The rise and development of social media has been revolutionary. Forums have been created especially for information and opinion exchange. 

Companies are now forced to redesign the models by which they interact with their audiences – from press releases to live human dialogue, from “reacting within an established time-frame” to real-time dialogue to resolve the problems of their customers.

Unlimited feedback in real time

In today’s competitive economic climate, only a deep understanding of the demands of existing and potential customers will enable companies to improve their products and services. Although social media has forced businesses to shift towards a new communications paradigm with their audience, it has also provided them with this necessary understanding to maintain a competitive edge. The practice of gathering customer comments for the purposes of product development and service improvement is not yet widely employed by business, but all the trends in the development of the market and of technology point to the inevitable shift towards it.

Reputation management in an uncontrolled information environment

Recent research by TNS showed that when consumers have a problem with a product or service, 57% of them will seek a solution to their problem online in the first instance. Among 16 to 24 year olds, this figure is 71%, and among 25-34 year olds – 65%. Customers today, expect a response from a company and for it to be prompt.  Quick and effective handling of such inquiries has a direct impact on increasing loyalty among a company’s audience and attracting new customers. Management of the consumer experience in social media is therefore imperative in strengthening a company’s reputation and widening its share of a saturated consumer market, where the customer can easily switch between service providers.

Knowing your customer by face and by name – every customer

For businesses this provides a great opportunity as it allows them to get to know their customers. Some social media monitoring systems support post author profiles, including: name, socio-demographic information, a selection of all the posts the author has published on different social networks and a history of the interaction between company staff and the particular customer. As a result, businesses are able to predict their actions and create individualised products. 

Social media monitoring – how to really use it

In order to maintain a company’s competitive edge, collecting and analysing feedback about the company online is imperative. Such monitoring cannot be a one-time investigation, it must be performed regularly or the whole point of the exercise will be lost.

Social media monitoring is currently used to track trends such as monitoring customers’ perceptions of a company’s brand, advertising, and individual promotional activities; monitoring client feedback for the purposes of reputation management; and monitoring feedback, complaints and questions from customers with the aim of handling them directly through a support desk.

The right monitoring system is the key that unlocks the opportunities of social media

In order to obtain maximum value from potential opportunities, companies should use a specialised social media monitoring system.

The social media monitoring market is relatively young, but is already developing rapidly in the majority of countries across the world. The market offers a range of services to search and process data at varying levels in terms of comprehensiveness of data collection and depth of analysis.

The selection of a monitoring system which meets the current and future needs of a business can be a key factor which will either enable a company to open the door to the new opportunities of the social Internet, or leave it wandering aimlessly on the threshold.

Social media can turn into a powerful trump card against competitors who have not yet succeeded in understanding the dynamics and role of the Internet in the modern marketing world.

Courtesy : ITP .net

Ever wished you could work on you official document from your  favorite spot or access your confidential file without being physically present in office. If “YES”, then Whitehats offers you the best VPN solution.

A VPN or Virtual Private Network solutions enable clients to establish long distance or secured network connections.

The features offered by Whitehats while converting your PC  to a VPN server is as follows:

Secure connection to  your office from another location.

Clients usually have to rent network capacity such as  dedicated lines to achieve full secured connectivity between their office  locations. With VPN you use public network infrastructure including the internet  to make these connections and tap into the virtual network through much cheaper  local leased lines or even just broadband connections to a nearby internet  service provider.

Seamless connectivity  to your office network

Our solution enables clients to connect to their private  office network from a different location and access their server files,  printers, CRM /ERP and accounting applications remotely.

We offer a multi-platform solution that supports Windows XP, Windows7, Windows 8 and MAC OS X Lion. It also supports mobile devices like  Apple IOS, Ipad, I phone, Ipod touch so the users may connect to their private  network through their smart phones.

The licenses provided by Whitehats are suitable for business  with as small as 2 user vpn server upto 10 and more and additional licenses can  be added any time.

