The Conflict Of The Syrian Civil War - 1395 Words

The conflicts, especially political conflicts, were not formed overnight. They have been accumulating for at least four years. The Syrian Civil War that displaced millions of refugees officially began on March 15th, 2011 when protesters stormed the capital of Damascus demanding democratic reforms and the release of political prisoners from the Assad regime. (Kareem Fahim) Unfortunately, these campaigns were met with gunfire, as only a month later the Syrian army engaged in a series of military attacks on its own people—leading to the death of over 1,000 civilians. The Civil War that led to the accumulation of refugees started for a series of complicated reasons. For one thing, Shia-Sunni conflicts persisting to this day have caused great tensions between communities. The Alawite (Shia)-dominated Al-Assad government has oppressed Sunni Muslims (the majority of Muslims) with armed forces for more than 50 years, which enormously intensified the situation in Syria. For another, th e poor economic conditions in Syria also contributed a great deal to this war. Although President Al-Assad had carried out a series of reforms in 2000, people in Syria suffered from high unemployment rate (14.9%) and low average income (below US $49). (Central Intelligence Agency) A power vacuum exists in the region, with ISIS (aka Islamic State of Iraq and Levant), Al-Nusra, and Kurds all battling for control in Syria. ISIS, which now owns the largest portion of Syria, took advantage of the powerShow MoreRelatedThe Conflict Of The Syrian Civil War1361 Words   |  6 Pagespeople have died in the Syrian Civil War. More than 4.8 million people have fled the country. More than 13.5 million people are in dire need of humanitarian support. More than 6.6 million people are displaced inside Syria. (UNOCHA, 2016) And the thing is, almost five years after it began, these numbers are still going up. â€Å"With each passing day there are fewer safe places in Syria,† Paulo Sà ©rgio Pinheiro, Chair of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic, said inRead MoreThe Conflict Of The Syrian Civil War1063 Words   |  5 PagesA great number of Syrian people are quickly becoming refugees due to the crisis occurring in their homeland. The refugees are fleeing for their own good, they are trying to desperately escape the relentless violence that has started since the Syrian civil war began. Thousands of innocent Syrians have been killed since the start of the civil war that all started in 2011. A number of Syrian refugees today are desperately trying to find places that will welcome them. Most of the countriesRead MoreThe Conflict Of The Syrian Civil War867 Words   |  4 Pages Since the Syrian Civil war began, the United States has forgone over 4.1$ billion on humanitarian aid, aimed to help keep refugees within the region and out of surrounding areas such as Lebanon and Israel. Despite such vast expenditures, over 4 million refugees have desperately fled the war ridden streets of Syria in hopes of a future (Hanley 16-20). Since September 2001, popular media and political arenas have largely vilified muslim culture, and ideology; profoundly impacting society’s generalRead MoreThe Syrian Civil War Is A Continuing International Conflict975 Words   |  4 PagesThe Syrian Civil War is a continuing international conflict caused by the backlash of President Bashar al-Assad’s government. In early 2011, the Arab Spring protests sparked nationwide protests against the government. The protest gradually morphed into armed rebellion. While the civil unres t grew, many native Syrians fled their homeland for the protection and safety of their families. Over two million Syrians are estimated to be living in refugee camps in Turkey but many Syrians who traveled to otherRead MoreIs the conflict in Syria a civil war, an insurgency or a proxy conflict? The Syrian Uprising is an2300 Words   |  10 PagesIs the conflict in Syria a civil war, an insurgency or a proxy conflict? The Syrian Uprising is an ongoing armed conflict in Syria between forces loyal to the Baath government and those seeking to oust its regime. The conflict has many complex entities with factions present that are seeking their own foothold in the country’s struggle over power. However, this was not always the case and an examination will take place into weather the conflict can be defined as either a civil war, an insurgencyRead MoreThe Syrian Civil War : An International Conflict Between Usa And Its Allied Groups1526 Words   |  7 PagesThe Syrian Civil War has become now an international conflict between USA and its allied groups and Russia and its allied groups. USA and its allied groups support free Syrian army who are fighting against Syrian Government Bashar Al Asad. On the other hand. Russia support Syrian Government Bashar Al Asad. The two super power(USA and Russia) are engaging Syria war for their own benefit. Russia supports Syrian Government for remaining historic al relation between Russia and Syria. By remaining goodRead MoreThe Syrian Conflict Of The Middle East1336 Words   |  6 Pagesall the problems in the Middle East the Syrian Conflict is one of the most brutal conflicts, thanks to the former colonizer of Syria, France. The Syrian Civil war has been one of the most tragic conflicts in modern times, and in four years has led to the killing of hundreds of thousands of Syrians and caused millions of others to flee Syria. The fight between Assad’s forces and the Syrian rebels has devastated the country, but how did this bloody conflict begin? The Assad family has been in powerRead MoreSyrian Refugees During The Syrian Civil War1573 Words   |  7 PagesSyrian Refugees in Lebanon This is the story of Dania, a ten year old Syrian refugee now living in Lebanon. She can still recall hours spent huddling in a hole in the ground that her father had dug for the family in times of artillery attack, as they crouched in the dirt covering their heads. She could hear the boom of cars exploding, as buildings and stores crumbled to the ground. Ever since the beginning of the Syrian Civil War three years ago, her life has not been the same. Her small school hasRead MoreA Brief Note On The And Foreign Involvement908 Words   |  4 PagesISIS and Foreign Involvement In Syria civil war has been raging since March 2011. The conflict an attempt to overthrow the second Assad regime, led by Bashar al Assad, and multiple rebel groups, including the Free Syrian Army (FSA), the Islamic Front, the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria(ISIS), and Jabhat al-Nusra (the Syrian branch of al-Qaeda). Like his father, who held power before him, Bashar al Assad has been a corrupt tyrant who rigged elections and eliminated personal freedoms. TwoRead MoreKey Challenges Of Syrian State1352 Words   |  6 PagesOver the past 5 years we have seen Syria join the failed states index at a current position of 9th fragile state in the world. The Civil war that has been ripping Syria apart from the inside has been disastrous to both the people and the state. The government’s state capacity is almost non-existent as show by the fact that they have been unable to stop a civil war within their country. Poverty and employment is now rampant, the education system ha s collapsed and a large portion of those who havnt

