Archive for the ‘Marketing/ PR’ Category

The Pros and Cons of Social Media in the Workplace, Part 2

March 27th, 2013
Posted by: admin

 

GUEST BLOG

By Daniel Dimov
InfoSec Institute

In Part I of this two-part blog, I explored the advantages of restricting social media access for employees.  In this second part, we explore the disadvantages.

Disadvantages of restricting social media access for employees

There are seven main disadvantages of restricting social media access for employees; namely, the (1) decrease in morale of the employees, (2) missed opportunities for free advertising, (3) missed opportunities for team building, (4) missed opportunities for skill building, (5) missed opportunities for internal and external communication, (6) missed opportunities for networking, and (7) the attraction of new employees becomes more difficult.

Decreasing the morale of the employees

The main disadvantage of restricting social media access for employees is that the employees may feel oppressed by the employer. This may affect employee morale and satisfaction from their work. In this regard, Ann Cavoukian, a privacy commissioner for the Canadian province of Ontario, noted that blocking of social networks in the workplace is a mistake. She also said that “It’s like waving the proverbial red flag in front of your staff – it’s almost a challenge to them to find a way around it.”

Missed opportunities for free advertising

In most cases, employees add to their social network profile the name of the companies for which they work for. Thus, each of their friends can see the name of the company. Taking into account that, in 2012, the average number of Facebook friends of U.S users at 18-24 years of age was 429, an employer with 10 workers who restricts social network access will lose thousands of views of his/her company name and logo.

Missed opportunities for team building

Social networks allow employees to know more about each other. It may lead to a better cooperation between team members which, in turn, will improve the team’s performance. Social media also gives team members the opportunity to communicate on a personal level. This may bring them closer together. Moreover, social networks may be used for organizing team building events. For example, Facebook has a comprehensive system for event scheduling. The organizers of events in Facebook may not only post information, including audio and video content, about the event, but may also see the users who are going to attend the meeting or not.

Missed opportunities for skill building

In the past five years, there has been a steady increase in the users of social networks. As a result, effective skills in using social networks are a must for anyone willing to practice certain professions, such as PR and Marketing. Allowing the employees to use social networks may serve as a valuable training for them.

Missed opportunities for internal and external communication

Communication between employees, and between the company and its potential customers, is very important to the success of any business. Social networks provide excellent opportunities for internal and external communication because it is more interactive than traditional means of communication, such as email and phone.

Missed opportunities for networking

Business networking allows the employees of a company to know what other companies are doing and obtain information about recent developments in the company’s field of activity. A business network can be very well supplemented by an online social network. Through an online social network, the people who have met in person will be able to receive more information about each other. The most prominent business social network is LinkedIn.

Making the attraction of new employees more difficult

Many potential new employees may get to know that the company restricts social media access for employees. Some of them may not apply for a position at the company because they may consider the restriction of the access to social networks as a form of oppression.

Conclusion

The restriction of social networks at the workplace has both advantages and disadvantages. The decrease in the productivity of employees seems to be an often cited disadvantage. However, a recent study has indicated that employees who have access to social networks may be more productive than employees in companies that block access. While it is debatable whether or not the restriction of social networks increases the productivity of a company, it is certain that the use of social networks may be a source of malicious code. Consequently, the restriction of the use of social networks at the workplace may be considered as a preventive information security measure. It should be added that doing so may not only limit the risk of getting viruses, but also protect the employees from identity theft. As many know, the results of an identity theft can be catastrophic for both individuals and companies.

The restriction of social networks has several disadvantages as well. One of the most important disadvantages is that some employees may feel oppressed as a result of the restriction of social networks. The decreased morale of the employees may then negatively affect their productivity. Besides, by not allowing employees to use social networks, the employer may deprive himself of free advertising that employees would otherwise make using social networks. Moreover, the employer will also miss opportunities for team building, training the staff in skills related to social networks, developing internal and external communication, and networking. Last but not the least, the restriction of social networks may have a negative impact on attracting new employees.

Daniel Dimov is a security researcher for InfoSec Institute.  The InfoSec Institute is a provider of information security training specializing in PMP certification classes.

