Are You Paying Attention to What is Being Said Online About Your Brand or Business?

Social Media and Social  Networking tools have changed the way people share and obtain information.  Social Media and Social Networking tools have opened the door to content publication for anyone to be a publisher and share information with others.

These tools can be wonderful in spreading the word about your company and the products and services that you provide, however they can also be used to spread information that can be damaging to your brand or business.

Part of effectively using Social Media and Networking is to monitor what is being said about your brand and business and to keep a pulse on your market or niche.

Adding a monitoring component into your Social Media and Social Networking efforts will help ensure that you never miss a compliment or a complainant written about your brand or business.  If you know what is being said then you can be proactive in handling any complaints or potential bad press as well as highlighting any compliments that are being written about you.

The following are several FREE tools that you can use to monitor what is being said about your brand or business online:

Twitter Search – http://search.twitter.com/

Use Twitter Search to search for “Tweets” related to your company or those needing your products or services

Google Alerts – http://www.google.com/alerts

Google Alerts allows you to set up an alert that will let you know each time there is a new entry on the web with information related to your company, product or service or a topic you are interested in

Technorati – http://technorati.com/

Technorati is a great place to check out what is being covered in the blogosphere

Trendpedia – http://www.trendpedia.com/

This tools allows you to search for names and topics and compare how they rate with other topics or names

Social Mention – http://socialmention.com/

This tool is similar to Google Alerts, but focuses on social media

Twendz (Beta) http://twendz.waggeneredstrom.com/

This tool allows you to monitor twitter conversations in real time on the topic or key words of your choice

Effectively using Social Media and Social Networking tools to monitor mentions of your brand or business will help you stay ahead of the curve and be able to effectively deal with any bad press as well as highlight any positive press that you may receive.

Stefanie Blackburn is an Internet Consultant with SourceOne Technologies. SourceOne Technologies currently offers assistance to business owners in establishing a complete online presence.  SourceOne Technologies is your Online Marketing Consultant.

“United Breaks Guitars” – a lesson in social media and reputation management

Over the last few weeks United Airlines has learned a costly lesson on the impact of social media and what it can do to a companies reputation.

Last year a Canadian musician had a bad experience on United Airlines which resulted in his $3500 custom guitar being damaged.  When he approached United regarding this incident for a remedy he encountered several employees that were less than helpful and no one that wanted to take responsibility and compensate him for the damages.

After several months of trying for a resolution, upon being told this is the last you will hear from us on the incident he decided to share his story about the incident and poor customer service with others by posting a video on YouTube.  As of this writing this video has been viewed by over 4.3 million people and United’s stock is down 10%.

Today, it is possible for anyone to publish and share information via methods such as blogging, social networks, YouTube and other forums.  It is critical that companies monitor and watch what is being said and published about them.  It is also more important than ever that companies provide exceptional customer service.

Unfortunately, United Airlines now knows the power of Social Media and the damage that can be done.

Here is the video if you would like to see it:

SourceOne Technologies can assist you in managing your online presence so that you can leverage Social Media for your business.  To find out more contact us at 720-306-5001

Five Signs Your Computer May Have a Spyware Infection

Is your computer infected with spyware

Author – Justin Williams

For this article, I thought I would go ahead and give you five signs that your computer may have some type of spyware infection.

These days, spyware is everywhere. As Anti-Spyware programs get stronger, spyware continues to become trickier. Because of this, in my opinion, you simply cannot rely on running a spyware scanner to tell you if you have a spyware infection or not. You need to be able to notice other signs that you may have a spyware infection. Because let’s face it, unless you have some type of spyware guard that runs 24/7, it’s possible you will get an infection between scans with whichever spyware scanner you use. And if you go weeks between scans, the spyware could really harm your computer.

Now, just because you may notice one of these signs doesn’t mean for sure that your computer has a spyware infection. It is still possible it doesn’t. However, in my opinion, noticing any of these signs is enough reason to run a scan as soon as possible. Anyway, let’s get right to the signs. Here they are, in no particular order.

1. IExplore.Exe

Try looking at the list of running processes on your computer. (Ctrl+Alt+Del – Processes (On Windows Xp) ). Do you see IExplore.Exe running? Well, if you are viewing this article in Internet Explorer or have Internet Explorer open in the background, then you shouldn’t worry about seeing IEXplore.EXE in your process list. However, if you close out of Internet Explorer or you restart the computer and IEXplore.Exe or IEXplorer.exe is running when you clearly don’t have Internet Explorer running, then this is a sign that you may be infected with Spyware. Many types of Spyware and Virus will run as IExplore.exe in the process list to confuse you with Internet Explorer. I have seen this happen many times when fixing computers.

2. Unexplainable Pop-Ups?

Pop-Ups can still be a problem for some internet users who don’t use pop-up blockers. It can be common to go to websites and experience many pop-ups. However, if you are getting pop-up windows at times that you don’t think you should be any, that may be a sign of an infection. This could be when you aren’t surfing the web, when you first turn on the computer, etc. If you are experiencing this, run a scan!

3. Infection Warnings?

Are you receiving numerous warnings of an infection on your computer? If so, the warnings may be the infection in itself! Spyware programs displaying fake warnings to get you to download more spyware is becoming a lot more common these days. Many times they will use pop up boxes from your windows tray to warn you. They do this because these boxes look legitamate and look like they come from Windows. They don’t! I can’t think of a scenario where you would get any type of box like that unless it is from a spyware scanner you already use. Even if you feel this box may be from your scanner, play it safe and don’t click the box. Just open up your scanner regularly and do a scan.

4. Start-Up Items

Another quick way to look for a possible infection is to look at a list of items set to run on startup. Now, you can do this without downloading any programs. But I recommend downloading a program like StartUp Manager that will easily show you a list of what is running at startup.

Anyway, look at the list of items running at startup. Has anything been added since the last time you checked what is running at startup? If there are new items and you don’t recognize them, this may be a sign of a spyware infection that is set to run when you turn your computer on.

5. Different Browser Home Page?

And finally, if you open your internet browser and your homepage has changed, this is definitely a sign that you may have a spyware infection. Changing your browser homepage is one of the oldest tricks in the book for a Spyware Infection. If your homepage has changed and you didn’t change it, run a scan!

If you remember to look for these signs, you just may spot a spyware infection before you find out from your spyware scanner. Remember though, before running a spyware scan, ALWAYS update it first!

Stay safe!

About the Author: Justin has been working with computers for over 10 years. He enjoys helping people with computers. He is the creator of EasyTechReviews.com

If you are currently experiencing signs of Spyware please contact us at 720-306-5001 and set-up a time to have your computer scanned and cleaned of spyware.