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March Newsletter

Dear Newsletter Subscriber

Welcome to this month's newsletter.

Network developments and new recruitments give shape to a hectic March at UKFast. Neil Lathwood has taken time out to offer us a good technical tip and we’ve also unearthed some solid business reasons to use social networking to market your business.

Our spotlight this month is on our Community Website winner NWJazzworks.org and the Manchester Jazz Festival. The hot topic looks at the effect online security problems have had on consumer confidence, which is timely considering TK Maxx’s disturbing announcement today about stolen credit card details.

Feel free to contact me with any comments on this newsletter or suggestions for future editions.

March@UKFast

March has seen the completion of key aspects of our Network Development Programme. The improved structure takes us beyond a Cisco powered network. With multi-vendor technologies in place across the core infrastructure, your solution has never been more protected.

Many of you have received a detailed report regarding this. If you haven’t and would like more information please email me.

We continue to increase the size of our Support Department with new starters in the Window’s team this month and to complement all these improvements, our new 0800 numbers for dedicated support are now operational. To find out your specific tech support numbers, log in to your ‘Contact Us’ section of the client area.

And while we’re on the client area, we’ve recruited a number of new developers to start in the coming months who will be working on further improvements to your online panel. Quite a lot has happened since the start of the year and we have much more to add over the next few months. Why not familiarise yourself.

On the subject on programming, at the beginning of the month, I managed to get Lawrence Jones in front of a microphone to talk about using bespoke software to grow your business. The result is a podcast that is well worth listening to.

For double the value, the second half of the recording is an interview I did with Steve Logan, a 2005 UKFast award winner, about the recruitment software he and his team developed that has taken the industry by storm. Find out more at our podcast page or listen right now.

We’d also like to take the chance this month to welcome a raft of new companies who have joined the network in March, including Chapter Eight, Seabrook Potato Crisps and Intellilogica, a Hong Kong based tech company looking to grow into the UK market by hosting over here.

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Efficient businesses monitor log files

If you are running a serious web business you should be checking your log files on a regular basis. For those of you who work with Window’s servers, it’s your Event Viewer. As good practice we enable these files on your servers at set-up, so unless you have deactivated them, you should be able to access them.

There are two good reasons to keep an eye on your log files. The first is security and the second, to help with fault finding.

Log files are not difficult to understand on a basic level. Amongst other things, reviewing your files allows you to see potential hostile IP addresses connecting via remote connection software and gives you the information you need to block them. An extra piece of advice from our tech team at this point is to make sure that your SQL databases etc are not public facing.

Getting into the habit of scrutinising your log files when faults occur is very good practice. They are the best place to start when finding the cause. If a system crashes, you can check the log files and will often find an error message. The message might be clear that the problem involves processing or memory for instance, or it might be more technical. Pasting any error message into Google will almost certainly bring up online resources that can help you.

Of course, if you are a Total Cover client, then our Support Team will be happy to offer you more advice on this and help with server related problems.

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Social networks can drive traffic

Social networking sites provide a virtual community for people who wish to communicate about anything and everything. Networking sites are a powerful force because of their audience reach and high level of user engagement.

Below are some examples of companies using social networking to drive traffic to their own sites and raise brand awareness.

MYSPACE
TopShop has a profile on MySpace with a blog that includes special offers and discounts. This is a great example of a creative brand that is engaging with its audience but on the audience’s terms. Visits from MySpace to TopShop are up five-fold year on year, accounting for 5% of TopShop site visits.

YOUTUBE
The US Office of National Drug Control Policy has a page on YouTube. Such a presence emphasises the importance of organisations entering the same arenas online that their target audiences appear in. Their uploaded tv ads get a respectable amount of hits. One video was been watched by over 10,000 people in a single week.

BEBO
Veronica Mobile is a business profile on Bebo which lets Beboers use a Texter Widget to send and receive unlimited text messages from their Bebo page. Anyone visiting a friend’s profile can send a text message to a mobile for free. Veronica Mobile’s profile has had 34208 views since it was created two weeks ago.

FLICKR
Oxfam uses Flickr, the photosharing site, to promote social change. One aspect of their campaign is a Starbucks Flickr petition, which advocates Ethiopian coffee farmers. Supporters have uploaded photos of themselves with a sign that says, "I support Ethiopian farmers." So far, 401 photos have been posted.

