Digital Journal

Have you ever searched your name on the Internet to see where you rank, or used the images tab instead of web to see what photos appear in the search? These searches may have yielded your Facebook and Twitter profile pictures, a different picture for LinkedIn and another one from a network you forgotten you’d registered for.

You have all these different images because every time you sign up for a new website or sign up to comment online you’re asked to upload a picture to that profile.

In order to update those old images to something that better represents you, you need to login to each service and upload a new picture to each of these networks. That’s a lot of time spent uploading profile pictures, and updating profile information. Wouldn’t it be easier if you could sign up to one service that connected your e-mail address with your profile picture across the Internet?

When you register your e-mail address with gravatar.com the image associated with your registered e-mail address follows you from site to site appearing beside your name when you login, comment or post on a blog that supports Gravatars.

Gravatar stands for “globally recognized avatar.” An avatar is the earliest form of a profile photo and got its name from the icons people used to differentiate themselves when commenting on forums.

Although many social networks don’t have Gravatar integration, you’ll find they’re supported on most website commenting systems.

Using a Gravatar can make your comment stand out from the rest.

With a Gravatar account you can add as many e-mail addresses to it as you like, assigning your personal photo to your personal e-mail address, and your company profile to your business e-mail address, making it easier to post comments either from yourself or from your company.

If your name is your brand and you write or comment regularly on posts you’ll want to have an image that represents you or your brand. Others who regularly post comments on sites will be able to recognize you just by glancing at your unique profile picture and might just visit your site or blog as they share your thoughts on a comment. It’s also a great way for a web manager to easily identify and reply to their loyal posters.

Many WordPress users may already be familiar with Gravatars as they’re integrated with that platform. When you login to WordPress you’ll see your Gravatar appear in the top right corner of the screen. sunpeaksnewsc.om uses Gravatars, they appear at the end of each online article with the writer’s biography.

If you’re wanting to keep your personal identity hidden then gravatar.com is likely not a service you’ll want to subscribe to. Most platforms and commenting systems usually assign you a default avatar and don’t require you to upload a photo.

It’s free and easy to get a Gravatar, just visit, register your e-mail address with gravatar.com, upload an image, connect your networks and fill out the biographical information. Now you’ll have one convenient place to update the majority of your profile photos, that sure beats having an egg for a Twitter profile.

I can’t count the amount of times I’ve picked up a friends iPhone and swiped the “Unlock” button only to realize their phone has no passcode.

“It takes too much time,” “I got annoyed with entering it, so I took it off,” “I don’t have anything on my phone that matters,” are the usual responses as to why there’s no passcode on the phone. Really, five seconds and entering four digits is too much hassle?

What a lot of people don’t acknowledge is that so much personal and confidential information is stored and accessible on our smartphones, such as e-mail accounts and contact lists.
For example: you’re out with a group of friends. You get up from the table and leave your phone unattended. Your friends think it’d be fun to mess with your phone. After realizing your phone’s unlocked they update the status of your social media accounts. Within seconds your status is updated to something inappropriate. Sound familiar? It’s all fun and games until someone looses . . . their job. Your friends may not have been aware that they actually posted to your work social media accounts—that doesn’t sound very professional does it?

Another concern is password resets. If your phone is set up to receive e-mails it’s easy to request a password reset. An intruder can choose one of your accounts, like amazon.com or godaddy.com for instance, and request a password reset link. That link gets sent to your e-mail address which is then received on your phone. Now the intruder can change any of your passwords when they have access to your e-mails, thereby locking you out.

This also applies to iTunes accounts. It would be easy for an intruder (who had gained access to the device due to it being unlocked) to simply request a new iTunes password, thus giving them the ability to rack up iTunes purchases, leaving you with a hefty credit card bill.

These situations could be combated by using an e-mail address that’s not attached to your mobile device, though most would find that a major inconvenience.
Passcodes may not be an end-all solution as thieves can find a way to hack them, but they will deter people from messing with your phone and buy you a little more time to have the phone deactivated or erase the data remotely from your phone if you lose it.

For iPhone users looking for an additional layer of protection you can select Settings | General | Passcode Lock | “Erase Data.” With this function turned on, the data on your iPhone will be erased after 10 failed passcode attempts. If you use this method be sure to back up your phone on a regular basis.

Don’t leave your mobile device at risk of identity theft or fraud, a simple four digit passcode can keep your information safe from prying eyes.

We all receive one of those e-mails from time to time: the offer from a foreigner to put a large sum of money into your bank account, or a reminder about a parcel you forgot to pick up that’s worth millions—all you need to do is send your name, phone number, address, etc. The equivalent message that often sparks a business owner’s interest is the offer to increase your page ranking.

