Mark Zuckerberg Facebook Charity

Zuckerberg Vows to Daughter He’ll Donate 99% of His Facebook Shares

SAN FRANCISCO — Mark Zuckerberg, the co-founder and chief executive of Facebook, announced on Tuesday that he and his wife would give 99 percent of their Facebook shares “during our lives” — holdings currently worth more than $45 billion — to charitable purposes.

The pledge was made in an open letter to their newborn daughter, Max, who was born about a week ago.

Mr. Zuckerberg and his wife, Dr. Priscilla Chan, said they were forming a new organization, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, to manage the money, through an unusual limited liability corporate structure. “Our initial areas of focus will be personalized learning, curing disease, connecting people and building strong communities,” they wrote.

Mr. Zuckerberg’s charitable plans are the latest indication of a growing interest in philanthropy among Silicon Valley’s young billionaires, who unlike previous generations of business tycoons, appear eager to spread their wealth while they are still young. Mr. Zuckerberg is 31, and Dr. Chan is 30.

Yet they are entering largely uncharted waters with a charity effort of such scale. They have not yet detailed how the money will be spent and the pace at which the money will be given out indicates they plan to take their time.

The couple have had mixed results in earlier charitable efforts.

In 2010, Mr. Zuckerberg and Dr. Chan gave $100 million to improve the public schools in Newark. The money expanded high-performing charter schools but encountered fierce resistance from many parents, community activists and unions. Mr. Zuckerberg has said he learned a lot from the experience.

Still, Larry Brilliant, who works on philanthropic issues with many Silicon Valley figures including Marc Benioff, the chief executive of Salesforce.com, and Jeff Skoll, the co-founder of eBay, said that both the scale and timing of Mr. Zuckerberg’s commitment, coming so early in his career, were rare.

“I hope this will be a model for Mark’s generation,” said Dr. Brilliant, a physician who also previously ran Google’s charitable arm, Google.org.

The Silicon Valley way of philanthropy also demands more control over where the money is spent, though it remains to be seen if this hands-on formula will be successful.

By using a limited liability company instead of a nonprofit corporation or foundation, the Zuckerberg family will be able to go beyond making philanthropic grants. They will invest in companies, lobby for legislation and seek to influence public policy debates, which nonprofits are restricted from doing under tax laws. A spokeswoman for the family said that any profits from the investments would be plowed back into the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative for future projects.

“We must build technology to make change. Many institutions invest money in these challenges, but most progress comes from productivity gains through innovation,” they wrote in the letter to their daughter. “We must participate in policy and advocacy to shape debates. Many institutions are unwilling to do this, but progress must be supported by movements to be sustainable.”

For more Read you can visit the Article Source at here: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/02/technology/mark-zuckerberg-facebook-charity.html?_r=0

Read More

Online Reputation Management Services

It is not conceivable to keep harming material from surfacing on the web. There will dependably be the individuals who will basically appreciate spreading antagonism about your organization. Some do it on the grounds that they really feel distressed and need to vent it out. Whatever be the source, the outcomes could be basic for you as the string has the possibility to spread like an infection. 

www.brepute.com for your all resolutions about ORM (Online Reputation Management)

In this new information gathering, data expending world, understanding the scene of sentiments on key issues is fundamental to building an effective positioning of a brand. What's more having an establishment of learning about your potential gatherings of people, their suppositions on the issue, which messages bring them to your side and which messages turn them off, gives the basic establishment to triumph. 

aopinion is an interchanges method strength offering with devices to convey data that is significant in making effective correspondences crusades. In view of examination and dissection of every last one of qualities and possessions of an association, we guide a damaging discussion towards a more positive way by giving inputs that depict your substance in a crisp light. Our online monitoring team utilizes the most recent following devices to give you a redid report day by day. Our alarms and suggested movements help you to know when and how to react and when it is justified with a specific end goal to alleviate or keep away from a rising emergency. 

Our specially crafted screening helps your group know how to deal with the information accessible on the web. Our methodology is basic in figuring out who impacts the discussion, where discourses are occurring and what truly applies to your association.

