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Cloud-Based Services:  Secure Storage or Slippery Slope?

In recent years the term cloud has come to mean not only floating pockets of precipitation in the sky, but also floating stores of data in the ethers.  Incepted originally as a way for computers to pool their resources to meet fluctuating demands, cloud-like services were used only in the highest levels of IT Departments. Rising in popularity since 2006, when Amazon first offered cloud computing to its external customers, in the last several years the term “cloud” has become associated with what could potentially be one of the most powerful and controversial technological developments of our time. With the evolution of Apple’s mobileMe and the more recent iCloud, cloud based services and storage are now a part of the average consumer’s online experience.

Using cloud technology is not only a convenient addition to our lives as we float across the web, it’s also pretty fun, too.  We can use it to back up our data through services like Carbonite, take advantage of a nearly infinite amount of storage through online file storage on iCloud and have the ability to access that information anywhere in the world with an internet connection.  Cloud computing has also streamlined file sharing through services that we all use everyday such as YouSendIt and DropBox.  All of these services utilize cloud technology.  Amazon has now rolled out a new feature where if you purchase a digital file (like a music album), you now have the option to save the file directly to Amazon’s “Cloud Drive”, rather than taking up space on your computer’s hard drive.  It’s really hard not to want to take advantage of this technology. While cloud services offer fantastic incentives, cloud computing can turn stormy.

To start with, there are numerous security and privacy issues that come along with trusting an authority or company to keep all your information secure.  For the avid hacker or cyber-criminal, who prey on weak security to obtain their loot, cloud services are some of the biggest prizes to go after, containing hugely concentrated amounts of personal information ripe for the picking if there is some kind of security breach.

Hackers aren’t the only threat to these information hubs.  MegaUpload, a cloud based file sharing and storage service, was recently shut down by the US Government for copyright infringement.  Not only did all their users get their data confiscated, they also were informed that MegaUpload will be forced to delete it all.  Without any recourse all their personal data was gone and could never be retrieved.

Since you need the internet to access a cloud based service, it’s obvious that without an internet connection, you also don’t get access to the information, data and services that are stored there.  The new MacBook Air laptops are now coming with reduced amounts of hard drive storage space to encourage users to use the cloud for their data, rather than the physical hard drive.  While internet outages are not incredibly common, they still exist, and without a connection, all your data would be isolated and out of reach.

The silver lining to cloud computing is that these services can be used wisely.  It’s clearly an amazing and convenient technology, but it’s still in its infancy, with many privacy and legal issues still yet be addressed.  File sharing and storage services are great for redundancy, but it’s not wise to rely on them as the sole method for storing your personal data. Keeping local, physical copies of your most important and private information is still an absolute must.  If you do store personal data in a cloud, don’t store anything that you wouldn’t want someone else seeing.

As cloud technology evolves and proliferates, use common sense to keep your feet on the ground, and only your expendable or repeat data in the cloud.

We left off last time with five of the top ten SEO tips (from our perspective) and the following five complete our list.

6. Be The Change

We are all now in the throes of the social media scene.  If anything could be considered “web 2.0″ (a funny term that gets tossed about, while no one can agree what it means), Social Media’s pervasive integration throughout the internet would be it. It is the defining change that shifted the internet from a static, encyclopedia style resource, to a dynamic, interactive discussion of knowledge and ideas.  It changed the way information is created and received.  Facebook, the world’s most widely used website, has no content. Every piece of information on the website is “user submitted”, or in other words, created by the very people using the website!  This shift of interactivity a landmark change that has fundamentally shifted how we use the internet.

So what does this have to do with SEO?  The core principle behind Social Media is that of sharing, and optimization algorithms value the very same thing.  The more useful a website’s content is to a user, the more likely they are to share it across social networking sites.   The more the site is shared, the more it is seen and visited.  The more it is seen and visited (especially when the link itself is coming from a social media site), the more “kudos” it gets from search engines.  The logic behind this process is that if a site is being shared a lot, it must be useful in terms of the content.  If it’s considered highly useful, then (as we discussed in Part One), it is trusted more.

And how does one get “shared?”  Be the person you’d share, too.  Be an expert.  Write something funny.  Write something progressive.  Make something beautiful.  Run a promotion.  Give something away.  Provide a service.  Be of service.  In essence, do what you would do anytime you wanted to genuinely get noticed for something!

