Three things about social media

Social Media is here, there, everywhere and there is no escaping it now. With the success of the movie “The Social Network” it brought social media further into the forefront of technology and everyone’s mind. Take your pick of facebook, flickr, twitter, delicious, myspace, linkedin, foursquare, etc. these social mediums provide us with the ability to touch thousands if not millions with the click of a button posting your “update” to the world. Since this is the case and it doesn’t seem like it is going anywhere, let’s embrace this new wave of communication and technology. While we embrace this here are a few things to take note to as you embark on your new found social life. 

You don’t need everything

Although there are a number of social media outlets to choose from that doesn’t mean you need to sign up for them all. Evaluate which social networks would be mutually beneficial to you and to those you opt to follow you. This an important concept because you have to gain just as much if not more from the network in order for you to stay enthused about using it. A good idea is to start off with two networks and dive into them. Once you are comfortable with these then you should take on more if you are so inclined.

Business vs. Personal

One of the neat things about social networks is that it gives you the ability to seamlessly interact with businesses. The interaction transcends itself from consumer to business and from business to consumer effectively where you can be on either ends of the spectrum. Although this is a great communicator it must be stressed that the two must be kept separate. Sending personal updates through the business accounts is a no no, as your business should stay neutral and normal in many lanes. Drawing a line between business and personal maintains the respect levels of each the business and personal through each subsequent update.

Universal Updates

Right now there are many third party applications that have the ability to integrate multiple social networks into one easy to use interface. TweetDeck and Hootsuite are a few examples of this type of application. With this it gives the user the ability to make one update span across multiple networks. This in itself is a wonderful thing because it maximizes you time by not having to login to multiple social networks to make the same update, as well as if there is something you want to say on one and not the other you can do that too. Most of the networks have links to the other networks built into their networks again allowing you to make one update across the board.

Overall social media is very big right now and it can become overwhelming and staggering. If you follow this simple outline above we guarantee you will be a lot better. Don’t be afraid to give it a try and if it doesn’t work for you that’s ok, but you don’t know until you try. After it’s all said and done remember Be Social.

From the desk of our owner Isaiah Nathaniel

 …With any business the press can be a two headed sword. It can be a great marketing and business advertising medium, and on the other hand it can take the facts and stretch them beyond expectation to garner reader appeal. While some say all press is good press, it still can provide the daunting task of overcoming from negative, overstated, or understated opinions from such an opinionated society. Although you can have stringent principals and a proven track record negativity can take its toll to which some never really rebound. So, when the press gets it right and accurate it is something that can be commended and such has recently happened to us here at Calcom Technologies.  Not only was it a great article for pleasurable reading but just as informative to where it can be used as a starting reference. This here shows us that we must continue to push ourselves to the limit each and every day to provide great service and values to all of our existing clients and potential new clients…

 To see what he is referring to click here to read the full article http://roxborough.patch.com/articles/sweet-tweets-throughout-roxborough-manayunk

In the computing world today you hear a lot about how much traffic you receive or can receive on your website. You hear terms like SEO (Search Engine Optimization), and SEM (Search Engine Marketing). In all these things you can quickly become very frustrated as all you are trying to do is drive in more business and you haven’t the slightest idea what traffic is or let alone SEO, etc. After reading this hopefully you will have a better grasp of things and are able to make a conscious effort to get more customers by way of the internet.

Wikipedia defines search engine optimization (SEO) as the process of improving the volume or quality of traffic to a web site from search engines via “natural” or un-paid (”organic” or “algorithmic”) search results as opposed to search engine marketing (SEM) which deals with paid inclusion. What this means to you is that by improving the quality of your website you would be able to drive more traffic to your site and then the possibility of the traffic turning into customers. What actually needs to take place is slightly different than what seems to be implied. Improving the quality of your website has more to do with the background coding of the website that the outwardly seen appearance. Yes the appearance does make a difference, but in terms of SEO the coding with the modification of keywords, headings, and tags are more significant. The second part to this is the extension of SEO which is SEM. Search engine marketing deals more exclusively with paid advertisements prominently being displayed on your website in addition to the modification of coding. It also deals with you paying some of the top search engines a certain amount based upon what categories you want which is to guaranteed your website to be in the top of the search list.

All these things tied together (either separately or collectively) are what can produce traffic to your website in addition to the natural traffic from you current business. As with almost everything there is a give and get, a good and a bad that has to be taken into consideration. Good traffic consists of quality visitors visiting and browsing the site for the possibility of conduction business with your company. They are also visiting your site to gain an insight to some valuable information about the company and the field of expertise you are engaged in. On the other hand bad traffic consists of a lot of spammers going to your site with the intention of soliciting their services to you and/or your employees. This type of traffic causes a lot of hectic occurrences and the possibility of your website being flagged as spam among the ISP (Internet Service Providers.)

