Whiskey & Gunpowder By Henry Daniels
December 8, 2010
Los Angeles, California, U.S.A.
As we head into the Holidays, with no signs that things are ever going to get better, some news was recently released that casts an interesting, and gloomy, light on why there are no jobs.
If there is one common theme I’ve heard from friends who still have jobs over the last two years, it’s that they are working harder than ever and making the same or less than they used to. Personally, I’m self-employed, and while I work 15 to 20 hour days, seven days a week, it hasn’t been in vain; the last two years have been my best ever.
Today, I heard a report on corporate profits and amazingly (or not) the quarter has been the most profitable in corporate history since they started keeping records on such things over 60 years ago.
The math is simple. If a corporation can get by with 50 to 65 percent fewer employees while holding production steady, they will make a lot more money. So what if people have to work two or three times harder than they did a few years ago? If they don’t like it, there are ten people standing in line to take their place.
This means there’s no incentive for corporations to hire. None. At least not until one of three watershed events occur.
The first watershed will be when the workers productivity starts to falter. The truth is that the only way work is getting done on time these days is because the workers are forced to take shortcuts to meet deadlines and quotas. It is already showing up in the quality of products, things are not made as well or last as long as they did just a few years ago. The failure rate is getting alarming on car parts, computer components, and customer service.
The second watershed event will be when the workers decide they are tired of being exploited, and if anyone else wants their job they’re welcome to it. We will see worker slowdowns similar to those popular in Europe. Suddenly, corporate profits will be jeopardized.
The third watershed event will be when corporations no longer have anyone left to sell to. In other words, if the number of unemployed keeps rising, at some point there will no longer be anyone left to buy things until they get employed again. At this point corporate survival will dictate the need to hire people if only to continue selling their products.
Last week, we talked about how one of our first indications of where things are going would be the Black Friday and Cyber Monday’s sales figures. By all accounts, sales this year were basically flat compared to last year. This argues quite forcibly that status quo is where we are stuck for a while.
My guess is we won’t see new jobs for at least a year, maybe two. There will be no trickle down job creation. It’s going to take something more visceral to stimulate job creation.
We’ve become a nation fixated on short-term quotas while we ignore the long-term consequences of such actions. I’ve never held that to be a way to run anything: not your life, not your personal finances, not corporate policy.
Regards,
Henry Daniels
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~External Advertisement~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
There’s a brilliant documentary entitled “The Fall of America and the Western World.” It not only predicted this mess we’re in, it offers real-world solutions that will enable you to survive the grim future we face.
This hard-hitting, thought-provoking documentary features nine hours of uncensored conversations with Joseph Farah, Naomi Wolf, Doug Casey, Dr. Paul Craig Roberts, professor Mark Crispin Miller, Alex Jones, David Icke, Mickey Z, David McAlvany, Doug McIntyre, G. Edward Griffin and Ken Klein. If you listen to them and follow their advice, you’ll be prepared for whatever lies ahead….
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
First, a correction…
Remember this letter from last time?
“I think you guys are becoming the most left-leaning rag on the net. Get a life or get out if you dislike America. These are some of the [most] leftist-leaning articles I have ever read. Are you guys commies or just deep-seeded socialists?”
Seems we got the guy all wrong. He followed up with an email to express his shock at how I used his letter.
“I thought I clearly stated in the subject line that I was referring to Samantha Buker’s anti-Christian article. If I didn’t, then my mistake. I did like your comments after Black’s article.”
There was truly no indication in the email that the comments were directed at Sam, who sits mere feet away from the Whiskey Bar. The editors at The Daily Reckoning snapped her article before I could. So I wasn’t expecting any heat from it.
Anyway, I promised the reader I’d clear up the confusion.
Now, about those taxes…
“I’m as opposed to the high-end tax cuts today as I’ve been for years. In the long run, we simply can’t afford them.”
— Barack Hussein Obama, 2010
“Gimme yo’ damn money, rich boy!”
— Barack Hussein Obama, 2012
Barack is trying to be polite about it right now, but make no mistake: He fully believes that the more money one makes, the more one should be forking over to people in nice suits who have no idea how to make an honest buck…
And he warns that come 2012, somebody is going to be upping their government tithes… or else…
From The Associated Press:
“‘If we don't get my option through the Senate right now and we do nothing, then on Jan. 1 of this 2011, the average family is going to see their taxes go up about $3,000,’ [Obama] warned.
“‘At any given juncture, there are going to be times where my preferred option, what I'm absolutely positive is right, I can't get done,’ the U.S. president said, stabbing his finger for emphasis.
“‘And so then my question is does it make sense for me to tack a little bit this way or tack a little bit that way because I'm keeping my eye on the long term and the long fight.’”
I got your long fight right here, Barack…
Tax Revolt: The Rebellion Against an Overbearing, Bloated, Arrogant, and Abusive Government
A powerful rallying cry to all Americans to continue to fight against ever-increasing taxes…
By exploring the crippling effects of taxes on our economy and the lives of each individual citizen and drawing from the stories of other revolts, Phil Valentine will anger and incite readers to action, giving them the motivation and know-how to spread the word and activate a powerful new revolution.
At the Whiskey Bar, we’ve never met a tax cut we didn’t like. In the spirit of tax revolt, we’re offering a discount on this book if you order it by clicking here.
