Individuals and businesses buy insurance policies as a matter of business practice. Technology “insurance” also needs to be considered
    • Backup solutions provide insurance against data loss
    • Security solutions provide against data breaches
      • Redundant systems provide against hardware failure

What you should avoid:

• Cool fads that offer little or no business return,
• Expensive solutions that promise to change your whole process flow, but are unclear on the details,
• Vendors that don’t mirror your attitude about business investment and risk,
• Bleeding edge solutions, unless you can absorb the potential cost of mistakes and delays,
• Solutions that have no lifecycle documented or appear to be under-capitalized.

While you could miss out on the latest new and imaginative solutions by avoiding these types of technologies, you have to temper what will help with your business focus, and what could distract your resources, and offer little if any return.

Technology and Companies that support small business efforts:

Categories:

•  Freeware/Shareware – There are a number of solutions out on the market that are free and referred to as freeware or shareware. Be careful that if you choose to use these types of software in your environment that: 1) they don’t have hidden Trojans or malware, 2) The licensing allows for free use within your environment.

A few years ago, Winzip was on most corporate desktops. It was downloaded by corporate IT departments because it was a great file compression tool. The only issue was that if you read the licensing agreement, it clearly stated that if you used Winzip in a corporate environment, it was not free.  Microsoft eventually included a file compression tool free with their operating systems.

• Focus on SMB Market – There are technology companies that have divisions focused on the SMB market. They offer competitive pricing for solutions. Microsoft has done a great job of absorbing technologies that complement their core offerings.  Utilities such as Netmon and Filemon are free tools, as well as hundreds of others that Microsoft offers. Dell purchased Quest, which has excellent IT management tools.
• Choose a locally based technology partner- Invest your time and efforts into forming relationships with technology partners who are either local or members of your Chamber of Commerce. These companies will take a vested interest in your success.

In short, don’t allow the technology area to overwhelm you. Take a measured approach to technology, such as you would with other business decisions. Run your ROI calculators, limit your scope, and pick strong partners. You’ll have a greater chance for success with your business initiatives by making smart technology choices.

By: Cathy Garland

Cathy has worked in technology for 29 years with the focus being infrastructure operations. Having worked in the telecommunications, legal and financial services industries, Cathy draws upon her process-oriented mindset to assist companies with implementing technology risk frameworks. From PCI to SOX, Cathy has experience in implementing, assessing and guiding companies to a suitable risk footprint. She can be reached at cgarland@cgsolutionsofjax.com

A recent article in “Bank Info Security” http://www.bankinfosecurity.com/fraudsters-target-bank-employees-a-5269?rf=2012-11-09-eb&elq=7cc1647406704dd7bc60a34c9d54e8b0&elqCampaignId=5063, tells of a breach disclosing hundreds of thousands of customer’s records. Experian, the credit reporting group, revealed that the reason for the breach was due to lax security at a credit union’s IT department. This has to be especially vexing to those customers who then had to monitor their credit and lose sleep at night about the potential impact to their finances, present and future.

In IT, there has to be a balance between effort required to do your job and reward for discouraging data loss. The balance depends upon the potential liability to the company for data loss.

While it’s difficult to insure a breach will not occur, there are some basic fundamental safeguards an IT department can take that will create a layered security approach and deter a breach from having a payoff.

• Create, follow and periodically test adherence for policies and procedures that support an established risk appetite
  • Separation of Duty
  • Implement Least Privilege Principle
    • Establish a reporting system for certain Privileged Account uses and insure review is performed on a regular basis
    • Create multiple logins for system administrators with access to vulnerable environments
    • Require management approval for privileged account creation
    • Work with system vendors to establish granular permission requirements
    • Where possible, limit the scope for system accounts
• Beginning with development, consistently follow a documented and socialized SDLC (Software Development Lifecycle) – including using either masked data or non-customer data for testing environments
• Establish periodic security and risk training for IT employees
• Establish architectural guidelines with management sign-off on any system changes that modify security parameters
  • Include a review by selected Security personnel
  • Include a sign-off from business to insure they are aware of security changes to applications
• Use Role-Based Access Controls
• Limit data transmissions from end user subnets
• Secure all data transmissions containing customer data
• Limit and monitor physical access to sensitive systems
• Implement an Incident Response Team to insure consistent response in the event of a breach.
• Implement a strong problem management/resolution process. Although this is not specifically security-related, it supports a consistent business approach to issues.

For the most part, none of these are expensive requirements. They do require a mature process attitude but there are a lot of positive benefits that come from this attitude including improved system availability, less overtime for IT staff and most definitely an improved technology risk footprint.

These steps will compliment and support a rigorous risk attitude in an environment where data loss could be costly. At a minimum, they instill a disciplined approach to managing the IT environment. You never go wrong by emphasizing this type of approach in IT.

Why you need to protect your customer’s data

By Cathy A. Garland

As a business owner, there are always competing efforts for your resource focus and dollars. It can be difficult to know what needs prioritization.

In 2010, the PCI Data Standards Council released the first draft of a document securing consumer information.  They created a 36-month cycle during which time merchants accepting credit cards would have an opportunity to comply to the published security standards. The PCI Standards’ Council website is located at: https://www.pcisecuritystandards.org/index.php.

PCI stands for Payment Card Industry and is made up of credit card companies Master Card, Visa, Discover Financial Services, JCB International, and American Express. In 2010, the PCI Data Standards Council released the first draft of a document securing consumer information.  The standard calls for eliminating or limiting the storage of payment card sensitive authentication information including the CVV – the three digit code on the back of the card.

The standards are based on security best practices that have been around for years with updates as technology has evolved. PCI Compliance requirements on the surface can be intimidating if you don’t have a large Tech Support team and a rather large bankroll. There are however ways to insure your environment is compliant without breaking the bank.

KEEP YOUR ENVIRONMENT SIMPLE – the simpler the environment, the easier the Compliance Standards are to meet.

• Purchase authorized PIN and Credit Card devices from your bank. Ensure they are PCI Compliant. This information is available at the PCI-DSS website, https://www.pcisecuritystandards.org/.
• Don’t store customer data in your environment. This doesn’t mean don’t have a marketing mailing list. This means don’t include any customer financial data.
• Use commercial products for your POS system that are certified PCI Compliant.
• Trust your employees, but verify. DO background checks to insure you’re not hiring an individual who shouldn’t be trusted with someone else’s personal information.
• Only allow access to customer data to those employees who have a definite business need.
• Purchase and maintain antivirus and malware software for all pc’s (and servers) in the environment.
• Use Windows Update and apply security fixes. Same for other operating systems. They too get hacked.
• Don’t browse social media sites on your work pc. (This may be considered overkill by some but if you flat don’t allow it in the first place, you don’t have to potentially worry about a Trojan getting through your virus protection).
• Use individual logons for all employees. This makes a trail to troubleshoot potential misuse much easier.
• Find vendors who will partner with you, regardless of your small size, to help you maintain your environment. Insure THEY are security minded and compliant.
• Write some basic policies and procedures and have employees sign-off that they have read them and understand them.  (Core policies and procedures are available that you can fit to your environment).
• Turn on Windows Firewall.
• Purchase a warranty on your hardware. (This goes to recovering from a disaster and environment stability).
• Back up your data. You can purchase an external hard drive from many vendors for under $200 in a lot of cases. Windows has a built-in backup program. You don’t have to purchase additional software.
• Follow basic security rules published by vendors such as Microsoft. They have security baseline documentation that will guide you into creating a more secure environment.
• Fill out your self-attestation paperwork and provide it to your merchant bank.

None of these recommendations are expensive nor should they drive any Mom-and-Pop-sized shop out of business. Best of luck.

Cathy A Garland is president of CGSolutions of Jax. She can reached at 863-370-3542 or through www.cgsolutionsofjax.com. You can also read her blog at http://cgsolutionsofjax.blogspot.com/.

4 Strategies for email marketing success

By Todd Bates

Should you ever bring up the topic of email marketing, you will certainly hear people complain about the hundreds of emails they receive on a daily basis. They will tell you sob stories about the endless “junk” they receive and how they try to opt-out from all of that “spam” …all to no avail! They might even give you a strange look (after all, you did bring up email marketing at a party) and start asking you if you are “one of those people” who sends huge volumes of email.

With increased postage rates and the desire to reach your prospect when they are attentive, email has increasingly been the solution. The most recent challenge has become: with so many businesses sending messages, how should you stand out in the crowd? How can you ensure that your message actually gets noticed?

Now more than ever it is essential to have an edge with email marketing when you want to reach new prospects for your business. To cut through the spam filters and be sure that your message is one that someone truly wants to read, consider the following:

Success starts with your offer

When you want to improve your success with email marketing, you should immediately look at what you are sending. Whether your database holds 200 emails or it holds a million emails, look at how people have come to find out about your company or product before looking at the content of your emails.

Did recipients originally sign up for a newsletter? Did your prospects sign up for information on a specific product line? Did they sign up for a white paper to learn more about a particular offering or service? Far too often the same email messages are sent to every prospect in a database. The person who signed up for the newsletter is looking for something entirely different than the person who signed up for a white paper.

Look carefully at what prospects sign up for and you will start to uncover the issues with your response rates. Look even deeper into your offerings to ensure that they provide enough value that you are actually providing prospects with “real” email. The better you make your offers, the more responsive your prospects will be through email.

An interest-piquing subject line can save the day

Most business owners take the time to carefully review their marketing pieces before they go out. They might work with a designer on color details for their website or change the layout of a brochure multiple times before it lands in the hands of a potential customer… but what about the time they spend looking at the subject line of an email?

Open your email right now and take a look at the volume of messages. How quickly do you scan the list to determine if you should delete the message, save it for later, or actually read it? Five seconds? Ten seconds? You have just a few seconds to grab a prospect’s attention, which means taking the time to craft a powerful subject line is worth the investment.

