Category Archives: Website

Why Your Identity Is Worth $5,000 [INFOGRAPHIC]

Posted on by
Reply

Your identity is worth almost $5,000 to a criminal. An estimated 9 million Americans’ identities are stolen each year. And a whopping 43% of theft victims know the criminals who steal their information.

That’s according to this ZoneAlarm infographic, which explains common ways identities are stolen including just how much your identity is actually worth and tips for keeping your information safe.

Identity theft costs each individual victim approximately $4,841. That’s the equivalent of roughly 210 hours of work (at the average national hourly wage). It takes 33 hours on average to solve an identity theft case.

Overall, identity theft cost people a total of $37 million in 2010. While high, that number is actually down from $56 million in 2009. Despite the lower total, individuals paid 63% more ($631) in 2010, up from $387 in 2009.

 

SEE ALSO: 25 Worst Passwords of 2011 [STUDY]

 

Identity theft doesn’t just happen online, either. The ways your information is stolen ranges from snail mail to computer hacks to dumpster dives.

ZoneAlarm also lists steps to take if your identity is stolen. The main takeaway, however, is to be proactive and track your accounts; only 45% of theft cases are discovered by consumers.

Do you know any great tips for keeping your identity safe? Let us know in the comments.

 

 

5 Ways to Turn Social Customers Into Brand Ambassadors

Posted on by
Reply

Duke Chung co-founded Parature in 2000, with a vision to provide superior customer support software accessible via the Internet. Today, Parature’s Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) product suite supports millions of end users worldwide.

With the advent of social media channels, customer service has forever changed. Consumers are no longer willing to sit and listen to classical music on hold. In today’s age of hyper-responsiveness, customers expect instant responses from support reps on very public online platforms.

Instead of shying away from social media, smart businesses will leverage their social channels to spread a positive brand reputation, to connect happy customers and to step up their customer support efforts.

Consumers aren’t eager to blast negative messages about your company – unless your brand is unresponsive. I recently learned at an IBM conference that customers are five times more likely to post something positive than negative, and that companies usually have at least 10 warnings before someone posts a negative comment.

Happy customers who get their issues resolved tell an average of four to six people about their positive experiences, according to the White House Office of Consumer Affairs. It pays to treat your customers well, not only for the repeat business, but also to gain the positive word-of-mouth consumers now broadcast across social media. Satisfied customers can become your most influential brand ambassadors. They’ll help to answer customer service questions posted online and also tout their own positive experiences with your business.

Here are the five best ways to turn customers into brand ambassadors through customer service.

1. Be Fast

When a customer turns to social media for a support issue, he expects a brand to generate the fastest response possible. According to a recent UK study, 25% of social media users expect a response within one hour, and 6% expect a response within 10 minutes. If you allow a support issue to dangle for too long, you risk being perceived as a company that either doesn’t know the answer or doesn’t care enough to reply promptly.

Remember, most people on social networks aren’t itching to post negative comments. They only do so after a bad experience. Therefore, don’t give them enough time to have a bad experience.

2. Be Visible

Private and direct messaging on Facebook and Twitter is all well and good, but when it comes to customer service, it’s best to be totally transparent and visible. The answer you give to one customer could, in turn, help thousands more. Think of each post and interaction as a resource that future customers can reference. Not to mention, customers will be more apt to direct friends to your page with their own questions.

Social media sites foster an online community around your brand. Watch how customers discuss and respond to your products so you can join the conversation and better understand the community that supports your brand.

3. Be Consistent

It’s vital that you ensure all customer support answers remain consistent across the web and across all social channels. If a common question is posted on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, then each response should communicate the same solution. Conflicting answers create confused, unhappy customers. Just as people expect consistent experiences with your products, they also expect consistent service across all of your channels. Brand accuracy drives confidence and credibility, and helps build brand loyalty among your customers.

4. Be Organized

If consistency creates brand ambassadors, then being organized is equally paramount. Admittedly, the cross-company integration and management of social media continues to be challenging. Maintaining a successful social media presence on just one network is a full-time job. Trying to do it over multiple networks is impossible if your support staff isn’t properly organized.

Customers can spot disorganization a mile away, especially online. However, if you demonstrate that your company support knows what it’s doing, you’ll earn the respect and trust of brand loyalists. Organization goes beyond knowing who does what on the support team; it’s also vital that everyone on the team is on the same page. Each team member must know where to seek reliable answers, and each must source information from the same place.

