Social Media In The Business World

Social Media In The Business World It is hard to believe that there once was a time when horses were the latest thing in media technology. Horses were a means of communication over large amounts of land, which as a technological innovation changed the course of history (AMTEC). Media and technology has come an incredibly long way since that time. The rate in which technology is advancing makes it hard to keep up. Todays society revolves around the latest technology and what is current in the mediam everyone wants the latest and the greatest. Technology today gives people endless possibilities at the touch of their fingers at any time of day. A study done by The Nielsen Company projects that by the end of 2011 Smartphones will overtake feature phones in the United States. They also believe that one in two Americans will own a smartphone by Christmas of 2011. Smartphones, which are mobile phones that offer more computing ability and connectivity than feature phones, make it possible to communicate with and connected to anywhere in the world at any time. Smartphones are just one example of the technological revolution we are experiencing today. Social media is a part of the obsession people have with media and technology today. As stated above, technology makes it extremely easy to communicate with people and social media makes it even easier. It is no longer required for someone to be at a computer in order to long onto their favorite social media sites. Smartphones have teamed up with these sites to create applications that allow you to access your social media profile right from your mobile phone. This makes it possible to be literally connected and able to communicate with people twenty-four hours a day. The popularity of social media sites is unbelievable. Is social media a fad? Or is it the biggest shift since the Industrial Revolution? asks Erik Qualman, founder of Socialnomics, which works to provide social and mobile statistics. One of the most popular social media sites, facebook, has attracted more than 500 million active users since it was created in February of 2004. Facebook added 100 million users in less than nine months (Qualman). In contrast, it took the television thirteen years and the internet four years to reach 100 million users. Facebook is not only used by people in the United States. About 70% of its users are outside of the United States and it is available in over 70 different translations, as stated on facebook.com. Also, people spend over 700 billion minutes per month of facebook. A survey done in a College Writing II class at Marist College showed that 100% of the students in the class have a profile on a social media site. The business world is certainly not being left behind by the social media revolution. Contrary to popular belief social media is not solely used for social purposes. As the popularity of these social media sites continue to grow at a rapid rate, businesses are starting to jump on the bandwagon. Businesses can certainly benefit and also be harmed in a number of ways by social media sites. As a result, Social Media is becoming a big factor in employment, affecting both job seekers and employers. People are mistaken when they believe that socializing is the only purpose of social media sites. Besides facebook, twitter and youtube, which are mainly used for social purposes, there are also sites that are used for professional business purposes. These sites are benefitial and present opportunities to both job seekers and businesses looking to hire new employees. One of the more popular professional social media sites is known as LinkedIn. The site defines itself as, A networking tool to find connections to recommended job candidates, industry experts and business partners. With nearly 25 million users LinkedIn serves almost any industry and professions explains Jake Swearingen a reporter for BNET. On LinkedIn users simply make a profile including all their professional information, and start searching and networking. In his article for the CBS Interactive Business Network, Swearingen states that it is easy to create a profile but it takes work to make it as useful as possible. In the article he outlines steps to making a LinkedIn profile that will benefit the user the most. He says before a user connects with other users they must first create a profile with their detailed professional history. Simply copying and pasting their resume on the site will not cut it. A successful LinkedIn profile should reflect professional interests, passions and ambitions (Swearingen). The site is helpful in making sure that the user fills in all areas of their profile but, Swearingen believes there are two specific areas that are crucial in making a profile as effective as possible. The first is the section located right under the users name on their profile. This section is a short headline which is usually four or five words. This will be the first thing people see on a LinkedIn profile besides the users name. In other words, this will be the first impression made on all viewers. This section should be a simple explanatory headline that contains keywords that will help users find eachother, for example, Senior Project Manager at MacDonnell-Douglas or, High-Performing Aeronautical Engineering Projects. The second section contain past job experiences and ambitions for the future. Swearingen informs that when listing past job experiences users should make sure to use verbs as much as possible. It shows that passion about what the user learned from each job. Also, non-jobs can also be listed here. These include positions such as leading a group project. Mrinal Desai, a former LinkedIn evangelist and current vice president at CrossLoop, Inc recommends including what you want to do in the future in this section. After creating the best profile possible on LinkedIn, the user can get and receive recommendations. People who are happy with someones work can write a brief description of their experiences on that persons profile. These recommendations can be seen by anyone who views that specific profile. Recommendations serve a similar purpose as references someone would use when filling out a job application. Having recommendations from past and present colleagues and, or bosses shows that this particular person has good working habits, trustworthy and reliable. All of which are qualities companies look for in employees. As well as being helpful to people looking for jobs, LinkedIn is also extremely beneficial to companies looking to hire new employees. 