Comparison of Malls and Big Box Stores

MP3s the wav of the future essays

MP3s the wav of the future essays If you're a big "net junkie" you may have noticed that many sites are offering files called MP3s. Just what is an MP3 you may ask? MP3 is the shortened, more popular name for the Mpeg Layer 3 file compression format. MP3s are highly compressed sound files. While the Mpeg compression format has been out for awhile now, the Mpeg Layer 3 has compressed these sound files so greatly that they are now being widely distributed, and are just now making it into the public eye. MP3 compression has been a major contribution to how people distribute music. This high compression, "...1/10 of the original dat file's size." , brings "CD quality music at bit rates ranging from 128 to 384 KB/sec." Distinguishing an MP3 file encoded at these high bit-rates from a real CD, is nearly impossible for the un-aided ear. MPEG compression is also used in the encoding of movies for digital media. To better explain just what MPEG compression does, I will quote Stephen A. Booth from his article How Compression Works. "In a movie, for example, a vast expanse of blue sky needn't be encoded bit for bit; identical pixels in the scene are mapped and bit-coded to repeat, while only differences need be registered uniquely." What makes MP3s such a major break-through is the fact that you don't need any high-tech equipment to create and play them. All that is needed is a computer, and special software which can be downloaded from the internet. The music industry has the most to gain from the MP3 compression format. MP3s will greatly increase the distribution of music samples, one of the leading ways that music companies increase their profit margins with. MP3s are so greatly compressed that low-bandwidth users browsing the internet from home can download music samples quickly. This will greatly increase the reach of the music industry and convince more people to buy music from them. The web site known as GoodNoise has already jumped on this chance t ...

Final Project for a linguistic class called Introduction to Essay

Final Project for a linguistic class called Introduction to Linguistics - Essay Example In 1889 operators of central telephone exchange were called as hello girls. Hello can be used in a lot of senses; it can be used as a greeting, to answer a telephone, to attract attention, an exclamation of surprise or wonder (e.g., we went to see Eiffel Tower and hello! It was beautiful). We can even use hello as a noun when we say (e.g., it was a cry of hello), basically hello is an interjection expressing some informal greeting. It is also used when we’re questioning something with someone being addressed, (e.g. are you happy with what is going to happen here? Hello!). We can use hello as a noun as well (e.g. I went to meet Alex but he gave me a cold hello), as verb (e.g. I helloed very loudly before someone could take notice of my arrival). Tough the whole world now uses Hello but British people still use hullo. This word â€Å"Dude† is from American vocabulary, it was first used in the year 1883. Dude is used for a male and when using for a female. Two words dudine & dudess are used; however dudine is more popular than dudess. This word is pronounced as â€Å"dood† and it has quite a few meanings, initially it was used in America for those Easterners who move to west and start living there but that meaning is not accurate anymore. Dude in present day is used in quite some other meanings. Dude can be used as slang for friend, chap, mate or a fellow. Other than that dude is also referred to some guy who is very concerned about his dressing as per fashion, another meaning of dude is used for a some man who is staying on a farm but that is also an old meaning of Dude. We also say dude up as slang for dress up (e.g. look at him! All dude up to impress the girls at bar). Some people are of the opinion that dude is derived from another word dud which means a failure or a flop which is the opposite of Dude. This word has a very long history; it was first recorded in 1050 in England. It was first called godsibb which means godparent as in god-sib (sib as

Assignment 2 Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

2 - Assignment Example University of Oregon track coach Bowerman wanted lighter and more resilient racing shoes for his runners. One of them, Phil Knight, was trying to devise a marketing plan to fulfill a school project. During his trip to Japan, Knight met with a Japanese shoe manufacturer. He told them his company, Blue Ribbon Sports, would distribute the manufacturer’s running shoes in the USA. Knight was able to sell $8,000 worth of Japanese-made running shoes. Later, Knight and Bowman named changed their company’s name to Nike. (A brief history of Nike, n.d.) Almost a decade after Nike was created Microsoft was invented by well-known software developers Bill Gates, Paul Allen and their friends because of their love for computers. Gate and Allen successfully wrote and sold a software program to Altair manufacturers. After this, they decided to form Microsoft. (The history of Microsoft, 2001) Even if I know how these brands were created, I would still buy their products. I believe in thes e brands. The quality of their products is always satisfactory. I think because of their status in the industry, the companies will always try to make excellent products. References: A brief history of Nike. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://xroads.virginia.edu/~class/am483_97/projects/hincker/nikhist.html on May 10, 2011.

