WordPress has experienced ongoing attacks stemming from illegal botnets. Botnets are networks made up of hundreds of thousands of compromised computers. The WordPress encroachments take the form of brute force attacks. The goal of this type of hack is to attempt as many username and password combinations in the hope that valid login credentials will emerge.

By bombarding sites with numerous login attempts each second, the performance of a website can slow down even to the point of service suspension because of the increased server load (a remote possibility but an indication of where this could lead).

If a valid login is stumbled upon, your site and server can be compromised, opening up the possibility of everything on your site being altered—and not for the better. It can shut down websites, commit fraud, proliferate spam and perform any number of other illegal activities.

Solutions

You can protect your site from these nasty and random attacks by installing and activating the WordPress login lockdown plug. This helps against brute force attacks by blocking logins after a certain number of attempts.

Stronger passwords can also help prevent an illegal botnet attack.

Finally, a free tool called WordFence provides a good range of pre-built security options for securing a WordPress site. It can be downloaded at http://www.wordfence.com/.

If you have ever viewed a Google Analytics page, you can see why it may be a little intimidating. The presentation of the data takes some getting used to. However, that one piece of code you put on your site to get the analytics started can help you make good business decisions, especially when it comes to determining online strategies.

Sample Google Analytics Page

Visitor Location: You can see a map of where your visitors are originating from and drill down to metropolitan area. This could help you with shipping decisions, for example, if you see that website traffic is coming from outside your location.

Mobile: If you click on Reporting – Audience – Mobile – Overview, you can see how many of your visitors are coming to the site via a mobile device—useful knowledge that may make you want to ensure your site is optimised for mobile.

Conversions: You can go to Reporting – Conversions – Goals – Goal Flow, to find out how many prospects are contacting you after visiting your contacts page. You can also see how many are leaving the page before they hit the submit button.

Where Visitors Go: Reporting – Content – Site Content – All Pages, will take you to which pages are getting the most visitors.

You can also find out your bounce rate (how many visitors leave after viewing just one page- the lower rate the better) and what sites are referring traffic to your site.

For a free tool, Google Analytics provides a lot of useful information for businesses of all sizes.

In 2013, we stand on the precipice of a fresh digital paradigm characterized by the fact that technology capabilities are surpassing our own learned skills. Computers are winning games, deciding how to stock store shelves and beginning to drive our vehicles.

Below are five underlying trends:

Touchless: Recognition technology has advanced so much that we can soon expect computer interfaces to be hard to separate from humans. Computing is adapting to us instead of us adapting to the technology.

Original content from everywhere: Forget about cable and network TV. Netflix, Amazon, Google and others are trying to produce a dominant content model with original programming. One example is the House of Cards series starring Robin Wright and Kevin Spacey produced by Netflix.

Big online: You can play the World of Warcraft with thousands of people in real time. Online academies are offering thousands of classes for students of all ages. Politicians are building massive online supporter bases.

Interactive device proliferation: It seems like everything we interact with has the potential to become a computable device. This includes our homes and even objects in the street that interact with our smartphones to pay bills, buy products and bring ease and comfort to each part of our daily lives.

It all comes down to a consumer driven world of technology that includes everything from native content to massive online services.

If you look up houses in Sydney Australia, this PPC ad shows up on the right side of the first results page.

If you use PPC ads to drive people to your site, make sure your Pay per Click ads do two things:

• Achieve your PPC marketing goal
• Represent your brand correctly

PPC ads are written in a certain format. For example:
(Headline- 25 characters)
(URL- 35 characters)
(Description line- 35 characters)
(Description line- 35 characters)

Other guidelines include:

• The Display URL must match the destination URL
• Proper punctuation (Only one exclamation mark is allowed in an ad)
• Phrases like "best" or "Number 1" must be verified by a 3rd party who is displayed on the website

Write words that will capture a searcher's attention. This is an ad and is meant to elicit a response. Some things to consider are:

• Remain true to your objectives (like selling a product or getting brand awareness).
• Capitalize the first letter of each word.
• Highlight your keywords.
• Examine competitor ads for ways to differentiate your business.
• Include offers like "30% off" or "Free Delivery."
• Insert a call to action (sign up now, buy today, etc.).
• Put your strongest selling points in the headline.

