If you prefer, you can view this online at our newsletter page
October Newsletter
Dear Newsletter Subscriber
Welcome to the UKFast Newsletter.
Over at City Tower, we’ve been recruiting again in all areas. In particular, we’ve been taking on new programmers to continue improvements to your Client Area. There’s more on this in the Company News along with an update on the UKFast Internet Awards.
Our tech tip addresses something of a Holy Grail in today’s online society, which is choosing secure passwords that are also memorable. The Marketing Minute gives a valuable insight into encouraging online word of mouth and the Spotlight looks at a new presentation package that blows PowerPoint clean out of the water.
Finally, our hot topic this month looks at the latest tricks cyber criminals are using to capture your identity and download viruses to your computer.
As ever, please get in touch with any comments on this newsletter or with suggestions for future editions.
In this months issue
October@UKFast
We’ve had a record breaking response to the UKFast Internet Awards and there are some terrific contenders in the mix. In particular, our new category for Best Newcomer has been inundated with fresh talent.
Our judges are whittling them down into shortlists as we speak and we will announce the winners in November with a view to presenting awards before the end of the year.
October has been a very busy time for our training team. Every Monday we’ve had a group of new recruits and every department in the company is benefiting. Our largest department, the technical team, has increased with the addition of both network engineers and support staff of late. At the same time, we are doubling the size of our account handling team who are responsible for looking after you on an ongoing basis.
One of the fastest growing areas of the business is our R&D team, which is expanding in order to improve our online systems, especially those that offer your solution extra functionality. And on that note, the Client Area has undergone a major upgrade this month in relation to our DNS management product SafeDNS.
Managing your dns records is now even easier. We’ve streamlined the whole process. You can search for domain names, add new domains and sub-domains in a sophisticated new interface. Two major improvements are in editing sub-domains and managing of C-Name records. Historically SafeDNS has been available in the Client Area for IE and Opera users but this upgrade also allows Firefox browsers compatability. Have a look for yourselves in the Services section.
We’d like to thank all those who have expressed their interest in joining us at the Sale Sharks this season. We have been able to accommodate the vast majority of you for your first choice fixture and if you have not already heard back from us then you can expect a response within the next two weeks.
And finally this month we’d like to congratulate The Naked Scientists who recently won the celebrated Joshua Philips Award for Innovation in Science Engagement at the Manchester Science Festival, 2007.
This award aims to encourage science communicators to come up with creative ideas which inspire people of all ages about science.
I went down to the Science and Industry Museum to celebrate with the fully clothed scientists. You can listen to the interview here, or find out more about Chris Smith and The Naked Scientists on our Sponsorship pages.
Secure passwords
Trying to choose a new password and remember it at the same time can be tricky so follow these few simple tried and tested steps to help you out:
1. Choose a password with at least 8 characters
2. Use a mixture of upper and lower case letters, numbers and special characters such as !@£$.
3. Don't use dictionary words, names of family members, friends or pets, pin numbers or dates of births.
4. Replace letters in a word with numbers or symbols such as p@s$w0rD would be a lot more secure than just password.
5. Change your passwords often and remember – those who have maintenance on their servers with us need to inform support of these changes!
Watch your word of mouth!
Today’s Internet users are regularly bombarded with banner ads and web pop-ups so it’s no surprise they trust someone else's opinion of a product or service more than any other form of marketing.
Generating good word of mouth through social networks helps your customers to determine if your business truly delivers what it promises. Here are some tips on how to facilitate an effective on online buzz.
The keys to generating good word of mouth:
Let the community discuss your brand – Give your customers a voice. You can facilitate communication by creating an environment where customers can comment on your business. Often you have to create the social networking page for your business or open a topic on a review site that encourages your clients to come forward.
Encourage clients to recommend you – Invite customers who have given you a good testimonial to post on review sites, this promotes your brand and demonstrates loyal customers' enthusiasm.