Read More

15 Step Guideline To Create Your Perfect 2015 Digital Marketing Strategy

1. Get started on Instagram

If you haven’t started an Instagram account for your business, what are you waiting for? The younger generation has flocked to this social media platform with over 200 million monthly active users (according to Expanded Ramblings). Advertisers are getting more of an opportunity to share their content through filtered photos. Instagram is one of the most natural ways to share content for your brand. It is better to be a step ahead of the game than 2 steps behind it.

2. Yahoo! Bing network

The average cost per click on Yahoo! Bing was 10% to 24% lower than on Google AdWords.  A lower cost per click can yield a lower cost per acquisition, which is the exact reason why you should start taking the search network seriously that receives 11.6% of the market share this upcoming year.

If you are in an expensive industry in the pay per click world like the legal profession, insurance industry or medical field, having a lower cost per click can help with a profitable PPC campaign.

3. Facebook lookalike audience

What exactly is a Facebook Lookalike Audience? According to Facebook, Lookalike audiences let you reach new people who are likely to be interested in your business because they’re similar to a customer list you care about. When you use Custom Audiences, you can choose to create a lookalike audience that targets people who are similar to your Custom Audience list.

Let’s say you have an email marketing database over 5,000 contacts and are in the heating and cooling industry. You can upload this onto Facebook’s advertising platform and target the EXACT demographic similar to your existing customers! This is a neat feature that advertisers should at least test during the upcoming year.

4. Paid promotion on Facebook

Adding just $5.00 in promotion to selected Facebook posts will drastically increase your interaction. You’ll start to notice a major spike in communication when you boost your post for a small budget. With Facebook’s Edgerank Algorithm, the likelihood for a business to appear high in the news feed is less likely. This is why for 2015, you should focus on posts that can yield the best results and boost them for a small budget.

5. Email marketing

If you are a business that only sends out one email blast per month, start doubling this number and send out at least two per month. Nordstrom sends out multiple email blasts EACH DAY! If you have compelling content that would be informative to the subscribers on your email list, tell them about it via email communications.

According to econsultancy.com, email marketing remains the best digital channel for ROI. Start strategizing heavily as to how you will make this for of online marketing work for you business in 2015!

6. Twitter outreach

There has been a lot of frustration amongst marketers over all of the advertising that various social media channels are forcing businesses to partake in. Luckily, Twitter is still a great platform where you can grow your following organically. Start searching for hashtags within your industry and reaching out to users in this fashion. Compliment someone on Twitter about a blog post that they wrote. Begin asking questions related to your hashtag. The result will be more interaction and core following of people who are interested in your content! There is a reason why Twitter has nearly 1 billion registered users! Start reaching your target audience via tweets through the perfect Twitter outreach strategy in 2015.

7. Facebook re-marketing

If you are a social media marketer and have not taken advantage of display advertising on Facebook, you are missing an outstanding opportunity. Not only will this yield one of the highest return on investments for your clients, it will help with brand exposure, lead to better conversion rates and provide a flexible budget which will lead to a more effective strategy.

An apartment community in Columbus implemented beautiful graphics with relevant messaging for one of its apartment communities for Facebook re-marketing. When someone would drop off of their website and visit Facebook, this messaging would follow them around. This resulted in a 33% uptick in conversion for their Polaris Apartments community!

Start seeing an uptick in conversion by implementing a Facebook re-marketing strategy for 2015.

8. Better blogging

We like to refer to blog content as the match that starts the fire. When you write a compelling blog, it has the potential to rank well organically in the search engines. 80% of daily blog visits are new so this is a great driver of new website traffic! Additionally, a blog can serve as content for a Facebook and Twitter post as well as a teaser for an email marketing campaign. By creating better blog content in 2015, your web traffic will increase and your content will become more compelling

9. Google+ game plan

Google+ might not gain you that much interaction on your social media posts. This social media platform plays a crucial role in search engine optimization on the localized level, which makes this a must for marketers in 2015.

The more reviews you get, the more content you post onto your page and the more followers your obtain, the higher the likelihood that you will start ranking well for localized search terms.