You can get assistance on the Google AdWords site about PPC campaigns.

Here are some recent statistics regarding the dynamics of Facebook:

• There are 80.3 million users in the 18 to 34 age demographic, 41.0 million between 35 and 54 and 10.4 Million between 55 and 64
• The average user spends 23 minutes on Facebook on each of their 40 monthly visits
• The average user is connected to 80 community pages, groups and events
• Every day, 200 million individuals access Facebook from a mobile device

This has caused businesses to also take part in the Facebook experience to help market their products and services. For example, 42% of businesses say that Facebook marketing is critical to their overall business branding strategies.

Another notable statistic is that according to State of Inbound Marketing, Hubspot stats, marketers state that social media has a 100% higher lead-to-close rate than outbound marketing (4.0% to 2.0%). That's even more significant when you realize that social media marketing generally costs less.

Finally, the same survey suggested that 77% of companies acquired B2C and 43% acquired B2B customers using Facebook. Retail is listed as the top industry acquiring these consumers.

Businesses are still struggling with some aspects of Facebook marketing (lead generation for one) but it appears to be a viable and cost effective form of attracting new customers.

You can add basic SEO (Search Engine Optimization) to your home page with a little effort. That way whatever Google does with their algorithms, your site will be SEOd. It takes just a little awareness of content, keywords and meta tags.

Keywords are how people search for you. For example, if you're a photographer in Sydney, photographer in Sydney is a keyword. A prospect will search using that phrase. Create key-phrases with a tail and keep them local. Eight keywords are all you'll need. Keep them closely related to your business. If you run an auto repair shop, avoid using Central Coast Mariners as a keyword just because it's searched for a lot.

Meta Tags are viewed by search engines but they do not appear on your website. There are two:

• Title (60 to 70 characters)
• Description (150 to 200 characters)

For title, ask your website person to use Photographer in Sydney for example. Use common search terms up to the number of characters.

The description is a sentence on what you do, its benefit and call to action. It might read: Call Kim's Photography, an exceptional photographer in Sydney, for the best pictures in Sydney. (Note, there are three keywords in this one sentence.)

Blend your keywords, the meta title and description tags into the content on the home page. Place the keywords in the beginning, middle and end of the page. The description can go at the beginning of the page. However, all of the content needs to be written with a natural flow.

While it resembles a twisted shoe horn or a miniature recipe book holder, the Tylt VU inductive charger is actually much more practical for today's techno-savvy crowd. This accessory has two functions:

• Phone stand
• Phone charger

The VU will work with any phone that can be wirelessly charged: Nokia Lumia 820, 920, 822, Google Nexus 4, the HTC Droid DNA and many others. The phone must have built in Qi™ charging or a Qi adapter to work with VU.
In addition to recharging your phone sans wires, it is a great viewing stand. Its 45 degree angle is perfect to see your screen whether you want to use the portrait or landscape view. It looks pretty good too, available in red, yellow, blue or black.

The device is Qi compatible, has a charging indicator light and a soft touch surface. It comes with an AC wall charger.

This device was previewed at the 2013 Consumer Electronics show. It's made by Tylt, a company that develops charging solutions for consumer devices such as cell phones, Bluetooth's, MP3 players, tablets and portable gaming systems.

The VU will be available to order in April. It costs about $67 AUD.

Rumor has it that a smartwatch race looms on the horizon. Apple is allegedly coming out with an iWatch while Samsung has confirmed a smartwatch is on the way.

Now, the word is that Google is working on a smartwatch, too. Instead of originating from X Labs (birthplace of Google glasses) the wrist device is being formulated in the Android department.

It does seem like a natural complement to the Google Glasses. If a controller for input is needed having it on the wrist seems as good a place as any. But no details are forthcoming if the Google smartwatch will actually come to fruition. If so, it may be quite a battle between Apple, Google, Samsung and Sony as to who will win over the hearts (and wrists) of gadget-crazed consumers.

