Ethics and Organ Donation - 1598 Words

Ethics Analysis Paper Ethical Issues Related to Organ Donations In 1983 Dr H Barry Jacobs, a physician from Virginia, whose medical license had been revoked after a conviction for Medicare mail-fraud, founded International Kidney Exchange, Ltd. He sent a brochure to 7,500 American hospitals offering to broker contracts between patients with end-stage-renal-disease and persons willing to sell one kidney. His enterprise never got off the ground, but Dr Jacobs did spark an ethical debate that resulted in hearings before a congressional committee headed by Albert Gore, Jr., then a representative from the state of Tennessee. The offensive proposal for kidney sales led to the National Organ Transplant Act to become law in†¦show more content†¦Between July 2000 and December 2002, there were 129 organs that were recovered from deceased donors and directed to particular recipients. Federal law explicitly allows for this option, although some state laws have placed limits on it. In particular, some states have said organs cannot be directed t o a race or class of people, but must be designated instead to an individual. This change came after a case in Florida when family members of a white supremacist sought to restrict their donation to white recipients. As a future healthcare leader I do not think that public solicitations are just as they give priority to people who can get attention while ignoring those who are less fortunate. Not all people waiting for a transplant have the same financial resources or social skills to undertake a public campaign. If many recipients take out these types of campaigns and start to solicit for organs through directed donations, it would take away from assuring that the waiting list is followed so that the sickest patient with the greatest possibility for success would be considered first through the allocation process. This is reiterated by Art Caplan a bioethicist at the University of Pennsylvania. He believes that publicity campaigns and public solicitations undercut the ability of the system to get organs to those most in need and those who have the best chance to survive. Given that anShow MoreRelatedcommercialization of organ transplants Essay948 Words   |  4 Pages COMMERCIALIZATION OF ORGAN TRANSPLANTS Student: Patrick Frost Instructor: Professor Edwin Martinez del Rio Business Ethics 309 October 21, 2013 Strayer University COMMERCIALIZATION OF ORGAN TRANSPLANTS Arguments in favor of organ commercialization Commercialization of human organs from consenting adults will lead to an increase in the supply of organs needed for transplants (Kanniyakonil, 2005). The major challenge in hospitals is the lack of organs needed for transplantation toRead MoreOrgan Donations after Death730 Words   |  3 PagesOrgan Donations after Death The process of gift giving is the act in which someone voluntarily offers a present for someone else, without compensation. 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Every year people on the wait list increase in numbers due to lack of organ donation shortages therefore, finding a donor becomes difficult because in order toRead MoreThe Effects Of Unlawful Selling Of Organs Essay1744 Words   |  7 PagesJames Lind ENG-106 Monday, January 18, 2016 Mrs. Brownlee The effects of Unlawful Selling of Organs in America Our current transplant regimen is a qualified failure. Transplant operations have been basically flat for the last eight years. In 2013, over 4300 people died while waiting and about 3000 were permanently removed from the queue because they developed a medical condition that precluded transplant.1 â€Å"Twenty-seven years ago, the average wait for a deceased-donor kidney in the United StatesRead MoreAdvantages Of An Opt Out Organ Donation System1724 Words   |  7 PagesThe advantages and disadvantages of an opt-out organ donation system for 16 years and older in New Zealand. Introduction: Although anyone can donate their organs after death, New Zealand New Zealand’s organ donation rate is considerably lower compared to other courtiers in the world. According Organ Donation New Zealand (2017), there are approximately 550 people on current transplant waiting lists. In 2016 there were 61 donors resulting in approximately 200 transplant operations (ODNZ, 2017). AsRead More How Can We Encourage Organ Donation? Essay1333 Words   |  6 PagesHow Can We Encourage Organ Donation?      Ã‚  Ã‚   Thousands of people die each year in the United States alone waiting for organ transplants. In 1997 the United States Department of Health and Human Services reported that 56,716 people were waiting for hearts, lungs, pancreases, and kidneys. By 1998 this number had increased to 64,423 people waiting (Charatan). The list of those people in need of transplants increases almost twenty percent every year while the number of donors increases only

The Sacred Balance Rediscovering Our Place - 1102 Words

According to an annual Gallup survey, â€Å"Americans are way more worried about water pollution than global warming, air pollution, or other major environmental concerns.† (Loughlin). Drinking polluted water will harm individuals and their families but global warming has not appeared to danger us and so we do not worry about it (Walker). In the article, The Sacred Balance: Rediscovering Our Place in Nature, by David Suzuki, it is indicated that humans have lost interconnectedness with nature. In other words, people have put importance to the more unnecessary things, which are the main causes for us consuming chemicals in food and creating dangerous pollution and diseases. The ignorance of our modernist society faces has led us all to severe problems. One should be more aware of what s happening around us instead of just letting things happen. We must be more cautious so that we can live in a safe environment. Suzuki’s article focuses on how we have forgotten about connecting with the world around us. In the beginning Suzuki starts talking about the future, in which he said, â€Å"all that exists is the present and our memories of what is past, but by crating he notion of a future...† (Suzuki, 62). Our actions of today will shape how our future will be. Which he later talks about how we are one. Suzuki stated, â€Å"In such a world of interconnectedness, every action has consequences, and since we were part of that world, we had a responsibility†¦keep the world in order† (Suzuki, 62). HeShow MoreRelatedNavajo Indians1955 Words   |  8 Pagesways of Happiness and Wisdom. The other is called Enemy way, which is to eliminate ghosts and discourage evil spirits. â€Å"Their way of life is based on a belief that the physical and spiritual world blend together and everything on earth is alive and sacred (thinkquest.org, 2012).† Turquois would be considered a str ong value to the Navajo mainly because it has strong religious significance. They also believe that the first man and women from the holy people used baskets and weaving for ceremonial purposesRead MoreTheology of the Body32011 Words   |  129 Pageswithout reference to his beginning. The proto-Gospel of Gen 3:15 also puts man in the theological perspective of the history of salvation, to the â€Å"redemption of our body† (Rom 8:23), which guarantees the continuity between the hereditary state of man’s sinfulness and his original innocence. This redemption of the body, which agrees with our experience, opens the way for the proper theology of the body. B. Man’s original solitude 1) God said: It is not good that man should be alone; I will makeRead MoreManagement Course: Mba−10 General Management215330 Words   |  862 PagesThese beneficial impacts had an enormous effect in galvanizing fundamental business innovation in companies at a far faster rate than would have been the case if there had been no boom; that is, without those effects, innovation might not have taken place at all. All this business growth has caused increasing complexity in business action and decision making. It has presented chief executive officers (CEOs) and management leaders in all markets and industries with new intricacies in deciding how toRead MoreRastafarian79520 Words   |  319 Pagesincarnate seems patently absurd. 4. It is not clear whether Selassie believed himself to be a God. 5. For Rastas, marijuana, which is illegal in Jamaica, is a sacrament for worship. 6. Rastas regard western society as part of Babylon—a system and a place that is the enemy of the blacks of the world. FOREWORD ix 7. There is still no organized set of doctrines and teachings that constitute Rastafarianism, and no organized Rastafarian church, temple, or worship space exists. 8. There are

Metapath free essay sample

Metapath’s capital structure and rounds of financing Analyze Metapath’s capital structure, in particular the various forms and prices of preferred stock from the multiple rounds of financing. How has this capital structure affected the offer from Robertson Stephens? How would RSC’s participating preferred interact with other tranches of preferred stock? The RSC offer of $11. 75 million is more than Metapath has previously raised in all four rounds combined, so RSC is taking on more risk by offering this much funding. Because RSC will be putting up so much cash, RSC is going to want stricter terms to compensate  them for their risk. In addition, Metapath has a high leverage ratio, which adds on to the risk the equity holders are exposed to. Therefore, RSC is proposing a participating convertible preferred stock instrument which allows them to achieve higher payoffs in the upside while still eliminating their downside risk. Additionally, the latest ound of financing (Series D) received the best terms because of the amount of money that was raised. RSC knows that because they are raising even more money than Series D, they should be able to get even better terms than Series D as well. RSC’s participating preferred would not really have any effect on the other tranches of preferred stock except in the case of liquidation. Because RSC has liquidity preference in the event of a sale, if there is a sale then RSC (Series E) will get paid first. RSC will receive the face value and still have the right to participate in further considerations as if RSC had converted into ommon stock. Series A, B, C, and D will only receive their individual percentage of the value that remains after RSC’s liquidity preference has been paid out. Question 2. RSC offer How do you analyze the RSC offer? In particular, what is the value of the participating preferred feature to the RSC syndicate? What are the risks to the Metapath shareholders if the board accepts the RSC offer? Even though the company has only projected its activity one quarter forward, is it possible to assess the reasonableness of the valuation? In order to find the value of the participating preferred feature to the RSC syndicate, we sed the Black- ­? Scholes formula to find the value of the participating preferred option and the value of just a regular preferred convertible option. We then subtracted the value of the convertible option from the value of the participating preferred option. We believe that the value of the participating preferred feature to RSC is worth approximately $4. 29 million (See Appendix 1). One of the main risks of the financing proposed by RSC is that this deal would dilute Metapath’s original shares significantly if a sale occurs in the future. If Metapath Software accepts the RSC offer, one of the main risks to the other hareholders is that in the case of liquidation, RSC will have liquidation preference and receive the amount of money the put in as well as 13. 4% of the remaining value of Metapath. However, other shareholders will get less than they would if RSC did not have a participating preferred feature. Also if the RSC offer is accepted, RSC would essentially get to add another person to the Board of Directors. This allows RSC to have even more control beyond their equity stake. Regarding the reasonableness of RSCs valuation of Metapath, the numbers would be far more reasonable had they looked at more than one forecasted quarter. However, an accurate forecast for such a volatile small- ­? cap tech company is hard to come up with, for which the valuation would not be much more accurate had they forecasted more quarters. Given Metapaths high growth prospects it appears that the valuation is reasonable, but it is hard to confirm its accuracy with the small amount of information provided. 3. CellTech offer Is the CellTech offer reasonable? How should the Metapath board view the CellTech stock? What are the risks for the Metapath shareholders if the board accepts the CellTech offer? CellTech is proposing a strategic merger between CellTech and Metapath nd offering essentially 32% of the merged company to Metapath. From Metapath’s point of view, this is a very attractive offer due to the short- ­? term liquidity that it would provide, as CellTech is valuing Metapath at 115 million, while RCS only valued them at 76 million. In other words, CellTech is valuing Metapath nearly $25 million more than RSC is valuing the software company. The Metapath board should understand that because CellTech went public only a couple of months ago, it will be even more difficult to determine how the stock of the merged company will perform in the future. Also, the board should take into ccount the one board member who was an investor in CellTech and has mixed opinions about the company. Even though analysts seem to be bullish on CellTech stock, the Metapath board members need to take the reports with a grain of salt. According to Hansen and his board, CellTech’s growth prospects are much lower and more uncertain than Metapath’s, so CellTech believing Metapath is only worth around 30% of their total capitalization should not seem justifiable to Hansen. If the board accepts CellTech’s offer, one of the biggest risks for the shareholders is that CellTech’s stock could tank and they could ultimately end p with stock that is worth basically nothing. Additionally, all of the CellTech’s stock would be worth the same. So the investors in Series D will probably be pretty angry that they have the same stock as Series A, B, and C. Lastly even though the CellTech deal itself will not dilute shareholders ownership, the Metapath shareholders will no longer be protected from dilution after the deal happens. CellTech could engage in other actions that would dilute shareholders ownership. Therefore, although the offer appears reasonable at first given how much short- ­? term liquidity it would provide, Metapath would be resigning ontrol of the company to CellTech and diminishing its long- ­? term growth prospects. Despite the $25 million more that Metapath would get now, it sacrifices too much by accepting it to deem it reasonable. However, the lack of information with which the valuation of the company was done makes it hard to assess the legitimacy of the quantitative back- ­? up. Question 4. Conclusion If you were on the Metapath board, which option would you support? If we were in the Metapath board we would support the RSC offer. As shown by the diagram depicted in the following page, the CellTech offer is riskier, which increases the downside or investors. On one hand, the CellTech offer would provide short- ­? term liquidity, something very attractive to Metapath at this point, as it is quickly utilizing all of its cash to grow. However, it takes away the control of the company, the large growth prospects, and exposes Metapath to the risk of the merged companys stock tanking. There is no guarantee that CellTechs stock will keep growing, and while the RSC offer provides less short- ­? term liquidity, it makes more sense long- ­? term. 2 CellTech Pros -Well-priced, short term liquidity (of 115M as opposed to the 76M offered by RSC). Operational benefits: CellTech already has established sales and marketing infrastructure. ] CellTechs engineers could be useful to Metapaths development group. AB investors would gain a higher return than CD investors because of the extra common stock shares of the initial investment terms (only if stock doesnt tank). CellTech Cons Cell Techs stock could tank after the merger. Metapath would no longer be an independent company, which would lower its growth potential. The seniority of the diferent financing rounds would disappear (AB hurt). Questionable prospects: weak past performance, as shown by their income tatement and short public record. Only offering 30% of total capitalization despite growth prospects. RSC Pros Metapath gets to remain an independent company, maintain growth prospects. Anti dillution clauses for A-D still intact in the event of an IPO.

