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Socialfix Media Attends Cultural Networking Trip to Havana with Leading Women Entrepreneurs

On the week of Dec. 4, Socialfix’s very own Terry and Marion Tateossian attended a cultural networking trip to Havana, Cuba with the Leading Women Entrepreneurs (LWE) organization. This was the first time an all-female delegation of business owners has visited Cuba since the United States eased travel restrictions to the country in 2015.

Cuba was an interesting choice for a group of female entrepreneurs due to its predominantly state-controlled economy, but between recent development in Cuba’s private sector and the empowerment of Cuban women, it was an illuminating journey that allowed for each side to learn from one another.

“It really seems as though Cuba is making great strides to encourage new businesses and entrepreneurship,” said Marion Tateossian. “What resonated with me was the overwhelming feeling of hope that the Cuban people seemed to exude.”

While in Cuba, Terry, Marion, and the rest of the LWE group were exposed to a mix of the performing and visual arts, they toured local businesses and had some time to explore Havana for themselves. What they found was a country that has been held back by a state-controlled economy and aggressive international embargos, but was poised to enter the world of private sector growth, increasingly free markets, and international trade.

Cuba’s path to gender equality has rich historical roots. Dating back before the revolution and continuing to modern day, Cuba has been striving to reach true equality between men and women. Before the revolution, women had the right to vote, could not be discriminated against based on sex, and laws existed that required equal pay for equal work.

After the revolution, the Cuban government created the Federation of Cuban Women, which was recognized as a national mechanism for the advancement of women in Cuba. Since its inception, the Federation of Cuban Women has developed a literacy campaign that resulted in Cuba being declared a “territory free of illiteracy” only one year after its inception, increased the share of women in the workforce from 25% to 43.9%—women make up 45% of STEM related jobs, 70% of banking jobs, 50% of healthcare jobs, and they make up 66% of professionals and experts within the country—put in place anti-sexual harassment and domestic abuse laws, paid maternity leave, and a myriad of other solutions to shift power away from the patriarchy into an equality-based system. Women also hold approximately 50% of the positions in government.

“It was really eye-opening to see the leadership roles that women are taking on in Cuba,” said Terry Tateossian. “It’s like a matriarchal society, women have achieved equality in the workplace, and the country’s new push to grow its private sector is led predominantly by women.”

While it’s much harder for individuals to be entrepreneurial in Cuba, social systems such as gender equality and access to healthcare seem to be more progressive than the United States. This provides the perfect opportunity for both groups, the women with LWE and the Cuban entrepreneurs they met with, to have an exchange of ideas that mutually benefits them. The LWE women showed the Cuban business owners how to be successful in their business ventures, and the Cubans showed LWE some ways that women can be advanced through policy agendas that prioritize it.

“This revolutionary adventure brought 16 women together to experience the multiple dimensions of Cuba and of each other,” said Caroline Gosselin, CEO of The Gosselin Group and member of LWE. “This was a trip of a lifetime and we have made lifelong bonds! Music, politics, arts, business, law, food, culture… it was all on the table and enriching beyond belief!”

The trip also provided all those in attendance the opportunity to network and develop relationships with other strong female entrepreneurs. The friendships forged in Havana are the reasons why LWE organizes these retreats.

“What a gift—actually two gifts! The retreat exposed us to an unfamiliar culture, yet afforded us the opportunity to connect and share the vibrancy, talents, and charm of the people of Cuba,” said Alexandra Zetlin, founder and president of Zetlin Strategic Communications and member of LWE. “Sharing the experience with a group of impressive women of accomplishment who retain humor and a sense of adventure and fun made the retreat even more memorable.”

The LWE retreat to Havana was illuminating. Though Cuba may be only starting their foray into private sector growth, the lessons that can be learned from a burgeoning economy are limitless, and Terry and Marion plan on incorporating those lessons at Socialfix Media in the near future.

 

Brava Terry! Socialfix Founder Named to List of Top Women Business Leaders

It’s no secret that the Socialfix team thinks that their founder, Terry Tateossian, is an inspiring and insightful leader, but Terry’s leadership qualities are also recognized outside of the workplace.

On Nov. 7, SmartCEO will host the Brava Awards, during which Terry will be honored as one of New Jersey’s top women business leaders.

The Brava Awards are an annual celebration of high-impact female business leaders in New York and New Jersey. The winners must exhibit certain characteristics to be considered for the award, not only do Brava Award recipients need to demonstrate  leadership qualities within their companies but also in their local communities.

