Woodstock 99 essays

Woodstock 99 essays Like many of my generation, my first contact with Woodstock came, not from my parent's psychedelic stories, but from the Sunday comics. To me Woodstock was nothing more than Snoopy's birdie buddy that couldn't fly a straight line from his nest to the top of the doghouse if his life depended on it. Woodstock always managed to end up in the water dish after a few loopy attempts at aviation. Which came first the festival or the egg? I don't know, but would like to find out. Not too much later, I learned of the first Woodstock Festival that took place out in Max's field. When people spoke of it, it was always cloaked in a strange reverential mystique. As if it were the most unique experience ever shared by those who loved music, loved peace and loved everything that sat still long enough. A pure "moment of Zen" in an otherwise chaotic and turbulent time. I wonder how many Porta-Johns they had? To me, Woodstock was THE once in a lifetime gathering, comparable only to the Sermon on the Mount. It was as legendary as the Round Table, and spoken of in the hushed tones reserved only for truly awe-inspiring experiences. When the 25th Anniversary Festival was announced I was very apprehensive. How could they attempt to capture that experience again? It seemed disrespectful that they were trying to duplicate the first adventure. The lightning had left the bottle and they were trying to put it back in. I didn't let it get to me too much, because I had neither the desire nor inclination to attend. I was working out of state at the time and the list of performers didn't excite me all that much. After it had come and gone, I was happy with my restraint. Woodstock II proved to be nothing more than a larger scale Pallooza du jour that bore little, if any, resemblance to the original cultural icon that had been built up in my mind. It was just a way for the promoters to stir up some business by using a brand name that had excellent recognition q...

Information About the Nut-Producing Allegheny Chinkapin

Information About the Nut-Producing Allegheny Chinkapin Chinkapin or chinquapin is a small tree found throughout the southeastern United States. It has one nut in a burr that opens into two halves which gives the tree a distinctive chestnut look. Botanists have now condensed the trees grouping of taxa to a single tree, Castanea pumila var. pumila and now consider that the chinkapin is one species comprising two botanical varieties: vars. ozarkensis and pumila. This tree should not be confused with chinquapin oak. The Allegheny chinkapin, also called common chinkapin, may well be the most ignored and undervalued native North American nut tree. It has been widely hailed as a sweet and edible nut and has been of value to its cousin, the American chestnuts breeding programs. It is, however, a small nut encased in a tough bur which makes for difficulties in harvesting the nut. Chinkapin Specifics Scientific name: Castanea pumilaPronunciation: cast-ah-neigha pum-ill-ahCommon name(s): Allegheny chinkapin, common chinquapin, American chinkapinFamily: FagaceaeUSDA hardiness zones: USDA hardiness zones: USDA hardiness zones: 5b through 9AOrigin: native to North America The Special Little Chinkapin Nut The chinkapins fruit is an interesting small, bur covered nut. The bur has sharp spines, 3/4 to 1 1/2 inches in diameter. Often the burs form in clusters on stems but each bur contains a single, shiny brown chestnut-like nut. Nuts are edible and quite sweet when mature in the fall. A horticulturist once remarked, the Allegheny chinkapin makes your mouth water but to see it makes your eyes water, obviously liking both the trees beauty and bounty. Other experts suggest that the tree is well worthy of cultivation as an ornamental shade tree, even if we leave out of the account its rapid growth, productiveness, and delicious little nuts, which will be very acceptable for home use. There are several online sources where you can purchase the tree. General Chinkapin Description Castanea pumila var. pumila can be characterized as a large, spreading, smooth-barked multistemmed shrub, 10 to 15 feet tall, or as a small tree occasionally single stemmed and 30 to 50 feet tall. Large trees are sometimes found in the landscape, especially where they have been groomed and encouraged to grow and where there are few competing trees. Chinkapin Leaf Characteristics Leaf arrangement: alternateLeaf type: simpleLeaf margin: toothedLeaf shape: elliptical; oblongLeaf venation: parallel side veinsLeaf type and persistence: deciduousLeaf blade length: 3 to 6 inchesLeaf color: greenFall color: yellow Chinkapin Nut Harvest The Allegheny chinkapin is normally ready for harvesting in early September in the upper tree hardiness zones and later in the lower portion of the trees natural range. These nuts need to be harvested as soon as they mature. Prompt nut collection is a must as a large wildlife population can remove the entire crop in days. Again, one single brown nut is contained in each spiny green bur. When these burs start to separate and begin changing into a fall yellow color, its time for seed collection. The burs of chinkapin are normally no more than 1.4 to 4.6 cm in diameter and will split into two sections at nut maturity. Pests and Diseases of Chinkapin Chinkapins are fairly susceptible to the Phytophthora cinnamomi root rotting fungus as are many tree species. The tree can also suffer from the blight of the American chestnut. The Allegheny chinkapin seems to be somewhat resistant to the American chestnut blight which is a fungal disease caused by Cryphonectria parasitica. Only a few heavily cankered trees have been found in Georgia and Louisiana. Chinkapins that do blight will continue to sucker and send up shoots from the root collar despite the cankering and will produce fruit. Folklore Legend has it that Captain John Smith recorded the first European record of the chinquapin in 1612. Cpt. Smith writes, The indians have a small fruit growing on little trees, husked like a chestnut, but the fruit most like a very small acorne. This they call Checkinquamins, which they esteem a great daintie. Bottom Line Allegheny chinkapins are prolific producers of sweet, nutty flavored, small chestnuts. They have attractive foliage and flowers, although the odor at blossoming time is considered unpleasant. Horticulturist Michael Dirr says Allegheny chinkapin, has entered my plant life since moving south and makes, as I have seen it, a small shrub that could be used for naturalizing and providing food for wildlife. The great drawback of Allegheny chinkapin is its small nut size and the added disadvantage that many nuts stick fast in the bur at harvest and have to be removed by force. Because these nuts are small, are difficult to harvest and can germinate before harvest time, they have limited potential as a commercial crop. Good news is that the trees small size, precocity, and heavy production may be useful characteristics to breed into the commercial chestnut species. The chinkapin is adapted to a wide range of soils and site conditions and should be considered for its wildlife value. The nuts are eaten by a number of small mammals such as squirrels, rabbits, deermice, and chipmunks. By cutting the stem at the ground surface, dense thickets can be established within a few years to provide food and cover for wildlife, especially grouse, bobwhite, and wild turkey.

Economy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 8

Economy - Essay Example Rising interest rates will devastate the government and would become much expensive for the local government to borrow cash, and home loans will be out of reach for citizens except for the very wealthy, by next year. Consequently, US may be wiped out financially, thus, bring the economic activities to a standstill (National Bureau of Economic Research 45-6). The Federal Reserve has strived to keep US interest rates debt at a low level, and they have succeeded. Until recently, investors and nations around the world continue to participate in this system regardless of the fact that the federal system is not honest. However, there are indications that too many foreign direct investors are lastly outsourcing their investments to other countries. For instance, China and Russia have been dumping US regime debt. Other direct investors are Renowned investors like Jim Rodgers say he will dump 30years of US government bonds. When investors put such comments forward, there is a high probability that by 2013, US will have few direct foreign investors. The decline of the dollar will lead to reduced consumption and will shift consumer expenditure from imported goods to domestic goods and services while supplementing demand in domestic products with increased exports. Unfortunately, the lower dollar value is expected to last longer than anticipated. The Congressional Budget Office predicts that the budget deficit will approximate to 5.2% of the GDP in the coming years. It is more likely that foreign lenders like China will not continue lending money to US. Due to the reduced demand and decline of the dollar, the trade deficit will decline. The loss of reverse status will be disastrous for the dollar value. Foreigners will rash to get out of the dollar, either through outright currency conversion or through bidding up the US goods value as they rash to unload the dollar holdings. Though it is hard to tell

