Category: IT
Social media marketing and your website
Social media plays a big part in the online world. Many of us have profiles on at least one of the main social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter or Instagram so it makes sense to marketing your business or products using social media as an avenue.
It is important to try and link your social media pages in to your website to increase traffic to your site. Social media posts should be quite short and to the point but there may be times when you want to give your readers more information. This is the time when you can refer them to a page on your site with further detail or to allow them to make a purchase. Adding the relevant link to your posts will help with this. When using links in social media posts, be sure to direct people to the correct page. It is not ideal if you put the links going straight to your home page as people will then have to search around to find what they wanted and you may end up losing people because of this. For this reason it may be better to keep your posts quite specific (such as about a product or service in particular) rather than being generic. It is also important to create posts and updates regularly on social media sites to keep readers interested and to give them a reason to follow you.
Choosing the right laptop
When you are looking for a new laptop you need to think carefully about what you want to use it for in order to establish which laptop is best for you. If you are looking to play games on it for example then you need to find one with a large hard disk drive, good amount of RAM and good graphics card.
You will often have to pay quite a bit more for a laptop that is going to be good for gaming.
If you want a laptop for work then you need to ensure that it is going to be reliable. Buying a good brand of laptop with at least a 12 months warranty on it is a good idea. If you are going to be storing files which are important then security and back up is also essential. You will want to invest in a high quality anti-virus package and also a backup drive that can be easily connected to the laptop. Portable hard drives are often the easiest way to do this.
Most computer shops will be able to discuss with you what you want the laptop for and then advise you of which models will be best suited. If the laptop is out of your price bracket you may need to sacrifice some elements of the spec to be able to afford one.
GDPR; what does it mean for my data?
The EU’s General Data Protection Regulations are now in force, giving consumers ever more power over how their data is stored and used, and companies even greater fines for mishandling that data, so it’s now more important than ever to ensure that your data is not only held securely, but can be managed, accesses controlled, and content retrieved quickly and efficiently.
If you haven’t already, you’ll need to instigate a robust data management plan in order to be able to satisfy the new requirements. Here, we run through a few of the key things to consider.
What data do you store? Consider what personal information you record, and in which areas of your business
Why do you store that data? You should not be storing data you don’t need and you must be clear what you are using it for. If you don’t need it, you must get rid of it.
Where is your data stored? Many companies use a number of different systems, and mechanisms for saving documents which may also contain sensitive client data. As well as what and why, you need to know what data will be found where, and why that area of your business is using it.
How to better yourself as an IT consultant
The job of an IT consultant can be very rewarding but the job can also at times be very challenging. As an IT consultant, you will be going into businesses and looking at the way the business is run and how you can improve it by focusing on the IT they use. This may be within the finance area, marketing area, management or a combination of many different departments and often involves looking into how IT can help improve the process that happens within the business.
Firstly as a consultant, it is important that you know about your client and their industry. You need to keep your ear to the ground and be proactive with any IT products that you recommend.
Knowing the history of the business and their current IT software and uses is vital. You need to be able to memorise some facts and figures and try and look at how you can improve their IT as well as saving them money. You may be asked to work alongside a financial consultant as well. As a good consultant, you should look to increase a business’s profits by increasing sales and cutting down on spending.
Setting up email to sync with other devices
Emails can be a bit of a nightmare and, depending upon whom you have your email through, the settings often need changing. If you have an email address that is linked to your domain then you may struggle to set your email up on your PC or phone/tablet. Your hosting provider should be able to give you the details but you will have to check port numbers and authentication settings. This can take time to configure and if you make even a small spelling mistake then often the whole account will not work.
Before you start, remember to only set up on one device at a time. Ideally, ask your hosting provider to email you the details you need to you can double check the spellings and possibly even copy and paste.
You may find that if you have problems setting your email on your device then the hosting company will not help you if their account is working. In this case, you would need to get in touch with an IT support company to check it all for you and set it up correctly.
Always ensure that your emails are backed up in case something should happen and you lose them all.
Think carefully before outsourcing your emails
Many companies decide to outsource the management of their email accounts as they may find it a little bit above what they understand. This can often free up a lot of time which is often wasted trying to sort out email problems but also comes with its own risks.
When outsourcing your emails they are often managed by another company who will be responsible for setting up new and maintaining your existing email accounts. If you are using a server then they will also be able to set the emails up to go through that and link them all on a network. This can be great if you need to set up groups for certain email address or want to be able divert email traffic quickly. The issue may come when you have a problem with your emails or exchange server and the company you use are not open. Some businesses work during different times and therefore there may be periods when you simply cannot get hold of the people you need to and therefore have a certain amount of time without emails. Always find out if there is an on call number you can call should you have a major issue with the emails which needs to be rectified immediately.
Ensuring comprehensive backup of your PC or laptop
Many of us have a computer that we use either for work purposes or for personal use. Often we store thousands of documents, photos and files on our computers that are vitally important to us, yet many of us do not back these up.
There are a number of ways in which you can back up your computer, and often people are turning to cloud-based software such as Dropbox to accomplish this. It is a great idea to have your documents and files on the cloud, to allow you to access them from anywhere, but you do need to be concern about the security and also the safety of your files. If the cloud software or website is hacked, then your files may fall into the hands of the wrong sorts of people and you may not only lose it but also find that it is being sold on or used fraudulently.
You should have your files in at least two different locations before you delete them from the original one and also back up on a regular basis. You can buy USB sticks or external hard drives which makes backing up very easy and you can often set up schedules to run the back up at certain times.
Mac or PC, that is the question
As long as Mac and Pc’s have been about, there has always been an argument as to which one is better. Historically Macs were always favoured by designers as they seemed to be much more advanced in this area but now there is a bit more of a mix and many pc users have been converted to Macs. So what are the main differences between them and which one is best?
It really is a personal choice but below are a few things you may wish to bear in mind when making your choice:
- If you want a computer that is going to link up to your phone seamlessly than you may opt for the Mac and the iPhone. If you have a windows computer then you would need to choose a Windows phone and they do not have such a good reputation
- Macs are more protected against viruses, in fact, it is very hard to get any sort of corrupt data on a Mac.
- If you are used to using a PC then you may want to stick with what you know. Learning how to use a Mac can be quite difficult and some people simply cannot get on with them.
Using Google Adwords Marketing for your business
When it comes to online marketing, it can be a bit of a minefield, there are so many different avenues in which you can invest in that you can end up investing a lot of money in the wrong places or not investing enough in the right and therefore seeing very little return on your investment.
Google Adwords is a form of online marketing also known as Pay per Click or paid for advertising. It allows a business to create online adverts that may appear on the search engine results pages or other websites when the advert is clicked, the visitor is taken through to the advertiser’s website or it will display their phone number. Each time this ad is shown or clicked (depending on your settings) you will be charged a certain amount. This amount varies massively from a few pence to hundreds of pounds depending on the competition level for that keyword, the area you want to target and the quality of your website that it’s pointing back to.
This is a great way of getting more traffic to your site quickly, but it is vital it is set up correctly to ensure that you get the most out of it as it is very easy to accidentally waste money that way.