PSPINC Official Company Blog

How Recommendation Systems Work on Social Media

Mar

21

Have you ever liked a post about your local baseball team on social media, come back a day later, and see another post about baseball on your feed? That’s the recommendation algorithm doing its job. Recommendation systems, in short, predict based on a ranking system and will use those rankings to recommend items that they think users will like. And it’s widely what social media platforms use to populate users’ timelines.

The first wide-scale use of the recommendation algorithm was when Amazon started recommending users products in the late 1990s. And Netflix followed suit a year later in 2000. At the time, they started with a simple collaborative filtering technique. The general concept of collaborative filtering is customers who bought this also bought that. Amazon and Netflix have since refined their algorithms, and social media finally decided to adopt recommendation algorithms for themselves in 2010.

Social Media and Recommendation Systems

person scrolling Instagram feed on their phone

Today, recommendations largely dominate users’ social media feeds. This is evident by the For You page on TikTok and Twitter. Instead of just only showing posts from the people you’re following, it shows posts that their algorithms think you’d like based on past activity (likes, comments, replies, shares, etc.). Additionally, Facebook and LinkedIn feeds are also engagement-based by default, and the video recommendations section is the first thing you’ll see on YouTube’s homepage.

While social media platforms are relatively secretive about the specifics of how each of their algorithms works, one thing is clear: they reward posts that garner more engagement by showing them first. Even though every social media platform is different in its own ways, they all have similar goals: generate ad revenue, keep users happy, and encourage users to come back. The problem, however, is there’s no direct way to accomplish those goals when thinking about how platforms arrange content on users’ timelines. By focusing on engagement, the algorithm can then populate users’ feeds with more relevant posts, making it more likely they’ll stay on as well as return to the platform.

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

1404 140th Place N.E., Bellevue, WA 98007

PSPINC Creates Tools For Your Business

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc. is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington and provides domain, web, and email hosting to more than 40,000 companies of all sizes around the world. We design and develop our own software and are committed to helping businesses of all sizes grow and thrive online. For more information you can contact us at 800-232-3989, by email at info@pspinc.com or visit us online at https://www.pspinc.com.

#amazon #blog #facebook #foryoupage #fyp #instagram #linkedin #marketing #marketingdigital #netflix #recommendations #socialmedia #socialmediaalgorithm #socialmediafeed #socialmediatimelines #tech #technology #tiktok #twitter #web #website #youtube

What’s New Newsletter Vol. 159 “2 More Weeks to Get 50% Off Pass Wizard Pro”

Mar

16

In case you missed it, the Pro version of our password manager, Pass Wizard, is currently on sale for 50% off your first year. And it has been for a few months now. But that time is slowly coming to end on Thursday, March 30. That gives you two weeks to claim this offer!

With Pass Wizard Pro, in addition to a secure password storage and password generator, you gain access to multi-factor authentication (MFA) options via either SMS or an authenticator app, as well as group sharing features. To get 50% off, sign up for Pass Wizard for free (if you haven’t already) and upgrade to Pro. While checking out, enter the promo code, PRO50, to get 50% off. Then, you’re all set!

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

1404 140th Place N.E., Bellevue, WA 98007

PSPINC Creates Tools For Your Business

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc. is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington and provides domain, web, and email hosting to more than 40,000 companies of all sizes around the world. We design and develop our own software and are committed to helping businesses of all sizes grow and thrive online. For more information you can contact us at 800-232-3989, by email at info@pspinc.com or visit us online at https://www.pspinc.com.

#blog #business #businesstips #businesstools #cybersecurity #newsletter #pacificsoftwarepublishing #passwizard #passwordmanager #passwords #pspinc #pspincwhatsnewnewsletter #security #smallbusiness #tech #technology #web #webdevelopment #webtools

What’s New Newsletter Vol. 158 “Company Blogs”

Mar

9

It may be more work, but there’s a reason why many companies have a blog; they allow businesses to demonstrate their expertise and establish credibility. Customers aren’t just looking at the price and quality of products anymore; they want to know who they’re buying from and compare it to others before deciding who to purchase from.

