Should You Care that your Business is on Social Media?

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Should people care?

This is a twist on a LinkedIn post this week entitled, “Why No One Cares That Your Business Uses Social Media“. Do people really care? Should people really care? Should you care if they care?

For the types of businesses I coach (small business & entrepreneurs), they always ask, “Should I be on social media?”, not the better question of “Why should I be on social media?”. Without the why should you be there, there is no motivation TO be there.

WHY people should care

The article has a very valid point which I would like to laud. In 2012, the idea of businesses on social media was novel, new and you could drive people to your social media from your website. It’s definitely a symptom of information overload now in 2015 that their novelty is gone. There are a million more social media sites out there to choose from. How do you choose? Which ones do you choose? Several clients tell  me, “I should be on XYZ media, but I don’t know what I should be doing with it.”. They have no idea how to leverage their presence to get more sales. And their customers spend more and more time on social media, but have no idea they are there or how to find them!

This becomes more important now than ever because the tide has turned. Marketers, finding their customers spend more time on social media, want to drive traffic BACK THE OTHER WAY to their websites to get those coveted sales.

Now that you care…

Most of the networkers I run into fall into one of two categories; the ones that feel they don’t have the time for social media and the others that have social media channels, but rarely use them.

Nearly every new website client asks it; the question of, “Should I be on social media?” . I always tell them, “Find out if your customers are on social media.”. Offer it, not for your exposure, but as a service to THEM. But remember, unless you are going to make consistent, persistent use of a social media channel, it seriously is not for you or your business. Go in with a strategy if you are going to go in at all and give it your all. Then – and only then – will you know for sure if it works for your business. But always remember, it isn’t FOR your business – It is always about what YOU can do for your customers.

Bringing Sense to the Nonsense that is the Internet

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Civic Site Design's Social Networking Sanity logo

Doesn’t it just drive you nuts sometimes? Drowning in all the options in social media. It’s so overwhelming to many folks, they don’t know where to start.

That’s where we can help out. There is a place for you and your business – out there, somewhere, but it takes asking the right questions and more importantly, listening to the answers that come back and acting upon them. Don’t be afraid to ask, because if you don’t ask, you’ll never know and you might be missing out on some amazing opportunities to connect with an important part of your client base. Aren’t they – and you – worth it?

Living in Balance – or how I learned to love my cat and power network at the same time

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desk catsIf my Facebook friends have taught me anything, it is how much they hate Facebook, yet they still use it to talk about life off of Facebook. If this week of homophobic hatred, church burnings and Donald Trump giving the finger to illegal aliens and the all-mighty NBC has taught me anything more, it is how passionately we take to social media to talk about things that are not computer related.

The insane extremes of being a human being are at once maddening yet fascinating, infuriating yet entertaining. And it’s only just now as I ditch my desktop PC for my netbook, WiFi signal and the cooler weather in the bedroom, that I realized that.

My dad would have been proud of me balancing both with the skill of a trapeze artist today. He was an older man who had served at Forth Worth, TX, as a glider pilot instructor during World War II, and yet after the war, he acquired a passion for Japanese post-war advances in the world of photography by collecting 35mm cameras (you younger kids wouldn’t recognize those types of cameras – they actually had physical film in them – what’s film, you say? Never mind).

Even if the generations reading this had never lived through the Big W (another vague, historical reference), you can probably appreciate the irony of being a fan of emerging technology out of a former Communist enemy of the United States and it’s Allies. At least I hope you can. If you can’t, you seriously need to get your head to Google and search up, “World War II” and “japanese cameras of the 1960s and 70s”, then take your iPhone to a museum of history – yeah, that’s what I’m talking about!

Confused yet? Welcome to the world of Living in Balance with Technology and the Real World outside social networking.

I do it every day, live it, love it, experience it by taking a walk one minute and Tweeting about it the next. It isn’t that hard, really, for someone who wants to make it work in this insane world of love ’em, hate ’em, us vs. them when it comes to technology vs. life outside the wifi. And for business networkers in this day and age, it is an absolute MUST if you are to pimp yourself in social media and make a profit at the same time.

And while the world seems perfect this morning because I can take my netbook and wifi into a part of the house that isn’t roasting from an 80 degrees at 8:00 am start to my day, it wasn’t that that made me realize how lucky we are to have technology and humans in balance in this house.

It was my cat, Rhubarb.

He followed me into the bedroom and sat beside me as I leaned against the headboard of our bed, typing a mile a minute, fighting to get these thoughts down before they disappear. You see, he’s lonely. We lost his 11-year old mom, Harley, this past weekend, to cancer and now he’s my constant comfort, my constant companion. even moreso than he was before.

I went kind of insane with grief last week as I watched my beloved Maine Coon struggle to breathe as that tumor pressed against her windpipe. How they hell do I know when enough is enough, I begged my vet. I don’t want her to suffer, but human asthmatics suffer a little at a time everyday, yet no one rushes to put them down because of it. She can’t tell me what hurts…how the hell and I going to know when enough is enough when she can’t talk to me?!? I can’t wait until she’s gasping for breath, because by then she’ll have only a precious few minutes left – and it takes 40 minutes to get to the vet from where we live. I wanted her to have a peaceful, pain-free death.

How in God’s name do I do this?

The internet had answers we were too late to implement, answers the vet had either held back, wasn’t aware of or simply didn’t believe worked. The ‘net gave me hope at the same time it forced me to realize that we were just too late to use them.

Sometimes the ‘net is evil like that – just like life.

The two are not mutually exclusive – not anymore. Tech is here to stay, it’s only going to get more invasive from here on out, so we as human beings better learn to live with it and when you want that human touch, just reach down, pull your new, baby kitten into your lap and take a picture of her to share with your virtual world. Then, and only then, will you understand that balance is indeed possible.

