Category: Resources

Automatisation tools: simplifying content dissemination for small businesses

Posted on by Comunicació

Disseminating content is a fundamental process nowadays for all businesses, big and small. Yet for small companies, managing content dissemination can be a challenge as there is often a lack of time or resources for doing so effectively. This is where automatisation tools can play an important role. These tools offer simplified solutions for automating various tasks and optimising content dissemination. 

Tools we can use for this include:

  • IFTTT (If This, Then That) is a popular tool combining free plans and others with tariffs, allowing users to create automatic processes based on a structure of “if A happens, we generate B”. With IFTTT, small businesses can integrate their social media platforms and other online services so that they are activated automatically when certain things happen. For instance, if the business publishes a new blog article, IFTTT can automatically share it on social media.
  • Make is a free tool similar to IFTTT, combining free plans and others with tariffs, but with greater flexibility and personalisation. This tool enables users to create personalised workflows which are triggered according to various sequences and actions. Make allows small businesses to automatise tasks such as sending welcome emails to new subscribers or automatically updating content on different platforms.
  • Zapier is another popular automatisation tool combining free and chargeable plans. It connects various applications and services to transfer data automatically. For small businesses, Zapier offers the possibility of automatising tasks such as sending auto-reply messages to clients, synchronising data between project management tools and automatic follow-up of potential clients.
  • Microsoft Power Automate (previously Microsoft Flow) is an automatisation tool which users can integrate into the Microsoft environment (charges apply). Power Automate enables small businesses to connect and automate various Microsoft applications and services such as SharePoint, Teams, Outlook and many more. This means tailored workflows can be created to simplify tasks such as document approvals, scheduling meetings and sending notifications.
  • Leadsbridge is a specialist tool for the integration and synchronisation of data between marketing platforms, combining free plans with chargeable ones. For small businesses, Leadsbridge offers functions such as the automatic collation of data for potential clients from website forms and synchronisation with client relationship management tools (CRM) and email platforms. This helps small businesses automatise the process to attract new clients and efficiently keep a database up to date.

The main advantages offered by these automatisation tools are:

  • Time saving: content dissemination tasks tend to be repetitive and time consuming. These tools mean small businesses can schedule and automatise them, allowing staff to devote more time to other aspects of the business.
  • Coherence and consistency: automatisation ensures that content is published more consistently and at the most appropriate time. This helps maintain an active and cohesive online presence.
  • Broader reach: automatisation allows small businesses to disseminate content on various platforms and social media channels simultaneously. This broadens the reach and visibility of messages and helps attract new sectors of the public.
  • Personalisation: despite automatisation, these tools allow small businesses to personalise messages and adapt them for different platforms and specific audiences. This helps create a more personal and relevant experience for clients.
  • Integration with other tools: automatisation tools can be integrated with other tools and management platforms, such as web analytics, CRM and email platforms. This also allows for more efficient management and thorough follow-up of content dissemination.

In short, automatisation tools such as IFTTT, Make, Zapier, Microsoft Power Automate and Leadsbridge offer small businesses an efficient and simplified way of disseminating content. Automatisation means businesses can save time, maintain a consistent online presence and reach a broader audience. In the long run, it can help them improve their visibility, attract new clients and grow in today’s increasingly competitive digital environment.

How to reduce your website’s bounce rate

Posted on by Comunicació

Reducing the bounce rate for your website or blog is a key factor in improving its health. The bounce rate measures the percentage of visitors to the site who then leave without visiting more pages or engaging with it. There may be various reasons for this, including technical issues, UX issues, poor content or a poor content structure etc.

Calculating a bounce rate is easy and is done with website statistics tools such as Google Analytics or Matomo. However, it’s important to bear in mind that there’s no such thing as a good or bad bounce rate, as it depends on what type of site is being measured. For instance, a landing page or a final content page can have a high bounce rate, but this is not necessarily a bad thing if the page requires no additional engagement.