40% of Fortune 100 companies are using LinkedIn recruiting solutions as of August 2009 (Srinvasen). Businesses can post open positions right on LinkedIn and users can search through the jobs posted for the ones that apply. Then companies can use the LinkedIn Recruiter which searches the entire site for the best possible candidates based on what the company is specifically looking for. The company can then contact the candidates directly through LinkedIn mail. This process is quick, easy and saves companies money. Social media used for pre-employment purposes poses many benefits for people who utilize its tools; however it also can be harmful. The popularity of social media sites makes it extremely easy to acquire information about almost anyone. For example, there are 500 million people on facebook anyone could get to know by poking around their profiles. As a result of this popularity, businesses are beginning to use social media as a part of the hiring process. The purpose of a job interview is to learn something about the candidates personality but that person tries to make the best possible impression on the interviewer. This impression may not depict the persons true personality. Employers want to make sure they are making the best choice before hiring someone and content on social media sites can tell a lot about someones true personality. CEO Max Drucker believes, I personally think were moving away from the one-page resume. I think were moving toward where your online history is your resume. Do you have content on your profile you would not want a possible employer to see? 45% of companies use social media sites to research potential job candidates according to a survey of more than 2,000 HR professionals which was commissioned by CareerBuilder.com. That is nearly half of all companies. In addition, another 11% are planning to start similar practices in the near future. Out of the companies who admitted to using social media as a hiring tool 35% said they had actually rejected a candidate based on content they found during their research. But what exactly do companies find to cause such decisions? Having provocative pictures or information was the main reason employers opted out of hiring someone. Sharing content that involved alcohol and drugs was not far behind. Also, companies dismissed candidates for bad-mouthing previous employers, co-workers, or clients on social media sites. Even the use emoticons or smiley faces that have become very common when communicating technologically are seen as a negative to companies. This does not mean job seekers can no longer reminisce with their friends about the party they went to last weekend on social media sites. Facebook, as well as other social media sites, have made it possible to make your profile private. There are many different settings that can be changed in order to make sure only desired people can see a full facebook profile. The settings can either be set to everyone, which means everyone can see everything on that specific profile, friends of friends, friends only, or custom. Custom makes it possible to block certain friends, but not all friends. Each of these settings can be applied to each aspect of a facebook profile separately. For example, say someone wants everyone on facebook to be able to see their profile pictures, but only wants their friends to be able to see their posts. The everyone setting can be applied specifically to profile pictures, while the friends only setting can be applied to all posts. Also, say someone is friends with their Aunt Joan on facebook, but does not want her to see pictures of what they do on the weekends. Aunt Joan can specifically be blocked from all pictures, still be able to see other sections of the profile and still remain friends with her family member. Users can also make themselves unsearchable, which means if someone types their name in the search bar, at the top of the facebook homepage, their profile will not come up. This assures extra safety from employers looking to do some online research. Researching job candidates online sounds like a convienient way for employers to find out about their personality, but theres a catch. Companies need to be aware of legal issues when doing online research. Michelle Sherman described which information about job candidates is off limits in her article for the Social Media Law Update Blog. She described that under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act prohibits discrimination based on race, color, national origin, religion and gender when making employment related decisions such as, hiring, discipline and termination. The Age Discrimination Act prohibits discrimination against people who are 40 years or older, and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 prohibits discrimination against those who are qualified disabled. Many states add other factors to the list of information that is off limit. For example, the state of California adds sexual orientation, marital status, pregnancy, cancer, political affiliation, genetic characteristics, and gender identity to the list. Companies can easily gain information about the factors stated above by investigating social media sites. Michelle Sherman said, The challenge for employers who are researching job applicants, or monitoring the social media activity of their employees, is to not let this protected status information bleed into their employment decisions. On the other hand, Renee M. Jackson of the National Law Journal believes, Employers should consider whether the benefits of using social media to research applicants outweigh the risks. She also states certain guidelines employers should consider if they decide to screen social media sites. One guideline describes that companies should have a neutral party screen social media sites and filter out any information that is considered off limits under federal law. This neutral party can then pass on acceptable information to the individuals making the hiring decisions. Whoever is doing the online research should never friend a candidate in order to gain access to information. Finally, employers must be able to state a legitimate and nondiscriminatory reason for the decisions they make with documentation to support their claim. CEO of Social Intelligence Corp. Max Drucker says, Look, the employer is damned if they do, and damned if they dont. If they do screening themselves, its a legal landmine. If they dont, they open themselves up to negligent hiring. The presence of social media in the business world does not disappear after the hiring process is complete. People believe that employees who use social media sites while at work can actually benefit the business. It is said to result in external business generation. Considering the popularity of social media today it is the fastest way to advertise to the public. In 2009, Sodexo, a food company, got a lot of buzz because they had their employees tweet under the company name (Welstead). To put this into perspective, if 100 employees get involved, each employee has an average of 100 friends on their social media profile, and they post one company-related status per week that status will reach 10,000 or more people per week. In a matter of minutes a company can advertise to tens of thousands of people they may not be able to reach otherwise. Companies dont always have to rely on their employees to advertise on social media sites. Facebook has made it possible for businesses to create business accounts. Business accounts are different than personal accounts and are designed mainly to as a place for companies to advertise. Once a business creates a business account on facebook it can edit the businesses profile and add photos, videos and events. For example, Honda has its very own facebook page. The page contains information about the company, pictures and videos of the different types of cars, links to pages dedicated to one specific type of car, and promotions of their latest products and campaigns. In addition, businesses can also create ads that will show up on the side of the facebook homepage when the user logs on. Each company can choose their audience by location, age and interests when displaying their ad on facebook. Although, using social media for advertising creates a lot on benefits, it also may harm companies. It is obvious that if employees spend their entire day on social media sites production may decrease, but