SPF for Your Website: Three Simple Steps to Protect Your Online Presence

As the days get longer and the mercury rises, we’re reminded yet again of the importance of remaining vigilant when it comes to applying sunscreen to protect ourselves from summer’s damaging rays. It’s a simple yet necessary precaution that if neglected has both short-term consequences – the painful agony of sunburn – and long-term ramifications – skin damage and increased risk of skin cancer. The same holds true for our websites. If we are not proactive in taking the necessary precautions to keep our online presence safe, problems will inevitably arise. Here are three simple measures you can take to apply SPF to your website that will safeguard the integrity not only of your brand’s online presence but its reputation as well:

(S)ecure your site against SQL injections.

Websites that feature data-driven applications can be vulnerable to attacks known as SQL injections, whereby malicious code is added to an entry field, then run and executed. These attacks exploit security vulnerabilities in problematic code, attacking your site’s database and performing any number of actions, from adding unapproved content to your public-facing site to allowing the hacker to download your entire database. This is a prime example of why rigorous testing is absolutely critical prior to launch. If your site is already up and running, consult with your web team to make sure that it has undergone thorough testing and is protected against such hacks. If you want to take additional precautionary measures, there are also security companies that specialize in detecting these types of website and database vulnerabilities, and they can provide you with a security audit.

(P)rotect your domain name.

It’s common sense that you must pay to acquire the domain name where your business will reside online. However, it’s important to remember that you have to continue to pay in order to retain the rights to use that domain name. Essentially, when you purchase your domain name, you’re not buying it outright. Rather, you’re renting that name for a specified period of time. Most registrars (Network Solutions, GoDaddy, Register.com, etc.) allow you to secure a name for anywhere from 12 months to 99 years. If you allow your registration to lapse, however, the domain name becomes available for purchase again and is open to the public for anyone to acquire. Bear in mind that there are actually companies that profit handsomely from business owners who neglect their domain registrations. They monitor domains that are nearing expiration, taking ownership of them the moment they become available. If you have the misfortune of having your domain acquired by one of these companies, usually you can negotiate having ownership transferred back to you, but it will cost you dearly. Unfortunately, while this is a shady practice, it is not illegal. If you allow your domain name to expire, it is fair game for anyone to register it – including these types of companies. Before your domain name expires, your registrar will likely send you many notices prompting you to renew. I start getting domain name renewal notices six months or more before the scheduled expiration date, and as that date gets closer, the notices start coming more and more frequently. Still, despite this barrage of email notifications, there are still many companies that are unaware that their expiration date is approaching, and they either lose their domain name altogether or are forced to pay a king’s ransom to get it back. Often when this situation occurs, it is because the person who initially completed the registration process for the domain name is no longer with the company, and therefore the email address they used to register the name is no longer valid, so the multitude of email notices go unreceived. The company innocently thinks they are protected until one day they stop receiving emails (yes, your email is tied into your domain name), or a customer mentions that they tried to go to the site, and it was simply gone. Even though there is a grace period after a domain has lapsed that allows you to reclaim your ownership before it becomes open to the public, the lapse isn’t always discovered in time to take advantage of this safety net. To prevent this, it is critically important to keep the contact information for your domain registration up to date. Either contact your registrar directly or speak with your web team to make sure you know when each of the domain names you own needs to be renewed, and double-check to ensure that the contact information for your account is valid.

(F)ortify your forms.

