by Felicien | Aug 8, 2017 | Education
“Content is king.” This is an old expression dating back to 1996 (ancient history where the Internet is concerned). This point was repeated in an article by Bill Gates. Gates tells us where he believes the Internet is heading, and stressed the importance of using quality content in posts. He predicted that content creation would be what drives profit on the Internet. While we now know that the most successful Internet businesses turned out to be retailers and social media platforms, Bill was mostly correct. Content is still pretty darn important.
What is Content Marketing?
Content marketing is the creation and distribution of information to attract reader interest and drive potential customers to a website. It’s one of my favorite ways to convert new clients online, and I always encourage my clients to try content marketing themselves.
Creating compelling content is critical for every online business. It doesn’t matter if you sell bird seed or repair classic cars. Without great content, you won’t be able to drive customers to your website.
Seven Tips for Creating Killer Content
Speak it before writing it. Many people are intimidated when it comes to writing, yet they have no problem speaking their ideas. That’s why one of the best ways to prepare when writing any article is to first explain to someone what you plan to write. Not only will this help you plan out logical flow, but discover if more research is required. It also helps to prevent “writers’ block.”
It all starts with the headline. You’ve certainly spent time reading terrible articles because of their great headlines. However, no one has ever read a great article because of a bad headline. A good headline will make readers stop browsing and click on your article. Write the shortest headline possible with the strongest language you can think of to accurately summarize the content.
Create something special. If you want people to finish reading your article, the content must be important to them. Just what makes an article special is up for debate, but I’ve found my best-performing articles are the ones that:
Explore a relevant, but not overdone topic. Try to stay away from topics that cover popular issues.
Present a unique viewpoint and personality. Readers will respond to articles that take a clear stance on a subject, even if it differs from their own. This is especially true if the article is written in a way that reveals the writer’s personality.
Stick to your topic. It’s easy to get off track when writing. That’s why it’s important to first develop an outline of the points you want to cover. I know that some hate to do this. If so, try writing the final paragraph first. This way you know the direction you’re heading before you start to write.
It’s a blog, not a book. Many new writers make the mistake of trying to share all the information they know about a subject in a single post. This is a mistake. No one has time to read extremely long posts. It’s a good idea to limit your article to 1,000 words or less. If you have any more to say about the same subject, create a blog series.
Use guideposts. Make it as easy as possible for your reader to follow your ideas. You can do this by using subheadings and bullet points to stress the most important points. Long blocks of text are hard to read, especially online. You should use short paragraphs and include plenty of white space.
Start strong and finish strong. Two paragraphs in your article matter more than all the others — The first and the last. A strong introductory paragraph sets the mood for the entire article, and convinces the reader to stick around. The conclusion better be strong because it’s your last chance to ensure your reader doesn’t walk away feeling like he wasted his time.
Writing is like any other skill. It takes time to learn how to write well. However, you can master it with practice. If you follow these seven tips, you’ll be well on your way to becoming a good content writer.
The experts at {company} can help. Contact us at {phone} or {email} to learn more.
by Felicien | Aug 8, 2017 | Education
Safari Technology Preview lets you check out the cool, new functionality that will be available in forthcoming releases. It provides developers with the best way to view upcoming web technologies in macOS and iOS (including visual effects, the latest layout technologies and even developer tools) so they can provide the best possible experience across all Apple devices and platforms.
Today, business is conducted in moments—And if your website “hiccups” or is slow, you run the risk of losing customers. (Or worse yet, prompting them to move on to a competitor.) That’s why it is so important to ensure your website is forward-and-backward compatible with all browsers and display sizes.
Developers are constantly looking for the latest and greatest ways to leverage the power of web browsers to create a pleasing user experience. The early testing platforms now available on all major web browsers provide a much-needed way to ensure consistency of your online message.
While Google and Mozilla offer developers beta and alpha versions of their popular web browsers, Apple is relatively new to the party. They just started offering their Safari Technology Preview in early 2016.