Terry has a unique approach to running the Socialfix offices. From team building retreats to in-office activities, she understands that a happy employee is a productive employee, and that a productive employee is the most valuable asset to a business owner. You also won’t hear the word “employee” uttered from her mouth, they’re team members, rockstars, warriors, and as part of the team, she’s often right down in the trenches with everyone else, ensuring that every aspect of every project is successful. Terry doesn’t miss a beat, and her attention to detail and unique, innovative perspective keeps the team on the forefront of the digital marketing realm.

As a successful business owner, you may think that she couldn’t have time for anything else, but Terry is dedicated, and manages to give back to her community by being on the advisory board of several women’s advocacy groups and by doing pro-bono work for various philanthropic endeavors.

The Socialfix team is proud that their extraordinary team leader is being recognized for the qualities that they’ve seen in her since meeting and would like to extend their congratulations to all the other women who are being honored alongside Terry at the 2017 Brava Awards.

Everyone’s a Winner at Socialfix Field Day

Last month was Socialfix Media’s first annual field day. The team enjoyed a day filled with fun, food, and competition. Everyone was split into two groups (the White Team and Black Team) to compete in several events in the hopes of walking away victorious. The competition was fierce, but both sides came away as winners when the day was through.

That’s not to say that both sides won the competition, the victory was claimed by the Black Team in an epic comeback led by Socialfix founder Terry Tateossian. No, both sides came away as winners because despite the competitive spirit on the battlefield, there was plenty of laughs in between. Both teams were able to interact, learn more about one another, and enjoy each other’s company outside the workplace.

Team building is important for both large and small companies. It can help to increase productivity and decrease stress among employees. Nothing boosts morale like trying to escape a human knot or  tossings eggs at each other from several feet away. Each event took a solid sense of trust between employees to take the edge over the competition.

After the six events were complete (including Snake, Balloon Race, Egg Toss, Human Knot, Perfect Square, and ending with Steal the Bacon), the teams were tied, leading to a second round of Steal the Bacon that ultimately resulted in the Black Team’s victory. The events all focused on teamwork, requiring the teams to work and move as one in order to complete the given task.

The field day still encouraged people to emerge as leaders, communicate better, and get to know each other better in a relaxed environment. By the end of the day, the team was tired but left the park with wide smiles and a renewed vigor to return to the office the following day.

How To Protect Your Website From Digital Pirates

When you hear the term “Cyber Pirates” I hope that a dashing image of Johnny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow coding at a desktop monitor doesn’t come to mind. In fact, cyber pirates are more threatening (and possibly more composed) when it comes to their method of pirating.

More now than ever before, Cyber Pirates are using RansomWare to hold companies’ most important assets hostage, while releasing confidential information to the public. These attacks are happening all over the globe and amongst companies of all sizes. You might have read about the HBO hack that happened just a few weeks ago where hackers who used the same software accessed and leaked confidential information about upcoming television shows.

So what exactly is RansomWare, and how can you detect and prevent the attacks from happening to your company?

RansomWare is a malicious software that holds business websites hostage or threatens to release sensitive data to the public for a handsome fee. Cyber pirates will utilize a variety of avenues including emails, network traffic, user behavior and application traffic to insert RansomWare. These types of attacks are typically carried out using a “Trojan” that is disguised as a legitimate file. For example, the Trojan might be an innocent looking email from your boss instructing you to check out pertinent information. Unknowingly you click the link, because you trust the source. But once you click the link, it activates the download of the malware and the hacker can encrypt your files until you supply the bounty.

According to a recent article published by Barracuda.com, “ a Ransomware variant will infect between 30,000 to 35,000 devices a month, with some variants reaching up to 150,000 infections.” However, most of these attacks can be prevented. Follow our guidelines below to keep your website safe so you don’t become one of the statistics.

Although we always recommend first that you prevent threats before they happen, sometimes this isn’t always feasible. We also offer website maintenance and support to repair websites after they have been hacked. Take a look at our Top 9 must do’s to keep your website running optimally while guarding it against any potential threats.

1. Run daily, weekly or monthly backups of all of your files. If a cyber attack occurs you want to ensure that you can recover the website from the most recent version.

2. Host your website on a secure server. Our dedicated servers provide our clients with a variety of weapons to fight cyber security attacks. These include Firewall Protection, Anti-Spam and Anti-Virus Protection, HTTP Intrusion Protection, Daily security audits and more that all monitor threats and prevent them from attacking the website.