Ethics and Governance Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 2

Ethics and Governance - Essay Example Historically, interest in business ethics accelerated dramatically during the 1980s and 1990s, both within major corporations and within academia. For example, today most major corporate websites lay emphasis on commitment to promoting non-economic social values under a variety of headings (e.g. ethics codes, social responsibility charters). In some cases, corporations have redefined their core values in the light of business ethical considerations. The emergence of business ethics is similar to other management disciplines. For example, organizations realized that they needed to manage a more positive image to the public and so the recent discipline of public relations was born. Organizations realized they needed to better manage their human resources and so the recent discipline of human resources was born. As commerce became more complicated and dynamic, organizations realized they needed more guidance to ensure their dealings supported the common good and did not harm others so business ethics were born. Now 90% of business schools now provide some form of training in business ethics. Today, ethics in the workplace can be managed through use of codes of ethics, codes of conduct, roles of ethicists and ethics committees, policies and procedures, procedures to resolve ethical dilemmas, ethics training, etc. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. is an American public corporation that runs a chain of large, discount department stores. It is the worlds largest public corporation by revenue. It was Founded by Sam Walton in 1962 and it was incorporated on October 31, 1969. It was listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 1972. It is the largest private employer in the world and the fourth largest utility or commercial employer, trailing the Chinese army, the British National Health Service, and the Indian Railways. Wal-Mart is the largest grocery

Theories of Formation, Maintenance and Breakdown of Relationships Essay Example for Free

Theories of Formation, Maintenance and Breakdown of Relationships Essay The reward/ need satisfaction model (Byrne and Clore 1970) is a good example of how relationships are formed. It is based on the behavioural model which is influenced by both operant and classical conditioning where we form relationships due to direct or indirect rewards. These could be money, status, companionship, sex etc. However this theory is limited as it doesn’t take into account that participants in relationships are often concerned with equity. For example Hays (1985) found that in student friendships that rewarding someone and being rewarded oneself were valued equally. Also, not all relationships can be explained by this model as it suggests that all relationships are one sided in reward giving and that people don’t do things unless they thought they’d get e reward. This doesn’t explain why relationships continue even when they become satisfactory. The reward/ need satisfaction model is likewise culturally bias; the theory is relevant to Western cultures. Many Collectivist cultures, usually in the East, show little concern for the receipt of reinforcement. Maintenance of relationships can be explained through the Social Exchange Theory (Thibault and Kelley 1959). This is an economic theory which suggests that people maximise the possible rewards in a relationship whilst minimising their costs; specifically attraction. It also suggests that commitment to a relationship is dependent on profitability of the outcome – a cost-benefit ratio. It is the outcome of this which determines the attraction to one another. The theory also argues that if your partner has a ‘high cost’ then they have to counter balance that with lots of rewards. A strength of this theory is that it helps to explain why marital dissatisfaction doesn’t necessarily predict divorce. However it fails to explain what can cause initially successful marriages to breakdown. It also suggests that all people are selfish and that they would walk out of a relationship that has become unrewarding. That however does not explain cases of domestic violence. This theory is again culturally bias; it is based on Western cultures so it assumes that people can pick and choose their partners. It doesn’t take into account arranged marriages. Walster et al (1978), suggested the Equity theory in maintaining relationships. This theory suggests that relationships are maintained by a kind of economic balance to ensure equality between the two partners. This is achieved by matching the giving and receiving between the two partners. If there is an imbalance between them, then this is resolved by either adjusting the levels of giving and receiving, or comparing the relationships to somebody else’s to evaluate whether it is worth staying in the relationship or not. A supporting study was conducted by Hatfield et al (1979), who found that the happiest newly-weds were those that perceived an equitable relationship; those that were over or under benefited had lower satisfaction. However, Hatfield also said that equity was more important for females than males. This theory however is culturally bias; it was researched in a Western society. In some cultures relationships aren’t assessed on their economic validity, so this theory cannot be generalised. This theory also suffers from beta bias- there is no comparison between males and females, so it assumes that males and females have an identical attitude to relationships when they may actually look for different things in terms of relationship maintenance. Rollie and Duck (2006) have the most substantial model of relationship breakdown. It is a phase model that describes six stages of relationship breakdown. These start from the initial breakdown, intra -psychic process, dyadic process, social process, grace dressing process to the resurrection process; where at the end a person is supposed to redefine themselves and look for a new partner. The breakdown process- one or both of the partners becomes unhappy with the relationship- ‘I can’t stand this anymore’. Intra-psychic- the individual begins to over exaggerate the irritating the other one does and focus on the bad times- ‘I’d be justified in leaving’. The dyadic process- the unhappy partner confronts the other one and they bargain and negotiate terms- ‘I mean it, I want to leave’. Social process- both partners tell their friends and family who take sides to either support the relationship or the breakup- ‘it’s now inevitable’. The grave dressing process and resurrection process is where the relationship dies and decide what they want in future relationships- ‘time to get a new life’, ‘what I learned and how things will be different’. However this model doesn’t explain how couples stay together despite having misgivings about the relationship; as breakdown isn’t necessarily inevitable. The model also assumes that all relationships go through these specific stages which ignore individual differences; not all individuals discuss problems in their relationship. Some people may ignore their problems or end the relationship there and then. This theory is culturally bias as some Eastern cultures frown upon divorce so a married couple would stay married and therefore be stuck at the social process perhaps and not get the chance to move on. A strength of this theory though is that it addresses both cognitive and behavioural aspects which include people’s feelings. This theory is also reductionist compared to the holistic view on relationship breakdown. It ignores the fact that past experiences with relationships could have an impact on the stage of dissolution in relationships, or the prevention of the dissolution of a relationship. Although the theory does have good practical applications; if the reasons for relationship breakdown according to this theory are true, then confronting relationship issues with counselling, for example, to solve problems should be effective. Research into the area of relationship breakdown is considered as socially sensitive. Therefore great care must be taken when researching participants to avoid causing unnecessary distress.

The Revolution of 1848 and Karl Marxs The Communist Manifesto Essay

The Revolution of 1848 and Karl Marx's The Communist Manifesto There were two major things that happened in Europe in 1848. One of those things was the Revolution of 1848. The other was the publication of the Communist Manifesto, written by Karl Marx. The Revolution of 1848, and the Communist Manifesto tie into each other very well. The Revolution was calling for a change in society, and so was Marx through the writing of his Manifesto. The revolution was a foundation for changes to take place in Europe. Due to the Revolution, socialism and communism began to rise. The Revolution of 1848 affected much of Europe. Almost all of the countries in Europe with the exception of England and Russia were involved in the Revolution. The Revolution shook the countries in which a bourgeois elite led the opposition against reactionary governments. Russia was not involved for the fact that they did not have any bourgeois, and England was not involved because after the electoral reform of 1832, the English bourgeois was no longer in opposition. In 1848, France was in turmoil. There was high unemployment in France at that time. Workers went to barricades in the streets. Upheaval broke out all over the country. Men went to barricades and forced the king into exile. It was very hard for many of the people to make any money in France at that time. The money for factory workers was quite scarce. Factory workers barely made enough money to survive on. In 1848, a woman’s newspaper came out that was called the Voice of Women (voix de femmes). The women of France were the authors of this newspaper. These women called for freedoms of their own. Women wanted the ability to vote, and they wanted m... ...lassicnote.com/ClassicNotes/Titles/communist/shortsumm.html 3) Industrialization http://http://www2.sunysuffolk.edu/westn/ind&rev.html 4) Class Website http://http://homepages.udayton.edu/~santamar/ 5) E-mail me your thoughts http://stevenpc@notes.udayton.edu Biography 1) Bernstein, Eduard. Fredrick Engels: The Principles of Communism, October-November 1847, (19 October 2001). 2) Franz Mehring, Karl Marx: The story of his life, (Great Britain: Butler and Tanner, 1951). 3) Kessler, Gary E. Voices of Wisdom: A Multicultural Philosophy Reader, (Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, 1998), 529. 4) Manifesto of the Communist Party. History and Religious Studies. 5) Sherman, Dennis, and Joyce Salisbury. The West in the World. New York: Mcgraw Hill. 2001.