7. It’s All Connected

One of the primary ways information is shared through Social Networking is through “links.”  Having a site that has a lot of “inbound links” means there is a higher likelihood that your site will receive traffic, and that it will appear connected, useful, informative.  The Search Bots eventually pick these backlinks up and give points for having a website that is useful enough to be linked to a lot.  However, contrary to what you may have heard, a link is only really useful if it’s from a trusted site and is related to the content of your site.

There are companies that sell backlinks for people to purchase, where they will have thousands of websites begin linking to your site.  There are also sites that claim to do this for you for free.  This seems tempting, but can end up actually hurting your rank because this kind of tactic is considered “blackhat SEO.”  The reason is easy to see; it’s an attempt to side-step the fundamental principle behind SEO:  to provide quality content that users want to read.

The strategy behind a successful link-building campaign is one of care and time, where you seek the best directories and websites to submit your site to and request a backlink.  It’s not quick and it’s not always free, but it can pay off because it means your site is genuinely considered relevant and ultimately trusted.

8. Look Within

They say knowledge is power.  Knowing what kind of traffic your website is getting, and what to do about it, is critical to an SEO strategy.  Enter Analytics.  Running Analytics on your site (typically through Google) is the primary tool in knowing who is visiting your site and what they do when they get there.  Are users finding your site and then immediately leaving?  You’ll see this kind of behavior get recorded.  How long do users stay on the site before leaving?  What is the highest viewed page?  What about the page that most users first land on?  How many people even visit the site in the first place?  Analytics will tell you every single nuance of activity that occurs on your website.

Probably the most important aspect Analytics will also tell you is what users actually searched to find your site.  This can lead to understand the principle of “long tail searches” which are unique searches that individuals type in that don’t qualify as a “term”, but which demonstrate how the site performs for real world searches done by people; searches that are difficult if not impossible to predict.  They also indicate terms it may be useful to target in the future.  Long tail searches can be more of a traffic driver to your site than all the keyword terms you initially targeted, put together!

However, reading and understanding Analytics can be as daunting as the first day of a Statistics class.  Even if you understand the basics of the reports, learning how to compile the data into action steps is a whole other ballgame.  If you ‘re not sure what your Google Analytics account is showing you, find someone experienced who can decipher the trends.

9. Ground Yourself

Naturally, if you’ve decided to establish a web presence, you want your website to be found.  The web, however, is one of the fastest moving, and least understood, consumer technologies. There are many components that comprise what we know as “the internet” and SEO could be one of the least understood fields overall.  The best way to approach SEO is to be realistic in your goals.  Let’s face it, almost all of us want to rank on the first page for the searches people do in regards to our fieldniche, and while nothing is impossible, without a lot of time or resources to put towards your goal it is likely highly improbable.  So ground yourself by starting small and working your way up gradually.

It’s important to remember that, SEO is an ongoing service. While there can be one-time “SEO tune-ups” that can help, SEO tactics need to evolve every so often in an attempt to stay current with the never-ending evolution of the internet.  SEO maintenance can be monthly, quarterly or even yearly, depending on your goals.  The key here is to find an advisor who is on the pulse of the industry, whom you trust and who is able to work within your budget to gradually meet your SEO goals.

10. Patience is a Virtue

In the conclusion to The Zen of SEO – Part 1 we said we would reveal “the biggest SEO secret of them all.” This is it, the paradox of everything we discussed, SEO takes a while to begin to work for you so be patient! This can seem counterintuitive; “the internet is the fastest moving technology mankind has ever seen…yet SEO requires patience?”

As confusing as it may seem – it’s true – a solid SEO strategy can take 3-6 months to begin to take effect and 6 months to a year to actually begin rooting in and establishing the website in search engines to where you begin to rank and get substantial traffic.  There are many reasons for this, but most notably is saturation and competition.  There are innumerable websites that are all competing in one way or another with each other, which means there is a lot of ground to cover by the search engines themselves.  In addition, there are sites that have been around for a lot longer which are, in essence, “grandfathered” in as they have been ranking highly for a while (though the landscape can change quickly, such as with the recent Panda update by Google).

Some businesses begin an SEO strategy and when they don’t see results within 3 months, they switch strategies.  Eventually, this can end up being an even larger hindrance since the initial changes didn’t get the proper time to take effect, before they were changed yet again.  This is why it’s so important to find someone you trust, since ideally you will be working with them over the long term.

Ultimately, when you approach your SEO strategy, understand that it’s very much like planting a garden.  After all the initial investment of time and money, you won’t see the results for a while and for a little bit you might wonder if anything will germinate, nevertheless produce fruitful results.  Then, just when you think you won’t get anything at all, you see a tiny green sprout make an appearance.  With further tending and many months of upkeep, you eventually walk out to see a lush garden, brimming with the fruits of your labor.  And even then, you know that your work has just begun.

