entrepreneur

Social Apps: The Devil in Disguise?

Social network applications are leaving an open door to our most personal of details. Tending to the crops on your virtual farm, finding out who views your profile and sharing your favourite movie trailers may seem like harmless ways to use social networks but oblivious users are accepting application requests without considering who they are allowing to access their personal data. Having ‘apps’ connected to your Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter profiles provides an open-door for the third party behind the app to access your profile and all of your personal data within. UKFast technical director Neil Lathwood explained the risks that this security flaw poses for social networkers: “Having all of these apps to entertain us is great, but many people do not realise that by using these apps they are effectively inviting people to use their personal data in whichever way they want. We really need to start considering the consequences of having all of our data readily available to unknown third parties. “Facebook acts as a narration of our lives and with the introduction of the new Timeline feature, more people are filling the gaps in their profiles, adding illnesses, significant events and employment details to name a few. This information is incredibly valuable to identity thieves and cybercriminals.” As revealed by UKFast’s security experts last year, the information that we share on social sites provides cybercriminals with the clues that they need to guess passwords and break into online accounts – from social media to online banking. Lathwood continued: “With Facebook predicted to pass the 1 billion users mark this August, the site is a prime target for criminals to mine data from

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Social Apps: The Devil in Disguise?

entrepreneur

Pay-Per-Click Management Services Don’t Cost, They Pay – 5 Reasons Why You Shouldn’t Do Your Own PPC

It’s true that Pay-Per-Click Advertising (PPC) such as Google’s “Adwords™” and Microsoft’s “Bing™” can be a remarkably effective, low-cost advertising solution that can almost instantly bring a flood of eager buyers to your website, if done correctly. However, it’s also true that you can take a terrible beating in a very short time if you’re not careful and don’t know what you’re doing. You see, Adwords™ and Bing™ (the dominant Pay-Per-Click platforms) are promoted as being easy to use. In a sense that’s true. You can sign up for an account and be walked through how to put up a PPC ad in a matter of a few minutes.

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Pay-Per-Click Management Services Don’t Cost, They Pay – 5 Reasons Why You Shouldn’t Do Your Own PPC

entrepreneur

Adobe throws Flash overboard

Adobe is set to abandon efforts to bring Flash to mobile devices, instead refocusing its attentions on HTML5. The news comes just as the software firm announced it would axe 750 jobs as part of a restructuring process to place more emphasis on digital media and marketing efforts. According to ZDNet , a source close to Adobe delivered the following announcement to business partners: “Our future work with Flash on mobile devices will be focused on enabling Flash developers to package native apps with Adobe AIR for all the major app stores. “We will no longer adapt Flash Player for mobile devices to new browser, OS version or device configurations.” If confirmed, the announcement would represent an about-face on the company’s efforts to promote Flash player in mobile devices.

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Adobe throws Flash overboard

entrepreneur

Branson cuts a Square deal

British billionaire Richard Branson has made an investment in mobile payment start up Square. Insiders claim that the businessman made a ‘multimillion’ dollar investment in the company, however the exact amount remains undisclosed. The latest injection of capital follows an earlier investment of $100 million (

entrepreneur

Content Gating: Quid Pro Quo

“He who wants to do good knocks at the gate; he who loves finds the gate open.” – Rabindranath Tagore Content gating, do you know something about it? Technically, it’s that thing you do as an online marketer to force potential clients or prospects to reveal their contact details first in order to get free downloadable content. You literally put up some sort of gate to block any interested person to automatically get free content without getting something in return for it. There is a Latin maxim that can perfectly describe this: quid pro quo, which literally means “this for that” or “something for something.” Content gating is one of the most popular ploys that online marketers or entrepreneurs use to build an email list. It’s a white hat marketing practice but the thing is; it may not really be helping you in your business at all! Ericka Chikowski wrote an article for the Entrepreneur magazine called, “Why You Shouldn’t Wall Off Your Web Content”. David Meerman Scott, a marketing strategist, mentioned that marketers who are practicing this kind of content gating are harming their business instead of improving it! Here is a quote taken from the article: The author of Real-Time Marketing and PR, Scott believes content gating doesn’t make for a good getting-to-know-you phase between marketers and potential customers

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Content Gating: Quid Pro Quo