that is a small speed bump compared to the damage that could be done. The biggest risk is the unauthorized disclosure of confidential company information (Jackson). Leaking confidential company information can cause the company embarrassment, public relations issues and damage to the employers brand or reputation. As a result it is suggested that each company have a social media policy that all employees must follow. It is unrealistic to ban social media as a whole considering the amount of people who own smart phones. In other words, if social media sites are blocked on the company computers, employees can still log on using their mobile phones. Renee Jackson outlined some possible guidelines in her article for the National Law Journal. She described that companies should make it clear that the misuse of social media can be grounds for discipline and even termination. After that is made clear, it should be prohibited for employees to disclose confidential company information, trade secrets or proprietary information. Employees should keep company logos off their personal profiles and bring work-related complaints to human resources before writing about it on the internet. Also, employees should be prohibited from using their company e-mail address to register for social media sites. These are just a few suggested policies companies should consider there are many more additions to this that can insure further protection to the company. Social media has been and can be a source of friendships, which can carry over to the work place. Renee Jackson believes, Employee use of social media can result in an internal creation of a collegial atmosphere through less formal interaction and shared experiences between co-workers. In other words, social media allows co-workers to interact in a less formal manner. They can communicate online in addition to having face-to-face conversations while at work. This strengthens the relationships between co-workers creating a pleasant and strong work environment. The closer employees are the better they work together in a team atmosphere. In contrast to the quote stated above, Renee Jackson also states, On the other hand, employee use of social media can create awkward and potentially harassing situations when such use turns inappropriate. An example of this is if a supervisor wants to be a subordinates friend on a social media site. If the subordinate accepts the request the supervisor now has access to all the information on their profile. On the other hand, if the subordinate decides not to accept it may create an awkward situation in the work place because the supervisor may be offended. Misuse of such sites can cause sexual harassment or create a hostile work environment in more extreme cases (Jackson). Social media is not just a fad. Since facebook first launched in 2004 it has gained over 500 million users. The rate in which it gained popularity was faster than that of any other technological innovation. Social media is beginning to permeate the business world. It can be extremely beneficial to business, but also very harmful. If social media is going to continue to be used in the business world, it needs to be used correctly. For job seekers, site used strictly for socializing should be protected from professionals looking to gain insight into personalities. Professional social media sites make job hunting and networking quick and easy, but in order for them to be successful they need to be developed fully. For companies, social media sites are a convenient want to research possible employees, but they need to make sure they stay clear of all legal issues. Facebook has made it easy for companies to advertise on the site, and they can use their employees to reach more possible cus tomers. However, companies should have a social media policy that all employees must follow in order to make sure all problems are avoided. The concept of professional social media can be extremely beneficial to Generation Y when they being the career search, since they are the majority of the users on social media sites. If they learn how to use social media properly it will put them in a better place for the rest of their lives. They can use social media as a tool to get them a good job. Once they are hired they can use it to make business better. The key to successful and safe social media use is know how to use it safely and to the best of its ability.

The Role of a Critical Care Nurse

In the article, Legal Aspects of End of Life Care. author, Nurse Claire M. McGowan, explains that when performing the role of a critical care nurse acting as the advocate for the patient, his/her family, and significant others, it Is essential that the nurse has an understanding of legal implications associated with end of life care. McGowan goes on to provide information on the legal principles involved In end-of-life care, specifically addressing: limitations in treatment, assessing capacity and using surrogate decision makers and medical futility.In order to explain limitations in reatment, McGowan begins by listing what the courts have established as Ilfe sustaining treatments which include: mechanical ventilation, blood transfusions, dialysis, chemotherapy, artificial nutrition, and hydration. Although a competent or incompetent terminally ill patient with advances directives has the right has to refuse these treatments, there are rare cases when the state court may override tha t right: preservation of life, prevention of suicide, protection of third parties such as children, and preserving the Integrity of the medical profession (McGowan, 2011).Next, ccording to McGowan, if a patient is deemed incompetent the patient may be assigned a surrogate to make decisions on their behalf with respect to their advance directives. If a there is no advanced directive or surrogate appointed to the patient then the medical team may determine the plan of care for the patient (McGowan, 2011 Lastly, McGowan addresses medical futility, defined, as such, when treatment is no longer deemed a benefit to the patient. According to McGowan, arriving at this determination and accepting futility Is often stressful, inciting disagreements between the patients/surrogates and medical professionals involved.In order to resolve conflicting Interests, McGowan suggests a variety of methods that can be utilized to improve communication between the two parties including: making attempts to negotiate understanding between parties as to what constitutes futile care before conflict arises, using joint decision making, and using consultants to reach satisfactory resolution of disagreements. If these methods fail to help unite the parties' decision an ethics committee may be utilized to reach a determination, the patient may be transferred to another medical provider within the institution or to another Institution altogether (McGowan, 2011).In my opinion, Nurse McGowan clearly presented how important it is for a critical care nurse to have a working knowledge of the legal aspects of end of life care and how he/she can help to make sure that the patient's rights are respectfully carried out either directly or indirectly during end of life. After reading this article, It was impressed upon me that since the nurse is the main point of contact with the patient, family, and significant others during treatment, It becomes the responsibility of the nurse to help mediate conflict s that may arise during care, in order to protect the patient's best interests.