3.  Always make sure that you have an SSL certificate for your website., to initiate a secure session with browsers. Websites with SSL certificates have the “Secure” stamp of approval in the URL, also known as HTTP.

4. No website is self-sustainable, make sure to update your plugins. New plugins are constantly being rolled out to patch old bugs and potential vulnerabilities. So keeping your website backend up to date is instrumental in guarding it against possible threats.

5. Use Strong Passwords and 2-Factor Authentication: Making sure that your website password is complex and updated bi-monthly and you have dual authentication for website access is crucial.

6. Make sure to blacklist all bad or suspicious IP’s.

7. Make sure to whitelist all trustworthy IP’s.

8.  Daily Attack Monitoring.- Sign up with a hosting and support company that offers Daily Attack Monitoring so that you know the exact moment when an attack is occurring. Responding quickly to an attack can be a deal breaker.

9. Most importantly, be aware of suspicious emails, websites, and apps. In order for RansomeWare to work some has to unknowingly download malware onto their device.

For more information on how to keep your website safe and secure from those digital pirates, contact us through our live chat option or click here to fill out our contact form and we can create the right Maintenance and Security package for you.

The results are in… And we have been named a Top NYC Digital Agency by Clutch!

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Socialfix was announced as one of the Top New York City Agencies and Developers of 2017 by Clutch!

Clutch provides ongoing research on leading B2B firms in New York to identify the top providers in the advertising, branding, public relations, social media management, SEO, pay-per-click, digital, mobile app development and custom software development industries.

Socialfix was announced as a top digital agency for 2017. We stood out amongst our competitors for our branding and digital strategy, digital design,  and digital marketing. We were evaluated on our market presence (services, clients, and past projects) and by client interviews conducted by Clutch analysts which are published as reviews on our company profile.

“All of the companies featured today have proven themselves as leaders in their industries due to their commitment to clients, passion for work, and ability to generate results.” said Jenna Seter, Business Analyst at Clutch. We are honored to have been recognized by Clutch as a top agency in this space. With 12 years of experience working in the digital marketing space, we have become fluent in all digital forms of communication and marketing. However, we are most satisfied that our experience has contributed to our clients’ success.

Most marketing companies don’t realize that the digital ecosystem is changing so rapidly. New trends are emerging and transforming quicker than we’ve ever seen before. At Socialfix, we are attuned to the ever-shifting digital world and we embrace the change, delivering marketing programs that make the biggest impact. What sets us apart from the rest is our approach to our client strategy and project management. The relationships that we form with our clients evolve into partnerships where we can work collaboratively to provide tailor-made solutions depending on the industry and each client’s respective goals.

Check out our profile at Clutch and how we have helped clients in the past, and how our digital services could enhance your company’s marketing initiatives in the future.

Terry Tateossian Recognized as Top 25 Leading Women Entrepreneurs of New Jersey

The LWE Top 25 Leading Women Entrepreneurs Recognition award honors women business owners that fully embody the entrepreneurial spirit and demonstrate outstanding performance in four areas: market potential, innovation, community involvement and advocacy for women. This year the organization accepted close to 1,000 nominations.

At Socialfix, Tateossian consistently honors these four areas in the agency’s work. With a strong work ethic, and determination, Tateossian understands success comes to those who are intuitive, bold and willing to take calculated risks.

While being an entrepreneur can be a demanding calling, Tateossian makes the job look effortless. Her finesse as a team leader is never short of outstanding. Daily, Terry leads by example to promote the values necessary for the success of her team, knowing that we work better when we are working towards the same goals. Her leadership style is also highly influenced by her outstanding ability to teach best practices to the Socialfix team. Her guidance contributes to our ability to deliver solutions that are on the edge of innovation and creativity.

Delivering innovative and creative solutions have been ingrained into the mission of Socialfix since our conception, 12 years ago. We pride ourselves on the ability to push our clients to the forefront of their industries, based on the latest technologies and industry trends. Terry’s keen sense of the market landscape enables her to recognize upcoming trends. For example, we recently introduced virtual reality, augmented reality and mixed reality into our core capabilities to accommodate the needs of existing and potential clients.

Being a LWE top 25 not only recognizes each nominee’s success as it pertains to the nominee’s business exclusively, but the contributions each nominee has made to the community and advocacy for women in general.

