Hector to be guest presenter at a workshop on social media marketing strategies
I will be a guest presenter at a social media workshop on April 7 in Denver. If you are struggling to figure out how to integrate social media into your marketing tool-kit or could benefit on a technology primer on security and data ownership issues, this workshp might be of interest to you. This workshop will provide you with actionable strategies and tactics in support of attaining your marketing goals and will not waste your time with basic tutorials on social media basics such as setting up a Twitter account.
Details
- Title: “Social Media Strategies for Your Business Brand – A Marketing and Technology Primer”
- Date: April 7
- Time: 8:00 am – 12:00 noon
- Place: Denver Athletic Club
- Cost: $295 (includes light breakfast, and 12 page comprehensive resource guide). Group rates available.
- On-line registration: http://www.idiaz.org/Workshop/
Topics include:
- How to decide which social media tools can grow your business
- Blogging to meet your business goals
- Optimizing social media for search engines so you are found by qualified customers
- How social media can provide market research, generate leads, and create customer advocates of your brand
- Time management and social media. How much, how long?
- Where is my data? Who can see my data? – Privacy
- Who owns my data? – Terms of use
- Is my data safe? Who can read my e-mail? – Security/Privacy
- Is e-commerce safe? – Security/Authentication
- Banking and on-line purchases, accepting payments on-line
For more information on the event: www.idiaz.org/Workshop .
The workshop will be led by Lisa Diaz of iDiaz Marketing. Lisa is a Denver based social media marketing expert. Lisa has over 20 years of experience developing strategic marketing communications, direct marketing, and branding solutions for small, medium, and Fortune 500 size companies. She started iDiaz Marketing in 2009 as a marketing training company designed to help small businesses grow with the knowledge to develop cost-effective, marketing programs.
Please share this announcement with anyone you think might benefit from attending this workshop.
Think SEO for your LinkedIn profile
LinkedIn is a business-oriented social networking site. It is a great platform for re-connecting with past and present colleagues and classmates, giving and getting advice with fellow industry colleagues, and finding jobs or business opportunities. Think of your LinkedIn profile as your extended professional calling card.
As a professional seeking new business opportunities you may have heard the old adage: “It is not who you know, it’s who knows you”. In this day and age, I would expand that to include, “it’s who can find you.” That is where Search Engine Optimization comes in.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the art and science of increasing the volume or quality of visits to a web-site from search engines. For the purposes of this article, those search engines include not only the ones that readily come to mind (Google, Yahoo!, and Bing) but the search capability within LinkedIn as well. Your LinkedIn profile IS your web-site. You are well advised to use SEO to help people find you. Here are some suggestions:
1. Update your LinkedIn summary to ensure you are found
The key to SEO is to think in terms of how someone trying to find you might conduct a search for someone with your skills or background. A cursory look at random LinkedIn profiles reveals that people tend to write about themselves in “fluffy” terms that would not be used in actual searches. Some examples:
- seasoned (as in peppery?)
- highly skilled
- results oriented
- stellar track record
If I were seeking candidates to fill a CFO position, would I search for “seasoned highly skilled financial executive with stellar track record” or would I search for “Denver CFO VP Finance renewable energy”?
Another example (from Cade Lee, owner of Iniquitous – a Denver based SEO firm) is for folks in the restaurant business. It is not unusual for a restaurateur to be proud of their food – perhaps based on their grandmother’s recipes. Although this reference might look cute in a menu, basing a web-page on this factoid make no sense from an SEO standpoint. What was the last time you typed in “grandmother’s recipes” when searching for a restaurant? More than likely you typed something like “best comfort food Denver”.
2. Use the “Specialties” section to your advantage
A bullet list of relevant search terms in the “Specialties” section in the summary of your profile will help those search engines find you. Keep it relevant and don’t stuff it with every three letter acronym in the book. If you are CEO material your specialties might include business development and strategic planning. Do yourself a favor and don’t include COBOL, Excel, Word, or PowerPoint as core competencies if you are indeed CEO material. I am amazed by how often I have seen this.