Definition and Examples of a Predicate in a Sentence

In English grammar, a predicate is one of the two main parts of a sentence or clause. (The other main part is the subject.) It is usually defined as a word group that comes after the subject to complete the meaning of the ​sentence or clause. The predicate is the portion of the sentence that contains the verb (or verb phrase); in very short, simple sentences, it might be only a verb. The predicate tells what happened to the subject or what state its in. In the case of verbs that arent actions, those that describe states of being are called stative verbs. Examples include is or believe. Key Takeaways: Predicates A clause has a subject and a predicate.To be a sentence (an independent clause), there must be a subject and a predicate, and it needs to be a complete thought.A simple predicate is a verb; a complete predicate is everything thats not the subject. Sentences Vs. Clauses A sentence cannot be complete (independent) unless it has both a subject and a predicate; otherwise, a group of words is just a phrase or a clause. For example, a complete sentence could be Go! It has both a subject (You, understood, is the subject, as the sentence is in the imperative voice) and a verb (go). A complete sentence could also be something like Could you please go there? (Subject: you; predicate: could go over there please). But something like after he heard the news or who was the fastest runner arent full sentences but dependent clauses. The groups of words each have a verb (predicate) and a subject, but they arent a complete thought. (Though posed as a question, Who was the fastest runner? is a complete thought.) Types of Predicates A predicate may be many words or just a single word: the verb. In this first example, the verb laughed is the predicate of the sentence: Felix laughed. A predicate may be a word group made up of a main verb and any helping verbs. In the next example, will sing is the predicate.  Notice that the helping verb (will) comes before the main verb (sing). Winnie will sing. A predicate may also be a complete verb phrase—that is, the main verb and all the words related to that verb except the subject. (This construction is called the complete predicate.) In this last example, the predicate is the verb phrase is always greener on the other side: The grass is always greener on the other side. Depending on how detailed you need to get with your analysis of a sentence and its parts, you can also label compound predicates. A predicate is compound if one subject has more than one verb associated with it, joined with a conjunction. In this example, the subject Sandy has two predicates joined by and. She prefers to run first and then eat breakfast afterward. Sandy prefers to run first and then eat breakfast afterward. Notice that this sentence doesnt have two independent clauses. There is just one subject for both verbs. The words that follow the conjunction (and), do not make up an independent clause. Thus, there is no comma placed before and. (This is a very common mistake in writing. Watch for it.) Whether its just one word or many words, the predicate usually follows the subject and tells us something about it. Finding the Predicate Finding predicates isnt difficult; it just takes some examination of the sentence. You just have to understand who is doing what. First, find the subject and then the verb (or verbs). Anything that isnt the subject of the sentence is the predicate. After the long hike up the mountain, the tour group rested and took in the views. The tour group is the subject, the verbs are rested and took in, and everything but the subject is the predicate. Even though the dependent clause comes at the start of the sentence, it still tells something about when the group rested, making it an adverbial phrase. Its not the subject of the sentence and thus belongs in the predicate. If you are to find the simple predicate, its just the verb or verb plus a helper. If you are asked to find the complete predicate, it consists of all the words besides the subject. Examples of Predicates In each of the following sentences, the predicate is in italics. Time flies.We will try.The Johnsons have returned.Bobo has never driven before.We will try harder next time.Hummingbirds sing with their tail feathers.Pedro has not returned from the store.My brother flew a helicopter in Iraq.My mother took our dog to the vet for its shots.Our school cafeteria always smelled like stale cheese and dirty socks.

Frankenstein Critical Analysis Evaluation - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 3 Words: 827 Downloads: 3 Date added: 2019/10/10 Did you like this example? Marilyn Speers Butler also known as Lady Butler was the professor of English literature of King Edward VII from 1986 to 1993. Marry who died at the age of 77 was famously know as leading scholar of Romanticism literature. Her books build her reputation among the fellow scholars but students also read her work with enthusiasm.   Mary was noted as political -curious and intellect after editing the work of Edgeworth. She also emerged as critic for the work of Mary Wollstonecraft. Marilyn stated that Frankenstein by Marry thrives as a result of the Christian iconography of the conception and plunge that correlated the Prometheus and Zeus as pagan reference. The pre-existence of immortal soul as concept of the Christian and acquisitiveness of the scientists prompted the writing of Frankenstein by Marry.   The characters in the literature embodied the figures that associated with Marry such as her physician and personal friend John Abernethy as well as famous people such William Lawrence.   According to Marilyn, Marry Abernethy’s position is satirized as the ghost story which Marilyn exposed it as nonsense. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Frankenstein Critical Analysis Evaluation" essay for you Create order How existence is being animated apparently by the sparks of electricity is not human but incongruence falsification of human beings convoluting the story in a manner that cannot be understood by normal beings (Spears, p.8).   What humans can relate with in terms of creation is the Christian story concerning the existence of the omnipotent, omnipresent and all-loving God that cannot be embodied by Frankenstein in the story of Marry.  Ã‚   Marilyn also argues that Marry used Prometheus and Paradise lost through which she explored the religious implications to come up with full novel. Marry seed did seek to understand what is to be a human being in the universe with all-encompassing nature. Mary’s exploration of human life through fiction refuted the Christian tenets and philosophies regarding to the creation of the universe and human beings. She created characters that are subversive to personify the rebellious nature of human beings who do not want to be controlled but rather be free souls that are motivated by doing what they feel they want to do.   