Try challenging your original thought as you look to craft engaging email subject lines by asking yourself these questions:

• Interest Piquing: Is there an element of curiosity to the subject line that would make want to find out more?

• Pain: Does the email subject alleviate pain or pound on a bruise that is bothering prospects?

• Benefit: Will your prospect experience a benefit of time, money or wellbeing if they read on?

Take time to craft your email subjects and watch as your response rates increase.

Not just any email will do

While the goal of email is certainly to bring more customers into your store, encourage more prospects to call for assistance, and push potential customers to purchase more of your products online, that can’t be what your emails are all about. Sending emails that are only about sales, new products, or services is a sure-fire way to ensure that your messages are quickly deleted. Look at the content of your emails and ask yourself a very simple question: If I were opening this email as a total stranger, does it add any value to my day?

For most emails received, the answer is that the message adds no value at all. It’s merely an advertisement delivered digitally. Regardless of your industry, it is crucial to create emails that add real value. For example, if you sell clothing you could share fashion tips. If you sell exercise equipment you could share fitness tips. Don’t try to disguise helpful tips as sales letters; add real value and your emails will be eagerly anticipated by your prospects… and that’s a win for everybody.

How many emails are you sending?

Even with a database that has a few million records, sending a big “blast” email is not likely to help you achieve your goals. Instead of periodically blasting your database of prospects with offers, consider developing an email follow-up sequence that will keep prospects engaged until the moment they are ready to take action.

A good email follow-up sequence will appear personal, add value, and can allow you to stay in-touch with a prospect for a number of years. In the best cases you will have a different email follow-up sequence for those that have purchased a product or service versus the ones that have not yet purchased anything.

The more time you invest in your email marketing, from crafting subject lines to offering quality content, the more success you will enjoy with your from your efforts.

Todd Bates is a leading business consultant, speaker, author, and President and Owner of Todd Bates Systems. Bates immediately made a name for himself as an entrepreneur. Using his talent for business marketing and with years of success behind him, Bates dedicates his career to teaching other businesses and entrepreneurs how to thrive. For more information, please visit www.toddbatessystems.com.

Improve your productivity and profits by using managed technology services

By Ted Werth

As a small business owner, you depend on reliable access to technology to run your business and generate revenue. A technology outage—due to service, network, cloud or device issues—can bring productivity to a painful halt, leaving sales, operations and customer-facing personnel without the tools they need to do their jobs.

To ensure business continuity while also containing technical support costs, you should consider teaming up with a technology services partner.

Cost-effective access to a proven technology services provider maximizes your ability to keep vital business technology up and running and enhances your ability to satisfy customers. A dedicated technology services partner enables you to focus on your core business, improving productivity in a way that drives profits.

IT support services deliver new opportunities

The rapidly evolving world of business technology provides you new opportunities to gain a competitive edge—and technology services play an important part in that. The technology services landscape has changed dramatically in recent years, and new capabilities will continue to alter the way you operate for the foreseeable future.

For example, in years past, a startup company would have to configure and stand up its technical environment, patching together hosting, email, servers, mobile and desktop devices, routers, printers and more, while typically bootstrapping support resources. This need for service prevented companies, especially small companies, from focusing the maximum number of resources and investments on profit-generating activities.

Today, however, the availability of remote managed services enables startups to get up and running quickly. This allows companies to immediately focus on generating revenue and achieving operational excellence. Similarly, the availability of expert mobile and Web services support can improve your small business by ensuring you have access to vital data and productivity tools wherever and whenever you do business.

The backup plan

Another mission-critical need that can be filled via remote technical support is disaster recovery through backup services that protect business-critical data. This is a key component of a sound technology strategy for any startup or established enterprise.

In your small business, it’s not a matter of “if” you will experience data loss, it’s a question of “when.” And given that a very high percentage of smaller enterprises that lose vital data go out of business within two years of the data loss, it’s crucial to make sure you have the backup and recovery capabilities to ensure that your company thrives.

Technology services companies can deliver offsite and cloud-based data backup services that ensure recovery in case of a major technology issue. This type of service can also help you comply with regulatory guidelines that mandate retention of key data. Many small business owners assume their critical intellectual property is protected, but the issue is too important to leave to chance.

It’s a great idea to have a data backup professional conduct a thorough review to ensure you have the resources in place to recover from disaster, whether caused by user error, hacker activities, a technology issue, severe weather impact or fire. This will not only provide the peace of mind that comes with knowing your business is ready to meet the challenges associated with an unexpected technology disruption, it also provides your customers with the assurance that your business will be there when needed, protecting important data and delivering the services they expect.

For you and your customers

As a small business owner, you may be able to significantly increase your company’s efficiency and productivity with a managed technology services contract, which reaches beyond your basic IT or help desk support. In addition to reliable access to the technology tools you depend on to run your business and serve your customers, managed technology services can expand your team’s capabilities.

For example: The ability to securely upload business data from the field can eliminate the need for sales or service teams to capture customer information and manually enter data later.

Up to 95% of technical problems can be resolved via remotely delivered support, which can drastically reduce productivity lost due to waiting for onsite assistance. But the benefits of receiving managed technology services from a technical services specialist extend even further to include proactive maintenance to anticipate needs and address issues before they become problems.

By taking a proactive rather than strictly reactive break-fix approach, you can gain a competitive advantage.

Do a lot with a little

The benefits of having 24×7 access to technology services solutions are clear:

•Higher productivity and efficiency;

•Reliable access to vital business tools;

•A sound backup and business continuity strategy; and

•Greater customer satisfaction.

However, you may be concerned about the costs associated with a managed technical support contract.

Generally, the cost ranges from $20-$40 per computer and approximately $299 per server supported. To put that cost into context, think about the loss of profits that would result from a technical failure that brings all business activities to a standstill—even for a single day.

If you’re ready to position your business for continued growth and success with a proactive approach to technology services and support that allows your team to focus on core competencies, it’s time to think about forming a partnership with a company that specializes in managed technology services for small and medium businesses. As you consider your options, evaluate potential partners’ experience and credibility.

Make sure you find a partner with a strong history in the industry and accounts that will provide references. Ensure your potential technology services vendor can be trusted with your vital business data and has the resources needed to respond immediately with reliable service when you need it. Above all, make sure your potential partner is committed to providing an excellent customer service experience. By taking these steps, you can do a lot with a little.

Ted Werth is founder, chairman and CEO of PlumChoice, a provider of 24×7 online repair and assistance and managed technical support to SMBs and consumers directly and through telecommunications, cable company and retail partnerships. He can be reached through www.plumchoice.com.

Why now is the time for your business to embrace remote working

By Cindy Bates

When was the last time you fielded a work call from the sidelines of your child’s sporting event or while in line at the grocery store? Chances are it wasn’t too long ago, considering the fact that an increasingly mobile marketplace is slowly but surely unraveling the sense of “office hours” and making it possible to conduct business in far more places than ever.

Not only has it become possible for you to work anytime, anywhere, but the ability to work remotely has actually become a business imperative, even for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs).

A recent survey conducted by Microsoft and Ipsos Public Affairs gauged the opinions and attitudes of 1,285 information workers in 15 U.S. markets toward telework at their businesses. The results indicate that telework is becoming more than just a corporate perk for SMBs.

More than half of SMB information workers (59%) say their companies provide access to tech support for working remotely. Additionally, 39% of respondents report that their company has a formal telework policy, and 72% of those surveyed indicate a positive preference for remote working.

A crucial ingredient for success

The statistics point to a growing acceptance among SMB decision makers that their success depends in part upon their ability to mobilize employees. Indeed, failing to embrace remote working and the technologies that support it could result in lost business opportunities, not to mention dissatisfied employees, clients and customers.

Millennials in particular have come to expect flexible work environments, and this means SMBs will face increasing expectations of telework options from their employees, while external audiences will demand more real-time responsiveness and access to information.

Yet, SMBs do have some catching up to do when it comes to capitalizing on flexible work arrangements and making the most of technologies that support remote working. On average, SMB information workers work remotely 3.2 days per month, even though they would prefer to do so eight days per month.

A win-win situation

When SMBs embrace remote working, it’s rare that one side gains more than the other, since telework provides a host of benefits to employees and employers alike. The primary reason to telework, as cited by the survey respondents, is to counteract transportation challenges, such as escalating fuel prices and long commutes.

Additional reasons for and benefits of remote working included striking a better balance between work and home priorities, increasing productivity and needing to complete unfinished work.

Employers who support remote-working scenarios also stand to gain, since they acquire access to a larger talent pool that stretches beyond their immediate geographies and reap the benefits of more productive employees. Employers also might find that remote-working policies enable them to reduce overhead costs, since having fewer employees in-house can significantly reduce office space requirements and energy expenses.

Furthermore, giving employees the ability to conduct business outside the office often means getting more face time with customers and partners, a bonus that can sharpen an SMB’s competitive advantage.

Developing your telework plan

Each business’s remote working policies and arrangements will vary, depending on the nature of an organization’s services and products. For example, a coffee shop will always need employees present during business hours, as the functions of food service demand the physical presence of employees. But, with the right technologies in place, coffee shop employees also could easily conduct behind-the-scenes tasks, such as accounting and marketing, from remote locations.

Therefore, as you begin or refine the process of developing your business’s remote-working strategy, consider the following, while also keeping in mind that every business is unique and there is no one-size-fits-all remote working scenario:

Does your company have a formal or consistent policy around telework? If not, make steps to form one. Establishing telework policies will help employees better understand their privileges and limitations and will also set a foundation for technology implementation.

What are your business’s internal and remote technology capabilities? For instance, how easily can your employees communicate and collaborate with one another inside the office, and do they experience the same capabilities outside the office environment? Incorporating internal collaboration tools and leveraging cloud-based software that’s accessible anywhere that employees have Internet connectivity will enable them to conduct business with greater efficiency and speed both in and out of the office.