5. Be Human

As cool as Siri is, she still hasn’t crossed from digital assistant to human entity. Until then, your social media customer support should remain as human as possible. On the bright side, social networks already take the formalities out of conversation. It’s one of their biggest draws.

Therefore, a customer’s name isn’t “Inquiry #83kd4z.” She’s Christie from Denver. People respond best when they feel like they’re talking to other people. Your customer support should make customers feel as if they’re posting a normal question on a friend’s wall. Creating that kind of relationship with your customer should be the priority of any company.

Using customer service to create brand ambassadors isn’t the Herculean task it once was. Social media is presenting countless opportunities to turn your company’s support system into an open, interactive community, where customers can share their positive experiences with one another and spread the good word about your products and services – all on your behalf.

 

3 Mistakes Web Programmers Need to Stop Making

Posted on by
Reply

Jonathan Goldford is a partner at JG Visual, an Internet strategy company that works with organizations to develop and implement their online presence. You can connect with Jonathan on the JG Visual Facebook page.

Sometimes as programmers, we forget that 99.9% of the population doesn’t care how a piece of text, a button, an image or a video ends up onscreen. Most people just care that it’s fast, easy to use and gives them the content they want. Otherwise, they get upset — and rightfully so. Here are three common mistakes we programmers make, and what we can do to fix them.

1. Forgetting About Conventions

Ever since they started using the Internet, users have been trained how to interact with a website. Therefore, they often get frustrated when websites don’t meet their expectations. Here are some examples.

  • They hover over an object they think is clickable, but become confused when they see an arrow instead of a hand pointer.
  • They click on blue, underlined text, but find it’s not a link.
  • They click on the logo in the top left, believing it will return them to the homepage, only to find it takes them nowhere.

Web design doesn’t always meet our expectations. However, developers and designers should always maintain certain rules to avoid user confusion. Here are three.

Clickable Elements Should Have the Pointer on Rollover
Everything clickable should switch to the hand pointer when a user hovers over it. You can accomplish this using simple CSS. The code would look like this

div:hover { cursor: pointer; }

Style Links Appropriately
Links should look different than regular text, and should be underlined within a page’s main content. If you really want to stick with convention, make them blue — research found users engage most with blue links.

Make Logos Clickable
The logo in the header of your website should be clickable, and should take the user to the homepage. This is pretty simple: Just wrap your logo in a tag.

<a href="http://www.example.com">
<img src="logo.gif" alt="Example Company" title="Example Company Logo" height="100" width="100" />
</a>

2. Creating Slowly-Loading Websites

Users hate slow websites. Studies have shown that 40% of users will abandon a website that takes more than three seconds to load. Here’s how to avoid common speed mistakes by new programmers.

Resize Images Outside the Browser
New programmers will sometimes use a very large image, let’s say 600 pixels wide by 600 pixels tall, but will set the height and width so the image shrinks to the desired size. They use the following code.

<img src="big-domo.jpg" alt="Domo" title="Big domo at the park" height="200" width="200" />

There are two problems with this method: First, the full image still needs to load. Typically, bigger image files mean longer load times.

Second, shrinking an image using the height and width attributes can render a photo awkwardly, causing the browser to display a photo not nearly as clear as it would be were the image sized 200 x 200 pixels.

To fix these issues, resize and compress images in an editor like Photoshop or Gimp. Then code the image like we did above. Try to use a tool like Photoshop’s Save for Web & Devices to further shrink the file size.

Load JavaScript in the Footer
Many programmers unnecessarily load all the page’s JavaScript files in the head tag. This stalls the rest of the page load. In almost all cases, except for JavaScript critical to user interface navigation, it’s okay to load script in the footer. Then the rest of the page can load beforehand. Try this code.

Rest of the page...
<script type="text/javascript" src="js/scripts.js"></script>
</body>
</html>

Load CSS Externally
Sometimes new programmers load CSS on each individual page using inline styles or an internal stylesheet. For inline styles, code looks like this.

<p style="margin-top: 50px;">Hi Mom!</p>

And for an internal stylesheet, you’d most likely see this code in the head tag.

<style type="text/css">
p { margin-top: 50px; }
</style>

You should almost never use CSS in the page that holds your html. Store it externally using code like this.