Project Communication Plan Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

Project Communication Plan - Assignment Example Project managers should use the available tools of communication such as; letters, telephones, and video conferencing. A good communication plan is the most effective way of letting different end users of a project knows the effects a particular project to them. Project managers who have the responsibility of developing a communication plan should take into account a number of key components to ensure that they have a good communication plan. This will ensure that all the parties who are interested in a project are well served with the relevant information regarding the project. Audience forms a major component of a good communication. Campbell (2012) refers to this as the Stakeholder analysis. Different persons who are interested in the project cycle such as sponsors, stakeholders, and team members will require different information. A good communication plan should identify each audience with the aim of providing relevant information to them. The purpose of identifying audience is to see if we can determine how each audience is concerned. In addition to Audience, Content is the second component of a good communication plan.This component describes the kind of information that each audience needs. Such information may include the details about accomplishments and progress of the project. This information may be very relevant to the high level stakeholders (Biafore, & Stover, 2012). All these audience groups have unique interest in the whole project which the project manager will reflect up on when developing a communication plan. Method of communication is another important aspect of a good communication plan which project management should take into account. With a lot of technological advancements in the methods of communication, project managers have numerous methods of communication to the relevant audience (Heldman, 2011). Means of communication include; in person meetings, videoconferencing, telephone calls, email, and written

Aggressive Contests in Male Jumping Spiders

Aggressive Contests in Male Jumping Spiders Tutorial of Elias et al.s Assessment during aggressive contests between male jumping spiders Assessment strategies are a vital factor in game theoretical models of contests. In contests animals may engage in mutual assessment; where individuals assess both their own and their opponents resource holding potential (RHP) and make decisions based on estimated differences (Prenter et al, 2006; Briffa, 2008). Alternatively, they may partake in self-assessment, in which individuals set thresholds based on their own RHP (Prenter et al, 2006; Briffa, 2008). Using a statistical methodology which enables the distinction between assessment strategies, the study examined contests in Phidippus clarus, a common jumping spider.The study had three main aims: to determine whether substrate-borne signals are important in aggressive contests, the assessment strategies used in contests, and the factors that decide contest outcomes. Adult and penultimate male and female P. clarus were collected. They were individually housed in the laboratory for a minimum of 4 days to allow them to acclimate prior to use. The experimental arena was a plastic cylinder with petroleum jelly on the inside of the wall to prevent spiders escaping. In order to avoid visual disturbances, an opaque paper ring was placed around the cylinder. Graph paper was used as the arena floor, this allowed movement to be measured. It was replaced after every two trials to prevent chemical cue build up. An empty female nest was placed in the center of the arena. To begin with a removable barrier split the arena into two equal sections. Randomly selected males were placed in separate halves and left to acclimate for 5 minutes. The barrier enabled acclimation and removed potential ownership effects. Contests were observed and substrate-borne vibrations were recorded using a laser droppler vibrometer. Contests were terminated after three bouts, a male was considered to have won a bout when the rival male turned away and retreated more than two body lengths. Male behaviours during aggressive interactions were divided into two phases: the precontact phase and the contact phase. The contact phase began when the two spiders started to leg fence. During the precontact phase males produced substrate-borne signals. The signals generally preceded movement toward rivals and rarely preceded retreat. Following the contests, males were weighed and digitally photographed to measure patella-tibia length and cephalothorax width. These measurements were used a s an indicator of size. A range of statistical analysis was performed on the data. A statistical methodology outlined by Taylor and Elwood (2003) and Morrell et al (2005) was used to distinguish assessment strategies. The results indicated that contest duration, particularly contact phases, were based predominantly on self-assessment and to a lesser degree mutual assessment. It was suggested that males may shift between self-assessment and mutual assessment as more information becomes available or more reliable. In the case of partial mutual assessment, as more rival assessment occurs, a negative correlation will grow between winner weight and contest duration (Prenter et al, 2006). The study found a nonsignificant negative relationship between winner weight and contest duration. This is congruous with partial mutual assessment. It was suggested that relying more heavily on self-assessment to determine contest duration may be an economical strategy that avoids the costs of mutual assessment. Mutual assessment requires energetic demands to detect and process a rivals signals, as well as needing time to process the information in order to make accurate decisions. These costs would be heightened if the signals were unreliable. Hence, self-assessment enables the individual to pay only the costs they are willing to but maintain a high probability of winning against inferior rivals. Â   The male jumping spiders used multimodal signals during aggressive interactions: visual and substrate-borne. Substrate-borne vibrations appeared to be of particular importance, given that the number of vibratory signals accurately predicted the contest outcome. More actively signaling males were more likely to win.ÂÂ   Additionally, precontact phase duration was based on relative vibration behaviour. Males which vibrated at similar rates had shorter precontact phases. Figure.1 Effect of experience on contests. (a) Differences between contest phase duration in different bouts. Both precontact and contact phase duration were significantly reduced after initial contests. (b) Difference between vibrational signalling between different contest bouts. **P et al, 2008) 53/56 of the males that won the first bout went on to win all three bouts. The study found contest experience affected males signalling rate. While winners signalled repeatedly at a similar rate, losers significantly decreased the rate at which they signalled after losing the first bout (Fig. 1b). As well as this, experience affected the time that males spent in contest. Both precontact and contact phases were notably shorter in the second and third bouts (Fig.1a). This indicates that experience effects are important for multiple contests with the same opponent in P. clarus. In the field, males would most likely escape after losing a single contest, so repeated bouts with the same individual may be rare. However, these results important because they highlight that experience, especially losing experience, can influence subsequent behaviours. Following these results an area that needed more research is the impact of experience on future contests with new rivals and the duration of the se effects. This is addressed in a later paper by Kasumovic et al (2010). They found that winner and loser effects have a similar magnitude, but loser effects persist longer. They also found previous experience alters actual fighting ability. They suggested that experience should be integrated into models, particularly when competitive signals or traits are unreliable. Arnott and Elwood (2009) also wrote a subsequent paper which encouraged game theorists to update models. The paper explored how the abilities of contestants to assess RHP influences fights. The paper cited Elias et al (2008) to support the existence of partial mutual assessment. They stated that strategies, such as partial mutual assessment, point to limitations of current game theory models. Arnott and Elwoods (2009) work has been influential, with further work finding winner and loser effects change with age, which is often a disregarded factor in studies (Fawcett and Johnstone, 2010). References Arnott, G. and Elwood, R.W. (2009) Assessment of fighting ability in animal contests, Animal Behaviour, 77(5), pp. 991-1004. Bridge, A.P., Elwood, R.W. and Dick, J.T.A. (2000) Imperfect assessment and limited information preclude optimal strategies in male-male fights in the orb-weaving spider Metellina mengei, Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 267(1440), pp. 273-279. Briffa, M. (2008) Decisions during fights in the house cricket, Acheta domesticus: Mutual or self assessment of energy, weapons and size?, Animal Behaviour, 75(3), pp. 1053-1062. Elias, D.O., Kasumovic, M.M., Punzalan, D., Andrade, M.C.B. and Mason, A.C. (2008) Assessment during aggressive contests between male jumping spiders, Animal Behaviour, 76(3), pp. 901-910. Fawcett, T.W. and Johnstone, R.A. (2010) Learning your own strength: Winner and loser effects should change with age and experience, Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 277(1686), pp. 1427-1434. Kasumovic, M.M., Elias, D.O., Sivalinghem, S., Mason, A.C. and Andrade, M.C.B. (2010) Examination of prior contest experience and the retention of winner and loser effects, Behavioral Ecology, 21(2), pp. 404-409. Morrell, L.J., Backwell, P.R.Y. and Metcalfe, N.B. (2005) Fighting in fiddler crabs Uca mjoebergi: What determines duration?, Animal Behaviour, 70(3), pp. 653-662. Prenter, J., Elwood, R.W. and Taylor, P.W. (2006a) Self-assessment by males during energetically costly contests over precopula females in amphipods, Animal Behaviour, 72(4), pp. 861-868. Prenter, J., Elwood, R.W. and Taylor, P.W. (2006b) Self-assessment by males during energetically costly contests over precopula females in amphipods, Animal Behaviour, 72(4), pp. 861-868. Taylor, P.W. and Elwood, R.W. (2003) The mismeasure of animal contests, Animal Behaviour, 65(6), pp. 1195-1202.

