Social media is here to stay, as it's hard not to hear people talk about it these days. It really has become an integral part of our daily lives, and of business as well. You can bet that if a potential customer is looking at your company, they will check for a social media presence. The first platform they will look at is Facebook. If your company has a Facebook page, do you know how to get the most out of it?

Here are five tips that you can use to help you get more out of your Facebook page.

1. Don't be a zombie Facebook, and all social media for that matter, is more like a talk show than the Walking Dead (a TV show about survival in a zombie apocalypse). You can't simply set up a profile with basic information and let it 'wander around mindlessly'. A zombie account that has no interaction, posts, updated information etc, will likely be avoided.

The key to a good Facebook presence is that you are active. This means sharing, posting, commenting, liking, etc. Having an active page will go a long way in cementing your brand. Like a good talk show, if users can interact they will likely stay interested and willing to learn more. This will positively affect your brand.

Beyond being active, you need to come across as human. Actions like signing your posts with your name, making an odd mistake (yes, we know, mistakes? But you are human, you make them), interacting with people, etc., will do you good. A great way to come across as human on your business's profile is to reply to all comments, even the bad ones.

2. Eat your Wheaties A healthy body is a regular body; a healthy Facebook page is similar to this: Content is posted on a regular basis. The frequency of your posts will tend to vary depending on which expert you talk to. However, most will agree that fewer than two posts a week will not engage your followers. Many recommend that small businesses post between five and seven times a week - once a day basically.

3. Be a boastful Bob Many of us grew up being told not to brag. When it comes to social media, bragging is not only ok, it's a part of life. If something great happens in/to the company, by all means brag about it. Just be careful, it's still not professional to constantly brag.

A good example of when to brag is when your business is featured in a trusted source (news, blog, radio, etc) or receives an award. Sharing this news makes your business not only look more credible, but more professional; a real expert in your field.

4. Share and share a lot Businesses often struggle to come up with unique content on a regular basis. If this sounds like your company, don't worry. The first thing you have to realize about Facebook is that almost nothing is original. Peruse any profile and you will see that people share a lot of content, most of which isn't theirs.

For businesses, it's perfectly acceptable to share content that isn't yours. If you come across a great article that's relevant to your company and you think your followers will enjoy, go ahead and share it. Have you found a funny comic, picture, video, site, etc.? Share it.

There is no limit on what you can share, as long as you attribute it. Writing a post like: 'Check out this great article on customer service from this company [use the name].' is fine. That being said, you should have some original content. A successful strategy may be to have one post out of five being content you have created, three to four shared content and one company news.

5. Highlight and pin what's important to your company If you have some important information or news that you want your followers to see, you can highlight them on your page. This will expand the post, so that it takes up the whole width of the Timeline, making it easier to see. Combine this with a bigger image, and the news will really stand out.

To highlight a post/status, hover over the top-right of the post (after you have posted it to your timeline) and look for the star beside the pencil. Press it, and the post will be highlighted.

If you want a post to stay at the top of your Timeline, you can pin it there for one week. This is done by hovering over the top-right of the post and pressing the pencil icon. From the dropdown menu, select Pin to top.

Facebook can be a useful tool in growing your business or establishing a quality brand. If you are looking for more ways you can leverage your company's page, please contact us today.

Communication is an important part of business, and one of the more popular communication mediums is Facebook. It's hard to find a business that doesn't use the platform. If you have been using Facebook since its launch you will know that there are occasional changes that sometimes make it better, others worse. The company has recently announced changes to the layout of your News Feed - are they any good?

Here's an overview of the new changes introduced in Facebook's News Feed overhaul.

Bigger, more engaging content The biggest, most obvious change is that the new News Feed is wider. That's because the menu bar that traditionally has taken up the left-hand side of the window has been more or less removed. It's now a hovering bar that can collapse to the left-side of the screen. If you've seen the recent Android and iPad/iPhone layout, where you can press a button to see your friends menu, it's similar to that.