<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="css/style.css" />

There are two advantages to loading CSS externally: First, the user’s computer will save the external stylesheet to be used on every page, instead of retrieving the same styles over and over. This greatly speeds up load time.
Second, using an external stylesheet is much easier to maintain. If you need to change the font size of your website’s paragraphs, you’re able change it in one place, without having to access each individual html file.
Learn more about good CSS practices at CSS Basics.

3. Not Accounting for Potential Backend Changes

Most programmers nowadays are using a content management system like WordPress, Joomla or Drupal to build their websites. This is great because it gives website owners the ability to make changes and updates.

The problem is that a lot of developers only program for a website’s content at launch time. For example, at launch a developer may only create CSS styles for website headings 1, 2 and 3. What if two months after the website’s launch, the communications director decides to set some text to heading 6, since that’s an option in WordPress’s format? That decision would revert to the default styles of the browser since the developer never styled for it initially. Here is how to avoid this situation.

Include Styles for All the Common Tags
To make sure that the design of your website remains consistent with any backend formatting, programmers should include styles to handle the following html tags.

  • Body (<body>)
  • Heading 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 (<h1>, <h2>, <h3>, <h4>, <h5>, <h6>)
  • Link (<a>)
  • Paragraph (<p>)
  • Address (<address>)
  • Preformatted (<pre>)
  • Strong (<strong>)
  • Unordered list (<ul>)
  • Ordered list (<ol>)
  • Quotes (<blockquote>)

It’s best to check the WYSIWYG that your website owners are using to make sure you have all the appropriate tags covered.

Basic styling isn’t the only opportunity for your website to break down. Also make sure to prepare for large image uploads and for copy/paste from Word. Although items like these can seem trivial, educating your website owners about how to add content can make all the difference.

 

The Challenge of Creating Web-Based Identity Standards

Posted on by
Reply

John Fontana is the identity evangelist for Ping Identity and editor of the PingTalk Blog. Prior to joining Ping, he spent 11 years as a senior editor at Network World.

Google, Facebook, Yahoo and others all want to be your identity platform on the web. But while it’s certainly convenient to have one credential for multiple websites, many would argue these services are only secure enough to access your grandmother’s online recipe book.

Growing numbers of technologists, IT executives, organizations and governments believe an identity authentication model must establish set standards.

But can any set of standards answer the tough security challenges, and to what degree? Is it safe to check your social security account on a credential issued by Google? To access health records using your Facebook ID?

Not today. And tomorrow is not likely either.

 

SEE ALSO: Who Owns Your Identity on the Social Web?

 

 

 

However, OpenID Connect and OAuth 2.0 (open authentication) are pointing to some of the best and most promising standards of today. OAuth is the foundation for OpenID Connect (the basis for consumer ID) and for User Managed Access (UMA), a model that lets users control their personal data. Companies such as Bechtel, Chevron, Cisco, GE, M&T Bank, Salesforce.com, and others are already enjoying early success. OpenID Connect and OAuth 2.0 offer a place where consumer and corporate IDs can co-mingle in a secure cloud, protected by acceptable levels of security.

While it’s too early to tell if OpenID and OAuth will succeed, so far, they appear able to validate a user’s identity — perhaps even identities created by search engines and social sites.

“Street Identity” and Identity Attribute Data

Furthermore, big names are supporting the standards push. Google, Verizon, data exchange service ID/Webdata, and trust framework provider Open Identity Exchange (OIX) proposed a service called Street Identity at a conference last week. Street Identity is designed to strengthen authentication on the web. Loosely-coupled “providers” contribute user data called attributes, such as street address, age and/or mobile phone number that can be used to more accurately validate a user’s identity.

“Google’s [efforts] recognize what is happening now, which is identities are being deconstructed into attributes,” says Don Thibeau, chairman of OIX.

Ironically, Google and other companies with massive user data repositories don’t have enough validated pieces of user information to strengthen authentication. Google would need to partner with an attribute provider that would incorporate that information into the authentication process — with user consent, of course. The service would include a revenue model for businesses and organizations that agree to participate.

Google’s idea doesn’t replace the current identity standards effort. Rather, Street Identity is building on OpenID Connect and OAuth. It incorporates UMA for user control and features the first implementation of OpenID Connect’s spec for attribute aggregation and distribution, which was largely championed by Microsoft and its internal identity guru, Mike Jones.