For example, Frankenstein created a monster that eventually rebelled against him because the mammoth felt that the universe was not giving it what it was looking for. Likewise, based on Mary’s story, individuals are also rebelling against their creature by breaking the norms that are already inscribed in the universe.   However, I agree with Marilyn that Mary’s creation of the story is motivated by empirical science rather than the Christian mythological story of creation. Besides, the novel is also based on the social and political theories concerning the Shelley’s time.   For instance, Victor tries to bring her mother back to life through the multifaceted Sigmund Freud’s characters. Young children are taught language through nonverbal communication and Victor is so much obsessed with learning the science languages in order to be able to understand the universe and change it. Moreover, Victor inquisitive nature of how things and the various phenomenal happening in the society fuel his quest of learning the science languages.   Victor’s inability to communicate with the society exemplified as Victor and creature are perceived as mirrors of each other demonstrating the equilibrium of conscious and comatose feature of human behavior. Therefore, I concur with Marilyn, the critic of Frankenstein that Mary was highly motivated by tenets of science that seek to rival Christian’s creation folklore. Richard Brinsley Peake who was born in 1792 and died in 1847 was a famous dramatist in the early 19 century.   Born in the street of Gerard in London, his Father, Richard Peake named him after the playwright Richard Brinsley Sheridan a friend of his father. He is best remembered the play Presumption; or, the Fate of Frankenstein the work grounded on the novel Frankenstein written by Mary Shelley.   Richard wrote comedies, musical romances, melodramatic for forty years. In the play, â€Å"Presumption; or The Fate of Frankenstein, he created a conventional fiction of sin and damnation with the help a comic assistant named Frits (Robbins, p.194). Instead of elucidating the writing of Mary, Richard was constantly reacting against the text. He re-wrote the work of Mary in palatable manner that would entice the 19th century theatre-going public. Marry style of writing would not have had many theatre-going public as compared to Richard’s style (Shelley, p.20). Richard was one of the post-renaissance writers that often presented their work in a sympathetically style that would resonate with a lot individuals in the society.   I agree with Richard that sometimes it is how the people resonate with your writings that matters most. Event in the events of criticism, it should be exuded in a manner that would encourage the reader to read and get him/herself engulfed in the story.   Consequently, it can be concluded at this juncture that, Richard was more interested in having more people getting to attend his play shows rather than the content initially intended by Mary.

Edgar Allan Poe/William Wilson Research Paper - 652 Words

William Wilson Whether we realize it or not, our penis plays a tremendous role in our everyday life. In William Wilson, Edgar Allan Poe connects the protagonist’s penis to the human mind through his portrayal of a doppelganger theme as well as the usage of penises throughout the story. Although Poe was a poet by choice, he wrote some his most notable stories between 1838 and 1843, including William Wilson. After being orphaned in 1811, Edgar was taken in by a merchant who later became his godfather. He â€Å"attended the classical academy of Dr. John Bransby at Stoke Newington† (Mabbott, 1). William Wilson’s setting relates to Poe’s residency in England during the late 1810s. The â€Å"large, rambling, Elizabethan house, in a misty-looking†¦show more content†¦The second William Wilson has been following the first Wilson around, trying to thwart and expose his malicious deeds. He haunts the protagonist, representing his own insanity. After discovering that the two boys share the same name, birthday, age, and many other characteristics, the protagonist begins to realize that the second Wilson is following him around, attempting to expose him of his deeds (Poe). The theme of the double is presented in the story with the two Wilsons. The second Wilson, representing the human conscience, followed the first Wilson wherever he went eventually showing his own insanity. The imagery in the story gives the reader a feeling of spookiness. Poe describes the house as â€Å"old and irregular. The grounds were extensive, and a high and solid brick wall, topped with a bed of mortar and broken glass, encompassed the whole† (Poe, 2). The broken glass gives the reader a spooky feeling, at the same time hinting possible danger. It creates an image of an old haunted house, making the reader feel wary. In addition, the gate was â€Å"riveted and studded with iron bolts, and surmounted with jagged penis iron spikes† (Poe, 2). The gate has its own sense of eeriness in itself, giving off a feeling of horror and creating a mental image of an abandoned house. The land the house is on has been uncared for and left with a haunting appeal, given the broken glass and horrific looking gate with the iron spikes (Poe). With the use of imagery, Poe depicts a settingShow MoreRelated Edgar Allan Poe1 Essay2429 Words   |  10 PagesEdgar Allan Poe1 In every story conceived from the mind of Edgar Allan Poe, a scent of his essence had been molded into each to leave the reader with a better understanding of Poe’s life. Poe displayed his greatest life’s achievements and his worst disappointments in a series of stories created throughout his whole life. It is the goal of this research paper to reveal symbolic facts about his life and define these hidden maxims in a way that is easy to understand and beneficial to the reader

STP Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning in Marketing Strategies Free Essays

Introduction All marketing is built on STP – Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning (Kotler Keller, p.310). In the chapter of fundamental marketing concepts, trends, and tasks it says: â€Å"A marketer can rarely satisfy everyone in a market. We will write a custom essay sample on STP: Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning in Marketing Strategies or any similar topic only for you Order Now Not everyone likes the same cereal, hotel room, restaurant, automobile, collage or movie. Therefore, marketers start by dividing up the market into segments† (Kotler Keller, 2005, p.24). Segmentation is often the key to developing a sustainable competitive advantage based on differentiation, low cost, or a focus strategy (Aaker, 1995, p.49). It is difficult to identify segments, but typically you consider five, ten or more segmentation variables. These variables needs to be evaluated on the basis of their ability to identify segments for which different strategies are (or should be) pursued (Aaker, 1995, p.51). Once the segments are defined, it is possible