Cybersecurity is expensive.  Ignoring cybersecurity is even more expensive. Every business, from the enterprise to the mom and pop shop, has been warned:  invest in virus protection, cybersecurity services and applications because once a network is breeched – it’s a virtual feeding frenzy and cyber criminals can easily violate and exploit the confidential data of customer credit cards, employee social security numbers and other important information. Target,  St. Jude’s, Apple, Delta Airlines are just a few of the high profile companies and organizations that have wrestled with cybercrime on a very public stage.

The Cybersecurity Market Report has published a definitive study on the cost and spending of cybersecurity and the numbers are a sobering reminder of the dangerous world we live in.  The report stated that from the five-year period of 2017 – 2021, worldwide cybersecurity spending will exceed one trillion.  Getting to more accurate numbers is a problem as “IT analysts are unable to keep pace with the dramatic rise in cybercrime …” reported Steve Morgan, Editor-in-chief of Cybersecurity Ventures.

Morgan says that analysts predict a 12 to 17-percent year over year growth in cybersecurity spending in the next five years.  Already, high-profile companies such as J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. are doubling their cybersecurity spending from $250 million to $500 million and Bank of American has publicly declared their spending on cybersecurity is “unlimited.”  IBM  and Cisco have also announced their increased spending in cybersecurity and “…both are … making strategic acquisitions in the space,” says Morgan. Governments are investing in cybersecurity as well:  the U.S. has increased its budget on cybersecurity by 35-percent to $19 billion in 2017.

The security firm,  SANS Institute, reports that “…cost line items to justify expenditures or document trends can be difficult because security activities cut across many business areas, including human resources, training and help desk.”  According to a SANS report, most organizations fold their security budgets into another cost center including compliance and general operations. Therefore, predictions regarding security related spending have varied so that some figures forecasts $500-$700 billion in over the five year period versus a trillion.

Morgan points out that many analysts neglect to dive into more specific areas of security spending such as “aviation security, automotive security, IoT security, and IIoT (Industrial Internet of Things) security” continues Morgan. All of those market segments combined make up the cybersecurity market.”

Given the rampant increase in cybercrime, some companies are seeing the opportunities to offer services and products to combat cybercrime. Morgan says that that in addition to the traditional  technology firms that usually are called upon for disaster recovery and malware protection, law firms and insurance companies are just a few of the industries joining the fray to offer cybersecurity services.

Consumers are also being targeted as identity theft becomes more rampant.  Morgan says businesses are providing “non-covered spending” such as personal identity theft protection services, computer and mobile phone repair services specific to malware and virus removal, installation of anti-virus and malware protection software, post-breach services including data recovery and user education on best practices for personal cyber defense.

Your business’s online presence is a key component to building its reputation. Without a constellation of social media accounts, online reviews, and mobile-friendly options, your business is essentially invisible online.

However, as valuable as these are, they can also be risky. For example, if one angry response to a bad review goes viral, suddenly you’re the laughingstock of the Internet.

But it’s not just dings to your reputation you have to worry about. The Internet now gives you and your employees ample opportunities to make missteps that can lead to lawsuits. Let’s take a look at some of these risky interactions and how to avoid them. [Read more…]

Yelpers have written more than 108 million reviews by the end of Q2 2016. Yelp uses automated software to recommend the most helpful and reliable reviews for the Yelp community among the millions we get. The software looks at dozens of different signals, including various measures of quality, reliability, and activity on Yelp.

A recent lawsuit and subsequent ruling over whether or not negative posts on Yelp about a law firm should be removed, are causing a free speech debate and raising the eyebrows of the likes of Microsoft, Facebook and others.

Two years ago, a judge ruled the posts removed and some technology industry pundits worry that this particular “ruling against Yelp could stifle free speech online.”  Lawyers for the law firm are surprised by the outrage and have said that the case is about removing posts that “lie” on Yelp –which would not affect users’ abilities to draft negative or positive reviews. [Read more…]

Managing a corporation’s reputation is no small task in today’s often complicated world of instant online communications.  The internet and social media sites such as Glassdoor and LinkedIn – not to mention the myriad of blogs and traditional media, makes the process of monitoring and managing a corporate reputation a formidable task that requires a serious strategic investment of time and budget, not to mention, proactive planning.

