[Via: Online MBA Programs]

Users can check-in to local establishments using their smart phones (currently the iPhone is the only device compatible with Places) to show others where they are, to see where friends in the area have recently checked-in and to see who was last at their current location. It seems Facebook attempted to learn from their privacy mistakes by setting the check-in default visibility to “Friends Only” so your current location isn’t broadcast over all of Facebook—unless of course you’ve set your master privacy control to “Everyone.”

On the surface it seems Facebook Places operates just like any other check-in application like Foursquare or Gowalla. But what sets it apart, for better or worse, is the ability to tag others. One person checking in to a local restaurant can tag all of the members of his group. The fact that someone else can broadcast where you are without your knowledge or consent doesn’t sit well with the ACLU. Furthermore, they find fault with the privacy controls stating “you are only given a ‘not now’ option (aka ask me again later). ‘No’ isn’t one of the easy options.”

Another major concern is the fact that all information gathered by Facebook Places is available to developers and third-party applications. And similar to the issues in the spring, you don’t always have control over what your friends choose to share about you. Your friends can choose to share their check-in information with applications and if you are linked to that info via a recent check-in at the same location or by being tagged in a check-in, your information is also shared with that application.

It does seem that Facebook made an effort to learn from the backlash against their last privacy overhaul and put more control in the hands of the users. There are controls that you can set for each level of privacy where check-ins are concerned. You can choose if you want to appear in the “People Here Now” section after you’ve checked in so others checking in can see that you were/are there and you can control if you want to share your own info with third party applications.

Overall, there are some issues but it seems users have control if they choose to exercise it. But if users are relying on the default settings to keep their information secure, they may be sharing more than they bargained for. Then again, if you can’t be bothered to check your privacy settings, maybe you shouldn’t bother broadcasting your whereabouts either.

What do you think? Is Facebook Places bordering on invasion of privacy? Or is it your responsibility to know what you’re broadcasting and how when you choose to get involved with this type of social networking?

Keep the message short & concise

There’s nothing more daunting then getting a long, drawn out email that doesn’t get to the point and conceals the overall goal of the message at hand. Why muddle your marketing campaign with non–essential fluff, if all it does is detract the user from your goals? By keeping your message short, simple and easy to scan, it is more likely that a user will find the benefits, important message or whatever your promoting.

37 Signals Newsletters get right down to the point.

If Possible, Personalize

Instead of a generic “Dear Subscriber” or “Hello Sir/Madam” to open your message, why not use the first name of the person being addressed? Most email clients today allow you to include some type of code snippet that will search for that person’s name and apply it. This will create a more personal feel, inviting the user to read your content and hopefully click on your call to action.

Send on a Schedule and Amount

Most, if not all email software will allow messages to be sent at a specific date and time (usually down to the second); with that in mind, considering things like users time zones, day of the week and time of day are all important. For example – if you are on the east coast, but a majority of users are on the west coast, you wouldn’t want to send your message at 8AM, as west coast users would get it at 5AM. By the time they get to their email in the morning, your message will likely be buried.

Along the same lines, considering your message volume is an important factor. Too many messages in a period of time and it’s likely that you will be flagged as spam; too little and the message will probably will get discarded before it’s even read.

Use a smart Subject Line

Subject Lines are like the worm in fishing – they are the first thing seen by a user when your email comes through. If it doesn’t look enticing, the user won’t bite and will swim right past it. Keeping that in mind, getting to the point is critical in the subject — it will make the user decide whether they want to open your message or not. Also, steer clear of spam-like keywords, such as “Free”, “Discount” and “Promotion”, as your message will most likely get routed to the Junk folder before it reaches the inbox.

Provide Something Useful

In every email that you send, you need to provide something useful to the user. If anything else, it shows the user that you care about them and are willing to satisfy them. If you don’t give them anything besides another message in their inbox, they might consider it useless to keep getting your marketing. Things like a discount for a product or a free e-book can help garner some attention from your users.

New Balance provides a button to download a piece of free software right from their newsletter.

Always provide an Unsubscribe Link & Contact Information

Not only is this information required by the CAN-SPAM Act (see numbers 4 and 5), it’s just good practice to give your users options and to give them another way of contacting you. Again, doing this shows that you care about the user, which provides a more personal feel.

Incorporate Social Media Links

By now, you know the buzz surrounding social media and what it can do for your business if used properly. Putting your email marketing to good use, you can link back to your Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, etc. accounts, generate some talk between users and provide yet another way of communication. All you need is a few icons strategically placed in your message and you should see some feedback.

Bride Buzz encorporates a couple social media links in their newsletters.

