If you use internet banking, you use SSL. It’s the little lock icon in the address bar. Sometimes the address turns green. That is telling you that this site is secure and any information you share with the website is encrypted and sent in a secure transmission layer.

Without it your information is not encrypted.

Welcome to this 40^th Edition Newsletter. It’s the last month of 2016 – phew! I expect we will have one more newsletter before Christmas, but just in case I hope you have a wonderful Christmas and New Year holiday.

Social Media Optimisation Workshops

Social Media Optimisation is critical to succeeding in your business in 2017. How good are you at navigating the Social Media Puzzle. (puzzle image credit to greyweed)

• Facebook has 1.79 billion active users, 1.18 billion daily users and 1.66 billion mobile active users [Facebook stats September 30th 2016]

• Twitter has 1.3 billion users with 500 million using it to follow - not tweeting [Source].

• LinkedIn has 467 million users. Adding a professional photo to your profile makes you 14 times more likely to be found [Source].

• Short videos attract a 5 billion views a day on YouTube and 8 billion views s day on Facebook

• Instagram and Pinterest already have an audience of 500 million users and 75 Million users respectively. [Source]

That’s well over a billion people who are your potential marketplace.

Do you have an Australian Only Business?

Maybe you are worried the connected world is too big a market. That’s ok. There are 14.1 million Australians over the age of 18 with Facebook accounts plus many millions more with Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, Pinterest and Google+ accounts and many millions more who access YouTube videos from mobiles devices and computers each day.

When you just target Australia you access a market in the millions.

A note of caution: The rules for Social Media are different to the Web: You need to be Social Media Optimised!

You must be proactive and get on board now – before your competitors do and start taking all your customers right out from under you. Only the early adopters gain the advantage. Once everyone is doing it the margins are always smaller.

Social Media Optimisation is the coolest marketing tool that throws open the doors to interacting directly with new customers. Results for correctly implemented Social Media Marketing by far exceed the reach and results of traditional media and marketing techniques.

What is Social Media Optimisation comprised of? Well there used to be just Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube. But 2013 saw the emergence of Instagram, Google + and Pinterest which have a combined audience exceeding 1 billion affluent consumers. In 2015 we got Snapchat, Periscope, Meerkat and Vine - all video driven. In 2016 the big trends were not so much new platforms but usage patterns changing to mobile and apps. Messenger, WeChat and WhatsApp as messaging channels grew wildly. Instagram added stories. Streaming Radio channels and applications like Skype began making good use of “in-product” advertising.

This rapid and permanent shift in Internet usage is slowly but surely relegating other forms of advertising. Print ads and traditional media outlets are last century thinking! Get the jump on your competitors and act now!

Social Media Optimisation is the easiest, faster and most cost effective way to advertise to your target market. You need to learn disruptive marketing techniques that understand the traditional sales cycle is completely broken in both B2B and B2C markets.

So, take time to learn about the opportunities available with Social Media Marketing and ask us teach you how to benefit from Social Media Optimisation with our workshops.

It is a lot to take in. So we have a number of options for you.

Basic Social Media Optimisation 101: 2-hour course

How to use each of the major Social Media media, and then how to combine them to gain massive coverage in your target area or industry.

If that isn't enough to make your head hurt, we will show you how all these changes will impact everything you do in your business and how to be on the right side of this marketing revolution.

It all started with Facebook... And now there is Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Instagram and maybe the ultimate game changer Google +. How does this jigsaw fit together? That’s where Social Media Optimisation 2017 comes in.

Enjoy networking during an interactive hands-on workshop. Bring your Laptop, tablet and smartphone and join in as we teach basic to advanced techniques for Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Even a novice can leave a Twitter expert. This will also be your coolest networking experience in 2016!

Business Social Media optimisation 201: 4-hour course

Prerequisite 101 or demonstrated understanding of those techniques.

Many businesses conduct their whole business using Facebook business pages.

Google + is not just a social network it is Google’s answer to making search results current and relevant. Because the “traditional” way to rank websites has been replaced by social media activities there needed to be a way to create AUTHORITY. That is why Google + had 300 million users join in the first 24 months!

