Tip of the Week: Find Success By Building a Professional Network On Facebook

It’s a known fact that social media is a great asset for the modern business owner to leverage, but you wouldn’t believe how often it’s misconstrued as a waste of time. In fact, social media outlets like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and even YouTube, are so commonplace nowadays in the business world that your organization could fall behind others that properly utilize them. Facebook, in particular, is a powerful tool that can be used for online networking purposes.

Facebook can be an effective tool for growing your professional network in your chosen industry. As reported by CIO, here are five great ways you can use Facebook to your advantage and effectively make lasting connections.

Make a Choice: LinkedIn vs Facebook
One of the most common rebuttals to Facebook is that it’s not only a massive time waster (for those who have little self-control), but it’s not as effective at professional networking as its competitor, LinkedIn. The primary difference between the two is that LinkedIn is specifically designed for use by professional organizations to connect with industry professionals. It’s completely formal. Facebook is informal and, generally, the more personal choice which allows you to be seen as more than just a suit and tie. You’re seen as a person; after all, isn’t that the point of social media?

Besides that fact, LinkedIn is generally not part of the average user’s daily routine, while Facebook has been ingrained into the very fabrics of society over the past decade. Everyone and their brother is on Facebook, so you can know for certain that you’ll find some like-minded folks who want to get to know you.

Determining Your Target Groups
One of the best features about Facebook is that business owners like yourself can make and join Groups, where they can discuss topics related to their industry. There are two types of groups: public, which can be joined by anyone; and closed, which require a user to send a request to join to a group administrator. You should try searching for groups like “New Jersey Small Businesses,” or those with similar criteria. Or, you can search for groups dedicated to enthusiasts within your industry. Either way, the point of groups is to find like-minded individuals and connect with them in a virtual space.

When You Find a Group, Introduce Yourself
Before jumping into the action, you should take a moment to introduce yourself to the group and explain what you’re all about. While Facebook is indeed a great tool for meeting people, you should take into account that these are potential colleagues you’re dealing with. In other words, you want to come off as a friendly and entertaining professional who wants to give back to both the community and your chosen industry. Keep in mind that it’s still an informal environment, and you should treat is as such.

Start Sharing Knowledge and Contributing Insight
While it’s often recommended that you “lurk” in the group at first to get an idea of the culture and demographic of it, you shouldn’t be shy about sharing what you know with them. Ask for opinions on ideas and help those in need. You’ll be able to show the members of the group what you know, which will establish your authority and help them see you as a valuable asset.

Create Local Events for Group Members
If all members of your chosen group are local, it can often be beneficial to expand your relationship beyond the digital space. Try setting up events like seminars or conferences that are designed to help group members understand a certain topic. If you get people involved with your brand and your work, you’ll be able to foster an interest in it that can lead to more exposure down the road.

What are some of your favorite ways to connect with prospects on Facebook? Let us know in the comments.

3 Favorite Technologies Politicians Use to Connect With Voters

Technology is everywhere. Coincidentally, that is exactly where every political candidate wants to be. With the 24/7 news cycle and social media leading the charge, technology has become one of the most important aspects of election season. The lead-up to any election is a tense time for the candidates, and for their supporters. With public arguments being had about different philosophies, ideologies, and platforms, it’s important to understand how today’s candidates handle technology while on the campaign trail.

Here is how some of the most noteworthy campaigns utilize technology to push their message, and their candidate into the mind's eye of potential voters.

Social Media
Social media has become some of the most important technologies used for the modern campaign, and the world as a whole. As seen from the Arab spring protests, it can even topple governments, push ideologies to the forefront, and provide the once unengaged electorate a voice about what topics are most important. It has completely changed the way people view elections.

Campaigns start on social media. Once a candidate assembles the team he or she will use to try to win an election (or re-election), it is then about polling interest and, ultimately, broadcasting their platform out to their constituency. One of the best methods politicians and their staffs have at their disposal is to utilize the interconnected world we live in to their benefit. Political discussions are some of the most divisive (and engaging) on social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter, and forums like Reddit.

By campaigning using social networks, candidates are able to get their core platform out and keep up with trending issues when they are politically advantageous, providing the candidates, and the campaign as a whole, a popular outlet in which to communicate to their supporters (and detractors). Many media institutions will pick up these updates, allowing viewers and listeners to get real-time updates about what is going on with the candidate and their camp.

The Smartphone
To today’s would-be politician and his or her staff, the smartphone is one of the most indispensable tools. Not only is there a lot of hand-wringing going on, there are people in the field trying to convince would-be voters to choose a particular candidate. As a result, you have many people calling in, updating the candidates with tips and other information that the candidates and their handlers use to schedule events, create policy platforms, and make the appearances that are important for the candidate to make in order to get his or her message across to the constituency.