For those tech-savvy buyers, the smartwatch has many interesting features, indeed. The above pictured Sony smartwatch allows you to check your notifications, email and phone calls when a cell phone may not appropriate to use. The watch will also take fitness and health apps to help monitor your progress in those areas. It can even check you social networks.

Have you ever put off scanning a document because it took too long or was too much of a pain to do? If so, you may change your thinking about scanning with this new device just put out by I.R.I.S. Products & Technologies. This company focuses on developing technologies and products for Intelligent Document Recognition (IDR).

They have come up with an ergonomic mouse that in addition to the scroll wheel and left/right buttons, contains a 300 dpi (dots per inch) resolution on the contact side of the mouse.

All the user has to do is press a button on the left side of the device and swipe the mouse in any direction across color photos, documents, newspaper articles, etc. The scanner will pick up everything between the guideline indicators.

The software that comes with the mouse then puts it all together and displays online what is being scanned. The software also allows the scanned document to be printed, supports 130 languages and can drop the image into applications like Microsoft Office where it can be saved and even edited, if desired.

The mouse can digitize documents up to A3 (paper size of 29.69 by 16.54 centimeters). It comes with a three month subscription to the IRISCompressor. This enables conversion of the scanned document to a PDF file.

It costs about 76 (AUD).

You can't put it in your back pocket but you can use it to pay bills. And it appears that Australia consumers are getting the first crack at it. What the digital wallet does is bring into one place (just like a wallet) all of the methods consumers use to pay for and interact with product and services.

Created by Master Card

Called the MasterPass and created by MasterCard, the digital wallet boasts that a "simple click, tap or touch" can be used to pay using any enabled device or payment card. These are maintained securely in the digital wallet. The process eliminates the need to manually enter payment details. This allows consumers to shop on their lunch break, on the train ride home or anywhere for that matter, without having to constantly re-enter card, identification and shipping details.

The bank account numbers, driver's license, credit cards, health insurance cards, address, loyalty cards, etc., (everything you might find in a wallet) of the user are all securely stored, digitally.

Some of the specific services and benefits of the digital wallet include:

• A secure trusted cloud environment to store information
• The ability to get connected to store alerts, loyalty programs and special offers
• A consistent method that sellers can use to accept electronic payments and point of sale extras like QR codes all from mobile devices.

This form of mobile checkout is a first for Australian banking and makes it a convenient and more expedient shopping experience for the consumer.

Westpac, Commonwealth Bank, ME Bank, JB Hi-Fi, AHL, Harvey Norman, Only, Merchant Warrior and Paycorp are some of the merchants that are partnering with MasterCard in this exciting new venture.

According to Gartner, 1.75 billion mobile phones were sold in 2012. Fourth quarter 2012 sales alone surpassed fourth quarter 2011 sales by 38%.
Sales like that inspired the innovation seen at The Mobile World Congress held in Barcelona this past week where the most innovative mobile developments were on display for all to see. Following are some of the most sizzling trends from the show:

It's so Mobile it stays on you- Wearable Gadgets

These Google glasses might not improve your vision but they will connect you to the internet. They are expected to be released later in 2013. One other eagerly anticipated wearable gadget in the mix includes the Apple iWatch which will connect users to everything.

Phablet Small Hi-Definition Screens

Built with five inch hi-definition screens, this gadget is a cross between a phone and a tablet. This may create a quandary for fashion designers since they will face a challenge on how just one carries a device like this. It's another stark reminder of the intersection of hardware and humans.

Quad-Core Processors

This device contains a super-fast chip with four independent units. It will be the standard for many of the phones sold in 2013.

4G

While everything is not yet clear on exactly how this next generation of moble phone communication standards will perform, the idea is to harness super-broadband access to the internet for those on the go.

Who says you can't text while taking a bath?

A new device by Sony can stay functional under one meter of fresh water for up to a half hour. This could eventually become a standard feature on mobile phones.

One untested new development at the show featured mobile phones that also do payments. Called NFC (near field communications), this global standard technology allows users to use their mobile phones to tap and pay.
The question that remains is, is tapping a phone on a terminal that much better than swiping a credit card? If consumers don't think it provides enough value to change behavior the technology may die on the vine.