Virgin Blue Holdings Change Management

Executive Summary In the recent past, organisations have embraced change management as a way of increasing productivity when faced with economic, social, technological, or environmental challenges.Advertising We will write a custom report sample on Virgin Blue Holdings Change Management specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More To assess the effectiveness of change management, this report delves into an analysis of drivers of organizational change at the Virgin Blue Holdings, as well as the barriers it may face in the change management process, including the management barrier, vision barrier, and the resource barrier. More so, through a review of literature, the report underscores diverse models used in change management, including procedural model, Kotter’s model, and EFQM Excellence model, with a view of finding out the most viable change management theory that should be adopted by the Virgin Blue Holdings. As such, this report r ecommends the procedural model over other change management models by demonstrating its effectiveness through analysing the stages involved in the process. This indicates that an effective change management strategy should address each phase separately, as this helps to highlight the barriers to organisational change, as well as to provide recommendation for improving the change management process. This report brings to light the rationale behind adopting change management as a viable managerial practice. Introduction Change management is a critical tool to human resource managers, as it persuades and enables workers to accept new ideas, values, technologies, processes and administration. Change in the workplace is inevitable as changes in environmental, technological, economic, social, as well as the legal factors make businesses constantly apply new technologies, upgrade systems, and change their management practices in an effort to improve productivity.Advertising Looking fo r report on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More This change is normally faced with many challenges, and key among them include realignment of human resources and redeployment of capital resources (Kanter 2003, p.237). Thus, change management is an indispensable process that facilitates acceptance of new ideas, values, technologies, processes, and administration, and its participation should include all the staff members as well as the stakeholders (Saka 2003). It is from this perspective that the field of change management has been evolving over the years to ensure that all employees embrace change within the organisational settings. This paper will provide a report on the case study of the â€Å"Virgin Blue Holdings† to give an informed review of change management models and theories and their effectiveness. It will begin with analysing the drivers of organisational changes and proceed to evaluate the model s and theories necessary for an effective change process. Analysis Of Drivers Of Organisational Change At The Virgin Blue Holdings Despite the fact that many organisations resist changes during the initial stages and find it expensive to implement, a number of aspects force them to make operational changes. Thus, an organisation can be forced to adopt relevant changes when its alters its mission statement; when its products / services become obsolete due to technological factors, among other factors; or when it is faced with a stiff competition that can only be conquered through a merger (Gebauer, Fischer, Fleisch 2010). One of the most important drivers of organisational change is when companies fail to achieve financial targets. This makes them evaluate their business objectives and processes in a bid to avert the crisis. The Virgin Blue Holdings reports a 62% decline in the net profits, a profit margin that is below the target level.Advertising We will write a custom report sample on Virgin Blue Holdings Change Management specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More This portrays that the company is experiencing an inadequate financial performance, thus necessitating change in its business operations. The decline can be attributed to strong competitive forces, making it attain only 10% of the market share. And since the Virgin Blue Holdings wants to attain a competitive advantage, it has been forced to adopt a move that cannot be overemphasized: restructuring its business operations to match the dynamic trends. Thus, extreme competition is a driver to organisational change as it forces some organisations to change their objectives and strategies. In this regard, the Virgin Blue Holdings has made an endeavor to change its objectives and strategies by making sure that it takes the necessary steps that aim at including the corporate travelers, besides the leisure travelers, as part of its market share. Its change mana gement approach stems from the fact that companies that understand and address the ever-increasing demands of their customers are major competitors than the companies that neglect the rising trends, as this reduces their chances of facing a diminishing market share (Gebauer, Fischer, Fleisch 2010). Moreover, it is imperative to note that businesses should not only adapt to organisational changes due to technological innovations but also due to peoples’ attitudes and social behavior affecting them (Penger et al. 2007). In this regard, the Virgin Blue Holdings is required to acquire a profound understanding of the social factors that may affect productivity of the company by trying to understand the current demand of the employees. More so, companies should create social relations and collaborate with other companies’ practices that are in line with its change strategy. And it is for this reason that the Virgin Blue Holdings has taken the initiative of benchmarking its uniform with a popular fashion industry, which is commonly known as the Project Runway.Advertising Looking for report on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Additionally, when a product reaches the end of its product life cycle, companies are forced either to cut the operating costs of the product in question or to introduce another product in the market. This is evident in the Virgin Blue Holdings as it seeks to introduce Airbus A330 aircraft to operate between Sydney and Perth. This aircraft is expected to present a new product in the market by introducing a new business class cabin and a â€Å"superior economy class.† Companies can also be forced to change their management system as they seek to cut costs that prove to be detrimental to the company’s profit. This is normally achieved by collaborating with other companies in the field. At this stage, some companies take the approach of partnering with existing competitors, and this, in turn, facilitates structural changes to company’s business processes through teams that help to sustain performance. To cut excessive costs, the Virgin Blue Holdings has taken the i nitiative of collaborating with the Skywest, and this provides it with an opportunity of flying the Turboprop aircraft to regional routes. However, such kind of a partnership is characterised by redundancy or threats to organizational culture, and this elicits organisational changes due to differences emanating from divergent views of management practices and cultural values of two different companies as they seek common ground (Kanter 2003, p.253). Thus, an effective change management process is required to bring this to fruition. In a bid to adopt an effective change management process, it is paramount to analyse a number of challenges that the Virgin Blue Holdings may face in the process. Barriers To The Organisational Change While managing organisational changes, it is paramount to establish whether the new paradigm is acceptable to all members of the team because this facilitates implementation of a viable framework to counter the organisational change barriers, which include t he management barrier, vision barrier, and the resource barrier. These barriers emanate from inadequate requirement planning, failure to consult the affected members, and inadequate training (Coram Burnes 2011). Because of this, sufficient justification and education should be put in place to realign individuals with the new company’s direction, since the move of coming up with new strategic changes may not be fully embraced by the employees as well as other stakeholder. Nevertheless, change agents, which involve managing employees’ attitudes, can assist with the changing process despite the fact that not all agents are acknowledged in change management. For case in point, while the Virgin Blue Holdings has taken the initiative of collaborating with Skywest, some staff members of the Virgin Blue Holdings may not appreciate the move since it may raise discomfort, which normally emanates from working with an organisation that has been considered as a rival over the year s. Organisational changes present an organisation with a new mission and vision statement, making the employees attain new job specifications. The employees may tend to resist these changes after realising that the move will necessitate additional skills, which they may lack at the time of the change implementation (Coram Burnes 2011). In such a case, the organisational barrier emanates from failure to plan adequately and ignoring the affected employees, who, in turn, affect the rest of the employees within the organisation. Additionally, inadequate training serves as a barrier to organisational changes. For case in point, many employees are offered basic skills in computer software operation with a view of increasing their proficiency in computer operations. However, this does not always provide them with an opportunity to handle logistics involved with the new line of business operation. Thus, the Virgin Blue Holdings should ensure that it provides formal training required to han dle the new line of business, namely, the new airport lounges and the business class products. Techniques, Theories, And Models Of Change Management A vast majority of organisations are faced with a dilemma when it comes to managing change. This has necessitated an analysis of change management models to underscore the prime factors that should be considered in order to achieve the change process successfully. Some models are designed in such a way that they are in a position of addressing a number of barriers, including decision phase barriers, preparation phase barriers, design phase barriers, and implementation phase barriers. It is from this perspective that a number of change management models have emerged in order to counter the challenges faced with the overall change management process. Diefenbach (2007) affirms that an effective change management technique should entail analysing the change process using a number of dimensions, with the first dimension emphasizing on the es sence and the extent of change. The changes are then arranged in sequence in an effort to differentiate the reactive from the anticipated change. The procedural model, according to Cameron and Green (2009, p.124), defines organisational change as evolutionary, meaning that changes continuously evolve from one department to the next, while the EFQM Excellence model puts more emphasis on evaluating as well as aligning a company in an effort to meet the expected quality after the change process takes effect. And while the procedural model compares with the Kotter’s model in the sense that both operate under the platform of sequential procedure, the procedural model is flexible in that it is able to react positively to unexpected changes emanating from environmental factors affecting an organisation (Cameron Green 2009, p.127). With this in mind, the Virgin Blue Holdings can adopt the procedural model to achieve the desired change effectively. Developing And Implementing A Chang e Management Strategy Given that business strategies are built around innovation, flexibility, speed, customer service, affordable quality, and competitive advantage, developing and implementing an organisational change strategy for Virgin Blue Holdings requires the key decisions to be guided by a set of organisational values and culture. Although the role of top executives is important in sustaining transformation in the firm, the overall participation of all shareholders occupies a central place in this model. Such shareholders include the government, union managers, employees, line managers and top executives. The principles guiding the change process using the procedural model are divided into five phases, namely, the decision, preparation, design, implementation, and, finally, reinforcing changes phase. These phases are discussed below in turn. The Decision Phase Effective development of strategic change can only be achieved when a company defines the factors that affect its pr oductivity (Self Schraeder 2009). In this regard, the clients, society, government policies, competitors, as well as the environment affect the Virgin Blue Holdings’ productivity as it seeks to come up with new airport lounges, new uniforms, as well as a new business class. Thus, this phase entails taking a decision that would enable it cope with dynamic changes of business process in order to be in a position of coordinating its business operations for the next strategic period. Developing strategic changes starts with making decision on the intended nature of change. The challenge with decision-making, however, may create an assumption that the managers are in a position of predicting the future. The employees, in contrast, may express doubts towards the success of the new strategic change. However, a detailed description of how this model works and what it encompasses can be made possible by carrying out a critical analysis of its strong and weak points and the opportunit ies and threats that it presents in the management of change in the workplace. In doing so, the Virgin Blue Holdings acquires sufficient knowledge that would help to prioritise alternatives as well attract change through creating a positive attitude to the employees as they handle the new line of business (Proctor Doukakis 2003). The Preparation Phase Managers involved in the strategic change are increasingly required to demonstrate the ability to contribute to the overall welfare of their organisations. As such, they should strive to participate in the accomplishments of the organisation’s objectives and visions. Thus, they should not only focus on their departments but should engage in an increased cooperation with the in-line managers. More so, they should display a wide range of knowledge on how to effectively design work systems that encourage organisations’ success. In addition to this, a good preparation phase calls for effective communication skills. This stem s from the fact that effective communication facilitates reaching a point of consensus with the employees while planning and designing the organisational changes. More so, communication explicitly analyses the barriers to organisational changes in the event where the employees share their opinions regarding the proposed changes. This, in turn, helps to reduce employees’ resistance to organisational changes (Lewis 2011, p. 56). However, in order for communication to achieve its objectives in the organisation change process, it must be done face-to-face and through the company’s website. In the face-to-face interviews, the managers should ensure validity in the communication process in order to avoid biased opinions from the employees. And while using the company’s website, the managers should use an ordinary computer since a new computer model may end up scaring some workers who are not accustomed to it. The preparation phase should also include the affected memb ers who may be displaced due to adoption of new line of business operations. Effective communication with the affected members should be carried out in a manner that does not affect the other employees’ attitude towards change. This stems from the fact that employee dissatisfaction and resistance to change could only be countered if the strategic changes of the organisation are well understood and accepted by all, including the affected members (Proctor Doukakis 2003). The Design Phase This is the stage where the organisational managers meet with the employees for discussion on the planning of the change process. The managers define the behaviours and competencies expected of the employees and the target on what the employees are expected to achieve over a given period of time. Thus, this phase entails motivating and empowering the employees towards achieving the set target, and it can be achieved by introduction new technologies and products in a timely manner. The Virgin B lue Holdings has designed its strategic change by defining ways in which it is expecting to achieve its objects, such as penetrating pricing and new marketing campaigns, in a manner that takes into account the time intervals and deadlines under which the strategy is expected to achieve its purpose. In doing so, the Virgin Blue Holdings is in a position of identifying change constrains before implementing the subsequent strategic changes, as well as managing the change process effectively due to timely distribution of cost of the change process (Cameron Green 2009). The Implementation Phase In this phase, the organisation defines the changes and the time the company would take to adopt the changes effectively. Thus, the implementation phase monitors the deadlines and the expected target adopted in the design phase. This target definition is vital since it helps the management to assess whether the intended changes have been achieved. More so, the implementation phase should address all the disciplines within an organisational setting, with each head of department taking the role of controlling, monitoring, and ensuring that the changes are in line with the set boundaries (Cameron Green 2009). This is paramount because, even with high sense of vision and direction, it is very risky for one individual to take the lead in large-scale organisational changes. The Reinforcing Changes Phase It is imperative to mention that change management process should be designed in such a way that it is able to assess whether the changes adopted are valid and congruent with the company’s culture (Coram Burnes 2001). Additionally, this phase should be used to establish other environmental or social factors that may further lead to a subsequent development of mission and vision statements. This phase is paramount because it manages information regarding the change process in the implementation phase, including the employee’s attitude towards change, and forms a goo d background for implementing an effective change process in future. Conclusion This report has clearly analysed and developed change strategies that could be considered by the Virgin Blue Holdings in order for it to survive and prosper. With the tensions and uncertainty faced by organisation while adapting to innovations, it is advisable that the Virgin Blue Holdings adopts an appropriate change model and strategy that would allow it deal with such threats. This report has underscored the barriers to organisational changes, including management barrier, vision barrier, and resource barrier, and has recommended the procedural model for the Virgin Blue Holdings change management process since it seeks to manage the change by monitoring closely the five phases of the change process in a sequential order. List of References Cameron, E Green, M 2009, Making sense of change management: A complete guide to the models, tools techniques of organizational change, Kogan Page, London. Coram, R Burnes, B 2001, ‘Managing organizational change in the public sector: Lessons from the privatisation of the Property Service Agency’, The International Journal of Public Sector Management, Vol.14 no.2, pp. 94-110. Diefenbach, T 2007, ‘The managerialistic ideology of organisational change management’, Journal of Organizational Change Management, Vol. 20 no.1, pp.126–144. Gebauer, H, Fischer, T, Fleisch, E 2010, ‘Exploring the interrelationship among patterns of service strategy changes and organizational design elements’, Journal of Service Management, Vol. 21 no.1, pp.103 – 129. Kanter, R 2003, The Challenge of organizational change: How companies experience it and leaders guide it, Free Press, New York. Lewis, L 2011, Organizational change: Creating change through strategic communication, Wiley-Blackwell, Chichester, West Sussex. Penger, S, CÃŒÅ'rnak-MeglicÃŒÅ', A, TekavcÃŒÅ'icÃŒÅ', M, Hrovatin, N, SkornsÃŒÅ'ek, P. 2007. â €˜Strategic change management in the public sector: The Slovenian case’, Reflecting on Issues and Controversies in Current Management Trends, pp.189-206. Proctor, T Doukakis, I 2003, ‘Change management: the role of internal communication and employee development’, Corporate Communications: An International Journal, Vol. 8 no.4, pp. 268-277. Saka, A 2003, ‘Internal change agents’ view of the management of change problem’, Journal of Organizational Change Management, Vol. 16 no.5, pp. 480-496. Self, D Schraeder, M 2009, ‘Enhancing the success of organizational change: Matching readiness strategies with sources of resistance’, Leadership Organization Development Journal, Vol. 30 no. 2, pp.167-182. This report on Virgin Blue Holdings Change Management was written and submitted by user Kallie Merrill to help you with your own studies. You are free to use it for research and reference purposes in order to write your own paper; however, you must cite it accordingly. You can donate your paper here.