 

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The Pros and Cons of Social Media in the Workplace, Part 1

March 25th, 2013
Posted by: admin

 

GUEST BLOG

By Daniel Dimov
InfoSec Institute

Employees using social networks such as Facebook and Google+ may not only waste a lot of their working time, but also spread viruses on their work computers. Due to this, some employers have implemented security systems designed to closely monitor or restrict, as needed, an employee’s access and use of social networks. The purpose of this blog is to discuss the advantages and disadvantages of restricting social media access for employees.

social media in workplace

Restricting social media access in the workplace has four main advantages but it also carries some disadvantages.

Advantages of restricting social media access for employees

The restriction of social media access for employees has four advantages; namely, it (1) increases employee productivity of, (2) decreases the risk of getting malicious software, (3) increases the availability of bandwidth, and (4) prevents identity theft. These four advantages are discussed below.

Increasing the productivity of employees

Surfing in social networks may waste a lot of an employee’s time. A Proskauer International Labor & Employment Group survey conducted in 2011 indicated that 43 percent of businesses using social media have dealt with employees’ misuse of social networks, and approximately a third of all businesses have taken disciplinary action against employees concerning this. It is also worth mentioning that, on the basis of an analysis of the web traffic of 1,636 companies, the firewall supplier Palo Alto found out that there was an increase in employees’ use of Facebook to run web apps and games. The wasted time spent there can be otherwise used for completing tasks assigned by the employer or for educational purposes. This is why implementing security systems that restrict access to social media may improve the productivity of the employees.

It should be noted, however, that a study conducted at the University of Melbourne found out that employees with access to social networks were actually more productive than employees in companies that block access. Dr. Brent Coker, a researcher involved in the study, noted that employees who can reward themselves between the completion of one task and the start of another with a visit to their Facebook or MySpace page are more motivated than the workers who do not use social networks. The study found out that workers using social networks get 9 percent more accomplished than their blocked counterparts. Consequently, it is doubtful whether the restriction of social networks should be considered as an advantage.

It is important to note that the study of Dr. Coker should not be interpreted as stating that the use of social networks cannot decrease the productivity of the employees. Social networks may increase productivity only if they are used moderately. As Dr. Coker said, “Short and unobtrusive breaks, such as a quick surf of the internet, enables the mind to rest itself, leading to a higher total net concentration for a days’ work, and as a result, increased productivity.”

Decreasing the risk of malicious software

Often, social networks are a place where users can easily exchange files, some of which may contain viruses. In this regard, it should be noted that, after analyzing the web traffic of 5,500 PC users in 20 nations, firewall maker Barracuda Networks discovered that one of every 60 Facebook posts and one of every 100 Twitter tweets contained malicious code. The press regularly publishes reports noting the appearance of new types of Facebook viruses.

For example, a new computer virus labeled Steckt.Evl has been recently discovered by Trend Micro. This virus spreads via the chat window on Facebook. In particular, a message from a friend appears in the pop-up window that is used for person-to-person chat. The message contains a link to an innocent-looking website. If the victim installs the virus on his computer, it instantly disables and removes the existing anti-virus software. Then, it spreads itself by opening chat windows on the Facebook friends of the infected user. (For additional information on malware, check out the ceh training course offered by InfoSec institute, an IT security training company.)

Increasing the availability of bandwidth

Social media may generate a lot of internal traffic. This is because the use of social media websites is often accompanied by the use of video sharing websites, such as YouTube. In this connection, Patrick Wood, senior director of product management for Exinda, a provider of WAN optimization and application acceleration products based in the US, stated that, “While it varies from organization to organization, we have seen instances where as much as 60 percent or more of network resources are being consumed with things like Facebook, YouTube and Twitter.”

Preventing identity theft

Social networks can be used by criminals to steal identities. For instance, photo- and video-sharing websites like Facebook, Flickr, and YouTube may provide a lot of information about their users. Moreover, such social networks may contain information about the family and the friends of the users.

The next section of this article will discuss the disadvantages of social media in the workplace and draw a conclusion on the subject.

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AISN Attends COVITS 2012

September 24th, 2012
Posted by: Donna Hemmert

By Donna Hemmert
AIS Network Vice President, Strategic Development

This year was AIS Network’s first chance to attend COVITS and that is just what we did.  COVITS, the Commonwealth of Virginia’s Innovative Technology Symposium,  is a chance for decision makers from state and local government, business, and education to discuss solutions for Virginia’s technology needs.   The one comment I heard over and over was the quality of the keynotes and how relevant the topics in the panels were to the problems that were being solved.