for the marketers to evaluate what segments presents the greatest opportunity for business and make an offer to target this specific segment. The useful segment variables for this are : (1) Parameters unrelated to the product (demographic, gender etc) (2) Parameters related to the product (3) Competitor segmentation (4) Benefit segmentation (5) Price Sensitivity (6) Loyalty (7)Application segmentation (Aker, 1995, p.52-54). No company can win if its products and offerings resemble every other product and offering. Companies must pursue relevant positioning and differentiation. In the line of making these strategies, each company must represent a distinctive big idea in the mind of the target market. Positioning is the act of designing the company’s offering and image to occupy a distinctive place in the mind of the target market (Kotler Keller, 2005, p.310). This way of positioning works for static businesses like the shampoo and the washing powder businesses for example. Products in a more dynamic environment like PC’s and semiconductors, where things change often, fast and dramatically, need another way of thinking which is described below: †Standard approaches to positioning do not necessarily work. A company that is #1 today has no guarantee that it will be #1 tomorrow. New technologies can turn a seemingly solid position into a fragile one almost overnight. No amount of advertising can prevent that from happening. Even with the best of slogans, a company can lose its position in the market.† McKenna (1985, p.15) Positioning is not something that you do with the product, positioning is what you do to the mind of the prospect. That is, you position the product in the mind of the prospects. This is described in the book Positioning (Ries Trout, 2006), who claims that the market place today is an overcommunicated society where there is too much of information communicating its offer (Ries Trout, 2006, p.6). This is the reason of why we need positioning. We need positioning to be successful in communicating our message on the market place in the overcommunicated society. Positioning is a concept that has changed the nature of advertising, a concept so simple, people have difficulty understanding how powerful it is (Ries Trout, 2006, p.2). According to Trout the history within the advertisement on the market place, which now is overcommunicated, have been in three different eras (Ries Trout, 2006, p.22-24): †¢ Product era; where Unique Selling Points were communicated, but was destroyed by Me-too companies. †¢ Image era; where successful companies found image more important than product features. This era was also destroyed by the Me-too companies. †¢ Positioning era; to succeed in our overcommunicated society, a company mustcreate a position in the prospect’s mind. In this era, strategy is king and there isnot necessary to invent and be first with the product, but you need to be first in the mind of your customer. In our overcommunicated society, the paradox is that nothing is more important than communication. With communication going for you, anything is possible. Without it, nothing is possible. No matter how talented and ambitious you may be (Ries Trout, 2006, p.19). Positioning is about communication. Positioning is to say the right things to the right person at the right time, NASA call this a window in space. In other words, positioning is an organized system for finding windows in the mind. It is based on the concept that communication can only take place at the right time under the right circumstances. With this in mind, it is also important to keep the position statement oversimplified, to be able to reach the mind of the prospects (Ries Trout, 2006, p.7) According to Ries Trout, there are two possible ways to get into the mind of a person, the easy one and the hard one. The easy one is to be first, the hard one is to be second or ater. Most of the people know the name of the first man on the moon, a lot fewer know the name of the second. But even if you are second, there are strategies for this kind of situation. These situations are described as repositioning by Ries Trout (2006, p.63). Once you are in the mind of the person, the positioning requires consistency. It should be kept year after year. It is very common that companies forget what made them successful, and change the positioning communication. This is normally wrong strategy according to Trout, and refers to when Avis changed their successful slogan: â€Å"Avis is only No. 2 in rent-a-cars, so why go with usWe try harder.† to the less successful; â€Å"Avis is going to be No. 1†. The explanation behind this logic is that to be successful you need to touch base with reality. And the only reality that counts is what’s already in the prospect’s mind (Ries Trout, 2006, p.5). In this case, Avis was not destined to be No.1, unless it could find a weakness in Hertz to explore. To develop an offer, you need to know your strategies of what you are going to sell to whom. If you are working according to the suggestions in Michael Porter’s book Competitive Strategies (Porter, 1998, p.35), where he claims that you need to choose between (1) Product differentiation, (2) Low price or (3) Niches to be successful, then you need to form a clear offer for that specific segment. You can only have success by being the best in one segment, if you try to combine you will most likely have trouble with resources and risk that another company wins this area. When you know the segment, you need to decide about your specific positioning. Kotler recommend the company to evaluate between 7 specific sources of positioning (Kotler, 1999, p.78): (1) Attribute positioning (2) Advantage positioning (3) Application positioning (4)User positioning (5) Competitive positioning (6) Category positioning (7)Quality/price positioning. Further on Kotler (1999) writes that companies must not do the following mistakes: Under positioning: Fail to offer a strong benefit or reason to buy the product Over positioning: To create a position that is too tight, which results in that you miss customers. Confusing positioning: To offer two or more benefits that interfere with each Other irrelevant positioning: To offer benefits to customers that doesn’t matter forthem. Doubtful positioning: To claim a benefit that customers will doubt the company to achieve. In the book â€Å"Crossing the chasm† by Geoffrey Moore, he claims that the positioning is the single largest influence on the buying decision. Not only for the final decision, but also for how to evaluate alternatives leading up to the final choice (Moore, 2001, p.144). Geoffrey Moore describes the positioning process in four components (Moore, 2001, p.147): The claim: The fundamental position statement The evidence: Develop sufficient evidence for the statement Communications: Address the right audience in the right sequence with the right message Feedback and adjustments: Competitors can be expected to respond to the statement trying to poke