The Dawes Act of 1887

The Dawes Act of 1887 The Dawes Act of 1887 was a United States post-Indian Wars law intended to assimilate Indians into white U.S. society by encouraging them to abandon their tribally-owned reservation lands, along with their cultural and social traditions. Signed into law by President Grover Cleveland on February 8, 1887, the Dawes Act resulted in the sale of over ninety million acres of formerly Native American-owned tribal land to non-natives. The negative effects of the Dawes Act on Native Americans would result in the enactment of the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934, the so-called â€Å"Indian New Deal.† Key Takeaways: The Dawes Act The Dawes Act was a U.S. law enacted in 1887 for the stated purpose of assimilating Native Americans into white society.The act offered all Native Americans ownership of â€Å"allotments† of non-reservation land for farming.Indians who agreed to leave the reservations and farm their allotment land were granted full U.S. citizenship.Though well-intentioned, the Dawes Act had a decidedly negative effect on Native Americans, on and off the reservations. US Government-Native American Relation in the 1800s During the 1800s, European immigrants began settling areas of U.S. territories adjacent to Native American-held tribal territories. As competition for resources along with cultural differences between groups increasingly led to conflict, the U.S. government expanded its efforts to control Native Americans. Believing the two cultures could never coexist, the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) ordered the forced relocation of Native Americans from their tribal lands to â€Å"reservations† west of the Mississippi River, far from the white settlers. Native American resistance to the forced relocation resulted in the Indian Wars between Native American and the U.S. Army that raged in the West for decades. Finally defeated by the U.S. military, the tribes agreed to resettle on the reservations. As a result, Native Americans found themselves the â€Å"owners† of over 155 million acres of land ranging from sparse desert to valuable agricultural land. Under the reservation system, the tribes were granted ownership of their new lands along with the right to govern themselves. Adjusting to their new way of life, Native Americans preserved their cultures and traditions on the reservations. Still recalling the brutality of the Indian wars, many white Americans continued to fear the Indians and demanded more government control over the tribes. The Indians’ resistance to becoming â€Å"Americanized† was viewed as uncivilized and threatening. As the 1900s began, the assimilation of Native Americans into American culture became a national priority. Responding to public opinion, influential members of Congress felt it was time for the tribes to give up their tribal lands, traditions, and even their identities as Indians. The Dawes Act was, at the time, considered the solution. Dawes Act Allotment of Indian Lands Named for its sponsor, Senator Henry L. Dawes of Massachusetts, the Dawes Act of 1887- also called the General Allotment Act- authorized the U.S. Department of the Interior to divide Native American tribal land into parcels or â€Å"allotments† of land to be owned, lived on, and farmed by individual Native Americans. Each Native American head of household was offered an allotment 160 acres of land, while unmarried adults were offered 80 acres. The law stipulated that grantees could not sell their allotment for 25 years. Those Native Americans who accepted their allotment and agreed to live separately from their tribe were granted the advantages of full United States citizenship. Any â€Å"excess† Indian reservation lands remaining after the allotments were determined available for purchase and settlement by non-Native Americans. The main objectives of the Dawes Act were to: abolish tribal and communal land ownershipassimilate Native Americans into mainstream American societylift Native Americans out of poverty, thus reducing the costs of Native American administration Individual Native American ownership of land for European-American style subsistence farming was seen as the key to achieving the Dawes Act’s objectives. Supporters of the act believed that by becoming citizens, Native American would be encouraged to exchange their â€Å"uncivilized† rebellious ideologies for those that would help them become economically self-supporting citizens, no longer in need of costly government supervision. Impact Rather than helping them as its creators intended, the Dawes Act had decidedly negative effects on Native Americans. It ended their tradition of farming communally held land which had for centuries ensured them a home and individual identity in the tribal community. As historian Clara Sue Kidwell wrote in her book â€Å"Allotment,† the act â€Å"was the culmination of American attempts to destroy tribes and their governments and to open Indian lands to settlement by non-Native Americans and to development by railroads.† As a result of the act, land owned by Native Americans decreased from 138 million acres in 1887 to 48 million acres in 1934. Senator Henry M. Teller of Colorado, an outspoken critic of the act, said the intent of the allotment plan was â€Å"to despoil the Native Americans of their lands and to make them vagabonds on the face of the earth.† Indeed, the Dawes Act harmed Native Americans in ways its supporters never anticipated. The close social bonds of life in tribal communities were broken, and displaced Indians struggled to adapt to their now nomadic agricultural existence. Many Indians who had accepted their allotments lost their land to swindlers. For those who chose to stay on the reservations, life became a daily battle with poverty, disease, filth, and depression. Sources and Further Reference â€Å"Dawes Act (1887).† OurDocuments.gov. US National Archives and Records AdministrationKidwell, Clara Sue. â€Å"Allotment.† Oklahoma Historical Society: Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and CultureCarlson, Leonard A. â€Å"Indians, Bureaucrats, and Land.† Greenwood Press (1981). ISBN-13: 978-0313225338.

