Wednesday, October 30, 2019

Daily Reading Responses5 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Daily Reading Responses5 - Essay Example Family values of these two backgrounds differ greatly. However, with this knowledge at hand, do social classes of gay individuals vary? A class difference is a major factor that contributes to African American lesbian relationship’s conflicts and break-ups (Hall & Greene 65). Women couples who are from the same social background are found to understand each other better, live with each other in peace and have healthy relationships as compared to those from different backgrounds as it is seen that behaviors of these two are completely different as they do not share same values and perspectives. These conflicts and break-ups however can be prevented if couples from different social backgrounds agree to bridge the existing gap between them by being open with each other, not comparing each other as to who is more superior than the other in terms of education and amount of income and making changes that will improve the

Monday, October 28, 2019

Gender and Stereotype in Sitcom Essay Example for Free

Gender and Stereotype in Sitcom Essay In both sitcoms, Black Books and Men Behaving Badly, comedy is generated and dependant on the representation of stereotypes shown through characters. Some follow stereotypes and others dont, but throughout both sitcoms, this is where the humor comes from, and this is extremely visible in the two episodes chosen for each sitcom. In Men Behaving Badly, the two main characters, Tong and Gary have fixed views on gender and couldnt be closer to the modern day stereotype of a youngish male. They are two men who are lager swilling and football crazy, and even though both in their thirties, adult life hasnt dawned on either just quite yet. The mise en scene of their flat is very boyish and the pub is dark and dingy. They never change throughout the sitcom and seem extremely content with their laidback lifestyles. Much of the humor is generated from this because the middle aged male audience can relate, and wish they were in that situation. The audience will understand their jokes and think of the times when they were probably the same. This behavior also allows them to get away with much more, for example in this episode neither gets back from the pub until the early hours and Gary misses Dorothy specially prepared romantic meal but avoids confrontation. They also both have female companions. Dorothy is Garys on/off girlfriend who is always extremely forgiving, and could be considered as the female stereotype in many aspects. She says she wants a proper relationship, but knows its unlikely with Gary. She cooks him romantic meals and is always working hard to please him. Deborah on the other hand is not in a relationship with Tony, but knows she can use him for a bit of fun whenever she likes. An example is at the end of this episode when she tells him to wait outside for her naked in the shed in the early hours of the morning, for the second time in a matter of weeks. Tony obviously falls for it, with him being the sex crazed stereotypical man that he is portrayed to be, and comedy is generated from this. Deborah on the other hand, is the stereotype of the attractive and sophisticated girl upstairs, the one who is definitely most likely to take advantage of men. Women can relate to these characters, with the struggles they go through and the laughs they have mocking their men, and this is how the audience is formed. The whole audience is able to relate through the portrayal of stereotype in this sitcom, and humor is generated along the way. Men will find the parts played by the men funny, and the women watching vice versa, but it can be viewed by all in confidence that laughs will arise from any episode. The women mock the men, but the men get their own back with their loutish, get away with anything attitudes, and by the end everyone is satisfied. On the other hand, in Black Books, most of the comedy is generated due to characters deviating from their stereotypes. Bernard is the only main character who does not. He is a stereotypical Irishman, who is an incredibly easygoing, drinking smoking lout, whose witty humor generates from him ordering about his only employee and best friend Manny. Manny is the other half to this relationship, and the much more the feminine personality wise. His appearance is of a hippy, and for much of the time he is acting as the forgiving wife to Bernards demanding husband role. Bernard tells Manny that he hasnt washed his things, and Manny replies politely, I want a herb garden. In their relationship though they both conform to stereotypes, Bernard of the bad husband and Manny of the forgiving wife. Bernard is forever ungrateful for Mannys effort for example he says after Manny has spent time cooking a meal, What kind of filth is spewing out of your hatch tonight?. Manny is used to it though, and just ignores his petulance. Bernard also mocks Mannys female ways in saying that, Ill wait until you put your teeth in dear, before speaking to Manny. In the episode watched, much of the comedy derives from this repeated bickering between the two, and contrasting stereotypes. They both eventually go and see a psychiatrist who almost changes roles a round, but eventually, as with every episode, the equilibrium is restored by the end, and Mannys subordinate role is re-established. The third main character in the sitcom is Fran, and she is much the glue between the two males as she can relate to both ways of life and confront their problems. She derives greatly from her stereotype though, and acts as an extremely masculine female, smoking and drinking, and is told by her friend she smells. In this particular episode Fran even tries to make a menz to her ways by stopping drinking and smoking and taking up yoga, but this vision is not long lived. When her friend Eva and she are together the mise en scene is bright, light and modern, but by the end of the episode she is back as being considered one of the boys in the way. She returns to the dingy bookshop and has the last line in this particular episode, a belch, which sums her up in a way. By the end of the episode the unity of the group is definitely restored, and so are all normal ways of living. Manny and Frans deviations from stereotype are back in place and Bernards was never in doubt. This particular sitcom provides a different type of comedy to Men Behaving Badly; in that stereotypes do not have to be adhered to in order to produce comedy. A different type of humor is created, whereby the audience is laughing at the characters rather than relating to them. All in all, the humor created by both situation comedies comes back to the portrayal of stereotype, or deviation of it by characters, but Black Books just shows a different edge to how it can depend on the stereotypical representation of gender in situation comedies.

Saturday, October 26, 2019

Essay --

Society’s role in criminalizing statutory rape cases play a big part on how people look at the different cases. In society everyone expects for a younger girl to be with an older guy, so people may not see a priority in statutory rape laws. â€Å"Considering that it is customary for women to date and marry slightly older men† (M.W., 1998). Since it is not abnormal for younger girls and older guys to be together most people do not see an age gap of about three years that big of a deal. But if these people do not report a case of statutory rape then they are technically endangering a minor. Males in society do not see male statutory rape victims as victims. These men look at it as a pat on the back to the young boys who were sexually active with adult women. The men also make comments saying that they wish they could have been in that position when they were young. Some people in today’s society do not understand the priority of really enforcing statutory rape case s unless there is a huge age difference or the victim was a young girl instead of a boy. The media has a big part in which cases will be recognized. The media tends to show female victims and adult male offenders more than they would male victims and adult female offenders. Female offenders should be broadcasted just as much as the men and should not get privileges just because they are women. Statutory rape laws and child marriage laws greatly clash. According to Cocca, â€Å"of all brides in 1970, 13% were under 18; in 1980, 8.2%, and in 1990 3.7%. Of all grooms 1970 2.1 were under 18; in 1980 1.3% and in 1990 0.6† (Cocca, 2004). Yes over time the percentage of adults and minors getting married has dwindled, but it was not right to go along with in the first place. In some states... ...sibility of being parents when they cannot even legally say yes to sex. Statutory rape laws are far from perfect. Statutory rape laws are discriminating towards boys and biased towards girls. No law should be gender specific especially one that consists of people who are endangering minors. These laws have discriminated boys for over 150 years. The law should be fair to both genders and give boys the voice the need in the cases. Over the years statutory rape cases have gone underreported, mainly because people do not witness the cases themselves. Most of the lost cases involve minor males and older females. Even though some cases have been reported they do not get as much publicity as the cases dealing with young girls and adult men. Boys should get the same amount of protection under the statutory rape laws as girls do; the young men are victims just as girls are.

Thursday, October 24, 2019

Mother to Son

Langston Hughes’s poem entitled â€Å"mother to Son† is a poem of nurturing, love, and discussion of thoughts. The mother as the narrator of the poem shares her thoughts about life. She said that life is not an easy journey.   She relates her life to a stair, which was not a crystal or a beautiful and genuine gem. As what she is trying to tell her son, life is a never-ending journey with full of mysteries, fear, struggle, pain, success, and meaning. The mother saw her child giving up on something so she told him not to think about the negativities for it was the challenge of living. From the beginning of the poem, the narrator already took place as the authority and judge. As she stated her case, she already concluded many things around her journey and life. However, every insight that was imposed as personal justifications by using the words â€Å"for me†. It means that the conclusion is an opinionated discussion. Everything is logical but deep. The narrator reaches her hand towards her son as she wanted him to become a better person like the way she treated her life during her childhood until she became an adult. Her transition from being a soft-spoken mother to an imposer and going back to a nurturing and loving mother is a also a significant idea within the poem as she used the word â€Å"son† in the beginning, â€Å"boy† in the middle and â€Å"honey† in the latter part of the poem. The word â€Å"son† showed her literal relationship with her child. As she used the word â€Å"boy† it shows that the narrator became an imposer, but as she went used the word â€Å"honey† she imposed a more intimate relationship with her child – her love, nurturance and acceptance of her son’s weakness. Through this, the relationship of mother and child became an educator and student relationship but soon goes to a more intimate relationship that moulds the mother and the son to be intact. In terms of the symbolisms, elements, and images within the poem, the author used the images that can be seen within the house such as carpet, stair, and floor. It shows the true essence of motherhood because literally or logically speaking, mothers are made to nurture the home and the family. By looking or analyzing the images alone, it can be seen that narrator is a woman or a mother to be specific because it embossed the responsibilities of a woman within the house. There are also ironies within the poem such as dark and light, climbin’ and landin’, and fall and climb. The author showed a balance justification of strength and weakness towards the mother’s personality showing that she was not a perfect person, but trying to become a better one for her child. The author succeeds his attempt to incorporate both negative and positive aspects of life, which is a sensitive issue especially if a child is part of the situation. His attack was simple but complete. He stated everything a mother and child should know within a short poem that distinguishes him to become an effective moralist poet. The passage â€Å"Life for me ain't been no crystal stair† was the main thesis of the poem. At the end of the narrator’s discussion, she showed in what she is trying to say about life by restating the main argument of the poem. This attack shows her responsibility to give her child a goof faith or belief how life is going to be as he went to his own journey. She pushed her son to climb the stair without thinking of the negative aspects of life but always on the positive side of everything because negativities are part of life but it was not the only reason for living. Work Cited Hughes, Langston. Mother to Son. (n.d.) 5 December 2007.

