Learn How You Can Make Your Social Sharing Explode

Content marketing and social media are two different thing. Neither content marketing nor social media can be done well without the other.

Social media is only a slice of your content marketing strategy pie. Social media should always be included when you devise a content marketing plan, while website, partnership sites and search engines should also be considered.

There are various ways to distribute your content marketing. With that being said, social sharing should be placed as the top priority.

Every piece of content you post online should be promoted, linked, or reposted on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and other social media platforms. Social media is a direct path to brand loyalty and engagement with your target audience. Content marketing’s objective is consumption, while social media revolves around participation.

Social media comes with other benefits as well. For instance, social media is a fantastic tool to obtain valuable audience insights. Most of the social networking sites offer some sort of analytics. One of the few notable ones include Facebook Insights and Twitter Analytics, which rivals even the king of analytics, Google Analytics with their audience nuggets.

Social media postings allow instant feedback. For websites, it might take days or even weeks to analyse and evaluate how well the new content is resonating. Social media allows you to know within hours. Social shares can get you these valuable insights. When people share your content, it’s a signal that you’re doing things right. In fact, sharing is even better than commenting because sharing allows you to reach even more people while commenting doesn’t, and it isn’t always a good thing because it might be a bad comment directed towards your company.

Although results vary according to the social media platform you chose, there are still many ways that can increase sharing.

Go Wild With Visual Content

‘Visual content is the new black.’ This phrase has been thrown around since 2012 to depict the effectivity and efficiency of compelling visuals.

Visual content is extremely shareable. Try to think for a moment, do you see a witty meme and cute puppy photos shared on your Facebook news feed often? Most probably, the answer is yes. Why? Because they are hilarious, fun, and something out of the box that they can relate to. Your objective as a content marketer is to be the source of a photo that people share.

• Think twice before using a stock photo. At times, stock photos lack a source of life and personality. It’s good to have a little fun sometimes with humorous photos that you might find ridiculous. It’s good to incorporate comedic elements to entertain your audience and show that you’re not a one-dimensional cardboard.
• Release the designer within you. Don't give yourself excuse to use plain and boring visuals. Let your creativity go wild and be open to out-of-the-box ideas. Incorporate interesting design with compelling texts in your visuals.

Regardless of the nature of your campaign, it is always good to include one or several visual elements/content that are light, fun, and entertaining. After all, everyone likes a little laughter to loosen up from time to time.

The Power of Videos

Producing a video is extremely difficult and hectic, but they are worth the time, money and effort. Research has proven that digital video content that are interesting and compelling enough has a much higher chance to go viral.

Another suggestion to incorporate videos into your content marketing strategy is to plan a series instead of a one-off video. This gets your audience hooked and tuned in to you from time to time.

These videos can be as simple as vlogs or even silent videos, meaning videos that insert text to convey their message instead of having people speaking or voice overs.

If there is a slightly higher budget you can even conduct an interview based video, where you collect opinions from the public that revolves around the central theme/topic that fits your mission statement. Organisations with a relatively higher budget will choose to produce PSA (Public Service Announcement) themed videos that incorporates emotional elements that are capable of touching and evoking the public’s emotions.

These videos lay a huge impact to the public because it touches on their fragile and sensitive inner emotions. It shows that the organisation has a sense of humanity and actually cares about things happening around us, making the audience feel that they care about them. Ultimately, portraying the organisation in a positive and likeable way.

List-based Articles

Research has proven that in recent years, list-based articles have gotten very popular. This is due to the fact that users prefer digestible content on social media.

List-based articles’ content are broken down into bits that are direct and easy to consume. It also adds the ‘share’ factor that drives users to repost/reblog/retweet.

Make sure the subject of your articles are of your audience’s interests. When writing these articles, make sure your content either addresses their needs, or is captivating enough to make them read and share. A few great examples is, “Twitter Goes Public: 21 Things You Should Know”, “6 Types of Employees - Which Are You?”, “6 Ways To Nail An Interview”.

These subject (and their headlines) are intelligently crafted and it prompts people to click in out of curiosity and interest.

Baiting

What is baiting on social media? Baiting is the act of selecting a hot topic or trend that fits your brand and ask a question informally on your network. For instance, if you’re an alcohol company, bait your readers several times a week:

“A research done recently shows that 62% of whiskey drinkers like to mix their whiskey with apple juice. How do you like your whiskey to be mixed?”

“Herbal tea-flavored whiskey?! What do you think about this Oriental whiskey flavor?”

“They say night time is the best time to enjoy whiskey. Which part of the day is your favorite time to enjoy a cup of whiskey?”

The key to this is to be moderate and encourage participation among your audience. If people start making an interesting or insightful point, thank them because they are giving you alot of attention. This will also drive them to invite their like-minded comrades into the conversation.

All in all, these tips will no doubt increase your social sharing, but your work doesn’t stop here. You must set a goal in mind, either to convert your followers into legit customers or garner more followers and promote brand loyalty.

Keep your objective in mind every time you post and be thankful for all the participation you get in social media because it shows your audience’s loyalty towards your brand. After all, the ultimate goal of social media is to turn customers into a voluntary marketing army.

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How to Choose a Programming Language for Your Business

With technology now central to most business processes and as a business owner you might be asking  how do I know that the developers I have engaged is using the programming language that's best for my business? To solve this let's do it in a few bite-sized steps:

What should you ask first?

An early easy check is to just ask the appointed developer if he has done this kind of work before and find out if it was successful. Just check their references and you have to understand that you can't treat all technology you are asking for as a one size fits all solution to work just straight out of the box. Shoes have different sizes and technology also has different fits depending on the specific requirements your business might have. As a result you need to choose a programming language that is flexible and scalable to adapt along with your business needs. This can take a few different versions before it actually gets right.

Are there any specific requirements you need to get from your lead programmer?

First ask what programming language and framework are going to be used and what the thought process is behind that decision. Second ask if they have already checked out third-party libraries for ready made code that can be used off the rack so the programming team isn't spending unnecessary time  to reinvent the wheel when the wheel has already been invented.