Discuss Proto-Luke Theory Essay

Whilst other scholars had previously thought of Mark’s Gospel as the foundation for Luke, B.H. Streeter refutes these views and suggests the opposite. He named this theory ‘Proto-Luke’, which suggests that while putting together his gospel, Luke wrote an early draft which was primarily made up of Q and L sources, before he became acquainted with Mark. This Marcan material was used as a secondary source, which was later slotted into an existing composition, which makes up the present gospel. The previous draft, which excluded any Marcan content, was dubbed Proto-Luke. Arguments supporting Streeter’s hypothesis include the very structure of Luke’s Gospel. Rather than interweaving the Q, L and Marcon sources together, the gospel alternates between five large blocks from Mark and the smoothly flowing Q and L sections. â€Å"Mark is a quarry from which stone is obtained to enlarge an existing building.† – Taylor. How Q and L are combined together suggests they were used in harmony with each another, which agrees with the Proto-Luke theory. It seems that Luke used Q to carefully select sayings of Jesus which would expand his own research. However, material sourced from Mark is dropped in without mixing with Q and L information. The scholar Taylor argues that when we exclude the Marcan content, the Q and L material flows in a understandable way, a so-called ‘relative continuality’. Therefore, the suggestion that a Proto-Luke version of the gospel existed prior to the introduction of Mark is a perfectly acceptable argument. Stanton applied this to the passion narrative by removing the Marcan verses and found that from Luke 22:14 and 23:53, (163 verses), only twenty were totally dependant on Mark. â€Å"If they are removed we still seem to have a coherent non-Marcan passion narrative.† – Stanton. The beginning and ending of Luke’s Gospel contain no material drawn from Mark. If Luke already had a gospel before he came across the Marcan material, then it makes sense that he would leave his own introduction and conclusions untouched whilst editing the middle in order to insert blocks from Mark. However, Stanton notes that Proto-Luke may have begun at 3:1, due to the formal introduction: â€Å"In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar†¦Ã¢â‚¬  The fact that Luke omits so much of Mark, which accounts for a third of Luke, may suggest that he is giving priority to his original Proto-Luke limitations. Stanton talks of Luke’s disloyalty to his Marcan source: â€Å"At many points, [only two of which can be mentioned here,] Luke’s gospel seems to betray its Marcan basis†. If Mark was Luke’s framework for his gospel, how can we explain the omission of this much Marcan material? Another point to consider is the restrictions of writing on a papyrus scroll, the length of this would limit the degree to which Luke could supp lement Proto-Luke with Marcan information. On the other hand, many arguments discredit the Proto-Luke hypothesis. As of yet, scholars cannot agree on the verses that came from Mark and the verses which belong to Q and L, but the scholar Tuckett has claimed to have identified phrases from Mark in amongst blocks of Q and L. If he is correct in these claims then the Proto-Luke theory is doubtful. Having said that it may have been possible for Q and L to have existed in a coherent order without any Marcan material, there are still holes in the narrative flow that Q and L create. This point can lend itself to arguments against Proto-Luke, leading some scholars to call it â€Å"an amorphous collection†. If it doesn’t read like a single document, then perhaps Proto-Luke never existed. For example, between 8:3 and 9:51, when Marcan material is removed, an awkward gap is revealed, as there is nothing about Jesus’ time in Galilee. Discontinuity like this in Proto-Luke goes against the hypothesis that it ever existe d. Another view twists one particular argument in favour of Proto-Luke; about how Q and L are combined, with Marcan content awkwardly slotted in. We are familiar with Luke’s compositional style, it is also seen in Acts, which features abrupt shifts between the â€Å"we† sections and the rest of the gospel. There are also suggestions that the infancy narrative may have been added to Luke later, as it doesn’t seem to fit with the rest of the Gospel. These features of Luke’s writing indicate his tendency to throw his various sources of information together. Then this style may not have been unique to the Marcan material that Luke supposedly added to his Proto-Luke draft. Maybe this is just how Luke prefers to set out all of his writing? Hence, the proto-Luke theory looses credibility if this is simply the manner in which Luke constructs all his documents. Luke may have felt that Mark’s Gospel was too important to alter in any way, so he slotted it into his Gospel in the same manner he did with other important sources. Scholars such as Fitzmyer propose that certain doublets in the Marcan material can show that Mark was actually a primary source. There are a number of repeated, similar phrases, for example â€Å"to all those who have more will be given, but for those who have nothing even what they have will be taken away† features in 8:18 and 19:26. When this happens, one version of the phrase comes from Mark and the other originates from ‘Q’ (shared with Matthew). When we tally up where all of these phrases come from, most are sourced from Mark, leading the theory that Mark was actually an early framework for Luke’s Gospel. Whilst piecing his gospel together, Luke may simply have decided to use Mark in block form; however that does not mean that Marcan material was added in later, in a two-stage composition (as noted by Taylor). Guthrie commented on this hypothesis, and said that although it had grounding, it was too weak to justify a full inquiry: â€Å"although the hypothesis may have explained certain features in the disruption of Luke, it cannot be said that features demand the hypothesis†.

Paper Analysis Twenty Hubs and No Hq

This article tries to propose advantages of an alternative strategy of global business management for MNCs. According to the authors the previous strategies of management from the Head Quarters (centralized) or Head Quarters for most functions with regional offices and country managers (decentralized) are not as efficient as management without any Head Quarters and twenty strategically placed hubs. There are compelling reasons to follow this strategy. Firstly developing countries account for a much larger chunk of the net revenue. Secondly there are untapped markets in the form of economically weaker sections in these countries and the full potential of these can not be exploited with the prevalent management strategies. Thirdly there is a huge cost saving advantage with manufacturing in low cost countries and outsourcing is just one way to realize it. The basic concept of this strategy as given by the authors is to have 20 hubs in 20 different countries – 10 developing and 10 developed which account for 70% of the population of the two worlds in each case and on the whole and much of the economic activity. According to the authors having hubs in these 20 countries MNCs can serve all the markets in the whole world more efficiently than using any of the previous strategies. These hubs will serve as a gateway for these MNCs in these regions. As such all management and manufacturing functions required by the region can be shifted to these gateway countries. This will allow the MNCs to serve customers on every level of the income pyramid. Also it will reduce the sourcing cost by 20% and corporate overhead cost by 2/3rd. The gateway hub structure can be flexible with new countries becoming hubs as and when they reach the requisite level of development and each hub sourcing goods manufactured in other hubs. According to the authors in the gateway hub model risk can be spread over 10 or more locations with manufacturing and R&D in multiple locations. This article augments the learning by teaching to challenge any concept even the concept that look as basic as the centralized management and Head Quarters. INNOVATIVE INTERNATIONAL STRATEGIES The article tries to find the most relevant dimensions to use to cluster innovative international strategies to arrive at typologies that can be interpreted and used further. GEOGRAPHIC SCOPE OF THE INDUSTRY INTERNATIONAL DEV IN THE PAST†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦YEARS INTERNATIONAL DEV IN THE NEXT†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. YEARS INTERNATIONAL STRATEGY OF THE COMPETITOR IN THE INDUSTRY INTERNATIONAL STRATEGY OF YOUR FIRM In this study they find out the most relevant dimensions and cluster cases according to these dimensions and identify some empirical types. The authors found the four main dimensions as Process of internationalization Segment scope Level of coordination across borders Fragments of narratives where an Innovative International Strategy WAS DESCRIBED by respondents were collected Content of fragments in the transcripts related to a firm was analysed to find the concepts used to characterize its strategy Cases that were similar to each other were clustered and formed an empirical type of IIs Major influences Footwear Competitive action :-relocation and innovative international strategy Cables and wires Struct forces:-technological intensity; new high growth markets; government intervention;comparative advantages(in cases) Paint Structural forces:- technological and marketing intensity Chocolate sugar and confectionary Structural Forces :- Marketing intensity and diff in consumption pattern across industries Competitive action:- MAA; Innovative International Strategy The authors arrived at six innovative international strategy typologies across these four industries. The main value addition from this article is how a study can be carried out to scientifically figure out the main innovative strategies and to gauge the scope of innovation and strategic management in the industry. It also helps find out the relation between strategy and the constraints under which it is developed.