Wednesday, October 23, 2019

Martin Luther King Essay

America was experiencing a situation of chaos in the 1950s when the African Americans and the people of color began to rise for the fight of equality and freedom, and racial differences were realized. Initially, blacks and colored were widely discriminated. There were separate restaurants for white and the colored; separate educational institutes and likewise, separate hotels and motels and other public places. Blacks were not given employments on the basis of race and color and the ratio of black working men was almost negligible. They were not even given the right to vote. Cases of police violation on blacks were tremendous. As a result, gradual frustration began bottling up in the blacks. Finally, much to their relief, a decision by the Supreme Court, Brown v. Board of Education was issued in favor of the blacks. This decision given on May 17, 1954, recognized the discrimination against blacks in the field of education and declared that separate educational institutes resulted in unequal educational opportunities. Thus, it ordered all states to combine the blacks and white into same classrooms. However, the country, particularly the Southern part of America, was reluctant in carrying out the court order and hence, many years passed but the order failed to be put into operation. That is when Martin Luther King Jr. appeared. King had been working for equality and justice of blacks for a long time and was one of the prominent leaders in this movement. In order to spring the court order into action and protest for freedom, King along with other more than 250,000 individuals led a march to Lincoln Memorial on August 28, 1963, also known as the March on Washington. This rally included many other eminent characters such as actor Sidney Poitier, and labor leader Walter Reuther. All these influential heads addressed the audience and expressed their feelings individually; however, it was King’s speech; ‘I have a dream’ marked a landmark in civil right movement history. (Wikipedia, 1) About Martin Luther King Jr Born in January 15, 1929, in Atlanta, Martin Luther King was the son of Reverend Martin Luther King, Sr. and a brother of two siblings. He earned his Bachelors degree in 1948 in sociology and then completed his Bachelor of Divinity degree afterwards. In 1955, he did his PhD from Boston University. Afterwards, he became a Baptist minister but then turned his focus towards the civil rights movement and fighting for the freedom of the blacks. He contributed to the establishment of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and also led the Montgomery Bus Boycott. He was the orator of the memorial speech ‘I have a dream’. He received Nobel Peace Price for his efforts to eliminate racial discriminations. He was also declared â€Å"Man of the Year† by Times Magazine. King was shot dead on April 4, 1968 in Lorraine Motel in Memphis. Martin Luther King Jr. Day was later established in his memory. (Wikipedia,1) Analysis of the Speech Style There is an element of emotional appeal in King’s speech. Rich in vocabulary, it is drenched in symbolism. The speech begins with an attention-grasping phrase and positive connotations. In fact, in the entire speech, whenever the future of blacks is mentioned, King has used strong and healthy words reflecting hope and an optimist approach. The first half of the speech; however, exposes the horrible reality the blacks faced. It narrates the story of thousands of blacks who were divested of their basic rights because of their coloring. King has made use of several phrases to describe the gloomy life of African Americans such as â€Å"the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. † (Alvarez, 339) King’s background as Baptist also came useful in his speech as it reminds many of the blacks’ Baptist sermons. It contains references from Bible; for example, his sentence, â€Å"It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity’ in the second stanza indicates to Psalm 30:5. Other allusions are found from Amos 5:24 and Isaiah 40:4. † (Wikipedia, 1) At the same time, the speech also reflects the Abraham Lincoln’s style in his Gettysburg Address when he uses the term, ‘Five score years ago’. (Public broadcasting service,1) Here again, the purpose of alluding to Lincoln in the commencing lines of speech is symbolic that is, he refers back to a leader who had fought the Southern states over the issue of slavery. In this way, King is reminding the whites that the slaves of in the 19th century and the blacks of 20th century shared a similar tragedy and the same repressive power. After emptying out his feelings of sorrow and despair for the African Americans, the speech then moves to the phase mirroring hope and about demanding their rights. Here, King uses the term ‘check’ to refer to their rights. (Heath, 146) His expressions such as ‘bank of justice’ and ‘riches of freedom’ compel any man of heart to melt and feel their pain. (Heath, 148) They are also an evident of his literacy exposure and knowledge which was rare in blacks at that time. Plus, these words depict a feeling of hope thriving in the speech. The way King demands for blacks’ right is purely beautiful and saintly as he says, ‘And so, we’ve come to cash this check’. (Alvarez, 352) Next, the speech emphasizes the significance of democracy and need to work together to achieve that state of democracy. Here, ‘Now is the time’ has been accentuated four times in the entire paragraph to demonstrate the critical requirement of acting promptly, without any further delay. (Alvarez, 355) He then refers this discrimination as a weakness of America that needs to be removed in order to achieve the nation’s mutual objectives. Here, King has used the technique of reaching the subconscious by using such words such as ‘children of God’ which itself defines that all blacks and whites are brothers. (Wikipedia 1) Hence, in this way, he didn’t have to say it directly and the message was also conveyed. While he talks of brotherhood and the need to put aside the differences and work together, he also issues a warning for the conflicting parties of the consequences if such circumstances failed to occur and promises the nation that they will struggle to fight and rebel until they were not granted their rights. This is evident from this sentence, ‘The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges. ’ (Alvarez, 338) Nevertheless, King was against violence and sermonized the message of peace. Hence, the main objective of King in this rally was also to communicate his message in a non-violent manner. After encouraging the blacks to continue the fight, the speech moves to its second half – the part about his dream –an American dream. Here, ‘I have a dream today! ’ is repeated at intervals to indicate that the dream must be accomplished immediately and not in some future time. The most popular phrase of this speech ‘I have a dream’ is repeated eight times. (Wikipedia, 1) In this part of the speech that is about his dream, he has offered the image of a united country; a country free of discrimination and hatred; a liberal state. This part is highly rhetorical and lulls the audience into another world the world he yearns to create. His words carry such weight that the audience is bound to share his dream even if they deny it. At the end of the speech, he has named several different states of America. The reason was to make it clear that they want respect, dignity and equality in not just some parts of America but in fact, the entire country. This point was explicitly a clear indication for the Southern states. The concluding stanzas contain a stimulating phrase, ‘Let freedom ring! ’ and ‘Free at last! ’ (Alvarez, 351) The absorbing aspect of this speech is its rhythmical flow. The speech begins with a background of the black citizens’ existing situation and the crisis they are facing. It then proposes the solution to their dilemma; followed by the explanation of the reason of why this solution should be implemented. For this part, King uses number of tools such as facts and emotional appeal. At the end, in order to provoke the feeling of urgent execution of his solution, he shares with the audience a stirring dream i. e. his vision of the ideal situation that would prevail if his proposed solution was put into practice. Techniques Used The climax of the speech is distressing yet uplifting. The beginning stanzas reveal the sad state of blacks in America but the approach of the speech is highly optimistic and inspires the blacks to continue their struggle and the whites to bury their axes and embrace their black brothers. The technique of anaphora has been widely employed. Anaphora is the repetition of same word or phrase again and again at the beginning of sentences. For example, the most extensively used anaphora, also the title of this speech, is ‘I have a dream’. Similarly, other examples of this tool are ‘One hundred years ago’, ‘Let freedom ring’, and ‘With this faith’, along with many others. (Wikipedia, 1) The speech is filled with metaphors. For instance, ‘long night of their captivity’ refers to their sufferings and ‘nation’s capital to cash a check’ points to their purpose of protest. At the same time, ‘this nation will rise up’ is again an indication of the coming revolution. Similarly, ‘I have a dream that my four children’ refers to the black community in reality and the word my gives it a personal touch. (Heath, 160) In fact, King has personalized the entire message by using the words you, my and me. The wealth of this speech is its exquisite vocabulary. Words are skillfully manipulated in such a way that they attach a new meaning to every phrase. The popularity of this speech also owns to this factor. In addition, the quantity and quality of information and words reveal King’s extensive research done before delivering the speech, plus his vast knowledge since it contains references from the Bible, The Gettysburg Address and the US Declaration of Independence. (Public broadcasting service,1) Hence, King has used various techniques and tools in this address including facts, anaphora, metaphors, motivation, visualization, arguments and persuasion. The entire speech is highly figurative and symbolic. In fact, the rally outside the Lincoln’s Memorial is symbolic in itself: they were standing outside the steps of Lincoln Memorial i. e. the memorial of a leader who abolished slavery in the Southern states. (Wikipedia, 1) Conclusion The most distinguished fact about this march was its non-violent approach and this speech is its leading example. While its majority of audience was black; its main target was the white people. While he talked of revolution; his speech contained a message of peace. It was able to answer the meaningless questions of the opposing parties and warn them of the consequences of denying the blacks their rights without any form of hostility. In other words, it instilled in the whites a feeling of guilt and humbleness which proved to be enough to achieve their objective. At the same time, it prodded the colored citizens to keep their hopes high and not to rest until they were ‘free at last! It also motivated President Kennedy to extend his support for this issue. The context of the speech and of the surroundings also became one of the reasons for the popularity of the speech. His speech articulated the feelings of all colored citizens and his voice became the voice of all black citizens. To sum up, King’s speech ‘I have a dream’ touches the depth of the hearts and captures the minds. Its words were able to bring tears in the eyes at that time and carry a captivating effect on the readers even today. With tools such as anaphora and metaphors employed, the speech holds an air of charisma. It shakes the souls of the slumbering and the unjust alike. All in all, the linguistic power of the speech is what makes it stand out from the rest and gain the status of one of the most influential speeches ever delivered. Bibliography Alvarez, Alexandra. â€Å"Martin Luther King’s ‘I Have a Dream’: The Speech Event as Metaphor,† Journal of Black Studies 18 1988: 337-57. Heath, Robert. â€Å"Black Rhetoric: An Example of the Poverty of Values† Southern Speech Communication Journal 39 1973: 145-60