The preferred learning medium for people younger than 30, which is half the world's population, is video. YouTube serves up 1 billion short videos every day! When people want to know about something, they search YouTube for the answer. YouTube is the world's second most popular search engine. You probably need a YouTube channel... We will show you why.

Twitter is the most misunderstood of the Social Media platforms. Every major TRADITIONAL media outlet has a Twitter presence... what do they know you don't? After this session you will look again at how Twitter is such a valuable addition to your marketing mix.

Instagram launched in Oct 2010 and now has 500 million users who have uploaded 20 billion photos, becoming a social-media phenomenon with an average of 60 million being uploaded per day. Top brands using Instagram include Starbucks, Red Bull and Burberry. Here in Australia, Lorna Jane, Cotton On, Quicksilver, Big W and many more are using Instagram heavily. Brands are using Instagram to communicate with their customers on yet another social media level, as it turns out the platform is more effective than Facebook or Twitter.

Pinterest is a relatively new social networking site that is fun, easy, and catching on the hype right now. It allows users to create online image collages, then quickly and easily share those collages – called “pin boards” – with other Pinterest users. Pinterest is great for pinning up the items from your store and letting users see what you have available in the catalogue.

Klout measures how popular someone is on social media on a scale of 1 to 100 Its scoring algorithm measures some 400 different factors are taken into account along with 12 social metrics. The higher your Klout the more influence you have when you post to applications like Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and more...

Learn how to improve your Klout and learn about these platforms and tools and many more

• TweetDeck
• HootSuite
• Bufferapp
• Tripadvisor
• Cloudbooster
• Triberr
• Kred
• Meerkat
• Quora
• Empire Avenue
• Scoop.it
• Periscope
• Foursquare and Swarm
• Flickr

You will learn:

Facebook Tips and Tricks including:

• What are the advantages and disadvantages of individual profiles, fan pages and groups as they relate to your business?
• Business apps will increase your chances of sales
• How to integrate your web site with your Facebook account
• What marketing strategy should you use for your Facebook presence
• How to automate some of the activities and the best way to do that
• How to schedule using Facebook and Bufferapp

Google+ Basics

• How search engine relevance will depend on your Google + rating
• How to use Google + to build your brand and personal authority
• With 1 billion Gmail accounts, you can’t ignore Google + because it will be everywhere

Video Strategies and Audience Involvement for YouTube and Facebook

• Instructional videos are a front door to your business
• Your OWN YouTube channel will encourage people to trust and buy from you
• Video is easily produced and cameras have been below $100 for some time
• More YouTube videos are better than a few Quality ones
• Relying on SEO?? Google favours video over text that should be reason enough.

Twitter Insider Advantages

• Twitter has changed the way traditional media reports the news
• Cool Twitter tools

Instagram tips

• How to create a business account and link it to Facebook
• Posting pictures
• Followers and Following – the basics
• How to use hashtags
• How to view insights and statistics

Contact us today if you want to come to a Workshop in your City and begin to dominate your industry with your Social Media Presence.

Follow Us On Social Media

As always Jethro is your web, cloud and technology specialists. I am constantly learning new things and spending time researching, playing and testing new systems and reading about other people in the IT world doing the same thing. If you want to follow along with what I share in various spaces, then connect with me:

• Twitter https://twitter.com/spyjournal technology, cycling, social media, management, business, and web
• LinkedIn http://www.linkedin.com/in/jethromanagement
• Delicious https://delicious.com/jethrocon saved links
• Blog http://spyjournal.biz all sorts of stuff including personal and family updates
• Spyjournal Facebook https://www.facebook.com/spyjournal.biz tech, cycling, and other stuff
• Subscribe to our daily Newspaper https://paper.li/spyjournal/1345852972
• Subscribe to our weekly Newspaper https://paper.li/spyjournal/1345853288
• Jethro Management Facebook https://www.facebook.com/JethroManagement business, management, web
• Jethro Marketing Facebook https://www.facebook.com/JethroMarketing social media, marketing
• Dreamcoat Photography Facebook https://www.facebook.com/DreamcoatPhotography
• Dreamsport Photography Facebook https://www.facebook.com/DreamSportPhotography
• Red Hot Snapper Facebook https://www.facebook.com/redhotsnapper roller derby

Advisory Funding from Government

The Queensland Government is providing up to $10k in funding to established Queensland-based small businesses to engage business mentors, coaches, or an advisory board, for 6 to 12 months.

