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Basics of R programming
Understanding the basics of R programming is crucial for anyone looking to leverage its capabilities for data analysis and statistical computing. In this chapter, we'll explore the fundamental elements of R, including its syntax, variables, data types, and operators. These are the building blocks of any R program and are essential for developing more complex scripts and functions.
R Syntax
R's syntax is designed to be straightforward and user-friendly, especially for those new to programming. It emphasizes readability and ease of use, which is why it's popular among statisticians and data scientists.
Comments: Comments are used to annotate code, making it easier to understand. In R, comments begin with a # symbol:# This is a comment in R
Statements and Expressions: R executes statements and expressions sequentially. Statements are typically written on separate lines, but multiple statements can be written on a single line using a semicolon (;):x <- 10 # Assigning a value to variable x y <- 5; z <- 15 # Multiple statements in one line
Printing Output: The print() function is commonly used to display the output of expressions or variables. Simply typing the variable name in the console will also display its value:print(x) # Displays the value of x x # Another way to display x
Variables in R
Variables are used to store data values in R. They are essential for performing operations, data manipulation, and storing results.
Creating Variables: Variables are created using the assignment operator <- or =. Variable names can contain letters, numbers, and underscores, but they must not start with a number:num <- 100 # Assigns the value 100 to the variable num message <- "Hello, R!" # Assigns a string to the variable message
Variable Naming Conventions: It���s good practice to use descriptive names for variables to make the code more readable:total_sales <- 500 customer_name <- "John Doe"
Accessing Variables: Once a variable is created, it can be used in expressions or printed to view its value:total_sales <- 1000 print(total_sales) # Outputs 1000
Data Types in R
R supports a variety of data types that are crucial for handling different kinds of data. The main data types in R include:
Numeric: Used for real numbers (e.g., 42, 3.14):num_value <- 42.5
Integer: Used for whole numbers. Integer values are explicitly declared with an L suffix:int_value <- 42L
Character: Used for text strings (e.g., "Hello, World!"):text_value <- "R programming"
Logical: Used for Boolean values (TRUE or FALSE):
is_active <- TRUE
Factors: Factors are used for categorical data and store both the values and their corresponding levels:status <- factor(c("Single", "Married", "Single"))
Vectors: Vectors are the most basic data structure in R, and they can hold elements of the same type:num_vector <- c(10, 20, 30, 40, 50)
Lists: Lists can contain elements of different types, including vectors, matrices, and even other lists:mixed_list <- list(num_value = 42, text_value = "R", is_active = TRUE)
Operators in R
Operators in R are used to perform operations on variables and data. They include arithmetic operators, relational operators, and logical operators.
Arithmetic Operators: These operators perform basic mathematical operations:
Addition: +
Subtraction: -
Multiplication: *
Division: /
Exponentiation: ^
Modulus: %% (remainder of division)
Example:a <- 10 b <- 3 sum <- a + b # 13 difference <- a - b # 7 product <- a * b # 30 quotient <- a / b # 3.3333 power <- a^b # 1000 remainder <- a %% b # 1
Relational Operators: These operators compare two values and return a logical value (TRUE or FALSE):
Equal to: ==
Not equal to: !=
Greater than: >
Less than: <
Greater than or equal to: >=
Less than or equal to: <=
Example:x <- 10 y <- 5 is_greater <- x > y # TRUE is_equal <- x == y # FALSE
Logical Operators: Logical operators are used to combine multiple conditions:
AND: &
OR: |
NOT: !
Example:a <- TRUE b <- FALSE both_true <- a & b # FALSE either_true <- a | b # TRUE not_a <- !a # FALSE
Working with Data Structures
Understanding R’s data structures is essential for manipulating and analyzing data effectively.
Vectors: As mentioned earlier, vectors are a fundamental data structure in R, and they are used to store sequences of data elements of the same type:numbers <- c(1, 2, 3, 4, 5)
Matrices: Matrices are two-dimensional arrays that store elements of the same type. You can create a matrix using the matrix() function:matrix_data <- matrix(1:9, nrow = 3, ncol = 3)
Data Frames: Data frames are used for storing tabular data, where each column can contain a different type of data. They are akin to tables in a database:df <- data.frame(Name = c("John", "Jane", "Doe"), Age = c(25, 30, 35))
Lists: Lists are versatile structures that can store different types of elements, including other lists:my_list <- list(name = "John", age = 30, scores = c(90, 85, 88))
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Analysis of social media channels

With regard to social media to be successful in your social media strategy template doc, it has to be in-line with the overall mission of the trademark as well as the goals and objectives (and voice) of associated departments. These types of departments also have the opportunity to produce and distribute media content upon relevant channels. The SOBRECARGA model outlines the connected channels that can be used in social networking. Paid media focuses on content material for which an organization has covered placement at a certain period, on a certain platform, and front of a certain target audience (Facebook ads, Instagram Tales ads, etc . ). Gained media occurs when the content a business shares, creates, or pitch arrives on another system without charge (e. g., an attribute on a blog post). Discussed media is the essence associated with social media and how your content is actually distributed to others (e. g., reposted content or even shared videos on Myspace and retweets on Twitter). Owned media is the kind of content you personally personal and control. Your website, weblog, and internal assets tend to be examples. For these items, it is possible to control the message, up-dates, and the media design. Social networking strategists need to outline exactly what companies (or clients) are doing on each of these stations, how much they are spending, exactly what content is going out, and just how frequently they are using these stations, and conduct an evaluation of their returns in terms of each financial and reputational resources.