A Fable by Mark Twain

A Fable by Mark Twain One of the basic exercises (or progymnasmata) practiced by students of classical rhetoric was the fable- a fictional story meant to teach a moral lesson. What lesson about the nature of perception is contained in A Fable, by American humorist Mark Twain? A Fable by Mark Twain Once upon a time, an artist who had painted a small and very beautiful picture placed it so that he could see it in the mirror. He said, This doubles the distance and softens it, and it is twice as lovely as it was before. The animals out in the woods heard of this through the housecat, who was greatly admired by them because he was so learned, and so refined and civilized, and so polite and high-bred, and could tell them so much which they didnt know before, and were not certain about afterward. They were much excited about this new piece of gossip, and they asked questions, so as to get at a full understanding of it. They asked what a picture was, and the cat explained. It is a flat thing, he said; wonderfully flat, marvelously flat, enchantingly flat and elegant. And, oh, so beautiful! That excited them almost to a frenzy, and they said they would give the world to see it. Then the bear asked: What is it that makes it so beautiful? It is the looks of it, said the cat. This filled them with admiration and uncertainty, and they were more excited than ever. Then the cow asked: What is a mirror? It is a hole in the wall, said the cat. You look in it, and there you see the picture, and it is so dainty and charming and ethereal and inspiring in its unimaginable beauty that your head turns round and round, and you almost swoon with ecstasy. The ass had not said anything as yet; he now began to throw doubts. He said there had never been anything as beautiful as this before, and probably wasnt now. He said that when it took a whole basketful of sesquipedalian adjectives to whoop up a thing of beauty, it was time for suspicion. It was easy to see that these doubts were having an effect upon the animals, so the cat went off offended. The subject was dropped for a couple of days, but in the meantime, curiosity was taking a fresh start, and there was a revival of interest perceptible. Then the animals assailed the ass for spoiling what could possibly have been a pleasure to them, on a mere suspicion that the picture was not beautiful, without any evidence that such was the case. The ass was not troubled; he was calm, and said there was one way to find out who was in the right, himself or the cat: he would go and look in that hole, and come back and tell what he found there. The animals felt relieved and grateful and asked him to go at oncewhich he did. But he did not know where he ought to stand; and so, through error, he stood between the picture and the mirror. The result was that the picture had no chance, and didnt show up. He returned home and said: The cat lied. There was nothing in that hole but an ass. There wasnt a sign of a flat thing visible. It was a handsome ass, and friendly, but just an ass, and nothing more. The elephant asked: Did you see it good and clear? Were you close to it? I saw it good and clear, O Hathi, King of Beasts. I was so close that I touched noses with it. This is very strange, said the elephant; the cat was always truthful beforeas far as we could make out. Let another witness try. Go, Baloo, look in the hole, and come and report. So the bear went. When he came back, he said: Both the cat and the ass have lied; there was nothing in the hole but a bear. Great was the surprise and puzzlement of the animals. Each was now anxious to make the test himself and get at the straight truth. The elephant sent them one at a time. First, the cow. She found nothing in the hole but a cow. The tiger found nothing in it but a tiger. The lion found nothing in it but a lion. The leopard found nothing in it but a leopard. The camel found a camel, and nothing more. Then Hathi was wroth, and said he would have the truth, if he had to go and fetch it himself. When he returned, he abused his whole subjectry for liars, and was in an unappeasable fury with the moral and mental blindness of the cat. He said that anybody but a near-sighted fool could see that there was nothing in the hole but an elephant. MORAL, BY THE CAT You can find in a text whatever you bring, if you will stand between it and the mirror of your imagination. You may not see your ears, but they will be there.

Atmospheric-Pressure Plasma Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Atmospheric-Pressure Plasma - Essay Example However, the mechanism of regeneration of tissues through the short-time plasma exposure has not been explicitly revealed as yet in spite of its increased practical application. In order to improve the situation, it may be important to clarify the mechanism from multilateral standpoints including plasma science and engineering, molecular biology, and biochemistry. Therefore, we conducted a basic experiment on the direct irradiation of cells by using micro-spot atmospheric-pressure plasma source, which is hardly harmful to the living bodies both thermally and electromagnetically. In this experiment, murine fibroblast cell line (NIH3T3), which is usually used for cell experiments, was used and effect of plasma on the culture cells was considered. As a result of the experiment, it was revealed that cell multiplication is activated by plasma exposure. In response to the result, we considered factors related to the multiplication. Although there are many factors involved in the cell multi plication, we particularly focused on neoangiogenesis and NO production, and considered vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and acidic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF). Schematic diagram of the experimental apparatus is shown in Fig 1. The apparatus comprised a coaxial structure with tungsten electrodes employed in a glass capillary (internal diameter of plasma genesis region: 8 mm, internal diameter of the tip: 1 mm) with cylindrical electrodes on the exterior. High voltage for plasma generation was generated by externally-controlled high-voltage power supply device. Plasma generation conditions were: applied voltage: 5-9 kV; frequency: 1-3 kHz; helium (He) gas flow rate: 1 L/min; and plasma exposure time: 1-100 sec. It was found in the earlier studies that NO gas is not generated by this apparatus. In the experiment, a culture containing 1 x 105 murine fibroblast cell lines (NIH3T3) was set in a 12-hole culture vessel. It was cultured for 24 hours in a CO2 incubator (culture conditions: temperature: 37 deg. C and CO2 gas concentration: 5%). The medium was replaced with serum-free medium. The unprocessed specimens (control), those processed with He gas flow and others exposed to plasma were compared. Processing time for each specimen group was 1, 10 and 100 sec, respectively. They were cultured for 24 hours in CO2 incubator after plasma exposure and then cell forms were observed with optical microscope. Afterwards, only live cells of NIH3T3 cell line attached to the bottom face of the culture vessel were peeled off by trypsin treatment and the number of cells under each condition was counted, followed by consideration of multiplication rate changes among the conditions. In addition to that, they were continuously cultured for 7 days in NIH3T3 cell line. Differences in the cell multiplication curves of specimens exposed to plasma for 90 sec per day and those processed with He gas flow were also considered. With this experiment, we considered the effects o f plasma exposure on cell multiplication based on both the trends of exposure time-dependent cell multiplication and the effects of plasma exposure on cell multiplication. Fig 2 shows cells exposed to the plasma. Culture medium thickness was 6 mm. Plasma was radiated from capillary of 1 mm diameter to cells adhering to 6 cm2 base area at a flow rate of 1 L/min.  

Answer questions on the economy with the explanation and examples Essay

Answer questions on the economy with the explanation and examples - Essay Example With increasing income, the demand for a luxury goods increases sharply as compared to necessity goods. In this case, there is a larger proportionate change in the quantity demanded when a change in price of the good occurs. When the price of the good rises, the demand will fall proportionately more; hence, the total revenue will fall. But when the price of the good falls, the demand will rise proportionately more; hence, the total revenue will rise as well. In this case, there is a smaller proportionate change in the quantity demanded when a change in price of the good occurs. When the price of the good rises, the demand will fall proportionately less; hence, the total revenue will rise due to the higher price. But when the price of the good falls, the demand will rise proportionately less; hence, the total revenue will fall as well. It refers to the maximum price that has set by the government or an agency. The concerns cannot rise above this maximum rate but can fall below it. For Example: Maximum price of the oil fixed by the government in Third world countries. It refers to the minimum price that has been set by the government or an agency. The concerns cannot fall below this minimum rate but can rise about it. For Example: Minimum wage rates fixed by the government. An economic law that states that, as the quantity of a variable factor is increased, the marginal product of these additional units will, at a particular point, start to diminish and be less than the marginal product of the former unit. In the short run of the firm’s production, a few of the input factors are considered to be fixed in nature. Whereas in the long run of the firm’s production, there are no fixed factors as the company can vary the quantity being used over the period of time. The profits are maximized when MR=MC: at an output level of Q as shown in Figure 3. If the output is less than Q, the MR exceeds MC. This

Tobacco and alcohol Negative Impacts Essay Example for Free

Tobacco and alcohol Negative Impacts Essay Today, controversial questions are now rising like â€Å"Are law makers being duped into thinking that legal drugs are the more dangerous, not because of their intrinsic qualities, but simply because they are more widely used?† and â€Å"Should not we be worried about what will happen when current illegal drugs are legalized and much more widely used?†   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Lawmakers claim that the legal drugs, alcohol and tobacco, are more dangerous than has been acknowledged and, in fact more dangerous than the illegal drugs like heroin, marijuana, and cocaine. (Van, 1984) Ideologically speaking it is discriminatory and unfair if alcohol and tobacco are freely sold and that illegal drugs are not. Empirically, alcohol and tobacco are medically more harmful than cocaine, heroin, and other illegal drugs.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Around four hundred thirty thousand Americans die per year because of tobacco and more than one hundred thousand die because of alcohol. While illegal drugs only adds up to a mere three thousand five hundred a year. It is surprising that tobacco and alcohol kill hundreds and thousands of users and nonusers as well, counting victims of homicide, accidents and passive smoke.(Nadelemann, 1989). This only proves that tobacco and alcohol is almost one hundred fifty times more dangerous than illegal drugs. Criminalization makes illegal drugs harmful. (Van, 1985) Legalizing them will make them less harmful. Why? Their production and dosage will be regulated and will be standardized. These will sure have a dramatic reduction in mortality rate for illegal drugs. In terms of chronic medical effect, these drugs do not cause any medical pathology as compared with alcohol and tobacco cigarettes do. Any drugs cannot match the ravaging impact of alcohol in the liver and tobacco’s carcinogenic impact on the lungs. Reference Grinspoon, Lester, and James B. Bakalar. 1993. Marihuana: The Forbidden Medicine.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press. Nadelmann, Ethan A. 1990. Should Some Illegal Drugs Be Legalized? Legalization Is the Answer. Issues in Science and Technology, 6 (Summer): 43-46. Van Natta, Pearl, Henry Malin, Darryl Bertolucci, and Charles Kaelber. 1984-85. The   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Hidden Influence of Alcohol on Mortality. Alcohol Health and Research World, 9   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   (Winter): 56-59. Weaver, Mary Anne. 1995. Children of Jihad. The New Yorker, June 12, pp.40-47.