How secure are your internal and remote systems? In an effort to increase accessibility and enable instant collaboration, many business decision-makers err by relying on public networking or social media platforms, even though these solutions are not appropriate venues for the exchange of sensitive ideas and information. Therefore, invest in communications technologies with heightened security protocols, always prioritizing the integrity of your business’s information rather than getting sidelined by free solutions that can’t guarantee the protection your business needs to succeed.

For today’s SMBs, the good news is that technologies that support telework are rapidly advancing and are also becoming increasingly affordable. There’s never been a better or more pivotal time for SMBs to capitalize on the new world of mobile work.

Cindy Bates is vice president of Microsoft’s U.S. SMB organization where she is responsible for the company’s end-to-end SMB sales and marketing efforts, including SMB strategy; business development; regional field sales; and national distribution sales, channel marketing, and customer marketing. Bates is an 11-year Microsoft veteran and blogs regularly at www.microsoftbusinesshub.com, where you’ll find technology tips and resources related to remote working.

How your business may still be in the dark ages

By Pete Lamson

The digital age is in full force and ledger sheets, receipt books and cash registers are a distant memory. Today, small businesses have shifted to accounting software, customer relationship management applications and point-of-sale devices to accelerate operations, improve accuracy, and ultimately to ensure their business runs as smoothly as possible—generating tons of valuable data about their businesses.

Unfortunately, this shift means all this important data is vulnerable to viruses, malicious hackers, physical damage or simply leaving your laptop behind at the coffee house.

The risk of losing your company’s most valuable asset—your business data— is real. And running your business is competitive enough without the hassle of lost files. Losing your data means potentially losing your business. Yet surprisingly, 86% of small businesses are relying on antiquated backup methods (Carbonite Inc., December 2010 SMB Data Backup Study).

Data is vulnerable

A 2011 study conducted by Carbonite Inc. uncovered that 48% of small businesses have lost digital documents or other records—up from 42% since 2010.

These businesses noted that the major ways they lost information were hardware or software failure (54%), accidental file deletion (54%), computer virus damage (33%), and theft of computers or stored data (10%).

Data catastrophe also can occur from fire, hurricane, flood, tornado or earthquake. While buildings are replaceable, lost information about your finances, your inventory, your customers, and even your email often is not.

Protecting business data

Your business’s data is its lifeline and this vital information must be backed up. Though many of you are backing up in some manner today, the reality is that copying your files onto physical devices like external hard drives or USBs is not a complete solution and does not ensure you can retrieve your files if and when needed.

When using devices like external hard drives, CDs, DVDs or USB/flash memory sticks, the backup is actually only the first step. All these drives or disks must also be removed from the business premises every night and returned every morning.

If not, anything that should happen onsite—from fire to theft—could wipe out both your original files and the backup. Even if these steps keep your backups current and separate from the originals, those hard drives and memory sticks are still vulnerable to theft, tampering or loss.

Backup with the cloud

Fortunately, technology has developed a solution, and it resides in the “cloud.” For a small fee, commercial services enable you to store copies of your files online—on tightly secured servers operated by companies dedicated to backing up business files. These services offer more than just storage; they make backing up convenient and time-efficient.

Easy-to-use, cloud-based methods aren’t vulnerable to the problems associated with those antiquated backup methods. Once you realize you need to better protect your data and ultimately your business, you need to choose the right online backup solution.

Choosing the cloud solution for your business

Here are six key capabilities to look for when trusting your files to online services for backup and restoration in case your computers crash, burn or just die:

1. Affordability. The best services may cost only $229 a year to back up an unlimited number of computers in your company. This is a predictable, sustainable cost you can plan for. It’s really the lowest insurance premium you’ll keep on your books, and it protects the most valuable asset in your business—your data.

2. Automatic backup. The files on your business computers should be copied and stored on a cloud-based server without you needing to do anything but register with the service. As you create new files or edit existing documents, the files should back up automatically.

3. Easy restoration. With online backup, you no longer need to worry about transporting your backup files daily. The cloud-based servers are far removed from your location, so if something unfortunate did happen onsite, you could retrieve the data you created on your computers. The service you choose should enable you to simply boot up a new computer, connect to the Internet, visit where your files are stored, and download your files. The best cloud-based backup services will even place your restored files in the same folders in the same locations as they were on your original computer.

4. Anywhere, anytime access. You don’t need to suffer a disaster to be saved by online backup. The best backup services allow you to retrieve whatever files you need by accessing it from your laptop computer or smartphone. Now, when you are with a customer offsite and realize you urgently need a particular file to document an action you have taken or an invoice you sent, you can have it on hand.

5. No extra equipment. You should only need to register and download a small piece of software that lets you retrieve or restore your files. Everything else should happen automatically.

6. Security. Most cloud-based backup companies encrypt every byte of data throughout the complete process—uploading, storing and downloading a file from the cloud. It’s the same secure technology that banks use for their online operations.

Once you have an online backup service in place, you will have safe, certain, anytime-anywhere access to your files. If your business expands, you can extend your backup service to more computers or locations.

Knowing that your company’s data is backed up properly can provide you with the peace of mind you need to focus on running your business. You have a responsibility to your business, your employees, your customers and yourself to consider the impact of data loss and to take action to implement a backup procedure that fits your company’s needs. You can get started in minutes and be protected from whatever lies ahead.

Pete Lamson is senior vice president and general manager of the small business group at Carbonite, a leading provider of online backup solutions for consumers and small- to medium-sized businesses. More than 1.1 million subscribers in over 100 countries rely on Carbonite to provide easy-to-use, affordable, unlimited and secure online backup solutions with anytime, anywhere data access. For information on Carbonite, visit www.carbonite.com.

From glass walls to technology hubs, offices across Northeast Florida embrace the latest design trends

By Keith Tickell

The average American spends more than 2,200 hours at work during a typical year—that’s more time than they spend watching TV, enjoying their families and engaging in leisurely activities. Given the time that is dedicated to a profession, it’s no wonder that many employers want to make the workspace the most collaborative, comfortable and productive environment possible.

Latest and greatest

As technologies continue to change and employees seek an increasing work-life balance, many companies are embracing new office design trends that engage and entice their teams to perform better and more efficiently.

Some of the latest and greatest office design trends to hit the market in recent years include collaboration, open-air offices and floor plans, tech-savvy spaces, going green, and creating custom office spaces.

Collaboration. Gone are the days of the cubicle jungle, where employees are roped off from their co-workers and secluded to their own 7 foot-by-7 foot cube. Today’s employers want their teams to engage with one another in collaborative, open workspaces that allow for constant interaction and brainstorming. It’s the same principle as a classroom or group meeting where everyone is asked to sit in a circle and share thoughts, opinions and ideas.

The best way to create a collaborative work environment in an office is to form team workspaces where desks are grouped together in a pod or common area. This allows co-workers to speak freely, solve problems together and transform ideas into innovative products. Another option is to create low-profile workstations with nice finishes that give the feeling of a private desk but still allow interaction among employees.

Open-air offices and floor plans. Open-air offices are the visual equivalent of the open-door policy employers like to communicate to their team. By creating executive offices with all glass fronts and no doors, team members feel as though they can openly communicate with their leaders. This type of office environment creates a perfect balance of quiet workspace and the ability for employees to feel comfortable interacting openly with their bosses.

Similar to open-air offices, an open office floor plan naturally creates connectivity, energy and the open flow of ideas in an office. This concept also creates a community atmosphere among employees and team leaders.

Tech-savvy spaces. Today’s workplace is drastically different than it was 20 years ago. Laptops, wireless printers and Internet, scanners and smart phones have changed the way we work and the spaces we do it in. Workers need less space to conduct business, but more adaptable spaces that will allow new technologies to be seamlessly integrated.

This means providing spaces that allow for easy WiFi connections and wireless technologies, aflexible information technology structure, collaborative workstations and any additional technology needs specific to the company occupying the space.

Green is good. After waning for a few years during the economic downturn, companies have once again turned their focus toward sustainable efforts. While there are varying degrees of green an office can accommodate, any move toward creating a more sustainable work environment is ultimately better for a company’s bottom line and its employees.

Most companies today have sustainability programs in place. These programs can be wide-ranging, from the types of office supplies they purchase to products used in maintaining their facilities to ultimately creating a LEED-certified office space.

Creating a custom office space. One goal we have is to pair companies with office spaces that fit their corporate culture and technology needs. Most businesses today are looking to promote cooperation and team problem solving, and creating an open environment is a key component to that goal.

The new corporate office for the Flagler team here in Jacksonville was recently retrofitted to incorporate the newest and most requested office features, including open floor plans, glass walls and workstations with low profiles to promote employee collaboration.

Vastly different needs

As the economy continues to improve, more companies are relocating, retrofitting or redesigning their office space. It is important to note that there is not a “one-size-fits-all” office design for every company.

Each business has vastly different needs for its employees, from technology requirements and desk space to gyms and social areas. When it comes time to redesign or relocate your office, it is necessary to communicate your needs with the building’s owner or your designer to ensure the new space fits the needs of your corporate culture.

Keith Tickell is executive vice president of Flagler, one of Florida’s oldest and largest commercial real estate companies. He oversees the company’s portfolio of 12 million square feet of Class-A office and industrial space statewide. Tickell is active in NAIOP and serves on the Board of Directors of the Jacksonville Chamber of Commerce. Tickell can be reached through www.flaglerdev.com.

How to use QR codes to enhance your business

By Mark A. Carillon

The simplicity of the QR code is helping more and more businesses generate leads, bring in more sales, and create long-time customers. With the snap of a camera phone—or one equipped with a QR code reader—consumers can scan your QR code and instantly connect to various forms of digital media or retrieve desired information about your business, product or service.