Previous campaigns and endeavours with social media.
This occasionally is referred to as previous promotions or even past campaigns in areas such as marketing, public relations, as well as strategic communications. As a social networking professional, you will want to know what continues to be done already as far as social networking campaigns and plans proceed.
Different campaign initiatives could be divided into three categories: specialized, managerial, and thought command. Ideally, you want to have the total picture at the bottom by changing the technical tools very first. The technical view associated with social media focuses on the specific resources that can be used immediately and is immediate focused. These campaigns take a look at “how we are using this brand new tool even though we simply heard about it 15 minutes back on TechCrunch or Mashable. ” These are very immediate blips on the radar with regard to brands, and while you do might use them to experiment and discover possible new tools, functions, and programs, this should not possible be your only focus. Consider your long-term strategy right here. It is important to experiment and be innovative in testing the lakes and rivers for new tools and methods, but this should not be the building blocks for what you want to accomplish within social media.
Managerial roles as well as views of social media would be the mid-level investment. The managerial roles and views associated with social media focus on building groups to work specifically on individual client accounts and tasks, but the focus is cinching in more strategy, higher-level brand name management, and consultation upon specific tools and solutions that will help accomplish the arranged business and communication goals.
The main target for many customers and professionals, which couple of actually achieve, is believed leadership. Thought leaders discuss strategy, storytelling, and viewpoints of the bigger picture not only associated with what is happening now, but what may be the case in a few years. They look in the interworkings of society, the surroundings, and industries that might impact what social media is doing in house and externally. Thought frontrunners actively contribute to the community using their insights, strategies, and encounters.
In summary, strategy and a powerful foundation in the bigger picture have to come first. Tools, trends, as well as platforms will continue to modify. Flip the pyramid product and create a sound foundation with regard to strategy where each component is interconnected with the other people and allowed to collaborate: town, story, and voice from the client at the center.
Numerous brands and accounts gravitate toward social media marketers along with other influencers as part of their promotions. Evaluate the influencers used by your own client in the past. Be aware of that influencers are the real deal as well as which have a lot of window outfitting and show-stopping antics however little substance in terms of experience. Which brands and businesses has an influencer worked with during the past on social media? Who is a good influencer’s agency of document? Who lists the influencer as a client or individual they have worked with online? Exactly what formal or informal relationships has the influencer formed along with clients? Some of this information will be tough to obtain, but by doing the additional research into who they are and what they have completed with a brand, you can determine their own level of knowledge, their level of skill, and any gaps that could need to be addressed.
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E-commerce and Emergence of Omnichannel
In Malaysia, e-commerce is well-accepted and related research focusing on both supplier and consumer studies is flourishing. Factors such as improved Internet access, high mobile penetration, and enhanced security promote e-commerce growth. A recent survey of consumer online shopping behaviour conducted by AEON for its e-marketplace project reveals 68% out of 3700 respondents were reported to engage in both online and offline shopping while only 7% participated in offline shopping only. The figures represent untapped markets and opportunities for e-commerce players to look for strategies in promoting online shopping. The top three categories of products are fashion & accessories, home & living, and health & beauty (eCommerce Milo 2016). The history of e-commerce development in Malaysia dates back to 1999 when Poslaju (National Postage and Courier) became the first company to launch a national e-commerce service. Then in 1999, Lelong.com launched their portal, followed by e-Bay Malaysia in 2004. However, e-commerce has only started taking off in Malaysia since 2011, which coincides with the group buying era. Big e-commerce players such as Rakuten, Zalora, and Lazada have dominated online shopping since 2012 alongside existing retailers, such as Tesco.
Government support is fundamental for online business growth. As such, the Malaysian government via the Malaysian Communication and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) is providing tax incentives for the development of e-commerce enabled websites to promote more local companies to sell online (MCMC 2012). The initiative has increased the number of online sellers, and according to the statistics from Companies Commission of Malaysia, in between 2012 and 2016, there were approximately 30,000 online businesses registered.
Omnichannel retailing in Malaysia has just started to grow. Though related literature on the local context is very limited, reports claim an incredible potential for an omnichannel approach due to the exploding presence of smartphones and social media connectivity. The Federation of Malaysian Manufacturers (FMM) has worked together with GS1, which is an international body that develops and promotes the GS1 standards of article numbering, bar coding and electronic communication worldwide. With the GS1 standard (GS1 Malaysia, 2013), there will be three benefits to omnichannel retailing, which are:
consistent product identification across all channels using Global Trade Item Numbers (GTINs)
enhanced accurate product data
better inventory management
One of Malaysia’s first omnichannel retailing platform is Super Pharmacy Megastore, which specializes in healthcare, wellness and lifestyle. Utilizing the power of social media and personal networks, the company is transforming from a traditional brick and mortar single channel to multichannel, then cross-channel and now to omnichannel retailing. Collaborating with Alibaba Group, deploying the B-B-C and O-O application sales platform while maintaining the physical store, Super Megastore aims to reach and satisfy customers with products and service quality.
