People soshalize. They don't care how it's spelled. They just do it.
What do your “Likes” mean to you? When we “like” our favorite product on Facebook, we’re not simply telling everyone in digital land what our interests include. No: what we expect from those “Likes” is the interpersonal relationships we experience every day with comments, shares, pokes, and whatsits. “Liking” a brand on Facebook means a lot more to us when companies are willing to reciprocate.
Social media activity has essential benefits for local businesses that include strengthening your brand and raising your SEO ranking. In many instances, it may be hard to link social media involvement to immediate sales, but growing your online presence will certainly make more people know about your business. They are bound to come your way as soon as the need for your service or product arises.
Social media can be considered a reflection of the individual who created the account. The information and images shared all speak about the person from their point of view. However, what would it be like if somebody else was responsible for setting up or managing your social media? Consider this… the image an individual has of themselves might be very different from the way they are perceived by others. Accordingly, the way an individual is presented through social media may give off a much different impression than the one that is self constructed.
Email marketing may have been around for a while now, but it’s still the most effective way of building a trust relationship with prospects.
Navigating the jungle of the entertainment world is a challenge all its own. There are media appearances, promotional obligations, studio/record label contracts, and millions upon millions of fans all demanding your attention. Taxingas all that is, some women have made the transition from celebrity to businesswomen, augmenting their entertainment abilities with a corporate nous, ensuring that their 15 minutes of fame becomes a lifetime. Here are five women conquering pop culture and the boardroom.
1. Beyonce
A long time ago, Beyonce Knowles was a member of R&B group Destiny’s Child. Today, she’s a franchise. Despite the group’s Grammy wins and success, Beyonce went through a period of depression due to interpersonal conflicts and her then-boyfriend leaving her. She rediscovered herself in acting and a wildly successful solo career. Her marriage to rapper Jay-Z cemented her pop culture domination, but that was just the beginning.
Starting in 2002, Beyonce signed promotional deals that saw her share camera time with other celebrities such as Britney Spears, Jennifer Lopez and David Beckham. She’s launched her own line of fragrances, and inked an endorsement deal with Pepsi worth $50 million. In 2005, she created a foundation to support victims of Hurricane Katrina. With her mother, she opened a cosmetology center to raise funds for victims of the 2010 Haitian earthquake.
2. Jennifer Lopez
In 1986, Jennifer Lopez had a minor role in the film My Little Girl. Her parents were disappointed in her ensuing interest in entertainment, but in 2001, she became the first woman to have a number one album (J.Lo) and film (The Wedding Planner) in the same week. She has broken records on the Billboard album chart, records for female singers, and records for Hispanic entertainers: she has sold over 75 million albums, and her films have grossed over $2 billion.
Lopez was chosen to be the global ambassador for L’Oreal Paris, representing the brand in its global ventures. A similar deal with Venus tied in with Lopez’s love of charity work, donating money to advancing the prospects of impoverished Hispanic children. She launched her own fragrance in 2011, selling 51,000 bottles and making almost $3 million. Later that year, she started a clothing & accessories line, and a separate line for home accessories. Fiat, the Italian car manufacturer, signed Lopez on for promotional deals. She has also produced television shows, reality TV shows, and movies in which she has featured.
3. Oprah Winfrey
Starting a talk show on television is one thing, but becoming a billionaire and being ranked by TIME magazine as the most influential woman in the world is another. Born into poverty, she revolutionized the talk show format, providing a more intimate and honest format than the salacious and sensationalist style of her peers. After The Oprah Winfrey Show went national and generated astronomical figures, Winfrey negotiated an ownership stake in the show and started her own production company. Based on a Forbes’ magazine estimate, Winfrey would be worth approximately $3 billion today.
She has launched a film production company, authored her own books, publishes magazines, has her own radio channel, and coordinates her empire with a website that receives 6 million views a month.
4.Kim Kardashian
Kim Kardashian netted tons of bad publicity for her sex tape and scandalously quick marriage, but rehabilitated her image with successful business ventures, such as launching clothing and fragrance lines. Co-founding the online shoe retailer ShoeDazzle, and signing on as a fashion consultant and stylist, opened Kim Kardashian up to a new audience and demographic, one that has also seen her endorse a Los Angeles-based confectionary.