10. YouTube videos

Did you know that Google owns YouTube? By implementing videos into your online marketing mix, you can start to get search engine exposure for the videos that you upload onto YouTube! There are a lot of great tricks to obtain more video SEO Exposure. Choosing a proper title tag, uploading a transcript and embedding the YouTube video are just some of the tricks for optimal SEO exposure. Online video should definitely be included in your 2015 digital marketing strategy as this form of rich media can be a game changer in terms of publicity for your company. People will interpret your YouTube videos that you are taking your marketing initiatives very seriously!

11. Compelling graphics

The more compelling your graphics are on various social media channels, the more interaction you will receive. If you have a graphic designer, start sending him or her over your social media calendar so they can help create beautiful imagery. In 2015 you will want to increase engagement and great pictures certainly help. If you don’t have a graphic designer, don’t worry; there are affordable sites that offer stock photography like BigStock.

12. Search engine optimization

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) leads have an average close rate of 14.6%, while outbound leads (such as cold calls or print advertising) have an average close rate of 1.7%. Having your website optimized for SEO is a necessity heading into 2015. By having an SEO strategy in place, you can increase your leads and grow your business for next year.

13. Content contribution

If you want your content to be seen by more eyeballs and gain more exposure, start contributing content to other blogs in similar fields. If you own an apartment community in Nashville, start writing for a local Nashville website that talks about the best activities around town. You will be seen as an expert in your city and this can help drive more traffic to your website. While people might not be looking for an apartment immediately, they will remember that you have invested time and effort into content within the community!

14. Digital PR

You can build off of the content contribution by implementing a Digital PR strategy. If you reach out to various media related websites and send them over a solid pitch, they might just write an article on your company or feature your CEO in a blog post.  The more people talking about your company, Tweeting about your business and mentioning your brand, the better exposure you will receive for the upcoming year.

15. Unique promotion:

Brainstorm a unique promotion that people will actually enjoy that can drive massive publicity for your company in 2015! Whether it is coming up with a user generated jingle contest or a photo upload promotion, entice your great fans on social media to interact with your brand in a clever way. If the promotion is a success, it will be one of the most talked about campaigns for your company in 2015.

Read More

Will business consulting companies become a big threat to agencies?

Business consulting companies are scaling back their digital arms by aggressively hiring creative talent and acquiring agencies. Will they displace companies on Madison Avenue?

The digital marketing landscape is constantly evolving, and businesses have to adapt to keep up with the rapid change. Consulting companies in particular have begun to build their own in-house digital practices, offering a full suite of marketing services.

Management consulting giants PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), McKinsey, and Accenture and Deloitte are taking more agency and design responsibilities through mergers and acquisitions. For example, in May of this year, McKinsey bought one of Silicon Valley's oldest design firms Lunar, whose revenue reached $8 billion in 2014. Last April, PwC completed its acquisition of 100-year-old management consultancy team Strategy& (formerly known as Booz and Company) to boost its digital practice. PwC also initiated the Experience Center in October 2015, which consists of more than 3,000 experienced creative and digital business experts across the globe. Even Ad Age's agency list has catagorized Deloitte Digital, Accenture Interactive, and PwC Digital as networks similar to WPP, Wieden + Kennedy, and Publicis Groupe. 

Given that more major consulting corporations are choosing to take an in-house approach to hiring creative to generate design strategy, should Madison Avenue be worried?

What does a digital practice do?

Companies working with PwC are accustomed to going through major changes in their business, such as atransformation in company culture or organizational structure. So they need to invest in technology, hire talent, and become more agile by working with cross-functional teams.

That's where digital comes into play, as it helps companies access the universal ecosystem by determining who to work with and how to work with these partners.

"Business transformation requires executive commitment and working with external vendors in new ways," explains Matthew Egol, chief strategy officer of digital services at PwC. "If we use a house metaphor, you need to decide who the architect is, who the general contractor is, and who the sub-contractors are. In many cases, companies cannot depend on a single agency or tech vendor to be the architect, and they cannot reply on their creative agency to do all the integration because there are lots of assembling requirements in the process."

Egol adds that the digital practice at PwC has the ability to provide a wide range of services, from strategy to execution.