It’s normally $24.95, but if you enter in the discount code TAX2011, then you’ll get $5 off. So be sure to order your copy right now.
Regards,
Gary Gibson
Managing Editor, Whiskey & Gunpowder
P.S.: As always, after you get the book, be sure to drop me a line about it: gary@whiskeyandgunpowder.com. We’re moving the Bar into the corner of this very nice bookstore, and there will be a lot of reading to do and a lot to discuss.
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
Evidence for ET is mounting daily, but not proven
By SETH BORENSTEIN.....WASHINGTON — Lately, a handful of new discoveries make it seem more likely that we are not alone — that there is life somewhere else in universe.
In the past several days, scientists have reported there are three times as many stars as they previously thought. Another group of researchers discovered a microbe can live on arsenic, expanding our understanding of how life can thrive under the harshest environments. And earlier this year, astronomers for the first time said they'd found a potentially habitable planet.
"The evidence is just getting stronger and stronger," said Carl Pilcher, director of NASA's Astrobiology Institute, which studies the origins, evolution and possibilities of life in the universe. "I think anybody looking at this evidence is going to say, 'There's got to be life out there.'"
A caveat: Since much of this research is new, scientists are still debating how solid the conclusions are.
Another reason to not get too excited is that the search for life starts small — microscopically small — and then looks to evolution for more. The first signs of life elsewhere are more likely to be closer to slime mold than to ET. It can evolve from there.
Scientists have an equation that calculates the odds of civilized life on another planet. But much of it includes factors that are pure guesswork on less-than-astronomical factors, such as the likelihood of the evolution of intelligence and how long civilizations last. Stripped to its simplistic core — with the requirement for intelligence and civilization removed — the calculations hinge on two basic factors: How many places out there can support life? And how hard is it for life to take root?
Alien Life Living Among Us?
What last week's findings did was both increase the number of potential homes for life and broaden the definition of what life is. That means the probability for alien life is higher than ever before, agree 10 scientists interviewed by The Associated Press.
Seth Shostak, senior astronomer at the SETI Institute in California, ticks off the astronomical findings about planet abundance and Earthbound discoveries about life's hardiness. "All of these have gone in the direction of encouraging life out there and they didn't have to."
Scientists who looked for life were once dismissed as working on the fringes of science. Now, Shostak said, it's the other way around. He said that given the mounting evidence, to believe now that Earth is the only place harboring life is essentially like believing in miracles. "And astronomers tend not to believe in miracles."
Astronomers, however, do believe in proof. They don't have proof of life yet. There's no green alien or even a bacterium that scientists can point to and say it's alive and alien. Even that arsenic-munching microbe discovered in Mono Lake in California isn't truly alien. It was manipulated in the lab.
But, says NASA astrobiologist Chris McKay, who has worked on searches for life on Mars and extreme places on Earth, "There are real things we can point to and show that being optimistic about life elsewhere is not silly."
First, there's the basic question of where such life might exist. Until a few years ago, astronomers thought life was only likely to be found on or around planets circling stars like our sun. So that's where the search of life focused — on stars like ours.
That left out the universe's most common stars: red dwarfs, which are smaller than our sun and dimmer. Up to 90 percent of the stars in the universe are red dwarf stars. And astronomers assumed planets circling them would be devoid of life.
But three years ago, NASA got the top experts in the field together. They crunched numbers and realized that life could exist on planets orbiting red dwarfs. The planets would have to be closer to their star and wouldn't rotate as quickly as Earth. The scientists considered habitability and found conditions near these small stars wouldn't be similar to Earth but would still be acceptable for life.
That didn't just open up billions of new worlds, but many, many times that.
Last week, a Yale University astronomer said he estimates there are 300 sextillion stars — triple the previous number. Lisa Kaltenegger of Harvard University says scientists now believe that as many as half the stars in our galaxy have planets that are two to 10 times the size of Earth — "super Earths" which might sustain life.
Then the question is how many of those are in the so-called Goldilocks zone — not too hot, not too cold. The discovery of such a planet was announced in April, although some scientists are challenging that.
The other half of the equation is: How likely is life? Over the past decade and a half, scientists have found Earth life growing in acid, in Antarctica and other extreme environments. But nothing topped last week's news of a lake bacterium that scientists could train to thrive on arsenic instead of phosphorous. Six major elements have long been considered essential for life — carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus and sulfur. This changed that definition of life.
By making life more likely in extreme places, it increases the number of planets that are potential homes for life, said Kaltenegger, who also works at the Max Planck Institute in Germany.
Donald Brownlee, an astronomer at the University of Washington, is less optimistic because he believes what's likely to be out there is not going to be easy to find — or that meaningful. If it's out there, he said, it's likely microbes that can't be seen easily from great distances. Also, the different geologic and atmospheric forces on planets may keep life from evolving into something complex or intelligent, he said.
If life is going to be found, Mars is the most likely candidate. And any life is probably underground where there is water, astronomers say. Other possibilities include Jupiter's moon Europa and Saturn's moons Enceladus and Titan.
There's also a chance that a telescope could spot a planet with an atmosphere that suggests photosynthesis is occurring, Kaltenegger said. And then there's the possibility of finding alien life on Earth, perhaps in a meteorite, or something with an entirely different set of DNA.