Design Considerations

Now that we’ve covered some technical guidelines, here are a few design related tips that will ensure you reach a maximum number of users.

Stay skinny!

It’s fairly common that users will have some sort of preview pane to view their messages before opening them in a new window. Typically, these preview panes are less than half the size of a normal window, drastically reducing the amount of screen real estate available to view your message. If you keep your email design skinny, with the important information to the left portion of the message, there is a better chance of that content being seen even if the message never gets opened in a full sized window.

Keep your images to a minimum

Likewise, images are typically turned off by default in most email clients. Because of this, you should keep important text (dates, times, call to actions) as just that – text. If that important text is not displayed because images are turned off, a user might not get a chance to see your “message” in the email. Also, another important consideration is load time. If you have just a few images, the user won’t have to wait for them to load and can get on to reading your email faster.

Sunny Thinking uses just a few images to accompany the main message.

Brand Consistently

Using the same types of graphics, colors and fonts, whether it be on your website, direct advertisements or email campaigns, will keep brand consistency at a maximum. Keeping an email design in line with the website design will create a seamless, polished and enjoyable experience for the viewer, hopefully increasing their trust in your brand.

While some of these tips may seem like common sense, more times than not, we see even the most basic tips go unnoticed. However, by taking a few minutes to include a few of these tips, you should see increased click throughs, better response and less bounces.

Do you have any more tips to add to the list?

In TrueCrypt, there are three different options for Volume Creation.The first option is to create an encrypted file which can be mounted and used as a drive. The file created by using this method can be copied and emailed or moved to a different space and still retain its encryption. The second option is to encrypt a non-system partition or drive like a flash drive or other external storage device. The last option is the same as the second option except it requires the user to enter a password before the OS boots to fully protect the encrypted files. This option can only encrypt Windows XP, 2003, 2008, Vista and Windows 7 operating systems.

Once a user chooses which TrueCrypt Volume to use, there are two more options: standard or hidden. Standard is very basic and only requires one password. Hidden TrueCrypt volume requires two passwords, one for the hidden partition and another for the non-hidden partition. The only downside to using a hidden partition is if the user fills all of the space on the non-hidden partition, the space on the hidden partition will be overwritten to make space for the non-hidden partition. However, this can be prevented by using the mount option “Protect hidden volume against damage caused by writing to outer volume.”

TrueCrypt uses three different encryption algorithms with five different combinations available. The three algorithms used are AES, Serpent and Twofish. Each encryption can be benchmarked and tested to see which is the right option for your needs. Any option with AES is a good choice because AES is the standard encryption used by the US Federal government, the NSA and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) among a number of other corporations. Version 7.0 introduced hardware-accelerated AES which takes advantage of Intel’s Westmere-based processors new set of instructions that provide over three times the encryption and decryption rate of AES.

TrueCrypt currently uses the XTS mode which is more secure than Cipher-block chaining (CBC) mode. XTS is based on Xor-Encrypt-Xor (XEX) with a Tweaked CodeBook (TCB) and CipherText Stealing (CTS). The NIST recommended XTS-AES mode for confidentiality on storage devices in a special report from January of 2010. In that report the organization says

“The XTS-AES mode provides confidentiality for the protected data. Authentication is not provided, because the P1619 Task Group designed XTS-AES to provide encryption without data expansion, so alternative cryptographic methods that incorporate an authentication tag are precluded. In the absence of authentication or access control, XTS-AES provides more protection than the other approved confidentiality-only modes against unauthorized manipulation of the encrypted data.”

The crypto hash functions used by TrueCrypt are RIPEMD-160, SHA-512 and Whirlpool. RIPEMD-160 (RACE Integrity Primitives Evaluation Message Digest) is a 160-bit message digest algorithm developed in Leuven, Belgium. SHA-512 was designed by the National Security Agency (NSA) and published in 2001 by the NIST as part of SHA-2 set of cryptographic hash functions. Whirlpool was designed by Vincent Rijmen (co-creator of AES) and Paulo S. L. M. Barreto. Out of the three, SHA-512 seems to be the most popular hash function.

TrueCrypt can also protect your files without requiring the use of a password by using keyfiles. A user can chose to use keyfiles in combination with a password or just one or the other. The keyfile could be security tokens, smart cards, a generated file or a random file off the computer such as an mp3 file. You can select more than one file to be used as your keyfile. If you have multiple keyfiles, the order doesn’t matter. Using keyfiles is beneficial in defending against brute-force attacks on a password.