Happy summer! We hope you’ve been out and about enjoying the warm weather. Even while we’re all on the go, with the growth of the mobile revolution we can connect to each other and our audiences like never before and the latest development in that technology is the QR code.

QR Codes and the Growing Mobile Market

QR Code on a Business' Storefront

QR codes come to us from Japan where they are already quite popular. These square pixilated bar codes serve as a way for smartphone users to flash a code – on a window sign, brochure or bus stop – with their phone and instantly be taken to a website or other hub of information. Countries in Asia, and the Netherlands, are already in advanced use of QR codes, but will they catch on here?

35% of US adults use smartphones, according to latest July 2011 Pew Internet Project findings. Google just purchased Motorola and is now poised to improve in and invest in the Android market. Big brands like Ralph Lauren and SIEMENS have already run major marketing campaigns utilizing codes. These signs could indicate that QR codes will catch on in the US but only time will tell.

Why and How to Use QR Codes

Unless and until the technology really catches on, developing a marketing strategy around QR codes may not be useful for some small businesses. The greatest use of QR codes that we see for our clients are for the small businesses we work with who have a youthful or highly tech-savvy target market, or those who are in the food and hospitality industry.

The food and wine industry in particular has taken a shine to QR codes. Tourists and passersby can scan a code on a window sign and read reviews of a restaurant. Wine lovers can scan a tag on a bottle or a point-of-sale display and be taken to a mobile-friendly website about the wine. Or an advertisement in a local magazine could link users to directions to the winery’s tasting room.

While there are many potential uses for QR codes the biggies are:

• Take users to a mobile-friendly webpage
• Open a Google Map Location
• Take users to Yelp or Google Places review page
• Send users to a landing page with a coupon
• Send an e-mail or text message

Airlines are even using them as digital boarding passes. As with all web related technology; the possibilities are literally endless.

If your interest is piqued, you can generate your own QR code here: http://qrcode.kaywa.com and start experimenting with this new technology.

Regardless of the size of your business or its particular goals, one of the best ways to stay in touch with your customers and enhance brand recognition is to send e-newsletters much like this one. For your e-newsletter campaign to be effective though, we suggest the following:

E-mail Marketing Pointers 

• Use a Branded Template – the template should be consistent with your website and your advertising too, thereby ingraining identity awareness
• Write Brief, Clear Copy - keep it short and simple and break copy up with headers…ideally stick to no more than 3 topics
• Include Imagery – a nice photograph that illustrates your point works wonders at engaging readers
• Track It - using a bulk email service like Mail Chimp that can ensure at least a 99% deliverability rate, as well as track open and click-though rates

Analyze & Refine

Stay informed about how successful your campaign is with customers.

• How many of them open and read the email?
• How many click on the e-mail’s links? Which links do they click on?
• When do people tend to open your e-mails?
• Which people open your emails on a regular basis? Which do not?

Awareness of these answers can help guide you to a new and improved e-newsletter approach, geared toward what your customers really want to see.

Can We Help You?

We design custom e-newsletter templates and provide ongoing e-newsletter campaigns and tracking reports, as described above. If you’d like to reach more customers through email, get in touch and tell us about your goals.

We’re feeling particularly positive after a wonderful Earth Day here in Ashland. Visiting each of the booths educating about energy, construction and food alternatives already available and emerging, we were heartened once again by the ingenuity of humanity.

The internet is a perfect example of this kind of innovation and, because we make our living and contribution on the web, it is a case in point that we ponder often.

Digital Supply Means Declining Resource Demand

While it’s nearly impossible to fully track at this time, the web is making a significant contribution to our reduction in resource use. Think about the number of people who can work, bank, and participate in commerce in various ways over the internet rather than using the gas to commute. And just consider all the DVDs and CDs we used to purchase before iTunes and Pandora…the cookbooks, the maps, the dictionaries and encyclopedias that have all been replaced by digital 1s and 0s.

A Conduit for Connection

In addition to its role in helping to save resources, the internet serves to “link” us together in ways we never could have guessed. Each year we continue to see the internet create ever-increasing connectivity, resulting in powerful shifts, such as the tides changing for Egypt’s government, in no small part due to Egyptians uniting through social media. Humanity has yet to really understand the implications of the internet, partly because its rate of evolution is too fast to track!

While, like everything, we still have a long way to go before the web is used to its greatest benefit, we still feel the internet’s contribution on the Earth is something worth celebrating.