Because of the new layout, the content shown on the feed is now larger. This means larger images, news stories, events and maps. To better take advantage of this, it is recommended that any images you upload to your profile be around 600X600 pixels - no smaller than 200X200 pixels.

There is another change that could pose useful: When a friend or local business appears on a user's wall, they will see the entire Timeline badge and location if they have allowed it.

New feeds To get the most out the new layout, Facebook has also introduced a number of new News Feeds to explore. Before we get into the new feeds, it would pay to talk about how Facebook has become smarter. Over time, as you comment on posts or share items, Facebook will start to show recommendations based on your past activity. For example if you are sharing news about cloud storage, you will begin to see suggestions around other cloud storage posts, articles or programs that could interest you.

This new layout comes with a few different feeds that can help filter the content you see. The announced feeds are:

• Music - Shows you posts related to the music you listen to. This likely won't be the most useful for the majority of companies out there.
• Photos - Displays only photos that have been uploaded by friends or pages you like. This could be important, especially if you have a visual based profile e.g., restaurants. Because of this new feed, it would be a good idea to ensure you are sharing high-quality images.
• Following - The latest news and information from Pages that you have liked. This feed could be quite interesting to companies, as it only shows Facebook Pages. What this means for most Page owners is that they had better be sharing good content, as they just became more visible.
• All Friends - Shows the traditional News Feed namely everything your friends and Pages you have liked are sharing and commenting on.
• Close Friends - This is a bit of a dangerous view for companies, as it will only show information posted by their friends. All business and ad-related content is not shown.

The same views across all platforms Finally, Facebook has noted that with this new layout, the News Feed will be the same across all devices. No more looking at a completely different News Feed on your phone or tablet. This is a good move, and should increase your company's exposure over time.

If you access Facebook on your mobile phone - Android or iPhone/iPad - you have likely seen the new changes, as the apps were updated in mid March and included the new mobile version of the News Feed. The company started rolling out the new layout on March 7 and has noted that the change will take place over a couple of months. Some lucky users may even have it now.

Looking forward to the new changes? Or, perhaps you are a little apprehensive? Why not contact us today to see how we can help you get the most out of any change Facebook introduces.

Facebook, beloved by many, is an ever-changing and evolving entity. One of the latest updates is the introduction of Graph Search, which makes it easier for users to find each other based on their likes, photos, comments, etc. Before this new feature is turned on, it would be beneficial to you to perform a profile audit.

There are three main parts to this audit, which will ensure that your personal profile is ready for Graph Search. Bear in mind that this is for your personal account, not your business Facebook Page. This audit is ideal if you would like a more professional looking profile.

Step 1. Check who can search for you The whole idea of Facebook is to be social, however you may not want to be found by every man and his dog on this platform. You can check who can search for your profile by:

1. Clicking the Lock icon in the top-right hand side of the screen.
2. Selecting Who can contact me?
3. Looking at Who can send me friend requests? By default it is set to Everyone, but you can change this by pressing the downward facing blue arrow.
4. Looking at Whose messages do I want filtered into my inbox?

Step 2. Check your Activity Log The Activity Log is essentially a journal for Facebook. It covers everything you have done on Facebook, and provides you with a quick way to edit your profile. You can access it by:

1. Clicking on the Lock icon in the top-right hand side of the screen.
2. Selecting Who can see my stuff?
3. Click on Use Activity Log.

Depending on how active you are on Facebook, it could take a bit of time to look through your activities. If you see something you don't like, or would like to change, press the pencil at the right-hand side of the activity. This will allow you to edit the post, remove it from your timeline or delete it. Note, that if you remove it from your timeline, the information won't be deleted.

If you press the Lock icon you can change who can see the post/activity on your timeline too. It would be a good idea to look through your whole timeline and ensure that any unprofessional comments, links, likes, etc. are either deleted or removed from your timeline. It wouldn't be a good idea to make your profile completely private however, so ensure some posts - maybe ones related to your business, hobbies, interests, etc. - are still visible.