Visual Content on Social Media How to Use It to Improve Engagement

Visual Content on Social Media How to Use It to Improve Engagement Social media marketing is increasingly becoming a struggle to capture audience’ attention. It’s not enough that social networks are forcibly suppressing your content from the newsfeeds of your fans, but those fans are more fickle than ever. Visual content helps brands get their message across in a precise and engaging fashion. For this reason, visual content has gone from a â€Å"nice-to-have† to a must-have  vehicle for marketing messages. Here we look at the reasons why brands should spend their time, money and effort creating visual content, the different types of visual content they can create are and how these can contribute to your overall social media strategy. How to Boost #Engagement on Social Media with Visual ContentGet Some Free Resources to Create Better Visual Social Media Content Whats good advice without the right tools to put it into practice? Not much, thats what. Before we get too much farther along, here are some free goodies to help you create better social media content: 128 free photos, optimized for each social media network. Pinterest and Instagram Visual Marketing Infographic packed with useful tips and stats. Social Media Image Size infographic with all the size dimension information you need for every network. Why Create Visual Content? In social media circles, everybody knows that visual content performs better than plain text. If you still need convincing, we looked at data from the Facebook Pages  of the top 100 brands according to the Interbrand list. In 2016, 80.20% of all the Posts published were photos and videos. These were responsible for 92.15% of all interactions that these brands received on Facebook. On Facebook, there has been a steady increase in the amount of visual content being published. There was even an upward trend in the volume of visual content from one-quarter to the next in 2016. One of the main reasons why social media marketers favor visual content is the advantage it offers in terms of engagement. Showing is always better than telling. Look at the graph below that shows the average number of interactions that visual content received compared to other forms in 2016. Especially when you present facts and other information, it will be easier for your audience to assimilate visually represented content as opposed to a wall of text. Recommended Reading: How to Make the Best Social Media Images the Easy Way (+84 Free Images) How to Create Visual Social Media Content One of the best things about social media marketing is that there is something for everybody. Visual content creation on social media works along the same lines. You do not need a multi-million dollar social media budget to create visual content. The possibilities that are available to your brand may differ willing on the resources you have (talent, time, money). Yet, there are many things that brands can do even with a shoestring budget. As we have seen above, the kind of engagement that visual content can bring you makes a strong case for posting more photos and videos. Even if you do not have a full-time designer or an agency to handle social media content creation, you can create some stunning visual content. There are many free tools that are available online for creating various types of visual content. A basic starter kit for any brand would just be a willingness to play around with some free tools  like: Pablo Canva Infogr.am Piktochart Most of these are simple to use and are designed with a lay person (and not a designer) in mind. Recommended Reading: How to Be More Successful With the Right Content Marketing Tools These can help you create highly shareable visual content (A more detailed discussion on these tools follows on the next page). Remember, before you set about creating visual content, have a clear picture of why you want to do visual content. Are you looking to boost engagement, do you want more audience interaction or do you want to establish your brand as a thought-leader in your industry? The different types of visual content that you can take up can help you achieve these different goals. Look at this post that Innocent drinks  published that cracked me up (as they always do): Today is Penguin Awareness Day. We're doing our bit. Are you? Posted by innocent on  Friday, January 20, 2017 Or this highly engaging video by Dr. Pepper: Dr Pepper College Football – Grocery Run :15The carry-the-groceries-in-one-trip play – it’s not for the faint of heart. Here’s to those who push through, pick up the Dr Pepper, and take it to the house. Posted by Dr Pepper on Tuesday, November 22, 2016 These brands enjoy great engagement on Facebook usually. They do not need  engagement or interactions. It is hard to establish beyond doubt if someone would pick up an Innocent smoothie or a couple of cans of Dr. Pepper. Yet these do play a significant role in building brand personality on social media and help mold the way people feel about brands. If you look at some of the brands that publish outstanding visual content, you will see that they are very distinctive. This is the case with Starbucks, Dr. Pepper, GoPro, and so forth. While most of Starbuck’s content sports their trademark cups and their unmistakable logos, they also have a very recognizable indie vibe. Charm bracelets, woolen scarfs, freshly mown grass, fall leaves, knitted sweaters all feature regularly in Starbucks’ posts. In addition to reminding social media audiences about the brand, these posts make them crave for the warmth and coziness of a cafe or to start their day with the indie chill. Their content has become so iconic that their red cups have almost become synonymous with the holiday cheer. Ok, here's a hint: they're red. (Coming 11/10) Posted by Starbucks on  Saturday, November 5, 2016 GoPro, on the other hand, rarely uses their logo on any of their visual content. The photos themselves yell GoPro. The brand regularly puts up stunning visuals set in adventurous locations that makes these Posts identifiable as GoPro’s. There is no better way of establishing yourself as a brand that brings together amazing picture clarity and the spirit of exploration. The position that they hold within the community of travel and photography enthusiasts is further bolstered when they share user-generated content like the one below: Photo of the Day! Ryan Chan discovered that some of Hong Kong's best views are straight up! Posted by GoPro on  Monday, December 12, 2016 Here are some types of visual content that you can try your hand at and some free tools that will help you create them: Here are some types of visual content you can create (+ the free tools you'll need)Infographics Infographics are the best medium for marketers to use when they want to make their data tell a story. If you think that your eyes glaze over when you see a cramped table or a complicated graph, you are not alone. Infographics allow content creators to present data in an easily digestible and aesthetically pleasing way. Infogr.am  and Venngage  are among some of the free infographic-makers that are available online. With the templates they offer, you really don’t need a designer to dedicate their hard-pressed time for creating an infographic. Most of the infographic creation tools come with a  predesigned template. Each template is designed for a specific type of infographic. The type of infographic depends on what you are using it for – is it to convey some information or statistic, a how-to or a comparison. In addition to these templates, they also offer different elements, such as charts, text formats, symbols etc. The first thing you should have when you start out with an infographic is a story. The first thing you should have when you start out with an infographic is a story.Are you going to show your audiences how your company has grown in the past 5 years or are you doing to explain what the benefits of using your product is, or do you want to teach them how to use your product? Once you have that answer, choose the template that best suits your need. Make the necessary edits such as choosing the chart types you need, inputting the data that you have collected and customizing other design elements. Here’s an infographic  created using Venngage that was published in Adweek: Take a look at an infographic  that we did back in 2015 that got us a lot of traction: One of the things that we were able to do using this format is to do creative things with the data that we have. If you thought that only data nuts like us use infographics, see this Washington Redskins’ infographic that doubles as a 360 photo: Take our #PHIvsWAS postgame infographic for a spin. #HTTR Posted by Washington Redskins on  Sunday, October 16, 2016 Images Did you know that Facebook Posts with images get 2.3 times more engagement  than those without? There are a million different things you can do with images on social media. These can be professionally taken product shots, or just stock images with an interesting caption that accompanies your Post. If you have an extremely talented and resourceful photographer in your team, nothing should stop you from leveraging professionally captured images of your product on your website as well as on your social media handles. While most businesses will get a photographer (or someone with a DSLR) to get shots taken for websites or for important events and press releases, it is not always the case with more regular content needs. For instance, it is common knowledge now that text-only updates do not perform nearly as well as when they do with a photo accompanying them. For needs like that, you can always take the help of some of the free tools and stock photos available on the internet. Unsplash  and Pixabay  are excellent repositories of stock photos. It is easy to search and find beautiful photos for your search terms. Another tool that will be a boon for your social media manager is Pablo by Buffer. Here is a short snapshot of Pablo in action: What I like best about Pablo is that I do not need to go elsewhere searching for stock photos. Plus, I can add in a header, caption or lines of text or use a pre-existing template. The built-in editor lets me add simple, yet attractive filters. I can also customize the size of the picture depending on where I plan to post it – Pinterest, Instagram or Facebook. There isn’t a lot of room for customization but you can be done creating a beautiful graphic in under 5 minutes. Canva  is another one of my favorites which is a bit more dynamic. They offer more diverse templates and design elements create a photo to accompany my Facebook post or even create an infographic. Watch this video by Canvas  that takes you around the platform and explains what you can do with it in under 4 minutes. Recommended Reading: What 20 Studies Say About the Best Times to Post on Social Media 360 Photos and Videos In addition to these tools, you can also try your hand at some of the new visual content creation features offered by Facebook. 