Nowadays, with events moving in and out of the public consciousness quickly, candidates can win and lose favor from day-to-day. The utilization of applications that integrate with smartphone technology to push notifications to users is a total game-changer for many campaigns. In fact, some campaigns have tabbed developers to create their own campaign mobile app, where supporters can browse merchandise used to fund the campaign or simply just recent news from the campaign trail. The use of smartphones also provides campaigns with targets for marketing initiatives aimed at increasing the likelihood that their candidate is recognized for his or her contributions and views on certain issues that are most important to their various constituencies.

The Cloud
No matter how local the election is, there are still many miles between constituents. For larger elections, especially, there could be the breadth of a province, a state, or a nation to consider. With this in mind, campaigns are beginning to institute cloud platforms to meet their needs. One major benefit of the cloud platform is that it is existentially scalable and can be implemented quickly. In fact, many secure cloud platforms are as simple to use as entering a password, making them the perfect solution for a campaign that may need to add or subtract users based on its success.

Another benefit that cloud computing provides is that it is easy to budget. Since most cloud platforms are billed monthly, it is great for a campaign that needs to raise money in order to meet their financial responsibilities. For whatever reason, some candidates decide to throw in the towel and put their support behind another candidate, and the cloud platform can be just discontinued, wasting less money.

Finally, the collaborative nature of a campaign is well documented. Cloud computing; specifically a hosted Software as a Service offering, allows for dynamic collaboration. Users can work on projects together better than ever before through a cloud platform. Since users can use the apps from anywhere on nearly every device, it makes for an efficient alternative to traditional computing solutions.

These technology solutions aren’t just used by haughty campaigns, they are used by businesses from all over the world to help drive progress forward. At Net It On, we provide managed services and other IT services to facilitate positive change for businesses like yours. Call us today at (732) 360-2999 to learn more.

Is Windows 10 Living Up to the Expectations of Microsoft?

The hype train keeps chugging along for Windows 10, and it’s obvious why. It’s a great operating system that’s changing the way that businesses handle their daily tasks. But is Windows 10 doing as well as it lets on? According to desktop operating system usage statistics from NetMarketShare, Windows 10’s adoption rate has significantly slowed down in recent months, while more people continue to take advantage of Windows 7 and 8.x. Why?

As of October 2015, only a minuscule 7.84 percent of desktop users have Windows 10, while the Windows 7 OS remains as popular as ever at 55.71 percent. Even the somewhat loathed Windows 8 and 8.1 combined have a greater desktop share than Windows 10 at 13.22 percent. Perhaps the most surprising (and somewhat terrifying) part of this chart is that sliver of Windows XP users; despite the fact that it’s an unsupported and unsafe operating system, 11.68 percent of desktop users still run Windows XP.

One thing is made clear from this chart: the old adage, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” is still a prevalent line of thought when it comes to technology. People will continue to use older operating systems long after a better and more recent model is released, for the sole purpose that they’re comfortable using it and don’t want to use the money on something they don’t “need,” so to speak. The problem here is that there’s plenty of risks involved in using outdated operating systems, especially those that are unsupported by Microsoft.

Using technology that’s long past its expiration date is similar to drinking a tall glass of milk past its expiration date. You can probably expect it to work as intended for a couple of days past its “sell by” date without going rotten on you, but the fact remains that one day you’re going to pour yourself a rancid glass of cow juice. You won’t be able to drink the milk, let alone use it for recipes that require it. In the end, you’ll be stuck in a bind and have to buy new milk. Your technology might seem fine past its expiration date, but it’s basically a ticking time bomb. Once it’s unsupported, it won’t have access to any mission-critical patches and security updates, rendering it vulnerable to hacking attacks and threats designed to infiltrate your specific operating system. Basically, the only way you can prevent this from happening is to “buy some new milk.” In other words, take a proactive stance by planning for upgrades before your technology reaches its expiration date. Criminals aren’t picky about how they get into your network infrastructure, and they’ll gladly use any means you provide for them against you; including operating system flaws.

As you might imagine, making sure that your systems are always updated and kept current with recent technology innovations can be a challenge. Net It On can handle this burden for you with our remote monitoring and maintenance solution. This takes the in-house IT maintenance responsibilities that your staff might have, and outsources them to our highly-skilled technicians. We can remotely monitor your infrastructure for issues that need addressing, and issue patches and security updates to your entire IT infrastructure in the blink of an eye. This helps you focus on running your business rather than ensuring your technology is up to date and functional.

However, you don’t want to just blindly upgrade your infrastructure to new operating systems. You need to be aware of how your tech upgrades will affect the legacy applications that are critical to your everyday operations. You should always contact Net It On before making any drastic changes to your infrastructure.