The Importance of Cross-Browser Testing
Cross-browser testing allows you to view updates within various platforms. With it, you can ensure your application performs or operates as expected. This level of testing increases in importance when you consider that code updates are pushed to web browsers on a regular basis. If you’re not planning ahead, and ensuring your site or app performs on new releases, it could crash or behave in an unexpected fashion. Your web designers must regularly review alpha and beta releases of web browsers before your site goes live.
How Browsers Affect Website Performance
The importance of browser testing can’t be overstated. Many business owners don’t realize how detrimental a mismatch between their website codes and a browser can be. Website performance is severely affected by browsers whose primary job is to interpret the code and display it consistently.
Browsers have a list of supported elements that can vary by browser type and release number. A simple example is how design elements such as rounded corners, transparent images and shading are interpreted differently depending on whether you’re viewing them in Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer or Safari.
Additionally, some pages load more quickly in a particular browser depending on choices made by website designers. Each time a new browser version is released, there’s a potential for a seemingly-simple element to cause significant lag time on your website.
Professional website designers understand how various browsers interpret design elements and can make selections when creating a website to ensure consistency regardless of which web browser is used.
More About Safari Technology Preview
Safari Technology Preview reveals how JavaScript, CSS and HTML render across websites, and the most recent version of Safari’s web-rendering engine called WebKit. There are some powerful development tools included with this software, such as the Bug Reporter that allows developers to report problems and enhancement requests directly to Apple, and the Responsive Design Mode that provides a comprehensive view of your website properties through a variety of viewport sizes.
Even better, this platform can run alongside current installations of Safari, so developers can compare how changes will appear in future releases.
It can be challenging for business users and developers to maintain a broad spectrum of web browsers, and continually test their sites for compatibility and speed-of-content delivery. At {company}, we stay up to date on all the latest browsers to ensure that your website always loads quickly and delivers a consistent user experience. Contact us at {phone} or via email {email} to learn how we use cutting-edge tools to drive website engagement and sales.
Safari Technology Preview updates are released every few weeks, and can be downloaded directly from the Mac Apple Store:
Safari Technology Preview for macOS Sierra Requires macOS 10.12.5 or later.
by Felicien | Aug 7, 2017 | Education
Driving transformational change in your business can be difficult. However, the right technology partner can help by bridging the knowledge and implementation gap.
Disruption is the name of the game today. Employers find it more difficult than ever to hire knowledgeable IT workers. Most SMBs (small to mid-sized businesses) don’t have an IT team with the in-depth knowledge they need.
The same technology that helped you grow your organization in the past has quickly become outdated. Plus, it’s a security liability without a continuous focus on updates. Fortunately, there’s an answer. SMBs can harness the power of cloud computing with the assistance of reliable digital partners to help drive transformational change.
Myth: Transformation Equals Disruption
Serious disruptions occur when your employees work with out-of-date technology. However, some business owners are afraid to undergo the transformational change required. They believe it will be a disruptive influence on their operations.
The opposite is true. Digital transformation initiatives help business owners and managers discover significant metrics, automate routine processes, and provide employees with a better work environment. Competitors can quickly pass you by if you’re not willing to accept a short-term IT disruption to drive long-term and meaningful change for the better.
Deep Cultural Changes
Digital transformation is more than simply bringing on a few new software tools. It requires a fundamental change in organizational culture and thought processes. Employees who have always worked in the office are now looking for ways to be productive regardless of their physical location. And technology teams are under stress to provide easy and secure access to software and documents. While this can often be accomplished through the implementation of cloud-based productivity and file storage software, ensuring that you’re not compromising security while providing a satisfactory worker experience can be a delicate balancing act.
Moving to The Cloud
There’s been a significant shift in IT spending in the SMB segment, with leaders identifying the value of moving towards cloud-based software as opposed to investments in hardware. This shift towards cloud computing provides businesses with the ability to be more flexible with their technology investments, scaling up and down as needed based on business trends and seasonality.
The average annual SMB technology spend is on the rise, and is expected to continue growing in the coming years as change accelerates on a variety of levels. Business leaders are looking for new and creative ways to drive efficiencies while improving productivity, to increase competitiveness. Since many SMBs spend a significant amount of their time focused on operations. The business leaders who form effective IT partnerships will move to the front in terms of digital transformation.