360 videos and photos were some such features that gained a lot of popularity last year. It is fairly simple to create 360 Photos. All you need to do is take a panoramic shot using your smartphone or your iPhone. For 360 videos, you need a 360 camera. Read this article  for a detailed how-to. Even if you think you are in a boring industry, 360 photos have the ability to go viral (with a little paid push of course). Take this 360 photo from German pharmaceutical and chemicals company Bayer. Today we’re taking you up onto the roof. Here you can see the illuminated Bayer Cross close up. Take a look around. Have a great weekend. Posted by Bayer on  Friday, August 5, 2016 It was their most shared piece of content in 2016 with 3,431 shares. If it didn’t resonate with people, then it wouldn’t have been shared so many times. Look at the level of detail Getty Images  achieved using this format: Happy National Color Day! Celebrate with this stunning Facebook 360 from the Nasir al-Mulk Mosque, also known as the Pink Mosque, in Shiraz, Iran. 📠·: Omid Jafarnezhad /360cities.net Posted by Getty Images on  Saturday, October 22, 2016 Both 360 videos and photos make your audiences feel as if they are immersed in the experience of the visual content that you publish. This contributes to greater engagement. If you are looking for some inspiration on creating 360 videos, take a look at this roundup that we did of top brands that use 360 videos on Facebook. GIFs It’s a meme-crazy world. GIFs are gaining traction among social media marketers as a staple content type. Some brands, like Nissan  below, are integrating this format into their contests and giveaways: The first 40 years- How many different Nissan GT-Rs can you spot? Answer in the comments for a chance to win $100 and a Gif-TR prize pack. http://rul.es/iqbvt9 Posted by Nissan on  Friday, March 25, 2016 Especially if your target audience includes the 9gag generation, GIFs are a low-cost, easy to create content type that can be part of your social media content strategy. GIPHY  now lets you create GIFs. You need only upload videos or supply YouTube links. You can take a regular video or use an existing video. Once you upload this or input the Youtube link, GIPHY allows you to specify which portion of the video you want to create a GIF of. You can then add in text and specify other settings. The final GIF can be shared on social networks directly. Videos Videos are becoming a vital part of every brand’s Facebook strategy. With the changes to the Newsfeed algorithm that gives an edge to video content, they gain better reach than other kinds of content. Brands often post video advertisements and product features that are professionally captured. Yet this does not mean that posting a video on Facebook needs to be a resource-intensive endeavor. Brands can do a variety of low-budget (and often free) videos on Facebook that can get them great engagement and reach. Recommended Reading: How to Do Facebook Video Marketing the Right Way How to Get Started With Twitter Video Marketing Live Videos Live videos, even though it was rolled out globally only by April 2016, have been enthusiastically taken up by many brands. The key advantage offered by live videos is that it makes the video format more interactive. It does not hurt that live videos gives a  huge boost to the engagement and reach that brands get. Facebook users can pose questions to the brand on what is being broadcasted on the live video and the presenters can address them then and there. This adds to the brand’s credibility. Also, the brand gets a keener insight into the pain points of potential consumers. Here’s how the cosmetics brand Mary Kay used live video  to win engagement: We’re LIVE with Mary Kay Global Beauty Ambassador Luis Casco makeup! He’s creating gorgeous eye looks for your holiday festivities and will also be answering your questions after the video wraps. Want more beauty tips tricks? Visit http://bit.ly/2g7FM3r! Posted by MARY KAY on Tuesday, December 6, 2016 How to Integrate Visual Content Into Your Social Media Strategy I have mentioned several studies (and our own data) to underline why brands should create more visual content. But your decision to create visual content should be guided by your larger social media goals. Only then will you be able to judge what kind of visual content will work best for you and where it fits in within your overall social media strategy. For instance, if you are on Facebook to let more people know about your product, videos might be the way to go. They get better reach and can get the word out about your product to a wider audience. Based on what your social media budget is like, consider roping in an influencer  to do the video. Based on data on your past performance and industry trends, arrive at an optimum frequency at which you should post to Facebook. If you are going to post 15 times a month, split this up into different categories based on your budget. You can allocate these 15 to lead to a major event around which you can create more content and get more people to participate. You can do a few resource-intensive videos or other visual content that needs time and specialized effort. For the other posts, the social media manager can do simpler, easier to make content and focus more on getting social media audiences to engage with it. A video with heavy production costs cannot stand alone as the only thing that you post on Facebook. It has to be part of a larger video marketing campaign. Contests and giveaways get brands more engagement and participation. This way, even if you do not promote, your future content will get better reach and visibility on Facebook. Especially with live videos you need to announce them in advance and build excitement around the event in order to get more people to participate. Recommended Reading: How to Increase Visibility With Social Media Optimization How to Ensure That Your Visual Content Gets the Attention it Deserves Now that you have a clear idea of why you should create visual content and how it fits in with your larger social media objectives, here are some measures that you can adopt to ensure that your visual content does not go unnoticed. While it is almost impossible to know with absolute certainty what content will succeed on social media, it is also a source of rich data. Using the record of how your past content has performed, you can glean insights on what is most relevant and appealing to your audience. It is essential that marketers constantly measure and monitor their social media activity. This coupled with an awareness of the industry landscape and trends there is key to pinning down a concrete strategy. With organic reach plummeting with each passing day, brands cannot always trust creative copy  and stunning visuals to do well on their own. In 2016, the top 100 brands promoted 18.65% of all their Posts. Over 78% of all the Posts promoted bore some visual content. Recommended Reading: How to Write for Social Media to Create the Best Posts The Non-Designer's Guide to Creating Better Blog Graphics It makes sense to promote at least some portion of the content that you publish to get good reach. This is extremely important when you have spent a lot of time, money and energy on making videos, or other resource-heavy visual content. Marketers should look at past data and industry trends to choose which content to promote. Marketers should look at past data and industry trends to choose which content to promote.An important thing for social media marketers to note is that the Facebook algorithm favors native videos  over those hosted elsewhere. Even if you do not record the video directly on your Facebook app, as long as it is uploaded directly to Facebook your video will get better reach than if you shared a link to your the video that you posted on YouTube. The algorithm gives preference to live videos  too. This makes a very strong case for brands to try their hand at this new format. Getting an influencer on board to help broadcast your message is a clever Facebook Reach hack. When you get a celebrity or an expert in your industry to create a video in collaboration with you, you can tap into their follower base. This helps broadcast your message to the people who follow that person. The best thing about this approach is that  the influencer’s followers are usually people who make up the target audience for your brand. Similarly, make full use of the options that Facebook offers you to target your messages to people who fall within certain geographical locations and interest groups. This ensures that the audience who get to see your post find it extremely relevant and that your efforts reach your targets rather than fall off the mark. From the data that we have discussed, it is possible to say without doubt that all brands that aspire to getting engagement on Facebook, need to create visual content. Visual content ups the relevance factor of a piece of content by presenting those aspects most relevant to the consumer. Marketers should strive to retain relevance as the hallmark of visual content creation by guiding