A QR code changes the consumer experience by making it possible to “scan” instead of “type” to access your information on their mobile device. Think of these QR codes as “hyperlinks” that connect your physical world to the online world.

What are they?

In 1994, Denso Wave, a subsidiary of Toyota Corporation, invented the QR (Quick Response) code—a two-dimensional barcode used to transfer information to mobile phone barcode readers. Where traditional barcodes only held 16-20 characters of data and were very slow, Denso Wave’s 2-D barcode could read up to 7,000 characters very quickly.

In 2002, while exploring ways to add more value and features to their devices, mobile phone manufacturers decided to use QR codes to allow access to website URLs and the Internet—and the rest they say is history. In 2010, the number of scans increased 1,300%—13 times more than 2009.

QR codes are almost always free to create, store a lot of data, and do not require expensive barcode scanning devices to work. Search Google for “QR code generator” and you’ll find tons of sites where you can make these codes for free.

A QR code reader is very easy to download from your app store or marketplace, but many mobile smart phones come with a QR code reader installed.

4 Ms of mobile marketing

When considering the use of QR codes, understand the 4 Ms of mobile marketing: market, mindset, message and mistake.

•Market. There are over five billion mobile phone users in the world today and it is the fastest growing segment on the Internet. Think about your own mobile usage—chances are you leave home each day with three things: your keys, wallet, and phone. If any of these are missing, you promptly return home to get what you forgot. Your clients do the same.

•Mindset. When mobile users are on their phone, they want info now and they want it fast. QR codes make it quick and easy for them to get to your information. They’re also three times more likely to “buy” when compared to someone searching from their desktop.

•Message. The message you give to mobile users must be concise and succinct. This is an excellent opportunity to offer up a coupon or a free report or video to further educate, entertain and engage your prospect as to why they should be doing business with you.

It should complement and add value to their experience and not repeat the same message that lead them to scan your QR code in the first place. A brochure which leads to a YouTube video that shows your product in action is a perfect one-two punch.

•Mistake. The most common mistake is to take customers to your full size website. Why? You’re stuffing 17 inches worth of information onto a 3-inch device. This forces your prospect to scroll left, right, up, down, etc.—making your mobile users work way too hard.

Instead, take them to a mobile optimized site that displays properly on their phone and make it “one-click simple” so they can call you, send you an email or text message, view a video, listen to an audio, import your contact details, etc. with one click.

Popular uses

Some of the most popular uses for QR codes include:

•Building a customer list. Create a QR code that links to an opt-in page where consumers will leave their name and email address in exchange for some type of report or incentive. Once a consumer has your QR code stored on their phone, it also serves as a reminder about your business.

•Enhancing marketing and advertising materials. QR codes can be easily placed on business cards, T-shirts, flyers, receipts, print advertising, signs, billboards, websites, store windows/displays, vehicle wraps, car magnets, menus, receipts and many others. And it’s easy to make changes to your QR’s destination when things change, so you don’t have to worry about changing your ad and then re-printing and re-publishing.

•Linking to social sites. Link to your social media profiles on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube to create a powerful list-building combination.

•Obtaining reviews. Create QR codes to help get customer reviews on your online directory listings; such as your Google Places, Yelp, Insider Reviews, Super Pages, and the like. Good online customer reviews are powerful in converting prospects into customers and are one of the best ways to help get your website listed higher on search engines.

•Creating electronic connections. You can create a QR code that goes to an electronic version of your business card, commonly referred to as a VCARD or MECARD, and to an electronic calendar entry, commonly called a VCAL. A scan of the code and your contact information is being added to your prospect’s phone contact list or an event gets added to your calendar—making it easy to RSVP.

•Making business better. Service providers can have QR codes that lead to the service history of a particular item, or manufacturers can link to written assembly instructions that lead to a video that provides step-by-step displays through the building of that item.

There are so many different ways QR codes can help you and your business attract and retain more clients, so do yourself a favor and jump in with both feet now. The question is not if you will use QR codes, but rather when—so get ahead of your competitors.

Mark Carillon is president of Web904.com, a company specializing in marketing your business with custom websites, mobile websites, QR Codes, social networking and mobile phones. He can be reached at 904-375-0194, mark@web904.com, or through www.web904.com.

How to read a QR code

Anyone with a camera on their phone can read a QR code, but there are different ways to receive the results. A QR reader on your phone is much simpler and faster, but if you have an older phone, then emailing or text messaging for results will work as well.

• Download a QR reader for your phone. If your phone is nto already equipped with a reader, you can easily download one. There are multiple ones to choose from, with many being free.

•Send an email. Capture the QR code with your phone’s camera and then email that picture to scan@scanlife.com.

•Send a text message. Take a picture of the QR code and send it via MMS text messaging to 43588.

How electronic newsletters and email advertisements promote top-of-mind mentality and raise brand awareness

By Chris Edwards

Driving sales, generating revenue, and growing a customer base are key goals to running asuccessful business. To do all that, consider email marketing as part of your marketing mix of business development activities.

While many business owners already know email marketing can generate new business and retain current customers, it is also important to know that electronic newsletters and email advertisements promote top-of-mind mentality and raise brand awareness.

You undoubtedly have received email from something you signed up for, whether it’s your bank providing a service update, a local sports team listing upcoming games, or your favorite fruit smoothie place announcing a new tropical flavor. That’s the simplicity of email marketing—you target an audience who is generally interested in your product or service.

Begin with a list

All email campaigns begin with mailing lists. If you’re in business, you already have a mailing list—your customers. The next, most common mailing list is your leads, and chances are you’ve got that information available as well. Most small businesses start with these two mailing lists, but as you grow your business and marketing efforts, you may want to employ multiple mailing lists.

For example: If you have a service that is specific to your customers in Jacksonville only and not available to your customers in Tampa and Miami, then you would organize your customers mailing lists based on their location. This control of the relationship between your message and your audience can be critical in maintaining a solid email campaign.

Managing your mailing lists as you expand is important too. You should get permission to send marketing-related emails to your lists whether they signup online or tell you in-person. Providing unsubscribe options and deleting contacts that do not exist or return bounce back emails are more ways to ensure your email campaigns see the best return possible.

Making it count

Your email competes with every email in someone’s inbox, so you need to make it count!

•The introduction. Most people tend to forget this, but the first introduction a recipient has of your email is who it’s from and the subject line. The sending email address should use the same domain as your website, and you should make it so if anyone replies, the emails go to you or a designated email account that you monitor. The subject line should be appropriate in that it’s accurate to the email’s message and it’s interesting.

•The look. The look of your email needs to generate attention and capture interest. After all, the average email user probably runs through several emails every day. Make yours stand out! Colors, graphics, and a well-planned design to boost your message helps grab attention. If you have a solid website design, make your emails look like your website to present your message in a consistent marketing effort.

•The message. The message of your email should be clear. A discontinuous or rambling message will turn readers away while text that drives them to a point or action, such as clicking a link or calling, is the intended goal.

•The links. Links should be available to your website and in some cases, a re-creation of your website navigation menu can be ideal for giving recipients access to your company’s entire website from a single email.

If you have a specific page in your website you are referencing, hot link the text or pictures directly there. A recipient that clicks on a link for a coffee mug is more likely to buy that coffee mug if the link takes them to a Web page where they can buy it versus if the link takes them to the home page forcing them to find the coffee mug purchase page.

•The results. With any marketing, you need measurable results. Whatever platform you decide to use, review the performance of your emails to see how well they did and decide on improvements for future campaigns. Emails can be measured based on how many people open then, and better yet, how many people clicked in them.

You can also break information further down. For example: If you had links to three separate products in your email, a report indicating which links were clicked and how many times will let you know which product is more popular for that market.

Other common reports are bounces (contacts that did not receive your email), spam reports, and opt-outs which will need to be monitored to keep your mailing lists clean and your campaigns doing well. Many programs also report how many people forwarded your email.

Success!

There are many facets to running a business, advertising holding a significant role for many. Within the realm of advertising, email marketing is a relatively cheap method that can be utilized to speak to your market. Like any successfully marketing maneuver it takes planning, execution, and review. Then improve and repeat.

Chris Edwards

Chris Edwards is the director of strategy at Elyk Innovation, a Web development company offering email marketing services for small- and medium-size businesses. Elyk Innovation also specializes in website design, Web applications, and pay-per-click marketing. He can be reached at 904-998-1935, cedwards@elykinnovation.com, or by visiting www.elykinnovation.com.

How you can stay ahead of the curve with digital media

By Melynda Batchelor

Consumption of digital media is second only to television, and that gap is predicted to decrease. Audiences are spending an ever-increasing amount of time with digital media; however, many businesses are still focusing a disproportionate amount of marketing spend on traditional media.

There are three online areas— website, social media, and e-marketing— every business should focus on to stay ahead of the curve and take a leadership position in their market.

1. Invest in your website and get prospects to it

Your company website may be the first and last impression your potential customer ever has of your business. And it’s not just about looking sharp; it’s about the target audience finding your business and having a relevant experience during the research and buying process.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Try this: Search for your product or service (not your company name) on Google. Take note of how many results are returned based on the query. It’s very likely to be in the millions. Every business is vying for those generic searches made by consumers contemplating a purchase. Search engines use hundreds of criterion to determine the most relevant Web pages to include in the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs). Here are a few important factors.

•Domain name: The website URL is a huge factor in ranking high on SERPs. Shorter is not better; more descriptive is best. You can always buy a shorter domain and redirect it to your company’s website if a shortcut is desired, but the primary domain should have a descriptive keyword in the URL. For example: If you sell tires, “tire” needs to be part of your company’s domain name.

•Content: Check out the Web pages ranking well for your target keywords. They are likely to be very rich in relevant content, such as copy on the page or a search-friendly video. Make sure your website is keyword-rich and that search engines can index it. If you look at the source code of your page, which can usually be done by right clicking and selecting “view page source,” you can see what the engine spider is seeing.