The following tips can help reduce the bounce rate for a website or blog:

  • Check the speed of the website and optimise its images, as a slow-loading page can turn visitors away before they engage with the content.
  • Improve the structure of content and the user experience: make the content more interesting and relevant, improve the accessibility of the site through responsive design,enabling users to view it from their mobile or tablet.
  • Guarantee the security of the website, through an SSL security certificate or by including legal texts (privacy policy, legal notice, cookie notice and contractual conditions where applicable).
  • Including internal links on pages can be a good way of reducing the bounce rate for your website or blog. This way users will engage with the different sections, pushing up the time spent on the website.

In summary, it’s important to keep an eye on the bounce rate for your website or blog, as this is an indicator of its health and will help you understand what changes you can make to improve user experience.

How to optimise images for your website

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When it comes to designing and developing a website, images play a key part in attracting and maintaining visitors. Yet heavy images can make your site slower to load. That’s why it’s essential to optimise images, to ensure users have a good experience.

Here are some practical tips on optimising images for your website:

1. Reduce file sizes
The size of image files directly influences the time it takes the page to load. It’s important to reduce the size of image files without losing quality. You can do this byusing image compression tools such as TinyPNG and Compressor.io.

2. Optimise the image format
The most common formats for images are JPG, PNG and GIF. Each format has its own characteristics and advantages. JPG files are suitable for photos and images with complex colours, while PNG files are the best for images with transparent parts. GIFfiles are a good option for animations and images with few colours.

3. Use descriptive file names
The names of image files are also important for SEO purposes. Use descriptive file names that include keywords linked to the image to help search engines index the image and show it in search results.

4. Include alt text and a title
Alt text and titles are important elements for accessibility and SEO. Alt text describes the image for users with screen readers or who have visual impairment, while titles appear when the mouse moves over them. Include descriptive keywords in the alt texts and title to help search engines index the image.

5. Avoid images in Flash
Images in Flash are less accessible for users and incompatible with many devices. Avoid using images in Flash and go for more accessible image formats such as JPG and PNG.

6. Reduce the number of images
Having too many images on a page can mean the page takes longer to load and have a negative effect on SEO. Just use the images you need for the page and optimise them to reduce their size.

We encourage you to follow these simple tips and you’ll improve the loading speed of your website while improving your position in the result of image searches.

How to use ChatGPT for your internet business?

Posted on by Comunicació

If you haven’t used it yet, you’re likely to have heard talk of it at some point. We’re talking about ChatGPT, the artificial intelligence system developed by OpenAI which can generate texts and conversations and obtain answers for just about anything you ask it.

The tool is currently open-access and free to use. All you need to do is register, type in your question and in a matter of seconds ChatGPT will start generating your answer.

How can ChatGPT be of use to me?

It is important to bear in mind we’re talking about an artificial intelligence tool which builds its answers from an extensive source of data. Consequently, its response will be approximate, but we can’t take it to be 100% correct.

Even so, the tool can be very useful for complementing our work and getting a first draft of the material we want to work with.

The most common uses of ChatGPT are:

  • Creation of texts: you can ask the tool to write any sort of text, establishing a specific number of characters, type of text, language, style, tone and more. You can use it to describe a product on your website, to generate an email with information for your customers, as a presentation text and more.
  • Content generation: the tool can help you produce a first version of an article on any topic, or you can even ask it to suggest tweets for a text you have already published. This can be very useful for keeping an active profile on social media and getting visitors to your website. It won’t do all the work for you, but it can save you a lot of time.
  • Resolving doubts: the tool can help you in many ways here, not just in resolving doubts you may have, but for example by creating a Q & A section for your customers or users. Similarly, with SEO, as you can ask it to give you keywords to work with in your sector or in relation to the product or type of service you offer.

From here on you can let your imagination take over. This AI tool (and many of those which will spring up in the future) can help you develop anything which involves generating a text. That said, it’s always necessary to check that the data make sense and it’s a good idea to adapt the information to give it a more personal and authentic touch.

SSL certificate: what it is and why you need it

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The SSL certificate is a communication protocol which guarantees the secure transmission of information on the internet through data encryption.

Without a certificate it wouldn’t be possible to establish a secure connection between the server and the user, and data would be exposed. This means sensitive data such as users, passwords and bank details.

How to know if a website has got an SSL certificate?