The next time you log into any of Microsoft's popular email services like MSN or Hotmail, you may get a surprise. You might be routed to a new email service called Outlook.com. Outlook may be better known as a work email or the email that comes with the Microsoft Office suite. But now, it is being overhauled as a personal web-based email service. It's all part of Microsoft's grand design change for the their operating system and the aforementioned Office Suite.

Outlook.com

The consumer Outlook.com works and feels the way a web based email service should. It's similar to Yahoo Mail and Google's Gmail. The switch was made official on Tuesday, February, 19, 2013, and plans have been made to advertise it using millions of Microsoft dollars. Some users, especially those who have been trying Outlook.com during its preview period, could be switched over anytime. Others will be transitioned beginning in the summer of 2013.

What's making it easier for users is that everyone will be able to keep their existing email address, preventing a lot of potential hassle. So, if your email moniker is Hotmail.com, you can keep it. However, if you do want to change the address, you can get one for free.

Features

Some of the features on Outlook.com include:

• The use of conversations (similar to Gmail) which groups those 20 messages you sent out to coordinate meeting with friends at the pub into conversations so all 20 messages can be viewed as a single item.
• Integration with social networks like Twitter and Facebook meaning you can chat with a Facebook friend directly from the Outlook website.
• An option for email content to automatically appear in a reading pane as opposed to an email list.
• The ability to create alternate email addresses without having to sign up for additional accounts.
• A link to SkyDrive (Microsoft's online storage service) to handle those large files.

All of the options may take some time to grasp but in the end, it's supposed to make for a more powerful, useful email experience.

Don't you sometimes wonder how the people in your organisation are handling social media? Studies suggest that while astute social media usage can help improve results, it can also be a disruptive force in the enterprise.

To gain some insights into social media in the workplace, a company called Humanize (How People-Centric Organizations Succeed in a Social World) has developed a brief (10 to 15 minute) online survey that anyone can take. After you take it, in addition to your results, you will receive a copy of: 2012 Social Leadership Survey Results. 505 individuals completed the survey which focused on social media and leadership, specifically how leaders are leveraging it for organisational results.

Below are some of the findings:

The survey respondents showed above average awareness about social media:

• 84% said they can participate in social media.
• 85% indicated that their companies understand the value of social media participation and maintaining an online identity.
• 84% suggested that their organisation connects with people in addition to just promoting products and services on social media.

Comments suggest some ambiguity going on:

• They understand somewhat but not enough to be very effective.
• I think they realize this on one level, but it is not fully there yet. There needs to be more participation.
• They have all the accounts (jump on bandwagon) but there is a lack in communicating clearly our online corporate identity.

Employees showed keen insight into the value of social media to the company. 84% of the respondents agreed or strongly agreed that leadership involvement in social media gave their company a competitive edge:

On the flip side, 44% of employees indicated concern about the lack of involvement in social media by their leaders. Even of those respondents who said their leaders were involved in social media, 29% expressed concerned that the involvement didn't go far enough.

Conclusions

The results of all of the findings indicate that total organisational embrace of social media is still in a transitional stage with a wide range of adoption levels. Frustration and confusion in leveraging and mastering the nuances of social media still exist. For example, the survey found:

• Organisations are being pressured to increase their strategies around the best ways to use social media.
• Clarity is needed regarding the best use of social media but current management approaches are mostly still sub-par.
• Companies must adapt to the disruptive force that is social media. Employees are expecting more transparency, experimentation and clarity in order to be able to adjust.

Consider this:

• Recently, there was a hack and theft of more than 250,000 Twitter user passwords
• Hackers recently got into Facebook. However, they did not steal any information belonging to the social media site's 1 billion worldwide users. What happened was that some employees visited a mobile software developer's site which led to malware getting installed their laptops.

Everyone is trying to prevent cyber-attacks including heads of state.

Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, says an Australian Cyber-Security Centre will be established by the end of 2013 to help coordinate the efforts of various law enforcement agencies in combating cyber-attacks.