Web forms are a staple of doing business online. In fact, rare is the site that doesn’t include a form of some sort that allows the user to input information to be transmitted to the site’s owner, whether its purpose is to make a contact inquiry, sign up for a mailing list, complete a purchase, apply for employment, etc. As anyone who has a form on their site can attest, however, not all submissions received via these forms are legitimate. This is called robot spam, which is created by spammers who write programs that send out spambots to indiscriminately fill out any and all different types of forms on the Web, looking for entryways to expose a site’s security vulnerabilities (see SQL injections above). If you find your inbox filling up with indecipherable junk submissions, it’s these bots who are to blame. To combat these spambots, you can install a CAPTCHA system on your form, which generates an image with a random combination of numbers and letters that the user must enter in order to submit the form. The spambots can't interpret these CAPTCHA images, so therefore they can’t complete the process of sending the form. While there is legitimate debate as to whether or not CAPTCHA is the most effective way to prevent bogus submissions, it still remains the most popular solution for web form security. However, the reason it’s important to block these bots goes beyond eliminating the annoyance of a cluttered inbox. A few months ago, my company decided to remove the CAPTCHA requirement from our contact form. We knew we would get a flood of spam submissions, but we decided we could deal with a little extra hassle on our end in exchange for reducing the inconvenience to legitimate users of having to interpret those squiggly letters in order to simply get in touch with us. As expected, the amount of spam we received increased dramatically, but it was still manageable. Then, all of a sudden, we stopped receiving any submissions at all. We also began seeing some of our emails to other people bounce back. What we discovered was that our web domain (which is where our emails originate from) had been blacklisted as spam by Microsoft (which is what powers our email platform). Apparently, all the bogus submissions from our website (which resides on our domain) to our email caused Microsoft to identify us as spammers. This is because our form submissions came from an email address associated with our own domain name (many web forms are configured this way). Obviously, we were not the ones generating the spam, but this strange series of coincidences conspired to get us blacklisted! Fortunately, it was an easy process to get our domain removed from the blacklist, and we quickly re-installed the CAPTCHA system on our contact form, but we certainly learned an important lesson about security and spambots along the way. If you allow those bogus entries to make it through, there is a risk that you, too, could find yourself blacklisted and unable to send email to some of your most important contacts.

Seize the day and stay safe.

Since summer is vacation season for many of us, business tends to slow down slightly as our clients and colleagues enjoy much-deserved time off. That makes this the perfect time to seize the opportunity to apply these S-P-F practices today to ensure that your online presence is well protected all year long.

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The Gathering: Social Marketing, Old School

The brave new world of Web 2.0 offers a wide array of platforms that allow businesses to connect virtually with the people who want what they’ve got. But long before the advent of the Social Web – before anyone had ever heard of Twitter, Meetup, Craigslist or Facebook – social marketing flourished. From Tupperware parties to trade shows, whether in living rooms or convention halls across America, people came together in gatherings to connect with products, sellers and other customers like themselves all at once. And while today’s culture of hyper-connectivity has dealt much of traditional marketing a fatal blow, the gathering has stood the test of time. In fact, social technology has given new life to the gathering. No longer confined to fixed time slots or venues, the content and conversations of events now live on in perpetuity through social media, event-specific websites and online video. It’s important to make sure that gatherings have a place in your marketing arsenal.This relationship works in the other direction as well. As communities form around common interests on the Web, real-world gatherings are a natural extension of members’ online interactions. Like a handwritten note in the age of e-mail, the face-to-face connection has become a rarefied, premium experience in a time when virtual connectivity is always only a finger-swipe away. For these reasons, it’s important to make sure that gatherings have a place in your marketing arsenal and that you’re investing time in engaging with your tribe of followers offline as well as online.

"Ideas worth spreading"

A recent gathering I attended began like a bad joke: an artist, an engineer and a socialite walk into an auditorium. This time, however, there was no punch line. Instead, I was participating in a TED event, and the room was electric with the pre-show buzz of right and left brains, liberals and conservatives, vegans and slow-food carnivores wearing “I ♥ Meat” t-shirts. For decades the famed TEDTalks have brought together artists, angel investors, designers, doctorates, engineers, entrepreneurs, communicators and community leaders, all in pursuit of one common passion: “ideas worth spreading.” With its famously short talks (25 minutes or less), TED is a petri dish for innovation, and most followers would sever their right arm to attend the invitation-only conference in Long Beach, California. Historically, the group met in druid-like seclusion. But with the ascension of new leadership came a new vision: world-changing ideas should actually be shared with the world. The arrival of online video gave TED a second, virtual life, and in the early 2000s, TED.com began offering free access to full-length videos of its proceedings. For years, TEDophiles like myself have gobbled up this content online while dreaming of experiencing it in person. Fortunately for us, the masterminds behind TED realized that ordinary people everywhere have ideas that could change the world, or at least their local communities. So in 2009, TEDx Events were born, with TED lending its name, brand collateral and mission to independently planned and executed local gatherings. In December 2010 alone, 165 TEDx Events were held in 54 countries. I myself became an official TEDster on September 24 at the inaugural TEDxCharlotte, right in my hometown. A dream came true as I sat with hippies and hipsters for one glorious day of ideas worth spreading. As TEDizens like me have discovered, it is the gathering itself that is the holy grail, not just the content and information. The conversations and connections that can be sparked when people meet and share experiences in the real world are deeper and longer-lasting than those that are confined to tweets, Facebook wall posts or even forum message boards.

