Does Ransomware Make you Want to Cry?

How Hacker Threats are Turning the Internet into a Financial Minefield

Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

By Hector Cisneros

Every year since 2011, we have been writing about the tremendous threat that internet hacking poses. The number of hacks has continuously gone up every year since then. The financial cost has skyrocketed, and the number of lives this menace affects is mind boggling. In this episode of Working the Web to Win, we will cover how this threat exploits your digital life, we will explore new ways to protect yourself, and we will provide a checklist of items that must be deployed to stop these hack attacks in their tracks.

Is It time to Cut the Cord on Cable and Satellite TV?

By Hector Cisneros

Courtesy of  Flickr

I have heard it said that “life is short and then….” You fill in the blank! As an advertising executive, I strive to understand the motives of consumers. What drives us to do things in life? What are our wants and desires? As humans, we have many things that drive us, and our wants and desires can be endless. Having said that, I know that most of us value time and money the most, (I’m excluding love and our survival needs for food, water and air because they are subjects for another story).  Many value money because it is a universal means of exchanging goods and services. But, there is one thing that everyone values more than anything else, and that is time. Time can only be spent once, and it is very hard to extend your time of play when you’re getting close to game over.

This brings me to my point. Today’s broadcast TV market is shrinking, not because people are addicted to their digital devices. They are switching to watching their digital devices because it saves them time. It also provides them a better way to control and allocate their time and money. It puts them in charge of what, when and how they watch TV! In this episode of Working the Web to Win, we will explore why, when and how to cut the cable and satellite TV cord so that you can watch TV anytime you want, (and save some money along the way).  So, put down your remote and get your scissors out so that you too can cut the cord and watch digital TV on your own terms.

Top Tips and Tools to Make Your Next Online Presentation Sizzle

By Hector Cisneros

Courtesy of Flickr

Have you ever wanted to know how to expand your reach, audience and customer base? Most of us who engage in word of mouth networking know that doing a presentation in front of your networking group is a great opportunity to educate the crowd, expand your reach and obtain leads and new customers. What if you could do that same thing without any drive time, gasoline cost or having to set up in an unfamiliar room? Well, you can accomplish this by providing your presentation online. In this episode of Working the Web to Win, we will cover the basics needed for any good presentation, then explore several of the best online presentation tools, plus provide some useful ideas to make those presentations work overtime for you.

To Follow or Not to Follow – That is the Social Media Question?

Here’s How to Determine “If and When” you should Follow Someone Back in Social Media

By Hector Cisneros

Courtesy of Pixabay

Several years ago, a friend asked me, ‘how do you know who to follow,” after I told him that I was engaged in social media development and marketing. The question he asked was a good one because, at that time, most of what I was doing in the social media arena was new to everyone. In fact, we were in an era of discovery, testing untried techniques and methods. I quickly realized how similar social media development was to word of mouth networking, so it dawned on me to apply word of mouth marketing principles to the new social media phenomena. This application proved to be fruitful, but it did not address the need for rules for who to connect with and who to avoid. If you're engaged in social media development, you have to connect with people. Social media means following and unfollowing people, groups and businesses. This happens on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Google+, LinkedIn, and when you blog (whether it’s on WordPress, Blogger, Tumblr or another platform). In this episode of Working the Web to Win, we will explore why we need to use social media to connect with others, who we need to be following, (making connections) and who we need to avoid (undesirables). Take out your highlighter and get ready to lay down some yellow lines as we take a deep dive into who to follow and why, along with how to avoid following those pesky undesirables.

Avoid Being Cheated by Online Advertising Companies

Courtesy of Flickr

How Businesses are Changing the Way They Spend Advertising Money

By Hector Cisneros

Over the past seven years, I have been writing about the latest trends in online marketing and advertising. Many things have happened, and changes are as constant as change itself. What doesn’t seem to change is the fact that major marketing players keep trying to stack the deck in their favor without regard for the return on investment that they provide businesses. Recently, Google made lots of negative headlines because they were serving up ads on inappropriate YouTube channels for some of their biggest corporate clients. It’s easy to understand the sensational headlines when a large corporation pulls millions in ad money from the likes of Google or Facebook. However, little is said when millions of small company’s websites take it on the chin because Google changes its search algorithm or Facebook policy flip-flops canceling ads running mid campaign. If you consider how these advertising giants wield absolute control over how business is advertised online, you quickly start to realize that you must have a plan B in place if you want to succeed. In this episode of Working the Web to Win, we will explore the current state of online advertising. We will ask the question, “How can businesses protect themselves from the power these mega advertising giants wield?” We will provide the steps needed to make sure you have a good plan B in place so that you will get your money’s worth.

How Nonprofit organizations Can Get The Most Out of Social Media

Courtesy of  Flickr

Includes 24 Tips and Best Practices

By Hector Cisneros

A couple of years ago I was asked by the Clay County Chamber to put together a panel of social media experts so we could put on a Clay Chamber University program to help its members better understand and utilize social networking. The panel had five members who contributed topics, questions and answers to be used during the program. A moderator would bring up the questions, and each panelist would then elaborate on their perspective answer. Members of the audience could also ask questions and receive answers directly from the panel. The program was a huge success, and it prompted me to later write my hit article called; Social Media Tips, Tricks and Best Practices from the Pros. This article remains very popular and can be very useful for anyone trying to maximize their return on social media marketing. In this article, I will focus my coverage on helping nonprofits maximize their return. So, get ready to share these tips, tricks and best practices with your favorite charitable organizations as we explore how nonprofits can get the most out of social media marketing.

The Latest Tax & New IRS Scams Attacking US

By Hector E. Cisneros

Courtesy of  Flickr

They say that the only sure things in life are death and taxes. Well, I‘m here to add a new one to this list, tax scams! Every year starting around January the scam artists ratchet up their scam machines and start grilling the elderly, desperate and greedy who are naive enough to believe what these conmen are selling. Every year they seem to get better at their schemes, so this year I thought I would give our readers a heads up on the latest and scariest Tax and IRS scams being perpetrated on the US population. So, sharpen your pencils tax preparers and learn about the latest Tax and IRS scams lurking on the World Wide Web.

Is Social Media More Powerful Than Face to Face Networking

Courtesy of Flickr

By Hector Cisneros

Most people are aware that social media shares, comments, and ratings have the biggest impact on the reputation of products and services provided by businesses today. Yet there are many who believe that social media will never replace face to face networking. I believe that most of us would agree that word of mouth is the most valuable form of advertising, right? Well, what if you could maximize your social media word of mouth by systematically using the tools that social media provides. What do you think would happen to your sales, reputation and the growth of your business? In this episode of Working the Web to Win we will explore how to use social media tools and techniques to maximize your positive word of mouth and grow your business. We will answer the questions of why this is important, how you go about building trust and credibility and how to use social equity to get more sales. We will also try and answer the question of which is the most powerful form of word of mouth marketing. So, get ready and fire up your Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn engines as we explore the many ways to maximize word of mouth in social media.