Essay --

The most shameful and worst thing that Socrates states is corruption of soul, including â€Å" â€Å"ignorance, cowardice, and injustice (Plato 822),† Ignorance, cowardice and injustice are caused by the lack of knowledge, according to Socrates’ claim that the essence of each virtue (e.g., holiness, justice, courage, self-control) is the same as knowledge or wisdom (Plato 779). Therefore, based on his doctrine that no one knowingly and willingly behaves wrongly, Socrates could make comments on the given case by drawing on the dialogues (e.g., â€Å"Protagoras† and â€Å"Gorgias†), in which he also mentions about ignorance, cowardice, or injustice. Most importantly, Socrates would want to investigate the central concepts closely since he believes that one must know the truth about the subject s/he is going to discuss (Plato 547-548, 847-857). Therefore, this paper shall also discuss how and why Socrates prefers a philosophical discussion with his dialecti c method to mere rhetoric persuasion. 1. Ignorance, Cowardice, and Injustice To Socrates, some incidents mentioned in the case would seem to manifest the perpetrator’s lack of wisdom. Undoubtedly, plotting to rape is an immoral action, and according to Socrates, to commit an immoral action is to do something in the state of ignorance—the lack of knowledge of what is good (Plato 775-777); in other words, Socrates would think that if people fully understood the damage of evil deed then they would not have plotted to do it. Also, Socrates declares that courage is synonymous with knowledge and that the opposite of courage—cowardice—represents ignorance of what is and is not to be dreadful (Plato 789-790). Therefore, Socrates could raise a question whether the father, who fled when his son kept behind, ... ...idences confirm the effectiveness of Socrates’s dialectic in disclosing unexamined premises and flawed arguments. Therefore, Socrates would maintain his view that the dialectic is the best way to truth and philosophy. Conclusion Instead of explicitly drawing conclusions, the discussion over the present case will remain to be continued with real presence of Socrates’ interlocutor so that they can present each other’s own opinions and to engage in the philosophical labor oneself (Plato 778-779). Also, in Socratic dialogues, each interpretation is often a beginning for another series of examination (e.g., Socrates states at the end of the â€Å"Protagoras† and â€Å"Euthyphro†, their discussion has to start once again from the very beginning); thus, many Socratic dialogues suggest that lessons may actually attained from the method, not the matter of the argument (Plato 546-554).

The Story of an Hour Analysis

On â€Å"The Story of an Hour† â€Å"The Story of an Hour,† a short story by Kate Chopin, details the events of the short hour when Mrs. Mallard finds out her husband has died, only to see him walking through the door. Chopin makes it clear through the structure of the story that the irony of these events is no coincidence; there is conflict when people are oppressed and their soul has no joy or freedom. It is clear in the exposition that Mrs. Mallard is afflicted with heart trouble, implying she is weak, both physically and emotionally. Her sister Josephine and her husband’s friend, Richard, know how fragile she is so, â€Å"great care was taken† to break the news of Mr. Mallard’s death. Following the news of her husband’s death, Mrs. Mallard, â€Å"wept at once†¦in her sister’s arms,† showing her dependence on others. As the immediate feeling of grief spent itself, she went up to her room to be alone with her thoughts. Although she is at first weak, someone who is completely emotionally unstable would not be so willing to go be alone in her room to grief. There is obviously some want to be self dependent and free. The story’s rising action builds through a series of scenery descriptions. After Mrs. Mallard has gone up to her room, she faces an open window. The blue sky â€Å"showing here and there† and â€Å"countless sparrows† twittering outside were mentioned, symbolizing happiness and peace. Mrs. Mallard is then described by the narrator as a woman with â€Å"a dull stare in her eyes,† as she fixed her gaze on the blue sky, as if finally realizing that they were there. The details of the rising actions transition into the climax, where Mrs. Mallard feels an emotion â€Å"approaching to possess her. † After the realization that â€Å"there would be no one to live for† for the rest of her life Mrs. Mallard continues to whisper under her breath, â€Å"Free! Body and soul free! † This moment is filled with joy; however a turn of events could be predicted to come soon as she prayed â€Å"that life might be long. † At the falling action of the story, Mrs. Mallard leaves the room with the open window with a â€Å"feverish triumph in her eyes. † She is unquestionably a confident and new woman as she walks down the stairs with her sister. The story concludes with the denouement in which Brently Mallard enters the front door, unharmed. The shock of his homecoming is extremely evident through Josephine’s â€Å"piercing cry† and Richard quickly trying to block him from the view of his wife. Mrs. Mallard apparently has a heart attack and dies â€Å"of the joy that kills. † By the time Mrs. Mallard realizes that because her husband has died she will now be able to experience the joy of freedom, â€Å"the face of this possession† has unexpectedly walked in through the door. Although most would expect the weak Mrs. Mallard to die when hearing the news of her husband’s death, it is seeing him alive and realizing that she will continue to be his possession that causes her heart and her soul to die.

Class conflict in A Streetcar Named Desire Essay

Class conflict is represented throughout the play, A Streetcar Named Desire in various ways through characters, symbols, ideas and language. Characters such as Blanche, Stella, Mitch and Stanley are used throughout the text to represent the upper and lower classes, as well as the conflict between the two classes. Symbols, ideas and language help to define the different classes as well as helping to represent the conflict between classes. The language (dialogue) of the characters, symbolic use of names, animal imagery and colour (clothes) and the ideas of cultural capital help to define what the lower and upper classes are. A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams was written in 1947. The story takes place in New Orleans, and can be read as being during any year between May and September. The story revolves around Blanche Dubois and her conflict with Stanley Kowalski. Blanche’s character represents the old aristocratic south and the upper class of the play through her manner and cultural capital (her education and sophisticated dialogue). She’s cultivated and bound by heritage (Belle Reve) and tradition. The upper class is associated with intellectual strength. Stanley represents the new industrial south and the lower class of the play through his job at the steel mill, use of slang and his ignorance. His society is based on force and ingenuity. The lower class is associated with physical strength. From the beginning, the conflict between the two classes is prominent. The working class is predatory and survives and triumphs with two elements, which the upper class lacks, vitality and strength. The conflict of class is evident and we see how Blanche and the old south are fragile, and it’s only a matter of time before Stanley, the new south crushes it’s opposition. Class conflict is effectively represented through clothes and the symbolic use of colour and animal imagery. The conflict becomes evident during the first scene when we first meet Blanche and Stanley. Blanche is dressed in her white proper clothing (â€Å"†¦She is daintily dressed in a white suit with a fluffy bodice, necklace and ear-rings of pearl, white gloves and hat†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Scene One), whilst Stanley is dressed in dirty denim work clothes (â€Å"†¦roughly dressed in blue denim work clothes†¦ carries his bowling jacket†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Scene One). Blanche is often dressed in white, pale, timid  colours, whereas Stanley is dressed in bright bold colours. Stanley’s bright colours overpowers Blanche’s pale colours. Blanche is symbolised as the aristocratic moth and Stanley the common cave man. The symbol of colour helps the reader construct the inevitable doom of the fragile upper class (Blanche) by the strong lower class (Stanley). These symbols of colour and animal imagery related to each character, helps reinforce the conflict between the Old South (upper class) and the New South (lower class). The language (dialogue) of each character and symbolic use of names help in constructing ideas of class conflict in this play. Blanche speaks in a quiet, refined voice and uses sophisticated language (â€Å"†¦- Only Poe! Only Mr Edgar Allan Poe! – could do it justice!† Scene One, Blanche). This constructs Blanche to be fragile and vulnerable, with the cultural capital of sophistication. Blanche uses her speech on a high level, searching for values and reflecting education in her manner. Stanley yells and hollers and uses unsophisticated language. (â€Å"[Bellowing]: Hey, there! Stella, Baby!† Scene One, Stanley) Stanley’s speech is often dotted with exclamations and short, to the point sentences. Stanley uses his speech to express his wants, likes and dislikes. This further constructs Stanley as loud and strong. Blanche is shown to be singing throughout the text, which in turn aggravates Stanley. This further shows the conflict between the two charact ers through language (dialogue). The use of names in this play helps in constructing the separate classes. The names Blanche Dubois and Stanley Kowalski help construct different representations of class. The name Blanche means white and creates the irony of Blanche not being as white and pure as her name represents. In contrast the name Stanley offers no specific meaning in relation to meaning in the play. Secondly the name Dubois sounds aristocratic, with a possible proud heritage, whereas the name Kowalski sounds more modern. A Dubois speaks softly and flittingly, as the name is pronounced, whereas a Kowalski speaks loudly and brutally as the name is said. Kowalski’s enjoy loud, rowdy poker parties, whilst Dubois’s wince and prefer teas, cocktail parties and luncheons. The names of these two characters help in constructing the conflict between the two classes. The dialogue of Blanche and Stanley and the symbolic use of names help to construct class conflict in the play, A Streetcar Named Desire. Stella represents the old south being converted by the new south. Blanche fights for Stella to come back and be part of the old south again, accusing Stella of being blinded by desire for Stanley (â€Å"What you are talking about is brutal desire – just – Desire!† Scene Four, Blanche). Elysian fields is described as having an atmosphere of decay. This scenery is contrasted to the image of white pillars at Belle Reve. This contrast is to highlight the difference in the world Stella has chosen (lower class lifestyle), and the world she was brought up in (upper class lifestyle). Colour is used by Stanley to keep Stella part of the new south. (â€Å"†¦You showed me the snapshot of the place with the columns. I pulled you down of them columns and how you loved it, having them coloured lights going!† Scene Eight, Stanley). The class conflict between Blanche and Stanley is evident, through them trying to convert Stella. The idea of cultural capital is important when discussing class in the text. Blanche, Stella and Mitch possess an aspect of cultural capital. Blanche and Stella have cultural capital through their education, manner and heritage. Mitch is seen to be in between the old and new south. He holds his own cultural capital, enjoying the finer things of life, like poetry and music. We see how Mitch feels at ease when he is with Blanche, because of his love for the arts. Blanche, Stella and Mitch are also quite polite and have that air of gentility. Alternately Stanley is the only ‘main’ character to be without cultural capital. He has no manners and is rough and tough (â€Å"Mr Kowalski is too busy making a pig of himself†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Scene eight, Stella). He doesn’t value tradition or gentility. He values alcohol, violence and desire. Through cultural capital we see the conflict between the classes and their values. The use of language in the play works effectively to define between the two classes. The lower class is associated with slang, whilst the upper class is associated with sophisticated language. The symbolic use of names, animal imagery and colour are important in also contrasting between the two classes. Finally the idea of cultural capital works in highlighting the class conflicts between the upper class or old south and the lower class or  new south. In A Streetcar Named Desire the conflict of class is evident and we see how Blanche, the aristocratic south is fragile, and it’s only a matter of time before Stanley, the industrial south destroys every shred of Blanche, the old south.