holes in the effort, this might require a patch up. There are different tools to use when evaluating the status of the position. Some of them can be found in the handbook of Andberg Eliasson (2005, p.47-54) where they are mentioned: 1) Marketing positioning diagram 2) Marketing roles 3) Marketing stairs 4) Profile diagram. Sjostrom, R. (1996, p26) have made a deep analysis of positioning and found out that there are four different groups of how to see positioning:Product-, Competition-, Relation-, and Phase oriented Positioning. Marketing Mix, Four P’s The Marketing Mix model also commonly known as the 4P’s Kotler (2005, p.19), describes the marketing tools and variables used by a company to pursue its marketing objectives. In other words, the Marketing Mix approach to marketing is a model used to assist in implementing marketing strategies. The Marketing Mix principles are based on ontrollable variables which can be used by companies to meet the changing needs of the target group. Typical controllable variables are product variety, quality, list price advertising and channels. The function on the model is useful helping companies to develop an optimal package (mix) of variables that will not only satisfy the needs of their customers within the target markets, but also simultaneously maximize the performance and profit of the company. Pricing is an important but difficult issue in this model, important because it is the only mix that generate a turnover for the company, all other P’s in the model are connected to costs, and â€Å"Pricing is difficult because the various products have demand and cost interrelationship and are subject to different degrees of competition† Kotler (2005, p.387). Figure – The 4P’s Components of the Marketing Mix (Kotler 2005, p.19) The Marketing Mix model is described in figure 3, describing the mix of Product, Price,Promotion and Place. Working with the model, also means working with sub-mixes ofeach different P. For example, the Promotion variable can be further decomposed into apromotional mix consisting of variables like; sales promotion, advertising, sales force,public relations and direct marketing. Within the promotional mix, advertising can befurther broken down into an advertising media mix that specifies how much emphasis isplaced on television ads, radio ads, newspaper ads, internet ads, magazine ads, etc. I would like to reflect on some variables within each group of the model that I find interesting when analyzing a Marketing Mix of a company. 1 Product The mix of products in each company is defined in one or more product lines, and each line has its own length depending on the companies strategy and competition. The lengths (amount of products) can be stretched to cover wider area of products or it can be filled (features of product within the range), both activities strive to find new customers and increase the sales and market share. The product line is also an interesting object for analyzing, to find out which product line to grow, maintain, harvest or divest. The quality is a variable to benefit from when communicating the message of the product/brand, but also when dealing with warranties, services and returns, while services and returns cost money. 2 Price Pricing is as mentioned above, a complex issue. There are both internal and external parameters to consider, with internal I mean manufacturing and marketing costs that need to be covered and with external I mean that you should consider the need of the market, the competition etc. I have read about 6 different situations only involving different product-mix pricing Kotler (2005, p.387). Pricing is also about credits, discounts, interests and leasing. It is all about to find out the most beneficial method for the company and in the same time give the customer maximum satisfaction according to his expectations. 3 Promotion Promotion is a group that handles variables likeadvert i si ng and sales promotion. These two variables I mentioned affect each other in a positive way. According to a study described (Kotler, 2005, p.387), a price promotion resulted in a 15% increase in sales volume, combined with feature promotion the product sales increased 19 %. Most affect was when also POP (Point-of-Purchase) was added to the campaign, like demonstrations. The tools to use are many and some will work better than others depending on the product and market. The main different areas when talking about omotion tools are; Consumer-, Trade- and Business and Sales Force Promotion Tools (Kotler, 2005, p.588-599). 4 Place I find the variableschannel andlocation in the group â€Å"Place† to be important variables to have control of. The channels are about moving goods from producer to consumer. Location is about where to find and get the product, not only physical but also places like web pages on the Internet. When discussing channels, functions and flow (Kotler, 2005, p.473) are easy to understand for me. Functions like physical or promotion creates a forward flow, from company to customer, and functions like ordering and payment create a backward flow. I find it more complex to understand, control and implement the Vertical marketing System Kotler (2005, p.486), Horizontal Marketing System (Kotler, 2005, p.488) or the most common of them, the Multi channel Marketing System (Kotler, 2005, p.488) into the strategies of a company. But this is the strength of this model I think, because if you can control all the independent variables in this model, you will most likely have good success in the sales volume. Reference Aaker, D. (1995), Strategic Marketing Management, John Wiley, New York, NY Adndberg, L. Eliasson, B. (2005),Marknadspl anen, Liber, Malmo. Holme, I.M., Solvang B.K (1997), Forskningsmetodik: om kvalitativa och kvantitativa studier. Lund: Studentlitteratur. Oversattning: Bjorn Nilsson. Kotler, P. (1999), Kotlers marknadsforing, Liber, Malmo. Kotler, P. Keller K. L. (2005), Marketing Management, 12th edition, Pearson Prentice Hall. McKenna, R. (1985), The Regis Touch, new market strategies for uncertain times, Addison-Wesley Publ. Company Inc., California. Moore, Geoffrey A. (2001), Crossing the Chasm, 3rd edition, Capstone, Oxford. Ries, A. Trout, J. (2006), Positioning: The battle for your mind, McGraw-Hill, London Sjostrom, R. (1996), Positionering under strategisk osakerhet, Diss. Ekonomiska institutionen, LiTH, Linkoping How to cite STP: Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning in Marketing Strategies, Essay examples

Correlation Between Student Incomes and Student- myassignmenthelp