Even if Windows 10’s adoption rate is somewhat slow, you can change the way your business functions by integrating it into your business infrastructure. For more information about Windows 10, give us a call at (732) 360-2999.

Tip of the Week: Here’s the Easiest Way We’ve Found to Merge 2 Email Accounts

If you’ve been a computer user for some time, there is a distinct possibility that you have more than one email account. At the very least you have your home address, and it’s increasingly likely that your college, your place of employment, your ISP, or some other organization has issued some sort of email address. There is now a way to combine these accounts into a single email address of your choice.

Of course, users could always migrate their antiquated email addresses, but it is a detailed and time-consuming process. The application YippieMove has streamlined this process. It helps users move their email between ISPs, which is what needs to happen to produce a clean merge. YippieMove makes it so you don’t have to bother shutting down dilapidated accounts (on the off chance that someone important were to contact you there).

The YippieMove platform currently costs $15 per account and is compatible with dozens of email providers and ISPs. For a listing of the most popular ISPs that the app works with, visit YippieMove’s about us page, here.

The transfer process is simple and easy to follow. All you will need to do is know what address you would like to move, what address you would like to move the messages to, and what files you are looking to transfer. You can transfer the following information:

• Drafts
• Inbox
• Saved
• Saved/SavedMs
• Sent items
• Spam
• Voicemail

The service takes less than 24 hours to complete. Enjoy the convenience of having a single conduit for all of your incoming messages by utilizing the YippieMove app. If you would like more information on how the YippieMove transfer process works, visit their help page, here.

The weblog Online Tech Tips has released some advice for troubleshooting this process in the event that you encounter some problems:

It’s worth noting that the website does not give you any error message if you mistype your login credentials on the first two steps. When you get to step 3, it’ll be empty instead of listing out the folders. In that case, go back and retype your login credentials. Also, if you’re using two-factor on any of the accounts, you will probably have to disable it in order to do the transfer.

YippieMove is a wonderful tool for the individual who is searching for an easy way to merge email accounts, but, of course, to merge enterprise-level email accounts together, you may want to consult the technology experts at Net It On. Our certified technicians work daily to help New Jersey small businesses maximize their efficiency using technology. To learn more about what we can do for you, call us today at (732) 360-2999.

YouTube Now Offers a Premium Paid Service, Is It Worth the Money?

YouTube has been a monstrous hit for Internet video enthusiasts ever since its creation, but just recently, it was announced that YouTube now has a premium service called YouTube Red. Now you can watch viral videos and other great entertainment flicks in a whole new way. Still, this change has some people concerned over what it means for their current YouTube watching habits. What do you get with a YouTube Red subscription, anyway?

What is YouTube Red?
The impact that subscription-based streaming services like Netflix and Hulu Plus have had on the entertainment industry is staggering. We’ve seen people cutting the cord on their cable TV subscriptions in favor of streaming services. Despite these changes to how entertainment is consumed, YouTube has remained free, but with ads for some YouTubers’ videos. Now, however, YouTubers can pay $10/month to get rid of all ads. That means no more waiting to get right to your video browsing.

The only catch here is that YouTube Red is only available in the United States at the present moment. Given time, it will surely spread to other countries around the world. With YouTube Red, you can use any of the following devices for ad-free videos:

• YouTube and YouTube Gaming apps for both Android and iOS
• Google Chromecast
• Android TV
• Apple TV
• Video Game Consoles: Xbox 360, Xbox One, Wii U, Playstation 3, and Playstation 4
• Roku (LT, 1, 2, 2 HD, 2 XS, 3, Streaming Stick, Roku TV)
• Some smart TVs

Starting in 2016, there will be members-only content from popular YouTube channels, but this content is expected to eventually hit the common masses (with ads). It’s also worth mentioning that a YouTube Red subscription is essentially the same thing as a Google Play Music subscription (ordinarily valued at $10/month). If you already subscribe to Google Play Music, you automatically have access to YouTube Red.

Other YouTube Red Benefits
The primary reason to get YouTube Red is probably to get rid of ads and to take full advantage of Google Play Music, but there are a couple of other handy features that might see some use. YouTube Red allows for the downloading and viewing of videos, as well as listening to videos while your device screen is turned off. Keep in mind that these features only currently work with the mobile YouTube and YouTube Gaming apps for Android and iOS. Here’s some more information about the features:

• Offline viewing: If you’ve used Google Docs at all, you know you can edit documents offline if you previously set up the “edit offline” feature. YouTube Red lets you do something similar with videos. You can download YouTube videos to your device for offline viewing. These are available for up to 30 days without an Internet connection. Naturally, there are some features that aren’t available while offline, like liking and commenting on the videos, but offline viewing is still a pretty neat benefit that might see some practical use.
• Background listening: You know how if you lock your device while watching or listening to a music video with the YouTube app, the video pauses and music stops playing? That doesn’t happen with YouTube Red. You can listen to videos while the screen is off, which is great for listening to music or audiobooks.