On the strategy side, his team focuses on what capabilities companies need to have two or three years from now, how to prioritize tasks, which companies to work with, and what talent they many need throughout in the process. His team also helps companies evaluate select vendors.

Further down the road, Egol's team helps clients execute their digital strategies, which involves agency services. For instance, while working with a CPG manufacturer that wanted to engage with 15,000 retailers around the world, Egol's team helped the brand come up with strategy, design, an operation model, and assisted in executing back-end integration. They also built a website for the brand, which is typically more of an agency service.

Friends or enemies?

Building websites is just a small part of creative services that consulting firms are offering. As creativity's influence is growing beyond the ad industry, digital practices are looking to scale their business by hiring creative talent.

In October of this year, David Krovitz, who served as enterprise innovation consultant for Disney and partner of ad agency PUSH Offices, joined PwC's digital practice as experience director.

And this past August, Fjord, a design consultancy acquired by Accenture in 2013, hired two senior ad executives from agency R/GA: Steve Weinswig as managing director of national strategic accounts and John Jones as senior vice president of design strategy.

As consulting companies are looking to be more creative, Egol uses the word "coopetition" to define the relationship with agencies. This is because when brands executive a strategy, they have the flexibility to choose whether they want to work with the internal design team at PwC or external agencies.

"Our clients are on a journey, and we are on a journey as well. We are helping companies to become more agile, multi-disciplinary, and design oriented in their thinking. If you look at traditional agencies, they work in silos, and their clients work in silos with them. We are looking to break the silos. Compared to agencies, we have talent from different disciplines and are more experience with strategic architectural design capabilities and tactical programs," he says.

"But don't get me wrong. Ad agencies have very creative talent. Our desire is not to displace the creative industry," he adds.

Should agencies feel threatened?

Increased competition due to these acquisitions means that the lifespan of a small agencies and ad tech company are bound to be cut short. But Deacon Webster, owner and chief creative officer at agency, Walrus, does not feel threatened by consulting companies, because he believes that top creative talent will still remain at agencies.

"Certain parts of digital practices may work. But when it comes to creative, it's a strange fad for me, given that traditionally uncreative businesses in the world are looking to suddenly create a creative culture and are expecting that to work," Webster says. 

"For people who have a creative mindset, I don't think McKinsey is a top place to go. Meanwhile, I don't know how these consulting companies can foster the creative culture and continue building creative products," he adds.

Looking at a bigger picture, competition has a profound impact on the ad industry. Webster is concerned that mergers and acquisitions conducted by business consulting companies may lead to industry consolidation, because some agencies want to add financial liquidity to their businesses.

But mergers and acquisitions may deteriorate the quality of ad work. Agencies that are bought by ad holding companies like WPP or Omnicom generally don't do as well as after they are acquired, due to the leadership change and a different company culture.

"All of these things are a big negative," Webster says. "I cannot imagine my business getting acquired by Accenture. I think consolidation will always happen because people need money, but is it a good thing? Absolutely not."

Creative culture may be a big hurdle that prevents ad executives from migrating to consulting firms, but agencies cannot ignore their fierce competitors that have more financial sources, more data, and a more diverse talent pool. How to cultivate a great company culture and retain the best people will remain a big question for everyone on Madison Avenue.

Main source of article : http://www.clickz.com/clickz/news/2429715/will-business-consulting-companies-become-a-big-threat-to-agencies

Read More

Why start-ups need content marketing

A quality content marketing strategy is essential for any business, but it's especially important for start-ups because it helps to drive conversions.

Content marketing is an extremely powerful tool that marketers are utilizing more than ever, and it should definitely be a part of every startup's marketing mix.

In the next two years, content marketing budgets are poised to grow by 59 percent.

Every day, about five billion pieces of content are shared, two billion photos are uploaded, and 500 million Tweets are generated, driving millions of conversions daily.

I also believe that start-ups can have an advantage over large enterprises, even if they have more resources.

Start-ups have the passion and patience, two very important components in cultivating an engaged and loyal audience. There are no shortcuts or magic formulas to content marketing, and serious strategy is imperative for start-ups, since any mistake can be a major blow.