Which languages are the safest?

1. Web apps, use Ruby on Rails
2. For iPhone apps use Swift or Objective C
3. For Android use Native Development Kit
4. For a simple website, go with WordPress
5. For e-commerce, use WordPress and WooCommerce or Shopify if you are looking for an all-in-one solution (This is a simple web-store that can function perform most tasks well).

Get online and host with a reliable and affordable web host so you can get any of your ideas online and in front of your targeted audience.

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Use Email to Transform The Way You Work

Email is now part of our everyday life and is going to remain to be for a long time to come, backed by research at IBM email isn't dead. Email has gained widespread popularity as it has reliably provided a quick, instant, 'formal', way of communicating through the widely available internet today.

Email can be overwhelming, and instead of managing email, what we needed was a better way to communicate, ultimately engaging in deeper engagement and better outcomes.

EVERWORKS Web & Email Hosting solution is a platform where the focus is on the communication between people bringing together messaging with web access to allow greater accessibility and flexibility, and here are the concepts behind the design of EVERWORKS Email Hosting solution:

A) Better value: A system that integrates website, email, and database hosting to provide you with scalable options. Business class email allows you to build you business identity, filter for spam to keep your inbox free of clutter, with an internet connection and any internet browser grab your email anywhere, and access to 24/7 expert help.

B) Clarity over clutter: An intuitive control panel helps users to take quick action on content previously scattered across multiple applications.

Here are some intuitive ways you can use email to ensure effective communication between internal and external networks:

1. Keep your messages brief

Reading from a computer screen isn't easy, use shorter paragraphs and bullet points; cut straight to the chase. Avoid using capital letters as it sends unintended interpretations such as the appearance of being bossy (ICAEW 2008).

2. Stay organised

There is an age old saying that staying organised allows you to get more things done, stay more focused, and remain in control over most situations. Take this approach to email and invest 2 hours of your time right now to go through your inbox, create filters that give automated actions to specific email to reduce repetitive tasks and allows you to manage and attend to the most important emails first. Find out how I keep my personal email organised by just using Gmail, and the Mailbox app.

3. Advantage: Email as evidence

The advantage of email is it is a stored accepted form of instantaneous form of communication that is applicable in many ways. For example emails can be used as evidence, that there exists proof of communication between the sender and the recipient, although there are issues in the form of relevance, authenticity, hearsay, original or duplicate documentation, and unfair prejudice (Sarah, 2010). Consult a lawyer to develop an email framework to follow to fully utilize the advantage of using email as evidence. Is there a need to consult a lawyer? Yes as laws differ from place to place and it is highly recommended that you find a representative lawyer that is familiar with domestic laws.

photo by Caden Crawford

References:

1. ICAEW 2008, 10 ways to use email effectively, ICAEW <http://www.icaew.com/en/archive/library/subject-gateways/career-and-personal-development/communication-and-presentation-skills/small-business-update/10-ways-to-use-email-effectively>
2. IMB Smarter Planet 2015, How To Use Email To Transform How We Work, Forbes, <http://www.forbes.com/sites/ibm/2015/02/19/how-to-use-email-to-transform-how-we-work/>
3. Sarah 2010, Legal consideration for electronic evidence, Part 3: Applying the rules of Authenticity, <https://crlgrn.wordpress.com/2010/05/11/legal-considerations-for-electronic-evidence-part-3-applying-the-rules-of-authenticity/>

Note:
If you like articles like this please bookmark this blog as there will be more similar and other topics regarding technology, business, telecommunication, and EVERWORKS related updates. Feel free to leave your comments on this topic below.

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Keeping Email Organised

In the age where email is an inevitable tool and essential to our everyday life, I went about a personal mission to solve the behemoth problem, the email inbox. Tough, resilient and ever present the problem of having an uncharacterized amount of email stored in the inbox can be frustrating when there is a need to find a one specific thread for an important use.

Here is a personal tip on how to keep email organised.

I use a combination of the Mailbox App, the standard Mail Application on iOS and Gmail. You can adapt with different combinations of services, but for me these services are the most effective combination that keeps me productive.

I will be splitting this article into appropriate action steps that you could break up into chunks to either perform it all at once, or periodically. Keep this in mind, keeping email organised is a lifestyle and a habit. Change some small habits and you can have your email inbox "free" from clutter which keeps you notified of the most important things that need done.

You will need to know of the existence of the All Mail function in Gmail, which is basically an Archive of all of your read email.

Outlook.com has the same "Archive" feature which Google Mail has, you just have to make sure you update your Mail service by finding the button that says "Archive" at the top of Outlook.com and click it.

First actionable step:

Filter through your inbox manually.

Firstly, find email that are junk to you by using the search function that comes with most email clients (select all and delete). I suggest only family threads, travel tickets, receipts, keeping conversations that have indication of use or insurance for verbal contractual agreements, and other important things.

Secondly, the fastest way I found to filter through bucket loads of email is to find similar email threads and add filters to it. A detailed how-to add filters is detailed here.

Filters help you to find "topic" related emails that have been archived making it easy to find when the time comes. You could start with applying filters such as a specific Person/Service name, even activities such as "Soccer", "Coffee Networking Session", and etc.

It took me around 2-5 hours of organizing to filter through my inbox and you don't have to do this all in a marathon, but do it a few times in a week and you will have this done in no time.

Second actionable step:

Applying automated filters. 

This article from Mashable gives a good guide on automatic filters.

Like the above first actionable step. Applying automated filters to your frequent incoming email will ease the process of receiving email in the future. This so that you don't have to go through the entire process of manually filtering out a large bulk of email again in the future. All you will need to do is to manually filter emails that are infrequent.  

Third actionable step:

Downloading Mailbox app.

The Mailbox app integrates well with Gmail. (I have yet to try this app's functional use Outlook.com) It helps me make full use of the All Mail (a.k.a an archive feature) service on Gmail to its maximum potential.