For AIS Network specifically, it was such a great opportunity to meet with so many people in our extended community.  We met with many state and local people who were focused on a variety of issues.  We also saw a lot of interest around the Cloud (especially Private Cloud) and Bring Your Own Device.

We definitely plan to attend next year.

 

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SharePoint FIS and SharePoint FIS Licensing: Usage Scenarios (Part 2 of 2)

February 19th, 2012
Posted by: admin

By Bill Peters
AIS Network Director of Sales

In my January 24 blog, I provided some responses to frequently asked questions about Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 for Internet Sites and licensing SharePoint FIS.

In this second part, we’ll look at SharePoint FIS licensing in a little more depth and also look at some various usage scenarios.*  For the purposes of this blog, “internal users” refers to employees, affiliates’ employees, on-site contractors and/or agents.  “External users” refers to all others.

What do I need for intranet and extranet sites?

For intranet and extranet networks used to support internal content, SharePoint Server 2010 is required.  If only internal users can access the content being stored, it must be hosted on a server licensed with SharePoint Server 2010.  It’s important to remember that content is only accessible by users or devices with a Client Access License (CAL) for SharePoint Server 2010.  SharePoint Server can still be used to support external content, although each user or device requires a CAL, whether they are internal or external.

What do I need for Internet sites?

For servers used to provide external content (typically) over the Internet, SharePoint FIS is required.  If the content being stored and accessed is available to external users, it can be hosted on a server licensed with SharePoint FIS, and users accessing that content will not require a CAL.  It’s important to remember that while SharePoint FIS is restricted to external content, it is not restricted to external users.  For example, an internal user (e.g., employee) would not require a CAL to access external content on an instance of SharePoint FIS.  As you can see, the choice between SharePoint Server and SharePoint FIS for external content is a financial one, unless the external users have anonymous access—in which case, SharePoint FIS is the only feasible option.

Can you show me some usage scenarios?

The following common deployment scenarios are excerpted from a very useful and detailed document entitled, “Microsoft Volume Licensing Brief:  Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 for Internet Sites” (October 2010), which helps in explaining the licensing requirements of SharePoint FIS.  Although covered for user-based CALs, these scenarios can also be used for device-based CALs.  For a copy of the full document, just email me at the address below.

First, have a look at the color code for the diagrams:

SharePoint 2010

Color code for diagrams. Source: Microsoft Volume Licensing

SCENARIO A:  Intranet

Description: Internal users access information through LAN or the Internet. No other users (internal or external) have access to information or applications.

Example: A professional sports team sets up an intranet site accessed by managers, the coach, and players.  It is also used for support staff such as the physiotherapist who is an on-site contractor rather than an employee.  But the therapist still qualifies as an internal user.  A news reporter trying to access the SharePoint site is denied access.

Licensing:

  • Server — 1 SPS/Running Instance (RI)
  • Internal User — 1 CAL/User

Figure 1 – Scenario:  Intranet

SharePoint 2010 Sports Team Scenario

Source: Microsoft Volume Licensing

Key Takeaway:

  • Licensing requirements for server and CAL remain the same for internal users based on the location of access (through LAN or the Internet).

 

SCENARIO B:  Intranet Plus Extranet

Description: An organization with information accessible only by internal users (i.e., internal content) chooses to extend access to a limited number of identifiable external users.  In this case, the identifiable external users have access to all information, previously accessible by internal users only.   The organization may choose to license those external users either via SPS/CAL or SPSFIS for authenticated external users.  This decision is typically made based on cost.

Example:  The Elm University publishes research papers, which are made available to specific educators from other universities (external users).  This situation is assumed to be an intranet plus extranet scenario, even though the Elm University does not have a public-facing Web site.

Licensing:

  • Server — 1 SPS/RI
  • Internal User — 1 CAL/User
  • External User — 1 CAL/User

-or-

  • Server — 1 SPS/RI (for internal use), 1 SPSFIS/RI* (for external use)
  • Internal User — 1 CAL/User
  • External User:  No additional licenses required.