The Accelerate Small Business Grants Program provides targeted assistance to small businesses that demonstrate high-growth and employment aspirations, to engage high-level expertise for their business.

Already many people who have wanted to work with us have requested an estimate from us which meets the criteria outlined, so they can put in an application for this grant.

Matching funding of up to $10,000 (excluding GST) may be provided to eligible businesses to engage business mentors, coaches, or an advisory board, for 6 to 12 months. The funding must be matched by a cash contribution from the participating business.

Eligibility criteria

To be eligible for this grant, the business must:

• have a minimum trading history of 4 years
• have a minimum turnover of $750,000
• have a maximum headcount of 20 employees at the time of application
• have an Australian Business Number (ABN)
• have Queensland headquarters or significant Queensland operations
• have competitive opportunities in domestic or international markets
• be experiencing growth and have clearly defined high-growth opportunities
• declare if any owners or directors of the business are, or have previously been, bankrupt or insolvent.

This grant is targeted at established Queensland-based small businesses that are financially sound and have the potential for high-growth over the next 1 to 2 years. High-growth is generally considered to be a 20% increase in turnover or employment. The participant must have a business plan in place, and the capacity to access finance to fund the growth of their business.

Participating businesses will need to have a clearly defined opportunity and plan for growth, and demonstrate how engaging external advice will allow the business to achieve these goals.

Only 1 application per year will be accepted from an individual ABN or business address.

Important dates

Applications opened on 25 October 2016 and may be lodged until the annual budget is fully allocated. At this time, the round will close and a new round will open at the beginning of the next financial year.

The participating business must provide a progress report after 3 months and a final report on completion of the project outlining:

• the advice received
• how the advice has been implemented
• the impact on the business
• the results and outcomes achieved.
• Businesses will be surveyed 12 months after the completion of the project.

Who should apply

It is expected that participating businesses will be seeking support to manage and finance their business expansion which may include, but is not limited to:

• increasing employment
• improving management processes and systems to increase productivity and efficiency
• introducing product process or systems innovations
• entering new markets
• increasing turnover/sales.

To review the eligibility criteria, see the Queensland Government web page.

Contact us today if you want to improve your website and social media presence and establish your expertise in your marketplace.

Office 365 Updates

Lots and lots of changes and updates in Office 365 since my last newsletter. Here are just a few:

Mobile Push Notifications for One Drive for Business and SharePoint

Mobile Push Notifications for OneDrive for Business and SharePoint is a new Office 365 feature. We are currently rolling this out to all customers and we expect to have this rollout completed by December 31, 2016

This new feature will allow end users to receive mobile push notifications when other people share files and folders with them from OneDrive for Business and SharePoint Online. Because there will be some data, including the user and file name, passed through Google Cloud Messaging and Apple Push Notification Service, we have also enabled an admin toggle to disable any mobile notifications about content changes in your tenant.

New feature: Copy files and folders from OneDrive to SharePoint

We’re adding the ability to copy files and folders from OneDrive for Business to SharePoint team sites and Office 365 groups.

Users will see this new feature when they select a file in OneDrive for Business and click Copy to. In the Choose destination pane, users will see their SharePoint sites and Office 365 groups in the Recent, Frequent, and Followed lists. Currently, this feature has a 50-MB file size limit. Support for copying larger files is in the works and expected to be fully rolled out by early next year.

New Feature: Focused Inbox – Replacing Clutter

Focused Inbox is a new feature coming to Office 365. Focused Inbox helps you take control of your inbox and focus on the emails that matter most. This is coming to all versions of Outlook that receive updates, to give you one consistent view of the important items in your inbox.

