Tuesday, July 30, 2013

Yahoo is Currently Recycling Inactive Email Accounts

Starting back on July 15th and going through August 15, Yahoo is engaging in a deactivation process of email accounts that have received no activity for the last 12 months.

Why is this good?
This is good news because Yahoo will soon make those inactive ID's available to new users.

Why this complicates things?

In a statment made to Wired, Yahoo is taking precautions to securely close these accounts. The actions include:
  • Sending bounce back emails to alert senders that the account has been deactivated and no longer exists.
  • Automatically unsubscribing deactivated accounts from commercial email databases including newsletters and email alerts.
  • Once deactivation is complete, they will send notification of these recycled accounts to merchants, financial institution, email providers, social networks and e-commerce sites.

Tuesday, July 23, 2013

5 Mistakes Businesses Make in Social Media

Who wants to make the same mistake twice? No one. Wise entrepreneurs learn from their mistakes and the mistakes of others...including the wild and crazy world of social media. The following are 5 mistakes that can set your social media campaign back. We don't want that to happen to you so take a moment to "learn" from these tips (we sure wish someone would have mentioned these in the beginning).

Mistake #1 - No Plan
Imagine if you started a business without a mission or business plan. Imagine you didn't know who your potential customer was or what products you were going to sell. Do you think it could be a recipe for disaster? The same goes for your social media. Take the time to plan your strategy BEFORE you dive in to posts and status updates. It will keep you focused in the long run and allow you more success.

Mistake #2 - Picking the Wrong Platforms
You can drive yourself crazy trying to manage twenty different social media sites and the odds are - unless you have a whole social media team - you won't excel at any of them because you are spread too thin. The idea is quality vs. quantity. Part of your Plan (stated above) is to consider where do your potential customers hang out. Is it Facebook, Twitter, Blogs, Pinterest, YouTube? Ask your clients  and narrow your focus down to one or two sites.

Tuesday, July 2, 2013

Facebook Increases Security on Inappropriate Ads

Facebook has been modifying their security and enhancements over the last few months. Now they have updated their advertising guidelines in response to some concerns over the placements of ads.

Facebook posted the following statement - “Beginning [today], we will implement a new review process for determining which pages and groups should feature ads alongside their content. This process will expand the scope of Pages and Groups that should be ad-restricted. By the end of the week, we will remove ads from all Pages and Groups that fall into this new, more expansive restricted list.”

This review in process was made in response to some concerns from larger companies who advertise on Facebook who noticed that their ads were appearing alongside other ads containing inappropriate content. This kind of placement makes users doubt the validity of the company or ads and are less likely to click-through. Facebook will now evaluate and restrict ads that contain sexual, graphic or violent content. They have posted their community guidelines for business' reference which all advertisers are asked to comply.