Tuesday, October 22, 2019

Coin of Alexader the Great and President Kennedys essays

Coin of Alexader the Great and President Kennedy's essays After Alexanders death, Lysimachus, one of Alexanders more powerful generals took over part of the Macedonian Empire. The coin with the head of Alexander on the obverse, was commissioned by Lysimachus Tetradrachm during his lifetime and there after. The obverse it shows the head of Alexander depicted with rams horns, and on the reverse it shows Athena (goddess of war), holding the Nike figure-personification of victory. The legend of the coin clearly reads in Greek Of Lysimachus, King. The second coin, which was originally commissioned shortly after President Kennedys tragic death has on its obverse the head of the President, and the legend In God we trust. The reverse shows the American eagle with arrows and olive branches. The legend at the top reads The United States of America and another legend on this side reads e plubribus unum-In God we trust. Though both coins portray the rulers difference in sovereignty, they have a similar function, in that they advertise the their s pecific type of leadership to the general public. The coin of Lysimachus shows Alexanders head raised a lot on the obverse side when compared with the image of Athena which is on a incuse on the reverse side. Alexanders face also takes up the whole coin, when compared to the small image of Athena on the reverse this renders Alexanders head is the most important image on this coin. The rams horns on Alexander serve to associate him with the King of the Gods Zeus-Ammon, who was shown with rams horns. The purpose is to suggest that Alexander himself was a deity. Alexanders hair is shown wild and curly, which signifies his tumultuous character. His face shows his eyes looking straight forward, with intense confidence in his eyes which suggests a man of bravery. His wrinkled forehead gives him an formidable look suggestive of his aggre...