As the subject name implies the “1st Page on Google Ranking” e-mail promises to get your website to rank number one on the search engines, specifically the most used search engine, Google.

The e-mail reads similarly to the following:

From: Email

Subject: 1st Page on Google Ranking

I was surfing through your website “www.yourdomain.com” and realized that despite having a good design; it was not ranking on any of the search engines for most of the keywords pertaining to your domain. We offer a quick yet detailed assessment of your website with applicable recommendations to optimize it.

Kind regards,

Farah, Marketing Manager

At first glance the e-mail offer might give you the impression that Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a simple and quick marketing solution—pay someone to make a few changes to some words and you’ll instantly appear at the top of the search pages.

We all want our sites to rank high, ultimately in the top spot, but a high search ranking doesn’t always equate to increased web traffic. The e-mail example used above claims the website “yourdomain.com” was not ranking on any of the search engines for the keywords most important to the domain. Without conducting some research and strategic planning, it’s impossible to know whether your site is ranking high for your important keywords and phrases.

Optimizing your website for the search engines isn’t just about achieving high rankings, those high ranking search phrases also need to be relevant and valuable to your business. A website hit is considered valuable when the visitor views a web page for a period of time or clicks through several links within the site.

“Farah’s” email above states she’s a Marketing Manager, we’re just not sure who for! When you agree to let someone increase your site rankings, you’re agreeing to let them have full access to your web world. Handing over your usernames and passwords, or as I like to call them “the keys,” to an online stranger, could put you at serious risk.

Although the example e-mail is just spam, increasing or maintaining a high page rank for your targeted keywords and phrases is possible, there’s just no magic wand!

Depending on how your website was built you should be able to make regular tweaks, changes and additions to maintain or increase your search ranking.

If your website was built on the WordPress platform, then you’ll have access to several plugins that can help you manage your SEO. At the most basic level, these SEO plugins give you the ability to change the title, description and keywords on individual posts and pages.

No one can “guarantee” your website will rank number one on a search engine, so the next time you get that e-mail full of promises you’ll know if they’re empty or not.

Purchasing and renewing domain names for website clients are tasks I’ve been performing for over 10 years. Over those years I’ve seen many different types of Internet scams and suspicious marketing practices but one that’s persisted over the decade is the Domain Registry of Canada’s (DRoC) renewal/transfer letter.

The letter is sent via the post and arrives in a government-style envelope with a maple leaf logo, both not so subtle marketing strategies to lead the recipient to assume the DRoC is affiliated with the Canadian government. Upon opening the letter, readers will see, in large letters on the top of the page, “Domain Name Expiration Notice.”

Most people don’t realize that domain name companies do not contact you by post, they send renewal notifications via e-mail. What DRoC is sending is a solicitation letter, which attempts to get people to switch their domain names from their existing registrar to the DRoC.

The DRoC preys on people who may not have a thorough understanding of how the domain registration process works. If you receive this letter in the post my advice is to rip it up and throw it away. It’ll save you from purchasing an overpriced domain name and the headache of trying to get your money back from the DRoC.

Here are a few tips to keep your domain name secure:

• Check to see if your domain is up for renewal. You can check this by running a whois.com search on your domain name. As long as you haven’t paid extra for domain name security, you’ll be able to see who your domain is registered with. If the company name matches the company requesting the renewal then it’s safe to go ahead and renew the domain. You have until the date of expiry to renew your domain, although I’d advise renewing it earlier than that, just not six months in advance, which is what DRoC is requesting.
• Make sure your domain name is locked. Locking your domain name stops the domain from being transferred from the existing registrar. The transfer process requires the domain be unlocked and an authorization code provided to the new registrar.
• Have more than one person listed on the domain registry contact information. Having a secondary contact listed spreads out the correspondence. Listed as the technical support contact for a client, I intercepted an e-mail requesting their domain name be unlocked. Had I not received that e-mail, I never would have known my client had fallen for the DRoC scam.
• Hide your contact information. This is usually an extra charge, but it will stop marketers and other unwanted eyes from viewing your contact information.
• Read the small print. If you’re receiving correspondence from someone, are they requesting you renew or transfer your domain?

If you’re still unsure about that letter or e-mail you’ve received, contact your web developer or web hosting company to ensure the safety of your domain name.

Checking your Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn feeds, sending tweets, uploading Instagram photos, adding a post to your website; it’s an exhaustive list of activities you need to perform to keep up-to-date with your social media accounts. Adding social media to your small business activities can create a lot more work, but it doesn’t have to be that way.

Including regular content in your social media feed keeps the site active, and search engines love activity. A simple way to make sure you’re always distributing content is to schedule. Set yourself some time once a week where you pre-plan your social media updates.