Research Design
In the attempt to understand how omnichannel integration can be accomplished, we decided to conduct a case study that could provide an in-depth understanding of an implementation strategy in pursuing a brick and click channel. Although case study research cannot offer grounds for establishing the reliability of any findings, it serves as an exploratory tool for investigating the ‘how’ question. Using the purposive sampling strategy, we first identified companies that have implemented an omnichannel strategy. Then we invited them to participate in the study. One of the traits that we looked for was responsiveness. Hence, based on the prompt response, one agreed to take part.
Data was collected by conducting semi-structured interviews and observing both the physical store and digital channels. The semi-structured interviews allowed for probing answers by asking more questions. Even though the aim was to obtain insights of the company’s experience and best practices in deploying an omnichannel strategy, we started by asking general followed by specific questions. Krueger and Casey (2000) suggest using questions that can encourage participant involvement and questions should be focused. We also avoided using academic jargon as these terms may not be understood by business practitioners. The interview with the business owner and the company director lasted for more than an hour, generating a 13 page transcription report.
Using Atlas.ti application, the data was analysed by following the constant comparison method (Boeije 2002) that allows for discovering the concepts. There were four phases involved namely, exploration, specification, reduction and integration. Following Corbin and Strauss (2014) three coding processes of open, axial, and selective were adhered to in the exploration phase. The validation of the findings was achieved by obtaining the respondent’s approval for the narrative summary. In addition, we also observed the web portal and the business-customer communication that took place in the social networking environment. As the aim of the study was to get an in-depth understanding of the omnichannel differentiation strategies from the business perspective, we did not take into consideration the views of the customers.
leadership goals for managers
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Theory X of things that we cannot do

If employees are primarily after material needs, it means that they are in bad cultures, bad environments, with bad leaders who cater to these material needs, hoping to motivate people. If people are put into the right environments, they can motivate themselves. I don’t think they are a lost cause. I don’t think people want to go to “Theory X.”52 I think it is anti-human. The only reason they do is that they have no choice or they don’t believe that the alternative is possible.
Things We Cannot Do
I traveled from Asia to the USA and Europe almost every month; I saw big culture differences. Example: In Asia, I would ask for 100 widgets and then be told that they could provide 82 Widgets. In Western culture (USA and Europe), I would ask for 100 Widgets and be told, “I cannot get you 100 Widgets.” There was the underlying difference in cultures. The Asian culture said “what they can do,” while the Western culture said “what they can’t do.” I decided to “cross” the cultures. When I heard what could not be done, I would divert the conversation to examples: I would say that I could not drink the Atlantic Ocean, I could not throw a train 100 feet, I could not balance my car on my nose, and that I had at least one million more examples of what I could not do… The list would be infinite. But—if I wrote just the things that I could do, the list would be very short and they would not have to listen to my stories. The meeting would then focus on what we could do. When they again digressed and started mentioning what they could not do, I would interject: “Is this going to be one of those long lists of things we cannot do?” They would quickly say, “No, no, we can do…”!
Time Horizon
A thought leader needs to be looking at month to year and beyond. All minute to minute, hour to hour, day to day, week to week, month to month stuff—you shouldn’t be dealing with those. The people you hired are supposed to be able to deal with it. If you’re doing one single thing of them you are mismanaging your business.
Time to Get Away
I learned from Townsend that when the rough times hit, that is a great time to get away for a while (but be reachable), because it’s your team that gets put in your seat when you’re gone. The measure of good leadership is the company running better when the leader is away.
Tired Giants
Some command-and-control companies are making big profits. But money is not the only criteria for success: Their employees are usually miserable, just existing without energy. These companies are institutionalized. The “personality” gives way to “boxes.” When a company gets fully mature, institutionalized, it has lost the effect of personality. Example: give me a name associated with these companies. IBM? Difficult! People work in “boxes.” These companies replace “boxes,” not personalities. People with business acumen and personality run from these companies, which become monolithic giants without a personality.
Together, in the Garden
Casey is a gardener in my Bahamas house. He’s honest, hardworking, and punctual. He tells me the truth all the time, shows up every day, is never late, and never misses. So I see Casey as a warm, honest, trustworthy, good human being.
One day he asks me, “Can I borrow a hundred dollars?” I gave him a 100 dollars. He comes back two weeks later and says, “Here’s your hundred dollars back,” and he tries to give me interest. I don’t accept either the 100 or the interest, because he has a tough life. When I’m working with him in the garden, we are exactly the same. He’s unfortunate in that he can’t read, he can’t write, he can’t count. It doesn’t matter that I spent fifteen years in college and he never spent fifteen seconds in school. When we’re working together in that garden, we’re equal. It doesn’t matter his color, it doesn’t matter his education. As a leader, I believe that no person is better than any other person. At that time, we are simply two people working in the garden. It’s just a respect for humanity and I’m honest about it.
I honestly believe that we are 100% equal. Can I be a CEO on Wall Street? Yes. Can Casey? No. But that’s just a different skill set. With regard to what makes us a human being, the essence of us, we’re equal. He just had a tougher life, learned a different skill set. But he’s no less, no more than me. If a leader of a country or a company can just understand that he’s no better and no worse than the people he leads, that he just has a separate skill set, then he can be a real leader. But so many people, they just can’t get the fact that having a different skill set, doesn’t make them special (ego again). It gives you more responsibility to use the skill set to help the rest, that’s all.