And finally, advanced aliens could find us or we could hear their radio transmissions, McKay said. That's what the SETI Institute is about, listening for intelligent life.
That's where Shostak puts his money behind his optimism. At his public lectures, Shostak bets a cup of coffee for everyone in the audience that scientists will find proof of alien life by about 2026. The odds, he figures, have never been more in his favor.
___
Online:
NASA Astrobiology Institute: http://astrobiology.nasa.gov/
SETI Institute: http://www.seti.org/
In the past several days, scientists have reported there are three times as many stars as they previously thought. Another group of researchers discovered a microbe can live on arsenic, expanding our understanding of how life can thrive under the harshest environments. And earlier this year, astronomers for the first time said they'd found a potentially habitable planet.
"The evidence is just getting stronger and stronger," said Carl Pilcher, director of NASA's Astrobiology Institute, which studies the origins, evolution and possibilities of life in the universe. "I think anybody looking at this evidence is going to say, 'There's got to be life out there.'"
A caveat: Since much of this research is new, scientists are still debating how solid the conclusions are.
Another reason to not get too excited is that the search for life starts small — microscopically small — and then looks to evolution for more. The first signs of life elsewhere are more likely to be closer to slime mold than to ET. It can evolve from there.
Scientists have an equation that calculates the odds of civilized life on another planet. But much of it includes factors that are pure guesswork on less-than-astronomical factors, such as the likelihood of the evolution of intelligence and how long civilizations last. Stripped to its simplistic core — with the requirement for intelligence and civilization removed — the calculations hinge on two basic factors: How many places out there can support life? And how hard is it for life to take root?
Alien Life Living Among Us?
What last week's findings did was both increase the number of potential homes for life and broaden the definition of what life is. That means the probability for alien life is higher than ever before, agree 10 scientists interviewed by The Associated Press.
Seth Shostak, senior astronomer at the SETI Institute in California, ticks off the astronomical findings about planet abundance and Earthbound discoveries about life's hardiness. "All of these have gone in the direction of encouraging life out there and they didn't have to."
Scientists who looked for life were once dismissed as working on the fringes of science. Now, Shostak said, it's the other way around. He said that given the mounting evidence, to believe now that Earth is the only place harboring life is essentially like believing in miracles. "And astronomers tend not to believe in miracles."
Astronomers, however, do believe in proof. They don't have proof of life yet. There's no green alien or even a bacterium that scientists can point to and say it's alive and alien. Even that arsenic-munching microbe discovered in Mono Lake in California isn't truly alien. It was manipulated in the lab.
But, says NASA astrobiologist Chris McKay, who has worked on searches for life on Mars and extreme places on Earth, "There are real things we can point to and show that being optimistic about life elsewhere is not silly."
First, there's the basic question of where such life might exist. Until a few years ago, astronomers thought life was only likely to be found on or around planets circling stars like our sun. So that's where the search of life focused — on stars like ours.
That left out the universe's most common stars: red dwarfs, which are smaller than our sun and dimmer. Up to 90 percent of the stars in the universe are red dwarf stars. And astronomers assumed planets circling them would be devoid of life.
But three years ago, NASA got the top experts in the field together. They crunched numbers and realized that life could exist on planets orbiting red dwarfs. The planets would have to be closer to their star and wouldn't rotate as quickly as Earth. The scientists considered habitability and found conditions near these small stars wouldn't be similar to Earth but would still be acceptable for life.
That didn't just open up billions of new worlds, but many, many times that.
Last week, a Yale University astronomer said he estimates there are 300 sextillion stars — triple the previous number. Lisa Kaltenegger of Harvard University says scientists now believe that as many as half the stars in our galaxy have planets that are two to 10 times the size of Earth — "super Earths" which might sustain life.
Then the question is how many of those are in the so-called Goldilocks zone — not too hot, not too cold. The discovery of such a planet was announced in April, although some scientists are challenging that.
The other half of the equation is: How likely is life? Over the past decade and a half, scientists have found Earth life growing in acid, in Antarctica and other extreme environments. But nothing topped last week's news of a lake bacterium that scientists could train to thrive on arsenic instead of phosphorous. Six major elements have long been considered essential for life — carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus and sulfur. This changed that definition of life.
By making life more likely in extreme places, it increases the number of planets that are potential homes for life, said Kaltenegger, who also works at the Max Planck Institute in Germany.
Donald Brownlee, an astronomer at the University of Washington, is less optimistic because he believes what's likely to be out there is not going to be easy to find — or that meaningful. If it's out there, he said, it's likely microbes that can't be seen easily from great distances. Also, the different geologic and atmospheric forces on planets may keep life from evolving into something complex or intelligent, he said.
If life is going to be found, Mars is the most likely candidate. And any life is probably underground where there is water, astronomers say. Other possibilities include Jupiter's moon Europa and Saturn's moons Enceladus and Titan.
There's also a chance that a telescope could spot a planet with an atmosphere that suggests photosynthesis is occurring, Kaltenegger said. And then there's the possibility of finding alien life on Earth, perhaps in a meteorite, or something with an entirely different set of DNA.
And finally, advanced aliens could find us or we could hear their radio transmissions, McKay said. That's what the SETI Institute is about, listening for intelligent life.
That's where Shostak puts his money behind his optimism. At his public lectures, Shostak bets a cup of coffee for everyone in the audience that scientists will find proof of alien life by about 2026. The odds, he figures, have never been more in his favor.