Here are some of my recommendations to get into the game:

1. Videos

YouTube is now the second largest search engine on the Web, and it is the strongest method to evoke emotion in your customers. Audiences are 10 times more likely to engage, embed, share, and comment on video content than blogs or other posts.

Videos reportedly increase a buyer’s understanding of your product or service by 74 percent and 80 percent of users remember the ad. Therefore, video content is a vital asset to any start-up.

The rise of video in marketing is no secret, and should definitely not be taken lightly. It is also much easier and more affordable to produce great video content today than ever before. So, what are you waiting for?

2. Infographics

Infographics are an innovative way to display text in a more easily digestible format. The grab the attention of your audience quickly and help them to break down and understand concepts.

When infographics are combined with well written copy, they can really cut through the clutter of the content jungle and make an impact, as illustrated by the examples shown below.  

3. Don’t skimp on the visuals

People retain over 80 percent of what they experience visually, while they tend to only retain 10 percent of what they hear and 20 percent of what they read.

According to an infographic by blogger Jeff Bullas, blogs with images receive 94 percent more views than those without. 


Additionally, social media posts with images get far more impressions, likes, retweets, and shares.


Make sure you optimize your images for SEO by saving with a descriptive title, creating ALT tags, and making sure they are small enough as to not slow down your website.

In conclusion

Content marketing works best when you have a complete funnel in place. If you are throwing out content without any conversion goals, it could be a waste of time and money.

A small company should first focus on one audience and create content based on their expertise. This will build your user base much faster and keep your content focused, rather than all over the place.

Utilize analytics tools to better understand your audiences and measure ROI. Continue to tweak your campaigns to create and disseminate more relevant material.

Though it might require a little trial and error in the beginning, with enough creative innovation, your content will attract users, spread brand awareness, and ultimately lead to an increase in conversions. 

Main Source of Article : http://www.clickz.com/clickz/column/2431103/why-start-ups-need-content-marketing

Read More

Where does social media fit in the holiday shopping season?

Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram may not be able to compete with Amazon for e-commerce, but the platforms' recent slew of offerings show they came to play this holiday season.

It's mid-October, which means that the holiday season is officially unofficially two weeks away.

This period is especially crucial to digital marketers as the Internet and proliferation of mobile devicescontinue to eat away at in-store shopping by making it easier than ever to avoid going to stores with people.

But how does social media fit in?

Recent research from BloomReach shows that nearly half of consumers begin their product shopping searches on Amazon, compared with 34 percent who start on search engines and 21 percent who use retailers' websites.

While no social platform made the list, they're still an important part of the holiday shopping ecosystem, according to Jay Marwaha, chief executive of D.C.-based analytics firm SYNTASA.

"What social media really does is really automate your word-of-mouth influence. Before social media, you would call your friend and say, 'I heard about you buying a car; how is it?'" asks Marwaha. "It's really not a shopping channel, but it's a promoter of wants and needs, and it promotes the searches for wants and needs."

He adds that many people go on social media to influence rather than be influenced, as a way to promote their "consumer activism" and share their experiences with certain brands and products.

But Brian Hoyt, vice president of communications at RetailMeNot, argues that that illustrates his point that social media is more for connecting than commerce.

Hoyt points out that no social media platform made the list of places where shopping starts because their primary benefit for marketers is brand awareness. He calls social's role in shopping "the next great frontier."

"This is the land grab and I think anyone who has a large mobile presence in particular - and social channels certainly do - is trying to find ways to monetize that audience," says Hoyt. "But the Internet has created all these communities of businesses online and you can't always be everything."

Social platforms may be able to compete with Amazon where holiday shopping is concerned, but they're always trying to become as palatable as possible for marketers.

Lately, it seems like the major social players have all come out with - or at least worked on - new or updated offerings, in order to do that in time for the holidays.

Let's break it down by platform:

Facebook

Facebook has had a busy year for ad offerings: auto-play ads, Instant Articles and panoramic mobile ads immediately come to mind.

More recently, Facebook has been testing a newer, faster-loading version of the latter called Canvas.

