CAT | Business
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Not All YouTube Videos are Silly
1 Comment · Posted by George in Business, Education, Entertainment & Leisure
Practically every day there are new viral videos making people smile, laugh, gasp, groan, and squeal. Whether it’s a baby tearing paper, a cat that barks or some stupid stunt gone wrong, there is always something silly or shocking to catch the fleeting attention of thousands, or even millions of viewers. And, really, who couldn’t use a little pick me up video now and then?
Video sharing sites are for more than just fun. There are many uses for a video sharing account.
Old school home videos — many people set up an account to share videos of family events, special occasions, and vacations.
Professional or personal video blogging — instead of just ranting to friends or typing out long blog entries, many people have taken to YouTube to for vlogging. Check out Daniel Drimmer videos , celebrity accounts, and popular authors who share regular video entries with the world.
How to videos — pretty self-explanatory. These videos show you how to do everything from baking a pie to folding origami to completing home repairs.
Educational videos — some educators have put together videos teaching basic and even advanced lessons in various school subjects. There are even college lectures and continuing education videos available for life long learning.
Business videos — many companies and consultants are making use of video to share things like real estate presentations , product demonstrations, and online portfolios.
The next time you’re on YouTube, Vimeo or other video sharing site, take a few minutes to look at other categories and maybe you’ll learn a thing or two.
It is undeniable that companies need to be aware of how they are viewed by the public. Traditionally this meant hiring a PR firm and keeping track of how the company is represented in news media. In the 21st century, it means keeping track of a brand’s online reputation. For many this means hiring an ORM firm to do the work. However, many companies are hesitant to contract for online reputation management services
because they don’t understand how important it is to manage online reputation.
It can be difficult to accept that what one person says in an anonymous review could actually matter. What companies need to realize is that all it takes is one small negative review or blog post showing up at the top of the Google results to drive away potential customers and even potential investors. Imagine what happens when the local news finds two or three negative reports online and decides to follow up on them. Worse yet, what if a popular blogger or netizen gets a hold of one? Soon there are raging twitter conversations and blogs regurgitating the initial report and the search results for a company are quickly overrun.
The trick is to take proactive steps to prevent this from happening. Top ORM companies can anticipate potential problems and nip them in the bud. They also can create positive content in the form of blog posts, video content, and even specialized websites (see elixir interactive videos as an example), making it is much more difficult for negative results to get a foothold.
Ultimately, some companies will continue to believe their reputation is impervious to negativity. Those that invest in some form of reputation management, however, can think of it as a form of insurance against a potential PR storm.
If you’re looking to buy software for your company the first thing you’re going to ask for is a demo copy. Actually, most mid-sized companies are going to need multiple demo copies in order to fully test the functionality of the software across departments. For decades, this has meant having an IT person take time to install demo copies on all necessary computer terminals and possibly place a sample administrative copy on your main server. Once the demo is over, all that software has to be removed.
Today, more and more software companies rely on virtual demos to give potential customers a taste of the program’s features. Instead of having to send out copies of proprietary software or programs that are still in development, software companies place the demo on a centralized server and give potential customers access through web logins and passwords.
Customers benefit from this arrangement as well. They are able to thoroughly test the functionality not only of the software, but of the support services offered along with it. They are able to set up different tiers of access and accountability which gives a more accurate test experience. Furthermore, they don’t have to involve their IT department in the testing process, since no software is installed on their company’s servers or individual computers.
As you work at your company longer, you find that there will be more and more opportunities to become a manager. While this may at first seem like a great idea, you have better pay and a more respected job, there are a number of things about being a manager that may not sit well with you. It is not a job for everyone.
It is lonelier as a boss. As an underling you can spend more time with your peers. There is something common to complain about which gives you an opening into any conversation. Unless your company has a good program whereby you meet more of the other managers, which few do, there aren’t a lot of people for you to spend your time with. Usually, management courses aren’t long enough to really make friends with other managers. In order to give the impression of fairness you will need to be at least a little bit removed from the other employees. That doesn’t mean that you can’t keep the friends you had before, but you can’t show them that they are your friends in the workplace.