The Gains of Hosting International Sports Events Free Essays

The World Cup is truly one of the biggest sporting events in the world. Host countries invest huge amounts of resources to organize and build infrastructures. Such countries surely are expecting gains in return for the huge investments they made. We will write a custom essay sample on The Gains of Hosting International Sports Events or any similar topic only for you Order Now However, past experiences show that the chance of receiving economic benefits from hosting either the World Cup or the Olympics is surprisingly little (Maennig Plessis, 2007). Despite this fact countries still want to host international sports events.This is because in assessing the profitability of hosting such events it is important to include both tangible and intangible benefits. This paper takes a look at such intangible benefits to analyze a fuller extent of the gains of hosting such international sports events, taking the World Cup as an example. There are other benefits from a World Cup, besides the economical, which are recognized as positive contributions to the hosting country, they might be more intangible but nonetheless still important.The â€Å"feel good† effect of citizens experiencing domestic growth, stadiums being build, new jobs, foreign recognition etc. represents a certain social profitability of the project. This is something that should definitely not be neglected. These externalities may not only prove to be very important to the citizens of the host country, but also add to the competitiveness and development of certain sectors within the country. Intangible assets may in the long run prove to be just as important as tangible. It is difficult to assign these numerical value, but it is however indisputable whether they are of importance.Happiness is basically what the World Cup may ultimately add to. The experiences related to sports, and the public satisfaction of hosting an event that has the attention of the world, may add more in terms of prestige and individual satisfaction than anyone may realize when planning the project. Surveys made in previous host countries have asked local inhabitants, whether they feel that the World Cup has benefited them, and the results have been predominantly positive (Maennig Plessis, 2007). Another intangible gain is the branding effect that the World Cup has.Branding is something that is important for all countries in that reputation and international recognition of national abilities is something that is highly valued in export and international relations. The World Cup will also add positively in terms of tourism, which is likely to grow in sync with branding of a co untry. Tourism is something that can be quantified, and is a source of great income to many countries, and host countries can potentially gain substantially in from a well-handled World Cup. Empirical research has shown that hosting a major sporting event rarely produces the net economic benefits that a hosting country anticipates.However in deciding to host such international sports events, countries base their calculations not solely economic gains, but also by accounting for such intangible gains. A quote from The Economist sums up the message of this paper very well: Tourism gets a boost but only temporarily. Evidence from Sydney and Barcelona, hosts of successful recent Olympic games (and tourist spots long before that), suggest long-term tangible gains were negligible. But who cares? The World Cup is mostly about intangibles, such as prestige and fun. How to cite The Gains of Hosting International Sports Events, Papers