Blake William essays

Blake William essays William Blake wrote during the Romantic period which between 1785 - 1830. Some said that the Romantic period was the fairy tale way of writing through symbolism and allegory and also an age for individualism. Blake was little known as a poet during his lifetime. His reputation became established late in the 19th century. Blakes first book of poems was Poetical Sketches. Blake was said to write symbolist poetry in which things such as a cloud, a flower, or a mountain was presented as an object represent with significance beyond itself. In comparison to Blakes Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience there is a distinction between the imagined states of innocence and experience is stated as thus: world of innocence: unfallen world/ unified self/ integration with nature/ time in harmony with rhythm of human existence. world of experience: fallen world/ fragmented divided self/ alienation from nature/ time as destructive, in opposition of human desire (Feldman). This can be seen in The Lamb, and The Chimney Sweeper; from Songs of Innocence and in Songs of Experience The Tyger. Blake along with other poets explored visionary states of consciousness that are common among children but violate the standard categories of adult judgment. This can be seen in Blakes Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience. In Songs of Innocence the speaker is often a child and in Songs of Experience the speaker is often an adult. This could be due to the fact that children thought to be of what innocent adults have already experien ced. Blake experimented with partial rhymes and novel rhythms and employed bold figures of speech that at times approximate symbols. One of the strongest features in Blakes philosophy was his belief in imagination as an active force. He attacked rationalism, authoritarianism, industrialization, and organized religion as destructive of creative a...