The theory behind it is your inbox should be a place where you should only keep email that is of immediate importance and require your attention and action, emails that have been read and need to be kept for future reference or to signify completion should be stored away in an archive. This keeps your email inbox free of clutter and allows you to receive only the most recent email that needs your immediate attention.

The app comes with a whole lot of other features that allow you to put it off for later, remind at a later time, and etc. The best part of using the Mailbox app is it comes free. Other advantages include integration with Dropbox for backups and more (Mailbox has been acquired by Dropbox).

Using native email apps

Reasons why I still use the native Mail client that comes with iOS.

I receive a lot of email to my Gmail, but there are times where I have other accounts like specific work email, university email, hotmail accounts and other subscriptions that I would like to be notified for. Mailbox currently only allows connection to one email account, and does not facilitate other mail clients.

Other self-hosted or custom services need to be connected to the traditional Mail client that comes with iOS which I have found to be very good for notification across different accounts.

Mailbox + Gmail + Native Mail App

Why should you consider doing this?

Keeping organised allows me to respond quickly and effectively to inquiries that require my most immediate attention. Although the Mailbox app does not solve every mail client that I own, but it allows me to filter out, that is of most importance to me, my personal email, Gmail.

Stormtrooper photo  Some rights reserved by Jim Bauer

Note:
If you like articles like this please bookmark this blog as there will be more similar and other topics regarding technology, business, telecommunication, and EVERWORKS related updates. Feel free to leave your comments on this topic below.

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Increase your MAIL Server Performance Process

Dear All Valued Customers, 

In order to better serve you and improve our MAIL Servers' performance processes, we take account security very seriously. There are a number of things you can do to help increase our servers' performance. To ensure that your important email accounts remain safe and to prevent email accounts getting hacked, we strongly recommend following these steps regularly:

To keep your account safe, here are a few tips on how to create a strong password:

1. Use a unique password for each of your importants accounts

Use a different password for each of your important accounts, like your email and online banking accounts. Re-using passwords is risky. If someone figures out your password for one account, that person could potentially gain access to your email, address, and even your money.

2. Change your password often

If someone has figured out your password, they might be accessing your account without you knowing. Regularly changing your password helps limit this type of unauthorized access.

3. Use a mix of letters, numbers, and symbols in your password

Using numbers, symbols and mix of upper and lower case letters in your password makes it harder for someone to guess your password. For example, an eight-character password with numbers, symbols and mixed-case letters is harder to guess because it has 30,000 times as many possible combinations than an eight-character password with only lower case letters.

4. Don't use personal information or common words as a password

Create a unique password that's unrelated to your personal information and use a combination of letters, numbers, and symbols. For example, you can select a random word or phrase and insert letters and numbers into the beginning, middle, and end to make it extra difficult to guess (such as "sPo0kyh@ll0w3En"). Don’t use simple words or phrases like "password" or "letmein," keyboard patterns such as "qwerty" or "qazwsx," or sequential patterns such as "abcd1234" which make your password easier to guess.

For Technical Enquiries, kindly contact our Critical Velocity Support Team at our :-

Office: +603-7806-3550

E-mail: cvs@everworks.com

Hope you have a good hosting with EVERWORKS Solutions.

photo of girl  Some rights reserved by Baba G

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Capitalize on Facebook Messenger App

Facebook Inc. is opening up its messenger app so that other software developers can add new features, such as photos videos and other enhancements to their online conversations (Bloomberg 2015). Take a quick look at Bloomberg's quick 3 minute video to get a brief on Facebook's F8 conference below

*Skip to 1:31 to see what Mark had to say about making the Messenger App a place where customers can communicate with businesses that they care about.

Mark puts out a clear example of how this can be used to help your business, "if customer has put an order online, but would like to change it all they have to do is communicate through the Messenger App to get it done". Mark adds, "that when a customer has placed an order they can receive shipping information, receipts, and more also through the Messenger App".

Here are five suggestions to how your SME business could capitalize on Facebook opening up its Messenger App to other businesses and developers:

1. Provide more effective means of communication

Your SME Business could provide faster communication to the person's mobile, with simple and easy responses to allow effective initial enquiries to be addressed.

2. Give "real-time" information transmission to ease customer worries

Mark's earlier suggestion that businesses could send important information to customers after completing their purchases such as tracking information, and e-receipts that can be immediately scanned when physical items are delivered.

3. Add a key advantage, "human-factor" to your digital business

Technology has a tendency to alienate a person and perform very much like it was intended to be, a robot, but your business could be very different in having convenient means of communication to provide effective personalized support, and more.

4. Follow-up for services

What better way than to follow-up with a client or prospect right after a presentation or consultation, with scheduled future appointments that could link up with their phone's calendar applications, or even suggestion of future available times that your customers could likely need.

5. Save paper

You could reduce the need for a printable receipt, having to submit forms with digital integration. This also reduces repetitive work such as data entry.

Key Advantage: 44.78% of Malaysian Population Adoption

Here is hard evidence, empirical statistics, to show you why Facebook Messenger is a big thing. Lets compare Facebook Messenger with a notable competitor WeChat. According to Hays (2014) WeChat had 40 million users in 2014. While Facebook has some 1.23 billion users at the end of 2013 (Sedghi 2014).

Not convinced? Can't see how this helps you? Data suggests that Facebook adoption in Malaysia is staggering with 13.3 million users in 2013 making it 44.78% (World Bank Data: Malaysia Population is 29.7 million in 2013) of total Malaysian population (Mahadi 2013).

Take that approximate and multiply that with an indicator, and you would get a rough estimated market size to make use of. Combine that with industry contribution to Malaysia's GDP, approximately (USD 313.2 billion x 3) MYR 939.6 billion should give you a rough estimate of the market opportunity available to your business (World Bank 2015).

Barriers to entry, is a bunch of smush.

