Today, social media sites have come to be a critical part of the world’s web surfing experience. Social media campaigns demand innovative and accommodating web hosting. Due to the variety of social media formats, from forums, weblogs, and podcasts to wikis, web hosts have to be flexible and responsive to their clients’ needs. A common thread among social networkings sites is the sharing and discussing of personal information, so any social media campaign must take this into account.

A successful social media campaign may generate a great deal of traffic. This means that bandwidth usage often is through the roof. So fast servers are a prerequisite to launching a social media effort. The demand for high bandwidth grows more critical everyday as different media elements are added to social media sites as well: applets, pictures, video, and instant messaging functionality all place extraordinary demands on today’s web hosts.

Responding to public interest is where web hosts have to excel. A targeted SM campaign will mean a dramatic increase in traffic as the public start responding to your message. This increases the risk of server overload, so web hosts must be proactive in accommodating high demand. Not just any site content will do, either. Timely content management is essential for not only attracting new users, but also for cementing long-term interest as well. A site that is seldom updated, poorly maintained, and/or languid and unamenable to suggestions will fail to generate and maintain substantial web traffic, the goal of any successful SM campaign.

Since content management is vital to social media, web hosts need to provide a variety of tools to assist with the installation and editing of web content. One outstanding software package that can aid in this regard is Drupal, which can assist individuals and enterprises with web publishing. Drupal’s built-in functions and free add-ons can assist with blogs, peer-to-peer networking, and file uploading. Another helpful instrument for web hosting is cPanel, which provides for layered administration, tight security, and a depth of features unavailable anywhere else on the market. This program is an invaluable toolkit for getting new sites up and off the ground, the most crucial phase of any SM campaign.

Having the right web host can make your social media campaign much more effective by handing whatever increase in traffic you’re able to achieve. And a good content management system will allow you to post and manage updated content to keep that traffic coming.

With these tools and tips in mind, a potent social media effort is only a few clicks away!

Support

Most web hosting companies will offer some level of support, but is it by email, phone or ticketing system?  What is their response time?  Will they guarantee that they’ll get back to you within a set number of hours?  Can you pay for a higher level of support?  Support often is overlooked, but if your business relies on your website, and most businesses do to a certain extent, how long can you afford to have it down?  Businesses who run an online store will have less tolerance for downtime than other types of businesses, since the website is their business.

Backups

Cheaper web hosting usually doesn’t provide any type of backups, so you’ll be responsible for keeping a copy of your website (plus any changes that have been made) and any databases or applications you’re using.  Many web hosting companies have a control panel which allows you to make backups with only a few clicks.  The problem is remembering to do them (plus keeping the backup in a safe spot).  Almost all web hosting companies will have backups offered as an upgrade, and some even offer them as part of the regular service.  Backups may not seem important until there’s a server problem and you lose the website that you spent hundreds or thousands of dollars developing.  Backups area a must for any online store.

Space

Even the cheapest web hosting packages usually offer way more space (hard drive space) than you’ll ever need because space is pretty cheap.  However, if you have an online application or if you host a lot of images, audio or video, space may become an issue.  Take into account any costs for going over your space limit and whether the hosting company has any space upgrades.

Bandwidth

Bandwidth is basically a measure of how many files and pages can be downloaded or accessed from your site.  Every time someone visits your site they are using some of the bandwidth.  Bandwidth limits usually aren’t a problem unless you’re hosting a lot of video, audio or images (large files), but you still should be aware of how much is included, how much it costs to go over the limit, and whether you can upgrade your limit in the future.

Ease of Use

How easy is the web hosting to use?  Do they give you a control panel or some other web site that allows you to manage and upload files to your site? How important this is depends on your particular level of knowledge and what you’ll be doing with your website.

Control

How much control are you allowed over what can go on your site?  Does the web hosting site restrict certain types of applications or files?  Will you be able to run whatever applications you need to for your site?  Can you make changes to your site or do you have to go through support?  How much control you want depends on how comfortable you are with the technical side of things.  If you have a web developer working with you, you’ll want to make sure they can do what you’re paying them to do without too much hassle.