Social networking has the potential to address some of the key challenges faced by businesses today, as customers become increasingly immune to traditional direct marketing techniques.

Successful social networking involves connecting and engaging with your chosen market. It works best when you participate in the community and use well targeted offers.

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Reaching a niche audience

Our Best Community Website www.nwjazzworks.org managed to win over the UKFast Internet Awards judges with a pioneering attitude. Jazz is not a well represented art form online and it’s fair to say that the team at North West Jazz has set an example for the UK and the rest of the world to follow.

Following a white paper recommendation that the Internet should be the platform for rejuvenating the ailing musical form, North West Jazz found the funding to create an online resource on Web 2.0 principles. The challenge was to find a way of offering an outlet for artists, venues and audiences that would create a ‘What’s On’ directory for the whole of the North West.

Naturally, the two key regions in the North West, Manchester and Merseyside, have become more comprehensively resourced than the less populated areas of Cumbria, Cheshire and Lancashire. However, you can find bands, venues, musical tutors and businesses related to Jazz in all five counties. What’s more, the geographical breath of the site helps bands to discover venues in other counties and improves the eclectic mix of performances across the spectrum.

The site also acts as a great introduction to the musical form, with a glossary of terms and history of Jazz as well. The mp3 player allows bands to place their music online, not just for audience members but as a piece of marketing for promoters in the area and record labels as well. With more and more venues starting their own labels these days, NWJazzworks is a very useful resource.

The team also runs the Manchester Jazz festival which is preparing for its twelfth outing this July. Nearer the time the Manchester Jazz website will be full of concert information, podcasts with the bands and reviews.

The nine festival venues will provide a collection of free and ticketed events that are collectively one of Manchester’s most important music festivals. Last year their podcasts appeared as download of the day in most of the broadsheet newspapers and their outdoor concerts were supported by thousands of music lovers from across the UK.

Just like the festival, nwjazzworks.org continues to grow and attract new visitors, offering the most complete catalogue of regional jazz in the UK.

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Consumer trust and the online environment

Twelve per cent of Internet users in the UK have suffered at the hands of cyber criminals in the last year at an average cost of £875. The research is part of Get Safe Online’s survey into user safety.

This particular stat is not the biggest hit to consumer confidence, however, as there does seem to be an “it will never happen to me” attitude. The big challenge for businesses online seems to be consumer’s opinion on whose responsibility their online safety is.

Less than half of those surveyed feel that they are primarily responsible for the safety of their personal information online. Sixteen per cent think the banks should be made responsible and thirteen per cent point to the internet service providers. That’s almost 30 per cent of people not considering the amount of Internet operations they do outside of these organisations areas.

Of course, every person in the chain should play their part but only the individual who chooses where they share their information online can actually remain in control of the data. As more people begin to understand their own responsibility within the chain, they become more demanding of the organisations and businesses that they spend money with, upload details with and use for digital transactions.

As a business it is now hugely important that you show unity with the consumer to protect their data. If you are eliciting private data, or encouraging e-commerce transactions on your site, are you offering enough confidence to achieve this? Here are a few things to think about:

Clearly show your physical address and telephone contact details on your site. Remember that new laws this year demand you must display your registration details as a business. Don’t make these difficult to find.

Make your privacy policy and returns policy easy to find and transparent. Don’t attempt to baffle visitors into accepting an agreement that doesn’t work in their favour. They’ll be off to somewhere more comfortable within seconds.

Make sure your SSL certificate is up-to-date. Most consumers now know they must look for ‘https://’ and the padlock icon within the URL field. Just placing a padlock icon elsewhere on your site does not build trust.

Be up front about any extra charges such as packaging and delivery. Consumers are warned to look out for ramped up costs further through the transaction and are also wary of very expensive shipping costs.

Consider giving users the ability to comment on your e-commerce site. The Internet has created wider communication channels and users build up a sense of trust through word of mouth from others they don’t even know. Be confident that your product and customer service are good enough and follow some of the web’s biggest e-commerce sites by creating opportunities for user recommendation.

We know that online spending is increasing month on month and the vast majority of consumers are giving their business to the sites that take their safety and their personal details seriously. Are you one of them?

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