Step 3. Check who can see future posts Facebook has included an option that allows you to set who can see future posts on your timeline. This will lessen the need for a future account audit. You can set this by:

1. Clicking on the Lock icon in the top-right hand side of the screen.
2. Selecting Who can see my stuff?
3. Pressing the downward facing blue arrow under Who can see my future posts? and setting it to the desired level of security.

In order to ensure your profile is optimized for Graph Search, carrying out this audit would be a great idea. As we stated above, you don't have to make everything private, after all, this is a social network. Just make sure that anything that is unbecoming of the professional you are is removed or hidden from prying eyes. If you would like a little help ensuring both you and your business are ready for the next big Facebook feature, contact us today.

The venerable Winston Churchill once said, "to improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often." There is great wisdom in those words; they pretty much summarize the tech industry. We think that Facebook takes Mr Churchill's words to heart as they are always changing. The latest development brings a whole bunch of updates, mostly related around security and how Facebook presents and uses your information.

Facebook's changes should have been made to your profile by the time you read this. If not, you should see them by early January. Below is an overview of the more important features.

Security shortcuts One of the more common complaints about Facebook was that it's hard to change or even find your security settings. The update puts a button in the blue bar beside you name at the top of the window (it looks like a lock). When you press on it you are given three of the most popular Security requests:

• Who can see my stuff?
• Who can contact me?
• How do I stop someone from bothering me?

You'll notice grey arrows beside each choice. Pressing these will bring up the associated options and allow you to easily adjust your security settings.

App permissions The app is an essential part of not only Facebook but the tech industry. When first introduced apps could collect your data and send it to the producer of the app. This managed to tick off a lot of users, so Facebook started giving users the option on whether the app was allowed to send their information to the app's producer or allow the app to post on your wall on your behalf.

With the new update, when you try to add an app to your profile you'll get a big pop-up window asking you to grant the app access permission, or the ability to collect your information. You can then pick the settings you prefer.

Timeline clarification When Timeline was introduced, the vast majority of users disliked it. Now that some time has passed they have gotten used to it. The big problem most have with Timeline is that anything you posted, commented on or did stays visible on your profile. You had the option to hide stuff but it was terribly confusing as it still stayed on your profile.

The update clarifies this by giving you a warning when you hide something from your Timeline. If you want to expunge something from your timeline, you need to delete it, otherwise it will still show up if someone does a bit of digging.

No hiding from search In the past you had the option to keep your profile and information from showing up in search results when someone looks for you. Facebook has removed this option, meaning you will now show up in search results. We don't think this will harm many companies seeing as this is a social network and you really do want to be social and be able to be found by interested parties.

Improved Activity Log The Activity Log tracks everything you've done on Facebook. Keen on Farmville? Every action and achievement is recorded here. The big change here is that Facebook has made it easier to browse your activity by implementing a timeline to the right of the window. Facebook has also made it easier to find specific things like pictures and change them all in one go.

Overall, these changes appear to make Facebook better and easier to use. While not major differences, it's now easier to maintain control of your profile. If you would like to learn more about how Facebook can help your company please contact us.

Social media, and to a larger extent the Internet, has become the new domain for marketing. If you're not marketing online, or don't have an online presence, your company is really missing out. Facebook, one of the most popular mediums of social networking and marketing has some great advantages for companies. Unfortunately, some people are out to cause harm and do this usually through posting damaging comments, or rude things on your wall. There is a way to control this however.

Here's how to delete posts and comments on your Facebook Page.

Delete a post or comment To delete a post:

1. Go to your company's Facebook Page and scroll to the post you would like to delete.
2. Hover your mouse over the top right-hand corner of the box containing the post.
3. Press the Pencil and select Delete...
4. Select Delete from the pop-up window that appears. You can also select Delete and Ban user which will delete the post and ban the user from posting on your wall.

To delete a comment:

1. Go to your company's Facebook Page and scroll to the post that contains the comment you'd like to delete.
2. Hover your mouse over the right-hand side of the comment until an X appears.
3. Click on the X and the post will be removed and marked as spam.

When you click Remove, a message will be shown telling you the post has been deleted and provide you with some extra options. You can either ban the user, undo the action or delete the post, as well as ban or report the user.