For blog posts, businesses should look to create informational content about their company, industry, and customers. Businesses can feature their blog on their website, which will help increase the company site’s overall website traffic. Or they can use a separate blogging platform like Bloguru, which is what we use for PSPINC. If you need more help setting up a company blog or brainstorming content ideas, we have experts who would be more than happy to help.

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

1404 140th Place N.E., Bellevue, WA 98007

PSPINC Creates Tools For Your Business

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc. is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington and provides domain, web, and email hosting to more than 40,000 companies of all sizes around the world. We design and develop our own software and are committed to helping businesses of all sizes grow and thrive online. For more information you can contact us at 800-232-3989, by email at info@pspinc.com or visit us online at https://www.pspinc.com.

#blog #bloguru #business #businesstips #businesstools #digitalmarketing #marketing #marketingdigital #marketingtips #newsletter #pspinc #pspincwhatsnewnewsletter #searchengineoptimization #smallbusiness #tech #technology #web #webdesign #website

What is Web Development?

Mar

7

Web development refers to all actions required to build, maintain, and manage a website. There are three types of web development: front-end, back-end, and full-stack. Front-end development is the clint-facing side of the website, app, or digital product, and refers to everything users will see and interact with. This usually entails designing the site and developers use their knowledge of HTML, CSS, and sometimes JavaScript to do so.

Back-end development refers to everything that happens behind the scenes, ensuring a site works the way it’s supposed to. This usually includes creating a site’s basic framework, like database interactions, server, network, and hosting configuration, and business logic. To do so, back-end developers use their knowledge of server-side programming languages, which include PHP, Ruby, and Python. Lastly, full-stack development combines knowledge and tasks from front-end and back-end development, so full-stack developers usually take on more leadership roles on projects.

Steps in the Web Development Process

1. Acquire a domain name

Domain names are the unique URLs users will type into their browser windows to get to a website. Good domain names can be hard to come by, so doing this step first helps lower the chances someone else will snatch the one you want first. But the name of your domain will also heavily influence the overall design of the site.

2. Form a plan

If you’re building a website for a client, the planning steps include meeting with said client and figuring out what they need. Even if they’re not entirely sure what they’ll need, as the developer, you’ll need to determine the site’s overall purpose and goals. That will then help inform the kinds of content that will be on the site and how it’ll be arranged.

3. Create a mockup

To give you and your client a better representation of what the site will look like, create a mockup. This will generally start with a wireframe, which is a two-dimensional skeletal outline of a webpage or app. And it’ll also involve creating a sitemap, which lists files on your site to help search engines like Google crawl and index your site’s context. In addition, you may also need to create a prototype that takes the mockup a step further to show how the site will function.

4. Research your client’s target audience

Learning more about who the website’s meant for will give you a better idea of what content will be on the page. And that will then help inform how the site should look. Again, the site’s overall design should appeal to the client’s audience, encouraging them to take action like purchasing a product or staying on the site longer.

5. Build the back-end

Back-end developers will start by building the back-end of the homepage first and move on to the other pages by creating a “shell”, which front-end developers will later fill with content. During this step, developers will add functional elements like contact forms and shopping carts and make sure they work properly.

6. Build the front-end

Working on the front end of the website will focus more on the design aspect of the site and will include some basic coding using HTML and CSS, as well as JavaScript, if needed.

desktop and mobile view of pass wizard's website

desktop and mobile view of pass wizard's website

7. Test your site features

To ensure everything works the way it’s supposed to on your site, test your site features. This will prevent users from coming to your site and clicking on a broken link or encountering other issues. Another thing to look out for is seeing how different the site may look on different devices and different browsers.

8. Launch your site

After finishing the development phases, it’s time to launch your site!

9. Promote your site

While having a site is a great first step, no one will come to your site if no one knows it exists. That’s where promotion comes in, which you or the client could do in-house or outsource marketing work to an outside agency like PSPINC. Web development work doesn’t always involve a lot of marketing, but it’s important to remember that the site you’ve built and the marketing work it’ll take to promote that site directly correlate; the site needs to stand up on its own once the marketing team leads users to the site. A good marketing strategy will bring users to the site, but the site and its offering will determine if users stay and convert.