I’m not a communist, I’m a capitalist. I just believe that we’re all equal and if at the end of the day, my skill set allows me to make a little more money than them, I will make it. But then I have a responsibility, like with Casey. I don’t give him a whole lot of money. I give him the market price, plus some. But whenever he has any trouble, I take care of all of his medical expenses, his wife’s medical expenses. I do all of that for him, because I was blessed and given a gift.
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Choosing & Operating Algorithms
Your choice of algorithm depends on what you want the algorithm to do:
Decision: If you want the machine to make a decision, choose the best course of action or draw a conclusion based on the evidence provided, a decision tree algorithm is probably the best choice.
Classification and Clustering: If you want the machine to classify, categorize, or group, then you'll want to consider a classification algorithm, such as K-nearest neighbor, K-means clustering (for grouping), and naïve Bayes.
Prediction/Estimation: If you want the machine to predict a value in a continuous range of values, a regression algorithm is best.
When choosing an algorithm, you can try a more empirical (experimental) approach. After narrowing your choice of social media strategy to two or more algorithms, you can train and test the machine using each of them with the data you have and see which algorithm delivers the most accurate results. For example, if you're looking at a classification problem, you can run your training data on K-nearest neighbor and naïve Bayes and then run your test data through each of them to see which one is best able to accurately predict which class a particular unclassified entity belongs to.
Ensemble Modeling
You can also try ensemble modeling. The ensemble modeling can be done in different ways. One option is to combine the outcomes of two or more algorithms. Another option is to create different data samples, feed each data sample to a machine learning algorithm, and then combine the two outputs to make a final decision. There are three approaches to ensemble modeling:
Bagging: You create two or more data sets; for example, by taking two random samples. Then, you feed each data set to a classifier algorithm, say a decision tree algorithm. The result is that the machine creates two different decision trees based on variants of the same data. Given a test sample, these decision trees may give different outputs. The machine can then combine those outputs to make a final decision. A common way to combine these outputs is by majority voting, or taking average of different decisions. The bagging approach on decision tree will result in reduction of variance, which in turn can improve the overall performance in comparison to using a single tree.
Boosting: In boosting, a machine learning classifier focuses on the data objects that are difficult to classify correctly and gives them high weights or importance. The process runs iteratively and learns different classifiers by re-weighting the data such that the newer classifiers focus more on the data objects that previous ones misclassified. Boosting also results in reduction of variance, but it can be sensitive to outliers.
Stacking: You use two or more different machine learning algorithms (or different versions of an algorithm) and combine their outcomes using another meta-learner to improve the classification performance. The team that won the Netflix prize used a form of stacking called feature-weighted linear stacking. They created several different predictive models and then stacked them on top of each other. So you could stack K-nearest neighbor on top of naïve Bayes. Each one might add just .01% more accuracy, but over time a small increase in accuracy can result in significant improvement. Some winners of this machine learning competition stacked 30 algorithms or more.
Think of each machine learning algorithm as a tool. You can experiment to find the best one or combine tools as a way to improve accuracy.
Deciding on a Machine Learning Approach
Another decision you need to make is the machine learning style you want to use, and to make this decision, you need to follow the data:
Supervised: If your data is clearly and consistently labeled, supervised learning is best. You feed the machine predictors and outcomes, and it identifies the relationship between the two.
Unsupervised: If you have massive amounts of unlabeled data, unsupervised learning may be your only choice. You feed whatever data you have in whatever form it’s in, and the machine figures out how it’s related. Then it’s up to you to determine why the machine categorized or grouped items as it did.
Semi-supervised: If you have some labeled data and lot of unlabeled data, then semi-supervised learning is the right approach.
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Brands and Society
When we think about the presence of brands in today's society, the first thought that comes to mind is the quality of the products, but the intensity of the message.
In his desert island, Robinson Crusoe would not have his name, although it has not been filed Friday. Trademarks exists only because we are able to recognize. We recognize them because they see messages sent, their specificity and consistency over time. We will discuss these elements of communication, differentiation, and the duration of this entry.
Communicative dimension of brand works in two ways. Firstly, the brand sends messages for consumers. This is the first weapon of relations, in which a large network must be sure to draw consumers interested. Secondly, symptoms, how the money circulating. Brands also demonstrate this phenomenon.
Imagine the reaction of foreigners arriving in Times Square in New York City, in the Ginza district in Tokyo, or Via Montenapoleone in Milan. Logos and trademarks in buildings and clothes worn by passersby who could loom large in their first impressions. Discover a civilization in which the brand plays an important role in social communication. They discover too, comparing the different places, the multitude of global brands, their systematic presence in the most famous shopping streets, and the apparent uniformity imposed lifestyle.
The explosion of communication our civilization is going through the brand has never been, if it were not for the fundamental social role brands now. Three-striped sneakers, shirt embroidered polo player, noise upstairs, or Bagnot Kelly speaks to drive cars or people go to restaurants-often more important than the personality of the wearer's your research plan Vitae.
No wonder that in a society characterized by rapid growth of communication in all its forms and content that brands need to be at the heart of modern life. Lead purchases we make, we can influence our judgments about products and people, and force us to position themselves in relation to securities or counter, or lack of values that are passed.
These effects are of course not limited to the communication time alone (approaching a billboard or spot). Way round characters are copied, used or coopted shows the range and depth, which affects our society. In fact, they have changed our way of life. First, it supports many shops and communication have greatly contributed to the transformation of our digital advertising formats and urban landscapes.