At Socialfix, Terry has dedicated a large sum of time to serve non-profit organizations. We have provided hundreds of hours of pro-bono services to help advance the mission of non-profit organizations such as the New Jersey chapter of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, The Swiss Society of New York, The New York Blood Center, and PinkTie.org. We have assisted these organizations in bringing awareness to their cause through video production, event promotion and custom digital marketing strategies.

Advocacy for women comes naturally for Terry. As a certified member of the Women’s Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC), her commitment to supporting women owned businesses and other diversity initiatives is recognized on a national level. Some of her efforts can be seen through her work producing the “Women Leading the Way” video series for the Raritan Valley Community College. Now, as a nominee for the top 25 LWE, her advocacy efforts can reach more women professionals, in the local community.

Don’t Change the Channel: YouTube Marketing Just Got Really Important


Have you ever gotten lost binge watching hours of YouTube videos? Well, you aren’t alone. According to YouTube, viewers are reportedly watching a total sum of one billion hours of YouTube clips per day.

That is a significant amount of time that consumers are spending on YouTube. So in terms of marketing, one might consider how to leverage your strategic marketing plans to take advantage of this premier digital platform.

Reach your clients where they already are. Right now, video marketing is more popular than ever and since consumers are spending a record high amount of time on YouTube, this is an opportunity to leverage your video content where consumers will be most likely to digest it.

Whether your business is completely new to YouTube, or it is looking to maximize existing video campaigns, we have the tips & tricks to perfect your video marketing strategy and get the most out of using YouTube to market your business.

1 Focus on engagement, not views. YouTube reported that focusing on video engagement is more effective when measuring results. On the platform, videos under 2 minutes in length get almost 50% of all views. In terms of YouTube Ads, videos that are watched entirely will be given more visibility than videos that are abandoned early.

2 Style of videos can vary from company spotlight,  client testimonials, product tutorials or quirky company culture clips. Don’t be afraid to diversify content, but remember to  keep the videos short and to the point. Don’t push out content that lags in its message, because viewers have the ability to click away instantly.

3 If your business is serious about video marketing, set up a dedicated branded channel for your business. During set up, pay attention to the details of your channel. Be sure to incorporate the company’s logo and a short yet intriguing description to assist viewers. Organize videos into playlists to motivate viewers to stream more content based on preference. Also take into consideration a compelling title for each video along with a thorough description. Although YouTube is a video platform, and emphasis is put on the visuals, the written content is crucial to creating the right first impression

4 Develop a content calendar to be consistent with posting on your business’ YouTube channel. Just like any other social media channel, a long silence in between posts won’t help with audience engagement and brand awareness. Plus, a calendar will keep you on track with collecting assets, scheduling production days, and editing content before the final cut should be delivered. 

5 Use Analytics to know what is working and what is not. After Google, YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world. The platform allows for its users to access analytics about the reach and engagement of their videos. If your business is serious about using YouTube as a marketing platform, utilize the analytics to measure views over time, discover a breakdown of your sources of traffic and analyze the demographic of your viewers. There is a wide array of analytic specs available to understand how your videos are performing.

6 Don’t worry about using annotations to engage your audience. This is referring to the pop-ups that appear while you are viewing a video as commentary or “Subscribe” links. As of May 2nd of this year, YouTube is getting rid of this featuring and focusing on “cards” and “end screens” to help engage your audience. Cards and End Screens will point viewers to other videos, playlists or channels on YouTube, call for subscriptions, promote your website, merchandise and crowdfunding campaigns, all of which will be compatible with mobile devices. 

7 Consider paid ads on Youtube. You can promote your video with AdWords for Video in three ways: pre-roll ads before the videos that people watch, as a banner ad when you’re browsing the web, or as a promoted video when people search for similar video on YouTube. Keep in mind relevant keywords for your search, this might require prior research to understand what keywords are ranking for your industry and more specifically, your industry’s trends on YouTube.   

 

References:

https://techcrunch.com/2017/02/28/people-now-watch-1-billion-hours-of-youtube-per-day/?utm_content=buffer205bd&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer

https://youtube.googleblog.com/2017/02/you-know-whats-cool-billion-hours.html

https://www.shopify.com/blog/12280057-7-ways-to-leverage-youtube-marketing-to-improve-sales

https://www.shopify.com/blog/6763696-youtube-analytics-10-ways-to-track-video-performance

https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/7342737

https://www.shopify.com/blog/6763696-youtube-analytics-10-ways-to-track-video-performance

https://www.business.qld.gov.au/running-business/marketing-sales/marketing-promotion/online-marketing/youtube/how

 

What you can learn from Facebook’s Fourth Quarter Earnings

In a recent article published in The Wall Street Journal Facebook made, yet another, quarter of massive advertising revenue growth in terms of its mobile ad business.