All you need to worry about is getting your business strategy right. Hosting for your SME Business is super easy with worry free hosting like this and you don't need to develop yourself, all you need to do is to hire a professional consultancy company to implement Facebook Messenger App into your business offerings.

photo by Facebook video by Bloomberg

References:

Bloomberg 2015, Facebook Opens Up Messenger App to Developers and Businesses, Bloomberg, <http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-03-25/facebook-opens-up-messenger-app-to-developers-businesses>

Hay, S 2014, The WeChat Revolution, The Clickz, <http://www.clickz.com/clickz/column/2363343/the-wechat-revolution>

Mahadi, N 2013, 13.3 million M'sians are Facebook users, Borneo Post, <http://www.theborneopost.com/2013/06/16/13-3-million-msians-are-facebook-users/>

Sedghi, A 2014, Facebook: 10 Years of Social Networking in Numbers, The Guardian,
<http://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2014/feb/04/facebook-in-numbers-statistics>

World Bank 2015, Malaysia, World Bank Data, <http://data.worldbank.org/country/malaysia>

Note:

If you like articles like this please bookmark this blog as there will be more similar and other topics regarding technology, business, telecommunication, and EVERWORKS related updates. Feel free to leave your comments on this topic below.

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8 Ways to Better Your Gmail Security

Gmail logo by Google.

Gmail is one of the most popular email services, created by Google, which comes with a greater impression of user-friendliness, reliability and security. However, you might still be preyed on by phishers, hackers, and scammers from the Web.

Google has been working hard to forge its security offering for Gmail, but most of which we know little about. In this post I will show you the 8 essential, technical and non-technical tips that will further better your Gmail account security to improve the prevention against threat and fraud.

1. 2-Step Verification

With growing account theft issues, Google has introduced a security feature which will greatly strengthen your account: 2-Step Verification. This adds an extra layer of security by requiring a code that will be sent to your phone (every time you request for account access, making it impossible for anyone to gain access into your account without your phone).

Although the process sounds complex, the great thing about activating this is fairly easy, all you need to do is visit the setup page and follow a series of simple instructions and you are good to go. If you are facing any issues you could always visit Google's Help Page.

Google has thought of different possibilities, where you could even create a backup phone number and printable backup codes as alternatives to access your account in case you lose your phone. Also, for applications that are not verification code request ready then you can create an application-specific password for these applications.

It does sound rather tedious but it does prevent your account from being stolen and beats being blackmailed to retrieve it back!

2. Enable HTTPS Security

When accessing your Gmail account through a public wireless or a non-encrypted network having HTTPS could be vital for your security. Leaving HTTPS disabled makes it easier for someone to crack open a path into your Gmail account. HTTPS is enabled by default but there isn't any harm in making sure that your Gmail account has its HTTPS option on.

Click on the 'gear icon' > Settings > General > Browser Connection and see whether the option "Always use HTTPS" is checked, and don't forget to save changes.

3. Check Granted Account Access

To check and see if you have suspicious activities happening in your Gmail account it is likely to be in the granted account access settings. A hacker having been able to access your account would add his own fake email account into your Gmail account for easier for future session, or for a re-hacking session if his other tricks were exposed.

Click on the 'gear icon' > Accounts and Import > Grant access to your account.

Check if there are any accounts that you didn't authorize. Also, as an added assurance, make sure the option "Mark conversation as read when opened by others" to make sure that you know when your emails are being read without your prior knowledge.

4. Check Your Filter, Forwarding and POP/IMAP

Filters can potentially transfer emails as long as the victim has "the filter" in his account. Thus, it is integral that you check your Gmail account settings to delete suspicious filters. You just need to log-into your Gmail account.

Click on the 'gear icon' > Settings > Filters to check and delete any filters that were not yours.

Also check the Forwarding and POP/IMAP tab as well to confirm that there are no foreign forwarding address that isn't assigned by you.

5. Track Account Activity

Another tip to know if your account has been hacked is to know your account activity. Google has developed for Google an activity information panel for you to track your account activities.

When already signed-in to your Gmail, at the bottom portion of your email, you can see a small message saying "Last Account Activity: (number) minutes ago" > Click on the "detail" then you can see the access type, location and date. 

Under the panel you can also set an Alert Preference to tell Gmail when to notify you when it detects unusual activities.

6. Revoke Unauthorized Access

In Facebook there are apps which are granted access to your Facebook account, and there is also something similar in Gmail, where granted apps are able to access your Gmail account. 

You can find a list of these applications here. Click "revoke access" if you find any doubtful applications.

7. Create a Strong Password

Unless you have enabled the 2-step verification above, your password is the only guard for all your emails, contacts, and sensitive information. 

Make sure you have a strong and reliable password to ward off any potential interest to hack into your Gmail account. Here are some tips on how to build strong and reliable passwords.

Be creative! There are not only conventional long passwords but also different ways to make sure your password is strong.

8. Enhance Security Question's Answer

Usually a question of "Who is the lover of my mother?" would generate a typical answer "my dad" but consider adding a nonsensical answer, and something that is strongly related with your past. An answer such as "my mother loves to eat hamburgers" would make it difficult to guess and only you will know the answer to it.

Looking for more control; that Gmail can't offer?

Do you require your own custom email domain, or more flexibility combined with greater customizability consider hosting your own email. Host with EVERWORKS Web & Email Hosting Solution, it comes with Unmetered Data Transfer, Unlimited Email Accounts, Variety of Database Support, 24/7 Phone & Email Support, and a 30 Days Money Back Guarantee.

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Improving Daily Productivity with the Cloud

Cloud computing in recent times have grown from festivities to staple daily standards. Where now a plethora of services on the Internet readily offer application services that aid us with day-to-day tasks. To most laymen all the surrounding talk about the Cloud seems to be another tech jargon that somehow seemed to have crept itself into everyone's lives. 

What is the Cloud? 