In addition, the brand to convey values. Brand identity consists of invariants that express the belief, values that create and is trying to promote. Nike is the pursuit of excellence in sports performance, aristocratic life Hermes, Armani casual elegance of Italian style. Brands force, with its presence in the commercial circuits, to set in relation to these values. Choice of products and the values associated with them strongly increased in recent years, which gives us the choice our parents could never imagine. We can choose a temporary lifestyle as you see fit, and reflect our mood for consumption.
Finally, manufacturers are responsible for a series of actions of solidarity. Are consumers under the influence or under the direction of enlightened managers have significantly increased their commitment to public causes. Again, it will return to the mechanisms and consequences of these commitments. As discussed below, which are closely related to the communicative dimension of the characters. In this first stage of our analysis, we have touched only the measurable effects on our society.
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Branding Practice LinkedIn
The question is whether it is likely to LinkedIn, the professional social networking site instead, market and brand themselves and mechanisms or less marketing and branding are similar to those used on Facebook. Based on the results of unstructured interviews, the students explained that both methods be seen using LinkedIn to create your own profile online and use this web page to connect with others in different areas and potentially related. Option LinkedIn profile is not very different profile in Facebook options, even if the purpose of the first employment, and the purpose of the latter is concerned about socialization. As such, some semantic differences result. The profile is in fact synonymous Discuss what information about the current situation on the labor market in recent jobs, education and skills. In addition, there is also in electronic form, loading the recommendation of a friend command. As the overall objective of being an active user of LinkedIn is to find or to announce job opportunities, it acts as a siphon device profile. This means that through a process of personal brand, prospective employers can check whether their employment, education, skills, or recommendations appear to be a good fit for the job.

The idea behind the brand themselves, in the above example, is largely in line with the idea of self-publish stern online.45 web use as the basic unit of analysis, Stern said that 94 percent of the 4 main web developers placed a descriptive biography, as well as market and brand yourself as authentic and reliable. How personal websites, users of LinkedIn and present socially constructed sense of self, ultimately revealing their identity. Dominick says ""self-presentation refers to the process in which people try to control the impression that others have of them."" 46 This self-presentation is probably the most important function of LinkedIn. While the partition of the five strategies of self-presentation, linking it to the social web environments, Dominick says flattery strategy used to obtain the sympathy of others, while the experience of the strategy used to obtain the knowledge and practices of 0.47 is classified on the basis that while Facebook users can join a persuasion strategy of self-presentation, LinkedIn, which may apply to competitive strategy.
In the end, so even if the profiles built by Facebook users and LinkedIn can be a bit ""different in terms of motives and objectives are clearly very effective mechanisms to establish the brand in both social and professional networks.
Second brand mechanism, discovered during unstructured interviews, includes both connections that are similar and different time, as an indicator not only of a great team of professionals, to which it is connected, but also the diversity enabled ""network. Based on early studies of organizational psychology, Katz and Kahn found among his general systems theory, employees are more efficient and effective to the extent that they can work together with dissimilar others.48 This means that sales people need to know how to works with marketing and marketing should be able to work with the employees of the Department of Finance and the employees of the Department of Finance must know how to work with the engineers and engineers need to know how to work with the department, and so on, and so on, until the system reaches the final cycle of permutations social media strategy template shopping. System of thought can be applied to a network of people that LinkedIn users are connected. These connections provide a wealth of knowledge and certainly are probably unintentionally without the knowledge and strategies of major brands. As Palmieri, lend, Gandley, Overton and Zhang discuss, ""computing environment via social networking sites ... it can be assumed that the initial information that a person chooses to make available to motivate others to enter or not to enter. friendship relationship ""49 In spite of those authors were directed more specifically, social networks, the same goes for LinkedIn: specialists will be less likely to create a social connection, if a person passes homogeneous and heterogeneous networks honest professional.
This information produces a narcissistic character as McKinney, Kelly, and Duran statement can occur in formats.50 online, but will produce a universal, multi-talented person who is able to cooperate with other dissimilar, that the prospective employer, says a lot. Kay Jewelers as the same character with his ""every kiss begins with Kay"" slogan, communicating the needs of consumers, users of LinkedIn same brands to connect with other heterogeneous, adaptability communicate. This adaptability, though perhaps for the employer and the employee, is not intentionally without a doubt one of the requirements desired by the organization. Just as Facebook users can also be blind mechanisms of the brand is the amount of friends and the number of groups, users, LinkedIn might as well be blind mechanism by several professional networks. However, the mechanism of which character is certainly at work and ultimately can be the difference between job opportunities and the lack thereof.
Finally, users of Facebook and LinkedIn users alike are able to sell yourself and, in fact, become what Mitchell called brand ambassadors ambassadors.51 This brand is, at least in part responsible for the social build your image and have the ability to create a complete identity of positive personal characteristics. It is clear, in particular through the testimony of participants of this study, that the construction of identity is mediated by computers, but certainly different constructions of identity FTF is well suited Goffman and Berger and Luckmann social constructivist paradigm for creating a profile of 0.52, the amount of friends and the number of user groups Facebook and by creating a profile and diversity network LinkedIn users, people are able to become marketing to build ""self-image, based on a grant, it is much more in tune with your true self, assume.53 what the problem is, however, five mechanisms that the brand may be unfamiliar to users inadvertently. As such, the unit may not be able to benefit from all the advantages offered by these services in the field of branding. So the key is to educate the users of these mechanisms, so that instead of falling into the trap of ""self-idealization"" than the back, et al. Talc, who can participate in the ""self-presentation"" of which Papacharissi endorses.54 If that happens, and it happens with the intention, Facebook and LinkedIn can become more professional web and social networking sites can become a platform for Ambassador sign.