To enquire more about  this campaign reach us at sales@whitehats.ae

Our solution is green. The rapid progress in technology is resulting in more and more ewaste in our offices and homes. To reduce ewaste and be cost effective we can also convert your old PC to a VPN server.

Instant messaging is a form of communication over the internet that offers transmission of text based messages from sender to receiver. It may address point to point communications as well as multicast communications from one sender to many receivers. Even though instant messengers as a social tool have started losing their customers with the emerge of social networking sites like Facebook and twitter, it is continuing to make a mark on the business front with its efficient tool for keeping in touch with business colleagues and time critical applications.

So what makes instant messaging an important part of the business?

Messages can be sent instantly and replies can be instantaneous too. Similarly one can chat with various people at the same time or participate in conference sessions. Instant messenger has no restriction location of the sender or receiver. Your colleague could either be in the next building or in another continent.

Whitehats believes in providing the best technology products to our esteemed customers. We are partners with BigAnt messenger that has a history of more than eight years and a complete chat server solution in Dubai, UAE. BigAnt boasts of the following additional features:

Chat server with secure, encrypted message:

BigAnt encrypts all communication through network. It includes all the features such as content filtering, encryption, legal compliance and message archiving.

Transfer files and folders:

Instant messaging becomes even more powerful collaborative tool when combined with features like file sharing.

 Live Chat:

This is a value added feature of BigAnt which can be easily integrated with your company website so that your visitors can chat with your company representatives.

Voice / Video Chat:

With the leading edge VoIP technology video and voice chat has become a smooth and easy process. It takes approximately 5kbs for the bandwidth usage and helps one switch video size between full screen video and video in a window.

But while the knowledge is definitely out there that using Google Analytics is pretty much a must-do for websites, the majority of site owners still find themselves at a bit of a loss when it comes to maximizing the benefits of this mighty little web tool.

Below are three important features available through Google Analytics that you may not be using now, but could greatly benefit from exploring:

• Watch your site speed – Google Analytics gives you the ability to not only see how many visitors are checking into which parts of your site, but also how fast those pages are loading. If you’ve ever been on the receiving end of a website whose components move at a snail’s pace, you know it can make or break the experience for you as a user. Today’s internet user is more fickle than ever, so keeping tabs on which parts of your site are dragging – and taking steps to rectify any problems contributing to that – can be a huge part of bringing back oh-so-important repeat traffic.
• Use site search – Bottom line: the more users engage with your site, the higher your conversion rate will be. And while there are many ways to keep your visitors engaged, one feature that will also give you insightful feedback is the site search function. Not only will it step up the dynamics of how visitors interface with your site, but it will tell you what keywords and terms they are most commonly searching for, thereby helping you to maximize and streamline how you build and structure your site.
• Multi-Channel Funnels – This gadget is a real sign of Google Analytics keeping pace with the times. It breaks down traffic not only by the traditional parameters, but now also according to where the lead came from. Social media, RSS, Google search, etc. – utilizing multi-channel funnels will help you see not just who is accessing your site, and when, and from where, but the path they took to get there. This can be truly valuable information when analyzing which marketing and outreach channels are yielding the most return.

Source: Forbes

Dedicated hosting services provide extremely powerful and secure web hosting solutions. Unlike shared hosting where a customer shares a server with other hosting clients, dedicated hosting provides each customer his own server. This article pictures the benefits of a dedicated server.

In case of shared hosting services there is site hosted on a server with many others. Therefore this could tax the resources causing lower level performance for the functions of the websites, they can host their application databases CRM eg QuickBooks, Goldmine, Sugar CRM etc. In case of dedicated hosting servers only a single server is used for the website which provides a higher level of security and the customer does not have worry about other customers trying to tamper with their website.

Dedicated servers work well for large business websites. It gives them the freedom to customize software and applications meeting the specific needs of their business. However, they can do this at a much lower cost than owing and maintaining their own server. By utilizing dedicated server hosting rather than owning a server they also will not need to operate and maintain data center.