When should I delete? In an ideal world, you wouldn't have to delete or remove any posts, simply because the idea of Facebook for businesses is to show the human face of companies and that they are worth interacting with. Some negative comments, when addressed correctly, can help illustrate that you care, and will go the extra mile to ensure people with issues have a way to communicate, and that your company values its relationships.

Sadly, this isn't an ideal world, there will be times when people post things that should be deleted. These include posts that:

• Are overly hurtful.
• Are hateful.
• Contain information or words deemed to be unacceptable by the local and professional community.
• Are so off topic they are useless.
• Sell other products, usually spam messages like: ‘Buy Gucci Bags only USD$11’.

It's important to remember that some posts, while they may irk you or even make you angry, are actually feedback. If you delete these comments other users could notice and this  could harm your reputation more than the initial post itself. Think of these comments as a chance to interact with your customers and as a warning that you may need to work on some aspects of your company or service.

What about mistakes and typos? Ideally, there shouldn't be any, but we're all human and we make mistakes. Facebook allows you to edit comments, which can be done by clicking on the pencil and selecting Edit. Beware that users will be able to see that edits have been made, as Edited is added below the comment. Currently, the only way to actually edit a post is to copy the content, delete the old post, repost it and then change the date back to the original post. This is hardly ideal, so it's better to be 100% sure about what you want to post and do a quick spell check before you do.

If you'd like to learn more about using Facebook to leverage your company's marketing potential, give us a shout.

One of the more important tools a company can have is their website. It's this online presence that is often the first point of interaction between you and your customers, potential or otherwise. Many businesses have grasped this idea and already have websites. However, as with all technology, they age with time and will need to be eventually upgraded.

Here are five indicators that you need to get a new website.

Your web page is too static Early sites were basically created to be online brochures. Visitors looked at information but could do very little else. This kind of website is referred to as static, because it's not really meant to be changed. As such, alterations or additions can be time consuming and hard.

While old sites relied almost exclusively on HTML, (the basic coding language for many websites on the Internet), new sites use what's called a Web Content Management System (Web CMS). This is an application that allows users to create, manage, store and deploy content onto web pages. It allows you to put stuff like videos, podcasts, apps, etc. onto your website while simultaneously creating a more interactive experience for visitors.

You don't have to upgrade to a system that uses CMS, especially if you just want a website to function as a brochure. But, there have been advances in HTML based languages that make it easier to work with, making upgrading a good idea.

Mobile devices don't like your site Think about the last time you looked at a non mobile-configured website on your phone. You could hardly see the letters, and had to zoom in, which likely made entering any search queries, or clicking on links, nearly impossible. How long did you stay on that website? Probably less than a minute. If this was a customer looking at your website, you've just lost a potential sale.

Smartphones and tablets are quickly becoming a major way for people to surf the Internet. Some experts put the amount of mobile owners who surf the Internet on their device at over 12% of total traffic, and growing. The problem for mobile users is that they have smaller screens, and websites built for larger desktop screens are unreadable on mobile devices.

While you don't have to create a full-on mobile site, a new site that can be scaled down, based on the viewers screen size, will prove to be highly beneficial in the future.

Your site isn't performing as well as it used to Like every other form of technology, as your website ages, it gets  slower and less responsive. Many sites use old plugins and code in the back-end, (what your viewers don't see), that add to the load time. In a world where everyone wants everything right now, having to wait for a site to load drives visitors away.

Your business is changing Chances are high that the business you had when you first launched your website has changed in the interim. Change is a good thing, and if you've decided to take your business in a different direction a new website could be the solid platform to help launch and drive your brand and business.

Your website is 'old' If your website looks a bit like this, (usa.gov from June 2004), then it's probably time to update. The web changes quickly, and a website that looked great in 2006 probably looks a bit old fashioned and dated today. While this won't necessarily drive visitors away, it does paint a slightly negative picture.