On average many have benefited from both SEO and SEM. There are many that do without SEM and just utilize SEO for bringing more visitors to their website. Some say SEM is an unwanted approach to driving more visitors to your site because of the junk that has the potential to come along with it. Many say it is the driving force for their business. When we are asked the question as to what do we recommend, we do a few things. We take a look at the industry you do business, the type of services you offer and then make our recommendation as to if your company would benefit from one, none, or both. All in all there are many avenues you can use to utilize the technology evolution and drive more business in from your presence on the web. Whatever option is chosen, get professional help because you can go from trying to drive business in to lose business if not done correctly.

When you lose your data for any of the numerous reasons that may arise; hard drive failure, power surges, server/and or machine age, it hurts. It hurts because first off you have to correct the problem that caused the failure, be it a hard drive or having to buy a whole new server or machine. What hurts even more is if you don’t have a backup of your data to restore from even when you correct the first issue. This is the case in many business and homes across the country where backing up data isn’t taken seriously. It isn’t until disaster happens that then backing up your data becomes a priority.

Backing up your data is an essential function of computing and there are a two ways to accomplish such. One way is by having your data backed up to a physical piece of hardware media by form of hard drive, external hard drive, flash drive, and/or tape. This method is very effective because it places the data away from the primary location. One downside to this method is that this physical media can also fail leaving you data less. Another downside is the fact that this physical media is possibly housed on site, and if in fact transferred offsite it can be lost or stolen. The most important thing to keep in mind when using this method is that there requires an actually human being to kick off and maintain the backups and schedule.

The second method to backing up is to have the data remotely hosted so that it is completely offsite. The advantages to using this method, is that no one has to physically manage the data. Not only this but the data isn’t physically on site, so in case of a fire, storm, power outage, etc. your data is safe.

So the question is how important is your data? Do you have a current backup in place? How often do you perform a backup?

Calcom Technologies is proud to have partnered with a data hosting solution that enables us to give you the added benefit of remote data hosting in addition to localized backups at a very affordable cost. In fact it is pennies on the mega byte; 1 GB of data will cost you $2.00 a month. Pictures, videos, iTunes, music, email, whatever is precious to you we can safeguard it for you so you don’t lose it. Give us a call and we can properly spec out both methods of backing up your data, leaving you to worry about other things rather than the safety of you most important information.  

 Don’t wait until disaster happens, be proactive today!

What is an upgrade? It is supposed to be an enhancement to something already existing. already existing. It is termed to mean an improvement and/or enhancement to features that are currently being used. In terms of computer software the same meanings apply to an upgrade of an operating system and/or hardware devices. The question that remains is if an upgrade is right for you?

All the time we hear about product upgrades from Microsoft and their Windows products, to Apple and its selections of its iPhone, iPod, iPad products, all the way to televisions and their enhancements from HD to 3D. Each of these companies and others boast their product upgrades in hopes that you will view the new products as worth the money to gain access to the newest released features. With each new upgrade comes first a cost and then secondly adaptation to the current environment. What this means is that after you factor in the cost of purchasing the new product there is an additional cost of time and money to implement the software and/or device into the current system(s) you have now. For phones this scenario isn’t as hard to implement as it is for computers and operating systems.

Not all the time is upgrading a good or even feasible thing to do as it can do more harm than helping. Upgrading your computers to the newest operating system can cause more damage than good even though it is has a vast number of improvements from its predecessors.  What we mean by this is that even though it is new and has a lot to offer, it may not fit with the current business model and system(s) you have in place and could potentially halt business for sometime as you implement it into your business. For instance Windows 7 is the newest operating system by Microsoft and it has a vast amount of new features that are very appealing and a delight to have, but for the shipping company that has a shipping software that doesn’t work on Windows 7 but does work on Windows XP upgrading would not be a viable option. In this scenario until the shipping software puts out an updated version of their software the company cannot afford to make the switch, which leaves them using an operating system two versions behind, but it works for them and they can continue doing business. For the single or home user upgrading their desktop or laptop to Windows 7 would prove itself beneficial. It works in this scenario because the programs they use will work with Windows 7 and the new features would make them more productive and efficient, all the while the downside being minimal at best.

Upgrading can be a daunting task but at the same time all worth it. Properly budget for the purchase of the new product and/or software and the subsequent implementation costs before making a final decision on the upgrade. Our staff here at Calcom Technologies has real world implementation experience with the new technologies and can be of any assistance as you attempt to weed through the boatloads of commercials and product documentation for the newest products and their upgrading of features.