Cloud Marketing is traditional marketing plus software as a service (SAAS). This is supported by a third party dedicated to maintaining the platform. Through utilising such services companies are able to gain revenue by leveraging market awareness, lead generation as well as benefitting from the inherent value already contained within the Cloud platform itself.

Cloud Marketing as a concept involves the migration of all marketing assets into the Cloud. Such migration allows all parties involved to access material as well as create, modify and share.

The argument for Cloud Marketing is the same as that for general Cloud Computing. Simply put, by using a third party, companies have the ability to concentrate on day-to-day operations. An outside company will look after the back-end system giving the company the freedom to concentrate on innovation.

As software and internet companies boost revenue through Cloud marketing there has been a huge land rush of new applications which would not be viable any other way.

One example of Cloud Marketing can be highlighted by a franchise business which has to train partners in how best to sell it’s products. Such a platform may be individually tailored to allow for different levels of expertise giving partners access to video tutorials, white papers and marketing tips. Partners with limited knowledge would have access to a vast library of information developed at the vendor level. There would also be a further benefit from instant help based on market research and brand quality.

There are now many marketing platforms emerging such as Hootsuite which are allowing teams of marketers to collaborate through the likes of Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and WordPress. Such platforms are especially useful to SMBs which are always looking to cut overheads and outsource at reasonable rates.

Cloud based platforms are leading to a whole host of online developments which are allowing businesses to have increased connectivity and streamline efficiency. With such advantages so imminent businesses not using such services will not be able to avoid the move for long.

Cloud Marketing is a post from Backup Technology's Blog. Contact us today for further information on our Online Backup and Business Continuity services.

The way to best solve the problem is not to block Twitter but instead to instruct employees on how it can be used safely, according to Symantec.

The most common way to exploit Twitter users and get them to visit malicious sites is to piggyback on a trending topic, cut out the relevant shortened link and replace it with a similarly shortened link that,instead, sends those who click it to a site which could damage systems, breach security and steal data.

Symantec’s Candid Wueest, said that many Twitter users were unable to differentiate between safe links and those which could be potentially harmful. Wueest pointed out that even when ostensibly reputable websites were the subject of a link, it was possible for the criminals to have hijacked the address and therefore spread viruses and malware in relative secret.

Wueest said that one option to combat the threat from Twitter is to keep up to date security software on all work computers, although this is not the only remedy for the problem.

The operators of Twitter itself are also working to limit the impact of malicious links if not eradicate them completely, by allowing users the chance to expand shortened links before they visit them in order to check up on their veracity. The doubling up of URL shorteners might potentially bypass this technique, but Twitter is hoping to overcome any of these basic circumventions that criminals will attempt.

URL shortening has become prevalent in spam of all kinds, with around 18 per cent of malicious emails sent this year containing a shortened link, which is twice as many as in the previous year according to Symantec.

Twitter tuition suggested to minimise risks to businesses is a post from Backup Technology's Blog. Contact us today for further information on our Online Backup and Business Continuity services.

This would be fine if the account wasn’t active but strangely it is and has over 35,000 followers despite a measly two status updates. The account is also following neo and TomFulp although it’s hard to believe he can see their updates or even log in to post some more.

The screenshot above was taken from the Google cached version of the page which means that Twitter is displaying different content to Google than they are to real users. This isn’t as sinister as it sounds because they aren’t doing it by detecting the Googlebot user agent – it’s just because the search engines spider doesn’t accept cookies.

Interestingly a lot of users are Tweeting the phrase “@home” to mean they are “at home”. I doubt they are aware that @home is actually a real Twitter user.

Mysterious Twitter user “home” has 35,000 followers and an invisible account is a post from Backup Technology's Blog. Contact us today for further information on our Online Backup and Business Continuity services.