If you think it's time for a new website, we highly recommend that you don't attempt to do this yourself, (unless of course, you are a pro web designer). There are so many great companies out there that can create a professional website you can be proud of, and at a cost you can afford. Why not contact us today for a website makeover.

The cloud is becoming pervasive, but in a good way. Many office functions that were largely inefficient or had unsolvable bottlenecks have been made more viable and usable. One function that has largely been left behind by both businesses and technology though is the fax machine. Sure, you can get machines that send to email, but they are largely out of the budget of most small businesses. There is a better option however.

If your company has a fax machine, and still uses it on a fairly regular basis, there is a way for you to cut costs, while still being able to send and receive faxes. The solution is found in the cloud.

Currently, many modern fax machines use a dedicated server to send and receive faxes. This server is usually located in the business, and connected to traditional fax machines. The server, along with the required transmission lines and cables, can be very expensive. With a cloud fax solution, lines and servers are moved outside the organization to a third-party provider.

Cloud fax solutions usually work by replacing the traditional fax machine with your computer. The solution acts as a virtual fax machine that can translate an email with an attachment into a fax, then send it over traditional phone lines to other fax machines. Incoming faxes are sent to a traditional phone/fax number, where the cloud picks this up and translates the fax by submitting this to your email. Essentially, your faxes become emails.

This has a number of benefits, including:

• Drastically lower cost: As you can get rid of bulky machines and the related infrastructure, you will see lower monthly costs. Beyond that, many cloud fax providers charge per page, so if you only send a few faxes each week, you only pay for what you use; ideal for businesses operating on tight margins.
• Easier management: As with most cloud solutions, there is only one point of contact for the service. The provider takes care of technical problems, administrative support and function management, freeing you up to focus on other business functions. Cloud fax services also afford more time to IT employees to work on other tasks, something most IT staff would be more than happy about.
• Increased efficiency: Employees who send/receive faxes are more efficient, as they don’t have to get up to check for received or sent faxes. Most cloud fax solutions also allow you to send more kinds of documents than traditional fax machines, so there’s no need to convert most documents into a format that can be sent by fax. This means more time to spend on other tasks.
• Better than email: Most email servers have a limit on the size of the document you can send. This means that with bigger documents, you need to either break them up or find another way to send them. Cloud faxes work like normal fax machines in that they send as many documents as is in the ‘feeder’, or in this case, documents on the computer. This makes it easier to send larger files.

These are just a few of the benefits that a fax system operating in the cloud can bring to your business. If you’d like to learn more about making your fax system a little more modern, please contact us.

Hold up your hand and count your fingers. Five fingers right? Did you know that’s about the same number of countries that block Facebook? You can access Facebook, in one form or another, in nearly every country. It just goes to show the reach and popularity of this platform rivals those of Coke or McDonalds. Businesses mostly benefit from its great marketing potential, which has recently been made even better due to a new feature.

Custom Audiences is Facebook’s new marketing feature, available through a plug-in called Power Editor for Google Chrome. If your company utilizes the Facebook Advertising API (Application Programming Interface) to manage Facebook related advertising, this feature is also available to you.

What exactly is Custom Audiences? If you conduct any form of email advertising, you likely have a list of email addresses that you send content like newsletters to on a regular basis. If you have this list saved as a single column CSV - Comma-Separated Value: A document that stores tabular data (e.g., Excel files) with no formatting, separated by commas - you can import it into Power Editor. Power Editor will match the email addresses with Facebook users and allow you to create ads to target just those users.

If you have a phone list, you can upload that to use as well. This is a good feature as it allows you to reach out, through Facebook, with ads to clients or customers who aren’t currently your fans or don’t like your page. In other words, your marketing reach through Facebook has just expanded.

Because you do upload your customer’s information to your Facebook account, the information is stored on Facebook’s servers. This move has come under scrutiny from many security experts, to which Facebook has responded that all data uploaded is hashed for security. On top of this, advertisers must have consent from data owners to use their information and agree to remove it when asked.

For now, this feature is only available through third-party vendors or to users of the Power Editor script. Power Editor is an extension for Chrome which helps users to create, edit and manage Facebook ad campaigns.