10. Monitor your site

Lastly, your web development duties may also involve monitoring the site, which includes checking website traffic, adjusting content to better optimize the site, and updating content as needed as time goes on.

If you’re looking for custom development, custom design, or even marketing services for your business, reach out for a free consultation on our website so we can work together to find the right solution for you and your business.

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

1404 140th Place N.E., Bellevue, WA 98007

PSPINC Creates Tools For Your Business

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc. is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington and provides domain, web, and email hosting to more than 40,000 companies of all sizes around the world. We design and develop our own software and are committed to helping businesses of all sizes grow and thrive online. For more information you can contact us at 800-232-3989, by email at info@pspinc.com or visit us online at https://www.pspinc.com.

#advertising #blog #business #businesstips #businesstools #digitalmarketing #marketing #marketingdigital #marketingtips #mobile #seo #smallbusiness #socialmedia #tech #technology #web #webdesign #webdeveloper #webdevelopment #website #websites

Pass Wizard Security Update

Mar

3

To increase Pass Wizard’s overall security, we’ll be updating the Pass Wizard server next week. Unfortunately, we expect there will be a downtime of around 15 minutes while we make this update. The schedule is as follows:

The schedule is as follows:

* USA Pacific Daylight Time
March 7th (Tuesday) 7:00 – 8:00am

* Japan Time
March 8th (Wednesday) 12:00 – 1:00am

PSPINC provides services with uptimes of 99.9%.

If you have any questions, please contact us at 1-800-232-3989 or email us at support@pspinc.com.

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

1404 140th Place N.E., Bellevue, WA 98007

PSPINC Creates Tools For Your Business

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc. is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington and provides domain, web, and email hosting to more than 40,000 companies of all sizes around the world. We design and develop our own software and are committed to helping businesses of all sizes grow and thrive online. For more information you can contact us at 800-232-3989, by email at info@pspinc.com or visit us online at https://www.pspinc.com.

#announcement #blog #passwizard #passwordmanager #passwords #pspinc #security #server #software #softwaredevelopment #tech #technology #update #updates #webdevelopment

What’s New Newsletter Vol. 157 “Pass Wizard Giveaway”

Mar

2

If you’re a customer of our password manager, Pass Wizard, you could win one year of Pass Wizard for free! With Pass Wizard Pro, not only can you store your passwords securely, but you can also share them securely with family members, friends, and even trusted employees. To further secure your account, you can even add multi-factor authentication (MFA).

Just fill out this survey to enter the contest. We’ll be using this survey to determine what features we should prioritize in our next development phase, so we’d love to get your feedback on how you’re liking Pass Wizard so far. This contest ends at 11:59 pm PST on Thursday 3/9.

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

1404 140th Place N.E., Bellevue, WA 98007

PSPINC Creates Tools For Your Business

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc. is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington and provides domain, web, and email hosting to more than 40,000 companies of all sizes around the world. We design and develop our own software and are committed to helping businesses of all sizes grow and thrive online. For more information you can contact us at 800-232-3989, by email at info@pspinc.com or visit us online at https://www.pspinc.com.

#blog #business #businesstips #businesstools #cybersecurity #marketing #passwizard #passwordmanager #pspinc #pspincwhatsnewnewsletter #security #smallbusiness #tech #technology #web #webtools

What is ChatGPT?

Feb

28

ChatGPT is a popular free-to-use AI-generated chatbot. To use it, just go to the ChatGPT webpage and enter a search query, much like you would in a search engine bar. OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, however, recommends typing search queries as a statement instead of a question as it will render more accurate results.

After entering your query, ChatGPT will generate a response using AI technology. More specifically, ChatGPT (according to ChatGPT when entering the query: “How ChatGPT works”) “takes the input text and uses its learned knowledge of language patterns to predict and generate the most likely continuation of the conversation”.