___
Online:
NASA Astrobiology Institute: http://astrobiology.nasa.gov/
SETI Institute: http://www.seti.org/
Friday, November 19, 2010
Facebook and Consumer Learning Process
A great deal of successful marketing today depends on closely understanding consumer behavior. As a marketer, you may always be curious to understand what excites or motivates your customers into buying either your products or those of your competitor. Depending on the buying and consumption cycle of your product, there can be several factors that will determine the sales conversion ratio for your product.
Toward Right Learning
A successful sale happens when your customer understands his need and is convinced that your product can satisfy that need in a reliable way. Both these steps happen through a process, which is known as learning. Hence as a marketer, your job begins by ensuring that the customer perceives his need and, more importantly, finds the solution in your product
Right Learning and Right Conversations
At this very moment, you may be reading this article on your laptop or desktop. Remember the day when you had decided to buy your first computer. You must have considered many factors before finalizing which computer to purchase. One of the important decision points for a buyer is his circle of reference. It is natural for you, as a buyer, to discuss with your informed friends about the best brand. Positive references from friends and acquaintances help one make a decision.
How has Facebook changed all of this?
Research has shown that buyers do a great deal of product research on the Internet and most of the time choose to purchase the product either online or offline. The power of the Internet as a research and information resource has been realized to a great extent by customers worldwide.
The basics of consumer behavior, learning, reference groups, and buying decisions have remained exactly the same. But what has changed significantly is the speed with which everything happens. Technology has brought down the barriers in global communication. Social networking sites, and more importantly the rising popularity of Facebook, bears a strong testimony to the growing power of the Internet as a mode of communication and a source of information.
Before and After Facebook
Like we discussed, most of the learning before the proliferation of Facebook and social media happened through advertisements on television. During the days of conventional media dominance, marketing was driven by the power to broadcast. Marketing communication was primarily unidirectional through blaring advertisements and press releases.
Word of mouth happened on a one-on-one basis, where the conversation would begin and end around a small group of people. Today, a search on your favorite brand on Facebook may reveal many conversations about the brand, which may depict user’s positive or negative experiences with the brand. Unlike the clandestine brand gossip of earlier days, the Facebook era ensures that conversations are documented and made easily available through social networking sites.
Brands trying to ignore this new medium find themselves in a state similar to an ostrich, with its head buried in sand, thinking the world cannot see it. The real image of the brand in people’s minds shows up aloud these days through conversations on Facebook.
These dumb kids on Facebook made $119,833.57
Facebook and Online Reputation
The power of Facebook, as discussed, has extended the scope of Word of Mouth beyond the good old conversation between friends. Today, each and every Facebook user is free to publish his views on your brand. The true effect of this happens whenever these conversations appear in searches and influence people’s opinion about the brand image. This is where online reputation, primarily on a widely accepted medium like Facebook, matters.
In a nutshell..
Managing a positive image of your brand requires you to expand your reach, more than what you would do in case of conventional media. The conversational nature of social networking sites, such as Facebook, demands a different approach. Unlike one-time broadcast by the conventional medium, Facebook stores each and every conversation and makes it available through the search option for anyone who is curious to know more about your brand.
That is the reason why it is a critical part of any brand plan to feature positively on social networking sites, such as Facebook. Engaging consultants who have experience in managing brands through the new era of social networks is a growing practice that can help brands manage the new wave.
Get more information here for the best Facebook training available.
Toward Right Learning
A successful sale happens when your customer understands his need and is convinced that your product can satisfy that need in a reliable way. Both these steps happen through a process, which is known as learning. Hence as a marketer, your job begins by ensuring that the customer perceives his need and, more importantly, finds the solution in your product
Right Learning and Right Conversations
At this very moment, you may be reading this article on your laptop or desktop. Remember the day when you had decided to buy your first computer. You must have considered many factors before finalizing which computer to purchase. One of the important decision points for a buyer is his circle of reference. It is natural for you, as a buyer, to discuss with your informed friends about the best brand. Positive references from friends and acquaintances help one make a decision.
How has Facebook changed all of this?
Research has shown that buyers do a great deal of product research on the Internet and most of the time choose to purchase the product either online or offline. The power of the Internet as a research and information resource has been realized to a great extent by customers worldwide.
The basics of consumer behavior, learning, reference groups, and buying decisions have remained exactly the same. But what has changed significantly is the speed with which everything happens. Technology has brought down the barriers in global communication. Social networking sites, and more importantly the rising popularity of Facebook, bears a strong testimony to the growing power of the Internet as a mode of communication and a source of information.
Before and After Facebook
Like we discussed, most of the learning before the proliferation of Facebook and social media happened through advertisements on television. During the days of conventional media dominance, marketing was driven by the power to broadcast. Marketing communication was primarily unidirectional through blaring advertisements and press releases.
Word of mouth happened on a one-on-one basis, where the conversation would begin and end around a small group of people. Today, a search on your favorite brand on Facebook may reveal many conversations about the brand, which may depict user’s positive or negative experiences with the brand. Unlike the clandestine brand gossip of earlier days, the Facebook era ensures that conversations are documented and made easily available through social networking sites.