How to create a Custom Audience If you have Power Editor installed, navigate to it and you’ll notice a new tab labeled Custom Audiences. Click it and a pop-up window will open. In the window you’ll be able to pick a name for your audience and upload the file with the contact information and type of information. Select the relevant information and click Create.

After the upload is complete, you should see the new list on the main window. Select the list and press Create Ad Using Audience. You will create your ad as you normally would, and it will be sent to the list you selected.

If you are looking to expand your marketing platform or reach out to your customers in a new way, this is a good feature to do so. While it is free for now, it’s yet to be seen if it will become a paid feature in the near future. To learn more about how to use Facebook for your marketing, please contact us.

For most of the 90s and well into the first decade and a half of the 2000s, Microsoft Office reigned as king of the Office suites. The Internet, in its early years, didn’t change that much, until the concept of the cloud was introduced. With it came competitors, such as Google with Google Drive, determined to give Microsoft a run for their money. Microsoft also has a cloud solution, Office 365. The question many managers are asking is: Which is better?

Here’s a comparison of both Google Apps and Office 365.

Cost Google has three pricing schemes for Google Apps: Free, $5 a month and $10 a month. Office 365 has eight price plans - six for normal users and two for kiosk users - these vary from $4 a month up to $22 a month. Note: all prices are in USD and are per user, per month.

With Google Apps, the majority of businesses will choose to go with the $5 a month plan, as it can support an unlimited number of users. Businesses that adopt Office 365 should chose the plan that closest matches the number of users in the organization. The only problem with the lower priced Office 365 plans ($14 a month and lower) are that they don’t include the desktop version of Office, which you will have to buy or license separately.

Setup/migration On paper the setup or migration to both systems can be easily achieved, but in reality, there are a few differences. With Google Apps, you follow an online migration process which you can either do yourself or with the help of a Google Apps Authorized Reseller.

Office 365 follows a similar process, with a setup wizard to help the transition. As of Spring 2012 If you’re a current Microsoft BPOS user, you can only do the migration at certain times, Microsoft's Online Services team will give you a schedule. This means your migration works around Microsoft’s schedule, not yours. For new Office 365 clients, working with a Microsoft vendor is your best bet to achieving a successful migration, as there have been known to be complications with the process, especially if you’re upgrading from a legacy system.

Cloudiness Both Google and Microsoft market their products as cloud solutions. Google Apps is centered around Google Drive and Gmail, with Drive being the online storage, collaboration and document creation and editing app. Basically, anything created using a Google App is accessed from Drive, which in turn can be accessed using any Web browser.

Office 365 users on the other hand will likely have to adapt a hybrid solution. You will be able to access documents through SharePoint, Microsoft’s online document management system. These documents are in turn shared with Office 365 users who can access them through their Web browser. There is also Office Web Apps which is a slimmed down version of Office for desktops, which is fully in the cloud.

Management Management of any cloud based solution should, in theory, be as easy as managing web browsers across the organization. With Google, any program updates are automatically installed by Google, and will show up often instantly, meaning that all users are always on the same version, regardless of their location. If you use a Google Apps Vendor, the updates will be available to all of the vendor’s clients when the vendor updates, which is usually close to the time Google releases the original update.

Management of Google Apps is done through the Web browser of the admin account. Users can add new services, change access rights and tinker to their heart’s content. Office 365 on the other hand relies on a fairly tech-intensive backend that requires a company to have IT staff with knowledge of Microsoft’s products. A new version of Office 365 will be available in November 2013, however, if companies want to upgrade, they may have to pay for a whole new version of Office for each user.

When it comes to support, Google offers 24/7 support for paying customers, and no physical support for non-paying customers. Microsoft offers support for some price plans, however no 24/7 support is available for businesses that chose the Small Business price plan. Both have websites and incredibly extensive forums you can access for help.