You will also want to think about the fact that all decisions must rest on your shoulders. Employees should for the most part be able to make decisions on their own, but when it comes to your bosses, or if you are high enough, the public, those decisions are still your responsibility and therefore if they are bad ones can be blamed on you. If they are good ones you can be rewarded for something you didn’t do. You can get through this by trying to find out everything everyone is going to do, or set up some kind of system so that you know about the big things before your bosses do.
It’s not all bad. There are lots of good parts, and that should not be forgotten. There is absolutely a feeling of accomplishment when things are getting done in your team. Public speaking isn’t gone, but for most managers, sales calls are. There are also, of course, the status, the power and the pay. It is also a different type of work, with different challenges and a much deeper combination of hard and soft skills. For some people this can be a whole lot more rewarding, and that is what should really be taken into account when choosing if you want to become a manager. If that works best for you, the rest of it can be solved as well.
While April marks the month containing Earth Day, the Central Park Conservancy celebrates Earth Day every day in New York’s 843 acre park.
The heart and lungs of the city, the park’s 24 thousand trees is key to the vitality of a metropolis that is the most densely populated place in the United States, boasting over 8.3 million people. While the most recent Earth Day — designated to bring awareness of the environment to the world — celebrates its 40th anniversary, New York’s conservancy has been at work greening the city for thirty years. Visitors to the park today will note the efforts, especially since 2007, three years ago, when an in-Park recycling program was launched.
Walk out from a great suite nearby and into Central Park, and you’ll find around a hundred blue bins earmarked for recycling bottles and cans. As the spring and summer continues, the conservancy will more than double this number as the program grows to include paper — from magazines to newspapers — bringing the total of the blue bins to 236 by the end of 2010. In the last three years, the park has collected over ten thousand pounds of plastic, nearly 200,000 pounds of scrap metal, 220 tires, 660 gallons of motor oil and 230 oil filters, not to mention 700 cubic yards of cans and bottles.
The conservancy, charged with maintaining the park’s trees, lakes, and wildlife, also recently held a tree inventory that used GPS tech to find and record the age, size, height and species of every tree that’s bigger than six inches in diameter, allowing the tree care crew to track such blights as Dutch Elm Disease and to find new places to plant, allowing the thousands of trees to absorb New York’s carbon dioxide and other pollutants and to give back fresh oxygen. You may not see all the work behind the scenes as you stroll through Central Park by the Azalea Pond or as you watch birds at Bank Rock Bay, but they’re there, ensuring the park will be maintained far into the future.
Many people have an extremely hard time when faced with the public speaking. Most people are never really taught how to effectively communicate their thoughts, their feelings and their ideas, so it stands to reason that to speak in front of or to other people…many are not only uncomfortable, but they fail at saying what they really mean to say. In personal life and in the world of business, nothing is more frustrating than being misunderstood. Corporate training courses today are more and more accessible as managers and company executives not only find that their employees have this challenge, but that in some cases, they do too.
In discussions or interactions, many may become consumed with the desire to be right, rather than the desire to hear, and be heard. It is a collective thought process that drives a company forward, the ideas and the suggestions of all, create one solid whole. Effectively communicating involves effectively listening. Too often the speaker is evaluated rather than the message, and this results in a breakdown of not only communication but of true understanding. This affects everything from customer service to inter-office relations, to the sales process. Improvement strategies involve asking oneself a few questions about the way one communicates themselves.
Once you own your communication skills, you take full responsibility, for what you are conveying and for what the person you are conveying the message to, is hearing. This involves a focus on non-judgement, non-prejudice and with no expectations. When you wonder if the other person is listening, take note on whether you are listening, offering messages of value and giving them the opportunity to offer back. Within a company, everyone has something valuable to contribute. If a scruffy-haired man working in a patent office can come up with the Theory of Relativity, just imagine what those working for you may come up with when they are given the chance to contribute.
collective thought process · Corporate training · sales process improvement · Theory of Relativity