•Metadata: This is the file within the page that purposely tells the engines what the page is about. Unique page titles and descriptions are a must-have for every website.

User experience design. You need website visitors to explore your offering, connect with it, and convert from window shoppers to buyers in order to achieve business goals. Guiding users from point A to point Z is achieved by leveraging User Experience Design, a discipline honed by experienced professionals.

It takes only seconds for a visitor to decide if they’ve found the right company or not. Think about that initial experience; make it clear what you offer and what you want the visitor to do. This is likely going to be to contact you or to purchase, so make those options prominently available from all of the points of entry. Note that from a SERP, any page on your website could be the entry point, not just the home page.

When seeking professional help, ask to see examples of websites designed and the analytics on how they are performing. A reputable agency will provide both and explain clearly what they can do for you. Sure, your neighbor’s kid knows how to build Web pages, but would you trust him with designing your storefront? Of course not! Think about your website as your virtual storefront and carefully evaluate the experience you want prospects to have when they come through the door.

2. Think social, get social

The online social phenomenon cannot be ignored. According to eMarketer, in 2011, 63.7% of United States Internet users will use social networks on a regular basis, amounting to nearly 148 million people. Businesses need to get involved to determine the best possible way to leverage online communities.

Listen. First, understand the social buzz about your brand and category. There are many great, free tools out there for doing so. Try www.addictomatic.com to search for business references. This tool will scour the Internet for all mentions of your company and serve them up in an easy-to-digest interface. For category insights, use www.search.twitter.com to tap into conversations about any topic and learn more about your target audience.

Connect. There are almost a million LinkedIn Groups established. At minimum, your business should complete its LinkedIn business profiles, and identify relevant social groups to join. It’s free and the listing gives you more credibility. A secondary benefit is having another Web experience that could rank in SERPs.

Optimize your LinkedIn profile with the same keyword-rich phrases as your website. Don’t be afraid to repeat keywords in your business name, title, and history. Use LinkedIn Groups to learn from others, keep abreast of industry changes, and share business knowledge, which will establish you as a leader and could result in new business.

Engage. Engagement is tougher because a strategy is needed to do it well. Establish how you can leverage social platforms like Facebook and Twitter to achieve business goals. Keep your business objective in mind. You can’t just set it and forget it. After documenting objectives, think about the communication strategy. What do you want to say that’s relevant and interesting? How will you grow your fan base? What’s unique that you can offer that will keep fans interested? Think about why a person would want to follow your company and then deliver that content.

3. e-Marketing

E-marketing is proactively marketing in the digital space, and can include both paid search and paid media, among other tools.

Paid search. The largest and most common type of e-marketing is Search Engine Marketing, which for direct response campaigns is probably the best bet. Think about it—where do people start the buying process? They “Google it.”

Google’s Sponsored Links are generated by businesses bidding on a particular key phrase. This works like a real time auction where the highest bidder gets top billing. You only pay if a user clicks on your ad. And, these are real, qualified leads because users are actively searching for your services.

Check out www.google.com/adwords to learn more. It’s easy to get started, but difficult to be really good at it. There are so many different levers to pull to optimize a paid search campaign, use a professional unless you have time to study the techniques and monitor the campaign daily.

Paid media. If your company or service targets businesses, try LinkedIn ads. If you’re trying to reach consumers, consider Facebook ads. You can learn more about the specific targeting available on each by “Googling it” or going to the specific social networks, www.facebook.com/advertising or www.linkedin.com/advertising. Facebook just started monitoring actual conversations and testing the use of that data for real-time ads. So, someone posting, “I love pizza” could get a real-time offer for $10 pies. Can your marketing be more relevant and timely in traditional channels? No way!

Regardless of the industry, adults in the U. S. are spending 41% of their media consumption time with Internet and Mobile, but marketers are only spending 20% of their advertising spend in those channels, according to eMarketer, March 2011. It’s time to re-evaluate and reallocate your marketing spend to maximize the return on your marketing investment.

Melynda Batchelor is director of digital strategy at Burdette Ketchum, a marketing consulting and communications firm. She develops and implements comprehensive digital marketing programs for the firm’s clients. She can be reached at 904-645-6200, mbatchelor@burdetteketchum.com, or through www.burdetteketchum.com.

What you need to know to connect with the most powerful search engine in the world

“Today, 95% of all products and services bought are first researched on search engines,” says Ronnie Soud, principal and co-founder of Evision Worldwide and Five Rivers Interactive Media and speaker at the Knowledge Is Power workshop sponsored by First Atlantic Bank and Nova Southeastern University.

“Even though consumers might not buy directly from your site, they are visiting your site and they are finding you—and they want to know who you are, where you’re located, and if you are truly going to solve the problem that they have.”

Seek and find

Since Google represents such a big shift in consumer activity, how can you get your small business found when a consumer does a search? Soud says you should take advantage of the full suite Google has to offer.

“Google has, in a way, segmented all the great products that they have and have really put them into three different segments,” says Soud.

Those three segments include:

•Starting your business. This has to do with email, setting up an infrastructure and a website, and Microsoft word style software.

•Marketing your business. This is where Google Checkout, Google Merchant Center, Google Places, as well as YouTube and Google AdWords, come into play.

•Tracking your business and website performance. At this stage, you utilize Google Analytics and Google Website Optimizer.

Start at the beginning

“In order to use the full suite of products, such as Google Places and Google Analytics, Google requires you to set up a Gmail address—that’s what runs the whole show,” says Soud.

If you don’t have a Gmail account yet, you can register for one for free from the Google home page in the upper right corner. Soud says you only need one and it should be something you, as the business owner or as head of marketing, owns and has access to.

You then sign in with that Gmail address and can begin creating your footprint by clicking on the “Business Solutions” link below the search bar.

“While this is all free, there is one disclaimer:  When you register for these and see the agreements, you are giving permission for Google to have access to all your data,” says Soud. “They have access to it, but they can’t do anything with it.”

Get marketing

•Google Checkout. Google Checkout is similar to PayPal. It offers a fast, secure checkout process that helps increase sales by bringing you more customers and allowing them to buy from you quickly and easily with a single login.

Soud says that without any heavy coding, you can allow people to purchase consulting hours, register for an appointment, or buy an actual product right from your site. “They give you the shopping cart. You simply have to load in your products and descriptions and then hand it over to your web staff to place the snippet of code to actually publish the shopping cart to the Web, and you are in business,” says Soud.

•Google Merchant Center. “For those that sell a product, Google Merchant Center is a valuable tool,” says Soud. You use the Google Merchant Center to upload your product listings with a description and price for use in AdWords ads, Google Search, Google Product Search, and Google Commerce Search.

•Google Places. Google Places is also a free service that helps get you more visibility. “This is one of the biggest changes Google has made in the last three years,” says Soud. “What Google found through the years was that the majority of searches being done online had some form of local intent.”

“There was such an explosion of localized searches on Google that they decided to build this giant business directory, publish it to the Web based on keyword searches placed in its search bar, and they made it free.”

To register your business on Google Places, simply go to www.Google.com/places, click get started, sign in, and begin listing your business. To ensure the most benefit, fill in every prompt. The description and category are essential to your listing and you will need to upload some sort of a photo or business logo to be considered complete. You can also enhance your listing by placing YouTube videos, links, and customer reviews. In a week or two, you will then validate it all by entering a pin number that you receive on a postcard.

Tracking performance

•Google AdWords. AdWords allows you to display your ads on Google and its advertising network and you only pay if people click on your ads. One of the best ways to utilize AdWords is to look up what consumers are searching for by using its keyword tool. Simply search “keyword tool” in its search bar, type in a word or phrase pertaining to your company, and you can see the search volume of how many people are typing in your search term and variations of it locally (which means nationally) and globally (which means the world).

“You now get to see how many people on average per month are typing in your keyword,” says Soud. “This keyword tool helps you to organize your thoughts and campaign structure. Without doing this, you could be running a very inefficient campaign.”

To get stated, click on start my campaign and give it an appropriate name, fill in the settings, write your ad, include your website, preview it, and select your keywords with match types (click on link “Advanced option: match types” for explanations). Set your default bid, which is up to what dollar amount per click you are willing to pay, set your billing, and your ad is typically live within hours.

•Google Analytics. Analytics is another free item you can sign up to use and it helps you to attract more of the traffic you are looking for and turn more visitors into customers. This helps you learn which online marketing initiatives are cost-effective and see how visitors actually interact with your site, i.e., how many visits (been to site), page views (coming to site and looking at numerous pages), or bounces (how many left under 15 seconds).

You can then use this information to make informed site design improvements, drive targeted traffic, and increase your conversions and profits.

Ronnie Soud, principal and co-founder of Evision Worldwide and Five Rivers Interactive Media, can be reached at 888-957-0002 or through www.evisionworldwide.com.

Ways managed services experts are addressing your healthcare IT challenges

By Mike Stockwell and Ron Holton

The economy is beginning to rebound from its slump, and numerous signals arepointing to even more growth in the coming years. This change has prompted the IT managers of many healthcare companies to undergo audits of their current IT infrastructure, and some challenging trends are beginning to emerge.

The lack of capital in recent years has meant that a number of healthcare companies have had to postpone infrastructure upgrades and prolong technology refresh cycles. Administrators are seeking solutions that will streamline their IT and deliver scalable, efficient results.

Research firm Gartner Inc. recently conducted a survey of IT staffers from 1,004 large enterprises in eight countries to identify their top challenges and priorities as they moved into 2011. Below are some of these challenges and explanations as to how managed services experts are addressing these needs for customers.

Challenge: Space is limited

The Gartner study revealed that 47% of respondents ranked data growth as the biggest data center hardware infrastructure challenge. Data containment initiatives were named the second most common driver for strategic growth initiatives by 37% of respondents.