Focused Inbox provides two filtered views of your inbox; Focused and Other. Emails that matter most to you are viewed in the Focused tab while the rest remain easily accessible, but out of the way, in the Other tab. You’ll be informed about new emails appearing in the “Other” tab filtered view, and you can switch between tabs (views) at any time to take a quick look. However, all emails remain in your inbox; no emails are moved. Focused Inbox is a refinement and improvement of a previous feature called Clutter. Active Clutter users will have to opt-in to Focused Inbox, and will be able to do so from an in-app prompt in Outlook.
More info about the removal of Clutter here

Welcome to the 37^th edition of this newsletter. Did you realise that if you wrote a fortnightly newsletter to your clients that you would have 26 great articles a year to post on your website that demonstrate your expertise in your field of specialty? That creates amazing google juice for improving your SEO and website enquiries. Talk to use about disruptive selling techniques using digital marketing skills. More information below.

Disruptive Selling

Don Schultz, professor emeritus-in-service at Northwestern University, is often considered the pioneering thinker in the discipline of integrated marketing communications. At 80 years old he is still actively challenging conventional wisdom and advocating for change within the marketing profession.

In a recent interview with Forbes he says this:

…unfortunately very few organizations have learned, is it all starts with the customer. The big problem that most organizations have is they’ve all fallen in love with their products and they want to go tell people about it. They want to say, “Look what we’ve done. Look what we’ve made. Look at how important we are.”

He suggests instead that

…the first thing they ask you is, “What are you trying to do? What problem are you trying to solve?” They start with the customer and then work from there. Very few organizations are prepared to do that.

Bruce Rasmussen from Carpe Diem here in Australia has been teaching those who want to learn about disruptive selling and the new buyers journey.

Here at Jethro we help our customers wrap their heads around these concepts in relation to their business and how to apply technology to better market to their customers. As mentioned in the opening paragraph a blog site full of expert information answering new buyer’s questions before they even need to know them along with customer testimonials can help establish you as the go to source when they have their status quo shattered and need your product and service now!

Contact us today if you want to improve your website and social media presence and establish your expertise in your marketplace.

How to use Office 365 for Email

There are so many parts to Office 365 it can sometimes be confusing where to start. We often get asked by clients if they should be using SharePoint or OneDrive for Business for example.

Rather than describe each area I prefer to start with the common workloads people have and explain which are the best tools for each. Just as a landscape gardener might have a shovel, a bob cat and a backhoe each can be used to do the same job different ways and with different capacity, so the components of Office 365 often overlap.

Lets’ start with the most common requirements information workers have today. Ill cover off these over a few newsletters. Today we will start with email.

Email

We all receive lots of emails every day but there are different sorts of emails, and they have different functions. There are at least 5 places we can store and access email. However, there is one primary differentiator.

Does the email need to be seen and acted on by multiple people or just one person?

Personal emails should be sent and received using a user accounts personal email address – e.g. john.doe@yourdomain.com. Microsoft Exchange in Office 365 gives each user a 50GB mailbox and also an archive capacity that is dependent on the licence. (Kiosk users get 2GB). The best place to store these emails is in your personal email account.

For emails to be accessed by multiple people there are numerous places and the scenarios are a bit more complex so I’ll use a table to demonstrate some of these scenarios and the email location.

Hopefully that gives you some ideas of how to sue the different places to store, send and receive emails from.

Contact us if you need help configuring or using any of these Mailboxes, Groups or Public Folders.

Follow Us On Social Media

As always Jethro is your web, cloud and technology specialists. I am constantly learning new things and spending time researching, playing and testing new systems and reading about other people in the IT world doing the same thing. If you want to follow along with what I share in various spaces, then connect with me:

• Twitter https://twitter.com/spyjournal technology, cycling, social media, management, business, and web
• LinkedIn http://www.linkedin.com/in/jethromanagement
• Delicious https://delicious.com/jethrocon  saved links
• Blog http://spyjournal.biz  all sorts of stuff including personal and family updates
• Spyjournal Facebook https://www.facebook.com/spyjournal.biz tech, cycling, and other stuff
• Subscribe to our daily Newspaper https://paper.li/spyjournal/1345852972
• Subscribe to our weekly Newspaper https://paper.li/spyjournal/1345853288
• Jethro Management Facebook https://www.facebook.com/JethroManagement  business, management, web
• Jethro Marketing Facebook https://www.facebook.com/JethroMarketing social media, marketing
• Dreamcoat Photography Facebook https://www.facebook.com/DreamcoatPhotography
• Dreamsport Photography Facebook https://www.facebook.com/DreamSportPhotography
• Red Hot Snapper Facebook https://www.facebook.com/redhotsnapper roller derby

For businesses that want to capture new opportunities and create a competitive advantage, Telstra Cloud Services provide end-to-end solutions that scale up or down as needed.