Business Examples

depth of field photo of man sitting on chair while holding cup in front of table

With the growing popularity of the tool, businesses have found merit in using ChatGPT to help automate processes and increase overall productivity. Businesses are already using AI technology in different areas like chatbots, virtual assistants, and fraud detection measures, so it’s not surprising that they’re starting to use ChatGPT as well. Some examples include:

Marketing research: ChatGPT isn’t always known to be the most accurate source, but it can at least serve as a base point much like searching for something on Google and reading a Wikipedia page. From there, it’ll be easier for businesses to research topics further for content creation purposes like social media copy and product descriptions.

Customer service and support: To help automate customer service inquiries, businesses can integrate ChatGPT into chatbots, which have only gotten increasingly popular over the last few years.

Coding: For basic coding requests, ChatGPT can generate code snippets in coding languages like JavaScript, Python, and React. But as mentioned before, ChatGPT isn’t perfect, so it can be prone to mistakes.

Microsoft Bing and ChatGPT

Earlier this month, Microsoft announced they would start integrating ChatGPT into their search engine, Bing, as well as their web browser, Edge. In response, Google announced Bard, their own AI chatbot that would rival ChatGPT. Although there’s plenty of criticism and apprehension about using AI-generated language models like ChatGPT, the technology continues evolving as OpenAI continues working on improving the chatbot.

While still in the early testing stages, as Google and Microsoft are only giving power users access thus far, it does give credit to the rise in popularity of AI-generated language models. Especially in the business world. As time goes on, experts only expect it will continue to transform how companies operate.

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

1404 140th Place N.E., Bellevue, WA 98007

PSPINC Creates Tools For Your Business

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc. is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington and provides domain, web, and email hosting to more than 40,000 companies of all sizes around the world. We design and develop our own software and are committed to helping businesses of all sizes grow and thrive online. For more information you can contact us at 800-232-3989, by email at info@pspinc.com or visit us online at https://www.pspinc.com.

#ai #aitechnology #bard #bing #blog #business #businessideas #businesstips #chatbot #chatgpt #coding #customerservice #digitalmarketing #google #marketing #marketingdigital #microsoft #microsoftbing #openai #research #smallbusiness #tech #technology

What’s New Newsletter Vol. 156 “Focusing on Customer Experiences”

Feb

23

Some customers hate dealing with customer service. Part of it’s because it means they don’t know how to use something or something isn’t working properly. But another big reason why is that many customer service experiences can be frustrating. Instead of being helpful, the support staff isn’t always the best at helping customers, and there’s been plenty of instances where they’re outright rude. So, when companies focus on delivering great customer service, it shows. And it brings those customers back without the dread they may feel when dealing with other companies.

Here at PSPINC, we have a real, live support team because we want to make that personal connection with our customers. When customers call us, they know exactly who to ask, and their support technician will remember them from the last time they called. Keeping our focus on creating and maintaining those relationships not only results in a world-class support team, but also simplifies and improves the overall experience for our customers. So, if you need any IT support, contact our support team who would be happy to take your call.

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

1404 140th Place N.E., Bellevue, WA 98007

PSPINC Creates Tools For Your Business

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc. is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington and provides domain, web, and email hosting to more than 40,000 companies of all sizes around the world. We design and develop our own software and are committed to helping businesses of all sizes grow and thrive online. For more information you can contact us at 800-232-3989, by email at info@pspinc.com or visit us online at https://www.pspinc.com.

#b2b #blog #branding #business #businesstips #customerexperience #customerservice #customersupport #itsupport #pspinc #pspincwhatsnewnewsletter #smallbusiness #support #tech #technology #techsupport

What is Location-Based Marketing?

Feb

21

Within the last few years, personalization has become a higher priority in marketing efforts, as many customers expect it on some level nowadays. In fact, a 2021 report from Mckinsey & Company found that 78% of consumers are more likely to purchase from a brand more than once if they personalize their marketing efforts. They also found in that same study that 70% of consumers not only expect personalization but are also frustrated when they don’t find it. As a result, 62% of consumers in 2022 reported a brand would lose their loyalty if they don’t get a personalized experience, an increase of 17% according to Twilio’s 2022 State of Personalization Report.