Star Appliances Inc. - 5 Year Plan Essays - American Brands, Kenmore

Star Appliances Inc. - 5 Year Plan Table of Contents Mission Statement Company Objectives Company Overview 1. Historical Outline 2. Products and Services 3. Financial Statements SWOT Analysis ? An analysis of company's strengths ? An analysis of company's weaknesses ? An analysis of company's opportunities ? An analysis of company's threats Business Strategy Marketing Mix ? Product ? Pricing ? Place ? Promotion Analysis of Major Competitors in the Field ? Kenmore ? Whirlpool ? Kirby ? Maytag ? GE International Expansion 1. Hungary ? External Environment ? Industry Analysis ? Recommended Entry Mode 2. Japan ? External Environment ? Industry Analysis ? Expansion Strategy for the Future Five Years 4. Canada ? External Environment ? Expansion Strategy for the Future Five Years 5. Mexico ? External Environment ? Industry Analysis ? Expansion Strategy for the Future Five Years Growth Forecasts for Years 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004 Implementation The View Ahead Star Appliances Inc. Mission Statement Quality For over thirty years, Star Appliances Inc. has been helping people to manage their homes. Today, Star Appliances Inc. is one of the major competitors in the household industry and one of the most selling brand in America. Star Appliances Inc. Mission is to: ? Achieve technology excellence in current and future generations of products, processes, and services. ? Develop innovations by creating entirely new business opportunities. ? Help solve critical technical challenges. ? Attract and develop new technical leaders. ? Ensure leadership technology in all departments of Star Appliances. ? Drive corporate initiatives across Star Appliances. ? Expand its market by exploring a global economy Satisfaction All Star Appliances products contain proper warranty information. Each appliance comes with a pledge of Satisfaction Guaranteed or your money back. Star Appliances offers maintenance agreements and annual check-ups to keep your appliances running right. And should anything ever go wrong with your Star appliance (and we hope it never does), we offer a nationwide network of service technicians to make sure it gets fixed fast and fixed right. Value When you compare feature-for-feature, you'll find that Star Appliances offers more for the money than any other brand. Maybe that's why s leading consumer magazine recently ranked Star's washers, dryers, and vacuums NUMBER ONE in their respective categories. Have questions or need more information about new Star products? Call 1-888-1ST-STAR or speak to a Customer Service Representative For service information or to schedule a service, call 1-800-4MY-STAR. Star Appliances Inc. Company Objectives Integrity Integrity is an uncompromising characteristic for all Star Appliances employees. It is an implicit factor in customer relationships and the cornerstone of all Star Appliances business activities. Along with the company's reputation for innovation, growth and success, we value integrity among the essential and critical elements in our employees. It is the baseline by which we measure everything else and from which we never compromise. Creativity Star's continued success is the result of its employees' creativity. Every day, teams of Star Appliances people push the frontiers, developing new products and services to serve their customers. Focusing on highly specialized financial services segments, our people develop a unique understanding of customer requirements as they apply their collective talents to solving industry challenges. Intellect At Star, we've never separated ideas from actions?both are essential elements of the competitive equation. Developing the most advanced financial product or innovative service is meaningless if you don't move quickly to get it to market and delivered to customers. The people from Star understand the importance of both ideas and action to maintain the company's position as one of the leaders in the market. Quality as a corporate objective: Company-wide Quality, as a corporate objective, means attaining a level of overall performance and attitude that makes Star Appliances the natural choice of customers and earns the respect of all those affected by the Company's activities. Company-wide Quality, as an individual objective, is achieved by employees who aspire to be better than the best. Star Appliances is committed to providing flexibility in the design, calibration, repair, and testing services to customers while maintaining a consistent, optimum level of quality. The services we offer include standard service packages as well as customized service capabilities to accommodate unique customer requirements. Our business-wide commitment to meet the needs of customers is the foundation for the Quality System. Star Appliances is dedicated to maintaining close relationships with our suppliers. The overall objective is to make certain that we exceed our customer's expectations. Company Profile q Historical Outline Star Appliances Inc. designs, manufactures, sells and supports a line of household appliances. The company was started in 1970 and has grown