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Deliberately Danish
This post is presented by: https://upscaleexistence.blogspot.com/2017/11/the-ultimate-iphone-buyers-guide.html
Bergmann Audio launched its first turntable—the Sindre, which featured an integrated tonearm—in 2008. The Sindre’s acrylic platter and tangential tracking tonearm both floated on air bearings; it had an outboard motor controller, a separate air pump for the air bearings, and cost $21,000. Founder, designer, and mechanical engineer Johnnie Bergmann Rasmussen makes everything in-house in the small town of Hobro (pop. 11,000) in northern Denmark, on the Jutland Peninsula, at the head of the country’s longest fjord, the Mariager. He says that his first hi-fi system, which he bought in the 1980s as a teenager, included a Micro-Seiki turntable fitted with a Rega Research tonearm and Ortofon cartridge; an NAD preamplifier and power amplifier; and DALI 8 speakers. Even then, he felt that air bearings were the way to go, despite the problems experienced by many owners. After earning his degree in mechanical engineering, Rasmussen set about designing and building air-bearing turntables that would be user friendly, mechanically stable, perform well, and sound good.
I’ve been looking at Bergmann turntables at audio shows ever since the launch of the Sindre 10 years ago. (It’s named for Sindri, a dwarf in Norse mythology who created a gold ring for the chief god, Odin, who is associated with wisdom, healing, superexpensive cables, and other mostly positive attributes. He was married to the goddess Frigg—hence, I believe, the common expression “None of your friggin’ business.”) I wasn’t interested in reviewing the Sindre, for several reasons. First, I don’t like acrylic platters, especially on costly turntables. Second, you couldn’t buy a Sindre without its integrated arm, which I felt was a serious limitation, especially as, based on my experience, I’m also no big fan of air-bearing, tangential-tracking tonearms—and especially of the Sindre’s “orifice compensated” arm, in which a sleeve slides along on a cushion of air pushed through tiny holes in the top surface of a rail. In other words, it’s not a captured bearing, which is pressurized equally throughout its range of movement, and is the only kind of bearing that can maintain precise geometry in all desired axes. I was sort of indoctrinated in this area by Rockport Technologies’ Andy Payor and the late Tim Sheridan, of Professional Instruments Company (www.airbearings.com), who worked with Payor in the design and manufacture of Rockport’s System III Sirius, an air-bearing arm and platter that in today’s dollars would cost well over $125,000. (PIC continues to build air-bearing machine tools used to make nuclear weapons—secondary to turntables in importance, perhaps, but still significant.)
However, when I saw Bergmann’s new air-bearing, belt-drive turntable, the Galder, at the 2016 High End show in Munich, I decided that it deserved a thorough review.1 Rasmussen has taken his design to new heights of physical beauty in a distinctly Mark Levinson/ Madrigal way, and now uses a 26-lb platter of machined aluminum. The Galder is available without tonearm, but you can have up to four arms simultaneously set up on it—though for convenience’s sake I’d stop at three, so you’re not constantly banging into them while playing records. With air-bearing platter and vacuum record hold-down, the Galder costs $26,800; another $8900 gets you the Odin tonearm, whose air bearing uses the Galder’s air supply, for a total of $35,700. (The Odin is available separately, with its own air supply, for $12,900.)
Bergmann Galder turntable: Description
I requested a Bergmann Galder with vacuum holddown and Odin tonearm. Johnnie Rasmussen visited to set it all up, though the task was mostly simple thanks to the Galder’s elegant design and excellent instructions, with illustrations. The only tricky part was setting the Odin’s vertical tracking angle (VTA) and stylus rake angle (SRA)but even that wasn’t particularly difficult. Late in the review period I had to remove the Galder from the Harmonic Resolution Systems base I’d placed it on, to better access the back of my darTZeel NHB-18S preamplifier. That required disassembling the turntable, and I’m glad I did. Taking the Galder apart and putting it all back together again allowed me to better appreciate its elegance and ingenuity. The Galder measures 18.9" wide by 7.5" high by 14.4" deep and weighs 84 lb. Its top deck is in two unequal halves of die-cast, powder-coated aluminum. The leftward, larger half contains the platter bearing and tonearm mounts, and the rightward, smaller half the motor and electronic speed controller. The two halves look entirely separate but are actually joined by a single, thin internal base, also of die-cast aluminum. The larger half is bolted to this base, while the smaller half rests on it, its underside secured with a circular cutout that fits into a hole machined in the base, and by its overhanging outer and front edges, both of which firmly secure it while hiding the main plinth. The internal base itself rests on three big, height-adjustable, circular aluminum feet. The overall result is a turntable with clean, attractive lines.
The air-bearing platter, topped by a 3mm-thick acrylic mat, rotates on a steel spindle with a bearing of low-friction polymer. It’s driven by a tachometer controlled motor with a precision feedback-control system topped with a crowned pulley of polyoxymethylene (POM) or similar plastic. The motor is a DC type. Recessed buttons atop the deck’s smaller, motor half select 331⁄3 or 45rpm; two smaller buttons can be used to increase or decrease the pitch. The Galder’s specified accuracy of speed is ±0.003%.
