1Degree

By Robert Hood

Your company’s IT department is great for designing and maintaining the nuts and bolts of your internal digital infrastructure. But when it comes to conveying your messages, your products and your professionalism to customers, employees and the world at large, your IT department should not be running the show. Instead, put your marketing department in charge of developing and maintaining your online presence. These are the people with the most creative ideas and the best understanding of your company’s various audiences, internal and external. When more technical or content expertise is needed to execute specific aspects of a website or social media project, outsourcing is always an effective alternative.

In fact, more and more companies are following this model. A 2012 Ragan/NASDAQ OMX Corporate Solutions survey reveals most corporations, nonprofits and government agencies take a multi-faceted approach to online presence. [Download the complete survey’s findings here.] More than 70 percent of respondents say their marketing department is involved in making online and social media decisions, with other departments and consultants contributing. “There must be collaboration,” one survey respondent wrote. “Whereas marketing only wants to sell product, corporate communications—my department—must be aware of impact of all social efforts on Wall Street, shareholders, and regulators.”

I have personally noticed a shift in how companies approach their Internet presence, with more emphasis on marketing and an increased willingness to use outside consultants to improve their content and communication online. In my experience, reliance on outsourcing for design, content and maintenance of web and social media sites has hit an all-time high for companies of all sizes.

Whenever my company, 1Degree, finds a new partner, it’s always a collaborative effort. Your IT department certainly should certainly be included in the planning and implementation process, but with an understanding that the technical side is secondary to the real job: Making an impact on your audience. Then the company’s online presence can be the centerpiece for marketing campaigns that promote the business on many platforms.

Inspiration (noun): A divine influence directly and immediately exerted upon the mind or soul. "Strive to "inspire" others and be inspired every single day! There is something inside of you that can help someone else right now, and there is someone else waiting to do the same for you."

Go ahead, inspire others... They will love you for it! But in order to do that, you first need to be, well... inspirational. How can this be accomplished?

Every day We are faced with choices. What to wear, what to eat, and what promises we have to keep. Because of all the demands on us, it can be hard not to allow these challenges to stunt our opportunities. How can you prevent this from stunting your vision of being an inspiration to others? The answer is less difficult than you may expect.

Track with me here if you will. It all comes down to our very own thoughts. That's right, you have the power inside to have a profound effect on your day, and even more so, the day of others around you. Here inlays the secret to successfully inspiring yourself and others everyday. It starts with the little things! When you wake up each morning, ask yourself, what good thing can I do for so-and-so today? Take the time to share a short story or fix a cup of coffee for a colleague, literally 2 to 3 min out of your day.

When you make this your focus, each day you are setting yourself up for inspirational success. Within time this will be habit and you will be known for your attention to others needs. Once this is attained, you will be an inspiration to others.

New Business as Usual? By Robert Hood

(photo via Mashable, courtesy of Flickr, H_Elise.)

FEAR FACTORS! By Robert Hood

This is a great info-graphic! It’s clear that protecting your home computer for your family and your peace of mind is a good idea, but how to go about it – that’s the tricky part. There are many options out there, cloud-this, anti-virus that, malware, spyware, the list goes on… here is my simple, no-nonsense advice.  Understanding the tools that  are available, and then using them is a wise investment in time, a time investment  many people choose to avoid, but as Nike says, Just Do It. The first exercise I highly recommend is to, even if just vaguely, understand the threat of a computer with internet access to your personal data… what’s on there, what could you lose, the items that if found by a stranger, could be harmful to your identity, your safety, and even the pocketbook! Next understand your environment, what are you using the internet for? Consider the age of your children, their interests, what you will be using it for, whether personal and or for business. Then research and buy the appropriate protection revolving around internet securities (See for PC and Mac: http://www.trendmicro.com/us/home/index.html). Internet securities cover many potential categories of threats to essentially anything you would normally place behind lock and key. Knowing what category of threat you want to protect against will help you in deciding what software and or hardware you should invest in, so as to protect yourself and your family from would be internet thieves.

Did you know that 1 In 4 people have had their email hacked? Over the years, here at 1Degree, many people have asked how and why email accounts get hacked. Here’s the why, and what you can do about it. At your home, your network is your first line of defense. For instance if you are using Wi-Fi, your network is accessible outside of your home, so it’s crucial to set standards (rules and policies). Make sure your firewall is turned on at each computer and at the internet modem or router (See for PC: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc995156.aspx for Mac: http://www.macworld.com/article/1135888/firewalls.html). One of the first places hackers look is your email archive file, because emails have one centrally located data base with everything in one place, including personal. They scan for both numbers and personal data that can be used to create a false identity or use credit card numbers for online purchases. Public free email accounts are especially susceptible to hacking; because the payoff if bigger for the hacker, once they get in the system they have access to so many email accounts. The best way of protecting yourself in this case is by being aware of the consequences if your email account gets hacked and avoiding sending sensitive data. You may also consider using a paid email account which can feature additional security and less chance of a malicious attack. (This requires owning a personal Domain name. i.e. www. myfamilyname.com)