Monday, October 21, 2019

The 48 Most Essential Marketing Skills You Need to Be Successful

The 48 Most Essential Marketing Skills You Need to Be Successful As a marketer, you know the industry is continually changing. From fresh tactics to emerging trends, theres always something new  to  learn. So you jump on to Google and read the first page of results. And you see list after list of skills that marketers *should* have. It can be a bit overwhelming. So, weve done our best to narrow down the essentials. What weve come up with is a list of 48 foundational marketing skills we think are most important to build and develop. We’ve also included links to guides and resources to help you learn and implement each skill. Keep reading and see where you can fill in the gaps in your skillset. These Are The 48 Essential Marketing Skills You Need To Be Successful 2018Download The 11 Step Guide To Learning A New Skill Knowing how to learn is a skill in itself. But, its a skill anyone can master. By following the steps in this guide, youll learn how to: Get past the fear of failure. Develop an efficient and repeatable system for skill-building. Understand how to take on new tasks and succeed, even if youve never done something before. Get it free now, and use it to build any of the following 48 skills well cover in this post.Get your free guide on building #marketing skills from @:Introducing the Academy: Looking for insider marketing knowledge to improve your skills even further? Join the Academy now. Why Do You Need To Continually Develop Your Marketing Skills? If we’ve said it once, we’ve said it a thousand times. The marketing world is evolving. If you can’t stay on top of the latest skills in the market, how can you expect to be successful? Your audience is constantly being bombarded with ads, messages, distractions and a whole lot more. You need the skills that will allow you to create marketing strategies that let your content stand out in a crowd. Here is the list of top skills marketers should consider keeping in their toolbox in 2018. Which marketing skills are most essential to posess? Start with these 48 from @.12 Basic Marketing Skills That Should Be On Every Marketer’s Resume Why focus on the basics? Shouldn’t you have those down by now? You might, but a brush up never hurt anyone. There’s also the fact that the what’s now considered a basic marketing skill may have changed from what it was ten years ago. Plus the basics are what build your foundation as a successful marketer. If they start to crumble the rest of your skill set will go right along with it. Here are the 12 basic skills that should be on every marketer’s resume. 12 Basic Marketing Skills That Should Be In Your WheelhouseThe Ability to Write Well Writing is the foundation of everything else that a marketer does. Without strong writing skills, everything else you do will falter. Writing comes into play whenever you’re creating ad copy, social media posts, press releases and so much more. You need to be able to comprehensively communicate your message at all times. Recommend Reading:   40 Content Writing Tips to Make You A Better Marketer Now Internal Communication Skills As a marketer, you’re not just communicating with your target audience. You’re communicating internally with your co-workers and boss as well. Keeping clear and consistent messaging within your marketing team means you can get more done and you don’t have to worry about another team member running a project off the rails. In addition to communicating with your co-workers, you also need to be able to talk to your boss and upper management. Can you explain your projects and anticipate the questions or concerns they’ll have in advance? Recommended Reading: 5 Tips To Create Effective Internal Communications With Your Team Interpersonal Communication Skills Interpersonal communication skills go hand in hand with internal communication skills. This particular skill set, however, is focused on how things are said not just what has been said. The reality of the situation is that we are all human and therefore we’re always communicating with each other whether we intend to or not. As a marketer, you need to be aware of the people around you and what you are intentionally or unintentionally saying at all times. Recommended Reading: Interpersonal Skills List and Examples Be A Confident Public Speaker Whether you’re standing up in front of your boss or client in the middle of a pitch meeting or you’re giving a live press conference, public speaking is inevitable. While that may have made you cringe in your high school speech class the fact of the matter is that as a marketer you need to be able to pitch your project or your product with ease. If you appear to have confidence in what you’re saying your audience will too. Recommended Reading: 5 Easy Ways to Become a Better Public Speaker Fast Maintain an Attitude of Lifelong Learning Another basic skill that should be on the resume of every marketer is maintaining the attitude of lifelong learning. As marketers, we’re always taking in new information whether that be a new advertising tactic or a research report that’s been published about our target audience. In other words, our job of learning new things is never done. The minute you close yourself off and think you know everything there is to know you’ll end up falling behind. So read every book you can get your hands on and listen to a podcast or two on your way to work. Recommended Reading: 10 Simple Ways To Engage In Lifelong Learning Be Type A Organized You wear many hats and balance many, many projects, which means that you need to be organized. Why? Because one misstep and $50,000 could fly out the window like that. Staying organized helps you avoid that because you and your marketing team members will be able to see what’s coming, plan in advance and side step massive mishaps. Recommended Reading: The Complete 16-Step Marketing Project Management Process That Will Get You Organized Know How To Set Goals 73% of CEOs  believe that marketers â€Å"lack business credibility and the ability to generate significant growth.† Ouch. That's because it’s easy to dismiss marketers as people in the corner drawing pretty pictures who don’t do anything. Yeah, I know. It makes my blood boil, too. So how do you solve all of that? You set goals that directly impact business objectives (that your company's CEO actually cares about). By creating goals that have a direct and positive impact on your business you can show your efforts  are paying off. Recommended Reading: How To Set SMART Marketing Goals Understand the Difference Between Goals, Strategies, and Tactics Let’s face it; goals, strategies,  and tactics go hand in hand when it comes to marketing, so it’s easy to confuse them with each other. However, being able to tell the distinction between the three is going to ensure you don’t get tripped up on one of them during your marketing process. Goals are the objectives that have been set by your marketing team that you need to meet by the end of a specified time period. Strategies are the organized plans that are composed of different tactics that outline how to reach your goals. Your tactics, on the other hand, are the steps that you take to help you achieve your goals. Recommended Reading: Understanding Goals, Strategy, Objectives And Tactics In The Age Of Social Be An Active Listener We all know that one person in our lives who is just waiting for their chance to speak in a conversation. What you’re saying is mostly going in one ear and out the other. As a marketer, you cannot afford to passively ignore your customers or your co-workers. Which is why being an active listener is an essential skill any marketer worth their salt knows how to do. Actively listening to the people around you means that you can find out the messages they need to hear. Doing this can help you perfect your campaigns and hopefully convert more people into paying customers. Recommended Reading: Active Listening: Hear What People are Really Saying Know How to Collaborate Across Multiple Teams Your marketing team doesn’t exist in a vacuum where it’s you vs. everyone else in your company. You need to be able to collaborate across multiple teams to complete your projects. This could mean working with developers, your video team, your product team, and more. All of that cross team collaboration means you need to know how to manage and communicate, so everyone who is involved in one project is always on the same page. Recommended Reading: 5 Ways to Improve Cross Team Collaboration Research Everything Marketing is part strategic intuition; part research to see what everyone else is doing. Successful marketers can research current trends and strategies and figure out which ones would work best for their company. There’s always new information out there for marketers to research and gather. Whether that be case studies, academic research reports or white papers, there are thousands of sources out there just waiting to inspire your next great idea. Recommended Reading: How To Boost Your Results With Original Research As A Marketing Tactic With Andy Crestodina From Orbit Media Studios This Is The Marketing Research Process That Will Take Your Content To The Next Level Openness To Trying New Things The last basic skill that should be in a marketer’s tool belt is an openness to try new things. Part of marketing involves simply testing these new things to see if they’re going to work. You’ll never know if something is going to work or not unless you try. Who knows, maybe your next great marketing tactic is the one you haven’t tried yet. Recommended Reading: When, Where, and How to Test Market 6  Introductory Design Skills Every Marketer Should Have Graphic design or any design really is vital for marketers to understand. Why? Because design helps us communicate the message that we want to send to our audience. You may not be at the same level as the graphic designer on your team but having a basic grasp of necessary design skills can help you communicate what you need and pinpoint what worked and why. 6 Introductory Design Skills Marketers Should HaveUnderstand How Responsive Design Works With the addition of tablets, mobile phones, and more, the way we access information is changing. The standard one size fits all website no longer applies because there are tons of different screen sizes out there. That’s where responsive design comes in. As a marketer, you need to understand how your message will look across a variety of different formats and ensure that it communicates the same idea. Recommended Reading: Beginner’s Guide to Responsive Web Design Grasp the Basics of Adobe Creative Suite Adobe is well known for their design products. Photoshop, InDesign, and Illustrator are just three of the tools that can help bring the images inside your head to life in an online format. Having a basic understanding of how those two programs work can help you and your designer save time. How? If you need a social media graphic that has to go out in 20 minutes, you can now do it yourself. It’s also nice to have an idea of the limitations this type of software might have so you can know what to expect when requesting something from your designers. Recommended Reading: Creative Cloud Tutorials Knowing How UX and UI Plays a Role In Your Customer Interaction The way you’ve designed your website and the experience your customer has interacting with it can affect the way they see your marketing messages. Knowing how your customers move and interact through with your content will allow you to strategically place your messages in the right place and the right time to maximize conversion potential. Recommended Reading: 5 Big Differences Between UX And UI Design Keep Common  Design Specs and Sizes On Hand You’re probably going to request a lot of designed content over the course of your career. This could be anything from social media ads to long infographics. Make it easier for your designer by having common design sizes and specs on hand at all times. Not only will this save them time in guessing the size of the images you need, you’ll also know how much space you have to work with. Some standard sizes to add to your list could be: Social media photo sizes Social media profile picture sizes Social ad sizes and specs Preferred infographics sizes Recommended Reading: The Best Guide to Social Media Image Sizes Every Marketer Needs Know How To Communicate Visualization Needs to Your Designer No one can read your mind. Thank goodness, right? Here’s the problem, since no one can read your mind, how are they supposed to be able to see the impressive idea you have for your next infographic? The truth is they can’t, and an excellent skill for marketers to have is to be able to communicate with their designers about the vision they see inside their head. Can you explain expectations and details to your designer in a way that helps guide them to create the piece you’ve pictured? Recommended Reading: How to Communicate Effectively with Designers Understanding The Basic Principles of Graphic Design The final skill that any marketer should have on their resume is the ability to understand the basic principles of design. Knowing what makes a successful image can help you identify what’s connecting with your audience. Concepts like: Color Theory Composition Theory Typography And more can help you identify what makes a design tremendous and what caught the attention of your audience. Recommended Reading: 8 Principles of Design to Help You Create Awesome Graphics 6 Social Media Skills To Add To Your Resume Social media is the latest and greatest addition to the marketing world. Which means that marketers need a specific set of skills to stand out in this new landscape. If you don’t stay on top of your skills and techniques, there’s a good chance your content will be buried in an avalanche of other stuff. End of story. The following are six simple skills you should have a grasp on. 6 Social Media Skills For MarketersKnow How to Write For Each Social Channel Not all social media messages