Upgrades

As your site grows, will you be able to purchase upgrades for space, bandwidth, functionality, etc.?  How long can you stay at this web hosting company without having to look for other options?  What upgrades do they offer?  Do these upgrades fit with the growth plan you have for your site?

Guarantees

Most reputable web hosting companies will offer some type of guarantee for uptime (99% uptime, etc.).  Some of the cheaper packages won’t have any guarantees, or will guarantee less.  Either way, how do they back their guarantee?  Will they offer you back some of the hosting costs?  What does their guarantee cover?  What about lost sales or business (usually not except with higher end hosting)?

Security

How important is security to the hosting company?  Do they do software and server upgrades to keep up with security patches and problems?  Some hosting companies will do this for you and some will expect you to keep up with them.  When you have to do them yourself, sometimes it’s just a matter of clicking an upgrade button on your control panel, and sometimes its much more difficult.  Security is pretty important for web hosting since a compromised server often has to be completely wiped and rebuilt.  What security is offered for online stores?  Do they have their own security practices?

Integration & Flexibility

Related to control – how much integration does the web hosting company allow with other applications and web services?  Will you be able to use your own shopping cart or analytics software?  Do they provide applications?  Will you be able to integrate your website with internal applications?  You may not need integration to begin with, but it may be pretty important down the road.

Freebees

Many people get caught up in all the freebees a web hosting company offers, but many of these freebees are offered for free to anyone on the Internet.  However, sometimes hosting companies will offer more valuable freebees such as Google AdWord credits or other online advertising.  They may also offer applications that you would otherwise pay for (such as some types of shopping carts, email programs, or customer relationship management systems).  Whatever the case, figure out just how valuable these offers are to what you’re trying to do with your website.

Looking Ahead

Choosing the right web hosting company should start with an understanding of what you want your website to be and do – both now and down the road.  If you eventually have higher plans for your site, but want to start with cheaper hosting, that’s fine, but make sure you know how and whether you’ll be able to move/upgrade your site when you’re ready.  Pick the hosting company that works with what want to do now, has a good reputation, and easy to work with.  Ask around for recommendations.

What’s your experience with choosing a web hosting company? What questions do you have about hosting companies?

(photo by DeclanTM @ Flickr CC)

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Tech sector is infamous for an over reliance on short hand terms and acronyms who’s only definition are even more obscure terms or acronyms.  These little words have become an invisible wall, in my opinion.   If you are in the Online Marketing industry, wouldn’t you like to have your ideas and thoughts included in the conversation instead of dismissed out of hand because you aren’t using the exact correct word in context?  It is something that really worries me about my industry.

I’d like to help the outsiders get back into the conversation.  Maybe this post is a start, I don’t know.

Domain names are something I think most of us use and have some familiarity with.  If you are in Online Marketing, domain names are a big part of your business.  Online business strategy, too, needs to know about domain names.  But most don’t really know what they are because they cannot explain them to their mother (my golden rule for when you really understand something)

Lets get started.  First, don’t let anyone tell you otherwise, domain names have one and only one function on this earth.  They take an internet address that is written in numbers and is easy for a computer to read and they convert that into characters that are easier for humans to read.   That is the sum total of what they were invented for.

Addresses: So imagine that its 1918 and the modern US postal service is just getting off the ground.  They need a way for Americans to send a letter across the country without instructions like ‘go find Bob Jones somewhere in Seattle’.  They come up with a system of codes where, from specific to general, you can identify any house in the country.  Exact same is true of Internet Addresses, where general to specific (reading left to right) you can find any computer on the internet.  Im telling you, as a Cisco Network Engineer in a former life, anyone who tells you it is more complicated than that is confusing the point.