Furthermore, she’s launched a fitness DVD, landed a role in a television series, and hosted Wrestlemania XXIV and America’s Next Top Model. She’s produced TV shows, authored an autobiography and launched her own fragrance line.
5. Serena Williams
Playing sports is a dream most of us have when we’re children, but only a woman like Serena Williams could have taken her dreams beyond the courts and into the boardroom. Critically regarded as one of the best tennis players of all time, she’s won over $40 million in prize money alone and dozens of titles and championships.
Outside of tennis, Williams has fashion lines with Nike and her own line of accessories and jewelry. She and her twin sister Venus became part owners of the Miami Dolphins franchise and created a secondary school in Matooni, Kenya. She’s authored books and became the first female sports woman to endorse Tampax.
Nowadays the web browser known as Internet Explorer (IE) is mostly known to be used by businesses. Admittedly I haven’t been its biggest supporter, I haven’t used Topps cards or played skip it in a long time either. But Internet Explorer has definitely persuaded me to give it another look by simply time traveling me back to my childhood.
The rapid growth of the social media in the recent past made it an indispensable tool in the hands of marketing managers around the world. Social media improves the opportunities to connect with your customers and facilitates two way communication between you and your customers. Social media strategy when properly implemented can boost both your internal and external brand.
It’s staggering to think of all the ways technology has not only changed the world, but redefined our very lives. Not checking email, not updating Facebook, not sending out a Tweet and not searching for something online is unheard of. But does this strange new world come at a cost? Have our lives become too dependent on computers and the Internet doing things for us? Is technology making things easier or making people crazy?
The answer, somewhat unsurprisingly, is more complicated than a simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’.
It’s easy to think of the best and worst examples: technology in medicine can save lives and diagnose diseases, but it also gives us violent video games and Internet addictions. For every connection made online – be it a new job, a new friend, a spouse, or finding a life changing book – there’s someone who uses the Internet to stalk a woman or scam a victim.
The Upsides
The positive effects of technology are undeniable, and it would be unfair to sweep them under the carpet, or inaccurate to say that they are completely negated by the negative effects. Countless lives have been saved and improved by technological innovation. Relationships have been mended thanks to new, online mental health services (as seen here, for example). Advancements beyond the dreams of the generation a mere twenty years ago have given us longer life, more health, increased communication, and better prospects for social progress. The Arab Spring would not have dethroned oppressive and cruel governments if not for social media.
Technology can also help us physically. Websites and applications let us watch our calories, tracking what we eat and how much we burn when we exercise. People can do this to simply watch their weight, or as a tool in the recovery from diabetes or obesity. We can find new exercise routines, new gyms and new friends to train with, without spending a single dime on a personal trainer.
…and the Downsides
But the coin has another side. Communicating via text message and Facebook post robs us of the personal, nuanced touch of human interaction. Busy, tired parents wanting to distract a restless baby might simply open up a video on their iPad instead of taking the time to find out why their child is antsy. We are incessantly bombarded with ads, videos, posts, messages, e-mails, updates and Tweets, all vying for our attention and our money. Concentrating on any one thing online is impossible because there is always something else tugging away at the corner of our eye.
The anonymity provided by a computer screen can also bring out our worst impulses. Everything from hate speech to sexual denigration has a home online, and there is always a community ready to feed and goad the bases of desires beyond healthy limitations.
Naturally, this does not make technology or the Internet inherently evil; but as with everything in life, whatever provides the most liberation and benefit can also be abused.
There’s been a lot of time, money and energy put into the company website–only to find that it runs about as fast as a turtle. What’s causing this slow-moving phenomenon?
In addition to President Obama’s visit to Connecticut yesterday on behalf of the Sandy Hook victims, family members came to Capitol Hill to rally behind pending gun control legislation in an effort to urge Washington lawmakers to reduce gun violence. Their urging comes at a time when 13 Republican senators are threatening to block and stall the proposed gun-control legislation package with a filibuster. The bill, which has been called “a wish list for gun-control advocates,” includes proposals such as background checks and record-keeping of gun sales.