When a company opts for a dedicated hosting service, the hosting company provides maintenance and security for the server. The client does not need to spend on the technical team. On the other hand it is the responsibility of the web hosting provider to maintain the data center where the server is stored, update and manage all the hosting equipment needed to host the website and provide technical support for the server.

Another benefit of using a dedicated hosting is performance and how well a website can serve their visitors or their own customers. They do not have to worry about the site being offline. At times the amount of uptime can be less than a person using shared hosting services. Websites also load faster when they are hosted on a dedicated server. This is due to the fact that there is not an overload of websites being hosted by one server.

For a business website that is quickly downloadable and up all the time gives the visitor encouragement that your service is just as reliable, hence you will be likely to make a sale. It will also enhance the company’s image and encourage existing customers to refer your services to others.

Whitehats has successfully deployed various applications, websites, ERP, CRM with different types of databases over the dedicated hosted servers. You can also get site to site VPN;  SSL-VPN services along with dedicated hosted servers.  This enables you to easily store and share your file server services and utilize them over the VPN which will act as a local server.

The typical small business often spends a great deal more time than they realize attempting to answer calls, return calls, transfer calls, check messages, etc. Without the help of intuitive small business PBX systems, employees often try to juggle the process by keeping notes regarding the times of day the people they frequently call are available, writing paper notes or sending emails to return calls, or asking the caller to hang up and try their party’s direct line.

Not only does the process feel ‘choppy’ to the client, but also trying to juggle the call load can become quite confusing! Even if employees and associates set regular phone hours, they are often on other calls or away from their desks throughout the day. Advanced small business PBX systems include software that allows a receptionist to see on a computer screen whether or not a line is busy. The receptionist can then ask the caller if he or she would like to hold or be transferred to voice mail.

If a caller does leave a message, some of the more advanced small business PBX systems will even send the recipient and email with an audio file attached that can be opened and listened to online. Busy executives often don’t have the time to call in and check voicemail. Opening an audio file from email is not only fast, but the email itself becomes a ‘to do’ item that must be handled like other emails.

Since phone and email are the primary ways in which most small businesses interact with their customers, having a process that looks and feels professional is critical. One of the first things to consider when making outgoing calls is the caller ID message

Just about everyone has caller ID now. Home based businesses making calls from home office often use their home phone service to make calls. Consider the way these calls appear when they reach the customer. Do you want them to see your name, or your company’s name? If you prefer that your company name appear on caller ID, it’s a good idea to open another phone line in your business name.

However, many small businesses today rely on remote employees to interface with clients. Though you may have a business line with your company’s name on caller ID in your home, remote employees won’t. When a client receives calls from numerous different caller IDs, it can give the impression of a somewhat disjointed operation.

One way to solve this problem is by using small business PBX systems that can be set up in multiple locations, but are tied to a single account. This way, a remote employee in New York who is 3,000 miles away from your California office can have a small business PBX phone systems unit placed in his or her home that makes calls through your network. When the call is made, the caller ID will show your company name. From the client’s perspective any calls received using small business PBX systems in your network may as well be coming from a single location.

Most small business owners don’t realize how affordable high quality small business PBX phone systems can be – and that’s great news for the growing business. Many of your competitors may be portraying an unprofessional image simply because they don’t realize how easy it is to do so.

Small businesses can incorporate small business PBX systems starting at around $1000. Though this may have a higher up-front cost than just opening a business phone line, you’ll save money for years to come by choosing small business PBX systems that utilize VOIP technology that virtually eliminate costly phone company fees and long distance charges.

To improve productivity in the office and create a professional business image, utilizing best practices while handling telephone calls for large corporations and companies with small business PBX systems is vital.

According to Google, “Search engine optimization is often about making small modifications to parts of your website.” However these slight modifications when combined with other optimizations have an effective impact on your website.