Domain names early on: So clearly and IP address like 192.168.0.1 doesn’t mean much to most people.  We kinda got stuck in the telecom industry when we only gave people 9 digits on their phones, forcing them to remember long strings of numbers which had no real meaning to them personally.  Lame attempts to map letters to digits like 1-800-CALLBOB didnt really help much.  Learning from their mistake, computer people realized they needed a more flexible way to related these internet addresses to the actual people who were being the computers.  This is the important bit.  Internet Addresses were for the benefit of the computers themselves, but domain names were designed only for people; the computers could have cared less about them.  They came up with a very simple idea, keep a list that maps an IP address like 192.168.0.1 to one or more words that people can remember.  In the early days this was all it was.  An IP address pointed to a computer, lets say it was physically at the University of Berkley computer lab.  Someone decided that computer’s name was Pinky.  They updated to shared list on the internet to say that, hey if you are trying to send a message or call that computer in the Berkley lab, just remember its name is Pinky.  Bada-bing, you now have the start of domain names (host names, actually, but the same purpose).  The human types in a command to send something to Pinky, that computer doesn’t know where Pinky is, but knows where the list is to look it up.  It finds the IP and sends the message

Modern Domain names: From these humble beginnings, modern domain’s were born.  If someone handed you a list like the one above, mapping ip addresses to single words like Pinky, you might be cool with it in the beginning.  Small number of computers, and even smaller number of people on the internet making up the names for these computers means its not too difficult to keep up to date.  But we all know that didn’t last, the number of computers and people on the internet grew, and grew quickly.  Soon there were ten different people, in different locations, fighting over calling their computer Pinky.  No problem, we will add a new level, call that the domain name, and make it something geographic or organizationally relative.  So now pinky.berkley is a completely different computer from pinky.darpa.  Do ya one better, since Berkley the college was getting nasty emails from Berkley the pizza parlor who also wants to have their computers online, we will throw in another layer that separates domain names into educational, companies, government, and others as needed. pinky.berkley.edu is a completely different computer from pinky.berkley.com  Problem solved.  These new names are now organized just the way computer people like it.  There are now plenty of names to go around, just get creative and have fun.  The name land grab begins. Ok, but now bob who maintains the list is getting sick of it and anyway, isn’t this what computers are good at?

Domain servers: Fine fine fine, if bob doesn’t want to keep up the list that says pinky.berkley.edu points to 192.168.0.1, we’ll use computers to do it for us.  Lucky for us, because we setup those layers of host name, domain name and TLD or top level domain, we can do something cool that we call distributed responsibility.  So in modern domain name lookup, it all still starts with a list, just like the beginning.  That list, now, no longer tells you the IP address of pinky.berkley.edu  though.  It tells you where you can ask to find out, kinda like asking the guy on the corner for directions and he telling you to go ask that other guy cuz he grew up in this neighborhood.  So at the top there are dozens of servers, run by governments and large non-profits that keep the list of who to ask for a domain.  Their responsibility is broken up by the TLD, or the end of the domain like .edu or .com  If you want Pinky.berkley.edu you ask server A but if you want Pinky.berkley.com you ask server B.  This is why it is kinda a big deal when governing bodies approve a new TLD because its is a pseudo monopoly on all those people waking up to the corner asking for directions.  So server A looks up in its list and says, for the IP address of a computer in the berkley.edu domain, go ask this server at 192.168.0.2  the computer says to itself, ok thanks for nothing, and goes to ask that other server about the IP for pinky.  Here is the magic.  That IP address that the top domain server gave you points to a server that the guys at Berkley university control.  They keep the list themselves, handing out the IP addresses they rent from their Internet Service Provider.  Thing is, since they control the specific list on berkley.edu, it is up to them to name their servers whatever they want.

Web addresses: The web is a more recent invention compared to the internet, and as such its web site names borrows from the domain name idea above.  You have your TLD, like .com, and you have your domain name, like berkley.  You also have a host name, only usually it is www instead of pinky.  That part gets you to the server.  The rest is suppose to get you to a specific file on the server.  So http://www.berkley.edu/directory/on/server/fall_classes.doc is a combination of the server you are looking for and the location on that server of where to file and finally the name of the file you want.  That http part in the beginning is kinda your native language, like when you walk up to a stranger in the airport and say ‘you speak English?’

That’s domain names in a nutshell.  I hope this has helped.

I’d like to do one of these each Tuesday, but I need your suggestions. 

What tech subject would you like translated into English? Email me at aaron@sazbean.com

* An example of a word I struggled with early in my tech career because it is just assumed you have read Stranger in a Strange Land.  It means to ‘understand’ something.

photo attributed to polandeze