Brands trying to ignore this new medium find themselves in a state similar to an ostrich, with its head buried in sand, thinking the world cannot see it. The real image of the brand in people’s minds shows up aloud these days through conversations on Facebook.
These dumb kids on Facebook made $119,833.57
Facebook and Online Reputation
The power of Facebook, as discussed, has extended the scope of Word of Mouth beyond the good old conversation between friends. Today, each and every Facebook user is free to publish his views on your brand. The true effect of this happens whenever these conversations appear in searches and influence people’s opinion about the brand image. This is where online reputation, primarily on a widely accepted medium like Facebook, matters.
In a nutshell..
Managing a positive image of your brand requires you to expand your reach, more than what you would do in case of conventional media. The conversational nature of social networking sites, such as Facebook, demands a different approach. Unlike one-time broadcast by the conventional medium, Facebook stores each and every conversation and makes it available through the search option for anyone who is curious to know more about your brand.
That is the reason why it is a critical part of any brand plan to feature positively on social networking sites, such as Facebook. Engaging consultants who have experience in managing brands through the new era of social networks is a growing practice that can help brands manage the new wave.
Get more information here for the best Facebook training available.
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Facebook and Social Media - The Next Marketing Opportunity
Marketing as an activity is all about reaching the right customers with the right products, and the result sought is delighted customers who are more than willing to open their purses wide enough to boost your revenues. For many years, marketers stalked their target customers through various means and by trying to get their message across to spread awareness about their wares.
Traditional Means of Communication
Traditionally, marketing communications were conducted via print, broadcast and such traditional media through disruptive advertising, where advertisements appear in between the content of interest for the customer.
Traditional media does give a large reach to a marketer with its programming of mass appeal. However, the wastage is equally high, since a large portion of the audience would belong to a different segment than the one that is to be targeted by the marketer.
Enter Social Media and the Internet
The revolution stirred by the internet as a medium took place because of the fact that it is highly personalized and provides more content on-demand than any other available medium. Social sites proliferated far and wide in their usage for a few simple reasons:
The power to create and distribute content is equally available to every user, irrespective of him/her being a customer or a marketer. In the earlier forms of media, that power rested with the editorial staff of the channel or the advertiser, but hardly ever with the user.
The medium is completely personalized, and a user can create or join groups and further create content based on what he/she likes.
Opinions are free and fair. This is one reason why social media is of utmost concern to marketers, since buying decisions are no more influenced as much by advertisements. The traditional word-of-mouth marketing approach has grown leaps and bounds on social networks.
Facebook – At the Center of Social Media
With 500 million (and growing) unique users worldwide, Facebook is the number one social networking site in terms of activity and subscriptions. What started as a garage initiative by Mark Zuckerberg has now become the biggest phenomenon on the internet.
A user interface that allows for quick communication and the ability to create fan pages and groups at the click of a mouse button are what make Facebook extremely popular. Another important reason for its immense popularity is the wide variety of social applications that have been developed and made available within the Facebook environment.
These applications can allow users and friends to do joint activities like playing games that run endlessly, sharing photos, videos, and web links, and many more.
How does this help a marketer?
Traditionally, media plans were drawn to include television channels, publications, or any other media that can grab maximum eyeballs and effectively reach a selected target audience. The science of segmentation and targeting has become only more accurate in the case of social media.
Facebook provides a wide variety of avenues to communicate with the audience, which opens up an entirely different world of possibilities to have a fruitful dialogue with customers. Some of these methods used popularly by marketers are:
Get more information here for the best Facebook training available
Advertising: The first opportunity, which is the most obvious one, is advertising on Facebook. The difference, however, is the fact that you can create your own advertisement in a matter of minutes and also specify the details of your target group in terms of demographics and types of discussions where you want your advertisement to appear.
Fan Pages: Facebook allows every brand, as well as individual users, to create fan pages for their favorite celebrities and their own homegrown businesses. Large brands have also created their official pages on Facebook that have a huge, immediate fan following around the world. The fan page has immense utility to convey first hand information about the brand and also to collect immediate and frank feedback from your customers.
Branded applications: One of the most effective ways to engage a user toward your brand is by creating an application; this could be a game or a contest, with your branding coming across subtly through it.
What makes Facebook even more exciting is the way it allows you to target your communication sharply just to the customer segment you want to attract. It also provides analytics and page insights that give good feedback and measurement on the activity done.
The options provided by Facebook can be creatively explored and used judiciously for bringing about maximum benefits to any brand.
However, while doing all this, you need to be aware of the fact that customers have an equal say and have the ability to respond immediately to any of your actions with a thumbs up or a thumbs down. Availing the service of a social media consultant to work out a social media strategy may be required so that your efforts will not be in vain.
Get more information here for the best Facebook training available
Traditional Means of Communication
Traditionally, marketing communications were conducted via print, broadcast and such traditional media through disruptive advertising, where advertisements appear in between the content of interest for the customer.
Traditional media does give a large reach to a marketer with its programming of mass appeal. However, the wastage is equally high, since a large portion of the audience would belong to a different segment than the one that is to be targeted by the marketer.
Enter Social Media and the Internet
The revolution stirred by the internet as a medium took place because of the fact that it is highly personalized and provides more content on-demand than any other available medium. Social sites proliferated far and wide in their usage for a few simple reasons:
The power to create and distribute content is equally available to every user, irrespective of him/her being a customer or a marketer. In the earlier forms of media, that power rested with the editorial staff of the channel or the advertiser, but hardly ever with the user.