SPS/CAL Only

Figure 2A – Scenario:  Intranet Plus Extranet Without SPSFIS

SharePoint 2010 Elm University Scenario A

Source: Microsoft Volume Licensing

SPS/CAL Plus SPSFIS

Figure 2B – Scenario:  Intranet Plus Extranet with FIS

SharePoint 2010 Elm University Scenario B

Source: Microsoft Volume Licensing

Key Takeaways:

  • You can choose between SPS/CAL or SPSFIS based on what is more economical to them given the number of external users.
  • The licensing requirement for internal user varies depending on the server license chosen and use (publishing or internal use of information/applications).
  • The university chooses to make external content available to selective external users.  With SPSFIS licensing, no restriction is made on how many external users access that information.

SCENARIO C:   Internet

Description: Internal users are publishing information for external users.  It is not possible to identify some or all of external users, so you must license external users via SPSFIS.  Because internal users access the same information as external users, all users can be licensed via SPSFIS, and no additional CALs are required.

In another example, a team of internal users is customizing the look and feel of the Web site and testing it before the changes go live in production; CALs are not required if the internal users have MSDN licenses.

Example: News Web site, knowledge forums, and social networking sites

Licensing:

  • Server — 1 SPSFIS/RI
  • Internal User — Need no CAL
  • External User — Need No CAL
  • Test/Dev: If users are covered via MSDN, no additional server licenses/CALs are required.

Figure 3 – Scenario:  Internet

SharePoint 2010 Newspaper Publishing Scenario

Source: Microsoft Volume Licensing

Key Takeaways:

  • SPSFIS/RI is the only license required if internal users are accessing the same sites as external users.
  • Each staging server that is posting content requires its own SPSFIS/RI (same licensing requirement as production server).  This requirement excludes test staging servers because testing technical changes are covered under MSDN.

SCENARIO D:  Intranet Plus Internet

Description: You make some content available only to internal users, while other content is made available to anonymous external users.

You need one SPS/RI for the internal content, one CAL/user for all internal users accessing that internal content, and one SPSFIS/RI for the external content accessed by anonymous external users.  SPSFIS negates the need for CALs for internal users only publishing information and all external users.

Example: Woodgrove Bank offers loan information and the option to submit a loan application on its public-facing site, on which only internal users are allowed to view/work.

Licensing

  • Server — 1 SPS/RI for servers for internal information, 1 SPSFIS/RI* for servers for external information
  • Internal User (if only publishing) — needs no CAL
  • Internal User (otherwise) — 1 CAL/User
  • External User — needs no CAL

Figure 4 – Scenario:  Intranet Plus Internet

SharePoint 2010 Bank Scenario

Source: Microsoft Volume Licensing

Key Takeaways:

  • If internal users are only publishing information and SPSFIS/RI is being used for the servers, CALs are not required for them.
  • If the contents/information/applications accessed by internal users are different from those accessed by external users, SPS/CAL licenses are required for internal users.

SCENARIO E:   Intranet Plus Internet Plus Extranet

Description: In this scenario, one subset of information is available only to internal users, another subset of information is available to both internal users and authenticated external users, and a third subset of  information is available to anonymous external users.

Example: Contoso Pharmaceutials maintains a public Web site accessible by all, offers collaboration with authenticated external users on specific research and development  projects, and hosts company’s internal intranet for its internal users.

Licensing:

  • Server — 1 SPS/RI for servers for internal information, 1 SPSFIS/RI for servers for external information*
  • Internal User (publishing) — needs no CAL
  • Internal User (otherwise) — 1 CAL/User, External User à needs no CAL
  • External User —  needs no CAL

*In the case of dedicated server for extranet, users would have a choice of SPSFIS to cover all authenticated external users or extending CALs to them, as discussed in Scenario 2.

Figure 5 – Scenario:  Intranet Plus Internet Plus Extranet

SharePoint 2010 Pharmaceutical Company Scenario

Source: Microsoft Volume Licensing

Key Takeaways:

  • This scenario shows that the Internet plus intranet plus extranet scenario is no different than the sum of the individual scenarios.
  • An organization can choose to make external information available to selective external users. However, with SPSFIS licensing, no licensing restriction is made on how many external users can access external information.

This is so confusing.  Isn’t there someone who can help me figure this out?

Yes, as I mentioned in January, if you think SharePoint FIS licensing is confusing, you are not alone.  I’m happy to walk you through it and help you assess your organization’s needs.

Call me at 1-888-401-AISN, or email me at:  bill.peters@aisn.net.  Or, simply leave a comment below.  Best of luck!