Day-to-day use If you were to compare Google Apps with just the online parts of Office 365, you’d find that the two offerings are fairly similar. Both facilitate online collaboration, while providing essential features like a word processor, spreadsheet, presentation software and email, that are instantly familiar to any computer user. Strictly comparing these to Office Web Apps, both are fairly light on advanced editing and creation features that content producers and layout editors need.

Where Office 365 shines is with day-to-day integration. If it’s set up properly, Office 365 will work great with Office 2010, and allows users far greater formatting options than Google Apps. In fact, to get the most out of Office 365, you will probably want to use Office 2010 along with it.

In short, businesses that already use Microsoft’s products, have the required infrastructure for Office 365, or need the advanced functionality of the Office suite, will be better off sticking with Microsoft. For businesses that are looking for a set price solution that’s fully based in the cloud, Google Apps may be the better choice. If you’d like to learn more about the various products from either company, please contact us.

The world is divided when it comes to the Internet, many citizens see it as a vast network of free, or nearly free information where one can find the most neutral, and arguably the best, information. Many governments see it as something that should be controled, going so far as to introduce or try to introduce laws governing Internet use.

Here is a brief overview of the four most newsworthy government laws or regulations and what they mean.

SOPA. The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) was a bill suggested in late 2011 and tabled in the American House in early 2012. What it proposed was to give the US Justice Department and copyright holders the power to take take down websites due to copyright infringement without hearing a defense by the website owners.It also gave copyright owners the power to lodge complaints that websites infringed on their copyright and seek compensation from ANY company that did business with the website. They could also get the whole website taken down, not just the infringing material, all without entering a courtroom.

SOPA also would have made it a felony to stream pirated material, with a potential jail term of up to five years e.g., watch any video with pirated music on youtube (almost every video) and you could go to jail for it. Taking it even further, posting links to illicit material on social networks could result in the whole network being taken down. The big problem with SOPA was that it would have given the Justice Department power to shut down access to both domestic and foreign sites in the US.

PIPA. The Protect IP Act is the Senate version of SOPA. While nearly identical in nearly all aspects, there are two main differences. The first being that it doesn’t require search engines to stop working with foreign, copyright infringing websites. It still allows for copyright holders to lodge complaints against foreign sites though. The second is that it requires greater court intervention when pursuing copyright infringement. In late January, the Senate tabled the bill until its issues can be resolved.

CISPA. After SIPA and PIPA failed to pass, American legislators introduced a set of bills called the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA). The main purpose of CISPA is to guard against “cyber threats” and has been expanded to also cover national security. If passed, military and government agencies will be able to collect and share private data from companies without a warrant.Companies will be able to share data with government agencies, as long as it pertains to a cyber threat. These threats include anything that’s in relation to efforts to harm public and private networks, theft and wrongful use of data. In other words, download a movie from youtube that’s copyrighted and Google - the owner of Youtube - would be legally entitled to share your information with the US government.

The worst thing about this bill is that it gives the American government permission to monitor ALL of your Internet activity, and use your information without liability. If a government or military body shares your information because they deem you a cyber threat and it’s a mistake, you won’t be able to seek legal recourse.

In April the US House passed the bill, and a version of it is currently being voted on by the Senate.

ACTA. The Anti Counterfeiting Trade Agreement is a multinational act established to help prevent the stealing of copyrighted ideas and material via any medium, including the Internet. What it does for the Internet is turn ISPs (Internet Service Providers) into Web Police, while restricting copyrights. At this time, the bill is unclear on the extent and power it will give to governments and large companies to monitor and protect copyrights. However, it’s an International bill that has been ratified by almost all first world countries.

While these acts originate in the United States, if passed, other western countries will most likely move to enact similar legislation aimed at protecting the interests of the country and companies operating within. A good example of this is a bill, C-11, currently being debated in Canada’s House of Commons. It has many of the same provisions that SOPA, PIPA and CISPA do, which could change the face of the Internet in Canada with any company that has ties to Canada being affected.

At this time, these bills won’t affect small businesses that follow the law, but if enacted businesses will need to keep a very close watch on employee Internet use and use of any non-original material. What are your thoughts on the bills? Let us know below, or contact us for more information.