are created equal. What works for one channel may not go over as well on another. For example, hashtags are great when they’re used on Twitter and Instagram, but they don’t do much for Facebook posts. Knowing the differences between the message types that need to go on each channel can help your content stand out in a sea of other stuff. Recommended Reading: How To Write The Best Social Media Posts [Backed By 6,399,322 Messages + 11 Studies] Have a Decent Amount of Social Media Algorithm Knowledge Social media algorithms are intelligent systems that sort through content and showcase what it believes the user would most likely want to see based on interactions from previous content. These algorithms can’t be tricked or fooled. You can’t post your content and then try and trick the algorithm into showing it to more of you fans. Well, you could, but that’s going to backfire on you sooner rather than later. Algorithms are the social networks way of telling you what content they want to see posted to their newsfeeds. After all you are advertising and posting content on someone else’s turf. For example, live video is going over well on Facebook. Therefore it would make sense to assume that the Facebook algorithm rewards live video content. If you want to boost your presence on Facebook, you could consider creating more live videos. Recommended Reading: How Do Social Media Algorithms Affect You Be Able to Keep Up With Social Trends and Ideas The social media landscape changes at an incredibly fast pace. The minute you’ve got something down, something new surfaces and you’re off to the races again. A proficient social media marketer (and marketer in general) can keep up with those changes by continually thinking ahead and keeping their social strategy head on a metaphorical swivel. Maximize those trends before they hit their peak and get ready to move on to the next one. Recommended Reading: Social Media Trends Change Quickly. This 6-Step Guide Will Help You Keep Up Being Disciplined to Not Chase After Every New Network Social media networks appear and disappear. A new one may surface, but that doesn’t mean it’s going to be the next Facebook or Twitter. As a marketer it’s up to you to decide whether or not joining a new network is best for your business. Just because Pinterest works for one company doesn’t mean it will work for you. You need to follow your audience and let them lead you to where they are. Recommended Reading: How to Create the Best Documented Social Media Marketing Strategy In Eight Steps Understand Marketing Strategy (And How to Apply It to Social Media) A skill that marketers must have is being able to see and understand the marketing strategy that goes into creating a social media presence. Don’t just chuck your social media profiles to an unsuspecting college grad and assume that because they’re young, they’ll know how to get your company noticed on social. No. Wrong. Do not pass Go, do not collect $200. Social media, like every other one of its marketing counterparts, requires strategic thinking, planning, and execution. This means you can’t just throw up a bunch of posts consistently and hope it works. You need to apply the same marketing methodologies you'd use for any other channel, and apply it to your social strategy. That includes understanding your audience, writing great copy, understanding analytics, and more. Recommended Reading: How To Develop A Winning Social Media Content Strategy (Free Template) Know How to Generate Creative Campaign Concepts The last skill social media skill that should be in your portfolio is knowing how to generate creative campaign concepts. Campaigns are a considerable part of the social media presence your business creates. Because there is such a massive amount of content out there, you need to be as creative as possible to stand out. Take Arby’s for example. Their entire Facebook presence is dedicated to nerdy references reenacted by everything from curly fries to ketchup packets. Exterminate! Exterminate! Exterminate! Posted by Arby's on Thursday, December 21, 2017 Think outside the box consistently and hopefully watch your social presence grow because of your creative efforts. Recommended Reading: How To Generate Data-Backed Social Media Campaign Ideas 24 Creative Social Media Campaign Examples to Boost Your Inspiration Social Campaigns: Simplify Your Social Promotion 9 Killer Content Marketing Skills You Need To Develop The content you create as a marketer can have a significant effect on your company. Which means that solid content marketing skills are highly sought after in today’s marketing climate. Here are nine skills that need to be a part of your portfolio. 9 Content Marketing Skills Every Marketer NeedsBeing Able to Write Clear Content That Informs The age of the internet means that there is a ton of information at everyone’s fingertips. Which means that your content needs to be able to stand out by doing one thing: Subtly sell your product  while still providing your reader with value that they can’t get anywhere else. A good marketer knows the balance between writing to sell and writing to inform. Recommended Reading: The 5 Skills You Need to Become a Successful Content Writer Master the Art Of Copywriting To Sell Unlike content writing, copywriting is all about selling. Mastering this form of writing means that you can craft copy that sells your product in a snap. It also doesn’t have to be written from scratch. Using the right formula can help you craft the perfect copy every time. It’s up to you to find the line that takes it from a standard boilerplate to selling machine. Recommended Reading: The Ultimate Guide to No-Pain Copywriting (or, Every Copywriting Formula Ever) Be A Storyteller People don’t buy logic; they buy emotions. As a content writer, you need to create copy that appeals to the emotional side of your readers. Your product may kill 99.5% of bacteria, but what sells it is the fact that they’ll be able to keep their family healthy and safe from germs or serious illnesses. As you write any content, find the way to connect your customer’s lives to your product. Play up the frustrations they are experiencing and tell them the story of how your product is going to make it all better. Recommended Reading: How To Use Your Blog To Tell A Story How To Write Like A Journalist To Be A Better Marketing Storyteller Know How to Use Your Content To Teach A skill we don’t usually associate with marketing should also be on your portfolio list; teaching. Can you teach with the content you create? This could be anything from teaching about how to use your product or a new concept (that just so happens to tie into your product). Take ’s blog for example. One of our core pillars is centered around actionability or going beyond giving advice and showing people how to execute it. Whether it’s a simple step by step video on how to use your product, or an in-depth explanation blog post, use your space to teach your audience want they need to know. Recommended Reading: 7 Ways to Make Your Content More Actionable Be Persuasive Part of being a good marketer involves being able to be persuasive. After all, there are hundreds of products that could help your customer with their problems. Your message needs to be able to persuade them that yours is the best option out there. Your messages should craft a clear and concise story that explains the benefits of your product and why you triumph over the rest. Recommended Reading: 58 Ways to Create Persuasive Content Your Audience Will Love Have Strong Research Skills One of the keys to writing great content is the ability to research. We’ve mentioned this a bit earlier in the post, and when it comes to content writing, research couldn’t be more critical. Writing content that is backed by well-researched opinions increases your own authority. It’s one thing if you write a post and haphazardly throw advice out there. It’s another thing entirely if you can back it up with another source that your readers trust. By researching your opinions, and backing them up with reputable sources you can show your readers that they can trust you. Once they trust you, they can trust your product. Recommended Reading: 10 Research-Based Tips for Writing Better Content Know How to Measure Your ROI â€Å"How much money did the post you just spent writing for 8 hours at 15 dollars an hour make me?† â€Å"I don’t know†, probably isn’t the answer they want to hear. Proving the return on investment that your content marketing has made isn’t easy. In fact, 78% of marketers struggle with it. There are, however, ways to find the data you’re looking for. It all comes down to writing content that encourages your readers to take a conversion step and finding a way to monetize those actions. Recommended Reading: This Is The MROI Formula Your Marketing Team Needs To Be Using Measure Marketing ROI: Proving Value When It Can’t Be Measured Be Well-Read Part of developing your content writing and marketing skills is reading what others around you have done. I’m not saying you need to consume every Game of Thrones novel in a week, but being well read across a variety of subjects not only helps increase your general knowledge, but you’ll also be able to see what works and doesn’t work when you write your content. Start small at first, maybe subscribe to a blog or two as you begin to integrate reading into your routine add in a variety of books, magazines and more. To stay on top of news or to find sources try tools like Feedly  or Flipboard. Or for those of you who don’t like to read as much, podcasts and videos are also great options. Recommended Reading: 10x Marketing Formula Have a Deep Understanding Of How The Marketing Funnel Works When content marketing is done well, it can help lead your potential customers through your marketing funnel and help them convert into paying customers. How does this work? You need to create content for every stage in your marketing funnel. The top part of your funnel will contain the most content and probably cover the broadest topics. You want to catch the attention of as many people as you can. As you work your way down the funnel, your content will become more specific, helping guide your readers to the logical conclusion that your product is the best one for them. Recommended Reading: Content and the Marketing Funnel 4 Analytics Skills That Are Essential For Any Marketer Data helps drive the entire marketing process. It helps you see if your efforts are working, track what your customers are interacting with and so much more. Analytics skills are essential for marketers because you need to be able to pull data and interpret it to give your marketing strategists the most accurate information as possible. Without data to guide you, it’s like driving blindfolded; you’re just guessing. Here are the four skills that should be a part of any marketer’s arsenal. 4 Analytics SKills That Are Essential For Any MarketerBe Able to Interpret Customer Data to Influence The Decision Making Process In case you haven’t already guessed your customers are what makes your world go round. What they do and interact with can prove the success (or failure) of your marketing strategies. It’s up to you to pull that data from those interactions and interpret what your customers are trying to tell you. Do they like seeing videos of your product in action or do they prefer screenshots in a blog post? Let your data guide you in the right direction. Recommended Reading: How to Drill Into Data to Extract Powerful Social Media Insights Know and Understand Data Science According to NYU  data science is: â€Å"Data science involves using automated methods to analyze massive amounts of data and to extract knowledge from them.† A skilled marketer needs to be able to find and sort through massive amounts of data to find the insights you’re looking for. If you collected data every time one of your potential customers does anything, you’d have thousands of data points to sort through. As a marketer you should know what you’re looking for, where to find it and how to interpret it for your boss and co-workers. Recommended Reading: Data Science is the Latest In-Demand Skill Set For Marketing Know How to Use Data to Tell a Story Numbers and data don’t lie. They tell you if you’ve met your goals or sorely missed them. However, you can’t just point to your data and say â€Å"see it worked.† I mean you could, but you don’t want to be subpar at your job, do you? Marketers need to know how to take the data that you’ve gathered and turn it into a story that explains what happened and why it happened in plain English. Your marketing campaigns could be massive, and data is great but when your boss turns to you and asks so why did this campaign work your answer should be more thorough than just â€Å"well we planned a really creative social campaign.† Recommended Reading: 3 Ways to Tell a Story With Your Data Understand Data Visualization The last need to have skill in your analytics tool belt is the ability to understand data visualization. Numbers and data points by themselves are boring. Not to mention they don’t jump out at you and say â€Å"hey I’m the most important one here.