Many experts are of the same mindset: if a corporation assigns a dedicated and cross-functional reputation management team, risks can be managed and mitigated more easily.  If that team is not in place – reacting to a crisis may well be more-costly and harmful to the company’s reputation and even bottom-line. CR magazine reports, “… since risks can emerge from any area, a variety of perspectives is ideal for identifying and addressing reputational risk.”  This can include the PR and marketing teams but also departments such as security, legal, finance, quality control and much more. [Read more…]

Ryan Lochte, a 12-time Olympic medalist and the second ranked American swimming champion behind Michael Phelps, is battling an international PR crisis and criminal charges.

Lochte is accused by Rio de Janeiro authorities of literally crying wolf.  The swimmer claims that he and three other swimmers were robbed at gun point by thieves dressed as officers of the law.  However, as the Atlantic reports, “Officers in Brazil found security tape of the moment when Lochte and swimmers Gunnar Bentz, Jack Conger, and James Feigen stopped at a gas station, and instead of a robbery, they said the three swimmers vandalized a bathroom.” [Read more…]

The Pew Research Center recently published a new study to illustrate the increasing amount of people searching for work online.  As a matter of fact, the study stated that many are not just using personal computers to search for work and write resumes, but are using mobile devices as well – even for basic job hunting tasks, such as filling out an application.

Pew found that “Americans who have looked for work in the last two years, 79% utilized online resources in their most recent job search and 34% say these online resources were the most important tool available to them.” Many job seekers admit that the internet is one the most important resources when looking for work.  It may come as little surprise that the younger the demographic, the higher the propensity to use online and mobile sources.

The Pew study said that the largest group to use social media and online sources were 18-29 year olds, followed by 30-49 year olds.

[Read more…]

It might not be a surprise any longer, but smartphones are moving ahead of PCs or laptops as the digital device of choice for a majority of users.  A survey of 2,147 U.S. adults by Local Search Association (LSA) and Thrive Analytics cited several statistics to show why and how mobile phones have become so important.

LSA said that Mobile Fanatics (active users) tend to shop – a lot – and that 60-percent of adults use their smartphones for information on where to go and find products and services.

LSA also cited the US Commerce Department, which said that “roughly 70% of the nearly $18 trillion US GDP is driven by consumer spending that occurs within 20 miles of home or work.”  In 2014, $300 million of that was e-commerce (still lagging behind offline shopping) but the number demonstrates the increasing importance of online retailing and the numbers growing even higher as mobile users are increasing their activities along with the heightened e-commerce numbers.  LSA stated that “…40 percent of consumers use a desktop PC or laptop when looking for local information online, a nine percent decrease from 2014.” [Read more…]

Do you ever wonder how your customers find you?  In today’s digital age, this seems to an easy answer, Google Analytics and Adwords provides a lot of valuable tools that business owners can use to gain insight, but the issue is there are so many ways to promote a business that figuring out the ones that get the most conversions and create customer loyalty in a fragmented online marketplace is the multi-billion dollar question.

MarketingSherpa recently highlighted a Chart of the Week where they displayed the findings from a survey of 2,147 U.S. adults to help identify effective channels for local marketing.

The big winner in this survey showed that when it came to searching for local businesses or services, search engines won out – 65% indicated that search engines is the first place they would turn look for a business.  That said while 65% is nothing to sneeze at, MarketingSherpa did mention that there were still 30-percent of people NOT looking at search engines.  So where are they going? [Read more…]

Over the past 20 years, email and text messages have become an important part of people’s work and everyday communications.  Not a moment goes by when people are not getting emails from friends, co-workers or the myriad mailing lists they may have signed up for to hear the latest national news, special sales or industry specific information.

So if you are business owner or manager who wants to grow your email list for more customer acquisition and add to the never-ending list of emails that people receive each day, how do you go about doing that?  And even more importantly, how do you grow a qualified email list that is beneficial to both the customer and your company?

Many companies use several methods to grow their email lists.  MarketingSharpa for instance produced a number of charts that demonstrated that tactics such as Website registration, Facebook registration, online events and other methods seemed to be the most effective means to expand an email list.

MarketingSharpa also interviewed Mary Abrahamson of Ferguson Enterprises, to get her thoughts on expanding a company email list.

Abrahamson said, “I feel a lot of marketers answer these questions with the thought of ‘What was easiest to implement?’ or ‘How am I going to get the most people?’ However, having this type of thought-process isn’t always most effective when it comes to choosing your email acquisition strategy.” [Read more…]