A growing number of healthcare companies are now utilizing complex hosting services to handle their critical data needs. Complex hosting is a premium managed service that leverages engineering expertise, deep experience, best practices, and enterprise-class infrastructure to deliver peak performance.

Companies that offer these services as part of their managed services portfolio help customers back up data to disk and tape, manage data backup on customer-provided hardware, rotate tapes, and manage customers’ backup library or replicate data to alternate sites.

Certain companies, for example, also offer cost-effective backup and storage, fewer demands on internal IT staff, enhanced tools for online management, improved security and availability, and real-time monitoring to their clients.

Challenge: Building to scale

While a return to growth is a positive trend, when coupled with the escalating popularity of Electronic Medical Records (EMR), the result is an increase in data that brings with it concerns of increased costs relative to hardware, software, associated maintenance, administration, and services.

Gartner’s survey revealed that 62% of respondents said they plan to expand their hardware capacity at existing data centers by the end of 2011, and of these, 30% plan to build entirely new data centers.

As an alternative to building your own data center, consider utilizing virtualization or cloud services from a managed services company. Virtualization services provide cost-effective high availability, quick provisioning of new servers, lower hardware cost, and a smaller data center footprint. These types of services are becoming increasingly popular; 67% of respondents to the Gartner survey said they plan to spend money on virtualization in 2011.

Gartner’s survey also revealed that 37% of respondents named system performance and scalability as the second biggest challenge for them in the coming year, while another 36% cited network congestion and connectivity issues. Cloud computing provides one of the most efficient and innovative options to boost the scalability of an environment.

Continuing to increase in popularity is the hybrid cloud model, which is a custom-designed solution that combines data center services with cloud services in a virtual and physical environment. Such a solution is unique in that it gives businesses in the healthcare industry access to cloud services and expertise that allows them to leverage the power of the cloud based on their specific needs.

Challenge: Playing by the rules

April Adams, research director at Gartner Inc., stated that data capacity on average in enterprises is growing at 40% to 60% year over year. This has been caused by a number of factors, including an explosion in unstructured data that must be stored due to regulatory compliance requirements.

Leaders in providing full-service managed hosting for businesses worldwide aggressively support customers in their efforts to meet the regulatory demands of their industry or governing agency.

For example, certain companies can assist its healthcare clients to be compliant with privacy controls like HIPAA/HITECH in addition to offering expertise in SSAE 16, CyberTrust, Food and Drug Administration, Payment Card Industry, Data Security Standard, European Commission’s Directive on Data Protection, Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX), ISO 27001, and Gramm-Leach-Bliley.

Challenge: Forecasting the unexpected

Survey respondents indicated that business continuity and data availability were the chief motivators behind their strategic 2011 plans. Healthcare companies with mission-critical applications or IT operations know they have to be prepared for hardware failure or losing access to their equipment.

Many businesses are now using highly secure data centers in combination with their own IT facilities to provide a more complete business continuity solution. Managed services providers with the best business continuity and disaster recovery portfolios offer world-class data centers and a geographically diverse footprint.

When downtime is not an option and the failover must be as continuous as possible, a managed services company can provision and ensure a complete redundant architecture with automatic traffic redirection and hot site mirroring. Failover to hot sites keeps the additional effort of maintaining a secondary site from overloading the primary IT staff and gives geographic diversity without paying for constant travel to the secondary facility for maintenance.

Mike Stockwell is the vice president and general manager and Ron Holton is the director of customer engineering for the overall operations of Peak 10 Jacksonville. Peak 10 is a managed services company with world-class data centers. It delivers scalable, economical and reliable solutions for hosting and managing complex IT infrastructure. They can be reached at 904-279-1777, mike.stockwell@peak10.com, ron.holton@peak10.com, or through www.peak10.com/jacksonville.

Six steps you need to know to successfully have an online business

By Ronnie Soud

When it comes to developing an online business, there are six things you need to consider for it to be a success. You need to form your business idea, do your online market research, create a business and marketing strategy, develop a website, perform online marketing, and then test, expand, and refine your online business.

Your business idea

Every business starts with an idea, but in today’s world; most business ideas need some refinement. Often times, the best strategy is to create a unique business that appeals to a niche market. Center on the unique features your product or service offers versus the competition, or how your product or service solves a unique problem within a particular market. This makes marketing and growing your business easier because it allows you to concentrate your product, service, and sales/marketing materials to a well-defined market.

Conduct online market research

Online market research determines target audience and online competition within your market. Online marketing research will identify:

•Top competing websites and what each is offering;

•The top search terms entered to find information about your topic/product/service;

•The competing websites that rank for those search terms; and

•The cost of gaining visibility on these related keyword searches.

Keyword research sets the foundation for online marketing strategy and initiatives, which include website design, content creation, search engine optimization (SEO), pay per click (PPC), blogging/article strategy, and social media. A few keyword research tools available include Google AdWords, Wordtracker, and WordSteam.

In addition to keyword research, you should do an online competitive analysis. It looks to answer such questions as:

•How many pages does each competitor have on their website?

•What type of content do they have?

•Are they offering special/exclusive products and deals online?

•What keywords are they targeting?

•What special Web design elements are they using?

Conduct a search for your target keyword phrases and note the sites that show up for those searches. Visit each website looking for answers to the above questions.

Create the strategy

Once a thorough review of the online market and competition is done, create a business and marketing strategy by defining audience demographics, website traffic and sales goals, and an online budget.

A clearly defined market helps develop targeted website messaging, content, and design. Figure out your audiences’ age, gender, ethnicity, geographic location, income level, interests, etc.

You also need clearly defined goals to keep the marketing process on track and well organized. Define short- and long-term goals for your website.

Use the information from the keyword research and online competition analysis to develop a professional looking website and an online marketing strategy. Some areas to consider include website content/copy, SEO, PPC, e-mail marketing, and landing page development.

Develop a website

Now design and develop the business logo, website, and website copy. Market research, keyword research, and the competitive analysis will help define the creative marketing elements and messaging that needs to be incorporated in the creative/branding elements.

Don’t forget who you’re trying to target—make sure you focus your copy and messaging on that audience, and don’t offer website functionality that that particular market segment doesn’t understand. Keep it simple. Keep it targeted.

You will need to develop a unique message, copy, and logo. Your message needs to be about what makes you, your product, and your service unique within the market. Be as descriptive as possible.

Make sure the logo is unique amongst the competition and get a good quality logo because it will be used to make all of your sales, marketing, and advertising materials for years to come.

Your website is your online storefront, and is often the first impression your potential customers have of your business. Make it easy for them to use, read, and buy/contact. Don’t get carried away with flashy design elements—keep it simple.

You also want to get as many visitors as you can to perform some type of action on your website, whether it’s entering their e-mail for more info, deals, coupons, and new arrivals or they leave a comment on a blog, photo, or video. This way, even if they don’t buy during that visit, they have given you information about themselves, their interest, or buying habits. You can then use this information to make edits/additions to your website.

Also, make sure your website will be easy to expand when the time is right. You will want/need to add new pages, photos, and videos; possibly even a blog, forum, online contest, etc., as you grow.

Perform online marketing

If you are concerned about getting traffic from search engines, then SEO and PPC are two areas to pay careful attention to during the initial research and strategy phrases.

SEO techniques are separated into two different areas: On-site optimization and off-site optimization.

On-site optimization is the foundation for all further SEO efforts. On-site optimization factors include keyword research, website content structure, custom title tags, meta description tags and H1/2/3 tags for each page, and internal page linking structure.

Off-site SEO factors help the site gain more visibility through a variety of methods, such as link building, online press releases, and writing articles/blog posts/photo/video on major online publications such as News4Jax.com or Jacksonville.com.

PPC allows advertisers to bid on specific keywords relevant to their products, services, and target audience. The advertiser has full control over which keywords they want to upload, how much they want to bid on each keyword phrase, and full control over the content of their ads.

E-mail marketing is still one of the most powerful online marketing channels. When users submit their e-mail address,  they are giving you permission to advertise to them. Take advantage of this opportunity, but don’t abuse it. Do two or three e-mail blasts per month.

Today, communication on the Web moves faster than ever. It’s quicker and easier to reach a large amount of people than ever before. Most of the speed of online communication can be attributed to social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. Ensure you are among the social communities as well.

Test, expand, and refine

A website is a work in progress. Set up website analytics so you can monitor your site growth each week. Analytics gives you great insights to how visitors are finding and using your site, the keywords that are bringing in the most visitors, which search engines are giving you the most visibility, etc. All of which allows you to make any necessary changes to the website in order to boost user engagement levels.

Google Analytics (www.google.com/analytics) is a free website stats tracking system. Sign up for a free Google Analytics account, and Google gives you a code to place on every page of your site. Once that code is placed, you will start tracking your website visitors.

Once visitors are on your site, it’s important to monitor how many pages they visit on average, how long they stay, and what are the most popular/visited pages. From this monitoring, you can refine your website content. Pay attention to pages with high-bounce rates as those rates are an indication that users are not happy with the content or credibility of the page. You can add more relevant/detailed content or images or graphics to the page to help clarify your points.

Websites need to expand their content offerings in order to grow. Continue to add content that your audience will find useful, such as articles or a blog that focuses on “how to” articles, FAQ’s section, or start a forum or online discussion group to connect like-minded users and share information.

Final thoughts

Users choose to interact with online businesses that are a trusted and good source of information (read: they educate the user). Remember, positive credibility and reputation go a long way online. Be the company that educates the most and you will be the company that sells the most.

Ronnie Soud is the Marketing Director for Evision Worldwide. He can be reached at 888-957-0002 or through www.evisionworldwide.com.

Stack

“We look at the future in a very short window because for technology you have to,” says workshop presenter Andrew Stack, principal of My Executive Centers during the most recent KNOWLEDGE IS POWER workshop, sponsored byFirstAtlantic Bank and Advantage Magazine.