Business Weekly Assi. #14 Example

Business Weekly Assi. #14 Example Business Weekly Assi. #14 – Essay Example Visual Clichà ©s A clichà © is described in the dictionary as a trite phase or expression and a hackneyed theme, characterization or situation. A visual clichà © is a clichà © shown visually in the form of pictures. They are usually based on easily recognized or familiar cues which can be interpreted by majority.Avoiding Visual Clichà ©s Visual clichà ©s are something that cannot be avoided entirely but they need to be avoided as much as possible. The reason is that for avoiding them a person needs to have a very original and unique approach to visualizing and showing things or another way to avoid is to explore an area which is new to people therefore showing a unique point of view to new things. Repeatedly, we have been told to avoid clichà ©s because clichà ©s repeatedly, tend to make a person accepting things just the way they are. This effectively kills the creativity of a person and encourages laziness if nothing else comes to mind. Visual clichà ©s can very rightly be portrayed an old man with sagging eyes, worn knees and feet pointing in a circular direction since they don’t lead anywhere. They just lead us in circles showing the same old things over and over in slightly different ways making it same as everyone else’s.For the creativity and originality to come forward and for us to create and show new things with a unique and dynamic perspective is what is required in present times of visual progress, therefore avoiding any sort of clichà ©s is important by all. "ClichÃÆ' © - Definition and More from the Free Merriam-Webster Dictionary."  Dictionary and Thesaurus - Merriam-Webster Online. N.p., n.d. Web. 1 May 2012. Davis, Mike. "How do you avoid making a  clichà ©? - Blog - Picture Editor : Photography Consultant : Mentor : Mike Davis."  Home - Picture Editor : Photography Consultant : Mentor : Mike Davis. N.p., n.d. Web. 1 May 2012. Weintraub, David. "Eye on Image-Making: Visual Clichà ©s | Black Star Rising."  Bl ack Star Rising: Photography and Design. N.p., n.d. Web. 1 May 2012.

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.

Role of IT Managers in Organizations Term Paper

Role of IT Managers in Organizations - Term Paper Example In most institutions including Magnum Enterprises, tasks placed under IT departments are usually structured into IT projects. IT managers are, therefore, sometimes known as IT project managers, since they undertake project-driven exercises. Whether the objective is to install, design or reengineer, Information Technology projects are always to a large extent propelled by aggressive deadlines and durations of regular change. To achieve their objectives, IT managers must identify resources and allocate them. Similarly, they must ensure that activities are organized in consonance with business and technical needs. Projects that IT managers work on always come in various forms. They range from feasibility studies, design projects, development projects, to implementation and upgrade projects (Anderson, Gottschalk & Karlsen, 2002).  Mintzberg (1970) introduced the concept of management roles. Later, Jeong Kettinger and Lee pointed out the relevance of six roles from Mintzberg’s ro le topology. These are: leader, monitor, liaison, spokesman, and entrepreneur and resource allocator. The job of any manager consists of many roles and responsibilities at the same time. At some point, a manager may perceive some roles more important than others, depending on urgency and impact (Anderson, Gottschalk).  As a leader, a manager must supervise the ongoing activities under his jurisdiction, hire and train staff members on a regular basis, organize and coordinate all the activities under his/her docket.

Discussion Dissertation Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 5000 words

Discussion - Dissertation Example More or less, the same preference patterns are noted among G8 students from both genders. In addition, the same pattern of preferences has been found for the overall sample. Academic achievement also comes into play, and has been emphasized by Nolting (2002) who said that it goes up when students are actually aware of what learning style suits them best, as well as by Bahar (2009) who further noted that achievers displayed the key traits of independence, competitiveness, competence and participation. Wallace, meanwhile, found that students benefited a lot more when they worked alone as compared to when they worked within a group – provided, of course, that these students actually knew how to work effectively on their own. Still another study by Yazicilar et al (2009) focused on 5th grade students in order to correlate academic achievement and retention based on whether or not they received varied educational intervention depending on their learning style preference. This study , in turn, found that said treatment would have a marked impact on academic achievement among students. ... tyle as part of cognitive style and stated that â€Å"learning style, as one aspect of cognitive style, refers to a person’s characteristic style of acquiring and using information in learning and /or solving problems† (p.145). The outcomes above suggest that the quad learning style is preferred by high achievers, whereas low achieving students are more inclined to use multi-learning styles. Research Question 2 Are their differences in reading achievement of students due to their learning style preference? To answer this question, multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) analyses were carried out. This is to ascertain the influence of gender and each of the learning style types (VARK7G and multi-single) on the two dependent variables, RAAF and FT scores. The same procedure has also been carried out to determine the effect of grade level and learning styles category on reading achievement between males and females. Analyses of variance were carried out as a post hoc te st to MANOVA. To control for Type 1 error, the Least Significant Differences procedure was carried out. One finding from these is that there were significant differences for both gender and grade level on RAAF. No such differences were observed on VARK7G learning style categories in relation to the RAAF scores and FT scores. Moreover, there was a significant interaction between grade and gender on the reading achievement variables. A significant interaction between gender and learning styles VARK7G on the dependent variables. Moreover, the ANOVA outcomes indicate that there were significant gender differences on RAAF and FT scores. Moreover, there was a significant interaction effect between grade and gender on RAAF. Gender and learning style (VARK7G) likewise exerted a significant effect on RAAF. The