The cloud is virtualization of programs or applications that run on connected servers rather than a traditional computer allowing programs with greater requirements to utilize many connected computers at the same time distributing resources to allow it to run, while appearing to the user as a single program or application. It provides the end user and operator benefits including on-demand self-service, broad access across multiple devices, resource pooling, rapid elasticity, and service metering capabilities. A simple example that everyone can relate to is how we use electricity in our homes, when we need more we can use more, and in the event that we do not need so much electricity we don't have to use it. Similar to the Cloud we can use more resources if required compared to the traditional computer which is only limited to the resources housed in the physical device that you are currently using.

How does it add value and not more unnecessary load to our already complex technology environment?

Having a physical device is already complex on its own as there are many requirements to maintain it to function to its best. Virtualization should generally add a layer of complexity on top of existing computing requirements, however cloud computing services are built so that users find it easy to use and the transition from a traditional computing approach. The Cloud promises to give significantly greater improvements to accessibility, computing power requirements, allows greater scalability beyond that of a local computer and that in itself is already proving to be a highly attractive offer to companies seeking greater growth.

Early localized virtualization was made popular with Oracle's VirtualBox. Where computers could be put within existing computers allowing the operator with unique additions to what seemed to be a fixed physical program or application running on a computer.

According to International Telecommunications Union, 2013 Worldwide Internet users are estimated to be at 39% of the world population (2.679 billion users).

Has the Cloud environment changed productivity on the Internet for the better? 

A study in 2010 by Mimecast discovered that 7/10 companies using cloud services are willing to and will move new applications to the cloud. Many would have done so by 2011. Small companies should consider moving to the cloud as they are able to access advanced IT solutions on pay-per-use basis, offering the opportunity for faster work, much greater accuracy, and more productivity. It allows programs and applications to be accessed online without the need for outright purchase, powered by the cloud vendor's own data center infrastructure giving you the required 'power' to do the work that you need. Ease the burden on your workforce as solutions are designed to ensure that leaders and employees are always able to carry on with their work, wherever they are. It could be in the hotel, airport, daily commute to work. This ensures businesses can get more done with the same resources, but without increasing pressures on their people.

More businesses are tapping into the cloud as popularity for it continues to grow. The 2013 Future of Cloud Computing Survey questioned 855 IT decision makers, cloud vendors, and business users, found that 75% of survey respondents are using the cloud in some way. A growth from the previous year where only 67% said that they were using the cloud.

A Microsoft survey has shown that many fears may be unfounded, especially conceding security and network reliability. 94% of businesses reported that they saw an improvement in security after switching to the cloud, and 75% said that network availability improved. 91% of respondents also said that their cloud providers made it easier to meet government compliance requirements.

Is security a top concern?

54% for migrating applications to the cloud, according to a very recent LinkedIn survey out of 7052 participants. GoGrid conducted a similar survey and also concluded Security as a top concern for migrating. However, 57% disagree in a 2010 survey by Mimecast agreed that cloud computing actually improved their security.

"There is no doubt that cloud providers provide flexible, high-quality services for often times less cost, and businesses who refuse to take advantage of this will fall further and further behind the competition. "

How you can jump in on the bandwagon.

Most cloud based services offered on the Internet give users a lot of freedom to try before requiring you to commit. Among the services on the Internet that can be used for initially for free that is powered by Cloud technology are:

Dropbox

Gmail

Flickr

Microsoft 365

EVERWORKS Cloud Infrastructure Hosting as a service.

Interested to do more with the cloud? Build with little worry as EVERWORKS provides Infrastructure Hosting for the cloud as a service. We take away all problems related to setting up an environment for a cloud. All that is required of you is to build your application or program and plug-it into a ready made EVERWORKS Cloud environment for you to enjoy the advantages of the cloud.

Find out more on what you can do with the EVERWORKS Cloud Infrastructure by contacting our team at cvs@everworks.com 

Has the Cloud improved your productivity and added value to your every day life? What are some of your experiences with the Cloud?

Cloud designed by Adam Whitcroft from the Noun Project

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Email Migration Deployment

Recently I interviewed an EVERWORKS expert, Wong, on how to move a domain from one old SmarterMail Server to another New SmarterMail Server.

Move a Domain from one old SmarterMail Server to Another New SmarterMail Server

An email migration is the process of moving files of an email service for the domain from one old one to another. A migration occurs due to reasons such as insufficient space, required additional features, or needed email server performance enhancement.

Recently EVERWORKS performed an Email Migration to upgrade its internal email service for its own operational use. In this migration, there are tips that hopefully will help you to better prepare for a smooth migration. (Perform migration easily with EVERWORKS Migration Service).

Here are steps to Migrate a Domain from one old SmarterMail Server to another New SmarterMail Server:

Tip 1: Schedule a Migration

It is best to schedule migration during a period that has the least amount of activity, to ensure that little is hindered and there is sufficient time to perform such a migration.

Tip 2: Notify all Stakeholders

Take importance to the notification to everyone (employees, suppliers, customers, vendors, etc) that there will be an EMAIL SERVER PLANNED MAINTENANCE, including the anticipated period the email service will be unavailable, specifically what would be affected, and when to expect service to resume as normal. Normally notifications are sent out through Email, but depending on company policy, methods for formal notifications may vary. 

Tip 3: Set a cutoff date for Email Housekeeping

Set a deadline for email housekeeping for all stakeholders involved or affected. A good practice would be a minimum of 7 business days before migration occurs.

Tip 4: Backup

Ensure that adequate backups have been put in place before the migration is underway. Also include domain backups.

Important Steps

Important Note: Ensure that SmarterMail is stopped on both servers before proceeding.

Make a back up copy of the DomainList.xml and the domains folder before starting. Locate the domain's folder. By default, this folder can be found at C:\SmarterMail\Domains\[domain-name]

Move this folder from the old server to the new server via FTP.

- File transfer protocol is a standard network protocol used to transfer files from a host to another over a TCP-based network such as the Internet.