Globalisation and trade liberalization are worldwide phenomena that hav

Globalisation and trade liberalization are worldwide phenomena that have significantly changed Australia's trading relationships over the past decades. Globalisation and trade liberalization are worldwide phenomena that have significantly changed Australia's trading relationships over the past decades. Traditionally , Australia is a highly protected country against foreign competitors by using methods of protection such as tariffs and subsidies. However, since the 1980s Aust and many of the world economies has faced substantial reductions in trade barriers in order to promote what we known as Free Trade. Australia gradually reduced its trade protections, which can be any actions by national governments that will give an artificial competitive advantage to domestic producers over foreign producers. The changes to the free trade and protection policies has caused a significant improvement in the number of Free Trade Agreements (FTA) and a shift in Australia's trading relationships, which in turn has affected firms, individuals and also the Australian government. Since the mid 1970s, Australia has started to reduce protection by cutting tariffs, tax on imports, from average tariff levels of 23% in 1968 -69 to 4.4% in 2001. Traditionally, the highly subsidized industries (any form of support to keep domestic industries competitive) are sectors such as motor vehicle and textile, clothing and footwear (TCF). These industries have a fixed low tariff level between 2000 - 2005, to allow them to restructure and become more internationally competitive. Australia's tariff reduction levels have gone way below those required by international trade agreement such as WTO agreement and the APEC. Australia in the last ... ...d this would affect the voting ratios for the government as benefits of tariff reductions and free trade promotion would take a much longer period to arrive. Through the significant change of Australia's protection levels and the promotion of free trade, it is obvious that Australia's major trading partners is shifting from European countries to the high trading potential Asian countries. This is due the enormous demand in many developing countries, which results in a greater market for export. This has brought a positive impact on Australia's primary base industries such as minerals, therefore increasing the amount of export revenue for Australia. Free trade and the reduction in Protection result in the better performance of export as it generates Australia's economic growth, which in turn benefits firms, individuals and the government sectors overall.

