Blogs I Commented On Regarding Email Newsletters

I read many blogs this week and commented on some. Here is a list of some I commented on:

• Xumei Zhang
• Eduardo Martinez
• Anne Engardio
• Matthew Caruana

Email Newsletters For Business

Email marketing is a powerful tool to use to promote one’s business. It is often used to send out a newsletter promoting products, people or ideas related to the topics the company is associated with. The content in email newsletters is seen as being editorial rather than as a commercial message with a sales offer of some sort.

Newsletters allow for special treatment of topics that can be covered from different angles than what a blog does. The particular issue of a newsletter can have coverage of several different topics, or a single overreaching idea, backed up with expert opinions and case studies or practical applications.

For my business I would publish topical newsletters once a month. I would cover such things as networking technologies, IT hardware, IT security layer approaches, forensics and incident investigations and the many other related issues that people in my industry would be interested in. These topics are standard industry discussion points and will retain their validity over time.

Categories of Posts for My Business

My business, IT Security Ideas, is primarily tasked to dessiminate information. That information can be about any number of things in the realm of information technology. This includes everything from small data cards such as the Rasberry Pi and USB sticks used for forensics, such I built just this past week, all the way up to firewalls, drones (unmanned vehicles) and satellites that we use to protect our country.  These all fall under the category of  hardware or appliances.

Other things addressed will be how to fight malware (the modern virus threat), social engineering (think Kevin Mitnick), the twenty controls of the OWASP (Open Web Applications Security Project), the ten core areas of the CISSP (Certified Information Systems Security Professional), and any of a myriad of other basic knowledge base concerns in which IT security engineers immerse themselves.

All of the above are important because IT security professionals must show continued professional education and they can do this by reading and responding to books, podcasts, video and other media given that there is proof that what they say they learned something from actually exists, for example a screen shot or the actual media or the saved podcast or other.

This means that I can write about anything in my blog that picques my interest since my primary interests are about security in information technology.


In regards to a previous post I made regarding how personal one should be on their blog, there are a few other people's blogs that I have commented on regarding their ideas about "getting personal on a business blog". These peoples ideas deserve a shout out and include:
(1) Charles Lisherness   CharlieCSIT155
(2) Matthew Caruana   Krimson
(3) Melanie Haynie   Melanie's Social Media Journey

Adding One's Personality Into A Blog Post

I just finished four days on a jury trial. Evidently I have a personality that lawyers like because this is the third time I have been selected.  Would the traits that make me a desirable juror translate well into the realm of the blogosphere? When does it make sense to add one’s personality into a blog post and when does it not make sense to do so?

 

I think extreme ideas that fall on opposite ends of the spectrum from the median, should be relegated only to blogs set up specifically for like-minded followers of those ideas. I don’t think that extremist ideas necessarily have a place on a blog set up to promote a for-profit business.

 

As far as the interjecting of one’s personality into blogs, I think it is important to do so otherwise the blog will become dry after a while and people will cease to follow newly added entries. I would propose though that restraint should be exercised in businesses, like mine, that focus on the scientific and technological. In blogs about everyday topics like food or clothing or places it is entirely appropriate to interject ones opinions and personality into the writing of each post.  Balance and variety will create readership.

Finding Entities to Follow on Twitter

Twitter has an advanced search tool that can be used to find and follow people and businesses that meet specific criteria that can be defined and refined to meet one’s information needs. These can benefit a person’s business by creating an avenue for cross promotion of ideas or collaboration.

The advanced search tool is a bit difficult to locate in the twitter interface and one has to drill around to find it. The best way to get there is if someone provides you a link or if you Google it to get a link.

My online business is about information technology ideas and their dissemination. I used “IT Security”, “ethical hacker” and a few other terms to search on in order to get a list of people and businesses to follow. A few examples that I chose to follow are: @ChrisJohnRiley, @Joey_Hernandez, @ethicalhack3r, @teamcymru, @whitehatsec. I am following a total of 23 entities right now.

Effective Use Of Visual Media

It is difficult to get a highly technical concept across to an audience without using visual media. Also, general advertising and marketing are most easily done through visual media to promote the services and strengths of a company. YouTube is famous for building enthusiasm and for sharing landmark ideas that businesses want to put out there for others to know about.

 

Three companies, similar to mine, that use visual social media venues are RedSpin, eLearnSecurity and Dell SecureWorks.  Each of them have multiple YouTube videos posted marketing their business and security practice.

 

All three companies have at least one video advertising their services. First, RedSpin has a clean cut image that looks like it was done for television. Then, eLearnSecurity looks good also and includes a call to action for people to sign up. Finally, SecureWorks has a mix of different styles of video that are all entertaining.  All three companies seem to have created effective marketing and technical followings by using the social media venue of YouTube.

The Visual Opportunity On Social Networks

My business is information and process based. There could be huge amounts of detailed information. The top four social networks of a visual nature are YouTube, Instagram, Tumblr and Pinterest.

YouTube and Tumblr would be where I would spend the most time, energy and effort because those two media venues would allow me to do tech updates, “chalk talks” and deep dive demonstrations.

 

YouTube videos can be simple or complicated and there is lots of information about how to make different types of video demonstrations. People can play the videos over and over again to learn what they want.

 

Tumblr is a way to micro-blog. It allows for expression through text, photos, audio and video. It is very flexible and allows for operations in many different business venues.

 

Pinterest and Instagram are picture based media. Instagram works best with mobile devices and can be used to render professional looking images with tools they have built-in. Pinterest seems to me to be very powerful but complicated to use.