† Data visualization is a way for you to help your co-workers and boss, as well as your customers, understand the most significant bits and pieces of data in an easy to read format. These could be anything from infographics to charts. You just need to find a way to work with your designers (or you could do it yourself) to find a way to bring your data to life. Recommended Reading: The 38 Best Tools for Data Visualization 11 Technical Skills and Tools Every Marketer Needs Technical skills and tools make the final piece of our marketing skills blog post. Marketing and technology are becoming more and more intertwined mainly because a lot of the projects that you take on as a marketer can’t be completed without them. Between strategy planning, design and numerous things you need to execute, trying to attempt it all without a tool would be insane. There’s just too much to do. So here are eleven tools and technical skills every marketer should have. The 48 Most Essential Marketing Skills You Need to Be Successful As a marketer, you know the industry is continually changing. From fresh tactics to emerging trends, theres always something new  to  learn. So you jump on to Google and read the first page of results. And you see list after list of skills that marketers *should* have. It can be a bit overwhelming. So, weve done our best to narrow down the essentials. What weve come up with is a list of 48 foundational marketing skills we think are most important to build and develop. We’ve also included links to guides and resources to help you learn and implement each skill. Keep reading and see where you can fill in the gaps in your skillset. These Are The 48 Essential Marketing Skills You Need To Be Successful 2018Download The 11 Step Guide To Learning A New Skill Knowing how to learn is a skill in itself. But, its a skill anyone can master. By following the steps in this guide, youll learn how to: Get past the fear of failure. Develop an efficient and repeatable system for skill-building. Understand how to take on new tasks and succeed, even if youve never done something before. Get it free now, and use it to build any of the following 48 skills well cover in this post.Get your free guide on building #marketing skills from @:Introducing the Academy: Looking for insider marketing knowledge to improve your skills even further? Join the Academy now. Why Do You Need To Continually Develop Your Marketing Skills? If we’ve said it once, we’ve said it a thousand times. The marketing world is evolving. If you can’t stay on top of the latest skills in the market, how can you expect to be successful? Your audience is constantly being bombarded with ads, messages, distractions and a whole lot more. You need the skills that will allow you to create marketing strategies that let your content stand out in a crowd. Here is the list of top skills marketers should consider keeping in their toolbox in 2018. Which marketing skills are most essential to posess? Start with these 48 from @.12 Basic Marketing Skills That Should Be On Every Marketer’s Resume Why focus on the basics? Shouldn’t you have those down by now? You might, but a brush up never hurt anyone. There’s also the fact that the what’s now considered a basic marketing skill may have changed from what it was ten years ago. Plus the basics are what build your foundation as a successful marketer. If they start to crumble the rest of your skill set will go right along with it. Here are the 12 basic skills that should be on every marketer’s resume. 12 Basic Marketing Skills That Should Be In Your WheelhouseThe Ability to Write Well Writing is the foundation of everything else that a marketer does. Without strong writing skills, everything else you do will falter. Writing comes into play whenever you’re creating ad copy, social media posts, press releases and so much more. You need to be able to comprehensively communicate your message at all times. Recommend Reading:   40 Content Writing Tips to Make You A Better Marketer Now Internal Communication Skills As a marketer, you’re not just communicating with your target audience. You’re communicating internally with your co-workers and boss as well. Keeping clear and consistent messaging within your marketing team means you can get more done and you don’t have to worry about another team member running a project off the rails. In addition to communicating with your co-workers, you also need to be able to talk to your boss and upper management. Can you explain your projects and anticipate the questions or concerns they’ll have in advance? Recommended Reading: 5 Tips To Create Effective Internal Communications With Your Team Interpersonal Communication Skills Interpersonal communication skills go hand in hand with internal communication skills. This particular skill set, however, is focused on how things are said not just what has been said. The reality of the situation is that we are all human and therefore we’re always communicating with each other whether we intend to or not. As a marketer, you need to be aware of the people around you and what you are intentionally or unintentionally saying at all times. Recommended Reading: Interpersonal Skills List and Examples Be A Confident Public Speaker Whether you’re standing up in front of your boss or client in the middle of a pitch meeting or you’re giving a live press conference, public speaking is inevitable. While that may have made you cringe in your high school speech class the fact of the matter is that as a marketer you need to be able to pitch your project or your product with ease. If you appear to have confidence in what you’re saying your audience will too. Recommended Reading: 5 Easy Ways to Become a Better Public Speaker Fast Maintain an Attitude of Lifelong Learning Another basic skill that should be on the resume of every marketer is maintaining the attitude of lifelong learning. As marketers, we’re always taking in new information whether that be a new advertising tactic or a research report that’s been published about our target audience. In other words, our job of learning new things is never done. The minute you close yourself off and think you know everything there is to know you’ll end up falling behind. So read every book you can get your hands on and listen to a podcast or two on your way to work. Recommended Reading: 10 Simple Ways To Engage In Lifelong Learning Be Type A Organized You wear many hats and balance many, many projects, which means that you need to be organized. Why? Because one misstep and $50,000 could fly out the window like that. Staying organized helps you avoid that because you and your marketing team members will be able to see what’s coming, plan in advance and side step massive mishaps. Recommended Reading: The Complete 16-Step Marketing Project Management Process That Will Get You Organized Know How To Set Goals 73% of CEOs  believe that marketers â€Å"lack business credibility and the ability to generate significant growth.† Ouch. That's because it’s easy to dismiss marketers as people in the corner drawing pretty pictures who don’t do anything. Yeah, I know. It makes my blood boil, too. So how do you solve all of that? You set goals that directly impact business objectives (that your company's CEO actually cares about). By creating goals that have a direct and positive impact on your business you can show your efforts  are paying off. Recommended Reading: How To Set SMART Marketing Goals Understand the Difference Between Goals, Strategies, and Tactics Let’s face it; goals, strategies,  and tactics go hand in hand when it comes to marketing, so it’s easy to confuse them with each other. However, being able to tell the distinction between the three is going to ensure you don’t get tripped up on one of them during your marketing process. Goals are the objectives that have been set by your marketing team that you need to meet by the end of a specified time period. Strategies are the organized plans that are composed of different tactics that outline how to reach your goals. Your tactics, on the other hand, are the steps that you take to help you achieve your goals. Recommended Reading: Understanding Goals, Strategy, Objectives And Tactics In The Age Of Social Be An Active Listener We all know that one person in our lives who is just waiting for their chance to speak in a conversation. What you’re saying is mostly going in one ear and out the other. As a marketer, you cannot afford to passively ignore your customers or your co-workers. Which is why being an active listener is an essential skill any marketer worth their salt knows how to do. Actively listening to the people around you means that you can find out the messages they need to hear. Doing this can help you perfect your campaigns and hopefully convert more people into paying customers. Recommended Reading: Active Listening: Hear What People are Really Saying Know How to Collaborate Across Multiple Teams Your marketing team doesn’t exist in a vacuum where it’s you vs. everyone else in your company. You need to be able to collaborate across multiple teams to complete your projects. This could mean working with developers, your video team, your product team, and more. All of that cross team collaboration means you need to know how to manage and communicate, so everyone who is involved in one project is always on the same page. Recommended Reading: 5 Ways to Improve Cross Team Collaboration Research Everything Marketing is part strategic intuition; part research to see what everyone else is doing. Successful marketers can research current trends and strategies and figure out which ones would work best for their company. There’s always new information out there for marketers to research and gather. Whether that be case studies, academic research reports or white papers, there are thousands of sources out there just waiting to inspire your next great idea. Recommended Reading: How To Boost Your Results With Original Research As A Marketing Tactic With Andy Crestodina From Orbit Media Studios This Is The Marketing Research Process That Will Take Your Content To The Next Level Openness To Trying New Things The last basic skill that should be in a marketer’s tool belt is an openness to try new things. Part of marketing involves simply testing these new things to see if they’re going to work. You’ll never know if something is going to work or not unless you try. Who knows, maybe your next great marketing tactic is the one you haven’t tried yet. Recommended Reading: When, Where, and How to Test Market 6  Introductory Design Skills Every Marketer Should Have Graphic design or any design really is vital for marketers to understand. Why? Because design helps us communicate the message that we want to send to our audience. You may not be at the same level as the graphic designer on your team but having a basic grasp of necessary design skills can help you communicate what you need and pinpoint what worked and why. 6 Introductory Design Skills Marketers Should HaveUnderstand How Responsive Design Works With the addition of tablets, mobile phones, and more, the way we access information is changing. The standard one size fits all website no longer applies because there are tons of different screen sizes out there. That’s where responsive design comes in. As a marketer, you need to understand how your message will look across a variety of different formats and ensure that it communicates the same idea. Recommended Reading: Beginner’s Guide to Responsive Web Design Grasp the Basics of Adobe Creative Suite Adobe is well known for their design products. Photoshop, InDesign, and Illustrator are just three of the tools that can help bring the images inside your head to life in an online format. Having a basic understanding of how those two programs work can help you and your designer save time. How? If you need a social media graphic that has to go out in 20 minutes, you can now do it yourself. It’s also nice to have an idea of the limitations this type of software might have so you can know what to expect when requesting something from your designers. Recommended Reading: Creative Cloud Tutorials Knowing How UX and UI Plays a Role In Your Customer Interaction The way you’ve designed your website and the experience your customer has interacting with it can affect the way they see your marketing messages. Knowing how your customers move and interact through with your content will allow you to strategically place your messages in the right place and the right time to maximize conversion potential. Recommended Reading: 5 Big Differences Between UX And UI Design Keep Common  Design Specs and Sizes On Hand You’re probably going to request a lot of designed content over the course of your career. This could be anything from social media ads to long infographics. Make it easier for your designer by having common design sizes and specs on hand at all times. Not only will this save them time in guessing the size of the images you need, you’ll also know how much space you have to work with. Some standard sizes to add to your list could be: Social media photo sizes Social media profile picture sizes Social ad sizes and specs Preferred infographics sizes Recommended Reading: The Best Guide to Social Media Image Sizes Every Marketer Needs Know How To Communicate Visualization Needs to Your Designer No one can read your mind. Thank goodness, right? Here’s the problem, since no one can read your mind, how are they supposed to be able to see the impressive idea you have for your next infographic? The truth is they can’t, and an excellent skill for marketers to have is to be able to communicate with their designers about the vision they see inside their head. Can you explain expectations and details to your designer in a way that helps guide them to create the piece you’ve pictured? Recommended Reading: How to Communicate Effectively with Designers Understanding The Basic Principles of Graphic Design The final skill that any marketer should have on their resume is the ability to understand the basic principles of design. Knowing what makes a successful image can help you identify what’s connecting with your audience. Concepts like: Color Theory Composition Theory Typography And more can help you identify what makes a design tremendous and what caught the attention of your audience. Recommended Reading: 8 Principles of Design to Help You Create Awesome Graphics 6 Social Media Skills To Add To Your Resume Social media is the latest and greatest addition to the marketing world. Which means that marketers need a specific set of skills to stand out in this new landscape. If you don’t stay on top of your skills and techniques, there’s a good chance your content will be buried in an avalanche of other stuff. End of story. The following are six simple skills you should have a grasp on. 6 Social Media Skills For MarketersKnow How to Write For Each Social Channel Not all social media messages are created equal. What works for one channel