Gathering your tribe

TED is a shining example of the value of creating opportunities for people to meet and interact with others who share their interests. Identify the commonalities that unite your tribe.However, you don’t need their massive, worldwide following to harness the power of the gathering to grow your business. You just need to identify the commonalities that unite your tribe and orchestrate an event that taps into their shared passions and provides an outlet for engagement. Remember that those who would make the effort to spend time and energy with you are your champions. They are people who believe in – or at least are interested in – your product, service or company enough to bother. You don’t have to dazzle them. But you do have to show up, make authentic connections and give them something of value for their effort. The end result? They will love and trust you more. In order to ensure the success of your gathering, here are some key points to keep in mind:

Bigger isn’t necessarily better

Often, the slicker and more carefully controlled the interaction, the less special the event can feel. Instead, just keep it simple. Invite a handful of your best customers or, if the invitation is open to all, limit registration. This will foster an atmosphere of intimacy and privilege for those in attendance. Most importantly, don’t use the event as a ruse to assemble your followers for a sales pitch. Be genuine and focus on delivering something of real value.

Show what you know

If you’re a service provider, your customers routinely pay for your knowledge and experience. Play to your strengths by hosting an educational gathering related to your area of expertise. For example, a lawyer could offer a free estate planning workshop to recent retirees or present a seminar for small business owners about the implications of recent health care legislation. The payoff for this type of effort is a group of prospective clients who believe in your credibility as a knowledgeable resource and trust in you more than your competitors.

Break out of your box

Perhaps people associate your business with a particular line of services or products even though your catalog is actually much more diverse. A gathering is a great opportunity to shed some light on your less well-known areas of expertise. For instance, a pest control specialist might know as much about protecting garden vegetables from aphids as floor joists from termites. A lecture to the local garden club could open a new niche market hidden from competitors’ view. Likewise, an interior decorator could offer working moms a workshop about organizing with style, thereby becoming the savior of the super-busy.

The power of privilege

Treat your best customers (the ones you or your staff know by name) to a special appreciation event. Give away products and thank them sincerely for being so faithful to you. They will love your company all the more and become even more vocal evangelists for your brand.

Party like it’s $19.99

If your brand or your products already have a fan base, give those fans an excuse to get together and have a good time – all under the banner of your brand. You’re throwing the party. They’re your fans. The conversation will inevitably lead back to you. You don’t have to force it. Think gallery crawls, wine tastings or product launch parties.

For the love of rewards

Oh to be in the audience the day Oprah gives everyone a new car. Most days, though, you’re at least going home with a free book. When you host an event, reward the effort people make to attend by giving away products to those who show up. Better yet, give more products to people who bring others with them. In doing so, you’re not only giving them a no-risk way to experience your product or service, but you’re incentivizing them to spread the word to others as well.

Use the Web to promote your gathering

If you want a large event, invite all your Twitter followers. If a smaller gathering of your best customers is what you’re after, send direct messages to only the most active or influential among them. You can even turn your event into a contest by challenging your Facebook fans to share why they love your products in order to win a place on the guest list. You’ll not only have an instant list of eager attendees, you’ll also reap some great testimonials for later use.

Transcend time and space

When your event is over, share pictures or video online to demonstrate the good time had by all and the value those who attended received. For example, if your event was instructional in nature, offer a recap of the tips that were covered or access to video of a presentation delivered at the event. Get people talking about your event and keep them talking. The important thing is to get people talking about your event and keep them talking – and sharing, and linking to, and blogging, and status updating and tweeting – about what wonderful people you and your staff are and how much value they find in your product, service or expertise.

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