The social media giant is also testing a mobile shopping section that aggregates products underneath a single tab. If unveiled by the holidays, the shopping tab can be particularly significant to Facebook, as it would keep shoppers within the platform, a move for which Google is known.

Whether or not these two offerings come to fruition, both demonstrate that Facebook recognizes the importance of catering to mobile holiday shoppers. Both would allow consumers to make purchases directly from the app.

Instagram

Earlier this week, Instagram launched an account, @instagramforbusiness, that seems to exist solely to give marketers ideas. The account’s first two posts are hyperlapse videos that show the behind-the-scenes execution of brands’ Instagrams.

Ben & Jerry’s, the guinea pig of @instagramforbusiness, has 572,000 followers, and many of its posts contain links to drive them to the Ben & Jerry's website or those for causes it supports, such as the climate movement and marriage equality.

Creating further engagement, the brand often posts photos taken by its fans.

@instagramforbusiness may not be an offering in the traditional sense of the word, but it does indirectly push marketers toward using the platform, by holding up Ben & Jerry's as a paragon to inspire other advertisers.

Hoyt thinks Instagram was clever to play into what he considers to be social media's sweet spot: sharing and inspiration.

"If I'm a marketer, and I want to be part of a community of marketers and share ideas, that's certainly how I would engage a social channel," says Hoyt, offering the Austin start-ups Facebook group he's in, for example. "That's where we share ideas: what are great vendors to use, what are you doing for the holidays. That's what social channels were built for."

Pinterest

Last week, Pinterest updated its Buyable Pins, the product that allows users to purchase products directly from the platform. Buyable Pins - of which there are more than 60 million from brands such as Nordstrom, Bloomingdale's and crafts retailer Michaels - are now available on new commerce platforms, opening them up to thousands more businesses.

Pinterest has also recently updated its local search capabilities, something the platform naturally lends itself to. This is particularly true during the holidays, since so many people use Pinterest to connect with brands and catalog their favorite products.

The improved localized search creates more relevant results for global users. For example, French and Australian Pinners searching "winter fashion" will see completely different search results, given the differences in language and climate. 

"This builds on other recent improvements made to search which included multi-object typeahead on all platforms as well as verified accounts," says Mike Mayzel, a Pinterest spokesperson. "Verified accounts played a role in helping Pinners find local partners and noteworthy organizations on Pinterest."

Mayzel adds that with the update, users in Brazil, France, Germany and Japan are saving twice as many localized Pins they find in their searches, in addition to spending more time on Pins' source links after clicking through.

Twitter

As of October 8, the microblogging platform offers video monetization at scale for Twitter Amplify. Twitter also launched Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP), following Google's product of the same name and Facebook Instant Articles.

Twitter has not only come out with new offerings, but new guides on how to use them. Some of Twitter's blog posts over the last few days include, "New holiday guide: learn how to reach shoppers with Twitter" and "Holiday shoppers and Twitter: data-driven tips to boost your sales."

In Marwaha's opinion, this was necessary because Twitter is at a disadvantage when it comes to social commerce.

The other three platforms are more inherently visual, and don't have the same fast, furious updates. In the time it took me to write this paragraph, five new Tweets appeared in my feed. While procrastinating I read a Vice article entitled, "I Tried to Live Like Gwyneth Paltrow for a Week," during which time I got 51 new Tweets.

"This is just my perception maybe, but Twitter is not seen as being as heavy into the advertising for filling the needs or wants users have," says Marwaha. "It's putting its stake in the ground and saying, 'I'm in the market, too.'"

To sum up

Sure, Amazon is the dominant force in the world of e-commerce. Whether or not social platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest and Twitter can chip away at its holiday shopping share remains to be seen, but between the four of them, there are enough new and upcoming ad offerings that show they're trying.

And while social media may not be the go-to shopping channel, that's not to deny the role it plays in online shopping, whether direct or as part of the research process. 

At the very least, social campaigns are probably a better way to spend your money this holiday season than the cabbage juice you'd have to buy in order to live like Gwyneth Paltrow.

Main Source of Post are : http://www.clickz.com/clickz/news/2430903/where-does-social-media-fit-in-with-the-holiday-shopping-season

Read More