Look at some Google free tools to come up with search terms that people are actually using. Do a Google search on any topic and click on “Show options”. Familiarize yourself with the “Wonder wheel” and “Related searches” tools. They are a great source of ideas. The Google Adwords tool is a free tool that will provide a list of most frequently sought terms based on a few examples you type into the query.
3. Complete your profile
It is interesting to see how many people leave their work experience blank or only list employer names. If it’s not there, it will not show up on a search. You may also think about highlighting your accomplishments, not just stating what you worked on. Stating you “worked on IT governance” does not quite carry the same punch as “reduced IT spending by $1M by designing and implementing a client computing governance program”.
4. Expand your network
The number of people who can find you on LinkedIn is proportional to how many people you are connected to. Add pointers to your personal blog or web-site if appropriate. See my LinkedIn profile for example.
5. Get endorsements and recommend others
The possibility of your profile coming up on a search may depend on how many people have recommended you as well as how many people you have recommended. Think about getting endorsements from managers, peers, direct reports, vendors, etc… No better way to prompt them to do so than by recommending them first.
Now that some potential customer, business partner or recruiter has landed on your LinkedIn profile, how do you keep their attention?
Engaging you visitors
1. Evaluate your profile for readability
Make sure you make effective use of white space. Add bulleted lists and blank lines. A “wall of text” may turn some people off.
2. Keep your profile relevant to your profession
If you are a CIO, display your membership to IT professional groups. You may want to turn off displaying your membership to the World Class Procrastinators, or to the Executives in Minimum Security Prisons professional groups.
3. Make it easy for people to contact you
You can embed your e-mail and phone number at the top of your summary section.
4. Make it personal and easy for people to relate you
You should have a clear, professional picture of yourself on your profile. Pictures of pets, spouse, children, or cartoon characters belong on other social media sites (i.e. Facebook). Make sure those sites are ONLY searchable by your close friends and family and not searchable by the general public.
For additional thoughts on Social Media marketing techniques please look at iDiaz Marketing in particular the resources page.
Ripping and burning DVDs on the Mac
Friends often ask me what tools to use for ripping and burning DVDs on the Mac environment. After much research and testing, here are my thoughts on a recommended toolset for the Mac:
I had been using tools from SlySoft (AnyDVD and CloneDVD) on the Windows platform.
My current toolset on the Mac:
Ripping tool: “RipIt” from The Little App Factory.
RipIt was a winner of the 2009 MacWorld Editors’ Choice Awards. Is sells for about $20.
It rips all data from a DVD into a “DVD Media Document” by the name of the ripped DVD. Double clicking on that document will get your movie played by the “DVD Player” application on the Mac. This document is really a package (or directory). If you right click on it in Finder and then chose the “Show Package Contents” command you will see a “VIDEO_TS” and perhaps an “AUDIO_TS” folder with all the ripped contents.
Burning tool: “Disco” Is sells for about $20.
In order to burn a DVD (that will play on a home DVD player) from a VIDEO_TS folder you need to create a UDF formatted disc image. There is a program included in Mac OS X called “hdiutil” that should in theory accomplish this task. I did not see any reports of people successfully using this tool on Snow Leopard. If “hdiutil” did generate a good UFD disk image, burning a DVD could be accomplished within the finder functionality.
Disco can in a single step both generate the UDF disc image and burn a DVD. So far it has worked well for me. Here is a review of an earlier version of Disco.
Note: The above tools will create a 1:1 copy of a DVD. Copying DVDs longer than ~4GB will require dual layer (DL) discs. There are two separate, and incompatible recordable DVD standards. The “-R” DVDs were introduced by Pioneer in 1997. The “+R” DVDs were introduced by the DVD+RW Alliance (headed by Sony, Phillips, Mitsubishi, and Thompson) in 2002. Not all home DVD players play all formats (-R or +R); in particular the DL ones. For more detailed information on this see the “Ad Terras Per Aspera” blog article: “How To Choose CD/DVD Archival Media”.
The Superdrive DVD burners on MacBooks (at least on mine) can handle DVD+R DL media, but not DVD-R DL. That is an issue for me because my Denon DVD player cannot read DVD+R nor DVD+R DL discs.