Visual Content on Social Media How to Use It to Improve Engagement

Visual Content on Social Media How to Use It to Improve Engagement Social media marketing is increasingly becoming a struggle to capture audience’ attention. It’s not enough that social networks are forcibly suppressing your content from the newsfeeds of your fans, but those fans are more fickle than ever. Visual content helps brands get their message across in a precise and engaging fashion. For this reason, visual content has gone from a â€Å"nice-to-have† to a must-have  vehicle for marketing messages. Here we look at the reasons why brands should spend their time, money and effort creating visual content, the different types of visual content they can create are and how these can contribute to your overall social media strategy. How to Boost #Engagement on Social Media with Visual ContentGet Some Free Resources to Create Better Visual Social Media Content Whats good advice without the right tools to put it into practice? Not much, thats what. Before we get too much farther along, here are some free goodies to help you create better social media content: 128 free photos, optimized for each social media network. Pinterest and Instagram Visual Marketing Infographic packed with useful tips and stats. Social Media Image Size infographic with all the size dimension information you need for every network. Why Create Visual Content? In social media circles, everybody knows that visual content performs better than plain text. If you still need convincing, we looked at data from the Facebook Pages  of the top 100 brands according to the Interbrand list. In 2016, 80.20% of all the Posts published were photos and videos. These were responsible for 92.15% of all interactions that these brands received on Facebook. On Facebook, there has been a steady increase in the amount of visual content being published. There was even an upward trend in the volume of visual content from one-quarter to the next in 2016. One of the main reasons why social media marketers favor visual content is the advantage it offers in terms of engagement. Showing is always better than telling. Look at the graph below that shows the average number of interactions that visual content received compared to other forms in 2016. Especially when you present facts and other information, it will be easier for your audience to assimilate visually represented content as opposed to a wall of text. Recommended Reading: How to Make the Best Social Media Images the Easy Way (+84 Free Images) How to Create Visual Social Media Content One of the best things about social media marketing is that there is something for everybody. Visual content creation on social media works along the same lines. You do not need a multi-million dollar social media budget to create visual content. The possibilities that are available to your brand may differ willing on the resources you have (talent, time, money). Yet, there are many things that brands can do even with a shoestring budget. As we have seen above, the kind of engagement that visual content can bring you makes a strong case for posting more photos and videos. Even if you do not have a full-time designer or an agency to handle social media content creation, you can create some stunning visual content. There are many free tools that are available online for creating various types of visual content. A basic starter kit for any brand would just be a willingness to play around with some free tools  like: Pablo Canva Infogr.am Piktochart Most of these are simple to use and are designed with a lay person (and not a designer) in mind. Recommended Reading: How to Be More Successful With the Right Content Marketing Tools These can help you create highly shareable visual content (A more detailed discussion on these tools follows on the next page). Remember, before you set about creating visual content, have a clear picture of why you want to do visual content. Are you looking to boost engagement, do you want more audience interaction or do you want to establish your brand as a thought-leader in your industry? The different types of visual content that you can take up can help you achieve these different goals. Look at this post that Innocent drinks  published that cracked me up (as they always do): Today is Penguin Awareness Day. We're doing our bit. Are you? Posted by innocent on  Friday, January 20, 2017 Or this highly engaging video by Dr. Pepper: Dr Pepper College Football – Grocery Run :15The carry-the-groceries-in-one-trip play – it’s not for the faint of heart. Here’s to those who push through, pick up the Dr Pepper, and take it to the house. Posted by Dr Pepper on Tuesday, November 22, 2016 These brands enjoy great engagement on Facebook usually. They do not need  engagement or interactions. It is hard to establish beyond doubt if someone would pick up an Innocent smoothie or a couple of cans of Dr. Pepper. Yet these do play a significant role in building brand personality on social media and help mold the way people feel about brands. If you look at some of the brands that publish outstanding visual content, you will see that they are very distinctive. This is the case with Starbucks, Dr. Pepper, GoPro, and so forth. While most of Starbuck’s content sports their trademark cups and their unmistakable logos, they also have a very recognizable indie vibe. Charm bracelets, woolen scarfs, freshly mown grass, fall leaves, knitted sweaters all feature regularly in Starbucks’ posts. In addition to reminding social media audiences about the brand, these posts make them crave for the warmth and coziness of a cafe or to start their day with the indie chill. Their content has become so iconic that their red cups have almost become synonymous with the holiday cheer. Ok, here's a hint: they're red. (Coming 11/10) Posted by Starbucks on  Saturday, November 5, 2016 GoPro, on the other hand, rarely uses their logo on any of their visual content. The photos themselves yell GoPro. The brand regularly puts up stunning visuals set in adventurous locations that makes these Posts identifiable as GoPro’s. There is no better way of establishing yourself as a brand that brings together amazing picture clarity and the spirit of exploration. The position that they hold within the community of travel and photography enthusiasts is further bolstered when they share user-generated content like the one below: Photo of the Day! Ryan Chan discovered that some of Hong Kong's best views are straight up! Posted by GoPro on  Monday, December 12, 2016 Here are some types of visual content that you can try your hand at and some free tools that will help you create them: Here are some types of visual content you can create (+ the free tools you'll need)Infographics Infographics are the best medium for marketers to use when they want to make their data tell a story. If you think that your eyes glaze over when you see a cramped table or a complicated graph, you are not alone. Infographics allow content creators to present data in an easily digestible and aesthetically pleasing way. Infogr.am  and Venngage  are among some of the free infographic-makers that are available online. With the templates they offer, you really don’t need a designer to dedicate their hard-pressed time for creating an infographic. Most of the infographic creation tools come with a  predesigned template. Each template is designed for a specific type of infographic. The type of infographic depends on what you are using it for – is it to convey some information or statistic, a how-to or a comparison. In addition to these templates, they also offer different elements, such as charts, text formats, symbols etc. The first thing you should have when you start out with an infographic is a story. The first thing you should have when you start out with an infographic is a story.Are you going to show your audiences how your company has grown in the past 5 years or are you doing to explain what the benefits of using your product is, or do you want to teach them how to use your product? Once you have that answer, choose the template that best suits your need. Make the necessary edits such as choosing the chart types you need, inputting the data that you have collected and customizing other design elements. Here’s an infographic  created using Venngage that was published in Adweek: Take a look at an infographic  that we did back in 2015 that got us a lot of traction: One of the things that we were able to do using this format is to do creative things with the data that we have. If you thought that only data nuts like us use infographics, see this Washington Redskins’ infographic that doubles as a 360 photo: Take our #PHIvsWAS postgame infographic for a spin. #HTTR Posted by Washington Redskins on  Sunday, October 16, 2016 Images Did you know that Facebook Posts with images get 2.3 times more engagement  than those without? There are a million different things you can do with images on social media. These can be professionally taken product shots, or just stock images with an interesting caption that accompanies your Post. If you have an extremely talented and resourceful photographer in your team, nothing should stop you from leveraging professionally captured images of your product on your website as well as on your social media handles. While most businesses will get a photographer (or someone with a DSLR) to get shots taken for websites or for important events and press releases, it is not always the case with more regular content needs. For instance, it is common knowledge now that text-only updates do not perform nearly as well as when they do with a photo accompanying them. For needs like that, you can always take the help of some of the free tools and stock photos available on the internet. Unsplash  and Pixabay  are excellent repositories of stock photos. It is easy to search and find beautiful photos for your search terms. Another tool that will be a boon for your social media manager is Pablo by Buffer. Here is a short snapshot of Pablo in action: What I like best about Pablo is that I do not need to go elsewhere searching for stock photos. Plus, I can add in a header, caption or lines of text or use a pre-existing template. The built-in editor lets me add simple, yet attractive filters. I can also customize the size of the picture depending on where I plan to post it – Pinterest, Instagram or Facebook. There isn’t a lot of room for customization but you can be done creating a beautiful graphic in under 5 minutes. Canva  is another one of my favorites which is a bit more dynamic. They offer more diverse templates and design elements create a photo to accompany my Facebook post or even create an infographic. Watch this video by Canvas  that takes you around the platform and explains what you can do with it in under 4 minutes. Recommended Reading: What 20 Studies Say About the Best Times to Post on Social Media 360 Photos and Videos In addition to these tools, you can also try your hand at some of the new visual content creation features offered by Facebook. 360 videos and photos were some such features that gained a lot of popularity last year. It is fairly simple to create 360 Photos. All you need to do is take a panoramic shot using your smartphone or your iPhone. For 360 videos, you need a 360 camera. Read this article  for a detailed how-to. Even if you think you are in a boring industry, 360 photos have the ability to go viral (with a little paid push of course). Take this 360 photo from German pharmaceutical and chemicals company Bayer. Today we’re taking you up onto the roof. Here you can see the illuminated Bayer Cross close up. Take a look around. Have a great weekend. Posted by Bayer on  Friday, August 5, 2016 It was their most shared piece of content in 2016 with 3,431 shares. If it didn’t resonate with people, then it wouldn’t have been shared so many times. Look at the level of detail Getty Images  achieved using this format: Happy National Color Day! Celebrate with this stunning Facebook 360 from the Nasir al-Mulk Mosque, also known as the Pink Mosque, in Shiraz, Iran. 📠·: Omid Jafarnezhad /360cities.net Posted by Getty Images on  Saturday, October 22, 2016 Both 360 videos and photos make your audiences feel as if they are immersed in the experience of the visual content that you publish. This contributes to greater engagement. If you are looking for some inspiration on creating 360 videos, take a look at this roundup that we did of top brands that use 360 videos on Facebook. GIFs It’s a meme-crazy world. GIFs are gaining traction among social media marketers as a staple content type. Some brands, like Nissan  below, are integrating this format into their contests and giveaways: The first 40 years- How many different Nissan GT-Rs can you spot? Answer in the comments for a chance to win $100 and a Gif-TR prize pack. http://rul.es/iqbvt9 Posted by Nissan on  Friday, March 25, 2016 Especially if your target audience includes the 9gag generation, GIFs are a low-cost, easy to create content type that can be part of your social media content strategy. GIPHY  now lets you create GIFs. You need only upload videos or supply YouTube links. You can take a regular video or use an existing video. Once you upload this or input the Youtube link, GIPHY allows you to specify which portion of the video you want to create a GIF of. You can then add in text and specify other settings. The final GIF can be shared on social networks directly. Videos Videos are becoming a vital part of every brand’s Facebook strategy. With the changes to the Newsfeed algorithm that gives an edge to video content, they gain better reach than other kinds of content. Brands often post video advertisements and product features that are professionally captured. Yet this does not mean that posting a video on Facebook needs to be a resource-intensive endeavor. Brands can do a variety of low-budget (and often free) videos on Facebook that can get them great engagement and reach. Recommended Reading: How to Do Facebook Video Marketing the Right Way How to Get Started With Twitter Video Marketing Live Videos Live videos, even though it was rolled out globally only by April 2016, have been enthusiastically taken up by many brands. The key advantage offered by live videos is that it makes the video format more interactive. It does not hurt that live videos gives a  huge boost to the engagement and reach that brands get. Facebook users can pose questions to the brand on what is being broadcasted on the live video and the presenters can address them then and there. This adds to the brand’s credibility. Also, the brand gets a keener insight into the pain points of potential consumers. Here’s how the cosmetics brand Mary Kay used live video  to win engagement: We’re LIVE with Mary Kay Global Beauty Ambassador Luis Casco makeup! He’s creating gorgeous eye looks for your holiday festivities and will also be answering your questions after the video wraps. Want more beauty tips tricks? Visit http://bit.ly/2g7FM3r! Posted by MARY KAY on Tuesday, December 6, 2016 How to Integrate Visual Content Into Your Social Media Strategy I have mentioned several studies (and our own data) to underline why brands should create more visual content. But your decision to create visual content should be guided by your larger social media goals. Only then will you be able to judge what kind of visual content will work best for you and where it fits in within your overall social media strategy. For instance, if you are on Facebook to let more people know about your product, videos might be the way to go. They get better reach and can get the word out about your product to a wider audience. Based on what your social media budget is like, consider roping in an influencer  to do the video. Based on data on your past performance and industry trends, arrive at an optimum frequency at which you should post to Facebook. If you are going to post 15 times a month, split this up into different categories based on your budget. You can allocate these 15 to lead to a major event around which you can create more content and get more people to participate. You can do a few resource-intensive videos or other visual content that needs time and specialized effort. For the other posts, the social media manager can do simpler, easier to make content and focus more on getting social media audiences to engage with it. A video with heavy production costs cannot stand alone as the only thing that you post on Facebook. It has to be part of a larger video marketing campaign. Contests and giveaways get brands more engagement and participation. This way, even if you do not promote, your future content will get better reach and visibility on Facebook. Especially with live videos you need to announce them in advance and build excitement around the event in order to get more people to participate. Recommended Reading: How to Increase Visibility With Social Media Optimization How to Ensure That Your Visual Content Gets the Attention it Deserves Now that you have a clear idea of why you should create visual content and how it fits in with your larger social media objectives, here are some measures that you can adopt to ensure that your visual content does not go unnoticed. While it is almost impossible to know with absolute certainty what content will succeed on social media, it is also a source of rich data. Using the record of how your past content has performed, you can glean insights on what is most relevant and appealing to your audience. It is essential that marketers constantly measure and monitor their social media activity. This coupled with an awareness of the industry landscape and trends there is key to pinning down a concrete strategy. With organic reach plummeting with each passing day, brands cannot always trust creative copy  and stunning visuals to do well on their own. In 2016, the top 100 brands promoted 18.65% of all their Posts. Over 78% of all the Posts promoted bore some visual content. Recommended Reading: How to Write for Social Media to Create the Best Posts The Non-Designer's Guide to Creating Better Blog Graphics It makes sense to promote at least some portion of the content that you publish to get good reach. This is extremely important when you have spent a lot of time, money and energy on making videos, or other resource-heavy visual content. Marketers should look at past data and industry trends to choose which content to promote. Marketers should look at past data and industry trends to choose which content to promote.An important thing for social media marketers to note is that the Facebook algorithm favors native videos  over those hosted elsewhere. Even if you do not record the video directly on your Facebook app, as long as it is uploaded directly to Facebook your video will get better reach than if you shared a link to your the video that you posted on YouTube. The algorithm gives preference to live videos  too. This makes a very strong case for brands to try their hand at this new format. Getting an influencer on board to help broadcast your message is a clever Facebook Reach hack. When you get a celebrity or an expert in your industry to create a video in collaboration with you, you can tap into their follower base. This helps broadcast your message to the people who follow that person. The best thing about this approach is that  the influencer’s followers are usually people who make up the target audience for your brand. Similarly, make full use of the options that Facebook offers you to target your messages to people who fall within certain geographical locations and interest groups. This ensures that the audience who get to see your post find it extremely relevant and that your efforts reach your targets rather than fall off the mark. From the data that we have discussed, it is possible to say without doubt that all brands that aspire to getting engagement on Facebook, need to create visual content. Visual content ups the relevance factor of a piece of content by presenting those aspects most relevant to the consumer. Marketers should strive to retain relevance as the hallmark of visual content creation by