may not go over as well on another. For example, hashtags are great when they’re used on Twitter and Instagram, but they don’t do much for Facebook posts. Knowing the differences between the message types that need to go on each channel can help your content stand out in a sea of other stuff. Recommended Reading: How To Write The Best Social Media Posts [Backed By 6,399,322 Messages + 11 Studies] Have a Decent Amount of Social Media Algorithm Knowledge Social media algorithms are intelligent systems that sort through content and showcase what it believes the user would most likely want to see based on interactions from previous content. These algorithms can’t be tricked or fooled. You can’t post your content and then try and trick the algorithm into showing it to more of you fans. Well, you could, but that’s going to backfire on you sooner rather than later. Algorithms are the social networks way of telling you what content they want to see posted to their newsfeeds. After all you are advertising and posting content on someone else’s turf. For example, live video is going over well on Facebook. Therefore it would make sense to assume that the Facebook algorithm rewards live video content. If you want to boost your presence on Facebook, you could consider creating more live videos. Recommended Reading: How Do Social Media Algorithms Affect You Be Able to Keep Up With Social Trends and Ideas The social media landscape changes at an incredibly fast pace. The minute you’ve got something down, something new surfaces and you’re off to the races again. A proficient social media marketer (and marketer in general) can keep up with those changes by continually thinking ahead and keeping their social strategy head on a metaphorical swivel. Maximize those trends before they hit their peak and get ready to move on to the next one. Recommended Reading: Social Media Trends Change Quickly. This 6-Step Guide Will Help You Keep Up Being Disciplined to Not Chase After Every New Network Social media networks appear and disappear. A new one may surface, but that doesn’t mean it’s going to be the next Facebook or Twitter. As a marketer it’s up to you to decide whether or not joining a new network is best for your business. Just because Pinterest works for one company doesn’t mean it will work for you. You need to follow your audience and let them lead you to where they are. Recommended Reading: How to Create the Best Documented Social Media Marketing Strategy In Eight Steps Understand Marketing Strategy (And How to Apply It to Social Media) A skill that marketers must have is being able to see and understand the marketing strategy that goes into creating a social media presence. Don’t just chuck your social media profiles to an unsuspecting college grad and assume that because they’re young, they’ll know how to get your company noticed on social. No. Wrong. Do not pass Go, do not collect $200. Social media, like every other one of its marketing counterparts, requires strategic thinking, planning, and execution. This means you can’t just throw up a bunch of posts consistently and hope it works. You need to apply the same marketing methodologies you'd use for any other channel, and apply it to your social strategy. That includes understanding your audience, writing great copy, understanding analytics, and more. Recommended Reading: How To Develop A Winning Social Media Content Strategy (Free Template) Know How to Generate Creative Campaign Concepts The last skill social media skill that should be in your portfolio is knowing how to generate creative campaign concepts. Campaigns are a considerable part of the social media presence your business creates. Because there is such a massive amount of content out there, you need to be as creative as possible to stand out. Take Arby’s for example. Their entire Facebook presence is dedicated to nerdy references reenacted by everything from curly fries to ketchup packets. Exterminate! Exterminate! Exterminate! Posted by Arby's on Thursday, December 21, 2017 Think outside the box consistently and hopefully watch your social presence grow because of your creative efforts. Recommended Reading: How To Generate Data-Backed Social Media Campaign Ideas 24 Creative Social Media Campaign Examples to Boost Your Inspiration Social Campaigns: Simplify Your Social Promotion 9 Killer Content Marketing Skills You Need To Develop The content you create as a marketer can have a significant effect on your company. Which means that solid content marketing skills are highly sought after in today’s marketing climate. Here are nine skills that need to be a part of your portfolio. 9 Content Marketing Skills Every Marketer NeedsBeing Able to Write Clear Content That Informs The age of the internet means that there is a ton of information at everyone’s fingertips. Which means that your content needs to be able to stand out by doing one thing: Subtly sell your product  while still providing your reader with value that they can’t get anywhere else. A good marketer knows the balance between writing to sell and writing to inform. Recommended Reading: The 5 Skills You Need to Become a Successful Content Writer Master the Art Of Copywriting To Sell Unlike content writing, copywriting is all about selling. Mastering this form of writing means that you can craft copy that sells your product in a snap. It also doesn’t have to be written from scratch. Using the right formula can help you craft the perfect copy every time. It’s up to you to find the line that takes it from a standard boilerplate to selling machine. Recommended Reading: The Ultimate Guide to No-Pain Copywriting (or, Every Copywriting Formula Ever) Be A Storyteller People don’t buy logic; they buy emotions. As a content writer, you need to create copy that appeals to the emotional side of your readers. Your product may kill 99.5% of bacteria, but what sells it is the fact that they’ll be able to keep their family healthy and safe from germs or serious illnesses. As you write any content, find the way to connect your customer’s lives to your product. Play up the frustrations they are experiencing and tell them the story of how your product is going to make it all better. Recommended Reading: How To Use Your Blog To Tell A Story How To Write Like A Journalist To Be A Better Marketing Storyteller Know How to Use Your Content To Teach A skill we don’t usually associate with marketing should also be on your portfolio list; teaching. Can you teach with the content you create? This could be anything from teaching about how to use your product or a new concept (that just so happens to tie into your product). Take ’s blog for example. One of our core pillars is centered around actionability or going beyond giving advice and showing people how to execute it. Whether it’s a simple step by step video on how to use your product, or an in-depth explanation blog post, use your space to teach your audience want they need to know. Recommended Reading: 7 Ways to Make Your Content More Actionable Be Persuasive Part of being a good marketer involves being able to be persuasive. After all, there are hundreds of products that could help your customer with their problems. Your message needs to be able to persuade them that yours is the best option out there. Your messages should craft a clear and concise story that explains the benefits of your product and why you triumph over the rest. Recommended Reading: 58 Ways to Create Persuasive Content Your Audience Will Love Have Strong Research Skills One of the keys to writing great content is the ability to research. We’ve mentioned this a bit earlier in the post, and when it comes to content writing, research couldn’t be more critical. Writing content that is backed by well-researched opinions increases your own authority. It’s one thing if you write a post and haphazardly throw advice out there. It’s another thing entirely if you can back it up with another source that your readers trust. By researching your opinions, and backing them up with reputable sources you can show your readers that they can trust you. Once they trust you, they can trust your product. Recommended Reading: 10 Research-Based Tips for Writing Better Content Know How to Measure Your ROI â€Å"How much money did the post you just spent writing for 8 hours at 15 dollars an hour make me?† â€Å"I don’t know†, probably isn’t the answer they want to hear. Proving the return on investment that your content marketing has made isn’t easy. In fact, 78% of marketers struggle with it. There are, however, ways to find the data you’re looking for. It all comes down to writing content that encourages your readers to take a conversion step and finding a way to monetize those actions. Recommended Reading: This Is The MROI Formula Your Marketing Team Needs To Be Using Measure Marketing ROI: Proving Value When It Can’t Be Measured Be Well-Read Part of developing your content writing and marketing skills is reading what others around you have done. I’m not saying you need to consume every Game of Thrones novel in a week, but being well read across a variety of subjects not only helps increase your general knowledge, but you’ll also be able to see what works and doesn’t work when you write your content. Start small at first, maybe subscribe to a blog or two as you begin to integrate reading into your routine add in a variety of books, magazines and more. To stay on top of news or to find sources try tools like Feedly  or Flipboard. Or for those of you who don’t like to read as much, podcasts and videos are also great options. Recommended Reading: 10x Marketing Formula Have a Deep Understanding Of How The Marketing Funnel Works When content marketing is done well, it can help lead your potential customers through your marketing funnel and help them convert into paying customers. How does this work? You need to create content for every stage in your marketing funnel. The top part of your funnel will contain the most content and probably cover the broadest topics. You want to catch the attention of as many people as you can. As you work your way down the funnel, your content will become more specific, helping guide your readers to the logical conclusion that your product is the best one for them. Recommended Reading: Content and the Marketing Funnel 4 Analytics Skills That Are Essential For Any Marketer Data helps drive the entire marketing process. It helps you see if your efforts are working, track what your customers are interacting with and so much more. Analytics skills are essential for marketers because you need to be able to pull data and interpret it to give your marketing strategists the most accurate information as possible. Without data to guide you, it’s like driving blindfolded; you’re just guessing. Here are the four skills that should be a part of any marketer’s arsenal. 4 Analytics SKills That Are Essential For Any MarketerBe Able to Interpret Customer Data to Influence The Decision Making Process In case you haven’t already guessed your customers are what makes your world go round. What they do and interact with can prove the success (or failure) of your marketing strategies. It’s up to you to pull that data from those interactions and interpret what your customers are trying to tell you. Do they like seeing videos of your product in action or do they prefer screenshots in a blog post? Let your data guide you in the right direction. Recommended Reading: How to Drill Into Data to Extract Powerful Social Media Insights Know and Understand Data Science According to NYU  data science is: â€Å"Data science involves using automated methods to analyze massive amounts of data and to extract knowledge from them.† A skilled marketer needs to be able to find and sort through massive amounts of data to find the insights you’re looking for. If you collected data every time one of your potential customers does anything, you’d have thousands of data points to sort through. As a marketer you should know what you’re looking for, where to find it and how to interpret it for your boss and co-workers. Recommended Reading: Data Science is the Latest In-Demand Skill Set For Marketing Know How to Use Data to Tell a Story Numbers and data don’t lie. They tell you if you’ve met your goals or sorely missed them. However, you can’t just point to your data and say â€Å"see it worked.† I mean you could, but you don’t want to be subpar at your job, do you? Marketers need to know how to take the data that you’ve gathered and turn it into a story that explains what happened and why it happened in plain English. Your marketing campaigns could be massive, and data is great but when your boss turns to you and asks so why did this campaign work your answer should be more thorough than just â€Å"well we planned a really creative social campaign.† Recommended Reading: 3 Ways to Tell a Story With Your Data Understand Data Visualization The last need to have skill in your analytics tool belt is the ability to understand data visualization. Numbers and data points by themselves are boring. Not to mention they don’t jump out at you and say â€Å"hey I’m the most important one here.† Data visualization is a way for you to help your co-workers and boss, as well as your customers, understand the most significant bits and pieces of data in an easy to read format. These could be anything from infographics to charts. You just need to find a way to work with your designers (or you could do it yourself) to find a way to bring your data to life. Recommended Reading: The 38 Best Tools for Data Visualization 11 Technical Skills and Tools Every Marketer Needs Technical skills and tools make the final piece of our marketing skills blog post. Marketing and technology are becoming more and more intertwined mainly because a lot of the projects that you take on as a marketer can’t be completed without them. Between strategy planning, design and numerous things you need to execute, trying to attempt it all without a tool would be insane. There’s just too much to do. So here are eleven tools and technical skills every marketer should have.