The Importance of Digital Partnerships
Keeping a business running can be challenging for understaffed SMBs. Having a digital partner who assists with new initiatives is critical. Technology tools that are meant to simplify ongoing operations can be remarkably complex to implement—And overtaxed (or nonexistent) IT teams results in poor decision making due to a lack of information or time for security hardening or testing.
IT Partners provide an extra set of “heads and hands” to research, understand the security risks, and map the competitive landscape for new technology initiatives. They can then support implementation and training in a very hands-on way. Having a trusted digital partner allows business leaders to focus on their core specialties, and to grow their business.
Finding the Right Digital Partner is Essential.
Customer satisfaction is a key component driving digital transformation—And, customer demands continue to morph as technology advances at “light speed.” Increased capabilities, and more cost-effective operations are required in order to keep up with their requirements, the changing economy, regulatory laws, and the demands of business partners.
A focus on process and innovation can be supported by the right digital partner—One who has the knowledge and experience to introduce best practices into the organization. The end result is a new transparency that provides the business leader with access to actionable metrics that support decision points at all levels of the organization.
Embrace technology and the positive impact that it can have on your organization when you work with {company}. We’ll be your trusted Digital Partner and help drive IT transformation throughout your organization in {city}. Contact us today at {phone} or via email to {email}, and see how a partnership with us will support an enhanced customer experience, positive employee engagement, and operational efficiencies.
by Felicien | Aug 7, 2017 | Education
AirBar for the MacBook Air provides the ability to seamlessly activate touch and gesture functionalities.
Even though it’s a few years old, Apple’s 13″ MacBook Air is still an impressive device. For $999 you get:
128 GB of flash-based storage on a solid-state drive,
A 1.8 GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 processor,
8 GB of 1600 MHz LPDDR3 onboard memory, and
Up to 12 hours of use on a single battery charge.
The only thing that the MacBook Air doesn’t have is a touch screen. Now, one manufacturer (Neonode) is looking to change that. It’s a device that business professionals and others who are serious about productivity will definitely appreciate.
AirBar is an accessory designed specifically for the 13″ MacBook Air that turns it into a full-touch screen display, similar in concept to Apple’s iPad. It’s available for purchase from major retailers for just $99.
AirBar “turned heads” soon after its debut at the CES 2017, where it won an Innovation Award due its functionality. It’s a thin, solid-aluminum bar that you attach just below the MacBook Air’s display with magnets. You use a USB cable to connect it your MacBook Air to turn it into a full-touch screen device.
AirBar’s impressive operation relies on an invisible light field that’s projected onto the surface of the MacBook Air’s display. Whenever your finger, a stylus, or any other object breaks that light field, sensors translate this action into macOS-compatible commands. When you touch the screen to control your MacBook Air, you can tap-to-select, swipe, scroll and even pinch-to-zoom.
AirBar requires at least 17 mm (millimeters) of free space below the display to operate. The light-field generator and sensor are both plug-and-play compatible, meaning they instantly activate when plugged into a USB port on either side of the 13″ MacBook Air.
For those interested in enabling additional gestures for their device, they can purchase Neonode’s optional multi-touch software. This one-time installation extends the functionality of AirBar even further.*
The Growth of Hybrid Devices
Adding a touch-screen interface to the 13″ MacBook Air is a move that will undoubtedly be met with controversy among Apple enthusiasts. Since the release of the original versions of both the iPhone and the iPad in 2007 and 2010, Apple has been very clear about its desire to keep its hardware categories heavily segmented.
If you’re looking for a powerful smartphone device, you go with the iPhone. If you’re looking for touch-screen productivity while traveling, you go with the iPad. If you want a true computing experience, you have options available like the MacBook Air or MacBook Pro. Beyond that, company officials have been heavily resistant to “hybrid options” or “2-in-1” models like their competitors.
Apple CEO Tim Cook spoke negatively about both the concept of these hybrid devices and the popular Microsoft Surface Book, calling it a “deluded product category” that “tries too hard to do too much. It’s trying to be a tablet and a notebook and it really succeeds at being neither.”