guiding creative decisions with data. Visual Content on Social Media How to Use It to Improve Engagement Social media marketing is increasingly becoming a struggle to capture audience’ attention. It’s not enough that social networks are forcibly suppressing your content from the newsfeeds of your fans, but those fans are more fickle than ever. Visual content helps brands get their message across in a precise and engaging fashion. For this reason, visual content has gone from a â€Å"nice-to-have† to a must-have  vehicle for marketing messages. Here we look at the reasons why brands should spend their time, money and effort creating visual content, the different types of visual content they can create are and how these can contribute to your overall social media strategy. How to Boost #Engagement on Social Media with Visual ContentGet Some Free Resources to Create Better Visual Social Media Content Whats good advice without the right tools to put it into practice? Not much, thats what. Before we get too much farther along, here are some free goodies to help you create better social media content: 128 free photos, optimized for each social media network. Pinterest and Instagram Visual Marketing Infographic packed with useful tips and stats. Social Media Image Size infographic with all the size dimension information you need for every network. Why Create Visual Content? In social media circles, everybody knows that visual content performs better than plain text. If you still need convincing, we looked at data from the Facebook Pages  of the top 100 brands according to the Interbrand list. In 2016, 80.20% of all the Posts published were photos and videos. These were responsible for 92.15% of all interactions that these brands received on Facebook. On Facebook, there has been a steady increase in the amount of visual content being published. There was even an upward trend in the volume of visual content from one-quarter to the next in 2016. One of the main reasons why social media marketers favor visual content is the advantage it offers in terms of engagement. Showing is always better than telling. Look at the graph below that shows the average number of interactions that visual content received compared to other forms in 2016. Especially when you present facts and other information, it will be easier for your audience to assimilate visually represented content as opposed to a wall of text. Recommended Reading: How to Make the Best Social Media Images the Easy Way (+84 Free Images) How to Create Visual Social Media Content One of the best things about social media marketing is that there is something for everybody. Visual content creation on social media works along the same lines. You do not need a multi-million dollar social media budget to create visual content. The possibilities that are available to your brand may differ willing on the resources you have (talent, time, money). Yet, there are many things that brands can do even with a shoestring budget. As we have seen above, the kind of engagement that visual content can bring you makes a strong case for posting more photos and videos. Even if you do not have a full-time designer or an agency to handle social media content creation, you can create some stunning visual content. There are many free tools that are available online for creating various types of visual content. A basic starter kit for any brand would just be a willingness to play around with some free tools  like: Pablo Canva Infogr.am Piktochart Most of these are simple to use and are designed with a lay person (and not a designer) in mind. Recommended Reading: How to Be More Successful With the Right Content Marketing Tools These can help you create highly shareable visual content (A more detailed discussion on these tools follows on the next page). Remember, before you set about creating visual content, have a clear picture of why you want to do visual content. Are you looking to boost engagement, do you want more audience interaction or do you want to establish your brand as a thought-leader in your industry? The different types of visual content that you can take up can help you achieve these different goals. Look at this post that Innocent drinks  published that cracked me up (as they always do): Today is Penguin Awareness Day. We're doing our bit. Are you? Posted by innocent on  Friday, January 20, 2017 Or this highly engaging video by Dr. Pepper: Dr Pepper College Football – Grocery Run :15The carry-the-groceries-in-one-trip play – it’s not for the faint of heart. Here’s to those who push through, pick up the Dr Pepper, and take it to the house. Posted by Dr Pepper on Tuesday, November 22, 2016 These brands enjoy great engagement on Facebook usually. They do not need  engagement or interactions. It is hard to establish beyond doubt if someone would pick up an Innocent smoothie or a couple of cans of Dr. Pepper. Yet these do play a significant role in building brand personality on social media and help mold the way people feel about brands. If you look at some of the brands that publish outstanding visual content, you will see that they are very distinctive. This is the case with Starbucks, Dr. Pepper, GoPro, and so forth. While most of Starbuck’s content sports their trademark cups and their unmistakable logos, they also have a very recognizable indie vibe. Charm bracelets, woolen scarfs, freshly mown grass, fall leaves, knitted sweaters all feature regularly in Starbucks’ posts. In addition to reminding social media audiences about the brand, these posts make them crave for the warmth and coziness of a cafe or to start their day with the indie chill. Their content has become so iconic that their red cups have almost become synonymous with the holiday cheer. Ok, here's a hint: they're red. (Coming 11/10) Posted by Starbucks on  Saturday, November 5, 2016 GoPro, on the other hand, rarely uses their logo on any of their visual content. The photos themselves yell GoPro. The brand regularly puts up stunning visuals set in adventurous locations that makes these Posts identifiable as GoPro’s. There is no better way of establishing yourself as a brand that brings together amazing picture clarity and the spirit of exploration. The position that they hold within the community of travel and photography enthusiasts is further bolstered when they share user-generated content like the one below: Photo of the Day! Ryan Chan discovered that some of Hong Kong's best views are straight up! Posted by GoPro on  Monday, December 12, 2016 Here are some types of visual content that you can try your hand at and some free tools that will help you create them: Here are some types of visual content you can create (+ the free tools you'll need)Infographics Infographics are the best medium for marketers to use when they want to make their data tell a story. If you think that your eyes glaze over when you see a cramped table or a complicated graph, you are not alone. Infographics allow content creators to present data in an easily digestible and aesthetically pleasing way. Infogr.am  and Venngage  are among some of the free infographic-makers that are available online. With the templates they offer, you really don’t need a designer to dedicate their hard-pressed time for creating an infographic. Most of the infographic creation tools come with a  predesigned template. Each template is designed for a specific type of infographic. The type of infographic depends on what you are using it for – is it to convey some information or statistic, a how-to or a comparison. In addition to these templates, they also offer different elements, such as charts, text formats, symbols etc. The first thing you should have when you start out with an infographic is a story. The first thing you should have when you start out with an infographic is a story.Are you going to show your audiences how your company has grown in the past 5 years or are you doing to explain what the benefits of using your product is, or do you want to teach them how to use your product? Once you have that answer, choose the template that best suits your need. Make the necessary edits such as choosing the chart types you need, inputting the data that you have collected and customizing other design elements. Here’s an infographic  created using Venngage that was published in Adweek: Take a look at an infographic  that we did back in 2015 that got us a lot of traction: One of the things that we were able to do using this format is to do creative things with the data that we have. If you thought that only data nuts like us use infographics, see this Washington Redskins’ infographic that doubles as a 360 photo: Take our #PHIvsWAS postgame infographic for a spin. #HTTR Posted by Washington Redskins on  Sunday, October 16, 2016 Images Did you know that Facebook Posts with images get 2.3 times more engagement  than those without? There are a million different things you can do with images on social media. These can be professionally taken product shots, or just stock images with an interesting caption that accompanies your Post. If you have an extremely talented and resourceful photographer in your team, nothing should stop you from leveraging professionally captured images of your product on your website as well as on your social media handles. While most businesses will get a photographer (or someone with a DSLR) to get shots taken for websites or for important events and press releases, it is not always the case with more regular content needs. For instance, it is common knowledge now that text-only updates do not perform nearly as well as when they do with a photo accompanying them. For needs like that, you can always take the help of some of the free tools and stock photos available on the internet. Unsplash  and Pixabay  are excellent repositories of stock photos. It is easy to search and find beautiful photos for your search terms. Another tool that will be a boon for your social media manager is Pablo by Buffer. Here is a short snapshot of Pablo in action: What I like best about Pablo is that I do not need to go elsewhere searching for stock photos. Plus, I can add in a header, caption or lines of text or use a pre-existing template. The built-in editor lets me add simple, yet attractive filters. I can also customize the size of the picture depending on where I plan to post it – Pinterest, Instagram or Facebook. There isn’t a lot of room for customization but you can be done creating a beautiful graphic in under 5 minutes. Canva  is another one of my favorites which is a bit more dynamic. They offer more diverse templates and design elements create a photo to accompany my Facebook post or even create an infographic. Watch this video by Canvas  that takes you around the platform and explains what you can do with it in under 4 minutes. Recommended Reading: What 20 Studies Say About the Best Times to Post on Social Media 360 Photos and Videos In addition to these tools, you can also try your hand at some of the new visual content creation features offered by Facebook. 360 videos and photos were some such features that gained a lot of popularity last year. It is fairly simple to create 360 Photos. All you need to do is take a panoramic shot using your smartphone or your iPhone. For 360 videos, you need a 360 camera. Read this article  for a detailed how-to. Even if you think you are in a boring industry, 360 photos have the ability to go viral (with a little paid push of course). Take this 360 photo from German pharmaceutical and chemicals company Bayer. Today we’re taking you up onto the roof. Here you can see the illuminated Bayer Cross close up. Take a look around. Have a great weekend. Posted by Bayer on  Friday, August 5, 2016 It was their most shared piece of content in 2016 with 3,431 shares. If it didn’t resonate with people, then it wouldn’t have been shared so many times. Look at the level of detail Getty Images  achieved using this format: Happy National Color Day! Celebrate with this stunning Facebook 360 from the Nasir al-Mulk Mosque, also known as the Pink Mosque, in Shiraz, Iran. 📠·: Omid Jafarnezhad /360cities.net Posted by Getty Images on  Saturday, October 22, 2016 Both 360 videos and photos make your audiences feel as if they are immersed in the experience of the visual content that you publish. This contributes to greater engagement. If you are looking for some inspiration on creating 360 videos, take a look at this roundup that we did of top brands that use 360 videos on Facebook. GIFs It’s a meme-crazy world. GIFs are gaining traction among social media marketers as a staple content type. Some brands, like Nissan  below, are integrating this format into their contests and giveaways: The first 40 years- How many different Nissan GT-Rs can you spot? Answer in the comments for a chance to win $100 and a Gif-TR prize pack. http://rul.es/iqbvt9 Posted by Nissan on  Friday, March 25, 2016 Especially if your target audience includes the 9gag generation, GIFs are a low-cost, easy to create content type that can be part of your social media content strategy. GIPHY  now lets you create GIFs. You need only upload videos or supply YouTube links. You can take a regular video or use an existing video. Once you upload this or input the Youtube link, GIPHY allows you to specify which portion of the video you want to create a GIF of. You can then add in text and specify other settings. The final GIF can be shared on social networks directly. Videos Videos are becoming a vital part of every brand’s Facebook strategy. With the changes to the Newsfeed algorithm that gives an edge to video content, they gain better reach than other kinds of content. Brands often post video advertisements and product features that are professionally captured. Yet this does not mean that posting a video on Facebook needs to be a resource-intensive endeavor. Brands can do a variety of low-budget (and often free) videos on Facebook that can get them great engagement and reach. Recommended Reading: How to Do Facebook Video Marketing the Right Way How to Get Started With Twitter Video Marketing Live Videos Live videos, even though it was rolled out globally only by April 2016, have been enthusiastically taken up by many brands. The key advantage offered by live videos is that it makes the video format more interactive. It does not hurt that live videos gives a  huge boost to the engagement and reach that brands get. Facebook users can pose questions to the brand on what is being broadcasted on the live video and the presenters can address them then and there. This adds to the brand’s credibility. Also, the brand gets a keener insight into the pain points of potential consumers. Here’s how the cosmetics brand Mary Kay used live video  to win engagement: We’re LIVE with Mary Kay Global Beauty Ambassador Luis Casco makeup! He’s creating gorgeous eye looks for your holiday festivities and will also be answering your questions after the video wraps. Want more beauty tips tricks? Visit http://bit.ly/2g7FM3r! Posted by MARY KAY on Tuesday, December 6, 2016 How to Integrate Visual Content Into Your Social Media Strategy I have mentioned several studies (and our own data) to underline why brands should create more visual content. But your decision to create visual content should be guided by your larger social media goals. Only then will you be able to judge what kind of visual content will work best for you and where it fits in within your overall social media strategy. For instance, if you are on Facebook to let more people know about your product, videos might be the way to go. They get better reach and can get the word out about your product to a wider audience. Based on what your social media budget is like, consider roping in an influencer  to do the video. Based on data on your past performance and industry trends, arrive at an optimum frequency at which you should post to Facebook. If you are going to post 15 times a month, split this up into different categories based on your budget. You can allocate these 15 to lead to a major event around which you can create more content and get more people to participate. You can do a few resource-intensive videos or other visual content that needs time and specialized effort. For the other posts, the social media manager can do simpler, easier to make content and focus more on getting social media audiences to engage with it. A video with heavy production costs cannot stand alone as the only thing that you post on Facebook. It has to be part of a larger video marketing campaign. Contests and giveaways get brands more engagement and participation. This way, even if you do not promote, your future content will get better reach and visibility on Facebook. Especially with live videos you need to announce them in advance and build excitement around the event in order to get more people to participate. Recommended Reading: How to Increase Visibility With Social Media Optimization How to Ensure That Your Visual Content Gets the Attention it Deserves Now that you have a clear idea of why you should create visual content and how it fits in with your larger social media objectives, here are some measures that you can adopt to ensure that your visual content does not go unnoticed. While it is almost impossible to know with absolute certainty what content will succeed on social media, it is also a source of rich data. Using the record of how your past content has performed, you can glean insights on what is most relevant and appealing to your audience. It is essential that marketers constantly measure and monitor their social media activity. This coupled with an awareness of the industry landscape and trends there is key to pinning down a concrete strategy. With organic reach plummeting with each passing day, brands cannot always trust creative copy  and stunning visuals to do well on their own. In 2016, the top 100 brands promoted 18.65% of all their Posts. Over 78% of all the Posts promoted bore some visual content. Recommended Reading: How to Write for Social Media to Create the Best Posts The Non-Designer's Guide to Creating Better Blog Graphics It makes sense to promote at least some portion of the content that you publish to get good reach. This is extremely important when you have spent a lot of time, money and energy on making videos, or other resource-heavy visual content. Marketers should look at past data and industry trends to choose which content to promote. Marketers should look at past data and industry trends to choose which content to promote.An important thing for social media marketers to note is that the Facebook algorithm favors native videos  over those hosted elsewhere. Even if you do not record the video directly on your Facebook app, as long as it is uploaded directly to Facebook your video will get better reach than if you shared a link to your the video that you posted on YouTube. The algorithm gives preference to live videos  too. This makes a very strong case for brands to try their hand at this new format. Getting an influencer on board to help broadcast your message is a clever Facebook Reach hack. When you get a celebrity or an expert in your industry to create a video in collaboration with you, you can tap into their follower base. This helps broadcast your message to the people who follow that person. The best thing about this approach is that  the influencer’s followers are usually people who make up the target audience for your brand. Similarly, make full use of the options that Facebook offers you to target your messages to people who fall within certain geographical locations and interest groups. This ensures that the audience who get to see your post find it extremely relevant and that your efforts reach your targets rather than fall off the mark. From the data that we have discussed, it is possible to say without doubt that all brands that aspire to getting engagement on Facebook, need to create visual content. Visual content ups the relevance factor of a piece of content by presenting those aspects most relevant to the consumer. Marketers should strive to retain relevance as the hallmark of visual content creation by guiding creative decisions with data.