The medium is completely personalized, and a user can create or join groups and further create content based on what he/she likes.
Opinions are free and fair. This is one reason why social media is of utmost concern to marketers, since buying decisions are no more influenced as much by advertisements. The traditional word-of-mouth marketing approach has grown leaps and bounds on social networks.
Facebook – At the Center of Social Media
With 500 million (and growing) unique users worldwide, Facebook is the number one social networking site in terms of activity and subscriptions. What started as a garage initiative by Mark Zuckerberg has now become the biggest phenomenon on the internet.
A user interface that allows for quick communication and the ability to create fan pages and groups at the click of a mouse button are what make Facebook extremely popular. Another important reason for its immense popularity is the wide variety of social applications that have been developed and made available within the Facebook environment.
These applications can allow users and friends to do joint activities like playing games that run endlessly, sharing photos, videos, and web links, and many more.
How does this help a marketer?
Traditionally, media plans were drawn to include television channels, publications, or any other media that can grab maximum eyeballs and effectively reach a selected target audience. The science of segmentation and targeting has become only more accurate in the case of social media.
Facebook provides a wide variety of avenues to communicate with the audience, which opens up an entirely different world of possibilities to have a fruitful dialogue with customers. Some of these methods used popularly by marketers are:
Get more information here for the best Facebook training available
Advertising: The first opportunity, which is the most obvious one, is advertising on Facebook. The difference, however, is the fact that you can create your own advertisement in a matter of minutes and also specify the details of your target group in terms of demographics and types of discussions where you want your advertisement to appear.
Fan Pages: Facebook allows every brand, as well as individual users, to create fan pages for their favorite celebrities and their own homegrown businesses. Large brands have also created their official pages on Facebook that have a huge, immediate fan following around the world. The fan page has immense utility to convey first hand information about the brand and also to collect immediate and frank feedback from your customers.
Branded applications: One of the most effective ways to engage a user toward your brand is by creating an application; this could be a game or a contest, with your branding coming across subtly through it.
What makes Facebook even more exciting is the way it allows you to target your communication sharply just to the customer segment you want to attract. It also provides analytics and page insights that give good feedback and measurement on the activity done.
The options provided by Facebook can be creatively explored and used judiciously for bringing about maximum benefits to any brand.
However, while doing all this, you need to be aware of the fact that customers have an equal say and have the ability to respond immediately to any of your actions with a thumbs up or a thumbs down. Availing the service of a social media consultant to work out a social media strategy may be required so that your efforts will not be in vain.
Get more information here for the best Facebook training available
Thursday, October 21, 2010
Fight Corporate Offshoring of U.S. Jobs - Free Trade = Job Loss
Corporate offshoring of American jobs to low-wage countries has become one of the defining issues of the 2010 elections.
Even The Wall Street Journal—not exactly a cornerstone of the supposed “liberal media”—just published a survey with some revealing results about who and what is to blame for our nation’s poor economy:
86% of Americans believe that offshoring of jobs by U.S. companies contributed to our sluggish economy.
Nearly 7 out of 10 people—an all time high—say that “free trade” agreements with other countries cost us jobs here at home.
Over three-quarters of Americans consider corporate profit-seeking a factor in the downturn.
This is not news to you, or to Public Citizen. Time and time again, we have proven that flawed trade policies and blind corporate greed are eroding the U.S. economy.
Now, our Global Trade Watch team has launched an innovative, interactive website to give you the knowledge to be a more informed voter by seeing the full impact the corporate pursuit of profits has on jobs, the environment and our communities.
Check out Public Citizen’s Trade Data Center.
This powerful new tool is just the latest example of the tremendous amount of research, education and advocacy that Public Citizen does to expose and counteract policies that benefit mega-corporations at the expense of We, the People.
This powerful new tool is just the latest example of the tremendous amount of research, education and advocacy that Public Citizen does to expose and counteract policies that benefit mega-corporations at the expense of We, the People.
Lost jobs. Corporate greed. Of course these are the issues you care about. And Nobody is more committed to reforming the failed trade regime and challenging runaway corporate power than Public Citizen.
With your support, Public Citizen can continue developing resources like the Trade Data Center and fighting for policies that benefit all of us, not just the multinationals.
Onward!
Robert Weissman, President
To get regular e-alerts about opportunities for activism and other ways to help with Public Citizen's work, sign up for the Public Citizen Action Network.
Even The Wall Street Journal—not exactly a cornerstone of the supposed “liberal media”—just published a survey with some revealing results about who and what is to blame for our nation’s poor economy:
86% of Americans believe that offshoring of jobs by U.S. companies contributed to our sluggish economy.
Nearly 7 out of 10 people—an all time high—say that “free trade” agreements with other countries cost us jobs here at home.
Over three-quarters of Americans consider corporate profit-seeking a factor in the downturn.
This is not news to you, or to Public Citizen. Time and time again, we have proven that flawed trade policies and blind corporate greed are eroding the U.S. economy.
Now, our Global Trade Watch team has launched an innovative, interactive website to give you the knowledge to be a more informed voter by seeing the full impact the corporate pursuit of profits has on jobs, the environment and our communities.
Check out Public Citizen’s Trade Data Center.