"It will provide Australia with an expanded and more agile response capability to deal with all cyber issues - be they related to government or industry, crime or security," she told an audience in Canberra.

Nonetheless, a recent study by consulting firm Deloitte's sixth annual Cyber Security Survey suggests that any organisation is at risk of a security breach. Citing the fact that most passwords can be cracked in five hours, a statement made by a Deloitte technology risk leader says that every business has to assume a breach will occur. As a result, detection and response planning procedures are an absolute necessity. Among areas cited as threats were:

• Third-party breaches: 59 percent of the study participants experienced security breaches in 2012.
• BYOD (Bring Your Own Device): 74 percent of study respondents cited this as one of their biggest risks but only 52% had BYOD security policies in place.
• Hacktivisim: Hacktivisim was mentioned in the survey for the first time with 63% of the respondents noting it as a major concern.

Just 40 percent of the respondents stated that they collect data about cyber-attacks that specifically target their industry, brand, organisation or customers.

More and more of our computing appears destined to be done on the cloud. With this development, passwords need to be more secure than ever. Google understands that too, which is why they are looking at how passwords, including alternatives to traditional ones, may look in the future.

Passwords on a Key Ring

One option is to use a USB based device. Once inserted it would sign you in to your Google account. Another is to use a cryptographic card to log into Gmail or Chrome. The idea is to allow registration with one click combining military type security with ease of use. These password devices would fit on a keychain making them less likely to be lost.

An approach being considered contemplates a smartphone or smart ring that would authorize a device with a simple tap. If this worked, eventually, you would not have to remember any passwords. However, this method has not proved practical with today's consumers.

Passwords Are Here to Stay

The thinking of some security experts suggests that every gigantic hack of consumer account information moves companies closer to technologies to protect user data. This will morph, so some password prognosticators say, until the password goes the way of the cassette.

Others are not so sure. Some security experts say that passwords will continue to exist. However, they will not be the only form of security, just one component of it. The password will belong to a "constellation of security" as one analyst from Forrester put it.

For example, Google has developed a two-step authentication for the most crucial fixtures, like email, of our computing life. This combines a password with a constantly changing code which is sent via text. It plays into the fact that most of us are never too far from our mobile devices.

Password Tips and Resources

But with the password a part of our lives, at least for now, there are a few resources and best practices to consider when creating one:

• Use password management software such as KeePass Password Safe (free) http://keepass.info/ which has a built-in password generator.
• Create a combination of upper and lower case letters, numbers and symbols: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-AU/windows-vista/Tips-for-creating-a-strong-password.
• Use a password generator e.g. https://www.microsoft.com/security/pc-security/password-checker.aspx.

Just stay secure while we wait for the end of the password as we know it.

It's not how technology will adapt to you, it's how your business will adapt to technology

But sometimes we just need a bit of light relief at the end of the week...here's a peek at six technological advances in a future not so distant (apparently):

Biometric Sensor Identification

Keep the hand sanitizer at the ready because this ID system may be here as soon as 2017. Instead of logins and passwords devices will allow biological identification of its owners from a smartphone.  But then again - did you ever hear that story of a guy who got his fingers cut off by the mafia so they could use his biometric scanner...No?  Maybe it is an urban myth!

http://envisioningtech.com/envisioning-the-smartphone-of-the-future/

The Driverless Car

Agence France-Presse/Getty Images

It might be the beginning of the end of driver's education as we know it. Google co-founder Sergey Brin predicts the driverless car will be available to consumers within the next 10 years, which isn't suprising considering they can now park themselves ;)

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390443493304578034822744854696.html

The Soil Sensor

This wireless blue device will tell the plant owner what the soil needs to make the plants grow ending the frustration of millions of gardeners (and not-so-green-thumbs) everywhere.

http://gajitz.com/

The Instant Translator

The Universal Translator might end the careers of high school foreign language teachers. Who needs them when you can instantly speak the language of everyone around you?  From a business perspective it would certainly enhance your ability to work with international clients...but if it is as bad as some of the current translation software I'd say the teachers are well secure in their jobs for a while yet.