Edit the domainList.xml file with Notepad on the old server. By default, this file can be found at C:\Program Files\SmarterMail\Service

Locate this line: 

<Domain name="MyDomain.com" directory="c:\SmarterMail\Domains\MyDomain.com"/>

Cut or copy this line from the file and save the file. Make a backup of the domainList.xml on the new server. Edit the domainList.xml on the new server. Paste the line you cut before into this document, and save.

Start SmarterMail service on both servers.

Modify the email primary MX record to the new IP Address. 

Note: This can take up to 4-12 hours for DNS Propagation through the Internet.

Note: There are cases that there is a need to speed up the DNS Propagation process. You can do this by modifying the default $TTL 14400 with the value (in seconds), such as 300 (5 minutes) to reflect the new IP Address change to retain availability of the email services hosted on the new server, to minimize the downtime of the email service. Also to avoid potential uncommon troubles such as having emails delivered to either servers at random.

For further support please contact +603 7806 3550 or email cvs@everworks.com should you need further assistance regarding this issue.

File Transfer designed by iconoci from the Noun Project

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How to Choose an Email Marketing Vendor

There will be a day when you will need to choose an email marketing vendor. Either it would be launching a new business or your current provider doesn't satisfy your growing needs. With email vendors today able to streamline your email marketing efforts to ensure that you are compliant with spam laws there is little issue with the various available options out there in the market.

But the big question is, with so many available options, which do you actually choose?

There are web-based vendors that make it easy to put a daunting campaign together. While, every business and marketing department is different, I have compiled a probable common attribute that can be used generally for comparison purposes.

What to expect in an email marketing vendor?

Templates: Some vendors have templates that are already ready to go and this really helps businesses get up and running quickly. This helps marketers who just want to change a few basic things and immediately fire out their content. Templates are a great way to jumpstart email marketing communications.

Ease of design: Having a template is great, but if editing it is a pain then it wouldn't be a good decision, to choose that particular email marketing vendor. Although not necessarily the designs provided as a template may fulfill your every desire, but with a template that is easy to tinker with is a definite must.

Customization: Templates not your thing? If you want to upload your own personal brand or design, make sure you keep a look out for customizable features embedded into the email marketing vendor's service. You would ideally look for a feature that allows you to upload your own HTML and CSS.

Connection options build your list

Social Icon Integrations: It would be surprising and rather unusual to see an email marketing vendor that does not integrate social media. Considering that it is a must nowadays. Additionally pay attention to whether there is a Facebook integration, choosing a vendor that does this is an added bonus, because most businesses have Facebook, and tapping into an existing user base can be very beneficial.

Web Forms: Most vendors offer forms, but choose a vendor that allows you to customize your forms easily.

Look for automation features

List Management: Add to manage your contact list so that it is current. Having this part automated really saves valuable time for marketers.

Contact Upload or Sync: Your contact list can be in a different place, because you were using a different vendor before this, and having your new/current vendor automate the transfer process saves you a lot of time.

Trigger-based Autoresponse: Having multiple campaigns running at the same time would require for you to have a certain level of automation to have flexibility in your campaigns, from sending out a response when customers reach a milestone, to a note on their birthday, etc.

A/B Testing: Small changes can be either easy or hard to make, and having a vendor that allows you to do split testing easily could make a big difference in your email marketing efforts.

Analytics: Most vendors provide free reporting tools, that allow you to make key decisions based on automated data collected to keep you well informed of the performance of your campaigns.

The stumbling blocks of pursuing email marketing

Education: Although email marketing has many perks that most conventional methods don't it does require an investment of effort to learn. There can be a learning curve involved, but fear not, because the internet is readily available to teach you basic to advance techniques of email marketing. Additionally, ensure that your vendor has a fairly decent education page that teaches you what you require to effectively use their system.

Pricing: Most vendors offer monthly subscriptions or yearly with a small discount. Pay attention to the finer payment options, because some features that is on offer for more monthly may not be necessarily needed for your business. 

Again identify what you need and what actually would benefit you. Ensure some of the key features listed above are satisfactory and you should be good to go.

A quick tip would be to create a comparison sheet to see which services you have found to be fulfilling your own needs plus the general requirements stated above.

Email marketing can be a powerful tool for most businesses, as exampled by some of the major global brands, that use it to their advantage to ensure that their customers are always kept within the loop of things.

Please share with us what you think:

What are your recommendations for a good email marketing vendor?

What is your experience with browser-based email marketing vendors?

Email designed by Martha Ormiston from the Noun Project

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Heartbleed Bug Statement

There has been a security flaw in our OpenSSL, a very popular data encryption standard that has given the majority of us an assumption that the data we stored and used in our every day services were secured. However, this wasn't the case as the Heartbleed Bug gave hackers that know about it to extract a large amount of data when the assumption was that the OpenSSL standard was meant to keep these very hackers out.

What is the Heartbleed Bug

Heartbleed Bug is a serious vulnerability of the popular OpenSSL encryption standard. This weakness allows information normally protected under the SSL/TSL (normally used to secure the Internet). The bug allows anyone on the Internet to read the memory of systems protected by vulnerable versions of the OpenSSL, that has compromised keys used to encrypt data, allowing hackers to eavesdrop on communications to steal data directly from the services that users use and to impersonate them.

How to stop the leak?

As long as the vulnerable version of the OpenSSL is in use it can be abused. Fixed OpenSSL has been released and deployed. Service providers and users have to install the fix as it becomes available for the operating systems, networked appliances and software they use.

Common Questions and Answers to them

1. What is the CVE-2014-0160?

CVE-2014-0160 is the official reference for this bug.

2. What makes the Heartbleed Bug unique?

Normal bugs in softwares come and go, fixed by new versions. However, this bug has left a large amount of private keys and other secrets exposed on the Internet, and considering the long exposure, ease of exploitation and attacks leaving no trace, this bug should be taken very seriously.

3. Is this a design flaw in SSL/TLS protocol?

No. This is an implementation problem.