Another great feature of TrueCrypt is the creation of a rescue disk. Once a user encrypts a system partition or drive, TrueCrypt requires that you create a TrueCrypt Rescue Disk. This assists the user in repairing the boot loader if it gets damaged or data is corrupted. It’s a good idea to always make a rescue disk because you never know what can happen once your data is encrypted and this system allows you to retrieve some data so all is not lost if a hard drive goes bad or is infected with malware.

The process to un-encrypt your files, partition or drive is a simple one. First you need to locate the encrypted volume. Next select the drive you want it mounted as. Then type your password and/or use your keyfiles and click “Mount.” When you’re finished, the file that is written to the drive will be encrypted on-the-file. If you have an OS encrypted partition or drive you can only un-encrypt at boot up or from a rescue disk.

TrueCrypt is a great piece of free software that works across multiple OS. The feature that I found to stand out the most was the encrypted file container. TrueCrypt just might give Bitlocker and other disk encryption software a run for their money.

It all started when the New York Times published an article alleging the two were in cahoots and attempting to work out an agreement after their group meetings with the FCC and other Internet service and content providers like AT&T and Skype were getting them nowhere. It made sense that perhaps it would be in Google’s best interest to garner a deal with one of the leading ISPs in the business considering Google is one of the largest providers of content on the web and the Google owned YouTube is an easy target for ISPs claiming it slows their service to customers. But Google has been pro net neutrality since the argument began.

After both companies denied any sort of deal last week but confirmed they were talking, they announced earlier today a joint effort for net neutrality. The two are proposing an enforceable net neutrality agreement that provides a few basic guidelines but does not lead to “anti-competitive measures that hurt consumers.” Click the following link to view their proposal: Verizon-Google Legislative Framework Proposal.

There are still some skeptics that feel there are some ulterior motives behind Google’s and Verizon’s joint venture. Others feel there is too much room for interpretation that could lead to loopholes that fly in the face of net neutrality. Regardless of their intentions and the potential for others to engage in shady business practices, this seems to be a positive step toward net neutrality. Whether this specific proposal is actually adopted by internet service and content providers and the government remains to be seen but it is a big statement. Two of the biggest names involved on opposite sides of the debate have come together. They agree that net neutrality is a good thing and the free and open exchange of information is worth more than a few extra bucks per month to speed certain content through the internet.

What do you think? Is this a step in the right direction? What sort of implications will this have on the discussions being led by the FCC?

1. Monitor

One of the most basic functions of social media is to help businesses monitor their name, brand, and products as they’re discussed in the  online world. This is a crucial point that many businesses overlook. There will always be conversations online and in real life about people, places and things and there is nothing anyone can do to stop it. But a business can monitor and listen to those conversations and in some cases join in on the conversation. This is particularly important when it comes to negative comments about a company’s product or service. Often a scorned customer can be appeased with a simple acknowledgment of the problem and an apology. People want to be heard and they want people to care about what they have to say. If they don’t feel like they’re being taken seriously, a problem that often times could be quickly and easily resolved, gets blown entirely out of proportion. Look at the apple iphone fiasco. The antenna issue could be easily resolved with bumpers to fix the reception. Had apple immediately acknowledged the reception issue, apologized and said “We’re looking into it,” maybe they wouldn’t be facing a class-action lawsuit. Instead, Steve Jobs chose to deny, deny, deny and they’re in much hotter water because of it.

Tools like Twitter and Google Alerts can be so valuable in this function. With a few quick searches, any business owner can be aware of exactly what is being said about the company, the product or the service and the owner can be immediately notified if there is a storm brewing so he can step in before it’s a full blown hurricane.

2. Connect

One of the most valuable functions of social media is the ability to connect with people. Social media, in any shape or form, creates a public persona for a business that allows it to connect with consumers. Social media humanizes businesses and allows consumers to see more than just the high dollar ads and business execs on TV. A business can share more like company values, the corporate culture, other projects that the company is involved in like various philanthropies. By showing more than just the finely tuned marketing campaign, consumers are able to connect with businesses on a more personal level. This allows consumers to become more vested in the company and more willing to support the company in the long run.

Facebook is a perfect example of how businesses can connect with consumers. All it takes is one person to become a fan of the company. Then that person is updated regularly on sales and regular goings on in the business, but also on the people behind the business, what they’re doing, what they’re supporting and what they’re thinking. The next time a consumer needs a product or service offered by this company, the consumer is much more likely to do business with a company he can connect with on a more personal level as opposed to one of the other competitors that the consumer knows nothing about.