A Camera in Disguise

No one will know you're snapping pics with this cleverly disguised camera. Not even Austin Powers, that international man of mystery. Both a bit scary and a bit 007!

http://gajitz.com/page/2/

Swiss Army Knife Phone

No need to call for help when you can use your Swiss Army Knife phone to fix anything. Really? Or did someone just sit a couple of swiss army knives under a mobile phone for this shot?

http://gajitz.com/page/3/

Actually, consumers may have passed beyond the infatuation stage into a full blown marriage to their mobile devices.

Consider the recently published information from Gartner Inc. (a respected technology researcher) regarding the growth of mobile advertising. Gartner's research suggests sector revenue of $11.4 billion in 2013. (The company has projected 400% mobile advertising growth from between 2011 and 2016.)

The faster-than-expected growth is a result of the proliferation of smartphones and tablets combined with the usage behavior on the devices from consumers. Specifically, users are spending an expanded amount of time with the devices at the expense, it appears, of print advertising vehicles such as newspapers. The thinking remains that the mobile market will become easier to target which is driving the mobile advertising spend.

As noted below, the mobile advertising revenue projections (in millions of dollars) are being led by the Asia/Pacific and Japan geographical sector:

Impacts on Small and Medium Size Businesses (SMBs)

This increase reflects the advertising spends of small to medium size Australian businesses. For example, a Borrell and Pontiflex survey of more and 1,300 US and Australian SMBs found that 45% of them indicated their mobile ad spend would be maintained with 27% stating it would be increased in 2013.

A total of 48% suggested that they were either very likely or somewhat likely to incorporate mobile elements in their advertising strategy over the next year. SMBs also stated a strong preference for pay- for-signup (26%) and pay-for-clicks (18%) pricing. (Note: A significant 52% of SMBs state they didn't know which pricing models they prefer indicating that confusion still exists about mobile advertising models).

What's not confusing is that consumers are increasingly going to their mobile devices to make purchasing decisions meaning that a mobile advertising strategy is a must for any enterprise to continue to thrive.

Giving on the Go

It appears that non-profits, especially, are taking advantage of mobile advertising. More ways for consumers to give can be nothing but good for these organizations and it's beginning to show in the stats. For example, in its annual 2012 State of the Nonprofit Industry Report, Blackbaud (a software and fundraising firm) reported that more than 40% of survey respondents across nine countries planned to optimize their websites for mobile.

Half of the US and Australian organisations surveyed said they planned to consider three mobile strategies:

• Optimizing websites for mobile
• Enabling text giving
• Allowing access to donor database information

What are your advertising plans to take advantage of an upwardly mobile world?

A few years ago when social media sites like Orkut and Facebook were burgeoning no one in the internet marketing world could ever imagine that one day social media would be the Internet's next big marketing tool. Today a huge number of businesses are marketing their services using Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn to name just some of the most popular social media sites. Even online schools are going the community based way. Busuu.com an online community for learning languages is a good example.

So as part of your marketing plan you would generally use the above mentioned sites for increasing traffic to your website, generating brand awareness and instilling trust for your company in potential customers. All of this (hopefully) leads to increased sales and eventually builds a dedicated base of clientele.

Many companies use more than one social media tool. But with so many social media sites how do you keep track of all your posts, tweets, statistics and so forth so that you can understand how well it is working for your business as part of your marketing strategy? Logging in separately to each of your social media sites and managing them simultaneously is no mean task. In fact that would be a tremendous waste of time and energy. Thta is why the increase in social media dashboards has been booming of late. When we say a 'dashboard', in this context we mean merging the functionality from multiple different social media sites into a single screen and/or providing consolidated reporting. Welcome to the world of Social Media Analytics!

In the following series of blog posts we're going to do a comparison of social media dashboards and comparisons of social media analytics tools.

Let's start with one of the most popular - Hootsuite.

HootSuite

Hootsuite is being used by over 3 million users/companies including several "biggies" of the corporate world too. The best part is that if you wish to test the waters, Hootsuite offers a free trial too and of course the Pro version comes with the additional corporate level features such as multiple users.