Blood Pressure & Pulse during exercise Essay

Introduction: The blood pressure of a person is the force exerted by the blood on the walls of the arteries per unit area. The blood pressure unit is mmHg. The blood pressure of an individual is expressed in two ways, the systolic (due to the contraction of the ventricle) and diastolic, (due to the relaxation of the ventricle). The normal blood pressure of an individual is 120/80 (systolic / diastolic). Various factors can alter a person’s blood pressure; this includes exercise, smoking, stress, diseases and age. Materials and Methods: Stepping stool, timer, blood pressure measurement kit (Sphygmomanometer and a stethoscope) and students in-groups of four. In each group one student acted as a patient, while the other acted as a physician or nurse. Another acted as the timekeeper. The fourth student acted as the data recorder. The base-line pulse rate and blood pressure of the patient (student) were obtained. The patient was asked to perform stepping – up and down the stool 30 X within 5 minutes. After the stepping stool exercise, the patient’s blood pressure and pulse rate were immediately obtained again. After resting for 2 minutes, the measurements were repeated and also after 5 minutes. In order to obtain more data each student in the group acted as a patient and the measurements were repeated.

Eugenics & The Non-Therapeutic Sterilization of Incapable Ad essays

Eugenics & The Non-Therapeutic Sterilization of Incapable Ad essays Eugenics Eugenics is the science of improving the population by controlled breeding for desirable inherited characteristics. The horrible effects of Canadas eugenics movement, which spanned from 1885 to 1945, still resound through Canadian courts to this day. The eugenics movement spawned the horrific practices of government-enforced, involuntary sterilization programs such as the Sexual Sterilization Act passed in Alberta. Alberta was one of two provinces (B.C. 1933), to pass such legislation. The Sexual Sterilization Act, which was introduced in 1928 in Alberta, was based on the principals of eugenics, meaning "good birth". In the 1920s, it was believed that if only those people with desirable genes bore children, the human race as a whole would improve. The Alberta government and pressure groups including the United Farm Women of Alberta sought to limit the reproduction of many kinds of people, including visible minorities and the "feeble-minded". They associated much of the rise of crime, poverty, alcoholism and other vices to these people. Regardless of the reasons in support of sterilization at the time, restricting an individuals ability to reproduce is viewed as a violation of their constitutional rights. It is for this reason that the province repealed its Sexual Sterilization Act in 1972. Leilani Muir was a victim of Albertas former sterilization laws. Her case was brought before Alberta Provincial Court in 1996. Her case set a precedent for many future settlements awarded to other sexual sterilization victims. In 1999, the Alberta government offered an $82-million compensation package and apology to those who were forcibly sterilized under the Sexual Sterilization Act of 1928. Under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, we are guaranteed equal protection under the law (S.7). This right has come under severe scruti...

