web 101 - women in communications - domains, email, privacy controls, basics of social media &...

Web 101

Cybele Negris

Co-Founder & COO, Webnames.ca Inc.

1. Domain Name Strategy2. Using Email Effectively3. Online Privacy & Security4. Social networking / social media

1. Domain name strategy – what names do you need?

.COM - 2.8 million in Canada (over 77 million globally)

.CA – over 1 million (exclusive to Canadians)

Canadians ordered $5 billion worth of goods online in 200563% with Canadian vendors.

These are your minimum.

1. Domain name strategy – what names do you need?

.NET .ORG .INFO .BIZ

.MOBI.CN .US

.ASIA

.TEL

Domain forwarding

Existing .COM or .CA

Website

Store & share all contact information

1. Domain name strategy

Who is the Registrant and administrative contact for your domain?

Your webmaster

Your designer

Your staff

You

Someone you trust implicitly

2. How to effectively use email

Hotmail

Gmail

Yahoo mail

Your ISP

Email

info@yourcompany.capresident@yourcompany.casales@yourcompany.casupport@yourcompany.cabilling@yourcompany.cawebmaster@yourcompany.ca

Look like an unprofessional, small company

Look like a well-established, big company

2. How to effectively use email

•Use an automated signature•Use autotext•Use rules and folders•Use spellcheck•Include messaging to promote your brand or new service•IPhone or Blackberry set up aliasing/forwarding to actual email address•Use PGP encryption to send private or confidential information•Use IMAP instead of POP if you access email from multiple computers/locations regularly. (alternatively, webmail)

3. Security & Privacy

Canada's Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) covers online privacy

Spam – first reading of Bill S-235 Anti-Spam Act May 2008. Still no anti-spam law in Canada

Phishing – email disguised as official email from bank or service provider to steal your personal data, credit card number, passwords

3. Security & Privacy

How to protect yourself

Privacy Policies – read these before providing your contact information. Do they sell your info to 3rd parties?

Domain Privacy – WHOIS is Public. Register .CA as individual (automatically protected). Businesses should purchase privacy protection.

Recognize Phishing – don’t send your credit card, password or other private information through email. Go to your provider’s website yourself (don’t click on the link in the email).

3. Security & Privacy

How to protect yourself

SSL certificates – enter credit card information on a trusted site with digital certificate authenticating who you are dealing with and ensure the transaction is encrypted.

3. Security & Privacy

How we do our part

Secured subscriptions – newsletters/blogs should only allow people to subscribe after email confirmation is completed.

Don’t respond & Don’t buy – spammers continue because they make money.

Report Abuse – look up headers of email (“view” “options”), find service provider, report to abuse@serviceprovider and ask them to ban the spammer.

5. Social Media/Social Networking

Social Networking: Connecting with a community of people in your network through services like Facebook and Twitter with various methods of online interaction.

Social Media: Online media like blogs, podcasts, videos, and news with a strong participatory element through comments, ratings, or other mechanisms. Social media is generated by the people and for the people. Content can created by anyone and everyone (average Joe’s, journalists, business people)

ResourcesWhat is Social Media? Common Craft Videohttp://www.commoncraft.com/video-social-networking http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2007/08/your-guide-to-social-networking-online241.html

5. Social Media/Social Networking

Growth of Social Networking

5. Social Media/Social Networking

Resources

http://blogs.forrester.com/groundswell/2008/10/new-2008-social.html

http://www.web-strategist.com/blog/2008/11/19/social-networks-site-usage-visitors-members-page-views-and-engagement-by-the-numbers-in-2008/

5. Social Media/Social Networking

Benefits to Small Businesses

SEO

opportunities for business owners to connect with prospects,, gain leads and generate sales – ultimately to build their businesses.

Build Credibility and Trust – eg. Interior designer answers question on design on forum or shares resource on Twitter.

Find Business Partners or Employees – eg. On LinkedIn create online resume or recommend someone.

Extend the Reach of your Business – Have access to an almost unlimited number of potential clients and customers through various contacts.

5. Social Media/Social Networking

Resources

http://www.searchengineguide.com/david-wallace/5-ways-small-business-can-benefit-from-s.php

http://www.businesszone.co.uk/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=179480

5. Social Media/Social Networking

Some Best Practices for Social Networking

Be Sincere

Focus on Individuals – eg. don’t post “from admin” or authored by “your company”.

Focus on Others - It isn’t all about you. If you just pimp your products, people lose interest.

Be a Part of the Community: Engage in conversations and when possible actually meeting those people who comment on your content, follow you on Twitter, or friend you on Facebook. Attend local meetups.

5. Social Media/Social Networking

Resources

http://fastwonderblog.com/2008/02/09/social-media-and-social-networking-starter-kit-for-business/

http://sbinformation.about.com/lw/Business-Finance/Small-business-and-entrepreneurs/10-Best-Practices-of-Business-Networking.htm

5. Social Media/Social Networking

Key social networking websites to have a presence on:Facebook – friending, profiles, photosMySpace – friending, profiles, photos Twitter – Microblog “What are you doing <140 characters” LinkedIn – professional networking (Facebook for business) Flickr – image and video hosting siteDigg – news aggregator. Vote stories up or down.Stumbleupon – website ranking recommendation engineTechnorati – blog search engineDelicious (del.icio.us) – social bookmarking service

5. Social Media/Social Networking

Resources

And if you want to go further:

50 Social Sites That Every Business Needs a Presence onhttp://www.insidecrm.com/features/50-social-sites-012808/

Top 10 Social Networking Websites for Women http://mashable.com/2008/05/11/top-10-social-networking-sites-for-women/

Summary

Domain Name Strategy .CA and .COM Update domain registrant info to your own Get .TEL, .MOBI, .ASIA, etc.; register longer terms (www.longerdomainterm.ca)

Using Email Effectively Set up president@yourdomain, sales@yourdomain etc. Use PGP encryption to send private/confidential information Use IMAP or Webmail to access from multiple locations

Security & Privacy Get domain privacy to protect your public WHOIS info Recognize scams & use SSL secured sites Don’t buy from spammers & report abuse

Social networking / social media Start a blog – Wordpress (free), share resources/tips/best practices Join LinkedIn, Facebook and others Start Twittering

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Visit us online at www.webnames.ca or call 604-633-1142 for one-on-one assistance

Robbie Dakin 604-633-3182Robbie@webnames.ca

www.webnamesblog.ca twitter.com/cybelenegris twitter.com/webnames

Visit us online at www.webnames.ca or call 604-633-1142 for one-on-one assistance

Robbie Dakin 604-633-3182Robbie@webnames.ca

www.webnamesblog.ca twitter.com/cybelenegris twitter.com/webnames