Nevertheless, it’s a product category that both personal and enterprise shoppers have embraced in recent years. Research Director of Tablets at IDC, Jean Philippe Bouchard, said: “we’re witnessing a real market transition as end users shift their demand towards detachables, and more broadly towards a productivity-based value proposition.”
The “detachables” segment of hardware sales recorded an impressive 75% growth in 2016, compared to 2015. The market for Windows-based devices in this segment alone was expected to more than double by 2019.
If you’re waiting on Apple to come up with their own tablet/laptop hybrid, you’re probably going to be waiting a very long time. Until that day arrives, options like the AirBar are your best bet.
* Note: Unfortunately, the MacBook Air has been discontinued. Official MacBook Air models haven’t seen a proper refresh in years, and have been supplanted by the MacBook. The AirBar is incompatible with the MacBook Pro, MacBook 12″ or MacBook Air 11″ model.
The AirBar is also available for select models of Windows-based laptops with display sizes in the 13.3″, 14″ and 15.6″ ranges.
If you’re in {city} and would like to find out more about this or other IT-related topics, contact {company} at {phone} or by sending an email to {email}.
by Felicien | Aug 7, 2017 | Education
Email marketing is far from dead. In fact, it’s seen increased success in recent years. Both prospects and marketers find it to be one of the most flexible, useful channels for staying in contact.
Sending emails won’t help you succeed unless you use the right tools. If you want to increase your sales with email marketing, you must create great content and measure results. The Internet offers tools that let you do this. We can help you find the right tools—Here are some of our favorites.
Cortana Scheduling Abilities
If you use both Cortana and Microsoft Outlook, you should try Cortana’s more advanced scheduling abilities. When Cortana scans your emails, she can recognize language that refers to an upcoming meeting or phone call. And she can add this information to the right client contact info, as well as your calendar. This is particularly helpful when you’re managing multiple leads, and you don’t have the time to input every meeting or scheduled call into your calendar. Cortana also works with Outlook and Office 365 to pull information from the web and emails so your contact information is always up to date. This can save you a lot of time.
Google Smart Reply
If you’ve been using Gmail on your mobile device, you may have noticed an important change — When you reply to a client or lead, Google will suggest pre-made emails for you to use. Gmail notes your previous responses to clients and auto-creates a similar one. However, this won’t work for complex emails—Only for brief emails arranging a meeting time, etc. This service provides several options, so you can pick the one that makes the most sense and sounds like it came from you.
MailChimp
MailChimp is a handy email management tool that lets you use automation, advanced A/B testing, analytics, and much more. A/B testing is useful when you aren’t sure what email subject line to use. Plus, you can chart your email success rate, and how to improve it. MailChimp is most famous for creating surveys and polls that you can send to gauge interest in almost anything. For companies that want to use a specific approach, this is a great service to try. Don’t use it too often, or you may annoy your recipients.
Microsoft Office 365 Group Emails
Office 365 Groups helps you create teams based on your relationship to projects and other employees. You can add and update team lists as you choose to. One of the best advantages to this flexible setup is the ability to share data. Group provides a shared inbox and calendar in Outlook so you can carry on conversations and send emails to the entire Group automatically. It’s a great way to coordinate team marketing activities, and make sure everyone is on the same page.
Mad Mimi for Newsletters
Mad Mimi is a popular email marketing tool to create, send and track newsletters. If you regularly send newsletters, then it’s important to use a system to ensure quality, and track results. Mad Mimi is a great place to go for these capabilities.
Hiver for Brand Emails
If you don’t use Office 365 but still want to coordinate a marketing team, Hiver turns Gmail into a shared email service. You can coordinate tasks and assign client emails to various team members. It also offers tracking software so you can see conversations and responses over time and locate any weak spots.
Constant Contact for Templates
Today, the appearance of your emails is more important than ever before. An email needs to stand out, but not be too flashy. It should draw attention, but not look like an advertisement. And if you don’t have the coding skills, then building an email from scratch can be a big challenge. Constant Contact provides pre-made email templates for a variety of different messages to ensure that your emails look great on desktop and mobile devices – It’s a great tool if you don’t have email templates of your own.