 

 

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SharePoint FIS and SharePoint FIS Licensing: FAQs (Part 1 of 2)

January 24th, 2012
Posted by: admin

SharePoint for Internet Sites

Ferrari's Web site is designed using SharePoint for Internet Sites. For more examples, go to our SharePoint FIS hosting page.

By Bill Peters
AIS Network Director of Sales

Offering cloud hosting for Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 for Internet Sites (SharePoint FIS) was a no-brainer for us.  After all, digital content creators’ interest in the cloud, and the mobile access it affords, is surging.

Including SharePoint FIS hosting among our product offerings represents the first of several steps that AIS Network will take to expand its cloud hosting services for professionals working in digital content creation fields such as Web development, design, publishing, film, architecture, advertising, marketing and public relations.

Here are some “Frequently Asked Questions” focused on what SharePoint FIS is and how to make some sense of SharePoint FIS licensing.  My next entry, Part 2 of this two-part blog, will include specific usage scenarios and how to handle licensing in those cases.

What is SharePoint FIS?

SharePoint FIS empowers creative teams to publish beautiful, interactive external Internet and extranet sites, while dramatically simplifying Web content management and administration.

Who uses SharePoint FIS?

Hosted SharePoint for Internet Sites (SharePoint FIS) is ideal for compliance-focused corporate enterprises, associations and institutions that need to interact with a large number of users via a public-facing Web site.  Digital marketers and design agencies, who need to launch multiple Internet/extranet sites quickly and easily, are also making great use of SharePoint FIS.   You’ll find some examples on our SharePoint FIS hosting page.

What are my SharePoint FIS licensing options?

SharePoint FIS comes in two flavors, Standard and Enterprise.  SharePoint FIS Standard is scoped for a single domain only and has standard SharePoint features for unlimited users (anonymous or authenticated).  SharePoint FIS Enterprise, on the other hand, is scoped for multiple domains and has enterprise SharePoint features for unlimited users (anonymous or authenticated).  According to Microsoft…

SharePoint Server FIS Standard:

  • Helps small and mid-size organizations create public-facing Internet sites or basic extranets.
  • Provides licensing for the same features as the Standard CAL for SharePoint Server.
  • Designed only to be used for creating and hosting a single site resolved from a single domain name (such as aisn.com) and its subdomains (such as support.aisn.com).
  • When combined with active Microsoft Software Assurance, it’s eligible to be stepped up to SharePoint Server for Internet Sites Enterprise for an additional fee.

SharePoint Server FIS Enterprise:

  • Designed for enterprises to create externally-facing public Internet sites and secure private extranets using the full capabilities of SharePoint Server.
  • Provides licensing for all SharePoint Server features (the same as SharePoint Server Enterprise CAL).
  • Offers the rights to host an unlimited number of sites and/or domains.

So, SharePoint FIS Standard is for just one domain?

Yes, SharePoint FIS Standard can only be used to support a single site and its related subdomains on a single domain.  Because the licensing of SharePoint FIS is per running instance, you can run more than one site/domain using the Standard edition only if separate running instances are used for each site/domain and a unique license of SharePoint Server 2010 for Internet Sites Standard is allocated for each running instance.

Does SharePoint FIS Enterprise have FAST Search?

Yes.  For use in Internet/extranet scenarios, the on-premise server license also includes the rights to FAST Search. You can deploy a single server license of SharePoint FIS Enterprise as a SharePoint server OR a FAST Search server—but not both concurrently.  Keep in mind that FAST Search server licensing does not apply to SPLA licensing.

How is SharePoint FIS licensed?

SharePoint Server for Internet Sites is licensed per running instance.  No Client Access Licenses (CALs) are required, even for authors creating content.  When using SharePoint FIS for licensing external-facing scenarios, you must have a server license for all servers that are used to deliver content to external users – regardless of the farm configuration or whether or not users are directly accessing that server (staging, application, front-end, or index).

Servers in a development/test environment are exempt from this rule assuming they are covered by MSDN® developer program licensing. According to Microsoft, the underlying logic in this is that all servers supporting a specific solution (internal vs. external and production vs. development test) must be licensed similarly (i.e., in the CAL/Server model, the per-server “For Internet Sites” model, or the MSDN developer program). This is independent of the order in which information moves through servers.