It could be as simple as referring to users’ first names in an email or customer support call or as complicated as targeting and retargeting users that would most likely be interested in what you have to offer them based on their search history. For companies with physical storefronts, one personalization marketing effort could include location-based marketing. As the name suggests, location-based marketing targets potential customers based on their physical location to capture potential customers at the right place at the right time with the right message.

Types of Location-Based Marketing

There are five different types of location-based marketing:

1. Geotargeting

Geotargeting targets users based on IP addresses, usually connected to a potential customer’s mobile device. The most popular example is Google’s search results. For example, if you search for “grocery store”, Google will use your device’s IP address to show you results of grocery stores currently near you.

2. Geofencing

Instead of IP addresses, geofencing uses GPS technology to target users. Once a target customer crosses a pre-defined border, they receive a message via a text message or push notification on their device. This is an ideal method for advertisers looking to target people in a specific area in real-time, getting potential customers right when it matters.

3. Beaconing

This approach uses beacons, or radio transmitters that emit signals towards a specific position. Advertisers place these beacons in a specific spot to connect with devices connected to Bluetooth or Wi-Fi to target users. Once these users enter a designated area, it’ll signal to the beacon and users will get an in-app or email notification. Unlike geofencing, users have to opt-in and enable Bluetooth for advertisers to send content to their device, which personalizes the experience for users while also respecting their potential privacy concerns.

4. Mobile Targeting

Mobile targeting refers to ad platforms like Google Ads that let advertisers target users directly based on their mobile devices. While Google Ads can target users based on a variety of different devices, including desktop, tablet, or mobile, we’ve found that mobile users generally make up a large portion of overall users on Google’s display network.

5. Geoconquesting

Geo-conquesting, while it uses GPS technology like geofencing, aims at diverting potential customers from your competitors. It works just like geofencing except instead of creating a border around your storefront, geo-conquesting consists of setting up a perimeter around your competitor’s location.

For example, Burger King used this method to their advantage in 2018 when they promoted their app to people who were within 600 feet of a McDonald’s store. For those customers, Burger King not only promoted their app, but also advertised a limited offer for a one-cent Whopper.

For businesses, especially those with physical locations, looking to further personalize their marketing efforts, you may want to look into location-based marketing tactics. And for those looking for more digital marketing help, we have plenty of experts who’d be happy to help!

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

1404 140th Place N.E., Bellevue, WA 98007

PSPINC Creates Tools For Your Business

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc. is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington and provides domain, web, and email hosting to more than 40,000 companies of all sizes around the world. We design and develop our own software and are committed to helping businesses of all sizes grow and thrive online. For more information you can contact us at 800-232-3989, by email at info@pspinc.com or visit us online at https://www.pspinc.com.

#advertising #blog #branding #business #businesstips #businesstools #digitalmarketing #ipaddress #location #locationbasedmarketing #marketing #marketingdigital #marketingtips #mobile #personalization #sales #smallbusiness #tech #technology #web

Bloguru: Rich Text Editor Now Available!

Feb

20

With Bloguru, our ad-free blogging platform, you can now stylize your blog’s text easily without any coding knowledge! We’ve updated our blogging platform, which includes adding a rich text editor to the post content editor, making it easier to bold, italicize, underline, strike-through, align, and add links to your text. You can even stylize your blog even further by changing text color and adding background color to text as well.

We’ve even added Undo and Redo buttons for when you accidentally make a mistake or want to restore your previous content. But for users with coding knowledge, there’s now a source code icon in the top right, letting you edit the look of your blog even further.

Sign up for Bloguru for free today.

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

1404 140th Place N.E., Bellevue, WA 98007

PSPINC Creates Tools For Your Business

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc. is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington and provides domain, web, and email hosting to more than 40,000 companies of all sizes around the world. We design and develop our own software and are committed to helping businesses of all sizes grow and thrive online. For more information you can contact us at 800-232-3989, by email at info@pspinc.com or visit us online at https://www.pspinc.com.