4. What is being leaked?

Encryption is used to protect secrets that may harm your privacy or security if they leak.

5. Leaked primary key material and how to recover?

Leaked primary key material allow the attacker to decrypt any past and future traffic to the protected services and to impersonate the service at will. Any protection given by the encryption and the signatures can be bypassed. Recovery from this leak requires patching the vulnerability, renovation of the compromised keys and reissuing and redistributing new keys.

6. Leaked secondary key material and how to recover?

Leaked secondary key material are leaked user credentials (usernames and passwords) used in vulnerable services. Recovery from this leak requires owners of the service first to restore trust to the service by changing their passwords and possible encryption keys according to the instructions from the owners of the services that have been compromised. All session keys and sessions cookies should be invalidated and considered compromised.

7. What is leaked protected content and how to recover?

This is the actual content handled by the vulnerable services. It may be personal or financial details, private communication such as emails or instant messages, documents or anything seen worth protecting by encryption. The most important action to take for recovery is to restore trust to the service by changing their passwords and possible encryption keys according to the instructions from the owners of the services that have been compromised.

8. Can i detect if someone has exploited this against me?

This bug does not leave any trace of anything abnormal happening to the logs.

9. How can OpenSSL be fixed?

Even though the actual code fix may appear trivial, OpenSSL team is the expert in fixing it properly so the fixed version 1.0.1g or newer should be used.

Does this affect Malaysian businesses?

As mentioned earlier, OpenSSL is a popular encryption protocol that is widely accepted worldwide. And a large number of Malaysian businesses use this to encrypt their data. Consider change quickly as this may affect your sensitive information.

What versions of the OpenSSL are affected?

status of different versions:

1. OpenSSL 1.0.1 through 1.0.1f (inclusive) are vulnerable
2. OpenSSL 1.0.1g is NOT vulnerable
3. OpenSSL 1.0.0 branch is NOT vulnerable
4. OpenSSL 0.9.8 branch is NOT vulnerable

Bug was introduced to OpenSSL in December in 2011 and has been out in the wild since OpenSSL released 1.0.1 on 14th March 2012. OpenSSL 1.0.1g released on 7th April 2014 fixes the bug.

Recovery sounds laborious is there a shortcut?

After the consequences of this bug was properly identified and to the extent of which it could affect any user or provider, we (here at EVERWORKS) took laborious steps to address this issue to ensure that the possible compromise of our primary and secondary key material was protected. All this just in case we were not the first ones to discover this and this could have been exploited already.

For Malaysians you can refer to MyCERT for Information Disclosure on this Vulnerability.

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Principles of PDPA 2010 (Malaysia)

Malaysia recently implemented the Personal Data Protection Act and there has been a great buzz of late as to what it is, and what it might encompass to how it actually affects online business in Malaysia. 

This is a follow up post from the earlier post: The Personal Data Protection Act 2010 (Malaysia).

Disclaimer: This post has been put together based on information that have been researched online for general use only, and may only be adequately accurate. This post does not constitute of legal advice, or in any way constitute to be of solicitation. Although all attempts have been made to ensure that the information represented in this post is free from error, please seek advice from a professional legal advisor ("lawyer") to accurately identify areas in which your business could improve, and how it can accommodate this new Act.

The principles of the Personal Data Protection Act 2010 (Malaysia):

1. General
2. Notice and Choice
3. Disclosure 
4. Security
5. Retention
6. Data Integrity
7. Access

A breach of any of the above principles will result in a fine not exceeding RM300,000 and/or jail term of 2 years. As a rule of thumb, users who fall under the umbrella of the act are called 'Data Users'; Data users are defined as a person or persons who has control over or is able to authorize the accessing of personal data. 

the General Principle:

Generally it is required that the consent of an individual must be obtained, to process personal data. However, there are exceptions whereby the processing of personal data is required for entering or performing a contract, required legal obligations, for the administration of justice, or the protection of the vital interest of an individual. For example, if you were to have a website that asks someone for their information, it must be made known to them what their personal information would be used for; however unless there is a need to disclose that someone's personal information to help with an ongoing investigation that could help aid the administration of justice.

the Notice and Choice Principle:

Getting consent is generally required, and additionally there should be adequate notice provided to the individual. According to the Personal Data Protection Act 2010 (MY) you need to provide a written notice that includes:

1. a description of the data being processed, the purpose, 
2. the source, 
3. right to access the individual's own personal data and how to contact you in any situation required to amend or revoke rights to that individual's personal data, 
4. disclosure of data to third parties, 
5. ability to limit access to personal data, 
6. notice of whether the data submitted is compulsory or optional, 
7. and in the case that the data being submitted is compulsory it must be made known to the individual.

Tip 1: These information although should be made readily available under the Data Protection Policies or Privacy Policy of your websites, it should be made clear during the process of signing up so that the individual is adequately informed that there are statements of clarity that clarifies any uncertainties in regards to how their personal information is being managed.

Tip 2: It is also required that notices be provided in both English and Bahasa Malaysia languages so that the individual has a choice in selecting either language that they prefer.

Tip 3: When to notify? At the point data is collected or requested, when using data for other purposes, or disclosure of data to a third party.

the Disclosure Principle:

It is required to gain the consent of the individual when data is used for purposes other than what it is intended for, or disclosure to a third party of a different class.

the Security Principle:

Reasonable precautions must have been taken to ensure the safety of the data collected. The data being processed or through the use of an external data processor, sufficient guarantees in respect to the technical and organizational security measures, governing the processing must be carried out to reasonable measures to ensure compliance with those measures.

the Retention Principle:

Data collected cannot be retained for longer periods than what is necessary and when it has fulfilled its task all reasonable measures must be taken to destroy or permanently delete the data.

the Data Integrity Principle:

It is required that the inquirer's responsibility to take reasonable steps to ensure that data collected is accurate, complete, not misleading and kept up-to-date.

the Access Principle:

An individual must be given right to access his/her own personal data to make corrections unless the Personal Data Protection Act 2010 (MY) expressly refuses to.