In short, make sure your burner can burn dual layer media discs that your home DVD player can read.
As I stated above, RipIt and Disco do not support compressing a 7GB DVD to fit into a single layer DVD. This requires a toolset that supports compression and transcoding. For this I’m using “Evom”, a free tool also from The Little App Factory.
Evom is designed for downloading internet videos (YouTube™ and such) to iTunes and iPod. You can also use it to transcode your ripped DVD to play on an AppleTV or iPhone.
Another tool that will perform compression and transcoding is “Popcorn” from Roxio and it sells for about $50. I have not tested this tool as the Ripit/Disco/Evom toolset is meeting all my needs.
Converting your CDs to a digital audio library
A friend recently asked for my thoughts on ripping CDs for use with various media players. He was concerned with audio quality so he was thinking of ripping his collection to some uncompressed format such as WAV of AIFF and then transcoding to a lossless compressed format such as FLAC. He was also considering re-encoding all or part of his CD collection to a lossy/compressed format such as MP3 or AAC for use with an iPod or iPhone.
This were my recommendations:
Since you can recover an uncompressed original from a lossless compressed file, save yourself some space and keep a single copy encoded with lossless compression. There is no real compelling reason to keep uncompressed audio files around.
I use an AppleTV as a media server and an iPod. I had used FLAC in the past but found that Apple players do not support FLAC natively. I converted my FLAC files to ALAC using MAX (a free transcoding tool for the MAC). I did have issues with the metadata coming through (album covers, track info and such). For that reason, I have settled on iTunes for both ripping and encoding. On the Mac I use CoverScout for grabbing album covers.
I generally prefer open standards (like FLAC) to proprietary ones so I considered several factors before choosing ALAC for my audio files. In the end, there is a large community of iTunes/iPod users and ALAC is a “de-facto” standard. There are countless non-Apple media servers and players supporting the format. There are also multiple 3rd party utilities available for transcoding to other standard formats such that I will not be “trapped” in a proprietary format for life.
If you are an absolute maniac about the accuracy of your ripper, you may want to look at EAC (Exact Audio Copy) – a free program for the Windows platform. It will rip a CD to uncompressed WAV files. There are many good tutorials on how to set it up with various encoders at HydrogenAudio). You can set up EAC to use an ALAC encoder such as iTunesEncode.exe. For details see this article at Steve Hoffman Music Forums: “iTunesEncode.exe: Use EAC or Foobar to make Apple Lossless Files“. Here is another guide on how to pair up EAC with iTunesEncode.exe.
Transcoding from ALAC to AAC can also be accomplished with iTunes. Set the iTunes encoder to AAC at your chosen bit-rate. Select the files you want to convert, right click and select “Convert selection to AAC”.
My friend was concerned about losing iTunes playlists if he ever wanted to switch to another platform. There are both manual methods and utilities out there to solve that problem. Do a Google search on: “exporting iTunes playlists”.
If you have a large number of CDs and no time to rip them, there are some commercial outfits that will do this for a small fee
I have some additional thoughts on digital audio tools at my web-site.
Have fun with your music libraries, it is all about the music.
Using VeriSign Digital ID Class 1 Certificates on a Mac
Back in October I recommended getting a free personal e-mail certificate from Thawte for e-mail security. Thawte stopped offering Personal Email Certificates on November 16, 2009. I decided to take up Thawte on their offer of a free one-year VeriSign Email Certificate (Digital ID Class 1). Here are some things I learned — the hard way about using a VeriSign Digital ID Class 1 on the Mac environment.
I followed the instructions on the e-mail from Thawte and downloaded my certificate from Verisign using Safari. It got loaded to my keychain and I thought I life was good. The Mail application could not find the new certificate associated with the my e-mail address.
Here is what I found out: Modern browsers have crypto tools which generate public/private key-pairs. When signing up for a certificate with an authority (as with VeriSign), their website should trigger your browser to create a key-pair and then upload the public key, which is then certified and returned to you. This certificate is in a file format called .p12.
Using Safari, the certificate I got from VeriSign was a .p7c file, which has no copy of your private key.