Sunday, October 20, 2019

Chemical Formula for Ethanol - Chemistry

Chemical Formula for Ethanol - Chemistry Question: What Is the Chemical Formula of Ethanol? Ethanol is ethyl alcohol or grain alcohol. It is the type of alcohol found in alcoholic beverages. Heres a look at its chemical formula. Answer: There is more than one way to represent the chemical formula of ethanol. The molecular formula is CH3CH2OH. The empirical formula of ethanol is C2H6O. The chemical formula also may be written as CH3–CH2–OH. You may see ethanol written as EtOH, where the Et represents the ethyl group (C2H5). Learn how to distill ethanol. Ethanol Properties Ethanol, like other alcohols, is flammable, volatile, and colorless. It has a characteristic odor. Ethanol has psychoactive properties. Other forms of alcohol also have such properties, but ethyl alcohol is considerably less toxic to humans than methanol or isopropanol. Ethanol Uses In addition to its recreational use, ethanol has many other applications. It is an important disinfectant and antiseptic. It is a common solvent, of particular use because it is miscible in both water and organic solvents. Ethanol is used for the synthesis of other organic compounds. Ethanol is a clean-burning fuel.

Saturday, October 19, 2019

Week 3 dq's Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Week 3 dq's - Essay Example Even though the number of shares increase, the total value of these shares remains the same thus resulting in no direct benefit. The benefit of stock splits is said to only lie in the future. A lower share value can bring the market share price to â€Å"an acceptable trading range† (Stickney, 2004, p. 545). The resulting higher trading volumes, more investors and continuing good performance of the company can potentially result in a higher stock price. Dividend Policy: The dividend policy varies from company to company. A company can give dividends in form of cash or more stock for each share owned, have a stock repurchase offer, a combination of both, or to retain earnings and not announce any distribution of profits. Each has its merits and demerits. Cash dividends incur higher tax rates and usually appeal to investors who are low-end taxpayers. Stock dividends, in which additional company shares are offered at a proportion of existing shares dilute the shares and bring no immediate benefit to the shareholder. They only allow the investor to merely have a potential of future higher net value. Purely from the shareholder’s perspective, stock repurchase can offer higher value to a large percentage of investors as the stock price increases after repurchase and if the investor sells, the money they gain by selling stocks falls in the lower capital gains tax bracket (Bierman, 2001, p. 112). Finally, companies that retain their earnings offer value by gaining shareholder confidence in its growth and thus a higher stock price. Sources of Venture Capital: Venture capital is offered by investors looking for unusually higher returns. They are willing to work with higher risks and invest in companies with perceived profits or growth. The money can come directly from these investors, specialized venture capital firms, investment banks or other financial or brokerage institutions with similar investment policies. VC’s Due Diligence: Venture capitalists,

Fresh Foods versus Canned Foods Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Fresh Foods versus Canned Foods - Essay Example People are also responsible for what they eat and know the impacts of food types towards their bodies. This essay is objected to compare and contrast the differences between canned foods and canned foods in order to demonstrate the point-by-point format of compare and contrast essays. Fresh foods are the foods that are ready for human consumption in their natural conditions, while canned foods undergo various processes to be prepared for consumption by humans. The main differences of fresh and canned foods are their nutritional and dietary benefits, flavors, costs, and quality. The major difference between the two foods is flavors. Fresh foods have great taste and flavor as compared to canned foods, since they keep their natural conditions when eaten. This is because canned foods are added with other chemicals to their natural conditions, or some nutrients reduced, making them to lose flavor. However, it is logical that fresh foods retain the great taste and flavor due to the time it is prepared for it to be consumed. Fresh foods such as fruits retain their natural taste and flavor, as compared to canned foods where they either lose or increase flavor and taste as can be noticed during consumption. When comparing the fresh and canned foods, there exists another difference of cost. Fresh foods are much cheaper than canned ones. This is because canned foods incur extra costs for processing and packaging them into branded tins and papers.

Friday, October 18, 2019

Knowledge Economy in The UK Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Knowledge Economy in The UK - Essay Example Knowledge as a 'product' has acquired many management executives to research it in a broad spectrum where its governance has become a major concern in building international strategy, innovation and performance. Knowledge as a 'tool' examines the outcomes of knowledge processes, and what we mean by knowledge economy is to make the best out of this 'tool'. Knowledge economy is a product of strategical organisational fields that possess the capability to fulfill human capital inputs by increasing number of technologies (Brusoni et al, 2001). At an institutional level knowledge economy defines various levels to which regional or organisational policies are shaped in context with economic regimes. With knowledge comes innovation and a knowledge-enabled organisational environment adopts and implements knowledge strategies and develops knowledge culture in order to sustain competitiveness in the long term. However, the extent to which a knowledge economy is possible depends upon the organisation's primary levels of knowledge and innovation it can sustain (Hyde & Mitchell, 2000). Under the heading of knowledge economy lies increasing competitive pressures which are the outcomes of deregulation and internalisation. Governing knowledge under strategic management has bee... of knowledge not limited in a specific cultural context, but entails cross-cultural origins where integrating effects within and between organisations are managed. Gratton et al (1999) suggests that various research measures on a knowledge economy are dependent upon the influences that are acquired through appropriate use of knowledge with expertise that brings credibility to the HR department (Gratton et al, 1999: 13). Strategic HRM Perspective of the Organisation The SHRM focuses on four main perspectives that question existence of the organisation for resource allocation, in-house limitations governed through market relations, internal organisation and labor markets and competitive advantage (Foss, 2005: 24-25). Though performance management (PM) initiates knowledge management (KM) by controlling and aligning the most competent individuals to deploy other workforce in the interests of organisations, but it follows some views to regulate performance. Firstly, it closely monitors employee performance and competencies to specify behaviors, skills and knowledge for employees. Then there are monitoring outputs that allows employers to decentralise control and finally there are high-velocity environments to assess employees contribution in various components of the PM system like goal setting, evaluation, training and development etc (Gratton et al, 1999: 61). The resource based perspective of SHRM is to visualise the capabilities of organisation in the light of a bundle of tangible and intangible resources required to sustain in the market competition. It is the management that analyses the accumulated stock of knowledge, skills and abilities that the organisation possess in terms of human resource (Mabey et al, 1998: 76). Since KM varies according to spatial

Best Practices Manual for New Supervisors Essay

Best Practices Manual for New Supervisors - Essay Example Supervisors may not be primarily responsible for all of the staffing activities, but they are usually involved in one or more of them. Thus, if supervisors are to be effective in the staffing function, they must understand each of these activities. How does one become a good supervisor Among the primary factors that distinguish supervisors from operative employees are the level and types of decisions that they must make. A supervisor must be concerned with how a decision might affect his or her employees and the organization. An operative employee, in contrast, is primarily concerned with how a decision affects him or her individually. People who don't like making decisions usually do not make good supervisors. The purpose of this chapter is to acquaint the supervisor with the activities and procedures of the staffing function. It also takes a look at the various training programs that best matches the selected workforce in an organization that is into production and another that is in retail business. Communication is an important factor in understanding and interpreting information between individuals and groups. A clear, precise and effective communication is what makes a person stand out in a crowd. It is best to talk to the point than describe in detail which could ultimately create a doubt in the mind of the listener. Effective communication determines how to influence negotiations more effectively and build confidence, staying in control when negotiating, and avoiding manipulation. Communication skills also include listening and empathy; Appreciative inquiry, a major breakthrough in organization development, training and development and in "problem solving," in general. Communication can also be non-verbal, that is, it could be also sign language. Good posture and clear language are hallmarks of good communication skills. It is imperative that any individual who believes in a good communication and shows real concern and respect for the other person's view listens with inte rest and care. During training, supervisors take it upon themselves to teach their trainees the art of proper communication. It must be understood that it is these same trainees who will be representing the organization while addressing customers. If an employee is found to be rude or uncooperative, customers will leave the company without doing any business, which is detrimental to the business. Thus, communication plays an important role in the development of business. 2.1 Technical Systems in Communication Another method of communication to enhance production is by the use of the electronic media. This could be termed as the "Productivity Paradox". To solve the productivity paradox (Brynjolfson [1993]) implied obtaining a better understanding of the relationship between the spread of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) and the organizational transformation of firms, markets and other

Thursday, October 17, 2019

Selection of a Case study organization (Attempt 1) Assignment

Selection of a Case study organization (Attempt 1) - Assignment Example From the very bottom line costs to the increases in service speed and reliability that deliver greater value to organizations and their customers, innovation actually stands at the epicenter of the strategic approaches adopted towards success in the 21st century. Bolstered by the rapid changes in the market structure that powers competition from almost every corner of the globe, organizational emphasis on external as well as internal collaboration as a gateway in accessing the right mechanisms of expediting the incorporation of new ideas is fundamental in leveling the playing field with larger competitors and the numerous aggressive startups. Amway, a direct-selling, family-run organization headquartered in Ada, Michigan, is a perfect sample organization that has grown from a lean structure to operationalize its services in 100 countries courtesy of the numerous radical shifts of strategy that brings on board â€Å"consumer needs, technology and business value† in their search for competitive advantage over the years since inception. A multi-level marketing company with over five decades in business, Amway has built numerous brands within its core product categories [nutrition, beauty, and home], managing to increase its annual revenues from a modest base to a whopping $11.3 billion in the financial year 2012 (APQC, 2013). At the heart of the company’s growth momentum is an innovation culture summarized as 5x5s; a â€Å"five minutes—five slide† presentation for all to showcase ideas for evaluation and further pursuit. Using an Open Innovation Business Model that majorly sources ideas from the external networks, Amway wields a great deal of freedom in pursuing powerful innovations that only serve to propel its strategic needs. The organization long recognized that it does not command as much resources as its forerunner-competitors in the industry, and thus devoted its