creative decisions with data. Visual Content on Social Media How to Use It to Improve Engagement Social media marketing is increasingly becoming a struggle to capture audience’ attention. It’s not enough that social networks are forcibly suppressing your content from the newsfeeds of your fans, but those fans are more fickle than ever. Visual content helps brands get their message across in a precise and engaging fashion. For this reason, visual content has gone from a â€Å"nice-to-have† to a must-have  vehicle for marketing messages. Here we look at the reasons why brands should spend their time, money and effort creating visual content, the different types of visual content they can create are and how these can contribute to your overall social media strategy. How to Boost #Engagement on Social Media with Visual ContentGet Some Free Resources to Create Better Visual Social Media Content Whats good advice without the right tools to put it into practice? Not much, thats what. Before we get too much farther along, here are some free goodies to help you create better social media content: 128 free photos, optimized for each social media network. Pinterest and Instagram Visual Marketing Infographic packed with useful tips and stats. Social Media Image Size infographic with all the size dimension information you need for every network. Why Create Visual Content? In social media circles, everybody knows that visual content performs better than plain text. If you still need convincing, we looked at data from the Facebook Pages  of the top 100 brands according to the Interbrand list. In 2016, 80.20% of all the Posts published were photos and videos. These were responsible for 92.15% of all interactions that these brands received on Facebook. On Facebook, there has been a steady increase in the amount of visual content being published. There was even an upward trend in the volume of visual content from one-quarter to the next in 2016. One of the main reasons why social media marketers favor visual content is the advantage it offers in terms of engagement. Showing is always better than telling. Look at the graph below that shows the average number of interactions that visual content received compared to other forms in 2016. Especially when you present facts and other information, it will be easier for your audience to assimilate visually represented content as opposed to a wall of text. Recommended Reading: How to Make the Best Social Media Images the Easy Way (+84 Free Images) How to Create Visual Social Media Content One of the best things about social media marketing is that there is something for everybody. Visual content creation on social media works along the same lines. You do not need a multi-million dollar social media budget to create visual content. The possibilities that are available to your brand may differ willing on the resources you have (talent, time, money). Yet, there are many things that brands can do even with a shoestring budget. As we have seen above, the kind of engagement that visual content can bring you makes a strong case for posting more photos and videos. Even if you do not have a full-time designer or an agency to handle social media content creation, you can create some stunning visual content. There are many free tools that are available online for creating various types of visual content. A basic starter kit for any brand would just be a willingness to play around with some free tools  like: Pablo Canva Infogr.am Piktochart Most of these are simple to use and are designed with a lay person (and not a designer) in mind. Recommended Reading: How to Be More Successful With the Right Content Marketing Tools These can help you create highly shareable visual content (A more detailed discussion on these tools follows on the next page). Remember, before you set about creating visual content, have a clear picture of why you want to do visual content. Are you looking to boost engagement, do you want more audience interaction or do you want to establish your brand as a thought-leader in your industry? The different types of visual content that you can take up can help you achieve these different goals. Look at this post that Innocent drinks  published that cracked me up (as they always do): Today is Penguin Awareness Day. We're doing our bit. Are you? Posted by innocent on  Friday, January 20, 2017 Or this highly engaging video by Dr. Pepper: Dr Pepper College Football – Grocery Run :15The carry-the-groceries-in-one-trip play – it’s not for the faint of heart. Here’s to those who push through, pick up the Dr Pepper, and take it to the house. Posted by Dr Pepper on Tuesday, November 22, 2016 These brands enjoy great engagement on Facebook usually. They do not need  engagement or interactions. It is hard to establish beyond doubt if someone would pick up an Innocent smoothie or a couple of cans of Dr. Pepper. Yet these do play a significant role in building brand personality on social media and help mold the way people feel about brands. If you look at some of the brands that publish outstanding visual content, you will see that they are very distinctive. This is the case with Starbucks, Dr. Pepper, GoPro, and so forth. While most of Starbuck’s content sports their trademark cups and their unmistakable logos, they also have a very recognizable indie vibe. Charm bracelets, woolen scarfs, freshly mown grass, fall leaves, knitted sweaters all feature regularly in Starbucks’ posts. In addition to reminding social media audiences about the brand, these posts make them crave for the warmth and coziness of a cafe or to start their day with the indie chill. Their content has become so iconic that their red cups have almost become synonymous with the holiday cheer. Ok, here's a hint: they're red. (Coming 11/10) Posted by Starbucks on  Saturday, November 5, 2016 GoPro, on the other hand, rarely uses their logo on any of their visual content. The photos themselves yell GoPro. The brand regularly puts up stunning visuals set in adventurous locations that makes these Posts identifiable as GoPro’s. There is no better way of establishing yourself as a brand that brings together amazing picture clarity and the spirit of exploration. The position that they hold within the community of travel and photography enthusiasts is further bolstered when they share user-generated content like the one below: Photo of the Day! Ryan Chan discovered that some of Hong Kong's best views are straight up! Posted by GoPro on  Monday, December 12, 2016 Here are some types of visual content that you can try your hand at and some free tools that will help you create them: Here are some types of visual content you can create (+ the free tools you'll need)Infographics Infographics are the best medium for marketers to use when they want to make their data tell a story. If you think that your eyes glaze over when you see a cramped table or a complicated graph, you are not alone. Infographics allow content creators to present data in an easily digestible and aesthetically pleasing way. Infogr.am  and Venngage  are among some of the free infographic-makers that are available online. With the templates they offer, you really don’t need a designer to dedicate their hard-pressed time for creating an infographic. Most of the infographic creation tools come with a  predesigned template. Each template is designed for a specific type of infographic. The type of infographic depends on what you are using it for – is it to convey some information or statistic, a how-to or a comparison. In addition to these templates, they also offer different elements, such as charts, text formats, symbols etc. The first thing you should have when you start out with an infographic is a story. The first thing you should have when you start out with an infographic is a story.Are you going to show your audiences how your company has grown in the past 5 years or are you doing to explain what the benefits of using your product is, or do you want to teach them how to use your product? Once you have that answer, choose the template that best suits your need. Make the necessary edits such as choosing the chart types you need, inputting the data that you have collected and customizing other design elements. Here’s an infographic  created using Venngage that was published in Adweek: Take a look at an infographic  that we did back in 2015 that got us a lot of traction: One of the things that we were able to do using this format is to do creative things with the data that we have. If you thought that only data nuts like us use infographics, see this Washington Redskins’ infographic that doubles as a 360 photo: Take our #PHIvsWAS postgame infographic for a spin. #HTTR Posted by Washington Redskins on  Sunday, October 16, 2016 Images Did you know that Facebook Posts with images get 2.3 times more engagement  than those without? There are a million different things you can do with images on social media. These can be professionally taken product shots, or just stock images with an interesting caption that accompanies your Post. If you have an extremely talented and resourceful photographer in your team, nothing should stop you from leveraging professionally captured images of your product on your website as well as on your social media handles. While most businesses will get a photographer (or someone with a DSLR) to get shots taken for websites or for important events and press releases, it is not always the case with more regular content needs. For instance, it is common knowledge now that text-only updates do not perform nearly as well as when they do with a photo accompanying them. For needs like that, you can always take the help of some of the free tools and stock photos available on the internet. Unsplash  and Pixabay  are excellent repositories of stock photos. It is easy to search and find beautiful photos for your search terms. Another tool that will be a boon for your social media manager is Pablo by Buffer. Here is a short snapshot of Pablo in action: What I like best about Pablo is that I do not need to go elsewhere searching for stock photos. Plus, I can add in a header, caption or lines of text or use a pre-existing template. The built-in editor lets me add simple, yet attractive filters. I can also customize the size of the picture depending on where I plan to post it – Pinterest, Instagram or Facebook. There isn’t a lot of room for customization but you can be done creating a beautiful graphic in under 5 minutes. Canva  is another one of my favorites which is a bit more dynamic. They offer more diverse templates and design elements create a photo to accompany my Facebook post or even create an infographic. Watch this video by Canvas  that takes you around the platform and explains what you can do with it in under 4 minutes. Recommended Reading: What 20 Studies Say About the Best Times to Post on Social Media 360 Photos and Videos In addition to these tools, you can also try your hand at some of the new visual content creation features offered by Facebook. 