3. Interact

Once you’ve monitored what people are saying and you’ve connected with them on some level, the next step is to interact with them. This is the ultimate goal of social media because its possibilities are limitless for your business. Once you start interacting regularly with consumers, you can learn more about them, what they think, what they do and how they act. You can then use this information to better your business. And by forming meaningful relationships and interacting with consumers, you will strengthen their customer loyalty. Odds are that those loyal customers will not only support your business for years to come but they will introduce your business to their friends and family.

One way to interact with customers using social media is to provide special offers and coupons to encourage them to give you business. But more than that, you can interact with them directly by responding to their comments and providing them with useful information and feedback. Foursquare is a  fun new way to interact with consumers on a personal level. Customers can check in whenever they frequent your business. They can get special deals using promotion codes and if they check in enough, they even get the glory of being dubbed “mayor” of your business.

There are plenty of different ways to monitor, connect and interact with consumers using social media. The important thing is not how you go about it, just that you do it. By getting involved with social media and in turn getting more involved with your consumers, you create a ripple effect. Each time you create a meaningful relationship with a customer, they’ll share that with a friend, who will share that with a friend and so on. The return on social media is only limited by the effort and energy you’re willing to put into it.

So what do you think? How do you use social media? What are some other benefits and basic functions of social media that haven’t been discussed?

There are some fairly fool proof ways to combat common mistakes, however. By following some pretty simple rules within your Ecommerce store, we can improve sales, generate leads and referrals and subsequently increase conversions. Let’s get started!

1. Remove clutter and distracting elements

The single biggest step I can recommend is removing “clutter” and unneeded elements from the design of the store. In doing so, you will free up sections of the page, which can help for many different reasons. First, it will reduce the amount of information the user takes in, drawing the focus to what is most important on the page, the product. Second, it frees up more real estate for product photos, descriptions and reviews; all of which will help a user make a more informed decision. Finally, by reducing clutter, you reduce the amount of elements that load when a page is requested by the user, thus decreasing their loading times and providing a more responsive feel to the site. Take a look at Lucky Brand Jeans’ site:

By incorporating a large product shot, the focus is drawn directly to the product. You will also notice a solid product description followed by different options you can select. Only when you get to the bottom of the page will you see recommended products. By doing this, they reduce clutter on the page in order to put the main focus on the product and the product only.

2. Make actions clearly visible

Along the same lines, making an Ecommerce site have clear and specific actions is essential to a successful store. Without them, a user might get lost on what to do next (ex: after adding a product to the cart, what do I do?). This becomes exponentially important during the checkout process, as users are very quick to cancel their entire transaction if they get even the slightest hint that they might be doing something wrong; especially if they believe it might compromise their sensitive information.

With that in mind, actions to make extremely clear might include: add to cart, remove from cart, update quantities, checkout, select variation/option and any forms they need to fill out. Below are some examples.

Fugitive Toys has large buttons that clearly pull you to the next action.

REI includes a 1. 2. 3. step process to add a product to the cart, which tells the user exactly what to do to add that product (and any variations) to the cart.

3. Make product shots visually appealing

If you have already removed distracting, unneeded elements from your store, chances are you have some free space (it might even look a bit empty). That’s OK! You can fill up a bit of that space with product images that will highlight the craftsmanship & fine details of your products. A common feature found on Ecommerce sites is a product image gallery. This is quite a useful feature for users because they are able to see multiple images and it will help them to make a more informed decision about the product. Think of it this way: someone can describe something picturesque and beautiful, but if you’ve never seen it with your own eyes, you won’t appreciate it fully; it’s the same with your products online. You can have pages and pages detailing how your products are created, but if a user never sees a decent picture, their opinion will be skewed because ultimately, they want to make the final decision for themselves.

Spy Optics & Converse both use very large product shots to show detail; this is like being able to hold a product in a store.

4. Include value added or related products

Have you ever gone on a camping trip, assembled your tent, and realized you didn’t have any stakes to hold it down? Smaller items like tent stakes can help to increase sales by providing a user something extra to buy at the last minute. If they see a product that they “might need” just before checking out, they may feel inclined to add it to their order (think of the checkout aisle at the grocery store). There are a couple of things to keep in mind, though; first, you have to make these additional products stand out from the rest of the content, to draw attention to them (but do it subtly!). Second, make sure that the product you are trying to cross-sell is pertinent to the product they just are about to buy. Last but not least, it must be extremely simple to add that product to the cart so the user can be on their way in a matter of seconds.

On most product pages at Amazon, you will find items that are “Frequently Bought Together”. Items that correspond to the product being viewed are typically placed here.