This powerful new tool is just the latest example of the tremendous amount of research, education and advocacy that Public Citizen does to expose and counteract policies that benefit mega-corporations at the expense of We, the People.
This powerful new tool is just the latest example of the tremendous amount of research, education and advocacy that Public Citizen does to expose and counteract policies that benefit mega-corporations at the expense of We, the People.
Lost jobs. Corporate greed. Of course these are the issues you care about. And Nobody is more committed to reforming the failed trade regime and challenging runaway corporate power than Public Citizen.
With your support, Public Citizen can continue developing resources like the Trade Data Center and fighting for policies that benefit all of us, not just the multinationals.
Onward!
Robert Weissman, President
To get regular e-alerts about opportunities for activism and other ways to help with Public Citizen's work, sign up for the Public Citizen Action Network.
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
A Really Bad Day for Maliki, the Prime Minister of Iraq
No matter how bad a day you’re having, it’s probably not as bad as the day Nouri al-Maliki is having.
Maliki is the prime minister of Iraq. He wants very much to remain prime minister of Iraq, but he’s having trouble forming a coalition that can make up a majority of parliament. He’s been trying ever since indecisive elections last March -- seven months ago -- a world record, the BBC reckons.
You knew the job was dangerous when you took it…
On a visit to Tehran today, Maliki was told he must “get rid of America” and the 50,000 remaining U.S. troops in his country. So said Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
He’s the real power in Iran, in contrast to the blowhard president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who grabs all the headlines but doesn’t even command the military.
Maliki will take this seriously. For one thing, he lived in exile in Iran during Saddam Hussein’s rule. On the other hand, he’s well aware he wouldn’t be prime minister now if the United States had never invaded Iraq. It’s hard to serve two masters.
Now he has to make a choice. Two weeks ago, Iran convinced another faction in Iraq to back Maliki’s bid to remain prime minister. It happens that Washington insists this faction be kept out of the coalition because it insists on the departure of U.S. troops.
Maliki’s 4½-year balancing act between the United States and Iran is coming to a head. This is the choice he now faces…
Side with Iran and form a viable governing coalition
Side with the United States and allow a seven-month crisis to drag into perpetuity, undermining his legitimacy among ordinary Iraqis
No. 1 seems like a slam-dunk. It’s an outcome Washington won’t like but nonetheless can live with. The Bush administration already negotiated an agreement under which all the U.S. troops are gone by the end of next year. That gives the current administration political cover.
Still, come the end of next year, we can just imagine the cries: “Who lost Iraq?” That is, how did the U.S. invasion manage to strengthen Iran’s hand in the Middle East?
We won’t wade into that political thicket. We’ll just note that Iran sees itself as a sort of godfather to all Shia Muslims. And now they’re allied with an oil-rich country next door where 60% of the population is Shia.
“Iran's Shia influence,” says Byron King, “has spilled across the border into southern Iraq. Southern Iraq is where you'll find six of Iraq's eight ‘supergiant’ oil fields. It's also where you'll find a key border with Shia Islam's mortal enemy -- Saudi Arabia.”
If that sounds like a recipe for conflict, you’re right. It could easily push oil to $125 a barrel… and, if it really spirals out of control, $200 or more. Byron paints an all-too-believable scenario in a fully revised and updated version of his presentation on the subject. He also shows you how to safeguard your investments when the day comes.
Regards,
Addison Wiggin
The 5 Min. Forecast
Thank you for reading The 5 Min. Forecast! We greatly value your questions and comments. Please send all feedback to 5minforecast@agorafinancial.com
Maliki is the prime minister of Iraq. He wants very much to remain prime minister of Iraq, but he’s having trouble forming a coalition that can make up a majority of parliament. He’s been trying ever since indecisive elections last March -- seven months ago -- a world record, the BBC reckons.
You knew the job was dangerous when you took it…
On a visit to Tehran today, Maliki was told he must “get rid of America” and the 50,000 remaining U.S. troops in his country. So said Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
He’s the real power in Iran, in contrast to the blowhard president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who grabs all the headlines but doesn’t even command the military.
Maliki will take this seriously. For one thing, he lived in exile in Iran during Saddam Hussein’s rule. On the other hand, he’s well aware he wouldn’t be prime minister now if the United States had never invaded Iraq. It’s hard to serve two masters.
Now he has to make a choice. Two weeks ago, Iran convinced another faction in Iraq to back Maliki’s bid to remain prime minister. It happens that Washington insists this faction be kept out of the coalition because it insists on the departure of U.S. troops.
Maliki’s 4½-year balancing act between the United States and Iran is coming to a head. This is the choice he now faces…
Side with Iran and form a viable governing coalition
Side with the United States and allow a seven-month crisis to drag into perpetuity, undermining his legitimacy among ordinary Iraqis
No. 1 seems like a slam-dunk. It’s an outcome Washington won’t like but nonetheless can live with. The Bush administration already negotiated an agreement under which all the U.S. troops are gone by the end of next year. That gives the current administration political cover.
Still, come the end of next year, we can just imagine the cries: “Who lost Iraq?” That is, how did the U.S. invasion manage to strengthen Iran’s hand in the Middle East?
We won’t wade into that political thicket. We’ll just note that Iran sees itself as a sort of godfather to all Shia Muslims. And now they’re allied with an oil-rich country next door where 60% of the population is Shia.