360 videos and photos were some such features that gained a lot of popularity last year. It is fairly simple to create 360 Photos. All you need to do is take a panoramic shot using your smartphone or your iPhone. For 360 videos, you need a 360 camera. Read this article  for a detailed how-to. Even if you think you are in a boring industry, 360 photos have the ability to go viral (with a little paid push of course). Take this 360 photo from German pharmaceutical and chemicals company Bayer. Today we’re taking you up onto the roof. Here you can see the illuminated Bayer Cross close up. Take a look around. Have a great weekend. Posted by Bayer on  Friday, August 5, 2016 It was their most shared piece of content in 2016 with 3,431 shares. If it didn’t resonate with people, then it wouldn’t have been shared so many times. Look at the level of detail Getty Images  achieved using this format: Happy National Color Day! Celebrate with this stunning Facebook 360 from the Nasir al-Mulk Mosque, also known as the Pink Mosque, in Shiraz, Iran. 📠·: Omid Jafarnezhad /360cities.net Posted by Getty Images on  Saturday, October 22, 2016 Both 360 videos and photos make your audiences feel as if they are immersed in the experience of the visual content that you publish. This contributes to greater engagement. If you are looking for some inspiration on creating 360 videos, take a look at this roundup that we did of top brands that use 360 videos on Facebook. GIFs It’s a meme-crazy world. GIFs are gaining traction among social media marketers as a staple content type. Some brands, like Nissan  below, are integrating this format into their contests and giveaways: The first 40 years- How many different Nissan GT-Rs can you spot? Answer in the comments for a chance to win $100 and a Gif-TR prize pack. http://rul.es/iqbvt9 Posted by Nissan on  Friday, March 25, 2016 Especially if your target audience includes the 9gag generation, GIFs are a low-cost, easy to create content type that can be part of your social media content strategy. GIPHY  now lets you create GIFs. You need only upload videos or supply YouTube links. You can take a regular video or use an existing video. Once you upload this or input the Youtube link, GIPHY allows you to specify which portion of the video you want to create a GIF of. You can then add in text and specify other settings. The final GIF can be shared on social networks directly. Videos Videos are becoming a vital part of every brand’s Facebook strategy. With the changes to the Newsfeed algorithm that gives an edge to video content, they gain better reach than other kinds of content. Brands often post video advertisements and product features that are professionally captured. Yet this does not mean that posting a video on Facebook needs to be a resource-intensive endeavor. Brands can do a variety of low-budget (and often free) videos on Facebook that can get them great engagement and reach. Recommended Reading: How to Do Facebook Video Marketing the Right Way How to Get Started With Twitter Video Marketing Live Videos Live videos, even though it was rolled out globally only by April 2016, have been enthusiastically taken up by many brands. The key advantage offered by live videos is that it makes the video format more interactive. It does not hurt that live videos gives a  huge boost to the engagement and reach that brands get. Facebook users can pose questions to the brand on what is being broadcasted on the live video and the presenters can address them then and there. This adds to the brand’s credibility. Also, the brand gets a keener insight into the pain points of potential consumers. Here’s how the cosmetics brand Mary Kay used live video  to win engagement: We’re LIVE with Mary Kay Global Beauty Ambassador Luis Casco makeup! He’s creating gorgeous eye looks for your holiday festivities and will also be answering your questions after the video wraps. Want more beauty tips tricks? Visit http://bit.ly/2g7FM3r! Posted by MARY KAY on Tuesday, December 6, 2016 How to Integrate Visual Content Into Your Social Media Strategy I have mentioned several studies (and our own data) to underline why brands should create more visual content. But your decision to create visual content should be guided by your larger social media goals. Only then will you be able to judge what kind of visual content will work best for you and where it fits in within your overall social media strategy. For instance, if you are on Facebook to let more people know about your product, videos might be the way to go. They get better reach and can get the word out about your product to a wider audience. Based on what your social media budget is like, consider roping in an influencer  to do the video. Based on data on your past performance and industry trends, arrive at an optimum frequency at which you should post to Facebook. If you are going to post 15 times a month, split this up into different categories based on your budget. You can allocate these 15 to lead to a major event around which you can create more content and get more people to participate. You can do a few resource-intensive videos or other visual content that needs time and specialized effort. For the other posts, the social media manager can do simpler, easier to make content and focus more on getting social media audiences to engage with it. A video with heavy production costs cannot stand alone as the only thing that you post on Facebook. It has to be part of a larger video marketing campaign. Contests and giveaways get brands more engagement and participation. This way, even if you do not promote, your future content will get better reach and visibility on Facebook. Especially with live videos you need to announce them in advance and build excitement around the event in order to get more people to participate. Recommended Reading: How to Increase Visibility With Social Media Optimization How to Ensure That Your Visual Content Gets the Attention it Deserves Now that you have a clear idea of why you should create visual content and how it fits in with your larger social media objectives, here are some measures that you can adopt to ensure that your visual content does not go unnoticed. While it is almost impossible to know with absolute certainty what content will succeed on social media, it is also a source of rich data. Using the record of how your past content has performed, you can glean insights on what is most relevant and appealing to your audience. It is essential that marketers constantly measure and monitor their social media activity. This coupled with an awareness of the industry landscape and trends there is key to pinning down a concrete strategy. With organic reach plummeting with each passing day, brands cannot always trust creative copy  and stunning visuals to do well on their own. In 2016, the top 100 brands promoted 18.65% of all their Posts. Over 78% of all the Posts promoted bore some visual content. Recommended Reading: How to Write for Social Media to Create the Best Posts The Non-Designer's Guide to Creating Better Blog Graphics It makes sense to promote at least some portion of the content that you publish to get good reach. This is extremely important when you have spent a lot of time, money and energy on making videos, or other resource-heavy visual content. Marketers should look at past data and industry trends to choose which content to promote. Marketers should look at past data and industry trends to choose which content to promote.An important thing for social media marketers to note is that the Facebook algorithm favors native videos  over those hosted elsewhere. Even if you do not record the video directly on your Facebook app, as long as it is uploaded directly to Facebook your video will get better reach than if you shared a link to your the video that you posted on YouTube. The algorithm gives preference to live videos  too. This makes a very strong case for brands to try their hand at this new format. Getting an influencer on board to help broadcast your message is a clever Facebook Reach hack. When you get a celebrity or an expert in your industry to create a video in collaboration with you, you can tap into their follower base. This helps broadcast your message to the people who follow that person. The best thing about this approach is that  the influencer’s followers are usually people who make up the target audience for your brand. Similarly, make full use of the options that Facebook offers you to target your messages to people who fall within certain geographical locations and interest groups. This ensures that the audience who get to see your post find it extremely relevant and that your efforts reach your targets rather than fall off the mark. From the data that we have discussed, it is possible to say without doubt that all brands that aspire to getting engagement on Facebook, need to create visual content. Visual content ups the relevance factor of a piece of content by presenting those aspects most relevant to the consumer. Marketers should strive to retain relevance as the hallmark of visual content creation by guiding creative decisions with data.