What This Means for You
YouTube Red might be an interesting new way to consume online videos, but it should be mentioned that this doesn’t affect the way you currently use YouTube in the slightest. Nonsubscribers can still enjoy the same benefits that they’ve come to know and love, but with the minor nuisance of ads. Basically, whether or not you take advantage of YouTube Red will probably be determined by just how desperate you are to eliminate ads, and whether or not you want to use both Google Play Music and the new download feature.

What are your thoughts on YouTube Red? Share them with us in the comments.

What it Takes to Successfully Migrate to the Cloud

Now that the cloud has become an affordable and versatile part of the business environment, more organizations than ever are moving to take advantage of it as much as possible. However, for the folks who are new to cloud computing, you might want to hold your horses and take a look at how you can prepare to move your business to the cloud. Doing so can alleviate some of the challenges that come from overhauling your IT infrastructure.

It’s no surprise that the cloud is a highly sought-after technology for businesses. According to a 2014 survey, nearly 70 percent of enterprises take advantage of some type of cloud technology, be it a cloud-based application, cloud storage, or an entirely cloud-based IT infrastructure. Before jumping too deep into the cloud, consider the following precautions.

Why Are You Moving to the Cloud?
Before committing to a cloud solution, you should assess your current IT assets and consider why you’re moving to the cloud. Do you want greater mobility for your data? Do you want to improve your organization's accessibility to mission-critical data? Regardless of your reasoning for moving to the cloud, it likely falls under one of these criteria.

The cloud has the capabilities of performing all of these feats, and then some. By storing information in the cloud, your business’s employees can access information whenever and however they want on approved devices. The cloud can also be used to store and access critical applications that are necessary for everyday operations, improving accessibility and, in turn, productivity.

Depending on what you want out of your cloud solution, you can invest in a private cloud platform which maximizes control, a public cloud system which promotes user efficiency, or a hybrid solution that combines the benefits of both public and private clouds. Your cloud model will likely be determined based around how much control you want over your data, as well as any security regulations your business needs to have in place.

What Are the Challenges?
Moving to an entirely cloud-based infrastructure has significant requirements. For one, you need to have the technology to guarantee access to your infrastructure at all times. This means keeping your systems online and functional at all costs. If you lose access to your infrastructure, you’ll experience expensive downtime that can crush your IT budget. This is why it’s so important to ensure that your business’s Internet connection is capable of handling the increased traffic that comes from using cloud-based technology.

Furthermore, some businesses that want to move to the cloud might still be taking advantage of legacy applications that may not be compatible with more recent operating systems. This makes moving to the cloud tricky, even for seasoned in-house technology departments. Any drastic change to your business’s IT infrastructure should only be made after a careful analysis of the costs, benefits, and challenges.

This is where Net It On comes in. Our skilled and knowledgeable technology professionals have what it takes to identify potential challenges and problems associated with moving your entire IT infrastructure to the cloud. To discuss what the best way to approach cloud computing is for your business, contact us at (732) 360-2999.

Tip of the Week: 3 Steps to Find Your Email Message in Gmail

If your business uses Gmail as its preferred email client, then you know that it’s a great way to keep communications running smoothly. Sometimes, however, a message might fall through the cracks, and you’ll need to locate it in order to acquire certain information. Gmail has made it easy to locate lost messages with their search feature.

Normally, if you wanted to perform a search in Gmail, all you would have to do is enter your search terms into the search bar at the top of the screen. While this is somewhat helpful for finding messages in your inbox, you also have several other options for searching through Gmail for your messages. Here are three tips that can help you perform a thorough search for your missing messages.

First, enter your search results in the search bar. If you don’t find your desired messages, click the down arrow:

You’ll see a window where you can sort through your messages according to your search specifications, including sender, receiver, subject, and keywords. You can even omit certain results by using the “Doesn’t have” field. There are checkboxes for where you can specify whether or not the message has attachments, and you can place a size or date range to help narrow down the search further.

The most notable of these features, however, is the top button that defaults to “All Mail.” If you click it, you should see a whole range of options that you can use to search through the specific parts of Gmail, including the inbox, sent messages, and even the spam or trash. This helps to ensure that you don’t miss an email ever again.

If there is a message in your spam or trash, and it matches your search query, a message should appear underneath your inbox that says “Some messages in Trash or Spam match your search. View messages.” If you click the link, you’ll be taken to the messages, where you can view them at your leisure.

Please keep in mind that this latest update to Gmail only applies to the Web application at this moment. It’s not currently available on Gmail’s mobile applications, but may be coming in the future.

What are your thoughts concerning Gmail’s search features? Let us know in the comments.