Social media management programs like Tweetdeck and Hootsuite allow you to view feeds from, and add updates to various social media networking sites using one application. These programs also allow you to create search columns, and the big timesaver: schedule your updates.

Sometimes you may have several tweets or status updates that need to be posted in one day. By scheduling these updates you can span them out during the day or week without clogging up your followers’ feeds with your updates. Scheduling updates to your social media platforms also allows you to work when you want to. Status updates can be created late in the evening and scheduled for distribution at 10 a.m., which may be a more effective time to reach your audience.

It’s up to you how often you want to slate your posts to go out, but make sure you check your scheduled items on a regular basis to make sure the information is still relevant.

When you schedule an update in Tweetdeck it will automatically create a new column for scheduled items, allowing you to easily browse the column to assess if the update is going out on the right day at the correct time.

If Facebook is the only network your business is using you may want to skip the management programs and schedule directly from Facebook. To schedule a status update for your Facebook Business Page simply click the clock symbol that appears below the text of your update. Select your required dates and times then “Schedule” your status update. This method can also be used for adding back dated status updates.

To view scheduled updates for your Facebook Business Page select “Edit Page” from the admin panel, then select “Use Activity Log” from the drop down.

If your website content management system is WordPress you have the perfect platform to integrate your website with your social media platforms. Adding a post to your connected WordPress website can automatically distribute a tweet, Facebook post or e-mail campaign, all with one click.

Now that you’ve got your online media scheduled take some time to get out there and be active.

You see them everywhere nowadays—on the news, on TV, on advertising materials—for many, hashtags are part of everyday life.

“What’s a hashtag?” is a frequently asked question by those new to the social networking scene. Hashtags were created in August 2007 by Google developer Chris Messina after he tweeted, “How do you feel about using # (pound) for groups. As in #barcamp [msg]?”

As the question above illustrates, hashtags are created when “#” is added to a set of words or string characters. They’re used as a way to group conversational topics for ease of searching. Although tags may appear on LinkedIn and Facebook or in text messages, hashtags are only searchable on Twitter, Google+ and Instagram and, unless using them for fun, they are the only platforms where hashtags should be used.

Simply clicking on an existing #hashtag will take you to a search result revealing tweets that use the clicked hashtag. Adding a hastag to your tweet brings you into the Twitter conversation giving it a higher chance of being viewed.

It’s particularly important to gain an understanding of the hashtag topic before adding it to your tweet as clothing company Celeb Boutique recently learned.

When @celeboutique’s social media person noticed #Aurora was trending they assumed it was related to their clothing line. Their tweet read:

#Aurora is trending, clearly about our Kim K inspired #Aurora dress 😉

#Aurora was in fact trending due to the movie theatre shooting massacre in Aurora, Colorado. After a flurry of angry and upset tweets sent to their account, @celeboutique deleted the tweet and shortly after added a statement to their website and used several consecutive tweets to apologize for the insensitive tweeting error.

We are incredibly sorry for our tweet about Aurora—Our PR is NOT U.S. based and had not checked the reason for the trend, at that time our social media was totally UNAWARE of the situation and simply thought it was another trending topic—we have removed the very insensitive tweet and will of course take more care in future to look into what we say in our tweets. Again we do apologise for any offense caused this was not intentional & will not occur again. Our most sincere apologies for both the tweet and situation.

Although hashtags are often used in times of crisis they can also be used to promote events. When creating your own tag for an event there are a few simple rules to follow. Don’t make it too long. Tweeters only have 140 characters to get their point across, so long hashtags leave less room for the actual message. Use acronyms where possible. And lastly, let your followers know what your tag is for a particular event before the event, and make sure people attending the event know your hashtag so they can and add to the conversation.

Combining words to make a long hashtag can be used as humour such as #hadagreatdayattheoffice but should be avoided in everyday business tweeting. Also, using too many hashtags in one tweet is distracting to readers:

Great food at Earls restaurant #summer #dining #yummy #dessert #friends #cocktails #fun #hungry #whocares

Also, don’t tweet every word as a hashtag—it’s meaningless. @Marz_mcgehee illustrates how not to use hastags below:

[blackbirdpie url=”https://twitter.com/Marz_Mcgehee/status/228288382428647424″]

You can also use tags to tweet about a location such as #sunpeaks #kamloops. Tweeters will often use a city’s airport code instead of its name #YVR (Vancouver) #YYC (Calgary).

Last of all, don’t confuse using @ instead of #.  @ refers to an actual Twitter name and will send a message to that tweeter.

Tweet me and let me know what your favourite hashtag is: @peaksmedia #hashtags