So what does Hootsuite offer? Suppose say you have a Facebook, LinkedIn and a Twitter account for your company and you would like to monitor all the activity from a single dashboard in all these accounts. Add these accounts in Hootsuite and you have all accounts managed in one place. You can post to multiple accounts at once, schedule posts and create a consolidated report for each social media tool's performance.

Click to zoom

In the image above a company's twitter account tab (other tabs are for the various accounts for Facebook, LinkedIn etc.,) displays four columns. Unlike a typical twitter account notice how Hootsuite can be customized to display tweets from various sources, Inbox, Sent, Home feed and Mentions. Each of these columns (called Streams in Hootsuite) can be browsed and refreshed separately, and you can perform tasks such as send targeted messages to recipients and follow other social media accounts. From here you can be in touch with teams, very useful for collaborative work such as campaigns and larger organisations with multiple people managing the corporate social media accounts. You can also customize the number of streams displayed.

Now here's something really cool. Hootsuite provides a better dashboard than what the actual Twitter or Facebook application provides. Even the way your view of the tweets, posts etc., can be customized for your optimum viewing instead of going by the standard options and views that Facebook or Twitter would provide you.

Note that apart from social networking accounts you can also add RSS feeds so you can monitor news about your company, brands etc. Plus you can also add other social apps for YouTube, Tumblr, Mailchimp and Flickr to name just a few.

Probably Hootsuite's most useful feature from a 'return on investment' monitoring perspective, is the Analytics feature which generates reports that will provide you with valuable feedback about your social media accounts. Let us say you have launched a new product using your social media networks. With Hootsuite's analytics you can monitor how the marketing campaign is progressing on the various social media networks in your account and then take appropriate action.  Do note however that most reports cost extra, depending on what statistics you add to them but it is definitely worth the additional cost if you need to provide management level reporting.

Below is the image of a report in Hootsuite generated using one of the many standard reporting templates.

Click to zoom

You can also export the report in one of two formats .pdf or CSV. You can also print and customize the report. Apart from this you can create your own reports.

Hootsuite comes in various versions for Android, iPad, iPhone, Blackberry and is available as Free, Paid and Enterprise versions too.

Hootsuite has competition from a few other social media dashboard applications namely Tweetdeck, Seesmic, Social Report and Buffer. We'll look at these apps in the coming posts and then provide a comparison chart in our final post. Stay tuned!

On Thursday we released our first research report about online technology use - The State of Social Media Use in Australian Non Profit Organisations (H1 2012).

At the heart of the research we wanted to answer this question: with the rise in usage and popularity of the various social media in Australia, are non profit organisations harnessing the advantages that these technologies and platforms potentially provide in terms of marketing, branding and engagement with their target market.

In all 595 non-profit organizations were analysed and interviewed with annual revenues up to $253 million and total employees up to 9800. Organsations from diverse backgrounds and fields such as Health and Human Services sector including aged care, disability support services, Indigenous support, and humanitarian aid to name a few were looked at. The overall the analysis included organisations from most major sectors.

This summary of the findings should serve as an eye-opener and paving the way for future research into this topic.
Here are the important statistics from the report:

Organisations

• Australia has an estimated 600,000 non-profit organizations. Of these, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) estimates that 59,000 are "economically significant" with a contribution of $43 billion to our GDP and filling 8% of employment.

