A Guide to Data Protection for Small Businesses.

In a typical data outage, small businesses can lose 52% of productivity and 29% of revenue. This tells us data protection isn’t just for large corporations. Make sure that you have a data protection plan in place for your small business. Find out what data you need to protect, train your employees about internet safety and stay up to date with the latest data threats as technology evolves rapidly.

This infographic, which was released by the global computer security company Symantec, shows the 10 most common ways that small businesses put their data at risk. Click for a larger, interactive version of the infographic.

Check out some of our other blog posts for more information about data protection. Take a look at our graph showing you how to choose a secure password, or you can learn how to encrypt your email messages so you aren’t sending unprotected information over an insecure WiFi connection.

Tranquility also offers a small USB device that you can plug into your computer for a secure internet connection when you’re on the go. Read about it here, or call us at at 573-443-5803 for more information.

No More Google Reader.

On March 13, Google announced on it’s Official Blog that it would be phasing out Google Reader in its second spring cleaning. Google Reader is an RSS reading platform that was started in 2005 to help people keep up with the latest updates from their favorite websites. Its faithful user base will need to find an alternative by July 1, when Google Reader will be no more.

We’ve found four alternative RSS readers that may suit your needs. All of these options allow you to easily transfer your Google Reader information over to a new platform:

How to Subscribe to a YouTube Channel.

YouTube offers a great tool for people interested in learning new tech tricks, which is why Tranquility Internet has begun producing a series of how-to videos.

Subscribing to a YouTube channel can keep you up to date with the latest videos updates from your favorite users. This video shows you how to subscribe to a YouTube channel.

For more how-to tech videos, subscribe to the MayeCreate channel. Happy viewing!

Use Your Email Signature as a Marketing Tool.

Sometimes its hard to remember that your email works for you – and that you don’t work for you email. Have you ever thought about the amount of of time you spend composing, reading and incessantly checking your email?

A great way to get a extra mileage out of those messages your sending is by adding a little umph to your email signature. Yes, that little section of contact information that most people ignore.

WiseStamp is an email application for Tnet Mail that could change your perception of email signatures and turn yours into a marketing tool for you or your business. With WiseStamp, you can add  your latest Facebook post, a button to connect the recipient to your LinkedIn profile, a link to your blog, your photo or logo and more.

Getting Started

Open your Chrome or Firefox browser, and go to wisestamp.com. Click the Free Download button. Follow the prompts to complete the installation. Then, if you are using Firefox, restart your browser.

A pop-up window will appear, prompting you to begin your editing process. Click Start Now.

Encrypt Emails to Protect Sensitive Information.

Sending sensitive information by email can be dangerous. In the path from your inbox to the recipient’s, the email can be intercepted. If you’re sending the email from a public network or WiFi, it’s even more vulnerable.

The best way to keep sensitive information from being intercepted is to avoid sending it. But if you absolutely must send credit card information, passwords, bank account numbers, social security numbers, medical data or other private information, you should encrypt the email before you send it.

Here are two different tools you can use to encrypt your emails:

SafeGmail for Chrome

To install, visit https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/safegmail/lmjkmpdndmbieflefonjgnnfimmkbedf

Attachments Made Fast and Easy.

Man, have we got the tip of the week. Tnet Mail and Gmail offer many helpful attachment tools when you create an email. They’ll tell you when you’ve forgotten to add an attachment, allow you to uncheck individual attachments and inform you when your files are too large.

Another helpful tool that many don’t discover unless by accident is the drag to attach capability. Instead of browsing through your computer to attach a document, skip the “Attach a file” button and simply drag your file from your computer to your email as demonstrated in the diagram below. You can pull over multiple files at once to save even more time.

If you’re thinking about changing your email carrier, contact Tranquility today. We offer the features of Gmail with the support of Tranquility.

Save Time with Google Docs Templates.

Ever spent more time formatting a document than actually adding content to it? Eliminating that issue one of the beauties of Google Drive.

Google Drive offers a service called Google Docs Templates. It is a gallery of document templates that you can choose from and use to create documents in your Google Drive. For the business world, it offers templates for sales invoices, progress reports, time sheets, gas mileage and much more. They’re just a few clicks and a search button away.

To get started with Google Docs Templates

First, access your Google Drive by logging into your Google account or Tnet Mail and clicking Drive in the menu across the top of the window.

When you have reached your Drive, click the red Create button. In the drop-down menu, choose From template.

A new window will appear. You are now in the template gallery. From there, click on the Public Templates tab.

Manage Email Subscriptions with Unroll.me.

Got a lot of email newsletters or other subscriptions clogging up your inbox? Tired of having to click those pesky “unsubscribe” links at the bottom of every one of those unwanted emails?

You should check out a free service called Unroll.me.

Unroll.me handles all those email subscriptions in one, go-to place. Currently, Unroll.me works with Tnet Mail, Gmail, Aol Mail, Windows Live Mail and Yahoo! Mail.

Here’s how it works…It goes through your email inbox – don’t worry, it’s safe and secure – and then presents you with a list of all your current subscriptions. Sounds easy right? That’s because it is as simple as that!

Pause Your Inbox Over the Holidays.

If you’re looking for a way to escape from your email during the holidays, we may have found the perfect solution. INBOX PAUSE calls itself, “the paradigm-shiftingest, game-changingest email innovation of 2012!” While we wouldn’t go that far with our excitement, we do think it’s a handy little tool to minimize distractions in your life.

Pause Your Inbox.

This Gmail add-on places a pause button in your Tnet Mail or Gmail. When you click the pause button, new emails will stop arriving in your inbox. Instead, they will be sent to and held under a special label until you click on the blue unpause button in your Gmail.

Read More

How to Use Google+ Hangouts to Keep in Touch During the Holidays.