Whitehats offer search engine optimization services to clients who want to promote their online business and rank on the first pages on search engines. Our SEO experts use the latest trends and tools to bring flawless fast results. Here are a few aspects that we work on to make sure we offer the best services.

Initial website analysis is the primary phase of our SEO strategy. Whitehats evaluates the current setup of the website, plan and suggest optimization. We create phenomenally useful content that will delight visitors while answering their queries. We also taken into consideration the high quality usr experience to promote positive usage signals and ensure all content is accessible across the devices especially search engine crawlers.

The content of the website is also taken into consideration to make sure that the text consists of the targeted keywords and are spread throughout the website.Whitehats naturally optimizes your website based on the content of each page of your website. Keyword research is a chore of discovering appropriate keywords or phrases that the traffic uses to search your product online.

Competitor analysis is another essential aspect that we take into consideration to distinguish the strong and weak points of present competitors. We research about you competitor website to get an idea of what your website is lacking as compared to theirs. Link Building is a practice of receiving valued web links to your website which can directly facilitate link popularity and pull direct traffic. Whitehats works on your website to strike a balance between link popularity and link quality.

Google is slowly incorporating social aspects in to the ranking algorithm .Keeping this in mind Whitehats creates accounts in twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn to gain traction for your content. Google knows when your content is liked by the masses and according presents it in order to boost your ranking. With efficient monitoring and excellent communication our SEO experts provide you a complete report of the progress of your business ranking.

Website functionality is the key to an effective web design. Lack of website functionality is a common issue that most of the websites face. For instance, you have a blog on your webpage but it is not functioning properly. An improper link on your webpage can ruin your chances of attracting web traffic to your site.

Readability is another element of utmost importance. One needs to be very cautious while choosing their background for the website. A funky background might look modern but certainly not comfortable to read.

How many times have you been navigated to the wrong link of a site? How many times have you left the website in frustration? A good website is a one that ensures smooth sailing through the website. A company with a good website will create sitemaps and site structure for search engine spiders as well as human visitors.

The structure of the site also plays an important element in web designing. The platform used to produce your content has an impact on search engine rankings. Search engines favor faster loading websites, so this can affect your SEO rankings.

Whitehats web expert’s help you create a web site that is user-friendly, more effective and with the use of a technical writer makes it easily readable. We also make your site socially ative to attract customers and turn them into sales leads.

Broadly speaking, many companies are failing to convert on social media because of they are not using it to build brand advocacy, drive web traffic, and generate leads.

WEAK BRAND ADVOCACY

Loyalty and trust play a big part in social media success. Businesses should use social media to build brand advocates.  Social media marketing gives companies exponential reach, empowering brands to leverage their content and messaging more efficiently than other marketing channels.

The Internet rewards reach. The more social media followers you have, the more your content spreads, and the more impact you have on results in search engines, but many of them might be able to share content or take an action online that could refer a customer.¹

Social Media Examiner’s recent survey of social media marketers found 85% indicating that their social media efforts have generated more exposure for their businesses.²

Many companies are under-utilizing the potential reach of their social media. They should be promoting their social media channels as aggressively as possible. They can do so by optimizing each page to speak their company’s target audience, sharing valuable content their audience finds useful, adding social share buttons on their website, blog, and all offline marketing pieces, emailing existing customers to encourage them to interact with their social media, and interacting with fans and followers.

FAILURE TO DRIVE WEB TRAFFIC

Social media is the new promotion. Companies that do not integrate their website and social media are blowing a huge opportunity to drive web traffic. Increasing web traffic was the second major benefit of social media, according to social media marketers polled in SM Examiner’s study.