It was reported that revenue for the fourth quarter was $8.81 billion, up from 53% a year ago. And mobile accounted for 84% of advertising revenue.

Here is what marketers should keep in mind from the earnings report:

1. Hands down, Facebook’s audience is huge. The company said that 1.23 billion people used its services at lease once a day during December.

2. Video ads are working. More premium video ad opportunities for marketers are rising up on Facebook, as the platform shifts its focus to video. The company is testing new mid-roll advertising products.

3. Facebook TV is the future. Facebook is looking to implement a video tab into the social network, exclusively for professionally produced episodic content. Facebook will also be creating an app for TV set-top boxes to distribute content to users TVs, with plans down the road for advertising revenue to help fund the creators.

4. Mobile is hot. Facebook has proven that it has figured out, once what was a conundrum for most marketers– mobile advertising. The company reported that 84% of its ad revenue came from mobile during the fourth quarter, up from 80% in the fourth quarter of 2015.

5. Measurement capabilities are improving. Facebook will be ensuring that marketers understand what sort of returns they are getting for advertising on the platform. Facebook will continually be improving its measurement capabilities and consulting with more third party measurement companies going forward.

Reference:

https://www.wsj.com/articles/5-things-marketers-should-note-from-facebooks-fourth-quarter-earnings-1485993565?emailToken=JRrzcf5+YXyQhtE8bsxhkUEob68HEKqMT0nUIWzHIFOJr3zSvOatgqMym9byr3moQAN07tsJ5Wk4RiaUjm13RtOR3qdimE24dmMYo5je1wyNNV+exRLaILtN7fSLow==

Socialfix Recognized by Clutch as a Leader in The Digital Marketing Space

More than just designers, developers, and strategists, Socialfix stands above the rest as a team of experienced entrepreneurs. In an age of rapidly advancing technology and a cultural milieu that is ever-changing, we recognize the urgency of a holistic approach. It’s no longer enough to design an eye-catching website, or simply increase a client’s following on social media. Rather, the times demand an agency that is capable of evaluating all possible solutions from the perspective of the larger business objective. We treat all of our clients as partners, just as we view the members of our own company as family. This means that we take the time to understand the inner-workings of our client’s business, because ultimately, we’re trying to produce more than just results. From the first meeting to the final goodbye, our goal is to deliver transformation.

Founded as a business-to-business market research firm in Washington, D.C, Clutch uses its own research methodology to produce ratings and reviews for digital marketing companies. In their evaluation of a company’s quality and position in the wider marketplace, Clutch incorporates a variety of qualitative and quantitative factors. Above all, the direct client interviews conducted by their team give firsthand, unvarnished insight into the practices of the agencies featured on their site.

One of our clients, Passaic Rubber Company, a manufacturing business for custom rubber products, shared with Clutch:

“Socialfix did a good job of capturing the family feel in our website design…They are a family business as well, so we have that in common. They like to work on a personal level.”

While we are always thinking of new ways to sharpen our expertise and expand our creativity, most importantly, the community at Socialfix is determined to find a personalized strategy that will solve your business challenges. Take a look at our profile on Clutch to learn more about our services and to read client feedback speaking to our ability to look beyond the minute of the digital world and shift with the changing times.

Socialfix Recognized As One Of SmartCEO’s Future 50 Companies Of 2017

Socialfix Media is honored to be recognized as one of New Jersey’s SmartCEO Future 50 companies of 2017. The program, which will be held tonight in The Palace in Somerset, is the largest and most anticipated SmartCEO award programs of the year. The program recognizes the region’s fastest growing, mid-sized companies that embody the entrepreneurial spirit critical for leadership and success and that have shown (based on a three-year average) employee and revenue growth.

As a company that consistently strives for success, we are thrilled to be a part of the program tonight to celebrate the hard work that our team has put in these past years, and the tangible results from our dedicated team. We look forward to what 2017 has to bring, knowing that we are prepared to take on the biggest and boldest challenges.

We are especially thankful for SmartCEO to have given us this award, our team members who have contributed to our success, and most importantly to our clients that have been crucial to our development as an agency.

Check out our Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram for live updates throughout the program tonight.

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