On the rise: Email phishers spamming

I’ve noticed that I’m getting unsolicited emails in the form of an email newsletter from all over the country using my “services” email address. People are phishing everywhere during this time of economic downturn. So what should I do and what have I been doing?

1) Mark them as Spam – this helps your email software to determine if it is spam or not.
But it’s best to 2) Unsubscribe – unsubscribing takes you off the list – so you don’t even receive the email to begin with. Next you should 3) Research where they are phishing for your email addresses.
For me, being a webmaster, I have my email address everywhere…so I need to research where that “services” email is and encrypt it.

Encrypt it? How do you do that? Consult with your webmaster or internet service provider…they’ll be able to help you encrypt your email address on your website so that it can’t be phished. Your webmaster can use an “email riddler” from this website… http://www.dynamicdrive.com/emailriddler/

Also don’t put your email out on the web to be phished…just waiting to be taken.

I’ve written about this in another post here and here as well.

If you need help, contact us at Samuel Little Graphic Design

Business Social Medias

Today, I attended a social networking seminar presented by Nhat Pham (http://www.linkedin.com/in/nhatpham) with the Chesterfield Chamber of Commerce on LinkedIn, Facebook for businesses and Twitter. Even though I have been LinkedIn (http://www.linkedin.com/in/samuellittle) for about a year now, it was good to hear it from an expert like Nhat. The seminar was just today so I haven’t been able to use what I’ve learned…I’ll have more posts on that later. One thing that I did do immediately is put my LinkedIn web address link on my email signature.
My first impression from a marketing stand point is that users can target their market like never before! Focus on your target.

In LinkedIn there are many ways you can focus on what it is that you do best and present yourself as such on your LinkedIn pages over a broad network. You can research companies and individuals that you want to contact. As Nhat said, people will answer a LinkedIn email quicker than regular email…I think most likely because you’re apart of a common group.

As for Facebook for business, again…tailor your page to what your target market is. I don’t have much to say about this right now…I’ll post more later once I set up my Facebook page.

As for Twitter, Nhat said you can search anything…the whole Twitt network. That’s amazing! Search by keyword, demographics and the lot to see what people are talking about on any subject you want. I’m going to research this and see if it will be beneficial to me. I’ll get back to you on that as well.

Nhat spoke of a website called Ping.fm. A web site that allows you to update all of your social networks at once. This could be very helpful in getting your messages out but remember that most medias have a character count limit…so you need to know what that is before your words get cut off.

Another tool is Google Alerts. Nhat said that through Google Alerts you can be alerted when someone is searching for your name or company name. So when I’m alerted then what do I do with that information? I don’t know, but I’m going to find out. I think that’s very interesting.

This is all of the information I have for now from my seminar this morning…I’ll be back with more as I learn more.

One other thing that Nhat said which I thought was really funny. At the beginning of the meeting his “PC” was going so slow to pull up movies, links and web sites…he said and I quote…”I wish I had brought my Mac”. Why did he say that?…because Macs work. Sorry, I just had to mention that…I’m a 25 year + veteran of Apple MacIntosh products….from the MacPlus (1985) onward.

Update:
091909: I thought this was really funny…Nhat Pham said put your photo in your profile …nobody knows you as a lighthouse or as Garfield or as a cartoon.  LOL. Show your FACE!
Remember people always say “It hard for me to remember names”. But it’s easy to remember FACES.

Nhat also mentioned Hi-Tech and Hi-Touch. Hi-Tech is using the online services to connect but we also need to remember that we need Hi-Touch as well to make those connections real. He said to go from Hi-Touch to Hi-Tech and back to Hi-Touch to form bonding relationships. Like, I was telling a colleague of mine… I Hi-Touch and Hi-Tech, then when I go to organization meetings or industry trade shows I use those events as a vehicle to get back to Hi-Touch.

I also want to thank John Tyler Community College (Chester) for allowing us to use their facility for the seminar.

Samuel Little is an advertising design specialist specializing in publication layout, design, production, printing and delivery with Samuel Little Graphic Design.

Chesterfield County Chamber honors Samuel Little

Samuel Little, president of Samuel Little Graphic Design, was named the Chesterfield Chamber of Commerce’s Member of the Month for volunteering his time and services for the organization’s Fun in the Sun event. His firm specializes in the design and layout of marketing materials, such as logos, brochures, advertisements, direct mail and more, from conception to the finished product. He currently serves as creative director for the Chesterfield Observer, metro Richmond’s largest weekly newspaper. For more information, call 545-7503 or visit www.slgd.com.

Client testimonial

Samuel Little of Samuel Little Graphic Design is helping the co-owner of 888-VA-LAWNS with marketing ideas and the design of their landscaping advertisement for the Chesterfield Observer newspaper in conjunction with the Observers sales representative. After his conversation with them this was their comment in their email.

“Samuel is a wealth of knowledge– thank you for having him to call me!!!

You can reach 888-VA-LAWNS at 1-888-VALAWNS or locally (804) 727-9303 for all of you lawn care needs from mowing, edging, mulching, shrub pruning, fertilizing, seeding, aerating, planting, clean-ups, and irrigation repair.