The best way to know how ones online business is doing is by allowing customers to leave feedback.  Many businesses are incorporating blogs into their web sites to not only disseminate information but to also engage with their customers.  While the gain is knowledge in what works and what needs to be fixed, the downside is the opening up of the floodgates known as spamming and trolling.

Spam

Spam is defined at the sending of unsolicited bulk messages.  This form of abuse can take place in a forum, Usenet newsgroup, wiki, instant messaging program, e-mail or blog.  The messages sent usually have no tie-in or bearing on the conversation at the time and quite often are used to sell a product or service.  The costs of such unrequested messaging is one that is borne by the web site owners and ISPs (Internet Service Providers).  Fortunately, the growing trend has been to prosecute those found guilty of spamming online entities.

Troll

In the same vein but not for the same reasons, trolls are those who actively participate in online conversations with the sole purpose of creating controversy.  Trolls will purposely leave off-topic and inflammatory comments in the hopes of invoking an emotional response and thereby completely disrupting the conversation.  In its most basic form, trolling is simply a form of harassment.

Prevention

For the prevention of e-mail spam, many experts suggest a number of tips.  The first of these is creating an alias email address that can be replaced when needed.  This e-mail address can be listed out on public web sites and, should it become compromised, tossed and replaced with a new alias.  Never use the “unsubscribe” link that is quite often offered within spam e-mails.  These links are used to authenticate e-mail addresses and will ensure further spam will ensue.

To effectively prevent spam or trolls from infiltrating a web site, many web site software programs used for online communications will often come equipped with spam filtering or “comment jailing”.  A great example is WordPress.  This blogging program will allow web site owners to set all comments to being placed in a monitoring pool.  Once the owner has perused the comments recently left, they can be either approved or be marked as spam.  WordPress also allows web site owners to see the IP addresses used by spammers – great for reporting issues to ISPs should the need arise.

“Do not feed the trolls” is a phrase often used when faced with trolling behavior.  Basically, if the troll is ignored, they will eventually give up and move on.  However, if the behavior is having a negative effect on a web site and needs to be placed under control immediately, the use of post or comment moderating that is standard with most blog, bulletin board and other online communications programs should allow a web site owner to quickly and efficiently get things back under control.

Final Thoughts

The bottom line is that with a business web site that is geared toward communicating with its customers, spam and trolling will occur.  A bit of prevention and a lot of monitoring will go a long way to ensuring the issues do not get out of hand.

When it comes to having a profitable business online, there are dozens of small and large items owners need to attend to when ensuring high visibility.  One extremely valuable asset to ensuring a popular business web site is the incorporation of social media tools.  Twitter, Facebook and even blogs have proven to be effective tools when keeping in contact with one’s customers and clients.

It is all well and fine to purchase a domain, rent some web space, create a web site and toss in some social media links.  The work actually begins when trying to keep in touch with customers and in tracking how effective different social media outlets are proving themselves to be.  As there is already enough work simply in keeping a business web site running properly, there is not enough time to go to every social media site to trend and conversation watch.  What is the solution?

The solution

uberVU aims to be the perfect solution for cross site and multiple social media tool tracking.  This web site tracks conversations as they occur across many different sites.  For example, a product announcement may be sent out via a business blog and, once read by an avid customer, its web link is sent out to Twitter.  Another Twitter user and happy customer may come across the sent tweet and post this out to his or her Facebook announcement area.  There is now one product announcement generated across three different social media types.

The beauty of uberVU is its simplicity and ease of use.  Signing up for uberVU is a quick and painless operation made even simpler by allowing new users to login using either a Twitter, Facebook or Google account.  Already time is saved within the sign up process with this web site.

How it works

Once signed up with uberVU, users can type in a URL or keyword(s) into a search bar and efficiently and quickly track exactly what they desire.  The site incorporates analytics to see which social media types are being used most often.  These analytics can be downloaded and used in presentations or PDF files (paid users only).  Each conversation that pertains to the URL or keyword can be followed through to each social media site.  Searches can be saved (1 for free users, more for paid users) for continuous monitoring purposes.  The time saved alone is worth the cost of a paid account.

The uberVU web site offers four types of accounts.  The free account allows for one saved search, does not allow for analytic information to be downloaded, and any reply from within uberVU to any part of the searched conversations will contain a URL link back to the uberVU web site.  The three paid accounts range from $19.99 to $149.99 a month and allow for larger numbers of saved searches, varying amounts of analytical data that can be downloaded, and each paid account is free of any URL links within replies.

Final Thoughts

Knowing how effective an online business is can be key to ensuring an increase in new customers and knowing that existing customers are satisfied.  Effectively using social media within a business web site and monitoring the outcome of these tools is a step in this direction.  Take uberVU for a test drive with a free account and see what this trend tracking web site can do for your online business.