“It just evolves so quickly and changes are made so rapidly that looking any further out than that as it relates to the workplace is probably irrelevant,” he says, while referring to the timeline of what we can expect in the next six to 24 months in workplace technology.

What does it mean to you as a business owner or business manager, and how can you leverage the near future of technology into the workplace? You do it by knowing what will drive the future and what will push some of the big companies to innovate technologies that aren’t currently in the workplace.

Future drivers

Those drivers include economic/financial and regulatory drivers, operational drivers, and demographic drivers. Economic/financial and regulatory drivers include things such as the recession, changing accounting standards, wanting to decrease fixed expenses, and the way lending standards have increased.

“We survived the recession, but companies need to be more flexible,” says Stack. “If there’s anything we’ve learned in the last three to four years, it’s that we need to be able to adjust the way we run our business based on the changing economic climate.”  He says businesses need to know how to expand/contract as the market dictates.

Operational drivers are what customers are demanding.  As business owners, you are becoming more specialized in what you do. Enhanced IT/tech capabilities are needed just so you can respond to the changing market. Customers are tech savvy and use the Internet and social sites for information and you need a website and to be on social networks to keep up, as well as reach out further on what customers you can attract.

Demographic drivers represent the change in the makeup of the workplace. Mobile computing/telephony is mainstream, whereas it wasn’t 10-15 years ago and the workplace itself has evolved from hierarchal to a collaborative team. Younger workers are requiring a better work/life balance. “With technology, they are no longer constrained by the tether of an office or 8-5 working hours,” says Stack, “Because they can work on weekends from home or a nearby Starbucks.”

So how do we get there?

Lamey

“Look at the years 2010 and 2011. These are going to be the years that will really change the industry in technology as we know it,” says second presenter Donny Lamey, president of DiscoverTec. “Just like in the mid-1990s, everyone had to have a website. They didn’t know why, but they did.

“That is kind of where we are today as technology is changing and new product and services are emerging. Ten years from now you will look back at this period and see how technology shifted from a ‘you must own and control everything’ to a shared service,” says Lamey.

According to Lamey, one of the biggest challenges to technology is the high infrastructure cost—large upfront costs, short equipment lifespans, rapid changes in technology, high cost of IT support—and it’s difficult to achieve ROI. He says that’s when companies start choosing what to update and upgrade, and they end up with a mismatch of technology.

The new workplace

How does it all tie together in the workplace? “Workplaces are becoming more team-oriented with people working together, so today’s tools and technology are designed for it,” says Lamey. “The new workplace is being driven by devices such as your phone or tablet—you dock it, and you are there.”

How do you get all the software and files you need when moving from a traditional workplace to this new workplace? Cloud computing. “Cloud computing is really not new as it is the same concept as a mainframe,” says Lamey. “The main difference is you can access things through Web and are able to use everyday product and services.

“Cloud computing is a model for enabling convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources (e.g., networks, servers, storage, applications, and services) that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort or service provider interaction.”

For example: You are on the Internet and can access your entire network and you are able to access what you are doing at work, then you can access it on your phone after you leave the office, and then access it again at home—all seamlessly; the same file, the same icons, the same desktop, just not the same location.

Cloud benefits

The cost benefit to cloud computing is enormous. “You save a lot of money as a company, which goes immediately to your bottom line, and you always have the latest and greatest to work with,” says Lamey. Other benefits he discussed include:

•Hosted solution saves time and money;

•Universal software used as industry standard;

•The latest version of the complete software suite;

•Enhanced security from hackers, viruses, and spam;

•Easily access and share documents from anywhere;

•All data resides in one location and is backed up daily; and

•Allows businesses to be more efficient in its operations.

EXTRA! To see the entire workshop presentation, visit http://advantagebizmag.com/events/videos, sign in, and learn.

Does your small business need an app to stay competitive?

By Robyn A. Friedman

Brian Young leads a double life. By day, he’s a periodontist with a thriving practice in Jacksonville. By night, he’s a developer of apps for the iPhone.

Young

In December, Young, 36, launched Tracknburn, a health and fitness application that allows users to track the number of calories they consume and burn on a daily basis. This is the fifth app Young developed—and his most successful. Over 24,000 people have downloaded Tracknburn to date, at a cost of $2.99. But Young hasn’t made a profit—yet.

“There are two primary reasons why a company might have an app,” Young says. “It would either be to support their ongoing business or to use it as a business model where they’re generating revenues from the application itself.”

Tracknburn is an example of the latter. Young developed the app as a hobby, he said, albeit an expensive one: he’s plunked down about $50,000 on the project so far.

It’s in the numbers

Apps—custom application software that runs on mobile devices—are all the rage these days. And it’s easy to see why. Just consider the numbers:

The use of mobile devices is exploding—the smart phone market alone is projected to grow 24.5% in 2011, according to International Data Corp. (IDC).

Application developers have churned out over 300,000 mobile apps in the past three years.

Worldwide mobile app revenue will exceed $35 billion in 2014, IDC projects.

In January, Apple announced that more than 10 billion apps have been downloaded from its App Store by 160 million iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad users worldwide.

As a small business owner, it’s tough to ignore these statistics.

Design and development

But developing an app is time-consuming and costly. You need a professional programmer who has experience designing apps—often more complicated than a typical website. Separate apps need to be written for each smart phone platform; Android apps don’t run on iPhones, for example. And even once you develop an app, if it’s for the iPhone, you need to get it past Apple’s tough reviewers, who reportedly evaluate some 10,000 new apps each week.

Is it really worth the time and effort to develop an app? Does your business really need one?

Ennen

“A lot depends on what the small business is,” said Steve Ennen, president of Social Strategy1, a media intelligence firm in Ponte Vedra Beach. “I think it’s a stretch to say they are mission critical at this point, but they offer a set of advantages that are relevant to the digital ecosystem right now—that you can capitalize on if you know how to employ them smartly.”

Better benefits

Some advantages and benefits of having your own app include:

•Mobile apps get you to your customers. Today’s consumer is tech-savvy, better informed, and with high expectations of receiving timely and relevant information. “Today, businesses must reach customers where they are—not just wait for customers to come to them,” said Bernie Brennan, the Ponte Vedra Beach co-author of Branded! How Retailers Engage Consumers with Social Media and Mobility.

•Mobile apps give you visibility and drive traffic to your business. The more people who see your app and use it, the more potential customers you will have.

Gresham

•Mobile apps help you compete. “They level the playing field for small businesses,” said George Gresham, PhD, an assistant professor of marketing at Jacksonville University. It used to be that only large businesses could afford to have their own apps. Not anymore.

•Mobile apps cost less than some other forms of advertising. An app allows a business owner to reach millions of potential customers. Even though it can cost up to $50,000 to develop an app, depending on its technical sophistication, they still can be quite cost-effective when compared to other forms of advertising. Plus, some apps can generate revenues on their own.

Weigh your options

But experts say that apps are not a necessity for every business. “Don’t get blinded by the latest shiny object,” said Ennen. “Just because it’s available doesn’t mean your business is right for it.”

Indeed, there might be other digital creations that serve your company better. A well-designed mobile website, for example, is easily accessible to customers on their mobile devices and provides the information they’re likely to need on the go: address, phone number, directions, and basic information about the products and services you offer.

Plus, a presence on sites like Foursquare, Yelp, and Google Maps can lead mobile customers to your door without the expense of your own app.

Factors to consider

Still interested in developing an app for your business? Here are some factors to consider before taking the plunge:

•Is your app sustainable? In other words, is it something that users will keep coming back to frequently—you know, like Angry Birds—or will usage decline after the initial buzz fades?

“There are lots of stories of people with a gold rush mentality who started building apps thinking they would make a million dollars,” said Ennen. “But usage peaked, and then the app went away because there was no sustained usefulness behind it.”

The best apps are relevant, useful, and encourage users to come back repeatedly.

•Do your customers really access your product or service via their mobile device? If you’re a professional and the bulk of your clients find you on Twitter or LinkedIn, for example, it may not make sense to develop an app. Focus on what works for your particular business—market to your specific customers or clients—and resist the temptation to jump on the app bandwagon.

•What is the ROI? If the app won’t generate business, it isn’t worth the investment.

Do your research

“Find out who your competitors are, and determine what they’re doing right—and wrong,” said Angel Ayala Torres, a computer engineer at CloudYellow in Jacksonville, who is about to release GoTaxiCab, his first iPhone application, which

Torres

allows users to hail a taxi and pay for it via PayPal. “We tried other taxi apps on all platforms—even Blackberry and Android—to make sure we were bringing something to the market that is different and better.”

“Don’t have an app just to say you have one,” said Young, the periodontist. “If you’re going to spend time, money, and effort to not only develop but also manage and maintain an app, it needs to be functional. It needs to serve a purpose. If it doesn’t, then it’s just a waste of time.”

Robyn A. Friedman is a contributing writer to Advantage. She can be reached at robyn@everythingwrite.com.

Why e-banking is the best thing since sliced bread

By Lori Putnam

Those us who have paid attention over the last 25 years have witnessed the emergence of technology at what can best be described as warp speed. If you really think about it, the technology of today was probably obsolete before you evenpurchased it!

In the world of financial services, the technology boom has created the ability for bank customers to obtain immediate and accurate banking information, real-time and online. As e-banking technology began to emerge and improve, the initial fear that online banking would replace branch banking was quickly replaced with a desire to offer as much information to our customers through online portals as possible.

When you can sit at the computer at midnight in your pajamas and learn about the products and services your bank offers, it’s a better educational experience than sitting at your banker’s desk, trying to decipher “bank-speak” and knowing there are four people behind you waiting to be seen. This doesn’t mean you never need to go into a branch, but many things that used to be done in branches can now be done electronically, which can save you time and money.