The outboard air supply is a black box measuring 8.9" wide by 9.3" high by 18.3" deep and weighing 34.4 lb. It electrically connects to the back of the turntable via a multi-pin umbilical, and pneumatically via two hoses, one for the vacuum holddown, the other for the platter and tonearm air bearings.
Bergmann Odin tangential-tracking tonearm
Tracking a record tangentially, the way its original lacquer was cut, seems a nobrainer until you try making it work. The lacquer-cutting system is a sledgehammer; in comparison, the playback system is more like a delicate feather. Over the decades, many approaches to tangential tracking have been tried, including a variety of air-bearing systems (from Dennesen, Airtangent, Eminent Technology, Kuzma, Maplenoll, Rockport, Versa Dynamics, Walker), a tiny-wheeled trolley riding on quartz rods (Souther, Clearaudio), and a pantograph-like linkage (Garrard). In the 1970s and ’80s, Goldmund made one that relied on an LED to detect and correct deviations from tangency. In other words, the tonearm would have to first lose tangency, then be corrected via the LED and servo-motors, which surely must have slightly overshot the intended displacement. Sometimes, the Goldmund arm would lift mid-record. Yet, at the time, this was considered the state of the art—and there’s no denying the good sound it produced. And let’s not forget the more recent pivoted tangential trackers from, among others, Klaudio, Reed, Schröder, and Thales.
When the bearing is stationary and the long rail moves (Eminent Technology, Maplenoll, Walker), you have a large horizontal mass sliding tangentially, and a far smaller mass moving vertically. This produces different horizontal and vertical resonant frequencies, not to mention a displacement of mass that plays havoc with spring-suspended turntables. I remember reading about the original Eminent Technology ET-1 arm in the mid-’80s.2 To my mind, it promised friction-free simplicity of tangential tracking—the perfect solution!—and I immediately bought one. I mounted it on a spring-suspended Oracle Delphi II turntable and quickly learned how the ET-1’s large horizontal mass could de-level the ’table and thus the arm the worst condition for a frictionless tracker of high horizontal mass. The ET-2 arm was a big improvement it decoupled the counterweight mass, and provided more convenient adjustment of VTA and SRA—but it used a noisy aquarium pump, a fivegallon plastic water bottle stuffed with filter floss to smooth the air flow, etc. After a few years of all that . . . Lord, give me a pivoted tonearm!
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Marketing plan on one page
Throughout my practice, I’ve seen many different approaches to developing marketing plans. A clear and actionable marketing plan helps you to stay focused on the main activities that bring you closer to your main marketing goal, which is to create profit. Big companies prepare their annual, quarterly, and monthly marketing plans covering all their business activities in general and each of their activities or product groups separately and in great detail. These marketing plans can consist of 30 or even 100 pages. But the bigger the volume of any plan, the harder it is to implement it and the more effort that is needed. Therefore, the classical approach to creating a marketing plan might not be the most effective way for startups. In addition, during my global research on startups, I found that most startups have the wrong ideas about how to create their marketing plans.
So, we have a dilemma: every startup needs a marketing plan to stay focused on the main activities that help to create a profitable and scalable business, but startups are not big companies and therefore, the classical approach to marketing plan might be a little bit frustrating for them. This chapter shows a simple method for creating your marketing plan literary on a single page. It’s not done in a conventional way and it doesn’t include as many details as a traditional plan. But, a marketing plan in this form will give you a clear view of your main marketing goal, what intermediate objectives you are seeking, and what tasks you should do to achieve the goal. For most investors and entrepreneurs, it’s just enough. What I like most about it is that the marketing plan is very actionable.
Define the main goal of your marketing
What is your main marketing goal? Goals such as more paying customers, increased sales, and higher profit are too generic to be included as your main marketing goals. The most common case is to prepare an annual marketing plan and set a goal to increase net profit, sales revenue, or any other metrics during the period. Therefore, your main marketing goal should be oriented towards the same period (in most cases one year). Use the SMART methodology to define your main marketing goal:
S (specific)— The goal is clear to anyone that has a basic knowledge of the project.
M (measurable)—It’s easy to find out when you have achieved the goal.
A (action-oriented)—Sounds not like a dream, but as task or job to be done.
R (realistic)—Is possible to achieve given the availability of resources, knowledge, and time
T (time-based)—There is a defined time when the goal should be achieved.
Let’s talk about an example. To tell you the truth, not many startups agreed to share their full marketing plans with me and I understand their reasons. I’m very thankful for all startups that took part in the research and took the time to have an in-depth interview with me and provide additional answers by email. So, in this case, let’s take my personal example. While writing this book and having so many personal interviews with startups, I was suggested to create online video courses for startups. These courses would help startups founders to build their profitable and scalable business faster by effectively aligning marketing activities.
It is specific, measurable, action and time-based, and because it indicates the action “to sell,” explains what should be sold, how many, at what price, and when this goal should be achieved. Is it realistic? It depends on the resources I currently have or can acquire. When I shared this goal with one of my friends, he said, “Great goal, but a tough one.” I agree it’s not easy, but maybe it’s possible because by then, I’ll be a published author and will have readers all around the world. We should proceed to next step to assess if the goal is realistic.
What objectives must be completed to achieve the goal?
