Snow Storm Baby Essay -- Essays Papers

Snow Storm Baby The year was 1992; a cold December arctic wind had brought a chance of snow to the area. It was the weekend and time to relax after a long hard week at work. The weather service had predicted several inches of snow to blanket the region by the next day. Not to worry: it was the weekend and traveling was not a necessity. At the time, my wife Jeanne was pregnant with our soon-to-be daughter Tahlyn. We had waited eight long months for her to arrive, and finally her due date was getting closer and closer. The excitement grew stronger as the days went by. By Friday afternoon it had begun to snow and quickly several inches had accumulated. As the snow was falling, clean up quickly began. The neighborhood soon filled with children excited over the freshly fallen snow. Since all of the schools were closed, the children were assured enjoyment for several days. The sounds of the winter snowstorm were echoing throughout the town, from the snowplows in the distance, to the scraping of snow shovels that sounded like fingernails scratching a chalkboard. Neighbors were shoveling snow that had accumulated on their sidewalks and driveways. The snow that was predicted to be several inches by the end of the weekend quickly piled up to around eight inches by that evening. At times, the snow was falling so heavily you could hardly see the streetlights that glistened like beacons in a sea of snow. With the landscape draped in white, the trees hangi...

Accenture Social Media Analysis

Accenture Social Media Analysis MKT 436 Ian Cartmill Zach Crawford Edwin Huang Tyler Whitsett Introduction Accenture PLC is one of the leading consulting firms in the country and has developed an extensive social media platform to expand its reach in the business world. Accenture currently has a network of social media across many platforms including Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and LinkedIn. Through Facebook and Twitter, Accenture segments its markets by region, type of service, and career options by making a Facebook page or Twitter account exclusively for that market.With Accenture’s YouTube page, a wide variety of videos ranging from video blogs to educational content on company growth. Finally, through LinkedIn, Accenture profiles its different services as well as connects with professionals who would be looking for their services. In addition to the traditional social media sites, Accenture operates many different applications through Facebook, iTunes, Google Play as well as its own online publication, Outlook. After a description, an analysis will be given to measure the performance of Accenture’s social media’s efforts.Finally, recommendations will be given on how Accenture can improve their efforts to reach a wider audience. Social Media Description Accenture’s Facebook and Twitter presence is extremely large which is shown by the numerous pages on these sites. Currently, Accenture has over â€Å"40 different pages on Facebook and 30 different Twitter handles† (A1), each catering to a particular market. About half of these pages are targeted based on the region or country in order to provide information exactly aimed a country’s business environment.Within each of the country’s pages, discussions and interactions occur with customers and users through contests, interviews, philanthropic endeavors in the region done by Accenture, and information the company provides on different industries. Usually the cou ntry’s page will display resume opportunity linksin order to keep acquiring new talent for the company. If career opportunities are not listed on this page, an individual career page is listed to provide information on career opportunities at Accenture in that region.On Accenture’s main Facebook and Twitter pages, different examples of management, operations, marketing, and other strategies are presented so all customers can see the level of analysis they will receive from an Accenture team. Also, articles written by Accenture are shown on the pages that range from work events to in depth stories on industry trends constantly are posted weekly. Finally, the last sets of pages on Facebook and Twitter are used to provide customers with an in-depth look into the different services provided by Accenture.For example, the Sustainability Services Facebook page provides links to articles and case studies on sustainability in a business in order to reduce cost and create effici encies (http://www. facebook. com/accenturesustainabilityservices). They also engage their customers and users through surveys, games and other actions that keep users coming back to their page. In addition to Accenture’s Facebook and Twitter pages, YouTube and LinkedIn provide a unique and different way to reach out to their customers.Through their YouTube account, Accenture is able to provide different types of new information to both current and potential new customers with its â€Å"251 videos† (A1). For example, a Capital Markets video blog is used to describe different topics related to capital markets and the process of managing the risks with them. In another set of videos, a video podcast shows different traits of a high performance business model that can be emulated by other companies.All content that is put up on the YouTube account is used to attract new customers to what Accenture does and provide existing clientele insights as to how Accenture’s s trategies can better their companies. This is a more casual look at Accenture’s customer attraction actions. For a more formal approach to gaining new customers and staying connected with current clients, LinkedIn is utilized. With LinkedIn, Accenture can professionally show their â€Å"core competencies as well as present customer recommendations and feedback† (LinkedIn). They also demonstrate their corporate culture through employee reviews and insight.To go along with Facebook and Twitter, they also have a careers page to continue acquiring talent in every medium possible. Beyond the typical social media realms in which most companies are involved in, Accenture has also grown into new areas that differentiate themselves in the social media marketing. This is done through Accenture’s online journal, Outlook, and the development of apps to further their marketing efforts. Outlook provides a unique connection to existing and potential customers by giving article s that can be anything from industry specific trends or news to skill and service actions.This demonstrates the level of expertise Accenture can provide to new customers, and assist in providing additional offerings to their current customers. Finally, after all traditional online forms of social media are exhausted; Accenture also provides many of the same marketing sites in the form of mobile apps for the iTunes and Google Play markets. This gives customers the ability to see all content and information on the go as most business people are. These applications include a mobile version of Outlook and other service specific applications (Google Play). Social Media AnalysisAlthough Accenture has tapped into the most popular social networks, they don’t utilize them to their full potential. Their main strength across the social networking platforms is the ability to reach current and potential customers, employees, future hires, students, and anyone