Extended services

Most people log onto their bank’s website to balance their checkbook ledgers. They’ll look at their current or recent activity, maybe look at the detail of some checks they forgot to enter into their ledgers, transfer money to or from savings, and originate electronic bill payments through their bank’s online bill payment site. But e-banking is much more robust than just paying and receiving.

Need to stop payment on a check? Chances are you can initiate a stop payment from your bank’s website. Got a kid in college who needs money? You can initiate a payment to them through your bank’s online bill payment system. In fact, most banks’ online bill payment products can not only accommodate payments to credit cards and utilities, they can now accommodate payments originated electronically to individuals, and business owners wishing to make electronic payments can attach invoices and even apply discounts to electronic bill payments.

E-banking also extends to the lending arena, with a variety of information available through not only your bank’s website, but the links they most likely provide. These links can include calculators for loan payments so you can determine how much a payment will be and how long it will take to repay, as well as detailed information on the variety of loan products available to you, whether you are a business or an individual.

Many financial institutions offer online loan and credit card applications, and even current rate information for their most standard loan products. The e-banking application is virtually the same as what you would complete in a branch office; in fact, many banks no longer use paper applications, but instead originate in-branch loan and credit card applications through their internal electronic systems.

What about investing and retirement? Your bank’s website most likely offers a retirement planner so you can determine how much to invest and at the current rate of savings, how much you will have when you retire, and even asset allocation information so you know how to build a more balanced investment portfolio.

Want to keep up with the current news on your bank? Check out the website. News and information about your bank is readily available for your reading pleasure.  Many banks also offer the option to begin the new account opening process through their electronic sites, and some offer “switch kits,” which can help ease the pain of establishing yourself at a new financial institution by making the process a little more manageable.

New services

With the movement toward “paperless” transactions, many banks offer a terrific service, generically referred to as Remote Deposit. Remote Deposit allows business customers the ability to make non-cash deposits through a secure website using a desktop scanner.

Users simply scan their checks to be deposited, correct any errors that may occur during scanning, and then submit the deposit for practically immediate credit to their bank accounts. The images of the items are stored electronically and can be viewed anytime. While most banks do have processing cut-offs for credit for remotely deposited items, the system itself is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week; deposits can be originated and transmitted to the bank and images of deposited items can be reviewed anytime, day or night.

Along these same lines, electronic bank statements, or e-statements, are gaining popularity as “go green” becomes the rallying cry of reducing paper waste. Statements are delivered through a secure system and retrieved at your convenience. All e-statements include transaction details, and most e-statements include the images of the items transacted on your account.

Wire transfer remains one of the most popular methods of moving funds swiftly between banks, and with the ability to originate wire transfers through electronic banking, customers can save a trip to the bank and even gain a reduction in the cost of wiring funds. Payments initiated or received through the Automated Clearinghouse (ACH) are the preferred method of handling payroll and expense reimbursements. Most banks even offer a “self-service” ACH product, which allows the end user to process ACH payments without the use of an intermediary, such as a payroll company.

Another e-banking service gaining popularity is Positive Pay. Check fraud is one of the most common reports of fraud among businesses. Positive Pay offers one of the most effective methods of deterring check fraud by allowing users to compare the checks they have issued against those being presented for payment on any given day.

Items that do not match the checkbook register raise a red flag and the user must decide if these exceptions represent fraudulent activity. This gives the business owner control over the items being presented for payment against their account, which in turn helps control costs by minimizing the risk of check fraud.

Your e-banking site also offers a wealth of information regarding FDIC insurance, the bank’s officers and directors, identity theft and fraud protection, and more. Many bank sites offer a tool that allows you to pull all financial information into one site for money management purposes. There’s even a good chance that if you visit your bank today, there are e-banking kiosks available for your use, right at the branch site! And we never even discussed the variety of electronic functions that are available now through ATMs and mobile banking. That’s best saved for another article.

It’s probably safe to say that advances in technology have not quite given us the time or cost savings that jet-packing to work or traveling by transporter might have offered us. But taking advantage of the many products and services offered by your financial institution’s e-banking site can certainly make it easy and convenient for you to manage your daily financial needs.

Lori Putnam is vice president, commercial deposit manager, and cash management officer for FirstAtlantic Bank. She can be contacted at 904-446-2567 or lputnam@bankfirstatlantic.com.

Procurement and technology do mix!

By Tony Lego

Lowering supply cost can be a daunting task for organizations even if its operations are lean and mean. The cost of operating a company continues to rise while getting new customers is harder than ever. Add to this the cost of providingemployee benefits, which are also rising, and it is becoming more difficult to operate a financially healthy business.

But you can increase profits by reducing the costs associated with expenses and overhead by cutting supply cost or reducing HR cost. Reducing supply cost can be an arduous and time-consuming assignment. A supply program running at peak efficiency requires time, knowledge, resources, and dedication. However, by focusing on what is most within your control, you can achieve substantial savings.

Reducing through technology

Several ways to use technology to address the issue of supply cost reduction include Internet shopping, inventory control systems, RFQ systems, spend aggregation/management systems, and hiring a purchasing partner.

Internet shopping: The Internet brings the supply industry to the desktop. It can be a great source for product research and pricing, but can become time-consuming if shopping time is not structured. Internet purchasing saves money by eliminating overhead such as warehousing, sales representatives, advertising, etc., and in turn the savings are passed along to the consumer.

In many situations, you deal directly with the manufacturer or an authorized distributor, but use caution when using the Internet as some of those great-looking sites may be out of someone’s garage. Orders should only be placed from trusted sites and never send personal information, such as your Social Security number, bank account numbers, or credit card numbers, over the Internet if you are not absolutely certain the vendor is legitimate or if the website is secure. Many websites display a SSL (secure socket layer) logo at the bottom of the landing page as their assurance you are on a secure site.

Inventory control system: Inventory control systems can be as simple as a pencil and pad of paper, Microsoft Excel worksheet, or more robust systems using software and bar code scanners.

In electronic inventory systems, re-order point inventory levels can be set to trigger re-ordering, and minimum and maximum inventory levels can determine reorder quantities. This reduces necessary stocking levels and minimizes unnecessary ordering of supply items, which translates into a more effective and efficient supply system—giving you greater control over where supply dollars are spent.

Ask your distributor representative if they have such a system available for your use. Some distributors will supply a basic system for little or no cost if you ask.

RFQ system: RFQs (request for quotes) are used to determine the best price for the same or similar item from different manufacturers/suppliers. There are providers that offer the capability to conduct RFQs via the Internet, which saves you time in administering the RFQ process. Some provide ways to rate each suppliers bid on various factors such as capacity, quality, product offering, flexibility, and terms. This helps you quickly hone in on the supplier that will be the best fit.

Before creating the RFQ, you need to know what you want in the product (specifications, tolerances, performance levels) to meet your application of the product. This is very critical to obtaining the right product at the best possible price, and can save a considerable amount of time in product selection.

If you are unsure of the product specification or capability required to perform the intended application, you can invite suppliers to educate you as to why their product/service is best suited for your needs. But beware—getting three bids is not the end of the procurement/strategic sourcing process, it is the beginning. This assumes that you have selected the correct/best suppliers and defined your requirements accurately.

Spend aggregation/management systems: Many businesses that start out small and grow into sizeable organizations with multiple locations usually are missing a way to aggregate their spending across items and services. These companies have hundreds of supply items and overhead items, and the “spends” quickly grow when you look at your spending at a category level.

For example: A telecommunications company with three locations and 20 associates at each with 10 telephone lines and 10 people using the Internet per location. If you look at this at a location level, they are only spending a couple hundred dollars per month. Not a really big dollar cost. But if you aggregate the spending on this across the locations, now you are talking in the $1,000 plus per month. You can see how expense items/services can quickly add up.

There are many systems and solutions in the marketplace to help you accomplish this, such as Google Spend Aggregation. But before you take this route, make sure you are ready to do what is necessary to categorize your purchases into the correct/accurate categories, and keep them maintained as you move forward.

Hiring purchasing partners: Business has become more complex, offering a variety of products/services under one roof, largely in response to customer demands. The result is that direct materials purchasing consumes a vast majority of the purchasing organizations time and effort. This complexity now requires a greater range of skills and knowledge to navigate a sea of suppliers and products/service to get to the best value, and usually comes with a reduced focus on indirect expense items/services, which should not be the focus of limited purchasing resources.

However, the indirect area of purchases can and has produced significant savings for businesses. The issue here is, “Are the savings significant enough to justify hiring a staff of full-time procurement experts?”

In response to this need, several organizations offer purchasing expertise and technologies on an as-needed basis to help businesses maximize value and harvest savings in the indirect expense area. These technologies include price benchmark and supplier databases, which help the partner to quickly identify opportunities in your indirect expenses. They also deploy advanced negotiation techniques using Web-based tools to ensure a competitive environment is created for your purchases.

Take control

Each of the previously mentioned points, when implemented, can help you take control of supply purchasing. Each action by itself will achieve positive results, but each also has a trade-off associated with it: time utilization, use of material resources, human resources that might be better utilized performing increased revenue activities, or importance of saving a few dollars relative to other matters.

Time and other valuable resources expended to save money may eliminate any savings at the expense of something else; in reality, it may actually cost you money. Businesses have always relied on purchasing departments with dedicated men and women who understand sourcing and negotiation practices to conduct product/service research, supply market/supplier research, and presenting RFQs or RFPs (request for proposals and other procurement techniques).

Unlike the person in customer service, sales, production, marketing, accounting, or new product development, the purchasing department is dedicated to knowing how to purchase. Purchasing partners and departments dedicated to a business’ bottom line provide a service that can yield significant savings with improved business efficiency.

Tony Lego is an entrepreneur and franchise owner of Expense Reduction Consulting (ERC). He can be contacted at 904-401-1235, TLego@ERCsaves.com, or through www.ERCsaves.com/TLego.