What if I only need an intranet built on SharePoint?

Intranet sites are licensed using a Server/CAL (Client Access License) model.  SharePoint Server 2010 is required for each running instance of the software, and CALs are required for each person or device accessing a SharePoint Server.

This is so confusing.  Isn’t there someone who can help me figure this out?

Yes, you’re not alone in thinking that SharePoint FIS licensing is confusing.  I am happy to walk you through it and help you assess your organization’s needs.

Call me at 1-888-401-AISN, or email me at:  bill.peters@aisn.net.  Or, simply leave a comment below.  Good luck!

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Boosting PR Agency Productivity: Cutting-Edge IT Tools and Cloud Hosting

October 21st, 2011
Posted by: admin

By Laurie Head
AIS Network Vice President, Marketing Communications

I’m hooked on the idea of boosting PR, marketing and advertising agency productivity through unified communications, collaboration platforms and cloud computing.  As a former PR executive specializing in tech PR for a large, global agency and later a DC-based boutique firm, I can see clearly how each of these cutting-edge technologies will provide a tremendous shot in the arm to the public relations, marketing and advertising industries.  In fact, I talked about it in my multi-media presentation, “Unlocking the Business Value of New Technologies,” at the Public Relations Society of America’s 2011 International Conference in Orlando this week.

In this new economy, if you cannot collaborate, you’re toast.  Gone is the super-competitive mentality of the 1990s.  As they adapt to changing markets, clients and employees, PR agencies are finding that they need to evolve from competitive to collaborative cultures.   But to do that, they need to think critically about the IT that they use and how to migrate their company toward more collaborative technologies.

Preferences for communicating change over time and that’s highly evident in this very cool video from Accenture (“Cloud Computing Here and Now – Our Youngest Experts Explain the Cloud”), which I used in introducing my topic at the PRSA 2011 International Conference.  The point is that regardless of whether they’re in the B2B or B2C space, companies that want to compete for customers as well as the newest, best talent must figure out how to get with the times and equip themselves with the technology they need to communicate anywhere, anyplace and anytime.  As communicators, “being social” is no longer just another prerequisite for getting along in our jobs.  Rather, we are currently experiencing a fundamental shift in how we interact with the world, and essentially, in how we get the information that we need in a global marketplace.

The goal of my talk was to allow attendees to walk out of the presentation knowing enough to at least recognize their own business challenges and begin a dialogue with their IT department about how to solve those issues.  To do that:

1)     We explored the most common business challenges in a PR agency today:  remote communications, collaboration and aging, vulnerable servers.  For the benefit of those who requested them, here are links to the videos that I used to illustrate those business challenges:

2)     Next, we surveyed briefly the corresponding IT solutions that are, in fact, transforming the workplace and saving businesses money:  unified communications, collaborative platforms and hosting/ cloud computing.

I recommended Microsoft Lync 2010 (unified communications) and Microsoft SharePoint 2010 (collaborative platform), but there are plenty of competitors, whom I also mentioned in my slides.  I demonstrated the value of Lync 2010 and SharePoint 2010 in specific cases (content management, automated workflows, business intelligence, internal networking and more) and used video testimonials from customers to illustrate how these technologies benefit productivity and cut costs:

Then, I offered a brief look at two more detailed case studies: global PR agencies Edelman and Fleishman-Hillard.  I particularly like the Fleishman-Hillard case study because it shows a forward-thinking agency using SharePoint 2010, plus a Web 2.0 application called Newsgator, to build its employee community through very robust, intra-agency social networking.

Following, we looked at a couple of raw video clips (fire in a server closet) and (sprinklers flooding a server room) and discussed how vulnerable these server rooms – or closets, as they may be – are to any number of natural or man-made disasters (not to mention spilled beverages).  I guided attendees through the decision process for kicking their aging servers out of the office and examining other hosting options.

Moving to a professionally managed, hosted environment in a secure data center – whether to a dedicated server environment or a cloud environment – is the way most businesses are going, according to industry analysts.  Industry analyst Gartner, Inc., projects that by next year, a fifth of businesses will not own any IT assets; at least 35 percent of U.S. midmarket businesses (100 to 999 employees) will purchase cloud computing and IT utility services.

What is cloud computing anyway?  For this part of the presentation, “Cloud Computing in Plain English” was a useful video to show.