Question: Discuss about theCorrelation Between Student Incomes and Student Services. Answer: Introduction MacEwan provided services are set in place to help students through the many challenges and obstacles that students face while attending university. These services range anywhere from sexual violence to providing services for students facing learning disabilities. One topic of interest however, is a students level of income and how it can play into the effectiveness of the services provided by learning institutions. It is important to understand the effect these services have on students who make different incomes while going to school. By understanding the difference between high-income students and low-income students it will help us to determine if the services provided by MacEwan are reaching their intended audiences. In the following document we will provide an analysis of peer reviewed articles and their relation to our topic of interest. We will also provide an in-depth methodology report which will outline the research we are going to conduct in order to answer the following research question. Does a students level of income affect their use of MacEwan provided services? In addition, we will provide a timeline as to how we will go about collecting and organizing our data. Literature Review We began our literary searches with the goal of answering the question: how does student income affect how students use McEwan provided students. Blakes (article B) article focused on the relationship between the magnitudes of a students postsecondary funding and their program choice as well as course load for their first year at school. Charlies article (article C) investigates the ethics of whether it is the university's responsibility to provide students with Human Services as well as the magnitude of Human Services that it is reasonable to provide. These articles can be divided into two main categories. Article B and article C both pertain to how income and student funding affects the general student experience and article S focusses primarily on how a student's hereditary might have would affect their use of services and general performance in school. Three important observations can be taken from each of the two categories of literary reviews. The first and most important conclusion, is that funding seems to have a huge impact on a student choices at school and consequently the services that they end up using. Article B and C both make it very clear that income affects the choices that students make at school. In article B, it was found that the more leveraged a student was the more likely they were to have a declared major as well as choose a program in the STEM category. Secondly, there is more than just one issue that is affecting a students use of services. Article S evinces this with the finding that 90% of students did not think having a learning disability would stop them from pursuing their education and while 90% seems like a high number we must also take into account that it also means 10% of students would probably drop out or not even attempt post-secondary education if they believed they had a learning disability. The last take-away from all three literature review articles pertains to methodology. Originally, our group had planned on doing most of our research by way of anonymous surveys of hundreds of MacEwan students. However, after reading through all the articles one common theme emerged in regards to the methodologies that the authors of these articles used. They all conducted surveys as well as in persons interviews of dozens of people to collect their data. Knowing this, our group will be conducting a few in person interviews in addition to surveys in order to strengthen the quality of our research. All of these findings are encouraging for our research project because they appear to support our groups hypothesis that student income affects the services that students use at Grant MacEwan University. Article B and C reinforce that there is a relationship between the amount of funding students have access to and the choices they make at school and article S reminds us that although it may appear that income may be one of the most important aspects affecting how and what services a student uses it may not be the only factor. Methodology The article deeply talks about the students from low-level households. Therefore, to get better results we are thinking of conducting methods that will include some deep interviews with the groups of such students consisting of both males and females. Since this case is quite complex so, we are thinking to opt for a mixed method which will include both qualitative and qualitative type of inductive approach. Therefore, well go for choosing testing theory over conducting theory. Along with the students we will seek for some knowledgeable informants who can help us inquire the case satisfactorily. Further, the data can be collected by enrolling more interviewees to get better knowledge about their backgrounds until a theoretical saturation is achieved. Moreover, we will collect data in a cross-sectional manner by conducting a questionnaire referring to one current point in time which includes face to face casual conversations. Also, we will e-mail our friends and classmates to get more information to get good results for our survey. For this survey, we estimate to interview and cross-question at least 50 students or even more who study in Grant MacEwan University. Therefore, if we will be successful in collecting data without any internal or external interruptions, then further we will look forward to presenting the whole survey in a statistical manner. Timeline Conclusion In reference to the literature review (the articles BC and S, we can develop an insight of the findings that are likely to come up from the research studies. As seen before, all the articles reviewed have a positive correlation with our research hypothesis. The articles, B and C all have it that the financial status of the students directly affect their use of the institution provided services. It is typically certain that students choices on the type of services they use is substantially influenced by their socio-economic status in accordance to the reviewed literature. We also establish that, apart from just the financial status of the students, there are a number of issues that affect the type of services that a student chooses, which among others, included the learning disabilities. The likely gaps that would weaken reliability of the report have already been discovered in the methodology section. Making use of interview alongside survey gives a guarantee of dependable results We can surely establish that in the proposed research, we have over 70% of the likely findings and therefore we can briefly conclude that the research study will produce a highly reliable results since the methodology will deeply exploit the primary study population to establish concrete findings. Reference List Cady, C. (2012). Discussing Poverty as a Student Issue: Making a Case for Student Human Services. Journal of College and Character, 13(3), 4. doi: 10.1515/jcc-2012-1908 Cady, C (n.d.). Linked In profile. Retrieved from https://www.linkedin.com/in/clare-cady-81b66257/ Miller, A., Zhang, L. (2009). The Effects of Welfare Reform on the Academic Performance of Children in Low- Income Households, 28(4), 577-599. doi: 10.1002/pam