Telstra has a Cloud Partner Program made up of leading industry ICT partners to help them develop and deliver the right cloud solutions for their customers. As a Telstra Partner Jethro Consultants has access to many digital products and services as well as great back end support for our customers.

Telstra Apps Marketplace is the next evolution of Telstra’s T-Suite Applications service, providing new services and capabilities to our customers and partners. The marketplace is one-stop shop and management portal, making it easier than ever to find, buy, and use leading cloud-based business, mobile and communications applications hand-picked by Telstra.^

Key features of the marketplace include a single intuitive and user friendly platform to manage applications and users; 1-click trial - no requirement for customers to provide billing details for trials; end-user access and single-sign-on capability to most applications from one central location. In addition, Telstra partners can buy and manage applications on customers’ behalf.

The following applications are currently available via the Apps Marketplace: *

• Box - stores and organises business information such as sales presentations and videos in a simple and safe way. Access and share it with colleagues and partners from a compatible mobile device, at work or on the move.
• DocuSign - lets you sign documents electronically from compatible tablets or smartphones and provides a full audit trail of the signing process.
• Deputy - lets businesses take control of their rostering by assigning, monitoring and communicating to employees via a simple, easy to use interface.
• Shoeboxed - an expense management app that allows customers to turn their paper receipts into usable data for tax and expense reporting.
• Zunos - gives your customers employees access to specific content and tools on their compatible smartphone or tablet.
• Canvas - an easy and economical way for businesses to find, customise and create digital forms on their compatible smartphone or tablet.
• GeoOp - job dispatch and management software including GPS Maps Job Scheduling and Management and Data Capture.
• MozyPro® - online computer data backup service that gives you and your users the capability to backup and restore data files to and from servers or users’ computers on your computer system for an agreed period of time.
• Symantec - a range of Symantec™ information security and information management products.
• McAfee - A comprehensive desktop and server security solution that provides up-to-date virus protection even when your staff are working remotely.
• Work Guardian - makes it easier for customers to manage staff or cope with the compliance or changes to employment law.
• Domain Names - offers business customers a simple web address and an identity online.
• Website Services - a range of self-service tools and design services to build a small business website.
• Website Hosting - allows you to host your website with Telstra
• Microsoft Online Services Specialised Pricing - Telstra provides specialised pricing for customers seeking Microsoft® Online Services in certain scenarios
• Mural - Mural services are designed to accelerate application implementation and improve customer satisfaction.
• Onboard 365 - A migration, setup and ongoing support service for customers purchasing applications through the Telstra Apps Marketplace.  
• Time Tracker - Time Tracker Business App helps you manage and track your time, billing, payroll and expenses anywhere, anytime.
• iWebGate Workspace Suite - Is a suite of virtualised network services securely integrated into a single software platform managed through the Virtual Services Platform (VSP).
• Neto Online Store - is a Telstra Digital Commerce solution that enables businesses to build and maintain online stores.
• Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online - It’s an online customer relationship management (CRM) App

As a Telstra Partner we are authorised to sell any of these services to our customers with the following provisos:

• Customers must be an Australian business and have an ABN or ACN to create an account.
• Customers can choose to bill to Telstra bill (Flexcab only) or Credit Card
• Customer must be vetted as an authorised representative and be authorised to add services to the nominated Telstra (Flexcab) account.

We also use several of the applications on this list as a customer and can provide you with scenarios and case studies to show how you can benefit from these services.

* Apps list as of 26 May 2016

^ Accessibility and functionality of the Telstra Apps Marketplace and its applications may be affected by the internet connection, browser and computer system the customer is using.