We examined the benefits and challenges of hosting in-house and outsourcing, after which I answered the questions, “When is on-premise best?” and “When is the cloud best?”  I provided a detailed decision matrix for attendees to share with their IT department.

3)     Finally, we discussed how to measure success/business value, including return on investment (ROI),  return on objective (ROO), increased productivity, increased flexibility/ scalability, more time to focus on business and staff/stakeholder qualitative feedback.

To help PR, marketing and advertising agencies upgrade their IT and move into the 21st century, there are a litany of tools and applications – certainly many more that are specifically designed for enterprise-sized organizations.  Now that the year is drawing to a close, public relations, marketing, advertising and other communications professionals should evaluate seriously the IT tools they will need to communicate, collaborate and engage in the global marketplace next year.  Everybody wins when they use better tools like Lync 2010, SharePoint 2010 and cloud computing.  PR agencies benefit from greater productivity at a cost savings – not to mention happier clients and employees.

If you are in an agency currently, I would be interested in hearing what your agency is doing to address these business challenges.

PRSA, thanks for another great international conference!

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HostingCon 2011: Building a Meaningful Content Marketing Program

August 20th, 2011
Posted by: admin

Laurie Head, Carrie Jones

AISN's Laurie Head and Carrie Jones of BaileyGardiner present "Content Is King" at HostingCon 2011.

By Laurie Head
AIS Network Vice President, Marketing Communications

The hosting industry’s premiere conference, which was held last week (August 8-10) in San Diego, was the most successful in the conference’s history.  According to HostingCon 2011 organizers, total show attendance surpassed by 13 percent the record mark set in 2010.  More than 1,800 professionals in the hosted services industry gathered in San Diego to learn, network, and talk about the cloud — quite a lot, in fact.

AISN CEO Jay Atkinson and I attended HostingCon for the very first time.  While there, our company was honored to present a session on content marketing.  During that session, Carrie Jones of BaileyGardiner, one of San Diego’s hottest marketing agencies, joined me for an hour’s delve into why it’s important to build a meaningful content marketing program.  We explored why online content is core to what we do as marketers; best practices to develop, optimize and share it;  and how we can achieve quality content without breaking the bank.  Our slide deck and handouts can be viewed in AISN’s Knowledge Center.  I’d love to know your thoughts after you look through it.

Were you at HostingCon too?  What were your impressions of the conference?  Share your comments below or tweet them: @AIS_Network.

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AIS Network to Present “Content Is King” at HostingCon 2011

August 3rd, 2011
Posted by: admin

By Laurie Head
AIS Network Vice President, Marketing Communications

If you have to ask what content marketing is, it’s more than likely that you’re not doing it – or at least, you may not be doing it well.  And, if you are not using compelling content to connect with customers, potential customers and your industry at large, well, then your company may not be realizing its full potential as it competes in the 21st century market.

The rules of marketing have changed – due in large part to social media and the ability to share content.

It’s no longer all about boisterously proclaiming your product’s superiority in so many different ways – or about interrupting your customers repeatedly with advertising or other messages.

Rather, you should recognize that what customers really crave is valuable content that will solve their problems and demonstrate how your product, or service, lives in the world.

Wednesday, August 10 at 3p.m.

Let’s face it.  With the exception of a handful of companies, the hosting sector has never particularly excelled at marketing.

As an industry, we don’t articulate clearly the value proposition of outsourced hosting.  It doesn’t have to be that way.  Now is the time for us, as an industry, to start making the connection between how the latest approaches to creating good content and utilizing social media dovetail to help us in telling our individual and collective stories more clearly.

Next week, in our “Content Is King” session at HostingCon 2011 (the premiere conference for the hosting industry), Carrie Jones of San Diego’s prestigious BaileyGardiner marketing agency and I will explain how getting customers to engage with your company’s expanding body of content is one of the most effective ways in which you can:

  • enhance your company’s credibility and visibility;
  • raise the perception that you are an expert in your industry; and
  • build ongoing loyalty/advocacy for your brand.

Even marketing/communications teams that are on a budget can become effective at content marketing, and we’ll give you some ideas and examples to run with.

I encourage you to learn more.  Join Carrie and me for our “Content Is King” session at HostingCon 2011:  Wednesday, August 10, at 3 p.m. in the San Diego Convention Center.