Hemingway for Sending Concise Emails
People don’t have a lot of time to read emails, especially from brands they aren’t familiar with. This means you must use words effectively. We’ve covered design, but for help using the right text, you may want to try Hemingway. This simple web app scans your text and provides edits for easier consumption.
Raven URL for Analytics
If you want to track your email ROI, it’s time for analytics. Raven is a good choice because it works with Google Analytics URL Builder to show where visitors come from, when they visit your website, and when they open your email messages. See what impact your emails make when it comes to CTAs (calls to action) and conversion rates.
Let us know if any of these tools worked for you. And, if you have questions about email marketing, reach out to us. {company} provides a variety of IT solutions to businesses in {city}. Contact us at {phone} or {email} to learn more.
by Felicien | Aug 4, 2017 | Education
The recently discovered Fruitfly can have serious implications for your business.
You must take a proactive approach to cybersecurity to keep your data secure. Whenever a new hacking technique or virus appears, you must pay attention. This is the case with a new variation of the Fruitfly malware.
What makes Fruitfly so notable has nothing to do with the number of infected computers. Instead, it’s because Fruitfly targets the macOS operating system, and has been doing so for years without anyone realizing it.
Fruitfly Malware: Breaking It Down
To understand the situation with Fruitfly, it’s important to understand two distinct concepts: The original version and the variant that affected Mac computers in July of 2017.
Malwarebytes discovered the original version of Fruitfly. It spied on computers in medical research centers for years before being discovered. Once it was identified, Apple took steps to close the holes, and update its operating system to detect and eliminate it.
The recently discovered Fruitfly variant is a different matter altogether. This new version of Fruitfly has been around for at least five years. While the total number of infected Macs is estimated to be only around 400, it could be much higher than people realize.
What makes this new version of Fruitfly so terrifying is that it can not only capture screenshots and keystrokes from affected Macs, but it can also take over the webcam and capture live images without a person knowing that anything is happening. Even though the green indicator light on all Mac hardware is wired directly into the motherboard (meaning that if the camera turns on the light is supposed to turn on), Fruitfly has found a way around this.
Fruitfly is also capable of analyzing other devices that are connected to the same WiFi network—Something that should be troubling to business owners and enterprise users.
The exact method that Fruitfly uses to infect machines is still unknown, but it involves tricking users into clicking on malicious links in fraudulent emails. While it’s true that the primary “command and control” server used by Fruitfly’s creator was shut down, there are potentially hundreds (if not thousands) of infected computers in use that still have the malware strain hidden inside.
Due to the nebulous nature of Fruitfly, there aren’t specific steps that you can take to protect yourself, or remove an infection that’s already occurred. Security experts recommend that Mac users install a program like OverSight, a tool specifically designed to monitor the use of a computer’s microphone and webcam.
Mac Malware: What You Need to Know
The fact that “Macs don’t get computer viruses” is a myth that’s existed since the 1990s. In 2006, security researchers discovered the first piece of malware specific to the OS X operating system. Fast-forward to 2015, and more than 1,400 unique malware samples were discovered.
Part of this stems from the fact that there were so many more Windows computers in use, and that Windows was a less secure operating system. This combination resulted in a virus and malware explosion during the 1990s, along with the fact that personal computers became a more ubiquitous part of our daily lives.
With Apple’s resurgence over the last 15 years, the pendulum has swung the other way. There are still more Windows viruses than there are Mac viruses. However, malware attacks on Macs were up an incredible 744% in 2016 alone. During the fourth quarter of that year, malware samples targeting the macOS operating system increased by 245%!
All of this underscores the importance of employee training in terms of cybersecurity. If your employees assume that because they’re using Apple computers, they don’t have to take steps to protect themselves, they’re a security vulnerability for your business. Mac users now get targeted by phishing scams and other types of sophisticated attacks. As a business leader, you must take steps to ensure all your employees are regularly trained on how to remain safe in the digital world.
The Fruitfly malware may be one of the most-recent strains to target Apple computers, however, it certainly won’t be the last. If you’re in {city} and would like to learn more about this or other cybersecurity topics, contact {company} by sending an email to {email} or by call us at {phone}.