Online social media usage

• 97 per cent of Australian not for profit organizations have an online website presence.
• LinkedIn, FaceBook, Twitter and YouTube topped the list of most frequently used social media technology.
• 50 per cent of YouTube and Twitter accounts belonging to Australian not for profits were customized and/or branded. The figure was marginally lower for FaceBook – 32 percent.
• On average, not for profits posted 3 times a week on FaceBook compared to 8 times on Twitter.
• FaceBook not for profit accounts had more fans on average (2,500 fans) compared to Twitter (570 followers).
• Twitter had the lowest abandonment rate (3 percent of accounts had no posts in the preceding 90 days) while blogs had the highest (31 percent).
• Organizations with more than 1,000 staff were the least likely to use blogs as a means of engaging with customers and the wider public.
• There are a number of missed branding and information dissemination opportunities in LinkedIn Company Profiles and customisation of social media accounts.
• Facebook.com attracts 13.9 million unique visitors in Australia each month though it only has 10.9 million users registered in Australia.
• Google recently announced over 170 million users...but Australian specific and 'actual use' statistics are lacking.
• Twitter enjoys a global retinue of over 500 million accounts but admits only 140 million accounts are active. While LinkedIn (aka 'Facebook for grown-ups') draws a crowd of 2.1 million in Australia.
• MySpace, due to its decline of use was the least used social network.
• Environment and Wildlife organisations came out on top with the highest use of social media across Facebook, YouTube and LinkedIn, while Arts/ Culture/Humanities/Recreation had the lowest use across Twitter, YouTube and LinkedIn.
• Organisations with revenue over $5 million were most likely to use LinkedIn and YouTube and if they had more than 1000+ employees, they were least likely to use blogs.
• Organisations with between $100,000 and $250,000 were least likely to use social media, while those earning less than $100,000 were the most likely to use Facebook.
• Several companies were able to net a good haul of followers in a month with the maximum results appearing on Facebook. RSPCA NWS, OXFAM AUSTRALIA and MISSION AUSTRALIA posted good results.

Location

• Twitter attracted the highest use among organizations headquartered in Queensland.
• New South Wales and Victoria came equally tops on FaceBook use, while institutions with their head offices in New South Wales took the honors for Google+ and YouTube.
• Victoria wasn't going to be left behind, coming in number one on Blogging and LinkedIn.

Number of fans and followers

• FaceBook accounts have the highest number of fans/followers compared to non-profit accounts on other social media platforms. However, FaceBook trailed both Twitter and Google+ in the average number of posts per week.
• Google+ having the highest number of posts per week - 16. But considering Google+ is the newest kid on the social media block, this high posting frequency per account is likely due to a considerable amount of experimentation and a slight data skew based on comparative number of accounts

Video

• YouTube, the second most visited website on the planet is, as would be expected, miles ahead of Vimeo as far as degree of use is concerned. Close to 1 in every 4 not for profits in Australia have a YouTube account compared to approximately 1 in 33 for Vimeo.

Customisation

• And about half of all not for profit YouTube accounts are customized with non-standard backgrounds, colours and logo.
• At 47-48 percent, Twitter and YouTube top the list of customized social media accounts for Australian non-profits. FaceBook is a little lower down the rungs with just 1 in 3 accounts customized and branded.

Abandonment rate

• Blogs showed the highest abandonment rate – 31 per cent of blogs had their most recent post older than 3 months. YouTube follows with 20 per cent – not surprising given the time, resources, skill and bandwidth necessary to regularly upload quality and relevant videos. Google+ at 14 per cent. Twitter had the lowest rate of abandonment at 3% and Facebook fares well here too with 6%.

Twitter

• On average, Australia's non-profits tweet roughly once a day and re-tweet once every three days. Only 1 in 10 Australian NFPs use Twitter hashtags.

LinkedIn

• Only 32 percent have a Company Profile in LinkedIn. Within this 32 percent, over half of all nonprofits aren't taking advantage of the full functionality, with only a "basic profile" in place - i.e. a couple of paragraphs of text about the company and no logo to reinforce branding.
• 37 percent of nonprofits had an 'intermediate' profile - i.e. a complete profile page and logo while as little as 14 percent of non-profits were taking full advantage of 'advanced' features such as a Careers page, a Products page and linking their blog to their LinkedIn Company Page
• Only 5 percent of non-profits have a LinkedIn Group that they control. Of this 5 percent, 62 percent have made their groups 'members-only' making it harder (and possibly not worth the effort) to join the discussion and participate in supporting the organisation's goals

Top ranking

A list of the top ranked organizations (in no particular order) included Mission Australia, Lifeline Australia, WSPA Australia, ACON, Camp Quality and Caritas Australia. See the report for the complete list

The report also includes a case study of Oxfam Australia's (in the top 20) social media strategy and tips.

Take a look at the report below and embed it in your own blog or website if you like - or download the report and a summary infographic.