We see here that 68% say they would be DEVASTATED if they lost everything on their computer (or internet connected device).  From this statistic alone, we can tell many people use their computers for very intense and or sensitive personal and business matters. Backing up computer files can translate into your peace of mind, be it to a physical external hard drive or to the cloud. Cloud servers can be a great option to back up your files, providing automated web services that store your sensitive information on another computer at another location, managed with the highest level of security and attention. And in many cases, and actual GAURANTEE! (See http://www.sosonlinebackup.com)

Overall, this info-graphic wonderfully displays a key relationship between the unknown and the fear associated with it. Fear of the unknown seems to be paralyzing some people, for your peace of mind and to protect your family, it’s time to stop avoiding and start protecting yourselves.  It really is worth the time and energy. Here’s what you should do:

1. Don’t share very personal details like dates, family member names, especially banking and financial information on your computer and via email, period. But if you must store this type of information, there are programs that allow the user to do so in a folder that is independently password protected (See for PC: http://www.newsoftwares.net/folderlock for Mac: http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/29384/espionage).

2.Pay close attention to what your children are talking about and with whom via social media accounts and email; this requires some agreed upon transparency for the safety of the entire family. Don’t wait, START NOW!

3.Make sure the method you have chosen to protect your security is up to date and functioning correctly. Auto-updates for security software are a great idea and should be allowed, and physically checking that your chosen method of internet protection is working on a monthly basis is will give you additional peace of mind.

4.Remember this applies to all USB drives!

-Robert Hood, President and Founder of 1Degree

By Robert Hood

When you type something into a search engine such as Google, you’ll get back a list of results pertaining to the key words you’re searching for. It’s fast, simple, and pretty straightforward. But have you ever noticed that some results tend to appear at the top of the page more than others? This isn’t done by pure coincidence of course—this is an actual process called Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and there’s actually quite a bit of strategy behind it. Briefly, let me take some of the mystery out of SEO.

Search Engine Optimization is the process of making a website become more visible in search engine results by looking for words or phrases located within the webpage (either visible or not) that are relevant to what the user is looking for. In the marketing world, this has become a major factor in e-commerce and online business strategy. The web pages that are most relevant and appear most frequently on search engine results tend to be the sites that users will visit the most, this is why optimizing a website is very important. SEO can be done with various methods such as editing website content or HTML coding so that it matches with what people are looking for, or by using links as a byway for users to navigate between web pages.

A strategy we like to use, in a nutshell, is a method that allows every single item in the website’s item catalog or shopping cart to have its own independent optimization keyword set. We then use a neat programming trick that takes all of the data made from those independent items on the website and creates HTML that is perfectly structured for the search engine to easily find and index. That is, everything on the webpage will cross-link back to other items within the same relative category. And to think, all of this happens within a matter of a few seconds with the click of your mouse. Pretty amazing!

By Robert Hood

Let’s face it—the dot com rise and fall is over, and now virtually everyone has an online presence in one way or another. Everything has gone digital, and what hasn’t will eventually sooner or later. So if you’re a business owner who wonders if it’s really necessary still to have a website, the answer is definitely yes. A website is a crucial tool to sell either your product or service, it's how you create this selling machine that can be a challenge. 

Websites have become a part of our every day culture, people are hungry for information and they are looking for fast and easy ways to access it. With the Internet, potential clients, customers, and investors can quickly survey your business and learn about what you have to offer before even physically setting foot in your establishment. People can discover what products and services you provide, obtain your contact information, and generally get information about your business even after closing hours. And since people can access the web from almost anywhere on Earth, you have the potential to reach a huge audience.

However, simply having a website isn’t quite enough. It won’t automatically bring customers and revenue all on its own. While having a business-minded website is essential nowadays, there is much more involved than just having online presence. Which brings us to the question: what actually makes a website a selling machine?

To know if your website is or is not a selling machine simply ask yourself, do your use your website to sell on a daily basis? If you (or your sales staff) are not using the website actively, then there is room for improvement. Because if you're not using it, why should your clients? It's time well spent to create a website that is useful, practical and contributes to your bottom line. 

Although aesthetics and user experience are important in design, at the end of the month your website should be positively contributing to the bottom line. To do that we need to put a higher emphasis on the business side of things. An effective web design is one that caters to the audience that a business is trying to reach. The content should be engaging and communicate with visitors in a manner that would give them a reason to take action now and return again in the future. 

Additionally, a company website should also be easy to navigate not only to customers, but also so their own sales teams can use it themselves as a resource. A website should be utilized as a marketing tool—to connect with potential clients, to engage with their audience on a more personal level, and to promote deals, products, and services.