Instagram Influencer Marketing How to Get it Right in 6 Steps

Instagram Influencer Marketing How to Get it Right in 6 Steps Why tell the world how wonderful you are when you can get someone else to do it and make 1000 times the impact? Big name department stores have fashion bloggers on their payroll because their target market is influenced by the say-so of the people they engage with daily. They’ve recognized that people’s purchasing behaviour has changed. A  Nielsen survey  found that only 33 percent of people trust advertisements while 90 percent trust peer recommendations. And Instagram is where peer recommendations are happening more than ever. Instagram influencer marketing  may just be the golden ticket that provides your business with access to a huge pool of potential customers. If you follow the right strategy†¦ Instagram Influencer Marketing: How to Get it Right in 6 Steps by @acquireconvert via @ Table of Contents: Whats In This Post? What Exactly is an Instagram Influencer? How Powerful is Instagram Influencer Marketing? STEP 1: Define What Success Looks Like to You STEP 2: Identify the Right Influencers to Partner With STEP 3: Refine Your Pitch to Influencers and Increase the Chances of a Response STEP 4: Design and Optimize Your Influencer Campaigns STEP 5: Follow Best Practices and Maintain Transparency STEP 6: Track the Success of Your Strategy How Much Does It Cost? Who Should Be Using Influencer Marketing? A Problem With Instagram Influencers (And a Solution) What You’re About to Discover†¦ When the retailer Lord Taylor  enlisted the help of 50 influential names in fashion on Instagram, its strategy involved all influencers wearing the same dress which promptly sold out by the end of the weekend. How can you start getting a piece of the action? Instagram influencer marketing is more challenging than most marketing strategies on the platform especially if you’re just starting out. Everyone  wants a ‘piece’ of the influencers that’s why they’re influencers! Your efforts will fall flat on their face without a strong guiding strategy. But the potential rewards are huge. You’re probably not ready just yet to ask Prince Harry and Meghan to endorse your brand.  But that’s OK. Any size business can use influencer marketing. The main question is: how do you get the right influencers sitting up and taking notice? That’s what I’ll take you through here. As well as clearing up a myth or two about influencers, you’ll learn why Instagram influencer marketing is so powerful, what it costs, and what types of businesses it’s for. Most importantly, I’ll take you through a series of six practical steps covering: How to create an influencer marketing strategy that can be measured Who you should be trying to partner with How to approach influencers and actually get a response The types of influencer campaign you can run: Best practices transparency and disclosure Tracking how your campaigns are going Before we get into the practicalities of your strategy, let’s understand a little more about Instagram influencer marketing and why it’s so powerful†¦ Make @instagram influencer marketing easier with these free templates What Exactly is an Instagram Influencer? When you think ‘influencer’, do you think ‘celebrity’? If so, you’re only partly  right; celebrities ARE often influencers but not all influencers are A-listers. In fact, most aren’t like this chap: So let’s not restrict ourselves to Ronaldo, Beyoncà ©, Taylor Swift, and Jay-Z. As well as celebrity A-listers or ‘top tier’ Instagram influencers, you have: ‘Macro’ influencers  - those who have built up a very large Instagram following in their specialist area (generally 10,000 plus) ‘Micro’ influencers  - those who have built up a smaller but highly engaged Instagram following (generally 1000 - 10,000 or more) For our purposes, we’ll focus less on the celebrities and more on the two other types of influencers - because we want results, not pipe dreams. Only 3 percent of buyers are influenced by celebrity endorsements in their purchase decisions, according to a 2016 Collective Bias survey. And, according to Google, The Top 25 YouTube stars attract 12 times more comments than traditional celebrities. We’ll get into who exactly who you should be targeting in STEP TWO  below. For now, it’s enough to recognize that Instagram influencers have significant networks of followers and enough ‘pull’ to be able to sway opinion amongst followers. By engaging these influencers in marketing initiatives, we tap into their ability to build favorable sentiment towards us and our products. Curious to know what #Instagram influencer marketing is all about? Check out this guide from... How Powerful is Instagram Influencer Marketing? Ever since brands started hiring celebrities to wear their trainers, carry their designer bags, or endorse their sports gear, the power of influencer marketing has been no secret. It’s why you see David Beckham collections in HM stores. That it has come to Instagram should be no surprise. Everyone from YouTubers to Tweeters, Facebookers and Snapchatters have been dabbling in it in recent years. In 2016 for instance, Twitter reported  that: Nearly 40% of users claim to have made a purchase as a direct result of a tweet from an influencer Elsewhere, the Collective Bias survey mentioned earlier reported that: 70% of millennial consumers are influenced by recommendations from their peers in buying decisions Instagram as a marketing vehicle has been on a sharp upward trajectory over the past few years. As a result, Hashoff reports  that 91.9 percent of 150,000 influencers chose Instagram as their number one platform. With 800 million active users, the potential is obvious. But standing out from the crowd has become ever-more challenging when all the smartest kids on the block are marketing the hell out of Instagram. Instagram influencer marketing can set you apart. Let’s go†¦ Recommended Reading: The Best Guide on How to Use Instagram For Business STEP 1: Define What Success Looks Like to You All the best marketing strategies are measurable. Set out with some expectations, goals, and KPIs in mind. This will help you decide not only which influencers you partner with (STEP 2) but what type of campaigns you run (STEP 4) and what you will end up tracking (STEP 6). Here are a few of the most important questions to consider when working out your goals: Do you want to increase brand awareness in general? Do you want to simply gain more followers and more engagement? Do you hope to expand your reach? By how much? Are you hoping to increase click-throughs (store traffic)? Is the main aim to increase sales of a particular product (like the Lord Taylor dresses)? Do you hope to raise revenue in general? If so, by how much? Are you looking to increase conversion rates? Do you want to raise awareness about a particular event? Do you need help making a splash with a startup launch? Is the main aim to find brand reps to work with on an ongoing basis? If there's a way to add a fun illustration to represent each goal, that'd be cool if time allows. Identify precisely what you want to achieve and then how you’re going to measure success. This will help decide the