The Samsung screw-up that was heard round the world part 2

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So yesterday we warned our readers of a security flaw in Samsung’s Galaxy phones series 4-6. That same evening it was clarified that the flaw was in the way the Swype technology software was installed into the Samsung phones and that the danger of being hacked existed when, “the device reboots, and when the keyboard software automatically updates at any random time”. Samsung has stepped up and issued this statement on the situation:

Information Regarding the Keyboard Security Issue and Our Device Policy Update.

What does this mean for Samsung users? Nothing has really changed. I recommend you keep your wifi off until they issue the patch. The phone will not alert you when the language update is being performed on your phone, hence, because of the large amount of public wifi signals around us 24/7, it could happen at any moment.

And when will the patch be issued? Hopefully soon.

Yesterday we also promised to explain why the carriers – T-Mobile, Verizon, AT&T, etc, are at fault for this pathetic mess. We drew your attention to the fact that the carriers knew about this “at the start of 2015” when they were warned and patches were issued by Samsung, who had been informed by NowSecure in December 2014. NowSecure also informed the United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team (CERT) and Google’s Android security team about the problem. So everyone knew in a timely manner, issued the patches and said, “Okay carriers, the ball’s in your court. Issue the patch and fix this”.

They dropped the ball, kicked it into the neighbor’s yard and claimed it never even existed.

Doesn’t it make you feel good that this is what you pay upwards of $100s of dollars a month for?

The Samsung screw-up that was heard round the world

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Samsung Phones 4-6 at Civic Site DesignI usually ignore most announced Samsung security flaws. They rarely are enough of a threat to get my attention or that of my networkers. Today that drastically changed when a mobile security researcher with NowSecure blew the whistle on a flaw noticed by Samsung itself way back in December 2014 AND NOTHING HAS BEEN DONE ABOUT IT.

I’ll just quote ABC7.com’s opening line on their online article to get you all up to speed. “A security flaw discovered in Samsung smartphones has left as many as 600 MILLION Galaxy phones at risk of being hacked.”

Don’t have your attention yet? Don’t care because you don’t HAVE a Samsung Galaxy phone? Maybe you don’t have that model and you are breathing a sigh of relief.

One tiny word of advice. DON’T!

I have a Samsung Galaxy Note IV – which, by the way is NOT affected by the security flaw, BUT I am plenty worried for my networkers, my clients, my customers…my HUSBAND who just got his brand new Samsung 5 corporate work phone a month ago.

Six hundred million is a helluva big number, and to put it in even tighter perspective for you – in my smallest networking venue (at which about 15-20 people show up each week) FOUR OF THEM HAVE AN AFFECTED PHONE!

That’s 20-27% of the room in that tiny little group. ONE QUARTER of the room I had to pull aside and give copies of the article and direct how to patch this train-wreck of a customer service disaster the carriers have on their hands.

309 million is THE POPULATION OF THE UNITED STATES, by the way. So it is the equivalent to TWO UNITED STATES worth of people that are scrabbling ’round the globe to deal with this mess.

Or, well, it WOULD be if the word got out as fast as the carriers lack of attention to the problem THEY KNEW ABOUT LAST YEAR!

So, enough torch-handling and pitchfork wielding. Right now you need to know what to do if you have a Samsung Galaxy 4, 5 or 6 phone and how to stay safe until your service provider gets off its collective butt and decides to let the world know if they issued the patch yet.

What to do if you or anyone you know is affected:
1. Turn OFF your wi-fi in your settings. The hackers get in through open wifi ports. The carriers say to avoid wifi areas, but that’s like trying to avoid the entire planet. EVERY major chain restaurant, Starbucks, government building, school, company that has a network-run computer system has open wifi broadcasting round the clock – even when they are not open!

2. Disable language updates. This is harder to locate and the best thing to do is take your phone to your carrier and have them do it and/or walk you through it so you know they did it correctly.

3. Call your carrier and find out the status of the update. Don’t be meek. THIS IS YOUR FINANCES AND PERSONAL SECURITY THEY ARE ENDANGERING BY STALLING IMPLEMENTATION OF THIS UPDATE! I cannot emphasize this enough! If they give excuses, claim they never heard of this security breach, promise to get back to you – DON’T BELIEVE THEM AND DO NOT let them blow you off.  Ask for their supervisor, email them DAILY – do what it takes to get them to get you off their back and give you an estimated patch implementation date.

These are simple steps that can save your contact list, your bank account access information, your credit card numbers from being taken without your knowledge and consent.

Tomorrow I will detail why this was NOT Swype Key’s or even Samsung’s fault, but the CARRIERS…ALL OF THEM. And I apologize in advance, but you are not going to like the answer. They need to take responsibility for this mess, and believe me, if they know what’s good for them, they will fix this flaw like, YESTERDAY.

Wait, didn’t we just have a Samsung Galaxy rollout?

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Phone review time again at Civic Site Design. Wow, well, this one was out fast. Why the rush, Samsung? I’m still getting used to my Galaxy Note IV. Losing the micro-sd card wasn’t a bright idea, imo and I was surprised to max out while at a convention, but to be fair, I do have 6 pages of apps and hadn’t downloaded my earlier pics yet. The average user probably doesn’t need that many apps. They may accumulate them, but I like to review and clean them out once in a while, along with my photos after I upload them to social media. And pushing 1K??? C’mon, Samsung, don’t be so greedy. Keep the reasons I love you more than iPhone or you’re going to have a mass exodus on your hands.

What do you think of their official introduction? Leave your comments here.