The only way I was able to get a proper .p12 file was using Firefox on my Mac to access the VeriSign certificate tools to renew my certificate (which essentially revokes the old one and generates a new one).
Once the certificate was installed in Firefox, I exported it to a .p12 file which I then imported into my keychain after deleting the useless certificate that had been previously imported.
Problem solved.
Own your data!
There have been recent reports of permanent data loss for folks that kept their data on “the cloud”. As an IT professional, these are my recommendations:
Use a for-pay e-mail service that keeps your messages in a server and a local cached copy of all you data on you local PC or Mac. There are hosting companies that will manage Exchange servers on your behalf. You can connect to an Exchange server with Outlook from any PC. If you are away from your PC, you can still access your files from any web browser on any other PC or Mac with an Internet connection. For Mac users, you should look at MobileMe from Apple. Either one of those solutions allows you to have a local, cached copy of your e-mail AND your calendar and contacts. BTW, the mail, calendar, and address book applications that come with Mac’s latest OS (Snow Leopard) can talk natively to an Exchange server as well. An added bonus is that these setups will synchronize your data to your smartphone or iPhone as well.
Here is a good example of what can happen when you trust your data to a service provider: It has been reported T-Mobile just lost all data for their Sidekick smart-phone users (contacts, calendars, pictures, …).
Keep local backups, do not rely exclusively on off-site backup services. An external hard disk drive and some backup software are cheap insurance against a major disaster. Back up stuff you cannot afford to lose on CDs or DVDs and keep those off-site.
Contact me for specific recommendations.
Free Personal E-mail Certificates from Thawte to end soon
Not too long ago, I recommended getting a free personal e-mail certificate from Thawte for e-mail security. It has now come to my attention that Thawte will stop offering Personal Email Certificates on November 16, 2009. This is now posted on the Thawte web-site. According to their web-site, Thawte is offering a free one-year VeriSign Email Certificate for each active Thawte Personal Email Certificate you own as of 24 September 2009. If I remember correctly those normally go for about $20 US.
Internet Security Sense for Mere Mortals
I was just interviewed by Lisa Diaz of iDiaz Marketing. The subject of the interview was: “Internet Security Sense for Mere Mortals”. The whole interview was conducted on-line using the “Tweeterview” service which uses the Twitter micro-blogging service. You can follow Lisa on Twitter at: @lisadiaz and you can follow me on Twitter @diazconsulting.
This was an interesting experience as each question and answer was limited to 140 characters. Here is a link to the actual transcript at tweeterview.
Here is a transcript of the interview.
LD: Hello, I’ll be interviewing Hector Diaz of Diaz Consulting.
LD: Hector will be telling us about how trust for e-commerce is established through passwords, digital certificates and encryption.
LD: He will also tell you how you can get a digital certificate to secure your e-mail.
LD: Hi Hector, can you tell us about your background?
- I am an IT executive w/extensive experience running multiple data centers in international environments. That includes internet security.
LD: Where have you worked in the past?
- 21 years at Hewlett-Packard/Agilent Technologies and most recently at CaridianBCT, a medical technology company.
LD: OK, so why is security important?
- Trust is a necessary pillar for commerce and in particular electronic commerce. You have to trust the identity of the parties involved.
LD: Interesting. Any other thoughts on trust?
- Yes, you must trust the transaction to be private, that is safe from prying eyes.
LD: Like credit card information?
- Right, credit cards, bank account numbers, SSN numbers and other such data must be kept private and secure.
LD: How do you go about establishing trust? Can anyone do this or is it just for the big companies?
- Basically by setting up the ability to conduct e-commerce that allows for authentication, privacy, and non-repudiation.
- This applies to big companies, small companies, and you as an individual. I’ll explain shortly.
LD: Good! First, how do you define those terms you just used?
- AUTHENTICATION is all about proving you are who you say you are. This applies to both vendors and customers.
- PRIVACY has to do with keeping sensitive information (like credit card numbers) safe from prying eyes.
- NON-REPUDIATION keeps buyers/sellers from lying about legitimately placed orders/shipments. An electronic fraud-prevention paper trail.
