Week 7, 2nd post: Social Media and My Business Model.

The three businesses that I found that are using visual social media are “Krebsonsecurity”,”TheNewBoston”, “EliTheComputerGuy”.

The first of these is Krebs on Security. He uses Twitter, Facebook, and a blog. Most of the things he posts have pictures for visual, but not much in the way of video.  He seems to be using Twitter and Facebook to expand his exposure for his articles. Often they are simply links to his posts. I would say that for Krebs on Security visual media is not a priority and is mostly used to enhance his textual articles.

The second business that I looked at was The New Boston. This is a pretty different type of approach and visual is the mainstay. He uses YouTube and his website. He has used Twitter and a blog but seems to have abandoned them or uses them very little now. His website is mainly an organizational portal for his YouTube channel. The focus of his content is teaching, and videos lend themselves very strongly to this. He is extremely effective with this style of content delivery.

The last business that I examined was Eli the Computer Guy. He uses a website, YouTube, Twitter, and a blog built into his website. Eli has created his media channel around teaching videos and it has worked very well for him. He does use YouTube to make commentary type episodes. This also seems to work well and they have high viewing numbers.

I think that visual media channels have a definite usefulness in instructional and commentary content delivery businesses. It can be used in differing styles and amounts as shown by these three businesses. I think the successful use of visual social media would really depend on the personality of the person, as well as, the type and depth of content. I will try to use visual social media to be both a supporting role in expanding the touch of my content, and in a primary role when it serves as the best media to convey the content.

Krebs On Security

http://krebsonsecurity.com/

twitter, facebook, Blog/website

The New Boston

http://thenewboston.blogspot.com/

https://www.facebook.com/pages/TheNewBoston/

https://www.youtube.com/user/thenewboston

https://twitter.com/bucky_roberts

Eli the computer guy

https://www.youtube.com/user/elithecomputerguy

http://www.elithecomputerguy.com/

http://www.elithecomputerguy.com/blog-posts/

https://twitter.com/elicomputerguy

Week 7, Post #1: Business and Visual Social Media.

Is visual social media right for my business? It is easy to find statistics that show that people’s attention spans for advertisements and interests are generally shrinking. There is also strong evidence that people in general are more interested in pictures and learn more from them. Also the fact the leading social media platforms are either visually based or are putting a great deal of effort into making their platform more visual based, would suggest that visual is the way to go. It is true that not all businesses lend themselves strongly to straight visual content. Although almost all business content can be enhanced or improved with some visuals added.

The four leading visual networks for business are:

#1 YouTube: It is almost completely visually based. If you believe the saying that a picture is worth a thousand words than a one minute video could be worth nine hundred thousand words. This is estimated at fifteen frames per second for sixty seconds. For the majority of people, showing them what you have or what you want them to do is almost always more effective than telling them. Another strength of the YouTube platform is the longevity of the effectiveness of its videos. One video may continue to be visited for several years. For these reasons and the fact that YouTube has one of the largest user bases. I believe it is the number 1 visual platform.

#2 Facebook: Facebook has the largest active user base of all the platforms. A lot of users check Facebook many times a day and there are statistics that show pictures or visual posts get more circulation than straight textual posts. Facebook offers business the ability to measure the effectiveness of their posts and accurately direct it toward their target market. Marketing can be a great expense for businesses. The more efficient you can be, with the funds you have available, increases your chance of success. With Facebook's large user base and tools for measuring and directing your marketing, I believe that it is the second best social platform for visual content.

#3 Twitter: The Twitter platform has recently started allowing visual content and it has quickly grown to be widely used in most tweets. Although Twitter's user base is a third or less the size of the previous two platforms, It is still one of the largest user bases in social media. The culture and format lend itself well to the business presence and for that matter I have ranked it as the third best choice. Twitter is also a social platform that a lot of users check many times a day or are even continually notified of new content. This makes it a good choice for timely notifications to your target market.

#4 Pinterest: This platform has a much smaller user base, but they seem to be very loyal. I like the ability that you have to create boards and groups to expand your content exposure. Also I like the long life of the content and its ability to be seen long after you have posted it. Pinterest has a good format to use visual leaders to direct traffic back to you main media bases. I don’t think that Pinterest is for everyone, but for unique styled products or services Pinterest could work well.

Of these four platforms I think that along with my blog, Facebook and YouTube will be the best for me. I think that for now concentrating on a few areas and doing a good job with those will allow me to continue to provide valuable content and not burn out. Once I have mastered posting and creating content for these platforms, I will likely be able to expand to using the other platforms as well. 

Spring Cleaning For Your Computer!

Like everything else computers need to be cleaned on a regular basis. In this case I am talking about cleaning the data of the computer, although cleaning them physically is also a good idea and I will go over that in a later post.

Follow these easy steps for a simple cleaning that will clear the majority of junk and Malware that you may have on your machine.  Make sure that you do not have other antivirus software running when you do the following steps.

Step 1.  Download the following programs if you do not already have them.

Ccleaner---https://www.piriform.com/ccleaner





Malwarebytes---https://www.malwarebytes.org/




Both of these have free versions and I would recommend using them.