Once you have a clear and measurable goal, try to figure out what generally needs to be done to achieve the goal. Make a list of three to six intermediate objectives which if achieved, would also help you achieve your goal. Remember that you are creating a marketing plan on one page, so don’t get too deep into the details. Some marketing specialists would rather call it an outline or a roadmap rather than a plan, but don’t worry about the name at the moment. You need to create clear and actionable instructions for yourself on how to boost your startup business.
Let’s continue with the example. If I want to sell my online courses, there are five intermediate objectives to achieving the main goal. It’s obvious that first of all, I have to create the online course, which will involve market research and other tasks, but we’ll talk about them in the next step. As you see, I’ve set a qualification criterion for my courses: they must be really worth at least $500. This is double compared to the price I plan to sell at. Why have I made such a criterion? Before investing time and money in larger scale marketing I want to get market verification that target customers find this product at least two times more valuable than the price at which I plan to sell it at large scale. Imagine how much easier it will be to sell if people see, feel, and understand that it is much more valuable than the price it is sold at.
Courses will be sold online, so driving targeted traffic will be one of my main objectives. But how much traffic should I plan to reach, if I want to make 1000 sales? I came to these measurable objectives by thinking backward from my goal. I want to make at least 1000 sales and expected average conversion rate is about 7%. This is a hypothesis based on industry average conversion of similar tools and tactics I plan to use, so my final objective is to at least meet the industry average of 7% conversion rate on the course sales page. This page will be shown not to random visitors, but to engage potential customers. If I succeed in achieving such conversion, it means I’ll need roughly 15,000 activated, engaged target customers (for example, they should see my free online seminar series before they visit the course sales page). I think (this is another hypothesis that must be tested) that email marketing automation would be the most effective channel to reach potential customers and activate them for lean customer development. But I need to collect email addresses first to implement email marketing automation later. In order to acquire email addresses for potential customers, the landing page will offer one to three lead magnets (something valuable for startups absolutely for free and with no obligation, just in exchange for the email address). So here comes another measurable objective: acquire 50,000 email addresses. Why 50,000? Because for the next objective (activation) we’ve set a 30% conversion rate, based again on the industry average. Finally, we can calculate how much traffic we need to drive to our landing page if we want to collect 50,000 email addresses and the landing page conversion rate is expected to be 25%. The right answer is 200,000 targeted visitors.
Remember that we also have to check if those intermediate objectives inevitably lead us to the main goal. If we drive 200,000 visitors to an initial landing page which has 25% conversion rate, we’ll collect 50,000 email addresses. If email marketing automation campaign achieves a 30% conversion rate, we’ll get 15,000 engaged potential customers. And finally, if we have a sales page with an average 7% conversion rate and we offer a really valuable product, we’ll have 1,050 sales. The goal would be reached!
Tasks to be done, to complete each objective
The next task is to break out each of the objectives into smaller more detailed tasks. Yes, it’s easy to say “drive at least 200,000 targeted visitors,” “achieve at least 25% conversion,” but when it comes to the implementation of these objectives, you might get stuck. In order to avoid getting stuck, ask yourself one simple question: “what needs to be done to achieve this objective?” Apply the same principle as in the previous tasks when you were breaking out the main goal. Also, always double check if the objective will be achieved if you successfully complete those tasks.
The serious project manager would say that each of those tasks should be made according to the SMART methodology. But, actually, it’s up to you to decide if you want those tasks to be highly specific or more like major guidelines. The more specific you make the tasks, the easier it will be for you to implement the plan, because you’ll already know precisely what has to be done and that it is more or less realistic. But in some cases, startups always face a lot of uncertainty and it’s really difficult to set highly specific, lower level tasks because so many things can change very quickly. As far as I’ve found out during the startup case studies, the best practice for most startups is to set general tasks to be done to achieve the particular objective and to figure out along the way how to test it.
It doesn’t require much explanation. If you are preparing a marketing plan not only for yourself but for a team, it might be wise to at least explain each task in a couple of sentences.
Tie tasks to dates in a simple Gantt diagram or Excel
Now, it‘s about time to make your marketing plan more actionable and trackable. Having a marketing plan is good and helps a lot, but if you want to achieve even greater results you must plan your marketing actions based on time and money. Basically, you must decide when each of your tasks will be done and how much money it will cost. There is no one-size-fits-all solution
You can put your tasks in your personal calendar (online or offline), time planning app or software, or your company CRM if it has objective and task functionality. There are many specialized free and fee-based software solutions for drawing Gantt diagrams for your projects, including your marketing plan. Using a Gantt diagram for planning and managing tasks allows opportunities to join, combine, or even do some tasks simultaneously (even from different stages) which might save you time.
The example shows the main principles of putting your marketing plan in Excel spreadsheet. Most startups find this solution for marketing planning easy applicable and very helpful because it allows them to:
Create tasks for objectives, subtasks for tasks, and so on and put comments on each of them. So you can go as deep into details as you want and everything will be on track. If you want to see the general, strategic view including pricing strategies in marketing, you can hide grouped rows with sub-tasks and tasks.
The top row of the table shows the timeline (usually months or weeks). Marking certain cells with your chosen color allows you to easy to see the tasks you should be focusing your time on.
The bottom row of the table shows the sum of money required for all marketing tasks each month. All you need to is to add the amount of money required for each task in already colored cells.
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