types of engagement levels, reach, and traffic you need from your partner influencers, as well as how much you’re willing to spend. Here's how to decide the engagement levels, reach, and traffic you need from your Instagram... . STEP 2: Identify the Right Influencers to Partner With If there’s one golden rule for Instagram influencer marketing it would be this: make sure you find the right influencers. It’s easier said than done: two-thirds of marketers consider finding relevant influencers their biggest challenge, according to a joint study  by Tapinfluence and Altimeter. It’s made easier by a wide range of tools  specifically designed to identify influencers that suit you. Find out more about these tools here  but let’s assume that you’re trying to work it out without their help. Where do you start? What should you be looking for in an influencer? Firstly, let’s return to the three basic types of Influencers: Celebrity influencers ‘Macro’ influencers ‘Micro’ influencersHere are three different types of Instagram influencers to knowWhy Focus on Micro-Influencers? The vast majority of small businesses should focus on micro influencers and perhaps a few macro influencers. Most can forget about celebrities. If you’re a food brand, you might think ‘Jamie Oliver’ at first but you need to get more realistic. Besides, there’s plenty of evidence to suggest that aiming smaller is more effective. The Collective Bias survey referred to above found that 30 percent of consumers were more likely to buy a product recommended by a non-celebrity blogger  whereas only 3 percent were influenced by celebrity endorsements. (Note: this applies to influencer marketing in general rather than just Instagram.) People often find it hard to relate to celebrities. While they may dream to be like Beyoncà © or LeBron James, it’s a fantasy world. And always at the back of the mind is the question: â€Å"Are they just saying that because they’re getting paid for it?† The opinions of people a little closer to home are more trusted  and believable. The best Instagram influencers may be experts in their field; they are influencers because they’ve earned it and risen through their niche; but they’re mainly people like you and me rather than big-name actresses, singers, or sports personalities (i.e. from another niche or even another planet!) There are exceptions but the general rule is to find influencers who are prominent in the specific niche that you play in. Their audience is the same as yours so it helps you get really targeted and in front of the right people. For instance, if you sell women’s shoes, it makes sense to target micro-influencers in ‘women’s shoes’ rather than ‘women’s accessories’ or ‘women’s fashion’. Some micro-influencers may not even consider themselves as an ‘influencer’ until you approach them - even better! They’re more likely to be authentic and won’t have an Instagram feed full of product endorsements; so their support of you will seem more selective. Ten posts from well-selected micro influencers will normally be less of a risk and may be more effective than one from a celebrity. Ten posts from well-selected micro influencers will normally be less of a risk and may be more...Their recommendations appear like authentic recommendations from friends. This encourages more engagement between the influencer and the audience - which is better for you. With limited budgets, multiple posts from micro-influencers are also good for increasing the amount of content out there about you and your brand - especially if content is simultaneously published by several influencers. Suddenly this has the effect of making your brand look ‘bigger’ and more ‘buzzy’. Recommended Reading: Everything You Need to Know About Instagram Analytics to Smash Your Goal The all-important metrics to look out for OK, so you’ve decided on targeting micro influencers. What metrics should you be looking at? The wrong influencers can be expensive mistakes, remember. So invest time into the prep work. Here are the most common metrics to pay attention to: Industry niche - usually there must be an intersection between their niche and yours. If you specialize in yellow hats, make sure they have a strong connection to yellow hats too. Engagement levels of posts - are followers deeply engaged with posts - liking, commenting and sharing? (At least 2-4% and ideally higher). Use tools like Iconosquare,  Tapinfluence  or  Sprout Social  to help calculate engagement levels. Follower numbers - this has become less important than engagement as Instagram’s algorithm has changed. Follower quality -  does the influencer’s audience reflect the quality of potential customer you’re looking for? A good example of follower makeup/quality trumping everything was when HP Australia  partnered with 20 Instagram fashion influencers  to promote the HP Spectre laptop. While they play in very different niches, HP wanted to reach a young audience that was well-aligned to the fashion influencers. The results? 62,943 direct engagements with campaign content and almost a million consumers reached. Traffic - how much web traffic does the influencer generate? Post costs - how much do they charge for posts? Does it realistically fit within your budget? You probably can’t afford what Kim Kardashian West charged for this one†¦ Location - is the influencer’s location important to you and your followers or for marketing your products/services? Are you going global or hoping for more of a local uptake? In general, go for balance. Raw follower numbers are a poor yardstick to use on their own because the temptation to go for huge follower numbers may ignore a lack of engagement. Celebrities may have hundreds of thousands or even millions of followers but low engagement levels.  A survey by Markerley  of over 800,000 Instagram accounts with over 1000 followers found that: Influencers with 10-100,000 followers were most effective at providing a balance of engagement and reach; Influencers with fewer than 1000 followers get their audiences to like their posts 8% of the time and comment 0.5% of the time Instagram influencers with 10 million+ followers get their audiences to like their posts 1.6% of the time and comment 0.04% of the time. In most cases, target micro influencers who already have a strong affinity with your niche and who, preferably, are experts in the field. And while lower follower numbers may limit your potential audience initially, it may help your case for building a strong influencer partnership. You should also tailor this advice towards your target market. According to Twitter, youngsters 13-25 lean heavily towards social media influencers while people over 45 tend to prefer established, household names. Beware!   