Google and its partners believe that by aggregating a user’s data from various trusted sources, Street Identity can solve three problems: First, the service would connect to real-world identities, which OpenID does not do. It would provide a financial incentive for mobile operators that collect fees for providing data. Finally, it allows the government to steer clear of the electronic ID business by accessing needed data via attribute providers.

The prospect sounds promising, but so did pure PKI before its implementers began telling war stories. It seems, however, that Google continues to work toward a user authentication standard. The caveat is that standardization still has a lot more work ahead.

 

The Challenge of Creating Web-Based Identity Standards

Posted on by
Reply

John Fontana is the identity evangelist for Ping Identity and editor of the PingTalk Blog. Prior to joining Ping, he spent 11 years as a senior editor at Network World.

Google, Facebook, Yahoo and others all want to be your identity platform on the web. But while it’s certainly convenient to have one credential for multiple websites, many would argue these services are only secure enough to access your grandmother’s online recipe book.

Growing numbers of technologists, IT executives, organizations and governments believe an identity authentication model must establish set standards.

But can any set of standards answer the tough security challenges, and to what degree? Is it safe to check your social security account on a credential issued by Google? To access health records using your Facebook ID?

Not today. And tomorrow is not likely either.

SEE ALSO: Who Owns Your Identity on the Social Web?

However, OpenID Connect and OAuth 2.0 (open authentication) are pointing to some of the best and most promising standards of today. OAuth is the foundation for OpenID Connect (the basis for consumer ID) and for User Managed Access (UMA), a model that lets users control their personal data. Companies such as Bechtel, Chevron, Cisco, GE, M&T Bank, Salesforce.com, and others are already enjoying early success. OpenID Connect and OAuth 2.0 offer a place where consumer and corporate IDs can co-mingle in a secure cloud, protected by acceptable levels of security.

While it’s too early to tell if OpenID and OAuth will succeed, so far, they appear able to validate a user’s identity — perhaps even identities created by search engines and social sites.

“Street Identity” and Identity Attribute Data

Furthermore, big names are supporting the standards push. Google, Verizon, data exchange service ID/Webdata, and trust framework provider Open Identity Exchange (OIX) proposed a service called Street Identity at a conference last week. Street Identity is designed to strengthen authentication on the web. Loosely-coupled “providers” contribute user data called attributes, such as street address, age and/or mobile phone number that can be used to more accurately validate a user’s identity.

“Google’s [efforts] recognize what is happening now, which is identities are being deconstructed into attributes,” says Don Thibeau, chairman of OIX.

Ironically, Google and other companies with massive user data repositories don’t have enough validated pieces of user information to strengthen authentication. Google would need to partner with an attribute provider that would incorporate that information into the authentication process — with user consent, of course. The service would include a revenue model for businesses and organizations that agree to participate.

Google’s idea doesn’t replace the current identity standards effort. Rather, Street Identity is building on OpenID Connect and OAuth. It incorporates UMA for user control and features the first implementation of OpenID Connect’s spec for attribute aggregation and distribution, which was largely championed by Microsoft and its internal identity guru, Mike Jones.

Google and its partners believe that by aggregating a user’s data from various trusted sources, Street Identity can solve three problems: First, the service would connect to real-world identities, which OpenID does not do. It would provide a financial incentive for mobile operators that collect fees for providing data. Finally, it allows the government to steer clear of the electronic ID business by accessing needed data via attribute providers.

The prospect sounds promising, but so did pure PKI before its implementers began telling war stories. It seems, however, that Google continues to work toward a user authentication standard. The caveat is that standardization still has a lot more work ahead.

7 Tips for Boo-tiful Web Design [INFOGRAPHIC]

Posted on by
Reply

Listen up, ghouls and boos, we’ve written a lot about web design here at Mashable, but on one day a year, it’s appropriate to call on some more, um, spirited individuals to lay down the laws of basic and proper web design.

We hope you know by now not to use Comic Sans. And while everyone loves an animated GIF, they’re only funny or entertaining when they’re … funny or entertaining. And that blinking text? Get rid of it, unless you’d like to be liable for a few seizures.

Below, you’ll learn from Frankenstein font snobs, mouthy mummies, impatient pumpkins and spiders on the web to help you make your website more of a treat than a scare to browse.

 

 

Big Picture: What a Web Site Does?

Posted on by
6

Big Picture #1:

A Web site must do at least one of two things, but probably both:

• Turn a stranger into a friend, and a friend into a customer.