Taxpayer Cost for Political Conventions

Taxpayer Cost for Political Conventions American taxpayers help pay for the political conventions held every four years by both the Republican and Democratic national committees. The conventions cost tens of millions of dollars and are put on even though there have been no brokered conventions and every presidential nominee in modern history has been chosen well beforehand. Taxpayers directly contributed $18,248,300 million to the Republican and Democratic national committees, or a total of $36.5 million, to hold their presidential nominating conventions for the 2012 election. They gave similar amounts to the parties in 2008. In addition, Congress set aside $50 million for security at each of the party conventions in 2012, for a total of $100 million. The total cost to taxpayers of the two national party conventions in 2012 exceeded $136 million. Corporations and unions also help cover the cost of the conventions. The cost of holding the political conventions, though, has come under intense scrutiny because of the nations growing national debt and annual deficits. Republican U.S. Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma has referred to the political conventions as mere summertime parties and called on Congress to end taxpayer subsidies for them. The $15.6 trillion debt cannot be eliminated overnight, Coburn said in June 2012. But eliminating taxpayer subsidies for political conventions will show strong leadership to getting our budget crisis in control. Where the Money Comes From The taxpayer subsidies for political conventions come through the Presidential Election Campaign Fund. The account is funded by taxpayers who choose to contribute $3 to it by checking a box on the federal income tax returns. About 33 million taxpayers contribute to the fund every year, according to the Federal Election Commission. The amount each party receives from the Presidential Election Campaign Fund to cover convention costs is a fixed amount index to inflation, according to the FEC. The federal subsidies cover a smaller portion of the political convention costs. In 1980, the public subsidies paid for nearly 95 percent of the convention costs, according to the Congressional Sunset Caucus, whose goal is to uncover and eliminate government waste. By 2008, however, the Presidential Election Campaign Fund covered only 23 percent of the political convention costs. Taxpayer Contributions to Political Conventions Here is a list of how much each major party was given in taxpayer subsidies to hold their political conventions since 1976, according to FEC records: 2012 – $18,248,3002008 – $16,820,7602004 – $14,924,0002000 – $13,512,0001996 – $12,364,0001992 – $11,048,0001988 – $9,220,0001984 – $8,080,0001980 – $4,416,0001976 – $2,182,000 How the Money is Spent The money is used to pay for entertainment, catering, transportation, hotel costs, â€Å"production of candidate biographical films,† and a variety of other expenses. There are few rules on how money from the Presidential Election Campaign Fund is spent. Federal law places relatively few restrictions on how PECF convention funds are spent, as long as purchases are lawful and are used to defray expenses incurred with respect to a presidential nominating convention, the Congressional Research Service wrote in 2011. By accepting the money the parties do agree, however, to spending limits and the filing of public disclosure reports to the FEC. Spending Examples Here is some example of how money is spent by the Republican and Democratic parties on political conventions in 2008, according to Coburns office: Republican National Convention Committee: $2,313,750 – Payroll$885,279 – Lodging$679,110 – Catering$437,485 – Airfare$53,805 – Film production$13,864 – Banners$6,209 – Promotional items - gift bags$4,951 – Photography services$3,953 – Floral arrangement for convention$3,369 – Communications consultant Democratic National Convention Committee: $3,732,494 – Salaries$955,951 – Travel$942,629 – Catering$374,598 – Political consulting fees$288,561 – Production music$140,560 – Production: Podium$49,122 – Photography$14,494 – Gifts/trinkets$3,320 – Makeup artist consultant$2,500 – Entertainment Criticism of Political Convention Costs Several members of Congress including Coburn and U.S. Rep. Tom Cole, a Republican from Oklahoma, have introduced bills that would end taxpayer subsidies of political conventions. The major parties are more than capable of funding their own national conventions through private contributions, which already generate over three times the amount the federal grants provide for this purpose alone, the Sunset Caucus wrote in 2012. Others have pointed out what they call the hypocrisy in congressional criticism of the General Services Administration for spending $822,751 on a team building meeting in Las Vegas in 2012 and lack of scrutiny over political convention spending. In addition, many critics of taxpayer subsidies for political conventions say the events are unnecessary. Both parties chose their nominees in the primaries and caucuses- even the Republicans, whose party implemented a little-noticed change in the primary system that lengthened the amount of time it took the eventual nominee to secure the 1,144 delegates necessary for the nomination in 2012.

Performance Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

Performance - Essay Example Team learning and group dynamics are two of the most important imperatives of organizational behavior that significantly impact performance outcome. Effective team work constitutes one of the most important factors that make valuable contribution to the organization promoting a sense of togetherness and collective responsibility that reflects in the increased output and improved performance of the organization. Argote claims that team learning processes involve collective acquisition, combination, creation and sharing of knowledge and that they are considerable influenced by the internal team dynamics (Argote, 1999). Leadership within the team inspires others to achieve common goals through persuasive communication skill. Leadership motivates and encourages that target group within the group that plays a crucial part in the development processes. Group dynamics play crucial role in the smooth functioning of the organizations. The rapid globalization has ushered in an era of multicultural society with people from different race, culture and nationality. Workplace diversity has become common feature and understanding of cross cultural values for mutual trust building has become important. Group dynamics are characterized by unique code of behavior that is specific to the group that is developed over a period of time. According to Hartley ‘value congruity between personal values and perceived value†¦ increased acceptance of that group’ (Hartley, 1960). It is further argues that participation within the group has positive effect on both attitude and job performance (Vroom, 1959). Indeed, emerging new managerial leadership must encompass a very important aspect of organizations, that of making effort to involve employees in the decision making process. The leadership has recognized the importance of people’s