It’s not unknown for some unscrupulous influencers to buy followers to boost their appeal to businesses. Some may even artificially boost engagement rates with automated comments. Do your homework on influencers and avoid those with questionable followings or repetitive or bland comments. If something seems fishy, it probably is! Final tip:   Don’t limit yourself to human influencers! Get creative: pet care companies often partner with ‘influencer animals’: cute dogs, cats (or raccoons) with large followings (1.5 million) for instance: STEP 3: Refine Your Pitch to Influencers and Increase the Chances of a Response So you’ve boiled it down to a shortlist of influencers you want to target. What next? Before we look at how you contact them, let’s get into the mind of an influencer a little. Why are they doing what they do and how can you demonstrate the right approach to working with them? Are there any approaches that will increase the likelihood of successful outcomes? Influencers won’t necessarily agree to work with you just because you pay them. In fact, you want your influencer to be choosy because it means they’re authentic and interested in alignment and quality, above all. So here are some basic ground-rules to follow: Ensure that you make it easy for your influencer to understand how your brand aligns with their own values: Crowdtap found  that influencers value work that is aligned to their own; create an easy-to-read one-page overview of what your brand represents. Here’s how Fast Company does it on their website: Show respect to influencers you approach - as you would any potential publisher of your content: this was considered vital to influencers interviewed by Crowdtap in their survey. Guarantee the freedom for influencers to express themselves creatively - don’t try to dictate terms to them; it’s their audience and they know their followers better than you. If you’ve selected the right influencer and are well-aligned, trust them to talk to their target audience in a way that will get your own message across and produce win-wins. Keep it authentic - trying to fake it with influencers won’t work. They’ll see through you - and they won’t jeopardize their relationship with their followers for you! â€Å"...when working with influencers, brands have to let go and allow influencers control of the narrative to preserve the authenticity of what is being communicated.† Priyanka Dayal, content marketing manager at Centaur Media PLC. Work directly with the influencer rather than going through a marketing agency- they just prefer it  that way. Tracking Down Your Influencers Now- how do you actually find and get in contact with your influencers?   Fortunately, the Instagram search engine makes it relatively easy to search for influencers. Here’s what you do: Search for hashtags that relate to your industry. For a men’s shoe store you might look for #mensleathershoes: Identify more hashtags by clicking on posts in the search results and exploring what other hashtags they use. Try each of these hashtags - they needn’t all contain the word â€Å"shoes†. They can be closely related to shoes. The posts with the most engagement are listed at the top - these are usually from influential Instagrammers: Examine the accounts of leading posts with these hashtags. Check for content, frequency of posting, engagement levels, follower quality, etc. Really do your homework before identifying them as candidates. Have you found a potential influencer? Beyond this, there are several tools that you can use to make life easier with finding and contacting influencers. These are covered in some detail here. Recommended Reading: Instagram Marketing Strategy: How to Build One the Best Way Outreach to Your Influencers Understand that you’ll be most effective if you look to build a relationship  with your influencer. One direct message is not going to cut it. Use your communication and relationship-building skills rather than treating it as a single ‘transaction’. Assuming you don’t use one of the influencer search engines included in the tools mentioned above, expect to contact your influencers multiple times by direct messaging (DM) or email. For DM-ing: tap  Ã‚  in the top right of FEED. From there, you can  send messages and manage received messages. For email, you can ask for an email address, if it is not listed on their bio. Note that DM is not available on the browser versions of Instagram. You’ll need to download the desktop app to use on a PC; it is however included in the mobile versions of the app. You’re ready to start your outreach to your influencers: 1. A very brief initial introduction message  to test the water and to pop your head up on their radar. Make sure you’re knowledgeable about your influencer and sincere. You don’t want it to sound like spam! Something like this: â€Å"Hi Melanie! This is Jon from XYZ here. Your Instagram content is pretty inspiring and aligns closely with what we’re trying to do. I see quite a few similarities with your values and ours - particularly your XXXX and your XXXX. We’d love to work with you. If you’re interested in making that possible, let me know and I’ll call at your convenience.† 2. Follow up according to their response: if NO - thank them and point out that the door is always open. If YES - email or call to discuss details (what you’re trying to achieve, what your budget is, etc.) 3. Even after you have run the campaign, stay in in contact with your influencer  and share their content if it’s of use to your followers. Who knows when you can hook up again? STEP 4: Design and Optimize Your Influencer Campaigns There are many creative ways to set up campaigns once influencers agree to work with you. Start to collaborate to create more brand awareness, promote certain products or services, or achieve other goals defined in STEP ONE. Before you get going, you might like to create and share a mood board  with your influencer, as a guideline for the content of posts. This can help the creative direction of posts - though typically, remember, influencers like their own freedom of expression. So play this one by ear. Some of the most common types of influencer campaigns are: Sponsored Posts This is when influencers provide exposure for particular products or services by creating a post that you pay them for. Contests Give your Instagram contest a boost by getting an influencer to either run it on their account or to promote it to their followers: Branded Content Work with your influencer to weave your brand name or products into their content in informative or entertaining ways that engage their followers- and get your message across: Reviews A thorough review of your product or service can educate and inform your target audience, building trust through a peer recommendation from an influencer. Brand Rep Programs Brand reps are influencers that you send free products to; enthusiasts in your field who may appreciate the quality of your products and communicate it to their followers†¦ Influencer Takeovers Some influencers will agree to take over your Instagram account for a day. This will be appreciated by your existing followers and should attract the influencer’s followers to your account, expanding your potential following: Campaign Optimization Tips Create branded hashtags:  For each campaign, decide on a hashtag that suits your products or brand. Then all influencers can use this hashtag, helping to build identity and consistency for your brand. Get promoting yourself:  Just because you have an influencer in charge of posting content for a while doesn’t mean you can sit back and watch the sales roll in. Do your own promotional stuff too.