The Personal Data Protection Act 2010 (MY) has caused a huge stir in Malaysia. Are you PDPA compliant?

referenced from Malaysian Bar  | Cloud Rock 

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General Microsoft Outlook Error Codes and Quick Fixes

Email is essential to our everyday lives, whether in business or for personal use. It has proven to be an integral part of our daily productivity, and has grown to become a 'staple dish' in every Malaysian household. Find out more on what could be possibly affecting your email when you are using Microsoft Outlook as a general 'organizer' to view different sets of emails and put tasks into calendar in order. Listed below are a list of general Microsoft Outlook Error Codes (I hope that this will provide you with a quick fix to a problem that you may face.):

0x800CCC00 LOAD SICILY FAILED

1. Try closing and restarting Microsoft Outlook.
2. If the same error persists wait 20-30 minutes for a server reset of your account then try again.
3. If the error still doesn't resolve there could be a corruption of the user account. Try setting up a second identity to see if it works.

0x800CCC01 INVALID CERTIFICATE CONTENT

1. Get your certificate re-issued by your authority server.

0x800CCC02 INVALID CERTIFICATE DATE

1. Get your certificate re-issued by your authority server.

0x800CCC03 USER ALREADY CONNECTED

1. You may be logged on to another machine. Close all connections to other machines and wait 20-30 minutes and try again.
2. Some mail servers will not recognize and improper disconnection. Resulting in the account being 'Poplocked', wait 20-30 minutes for it to time out.
3. If neither of this works, then there may be something wrong with your account.

0x800CCC05 NOT CONNECTED TO SERVER

1. Cannot connect to websites? You may have the wrong mail server type into your account settings or the server may be down.
2. If you can't get the websites then try reconnecting.
3. If it still fails try restarting your computer.
4. If it still does not work, check DNS numbers, remove and then reinstall TCP/IP in Control Panel > Network.

0x800CCC0A MESSAGE DOWNLOAD INCOMPLETE

1. There could be a possible corruption of the pop3uidl file. Close the Internet connection and all programs. Search for the file 'pop3uidl' and delete it. Reconnect and it should work.
2. If the problem persists, repeat step 1 with a reboot before you check your mail again.
3. If it still does not work, you could have a corrupt or a very large attachment.

0x800CCC0B SERVER OR MAILDROP IS BUSY

1. Try to retrieve email about once every 5 minutes. Alternatively call your ISP help desk to make sure that the server hasn't crashed.
2. You may be logged on to another machine. Close all connections to other machines and wait 20-30 minutes and try again.
3. Some mail servers will not recognize and improper disconnection. Resulting in the account being 'Poplocked', wait 20-30 minutes for it to time out.
4. If neither of this works, then there may be something wrong with your account.

0x800CCC0D CAN'T FIND HOST

1. This error can appear if you have 'notify me if there are any new newsgroups' selected but don't have a news account set up. Go to Tools > Options > General Tab and un-tick this option.
2. If you can get to websites, you may just have the wrong mail server typed into your account details or the server may be down.
3. If you still can't get websites then hang up and try connecting again, followed by rebooting the computer.

0x800CCC0E FAILED TO CONNECT

1. This error can appear if you have 'notify me if there are any new newsgroups' selected but don't have a news account set up. Go to Tools > Options > General Tab and un-tick this option.
2. If you can get to websites, you may just have the wrong mail server typed into your account details or the server may be down.
3. If you still can't get websites then hang up and try connecting again, followed by rebooting the computer.

0x800CCC0F CONNECTION DROPPED

1. The modem or network cable is likely to be disconnected. If this happens frequently try updating the modem drivers or adding and Init string (could be possibly line noise).

0x800CCC10 INVALID ADDRESS

1. Check the spelling in the {TO: field of the email}. Delete the old message from the Outbox and try again.

0x800CCC11 INVALID ADDRESS LIST

1. Check the spellings of the address list and try it again.
2. If this still persists, check with the administrator to see if you have the correct access to the list from the terminal you are using.

0x800CCC12 SOCKET READ ERROR

1. Remove the TCP/IP protocol and reinstall it. Go into Network > Control Panel. (You might need your Windows CD for this task.)

0x800CCC13 SOCKET WRITE ERROR

1. This error sometimes appears when trying to download emails with attachments.
2. Remove the TCP/IP protocol and reinstall it. Go into Network > Control Panel. (You might need your Windows CD for this task.)

0x800CCC14 SOCKET INIT ERROR

1. Remove the TCP/IP protocol and reinstall it. Go into Network > Control Panel. (You might need your Windows CD for this task.)

0x800CCC15 SOCKET CONNECT ERROR

1. Remove the TCP/IP protocol and reinstall it. Go into Network > Control Panel. (You might need your Windows CD for this task.)

0x800CCC16 INVALID ACCOUNT

1. Check the spelling of the account name and re-enter the password taking care to spell it correctly.

0x800CCC17 USER CANCEL

1. You have pressed the cancel button.
2. If it is taking longer than usual there is a likelihood that the pop3uidl file is corrupted. Close your Internet connection and all other programs, delete the pop3uidl file and try again.

0x800CCC18 SICILY LOGON FAILED

1. Check account information; make sure the account is not case sensitive, close Outlook, restart and try reconnecting.
2. Create a different identity and see if it will logon from this identity with the same information.
3. Make sure the account is still active with the Internet Service Provider (ISP) and that the ISP is not having an email outlook.

0x800CCC19 TIMEOUT

1. This is a possible corruption of the pop3uidl file. Close your Internet connection and all other programs, delete the pop3uidl file and try again.

0x800CCC1A SECURE CONNECT FAILED

1. Your ISP may not require an SSL connection. Turn off SSL in the email account properties and try again.

EVERWORKS provides industry leading email hosting for your business needs. Find out more on EVERWORKS  Email Hosting solution. 

Microsoft Outlook logo by Microsoft.

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