“Iran's Shia influence,” says Byron King, “has spilled across the border into southern Iraq. Southern Iraq is where you'll find six of Iraq's eight ‘supergiant’ oil fields. It's also where you'll find a key border with Shia Islam's mortal enemy -- Saudi Arabia.”
If that sounds like a recipe for conflict, you’re right. It could easily push oil to $125 a barrel… and, if it really spirals out of control, $200 or more. Byron paints an all-too-believable scenario in a fully revised and updated version of his presentation on the subject. He also shows you how to safeguard your investments when the day comes.
Regards,
Addison Wiggin
The 5 Min. Forecast
Thank you for reading The 5 Min. Forecast! We greatly value your questions and comments. Please send all feedback to 5minforecast@agorafinancial.com
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Save the U.S. Senate from Corporate Domination Sponsored by Republicans
There's no point in sugarcoating this: If the election were held today, Republicans and their corporate benefactors would gain control of the House—and quite possibly the Senate.
That's the nightmare scenario. It would spell an end to any hope of progress in the next two years—and quite possibly to Obama's presidency.
But there are three key races that Republicans would have to win to take the Senate, and all are tied. Meaning, they're close enough for us to tip the balance. We need to help these Democratic candidates raise enough money to get their message out—despite all the corporate ads targeting them—and run serious get-out-the-vote efforts.
This is a true emergency: We must stop the Republicans from taking over the Senate. There's a critical fundraising deadline at midnight tonight.
Please, make the most generous contribution you can afford, immediately
Here are the three progressive candidates in tight races who need our help right now:
We're adding Alexi Giannoulias in Illinois to our Progressive Heroes list today because he's locked in a tight race for President Obama's old Senate seat, and because he's running a populist campaign focused on taking on the corporate special interests and cleaning up Washington, D.C. This is the closest race in the country: Every poll in this race for the past two months has been tied.
Sen. Patty Murray is the highest-ranking Democratic woman in the Senate. She supported the public option and the fight for clean energy jobs, and has worked with other pro-choice Democratic women senators to eliminate egregious gender disparities in insurance coverage. Her Republican challenger significantly out-raised her in the last three months, and Murray needs our help to win.
And Sen. Harry Reid in Nevada is facing Sharron Angle, the tea party fanatic who wants to "phase out" Social Security and Medicare, withdraw from the United Nations, and abolish the Department of Education.1 The latest polls show her tied—or even slightly ahead, and just yesterday her campaign announced that they've raised a record-breaking $14 million in the past three months.2
Can you chip in to these candidates' campaigns and help stop the takeover?
Thanks for all you do.
–Michael, Joan, Anna, Adam, and the rest of the team
1. "Sharron Angle says eliminate Social Security," Progress Now Nevada, June 8, 2010
"Reid, in Fistfight, Could Take More Punches From Climate Bill," Climate Wire, May 26, 2010
"Sharron Angle wants to eliminate federal Department of Education," MyNews4, September 8, 2010
2. "Angle raises $14.3 million," The Washington Post, October 12, 2010
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PAID FOR BY MOVEON.ORG POLITICAL ACTION, http://pol.moveon.org/.
That's the nightmare scenario. It would spell an end to any hope of progress in the next two years—and quite possibly to Obama's presidency.
But there are three key races that Republicans would have to win to take the Senate, and all are tied. Meaning, they're close enough for us to tip the balance. We need to help these Democratic candidates raise enough money to get their message out—despite all the corporate ads targeting them—and run serious get-out-the-vote efforts.
This is a true emergency: We must stop the Republicans from taking over the Senate. There's a critical fundraising deadline at midnight tonight.
Please, make the most generous contribution you can afford, immediately
Here are the three progressive candidates in tight races who need our help right now:
We're adding Alexi Giannoulias in Illinois to our Progressive Heroes list today because he's locked in a tight race for President Obama's old Senate seat, and because he's running a populist campaign focused on taking on the corporate special interests and cleaning up Washington, D.C. This is the closest race in the country: Every poll in this race for the past two months has been tied.
Sen. Patty Murray is the highest-ranking Democratic woman in the Senate. She supported the public option and the fight for clean energy jobs, and has worked with other pro-choice Democratic women senators to eliminate egregious gender disparities in insurance coverage. Her Republican challenger significantly out-raised her in the last three months, and Murray needs our help to win.
And Sen. Harry Reid in Nevada is facing Sharron Angle, the tea party fanatic who wants to "phase out" Social Security and Medicare, withdraw from the United Nations, and abolish the Department of Education.1 The latest polls show her tied—or even slightly ahead, and just yesterday her campaign announced that they've raised a record-breaking $14 million in the past three months.2
Can you chip in to these candidates' campaigns and help stop the takeover?
Thanks for all you do.
–Michael, Joan, Anna, Adam, and the rest of the team
1. "Sharron Angle says eliminate Social Security," Progress Now Nevada, June 8, 2010
"Reid, in Fistfight, Could Take More Punches From Climate Bill," Climate Wire, May 26, 2010
"Sharron Angle wants to eliminate federal Department of Education," MyNews4, September 8, 2010
2. "Angle raises $14.3 million," The Washington Post, October 12, 2010
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
PAID FOR BY MOVEON.ORG POLITICAL ACTION, http://pol.moveon.org/.
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