The easiest way to quickly know if a website has got an SSL certificate is by looking at the URL that appears in the browser. If we see it starts with ‘https://’ that final ‘s’ tells us that this website has got an SSL certificate and is therefore a secure site. In contrast, if the URL starts with ‘http://’, without the final ‘s’, this tells us that the website hasn’t got an SSL certificate and any data transmitted through it could be accessed by third parties and misused.

There are also tools such as ssl.cat and sslchecker, which tell us if a website has got an SSL certificate and consequently whether it’s safe. These types of tools are highly recommended for checking URLs which are unfamiliar to us or which might take us to websites with malware or infected with some virus.

How to get the SSL certificate for my website

The most advisable way to install an SSL certificate on your website is to do so via your registration company. Many of these offer free certificates when you get a domain. Whether they are free or they have a cost, bear in mind that they all guarantee the security of your website. The difference between a free certificate and one with a cost lies in the additional features and usability.

If you see that your registration company offers various options, it’s best to contact them so they can help you choose the one that most suits your needs.

How to create secure passwords

Posted on by Comunicació

Every day we use various applications and programmes which we need passwords for. In this article we offer some recommendations for creating secure passwords which are difficult to decipher and which protect your data.

Passwords such as 124, password, abc123 or 111111 are still some of the most commonly used and also some of the least secure. We all like a password which is easy to remember, but there are some tricks to ensure this isn’t incompatible with security.

Some basic tips

  • If the system creates a default password when you register as a user, change it straight away. 
  • Avoid obvious keys such as your name, date of birth, phone number, pet name or anything else which might be public on your social media or which is known to others.
  • Use a key for each account. If you use the same password for each of your devices, email, social media, bank account or online payments, you’re putting all your accounts in danger. If somebody manages to decipher your password in one application, they’ll have access to all your accounts.
  • Use a password manager to save the keys for each of your user profiles. This is the safest way to have them to hand and ensure you don’t forget any of them.

Tricks to create and memorise your secure passwords

Creating a safe password and remembering it might seem impossible, but these tricks make it a bit easier:

  • Create keyboard patterns and replace the numbers with letters. For instance, take the first six digits of your phone number and combine them with the letters of the keyboard just below them. Imagine your number is 635312, with the letters this would give you 6y3e5t3e1q2w. To add more security, you can alternate the characters in lower case and capitals and add symbols. For instance: &6y3E%5t3e!1Q2w.
  • Choose a phrase, lyrics from a song, a book title or a film and transform it into a secure password. For example, with the Catalan expression “Al maig, cada dia un raig”, you might:
    • Choose the first letter from each word: amcdur.
    • Alternate lower case and capitals: AmCdUr.
    • Insert numbers and symbols between the letters: !Am6C@dUr$

And if your memory lets you down…

We insist that using a password manager allows you to keep them all safe and to hand whenever you need them. This way you only need to remember the password that gives you access to the manager.

How to choose keywords to promote your website

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When it comes to promoting your website on the internet and getting results from your campaigns on Google Ads, a publicity service which among other things allows you to appear in the best positions in Google search results, it’s important to choose your keywords well, just as you do when you work on the SEO for your website to get well-positioned by Google.

When choosing keywords to activate your ads, you should bear in mind which words your potential customers might use when carrying out a search in Google. Take into account that your ad will appear in the search when the keyword you’ve chosen for your campaign coincides with the word typed in by the person looking for your products and services.

The recommendation is to choose between 5 and 20 keywords. To choose these, you need to analyse the business services and products you’re offering and how you would look for them with Google. Think about the words and phrases which best describe each of the categories which your business embodies.

If, for instance, you have a cafeteria, you might like to think of terms such as “cafeteria” and build on this to add things like “best breakfast”, “where to have a coffee”, “cafeteria Sants” (or the neighbourhood your business is in.

The more specific, the better

Think of words to connect with a specific user, this way you can reach a customer who is interested in a very specific product. You can run specific ads with keywords such as “best croissant in Barcelona”, “best sourdough bread” or “vegan cakes”, for people specifically looking for this product.