Involve your own community - Inform everyone in your company about the campaign and the anticipated consumer response. This helps to prepare your staff who can provide excellent customer service and be ready for all possible scenarios.
Monitor all media channels - Monitoring what people are saying about your business is crucial to find out how your intended message is being received and perceived.
Act quickly if it starts to go wrong – If you see a trend of negative comments acknowledge it and try to fix it. In this situation it’s important to do whatever you can to change the negatives into positives.
Warning: Bad word of mouth can have a disastrous effect on your business, turning people against your company. But good word of mouth, when created openly and organically, can lead to your customers doing your marketing for you!
Upgrading the presentation process
Businesses across the globe are upgrading their presentation process using sophisticated multimedia presentation software.
Live Internet and RSS scrolling text, PowerPoint, Flash and various other media files, can all be combined to make one seamless and professional presentation.
RePromotion UK is a market leader in the field of dynamic visual communication, their presentation software has been adapted into three different products; ITTV, Power2Show and P2S Media Player.
ITTV is the hardware version of the presentation package. Because you can transmit to screens remotely by wireless it is ideal for retail outlets, leisure centres, car dealerships and other large scale venues where there are numerous standalone screens.
Power2Show is the standard presentation software and stores up to 25 presentations which you set live using plug & play technology. It is ideally suited for trade shows, exhibitions and conferences where the screen is a permanent fixture and you want to show a variety of presentations with the potential to update them on the spot.
P2S Media Player is a portable version of Power2Show aimed at professionals giving presentations on the move. Used mostly on laptops, the Media Player stores one presentation at once and you simply drag and drop your various multimedia files into it. It’s best suited as a sales tool for winning business or for seminar presentations.
Having seen the software in action, we at UKFast have stopped using PowerPoint in favour of Power2Show. If you want to keep pace with the presentation scene then I would recommend finding out if it is right for your business. It is the most feature rich package on the market.
RePromotion has formed key partnerships with resellers across the UK and is now rolling the partnership program out further afield. If you’re interested in reselling the Power2Show software please get in touch with them directly.
Find out more information about the company itself at www.repromotion.co.uk.
The cyber ghouls of Halloween
With Halloween upon us, there is more than just the thought of ghouls to be vigilant about. Once again cyber criminals are looking to use festivities as a backdrop for their work.
You may well have received an email offering gift vouchers in a Halloween special offer. All you have to do is answer a selection of questionnaires. However, when you click through to their site – which looks fully legitimate – you have to fill in some personal details before you start on the questions.
Your name, date of birth, home address and email are the key pieces of information they want and your questionnaire answers will be a secondary catch. Needless to say, there will be no voucher at the end of the process.
After Christmas and St Valentine’s Day, Halloween is the busiest single event that spammers use to commit identity theft.
But this year with technology moving on apace, online hackers are also using mediums such as video in order to lure their unsuspecting victims in. The internet will be rife with user generated video in the next few weeks of Halloween and Bonfire Night antics. Many of these videos will need a ‘codec’ to be downloaded to your computer in order to play them. This is where the danger lies.
Hackers are creating codecs and making them easily available online. While some may indeed help you to view the online videos they will also download malicious code to your computer. One incidence found was of a code that (falsely) reported faults on the PC and offered download fixes for a sum of money.
Our advice once again is to be ultra vigilant. Don’t download anything that you are even a little bit unsure about. There are great forums online that you can find with a Google search that may shed light on the legitimacy of the software that you are considering as a download. Do not let a faceless message persuade you to bypass security checks – no matter what it is offering you.
Please get in touch with me if you would like more information on any of the articles mentioned above.
That's it for October. I hope you've had a profitable month and best wishes to all those who have entered our Internet Awards! I look forward to speaking to you at some point soon.
Best wishes,
Jonathan
For more information on the range of UKFast products and services go to http://www.ukfast.net
UKFast.Net Ltd, City Tower, Piccadilly Plaza, Manchester, M1 4BT, Registered in England. Number 384 5616