Step 2. Run CCleaner and look over the list of programs and files that it finds. If you do not see any files that you can't live without let it clean those out.

Step 3. Run Malwarebytes and again look over the file that it finds. If they are not recognized programs or files let Malwarebytes delete them.

These programs do not need to run all the time, only when you are cleaning the computer. I use Windows Security Essential "http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/security-essentials-download" as my only full time virus scanner.  Some of the other virus scanning programs can require too many memory resources and cause more problems than they are worth. Your best defense against malware is your own caution. Know the sites that you are visiting and never open attachments from anyone you don't know or aren't expecting.  If you do have a problem that is not fixed by these steps, then you will need to get some help from a professional who can search out the specific files that have been infected and correct those.

Following these steps on a regular schedule, like once a month, will help keep your computer running smoothly.

Week 6, Scheduling Facebook Posts

Sometimes keeping new content posts on your Facebook page can be inconvenient to do on a continual basis.  Here is a possible solution for you to use.

Scheduling Facebook posts can be a handy tool for business pages. This allows you to create content that will be posted over a period of time and keep your page updated with new content even if you don't have the time to post every day.

It is still important to make sure that your content is interesting, valuable and engaging to your audience. This will allow you to manage your time better and create a steady flow of new posts to your page. So schedule and post away! 

Week 6: Featured Likes!

I chose the following companies to follow because they are all leaders in their area of technology.

Kali Linux is a version of the Linux operating system specifically developed for network and computer system security testing.  It is well respected for its abilities and function.  If you are serious about network or computer security this is a must have for your tool box and skill set.  Just following the information that members post on the technical forums of this site will provide vast amounts of essential security information.


Cisco Academy is a long time well respected source for technology skills and certifications.  It is hard to argue with the level of respect that this company's certifications garner.  That respect on its own is a testament to this company's products and level of professionalism.  Anyone planning to have a career in the network industry needs to seriously consider Cisco training and certifications.  This is definitely a company to follow and watch as they will continue to be a leader in the industry and a game changer.

I have personally used Malwarebytes for many years and they remain one of the best software companies for finding and removing malware from computers.  I recommend it to everyone that I do work for or talk to.  It is true that no one malware program will catch all of the potential threats that are out there, but I have great confidence in Malwarebytes to help with the majority of problems people see.  The fact that they offer their product free for personal use is also a very generous gift that everyone should capitalize on.  If you are not using Malwarebytes, most likely you should be.

CCleaner is another software that is absolutely worth looking at and incorporating into your system maintenance plan.  This is a great software for finding and removing programs that are wasting space and resources on your machine.  It also is a good tool to use when removing malware.  CCleaner offers a free version for personal use and it is one of my top recommendations for people who need to repair or tune up their computer's performance.

McAfee institute is one of the leading educational sources for cyber security.  They provide a number of great programs to help professionals improve their skills and increase their knowledge of the security industry.  As one of the most respected venues for skill certification in cyber security, McAfee is a leader in the industry. The information they share on their sites and social media channels is of the highest value and well worth the time spent reading it.





Palo Alto Networks is a company to watch. They bring a new era approach to security and have proven products for enterprise size networks. Many IT professionals are taking notice of this company's solutions and products. The company also shares its expertise and insight on the security front through its social media channels and at industry conferences and events. The information that the company shares is often cutting edge and of great value to IT security professionals.  I would expect to see this company's influence and market share continue to grow.

VMware is a company that provides new age technology in the virtual realm.  They have established themselves as the leader in virtual applications.  With the trend of technology becoming more and more cloud based, VMware is poised to expand their strength and presence in the the virtual application area.  One of the company's great strengths is the amount of training and product service that the provide for their line of products.  This will continue to insure that their products are the go-to line for IT professionals. Anyone interested in where technology is headed should be following and learning from this company.

Get On Target With Your Marketing. Week 5

Facebook Insights: using and understanding them

Reach as a metric shown in Facebook insights will show you the overall exposure your content has.  It is derived from adding up the total number of people that potentially saw your post.  This will include everyone’s feed that follows you and those that they have shared it with through their news feeds.  This is the overall reach that your post has.  Reach can also be expanded through paid placement.

Engagement is a metric that will show you how much of your total Reach is interacting with your posted content.  This is done through comments, likes, clicks or shares of those who viewed your post.  This is what you need to measure how interested your target market is in the content you are posting.  Engagement is important to build. It will increase the likelihood of your content being shared and your reach being increased by those who have already seen it.  Increasing engagement can also require the creation of content that encourages involvement.  Some forms of this content may include surveys, polls, contests or simple asking for feedback.  Most important, your content must be relevant to your audience.

By tracking these metrics carefully businesses can see how well certain types of content proliferate themselves and who they are spreading among. They can also test market areas for new audiences and see what their effectiveness is there.  By watching your engagement levels and intensity you can adjust post content and formats to continually improve your posts to fit what your audience responds too.  This is an extremely valuable tool, as anyone who has spent money on marketing campaigns will tell you.  It is common for businesses to spend money and effort in marketing and have very little feedback to tell you how it is going.  To have direct feedback on a specific stream of advertising allows you to eliminate those things that are not working and builds the confidence to bolster those that are working.