Using Geography to Survive the Zombie Apocalypse Research Paper

Using Geography to Survive the Zombie Apocalypse - Research Paper Example He argues that geography skills are important during this time because it will help people analyze the push and pull factors of migration, or movement, that can help them survive. Push factors refer to elements that make people want to leave the place, while pull factors are factors that make people want to go that place. Hunter (2013) mentioned that some of the pull factors of migration are cities that are connected to other cities, access to resources, such as food, water, reliable shelter, weapons, and transportation, and safety levels. Finally, he explained three steps that can help people analyze their options: (1) identifying points of analysis; (2) finding connections among communities or cities; and (3) finding patterns of movement over these connections. I agree with Hunter (2013) that geography skills will help people survive during the Zombie Apocalypse because they will help examine the movements of people, resources, ideas, and other factors that can help them decide whe re to go, in case it happens. If Zombie Apocalypse happens, the five pull factors that are critical to my movement are: (1) access to basic resources, including weapons and transportation, (2) access to people with ideas on how to survive during these times, (3) existence of safe havens, (4) connection among cities through transportation systems, and (5) availability of open, flat lands. I find access to basic resources important, particularly food, water, shelter, and medicine, because they are critical to survival.

External influences on career decision Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3750 words

External influences on career decision - Essay Example A few years down the line, the child starts asking the same question, â€Å"When I grow up what will I be?† like the words of the famed song â€Å"Que Sera Sera.† Today a child sees a toy engine and wants to be an engine driver, tomorrow he sees the smart firemen on their shiny fire engines and he wants to be a firefighter, the next day he sees Superman on TV and wants to be him. Even when the child visits a doctor he immediately wants to be him. Every day he wants to be something new, something wonderful, something adventurous. Gradually, as he grows into a teenager, he wants to do something great like to become an astronaut flying into space, a scientist making the most important inventions, and so on. Then the time comes when he has to actually make the decision. What is he going to do? It is a very difficult question. Very few have an answer ready, though one has mulled over it a million times in the past. Let us consider these lucky ones or smart ones who have alre ady decided what they are going to do with their lives. Who are they? We can call them the lucky ones because they have recognized their innate ability, their talent. These are the ones who have been born with some extraordinary skill and have been able to identify this talent or skill either on their own or with the help of others. It could be a great voice, ear for music, a talent for dancing, sporting, mimicry, acting, painting, or sculpting. They are the geniuses. They know what they want to do with their life and that becomes their career choice, or more accurately their passion in life. This is more of an internal influence on career choice. There is no confusion. He simply aims to reach the pinnacle of excellence in that field. These are the extremely talented people who are lucky to have identified their talents. Hence, we can say that they fall into the category of the chosen few. The next category of people being those who are less talented but extremely interested in spec ific fields – these fields mostly include the arts like music, painting, etc., or any specific sporting activity. These people are passionate about their interests and don’t mind working really hard to groom themselves to acquire success in their field of interest. This again is an internal influence. So, an internal influence can be defined as â€Å"originating within the individual† and the main motivation here is individual satisfaction† (Duffy and Dik, 2009). External influences are those â€Å"which originate outside the individual† and the main motive is to satisfy this â€Å"external factor or criteria.† There are too many external influences on an individual’s career choice. It is not possible to list all of them. But in this research we will make an attempt to study the major ones. First of all the external influences are of two kinds – those that motivate and those that restrict. Motivating factors could be the people around you, your needs, and your inspirations. Constraints could be your belonging to a certain race or gender, living in a certain geographic location, the resources at your disposal (financial or otherwise). But, as we can see, though most of them are not within ones personal control, all these factors do play a major role in the choice of career. Family Most studies show that the family and the immediate social environment play a major role