Monthly Archives: May 2012

The new cookie laws: What do you need to know?

The new cookie laws have been drawn up and the enforcement of these laws means that thousands of UK websites are now in breach of them.

Cookies are used to customise what repeat visitors see on a website and are used by advertisers to track users online.

The law actually came into force on 26 May, but The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) said it would offer to help non-compliant sites rather than take legal action against them.

To ensure privacy on the internet, the new laws say that websites must get “informed consent” from users before the cookies stored on visitors’ computers record any information.

For websites that are within the law, getting consent involves the use of a pop-up box explaining the changes. Users are then asked to click to consent to having information recorded by the cookie, and told clearly what will happen if they refuse.

UK firms have had 12 months to prepare for the change, but despite this, thousands are still in breach.

The ICO has also updated its policy to allow organisations to use “implied consent”. This means that users do not have to make an explicit choice, but their continued use of a site would be taken to mean they are happy for cookies to gather their information.

Fines are unlikely though, as even if the site doesn’t comply with the law, there’s not much risk that there would be a serious breach of data protection laws that would cause substantial damage or distress to a user.

The ICO has also issued guidance to the public which can be found here.

If you’re worried about cookies on your website, don’t hesitate to contact us. We can review your site, and if needed, make the necessary changes.

Give us a call today and we’ll sort it for you! Call Chris on 0114 383 0711 or visit our contact page to send us a message.

Seven Creative can manage your social networking and marketing

At Seven Creative, we specialise in communicating. So if you don’t have the time to manage your own social networking and marketing, we can do it for you.

We are able to set up and write your blog, write articles, take care of your direct mailing, manage your social networking and your email marketing. In short, we make sure that your message is in front of the right people at the right time.

Our customers find the service a very cost-effective way to retain their current customer base, and find new customers at the same time. It can even give your website a huge boost in the organic listings on Google and the other major search engines.

Satisfied customers

“Seven Creative are our sales and marketing department”

“Seven Creative are such a great company to work with – friendly, knowledgeable and providing an amazing social network and marketing service.  We now have a large and very active online community who actively promote our business. Stunning value for money!”

“The social networking management and email marketing campaign that Seven Creative write and manage for me gives an amazing return. Suddenly we’re all over the internet and we’re becoming the name associated with wooden windows”

Let us manage your social networking and marketing, and you can keep doing what you do best – running your business.

Give us a call today and let us show you how digital marketing will work for you.

Call Chris on 0114 383 0711 or visit our contact page to send us a message.

Google celebrates Robert Moog’s Birthday

Here at Seven Creative, we think that Google’s celebration of Robert Moog’s 78th Birthday is their best Doodle yet!

Robert Moog was the founder of Moog Music, and an American pioneer of electronic music. He is best known for his invention of the Moog synthesizer, and his memory has been celebrated today in a brilliant Google Doodle.

Robert Moog is famed for his electronic design and synthesisers. We’ve spent quite a bit of the morning fiddling with the Google Doodle, a piano equipped with electronic mixers!

 

How to use Gmail as your SMTP server using Outlook

This tutorial will show you how to use your free Gmail SMTP server to send emails from your personal email accounts using Outlook (this example uses Outlook 2007 but still applies in principle to the other versions of Outlook and other local email clients)

This has been prompted by the news that many Virginmedia customers have recently been informed that they will no longer be able to use their Virginmedia SMTP address to send emails other than from their Virginmedia email address. This tutorial will show you how to use your Gmail SMTP address instead


Step 1.

Open Outlook and select ‘tools’ (from the top menu) then select ‘account settings’

Open Outlook and select 'tools' (from the top menu) then select 'account settings'

Open Outlook and select ‘tools’ (from the top menu) then select ‘account settings’

Step 2.

Highlight the account you would like to modify then press ‘change’

Highlight the account you would like to modify then press 'change'

Highlight the account you would like to modify then press ‘change’

Step 3.

From the ‘internet email settings’ page, select ‘more settings’

From the 'internet email settings' page, select 'more settings'

From the ‘internet email settings’ page, select ‘more settings’

Step 4.

Fill in the information in the three boxes on the ‘general’ tab (the name you’d like to call this account can be anything, you can leave organisation blank and the reply-to addrsess is the address you’d like people to reply to)

Fill in the information in the three boxes on the 'general' tab

Fill in the information in the three boxes on the ‘general’ tab

Step 5.

On the outgoing server tab, fill in the following

  1. tick the box that says ‘my outgoing server requires authentication’,
  2. tick the ‘log on using…’ option
  3. in the ‘user name’ box, type in your full Gmail email address
  4. in the password box, type in your Gmail password (the same one you’d use to log into your Gmail account)
  5. un-tick the ‘require secure password authentication’ and ‘log into mail server before…’ options
On the outgoing server tab, fill in the following

On the outgoing server tab, fill in the following

Step 6.

No need to change anything on the ‘connections’ tab

Fill in the following on the ‘advanced’ tab

  1. change ‘incoming server (POP3)’ to 995
  2. tick the box ‘the server requires an encrypted connection (SSL)’
  3. change ‘outgoing server’ to 587
  4. from the drop-down options, change the ‘use the following type of encrypted connection’ to TLS
  5. leave ‘server timeouts’ as is
  6. un-tick the ‘leave copies of the messages on the server’ (…which will download the actual email to your computer as opposed to just a copy – this helps avoid duplication)
  7. tick ‘OK’ to take you back to the ‘internet e-mail settings’ page
Fill in the following on the 'advanced' tab

Fill in the following on the ‘advanced’ tab

Step 7.

Back on the ‘internet e-mail settings’ page, click next to save the changes

Back on the 'internet e-mail settings' page, click next to save the changes

Back on the ‘internet e-mail settings’ page, click next to save the changes