Create different groups of ads according to keywords

For ads to become relevant and reach customers with an interest in your products and services, it’s a good idea to group together keywords to match the different areas or categories of your business.

If you add a keyword in the same group of ads, a customer looking for “vegan cakes” might see your “cafeteria in Sants” ad when this might not really fit in with what they’re searching for. The best way is to group ads together by topic, thinking how they might be replaced or be of interest to a customer searching for one of the keywords or phrases in the same group of ads.

Don’t forget negative words

You probably won’t want your ads to display to people looking for a product or service which is not linked to your business. Because of this, you can add negative keywords to your list. This will stop your ads from appearing in searches which are of no interest to you and is a good way of cutting costs. To mark negative keywords you need to put the symbol – in front of the word in question.

Bear in mind concordance for Google Ads

Google Ads doesn’t simply take into account the keyword you add to your list. The words you add do not always correspond to those which users type in for their searches.

• Broad concordance: this is the default option. It allows an ad to display when search words and phrases are similar to those you added as keywords. This includes relevant variations and synonyms of your keywords.

• Exact match: this option only allows ads to display when the user’s search includes the word or phrase you established as a keyword. To choose this option you simply need to put the word or phrase between inverted commas.

For instance, if you choose “cafeteria Sants” as a keyword, when somebody looks for “cafeteria Badalona” or “haberdashery Sants” it’s unlikely that your ad will appear on the search results page. Yet if you put the keyword “cafeteria Sants”, it will only appear when the search includes the phrase “cafeteria Sants”.

Basic cybersecurity advice for SMEs

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The security of information and data is a very important factor for any business. Large companies usually have a department devoted to cybersecurity and the prevention of IT attacks, but for small companies it can be complicated to devote part of their resources to cybersecurity.

Because of this, here we set out a series of basic tips on cybersecurity which you can start applying to your company the moment you get to the end of this article.

What are the most common attacks?

If your company suffers an IT attack, it will likely come in the form of:

  • Malware: any sort of malicious software or programme.
  • Virus: malware which infects or alters the functioning of programmes and devices with harmful or malicious ends.
  • Spyware or trojan horse: seemingly normal programmes or which are hidden inside others to steal information.
  • Phishing: supplantation of identity through email with the goal of obtaining sensitive information.
  • Ransomware: software which infects hardware and is used to coerce users, facilitating information in exchange for money.

What can you do to keep your SME secure?

Install an anti-virus on your devices

It might seem basic, but it’s the first step in detecting any cyber-attack and keeping your devices protected. Some of the most widely used anti-virus programmes are Avast, Kaspersky, Bitdefender and Norton. Most have a free version or plans to suit different types of companies.

If you use the Windows operating system, bear in mind that from Windows 8 onwards this includes the anti-virus service Windows Defender.

Remember that anti-virus services must be kept up to date at all times to remain effective.

Update the programmes on your devices

Make sure your devices have the latest version of programmes and apps. Cyberdelinquents often exploit bugs and possible deficiencies in previous versions to attack hardware.

Secure passwords

Make sure that the passwords your company uses are secure and comply with the following requisites:

  • Create long passwords that combine capital and lower-case letters, numbers and special characters such as an exclamation mark or question mark.
  • Avoid using passwords generated for you by default.
  • Use passwords which are unique to each programme.
  • Use a password manager to stay on top of them all.

Limit installations

Make sure that the programmes installed on your devices have been downloaded from a trusted source. If you’re unsure or your computer or mobile detects a suspicious file, we recommend you delete it rather than installing it.

If you have devices which are shared between various workers, you can also limit permission to install new software. This way you can avoid any malicious software being installed.

Be careful with attached files and suspicious links in emails

Email is one of the main ways in for attacks on businesses. If the link is from an unknown source or you don’t know what you are being sent, it’s best not to open it. Check the sender’s address properly and make sure it’s not a phishing attempt. 

Use secure networks

It is important that your internet connections are safe and encrypted. Your routers must have firewalls and be up to date. You can also limit the devices which connect to your network by configuring your hardware.

If you use a public network to connect to the internet at any point, remember that you may be sharing data and exposing information to others. Avoid this wherever possible.