LD: About non-repudiation. Do you mean proving you really meant to purchase or transact?
- Repudiate is to deny. A vendor should be protected from someone ordering goods and then refusing to pay claiming they did not place the or..
LD: OK, that helps. Thanks! so, how do you establish your identity on the web?
- Web-sites use digital certificates to establish their on-line identities. They verify identities of individuals upon account creation.
- Vendors buy digital certificates from companies like VeriSign. They provide a branding logo for your site.
- Individuals “prove” their identity when they supply a password. They too can get for-pay digital certificates from VeriSign.
- Free digital certificates are also available from companies like Thawte. They require showing an ID to a notary.
LD: I send emails and make purchases all the time. Why would you want to go through the trouble of doing that as a consumer or vendor?
- W/ a digital certificate you can “sign” your e-mail to prove it actually came from you and was not forged (authentication, non repudia..
- W/ a digital certificate you can encrypt your e-mail to keep it from prying eyes (privacy).
- Modern e-mail clients like Outlook and Mac Mail allow you to use these certificates to secure your e-mail.
LD: So, if I want to send an email to someone with a password, I should consider this authentication system. Right?
- Yes. I would use e-mail encryption to send someone a password in an e-mail.
LD: And if I’m not encrypting my e-mail, does that mean anyone can read it if they know how to hack my email?
- In a nutshell, Yes. No hacking required. System administrators at any site your mail goes through can read your e-mail.
- You should NEVER assume e-mail is private unless it is encrypted.
LD: So, to send encrypted emails, get that taken care of at a site called Thawte?
- At Thawte you can get a digital certificate that will allow you to sign all your e-mails and encrypt e-mails to users who also have certs.
LD: Cool. What is the link to Thawte
- http://www.thawte.com/
LD: Thanks. One more question about purchases. Does that mean I need a digital certificate to buy with confidence or do e-banking?
- No, those transactions are encrypted “on the fly” Look for a small padlock or other indicator on your browser.
LD: Thanks. So, the security takeaways here are: “thawte” for emails, “security lock” or “https” for purchases and “Verisign” for vendors. Is ..
LD: ..that accurate?
- Yes. A small clarification, I’d say encryption for e-mail. In order to encrypt, you need a digital certificate. Thawte is a source for that
LD: Thanks for clarifying. And thank you for taking the time for this Tweeterview.
LD: This digest will be posted on the iDiaz Blog at http://www.idiaz.org/Blog/?p=96 and at the Diaz Consulting Blog at http://hdiaz.org/Blog.
LD: Thank you everyone! This concludes the Tweeterview.
Hector to be interviewed on E-mail Security
On Sunday 03 October, at 2:00 MST, I’ll be interviewed by Lisa Diaz of iDiaz Marketing. The subject of the interview is: “Internet Security Sense for Mere Mortals”. This interview will also serve as a test of the “Tweeterview” service which uses Twitter to conduct an on-line interview. Lisa will be asking me about e-mail security issues, and the actions every day business people can take to be aware of and be more proactive about e-mail security. This interview does not guarantee e-mail security, but simply creates more awareness of the issue. I will post a link to the completed interview in post comments below.
Internet Technology Primer
- Why your browser is not displaying what someone else is telling you they see on their screen?
- Why your browser seems to stall accessing a site but instantly gets the page by hitting refresh?
- Why are your friends getting e-mails from you you did not send.
- Is e-commerce safe?
Don’t miss the August Denver Athletic Club’s (DAC) Web 2.0 event on August 14. Join us for an informative primer on Internet technology. This one hour session will translate the technical jargon and explain the workings of “the Web”. This is intended for people who want to make better use of the technology, either as a customer or as a provider or web-based services. Link will take you to registration details.
- What is the Internet?
- Who “owns” the Internet?
- Who “manages” the Internet?
- How does it work?
Hector Diaz of iDiazMarketing will speak from his 20 years of technology management experience at companies that include Hewlett-Packard, the Communications Satellite Corporation, and a Silicon Valley technology startup in the electronic design automation industry.