• Talk in a tone of voice that persuades people to believe the story you’re telling.

Big Picture #2:

A Web site can cause only four things to happen in the moments after someone sees it:

• She clicks and goes somewhere else you want her to go.

• She clicks and gives you permission to follow up by email or phone.

• She clicks and buys something.

• She tells a friend, either by clicking or by blogging or phoning or talking.

That’s it……

If your site is attempting to do more than this, you’re wasting time and money and, more important, focus.

What Word-of-mouth marketing will do for your business?

Posted on by
Reply

Word-of-mouth marketing (WOM) is the process of information exchange, especially recommendations about products and services, between two people in an informal way. In the past, word of mouth has been a spoken phenomenon, but other types of dialogue (such as email and Web postings) are now included in the definition. It differs from other types of communication in that the source credibility is very high. That is, the person giving the information is generally seen as a much more credible source by the person receiving the information. This is especially true when someone knows the person that is giving him or her the information.

Continue reading →

Using Social News to Build Buzz

Posted on by
Reply

Unfortunately, simply submitting your article to these social sites isn’t enough to pull in a massive audience. The good news is that you can act to improve your chances of hitting the social news jackpot.

Search the Web and you’ll find plenty of articles on how to “game” social news sites, most often by paying a dodgy service to skew votes using nefarious methods. We can’t discourage you from this approach strongly enough. Not only will your story immediately get buried by legitimate users, but going this route will also tarnish your organization’s name and pretty much ensure that no other stories from your company’s web address ever get promoted on that site. It’s the kiss of death!

Sites like StumbleUpon and Yahoo! Buzz are also efficient at filtering out lame, planted, or paid-for stories.

Your first plan of attack should be to generate mind-blowingly entertaining content that will make the masses laugh, cry, and be inspired all at the same time. Yep, this is a tall order. If you use social news services for any length of time, however, you’ll get to know their constituencies. You’ll start to see recurring themes among the popular stories. Studying these can help you to frame your own content appropriately. Here are some strategies that seem to consistently resonate with social news communities.

Following these guidelines can help move your stories up the ranks and closer to the front page.

Write a top 10 (or 20 or 53) list. Social news readers seem to love lists and often promote them.

  • Share stories about technology innovation. As we’ve mentioned, social media early adopters tend to be techies, so these news sites are often geek-heavy. Industry-specific tech wars, such as Apple versus Windows, can be great fodder on technical sites like Slashdot.
  • Teach something. Tutorials and advice are popular; for example, we’ve seen front-page stories on Digg about “How to take photographs in direct sunlight” and “Fifty scientifically proven ways to be persuasive.”

  • Be political. Hot or politically charged news stories typically attract attention.

  • Be controversial. Controversial findings from scientific studies or polling results often initiate heated debate.

  • Post anything cute and cuddly. Why is it that we can’t resist stupid pet tricks, sneezing pandas, and other amusing memes?

By reading your social news sites of choice diligently, you’ll get a clear understanding of which stories are popular. Keep that firmly in mind when creating content to post on social news communities.

Measuring Success for Your Website

Posted on by
Reply

Many marketers are familiar with the notion of the marketing dashboard: watching the status of ongoing marketing activities, including spending and sales, to measure the return on marketing investment.

To build your own online marketing map, you must first determine your goals. Forrester analysts have invented an excellent approach for developing social media objectives called POST: people, objectives, strategy, and technology. POST encourages marketers to get to know their customers and to set concrete goals up front.

First, figure out who your customers are. Where do they spend their time online, and how do they like to interact when they’re there? How can you engage with them in a positive, meaningful way? Second, specify your ideal campaign outcome. Do you want a two-way relationship with your customers and potential customers? Do you want to reach a new audience? Do you want people to start talking about your product?

In the strategy component that follows, create a plan for what you will do if customers embrace online initiatives. How will you keep them engaged? What will you do to strengthen those relationships? Answer these questions before you start blogging, tweeting, or posting on Facebook.

The results you want should drive your critical technology decisions. If you choose to become active in a social network where your customers don’t hang out, you won’t be successful. If you want to build buzz, then a blogger outreach campaign is probably a better choice than starting a corporate blog. By taking all these factors into account and then measuring results against concrete objectives, you’ll know whether you’re on the right track.

In all cases, we encourage you to be as specific as possible. For instance, instead of simply gathering more incoming links, identify the kinds of sites you want to link to yours.