Social media channels can be used to bring relevant visitors to your website – visitors who will convert into customers. In fact, that same study noted that 74% of marketers interviewed found a substantial increase in website traffic with as little as 6 hours per week invested in social media marketing. ²

Prospects who have enjoyed what you have to offer on social media can be encouraged to share their experiences with friends via Facebook, Google+, Twitter, Pinterest etc.  This will increase web traffic and bring more relevant visitors to your website. In this way, social media acts as a referral service for your business.

Businesses should also integrate their social media marketing efforts with their website marketing and existing search engine optimization (SEO) strategies. Integrate your website content campaigns with your social media by offering web content on social media and using the same SEO keyword list to optimize its performance across all channels. Doing this will help ensure your SEO, website content, blogging, and social media efforts are all working in concert.

POOR LEAD GENERATION

The best source of a website lead is a recently-satisfied convert from one of your social media channels. Looking at data from 2011, inbound marketing experts Hubspot did a study of 3,000+ B2B businesses to understand how their companies were succeeding with social media. The data revealed that 63% of B2B businesses were not generating leads from social media. While these companies were generating traffic from social media channels, they were not converting that traffic into leads for their businesses.³

The main culprit was a lack of calls-to-action (CTAs) and landing pages. In other words, companies were not providing prospects a clear path to deeper engagement. This can be easily remedied by placing CTAs on every piece of content you publish on social channels. These CTAs should be linked to landing pages with forms to collect new leads. Each offer should have its own unique CTA and landing page that is promoting a specific offer such as an ebook, free consultation, demo, webinar, etc.

When it comes to marketing, social media is about lead generation. Building communities online and educating leads is important, but if you don’t present lead conversion opportunities, you will never generate the revenue needed to fund your social media marketing efforts.³

Many companies still in the early stages of implementing social media don’t have a clear understanding of how to take advantage of its many benefits. Many have set up their Facebook Timeline or LinkedIn Company Page, and done little else.

If this is true for your company, you are not using social media to effectively promote your brand, drive web traffic, and generate leads online. By following this simple advice, you can quickly remedy the problem and start getting more out of your social media efforts.

Are you incorporating social media into your marketing efforts? If so, how?

Reference:http://socialmediatoday.com/node/489132

]]> http://whitehatsme.com/why-social-media-marketing-is-a-bust-for-most-companies-by-chris-horton/feed/ 0 http://whitehatsme.com/bomgar-has-it-managed-to-change-the-way-it-techs-work/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=bomgar-has-it-managed-to-change-the-way-it-techs-work http://whitehatsme.com/bomgar-has-it-managed-to-change-the-way-it-techs-work/#comments Mon, 07 May 2012 11:32:17 +0000 anila http://whitehatsme.com/?p=1073 A minor issue with your computer and it takes hours for you the IT tech to reach the spot and fix it for you. In 2002, Joel Bomgar, a field network engineer came up with the idea of inventing technology that would enable him to access and manage customer computers over the internet, thus reducing the time and effort on his travel.

Much to his surprise, in 2003 he launched such a technology and named it “Bomgar”. Bomgar, a remote system for computer systems is used as a mediator between the service desk /firewall of the organization and outside entities. The company has come a long way since then, today it vaunts of serving over 6000 leading companies from different industries.

What is the secret of Bomgar’s success? Has it managed to change the way work is done?

This is what Bomgar has to offer:

It has the ability to offer the broadest platform support of any remote support solution from Microsoft, Blackberry, and Linux to IPhone.

With Bomgar, one centralized, automated audit trail can cover all the remote support activity in the organization.

It replaces remote control support tools with a solution specifically designed for the benefits of security conscious support organizations.

It offers the most secure deployment available for remote support

It logs and record each session.

The identity management integration lets you manage support technicians centrally ensuring only authorized users are have access to remote systems.

Whitehats is a partner with Bomgar, providing Bomgar solution all over GCC i.e. Bahrain, Qatar, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), Oman, Kuwait and UAE. Whitehats offers help with anything you need about Bomgar (Presentations, Evaluation, Pricing, Onsite Bomgar Appliance Installations etc.)