5. Checkout process needs to be a breeze

Let’s go to a real life example again. After picking out a few products, you head to the register and run into a long line. When you finally get to the clerk, they aren’t helpful in ringing up your items and give you no indication of when to swipe your card, enter your PIN or sign, and don’t bag your items up for you. Pretty inconvenient, right? Making the entire checkout process simple and easy is an integral part of increasing sales. This section could be an entire article by itself, so I won’t elaborate too much, but:

• Step by step completion can help the user see exactly where they are in the checkout process, giving them feedback and encouraging them to continue.
• Error messages need to be clearly defined and helpful, so that the user can correct the problem quickly and be on their way.
• Security is an increasing concern for everyone, so reassuring the user that their sensitive data is safe is imperative.
• Confirmation of a successful transaction should be clearly stated so that the user understands everything that happened.

Swarovski Crystal has a great checkout process. They have steps to alert you exactly where you are in the checkout process, as well as forms that guide you in case of errors.

6. Go the extra mile to keep users informed

You’re wrong if you think your job is done when the user completes their transaction! Keeping them informed about the status of their order will give them peace of mind that all is well. Emails that tell the user you received their order, their order was processed & shipped, and possibly a follow up email are all key to helping the user through the end. Providing things like contact numbers and email addresses are great because it puts the user in contact with you if they have any questions. Also, adding a tracking number to the email is a great feature that a user definitely appreciates, as they like to see exactly what is happening with their order.

Will these 6 tips guarantee success in every Ecommerce store? No. However, they are guidelines that can be formatted to fit your store so that in the end, your focus is on the most important aspect of your business – the consumer. Take a look at these tips again, and then browse through your Ecommerce site. What can be improved? What can be added or removed? Whether you need to customize your current solution or start from scratch, we have the tools and knowledge to help.



A QR Code of the url www.trustyourtechnologist.com

The basic function of the code is to be scanned (laser based 2D bar code scanner – or more likely, a phone’s camera). On a phone the image is analyzed by a QR Code reading application such as QRdvark and the content, link, and info is then available on the device.

The QR Code is machine readable only, of course. But its usefulness is only limited by the application reading it. For example, a QR Code reader recognizing a URL in the QR Code will open the location in a browser. A QR Code of contact information can automatically create that contact in your address book.

SMS I love your blog

An enormous benefit is that this format can contain 4,296 text characters, 7,089 digits, 2,953 raw bytes, or 1,817 kanji. That’s plenty of information to include full contact information on a business card, details about a movie on a poster, or quick link to a product’s URL. If you have not seen it already, expect to see QR Codes appearing in print ads. A scan of the code could open a URL of the product or a special promotion.

Design QR
These QRs take logos or other imagery and incorporate them into the QR Code. This is possible because there is redundancy enough for a lot of code deterioration before the code becomes unreadable.

AVATAR's DesignQR

Structure
A QR Code contains several meta elements in addition to the embedded information being shared. Extra information about what version of the code is being used but also tracking points to help the reader application adjust for position and skew. A QR Code is from 21-177 modules in height and 21-177 modules in width.

Future Uses
In advertising you attempt to catch the eye and make an impression. QR Codes help make that impression digital. But I think this will also be a major infosharing technique. Current uses include an art gallery tour enhanced through codes to help identify sections of a digital tour or to open more information about the artist, the piece, the period, etc. Street artists tagging their work with QR Codes. Near future uses could include traffic signs auto-read by in-car readers. And future uses such as 3D QR Codes that can store even more information (in theory, an entire video clip), or enhanced encoding techniques that could store more as well.

It’s my third day in Toledo and I’ve experienced an atmosphere at AVATAR that can only be described as the genuine small business experience. On one end, you have an engaged business, but given the opportunity for playtime, the gang will not hesitate to poke fun at each other and engage in office shenanigans all in the name of fun. For example, today I decided to eavesdrop on a conversation between Robert and Damon with Damon accusing Robert of eating his last dinosaur Silly Bandz bracelet. Watching this exchange I was reminded of similar situations on the hit TV series “The Office.” This exchange was certainly something that you wouldn’t want to miss! But what’s great is how work still gets done in this atmosphere. One end of the office could be in the middle of a rubber band war while I am sitting across from Kristin and Stephanie who are meeting to discuss AVATAR’s next big step in the social media arena. Moments of raucous fun are quickly followed by the sounds of feverish typing and clicking with everyone hard at work. In short, AVATAR is a small business atmosphere upheld by close-knit friends seldom seen at your typical nine to five job.

Reflecting on my visit so far, I’d say that two very valuable things have come of it to this point. First, I’ve learned quite a bit about web development. Second, don’t try something  just because someone tells you that it tastes good — you may regret it the following morning.