We hope these tips help you to keep your SME secure. Think about making back-up copies whenever you can, so that all your information can be re-established in the event of a cyberattack.

New subsidy call for the Kit Digital programme

Posted on by Comunicació

Managed by the Spanish government through Red.es, the Kit Digital programme is funded by the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan and is opening a second call for subsidies to help drive the digital transformation among small companies.

From 2 September this year to 2 September 2023, companies with between 3 and 10 workers can apply for a digital subsidy of 6,000 euros via the Red.es electronic portal.

This second call covers a broader catalogue of digital solutions which companies can apply for, including: website and basic internet presence, community management, e-commerce, customer management, virtual office tools and services, business intelligence and analytics, process management, e-invoicing, safe communications, cybersecurity and now advanced internet presence and marketplace.

Companies wishing to apply for subsidies must register at www.acelerapyme.es and complete a simple test to gauge their digital maturity. Once this is completed, they should apply for their digital subsidy using the Red.es electronic headquarters.

Once checks show the company meets the requisites, the digital subsidy is awarded. Companies can consult the catalogue of digital solutions available, as well as accredited digitalisation agencies at acelerapyme.es or the portal elKIT.CAT, which brings together all the authorised agents in the Catalan-speaking lands, such as the OOMKT agency, who we interviewed a few months back on our website.

At this point the company should choose one or more digitalisation agencies to develop the digital solutions which best satisfy their digital needs and sign up to the agreement for the provision of digitalisation solutions.

The Kit Digital programme aims to help SMEs and the self-employed in the Spanish state go digital over the next three years. The first companies to be able to apply for these subsidies were businesses with between 10 and 50 workers, and now it’s the turn of companies with between 3 and 10 workers. During the last quarter of the year, the call will be opened up for companies with fewer than 3 workers. 

How to develop your brand on social media

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Getting your brand out there for people to engage with is a basic step for people to identify with you. Social media not only helps promote your company’s products and services, but also offers a chance to generate a community, disseminate the mission and values of your brand, gauge the needs of your target audience and, ultimately, make your brand more human and familiar.

Work your brand identity well

It is really important for your brand to be coherent across all platforms, making it easier for people to recognise. When somebody looks for you on social media, they need to know that your profile corresponds to your brand.

  • If you have various social media profiles, try to get them to have the same name across all media platforms. 
  • The profile image should be your logo.
  • Add the URL of your website to your social media profiles.
  • Use a similar visual design across all platforms, consistent with your website. 

Identify your audience and your social platform

Don’t jump the gun when it comes to creating a social media profile. First be sure of the profile you are targetting and the characteristics of each platform. Consider who you want to reach (their age, where they live, their interests, how they express themselves etc.) and identify which social media you will find them on. For example, users on TikTok and Instagram will be younger than those on Facebook and Twitter.

Once you know your target audience and which social media you want to be on, consider the type of content you need. For instance, Instagram and Pinterest are highly visual platforms and need good quality image-based content, with photos and videos alike. In contrast, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn are perfect for text content, sharing articles, explaining new projects, asking users things and so on.

Plan and be consistent

Now you have identified your audience and the social media platforms you want to be on, it’s time to generate content.

Produce a calendar for social media content. This will help you know what and when to communicate. Identify key days for your brand, capitalise on current events, international days which have some connection with your brand or its values etc.

Create quality content: think about what you want to give to your audience. What do they need? What content generates interest? Create content which offers value, explain real stories and stick to the same tone and style in all your communication. If you’re unsure, you can try one sort of content and when you have a minimum base of followers, conduct surveys or ask them what sort of content they would like to see on your profile.

Generate special content for your followers. Maybe you can clear up queries with a live video for your followers, publish tutorials, reward your followers with a draw or competition of some sort…

Most of all, be patient

Share your social media on all your channels, from the website to visiting cards. This is a good way to get people who see your brand somewhere to track you and perhaps end up engaging with your brand.

Generating a community of followers on social media is not a fast process. It’s best to have some followers who identify with your brand and engage with it than to try to quickly build a base of followers regardless of their profile.