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Using Web-Based Marketing/PR Tools to Increase Efficiency

October 19th, 2010
Posted by: Laurie Head

Love new tools that will help grow your business and make it more efficient? There is a plethora out there and it’s tough to stay on top of what’s new.

I love tools that create a culture of sharing on a frictionless basis – tools like Microsoft SharePoint 2010, which we host. When paired with a Web 2.0 application such as NewsGator Social Sites, which effectively makes your office “even more social,” SharePoint 2010 can become an incredibly powerful collaboration platform – leading to greater efficiencies in all aspects of the workplace. What communications professional wouldn’t appreciate that?

But, to do my job, I also rely heavily on a number of Web-based tools that lead to even higher marketing/ communications efficiency. For example, I use Google Insights, Google Analytics and Google Trends on a regular basis to measure all aspects of our online presence. If you aren’t using these at your company, you should. Also, they’re free.

While attending the international conference for the Public Relations Society of America this week with 3,000 other communications professionals, I learned about dozens more useful tools – most of which are free or available for a small fee. Here are half a dozen that strike me as worth checking out in the coming days:

www.compete.com: Use it for free competitive intelligence that will help you with your online marketing strategy. Compare your Web site’s traffic and engagement metrics with that of another site – a competitor, perhaps.

www.kadoo.com: Simply upload your files once to their cloud and use them on Kadoo.com and/or anywhere else — from mobile and Web applications to Web sites and services. You can do it without sacrificing your right to privacy or file ownership.

www.hootsuite.com and www.postling.com: Need a digital dashboard to monitor social media mentions about your company and spread messages by updating multiple social networks in one step? These sites may be for you.

www.submityourarticle.com: Consider yourself an expert with something to say? Have you considered article marketing? Write an article about almost anything and, for a small fee, get this site to distribute it across the Web to sites that crave content. It’s a 100% automated article distribution service.

www.tweetcloud.com: What’s being said about your company? Use this site for a glimpse across the Twittersphere through an intuitive interface (a cloud).

By the way, if you are tweeting, then please follow us @ AIS_Network.

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To Tweet or Not to Tweet—That Is the Question

May 9th, 2010
Posted by: Donna Hemmert

By Donna Hemmert
AIS Network Vice President, Strategic Development

I have been on Facebook for a few years and use many social media sites. But, I have to admit that the first time I went to Twitter, I thought it was a bit of a joke. Why would anyone want to update their friends and colleagues on their every movement? The second time I went to Twitter, about a year later, it wasn’t much better, although I enjoyed smart people around me sharing what was most relevant to me. But, even though I consider myself generally to be an early adopter, I didn’t really get on the bandwagon until recently – both personally and professionally. And, I attribute the recent usefulness I have finally found to the “network effect.” (Per Wikipedia, “When network effect is present, the value of a product or service increases as more people use it.”) Well, now that companies I patronize, brands I love, people I respect, are tweeting…and tweeting in, what is on average, much more useful and timely information, I am enjoying it as a consumer of information. I have gotten a deal on my next vacation, found NEW tips on how to drive Web traffic and am staying informed in areas about which I most care. As a consumer of Twitter, I can scan Tweets quickly and read what really matters to me.

At this point, it’s hard for any of us business people to really ignore not just Twitter, but social media in general. Consider these facts, taken from Socialnomics (See this great video: http://tiny.cc/7rqds):

  • If Facebook were a country, it would be the 3rd largest.
  • Radio took 38 years to reach 50 million people. Facebook added over 200 million within a year.
  • 96% of millennials have joined a social network.
  • 78% consumers trust a peer recommendation, but only 14% trust advertisements.

So social media is changing the way we communicate. So, now, for the harder part, I am moving toward becoming a producer of tweets. Why didn’t I do it earlier? Because I didn’t want to be irritating, and let’s face it, it’s a running joke about “Tweeps who Tweet” obsessively. But, it’s hard to ignore the success that companies are having by utilizing Twitter. One of my all-time Marketing Gurus, Guy Kawasaki, has made such impressive use of the medium and has over 200,000 followers, which has admittedly fueled his company nicely.

As I said, I am a newbie and just starting to get my feet wet, but if you are looking to start or enhance a social media campaign, Twitter – just like Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn and many others – should be part of the mix. I am not yet positioned to give any advice on how best to approach it, but here is some of what I am reading:

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