It is a constant struggle trying to bring more customers to a web site.  Many of the options available to site owners that can effectively bring in more business are often things they have no control over (search engines, for instance).  One very effective and much more personalized way to help facilitate raising awareness of one’s business is by using social media.  With the large number and types of social media on the web, knowing which one will work the best for one’s business is the hardest part.

Forms and style of social media

There are quite a few forms of social media and within those forms there are several technologies involved.  Reviews and opinions, collaboration, communication and multimedia are some of the core styles of social media.  Communication is one of the more popular styles – blogs, micro-blogging, events, and social networking can be listed among this style type.  As the purpose is to “get the word out” about one’s business, the social media style type of choice is communication.

Micro-blogging and Twitter

Micro-blogging is the sending of short text updates, sometimes including a photo or short audio/video clip.  This is an extremely effective way to communicate to a large audience without losing their interest.  It can be used to disseminate news regarding a company, announce the company’s latest products, or even inform the general public of upcoming sales.  By far one of the most popular micro-blogging sites on the web is Twitter.

Signing up with Twitter is an extremely easy process.  The registration requires a full name (a company name would work as well here), a username (this should also reflect the company or business name), a password, and an email address.  Once these are entered, a new Twitter account is created on the fly.  After an account has been created, the next step is to use one of the available “widgets” that can be found at Twitter’s Goodies page.  There is a widget in place that can be used on a web site and the instructions are very easy to follow.

There are quite a few companies on the web that use Twitter and use it very well.  Comcast, Southwest Airlines, and H&R Block are just a few.  Checking out how these companies have used Twitter to inform and excite the public will enable one to figure out the best Twitter “strategy” for their own business.

Events and Eventful

If the business in question is more geared toward events, performers or avenues, a good choice for a social media outlet would be Eventful.  This service allows people and businesses to share information to the public in regards to upcoming events.  Private and public calendars can be created, events can be searched for and tracked and users can even declare which events they would most like to see in their area.

Much like Twitter, the sign up process for Eventful is simple and instantaneous.  Once the account is created, the user can choose from some popular events, favorite performers and event categories.  After all preferences have been filled out, the user is presented with their main screen.  It is here that a new event can be created.  While Eventful doesn’t present a widget that you can quickly use, they do offer a web services API.  An alternative to this is to simply place a link within the business website, pointing to the Eventful calendar created by the business.

Conclusion

There are dozens upon dozens of more social media applications available that could be used in conjunction with a business web site.  The best way to determine which will work the best for one’s own business is by figuring out exactly what information needs to be presented to the public and which social media venue will get that job done in the best manner.  Check out what other companies and businesses have done with social media and put your business on the social media track.

Microsoft is making its presence felt in the ongoing development of the web.  Its proprietary technologies are being increasingly used to create everything from blogs and e-commerce sites to dynamic business applications and large corporate portals.  One development tool that has Microsoft written all over is a little software package known as Graffiti.

What is Graffiti?

Graffiti is a simply built CMS used to create and manage various types of websites.  In this instance, the CMS abbreviation stands for content made simple.  Some refer to Graffiti as a blogging platform, even though it offers features and functionality that you commonly find in more robust content management systems.  To put it simple, Graffiti offers the power to create a blog or perform basic web content management.  It’s all about what you need the software to do.

Core Technologies

Graffiti is built on the ASP.NET 2.0 framework.  The package is very Microsoft friendly as it supports databases that include MS SQL, MS Access and VistaDB.  A major advantage of its database configuration is that it allows you to easily switch to any of the supported databases without making adjustments to the code itself.  Being scripted in ASP.NET makes Graffiti incredibly easy to install.  Simply copy the code into the IIS virtual directory, tweak a few system settings and you’re done.

Content Management

Graffiti is a simple CMS.  Therefore, it does have some administrative features, but they are not as extensive as what you would find in other systems.  Nevertheless, there are a number of useful features that allow you to easily manage your site and content items.

Site Settings - This lets you set site wide default settings for your website title, tagline, metadata, header and Feedburner links among other elements.

Comments - This lets you set site wide settings for your comments based on criteria such as the Askiment ID, the time period an entry can be commented on and who is allowed to comment on what post.  Even if comments are allowed on a site wide basis, they can still be disabled for specific content entries.

Plugins - Allows you to view, enable and disable the extensions currently incorporated into your site.

Packages – In the world of Graffitti, packages are a collection of components such as plugins, themes, widgets and alert filters.  This setting allows you to manage these elements from a centralized area.

Utilities – This represents a toolkit that allows you to manage your site in various ways.  You can rebuild pages, view log files and access a web-based file browser.

License – Allows you to view and manage the licenses for your relative software.

Keep An Eye on Graffiti

According to Telligent, the software’s developer, Graffiti will undergo major improvements in the very near future.  The company plans to leverage cloud storage as well as a more advanced spam filtering solution.  Look for this CMS to become more extendable as it is made to support a wider variety of themes, widgets and plugins from the developer community.  If you want an easy to use platform that favors the Microsoft .NET stack, Graffiti could be the solution.