Microsoft is recommending that users of Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE) (called Windows Defender on Windows 8) look elsewhere for their future antivirus needs.Originally, it was a top-tier antivirus product, but over time, Microsoft has reduced support for it and have said that they are providing all the virus information they find to 3rd-party antivirus software makers and are no longer seeking to be at the top of the heap.In fact, a Microsoft spokesperson, Holly Stewart, says it’s normal for MSE to be one of the least effective solutions, since by definition other vendors would take... [...]

Jennifer Johnson says, “My mom owned a small business for over 20 years. This meant that growing up, our family vacations had to be planned around “off business” seasons. I often woke up in the early morning hours to hear her problem-solving unexpected challenges over the phone.Nowadays I think about the headaches she could have avoided if she’d had access to even a few of the online business tools that are now commonplace. If could go back in time and share anything to make growing the business easier, I’d do so in an instant.So in homage to her and in recognition of the wealth... [...]

Kerry O’Shea Gorgone says, “As an attorney, I regularly get asked legal questions by my friends. Of particular concern among marketers and PR professionals are copyright and fair use, because those concepts apply to content marketing strategy.I get asked some variation of the same 10 questions on a regular basis, so I’m going to answer them here.1. Can I use someone else’s content (text, image, video, music) on my website if I give them credit?Not unless they’ve given you written permission to use their material, OR you’re willing to spend the money to present... [...]

Matt McGee says, “Your tweets are getting a little more breathing room. Twitter has confirmed plans to stop counting media attachments and @usernames (in replies) against a tweet’s 140-character limit. Links, however, will still count toward the limit.This should be very welcome news for both Twitter users and advertisers. It means more room for text and conversation in each tweet and less frustration for everyone who’s been forced to edit their words in order to fit them inside Twitter’s constraints. Here’s a look at everything that’s changing:Media attachments, but not linksMedia... [...]

Ann Smarty says, “Early this year, mobile technology company Blackberry released a survey that claimed 26 percent of the entire world population was using mobile social media.To put that into perspective, there are currently 7.125 billion people on planet Earth as of a census done in 2013.Let’s round that down to an even seven billion. A 26 percent share of those people would be 1,820,000,000. On the social web, 1,820,000,000 are looking at social media websites through web versions and apps.Just imagine for a second that you manage to reach one percent of that user base with your... [...]

Jayson Demers says, “When you decide to pursue a social media campaign, it’s natural to get a bit excited. You’ve been thinking about the potential returns of social media marketing for a long time, and you want to start earning the rewards as soon as possible. For this reason, many new entrepreneurs and marketers jump in without thinking—and end up wrecking their campaigns before they ever have a chance to get off the ground.The execution of your campaign matters—significantly—but if you haven’t set yourself up with the proper research and foundations, your campaign’s potential... [...]

Daniel Burstein says, “Marketing and advertising are distinct majors in college. Most agencies are advertising agencies, and most departments inside companies that promote the sale of product are marketing departments.Why the distinction? Are these two words synonyms, or is there a real difference?A high-level, ephemeral topic like this isn’t something marketers spend most of their time thinking about. They’re too heads down, focused on budgets and marketing automation and copywriting. I know I am.But I recently started taking MMC 5435: Messaging Strategy and the Centrality of the... [...]

If you invested in Walt Bayliss‘s RunClick software, you will want to be aware of this update he is making. RunClick turns Google Hangouts into webinars, with registration, reminders and other important tools for marketing webinars. This software makes professional webinars available to any marketer; no deep pockets are needed.The technique worked, but there are two limitations that reduced the value of using RunClick:1. There is a delay in transmitting what you say, only a second or two, and if you are lecturing, it doesn’t matter. But, if you are doing an interactive webinar,... [...]

DMD team says, “Despite a wealth of experience, marketers still make many digital marketing and optimization mistakes.It could be that they’ve developed some bad habits over the years. Or maybe they came into digital marketing from another field and missed out on a few ground-floor basics. Attend this webcast to learn how to:– uncover missed opportunities;– avoid the “bad content” trap;– set realistic goals and timelines; and– create effective mobile websites and email campaigns.”.Digital Marketing Depot’s ‘5 common digital marketing mistakes... [...]

Joe Youngblood says, “What started with Siri in 2010 is quickly leading to an age where consumers engage with the internet using only their voices, in much the way Captain Picard engaged with the computer on the USS Enterprise.Google’s foray into voice search has been calculated and planned for years, according to Google CEO Sundar Pichai. It currently appears to be based on a closed system owned and overseen by Google, not on an open system like the trillions of websites that populate the internet are built on (i.e., HTML). I predicted this eventuality more than two years ago, after the... [...]