who might be interested in wh at Accenture has to offer. An example is their applications through iTunes and Google play. On iTunes they â€Å"have 14 mobile apps and on Google Play they have 11 apps compared to Ernst & Young’s 6 apps on iTunes and 3 apps on Google Play† (A1). Some apps are duplicates; some are strictly for employees, while others are for the public.The apps range from a National Postal Forum to Financial Services to Lux in Arcana. Since it is available on iPhone and Android platform, they are targeting the most popular smartphone users. Another metric to consider how large their social network presence is their main Facebook page, Accenture has over â€Å"145,000 likes compared to E & Y with 15,000 likes† (A1). With these many options and a well-known presence, they are able to increase their brand awareness and position themselves as knowledge experts in that field. Another strength Accenture has with their social platforms is that they are continuously adding content to t hem.On their Twitter feed, they â€Å"tweet an average of 66 times a week along with additional links in the message compared to E & Y’s 20 tweets a week† (A1). On their Facebook , they post â€Å"39 times a week compared to E & Y’s 2 times a week† (A1). More tweets and posts, enables them the opportunity to be noticed more by the market. This is shown through how many Facebook users are talking about them. Accenture has over â€Å"2,000 users posting about them compared to E & Y’s 390 users talking about them† (A1). A weakness of their social networks is the lack of integration across the different platforms.An example is their YouTube and Twitter page. In their description, it only provides a link to their home page instead of including their Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, iTunes store, and Google Play. (About Accenture). After an analysis of their YouTube channel, we determined that they could include more in their descriptions by including a summary of the video, tags, and follow up information. They need to make it easier for users to dive further into Accenture if necessary. Another weakness of their social networking strategy is that it does not incorporate a form of a push/pull strategy.Their current push strategy is not creating an atmosphere of a two way interaction. On their pages, they do not engage or follow up with the users to keep them coming back. Although they ask questions in their tweets, they are not going out of their way to search for potential topics they could enlighten a user about. From comparing Accenture’s social media networks to Ernst and Young’s networks, they both use the same platforms but Accenture has a larger social media presence with more content. In Twitter, Accenture has over 62,000 followers with over 5500 tweets compared to E & Y’s 37,000 followers and 2,600 tweets.On LinkedIn, Accenture has over 600,000 followers with 179,000 employees on it compared to E & Y’s 364,000 followers and 114,000 employees on LinkedIn. Accenture has the most presence and content in every category except for the amount of YouTube videos they have. Accenture has 251 compared to E & Y’s 485. Managerial Recommendations The heart of a successful e-commerce strategy is the ability to attract and engage a potential customer by offering easy access to a variety of different information channels about your company.Although Accenture offers many different informational channels that explain who they are and what services they can offer to potential clients, these channels are not easily accessible. When doing a simple search of Accenture on Google, you initially see a link to Accenture’s website along with a few key words with vague descriptions. In order for Accenture to attract and gain new clients they need to have access points to all of their different social networks.These social media access points will allow Accenture to promote its marke ting message to a larger business demographic who will feel more comfortable operating in one of these social media domains. Accenture also needs to do a better job at educating its customer base by explaining who Accenture is as a company and what kind of services they offer to potential clients. As it stands now customers who go on Accenture’s company website have to navigate through web page after web page to find a simple description on which the company is and what services they offer.Accenture’s homepage is full of key words and links to other parts of the company’s website. I would recommend that the include information on value added services that would differentiate itself for competitors. Accenture should elaborate on its many value added services that it has done in the past on projects that reduced cost, improved performance, innovative features, speed responsiveness and customization. These value added services will not only attract and sustain cust omers it will also help Accenture’s bottom line by causing customers to pay a higher premium for services rendered.Since most of the services that Accenture offers to its customers are intangible they need to do a better job at trying to make their services feel more tangible, instead of just offering detailed, long worded business plans and short, non-descriptive statements on services provided. Accenture could further demonstrate services that they provided to past customers through cost savings graphs, efficiency improvement charts, and customer testimonials. Also, to reduce customer uncertainty and address any questions a potential customer might have I would recommend that Accenture have a live web assistant messaging service on their home page.This service would allow the customers to speak in real time to a customer service representative. These simple tweaks to Accenture’s homepage will reduce some of the unknowns and risk that all customers undoubtedly face wh en searching for a new company to do business with. In order to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of B2B marketing Accenture should adopt a CRM system like its lead competitor Ernst & Young did to manage its client customer base.Ernst & Young adopted a CRM software called Aprimo to perform the following functions: targeted direct e-mails, ongoing lead management, inbound interactions via Web form submission, Webcast registration and follow-up, and project management (task assignment and follow-up) for their national and regional marketing teams (Shadick, 2012). Many of the components of the information within Ernst & Youngs Aprimo CRM system are shared with customer relationship departments within the firm.For example, opportunities are collected from events, tradeshows, sponsorships, webcast and direct communications, which are then distributed to the appropriate individuals for follow-up (Shadick, 2012). With the adoption of CRM systems like Aprimo, Accenture would have rea l-time access to client’s interest and inquires allowing them to tailor their response to new and existing client’s needs. Conclusion In Conclusion Accenture is a very dynamic B2B company that utilizes virtually all of the media outlets available to educate and attract new customers.Accenture’s B2B marketing campaign is unique in the fact that it leverages its current ongoing business initiatives with its own customer base through an online Journal called: Outlook. This journal boldly talks about what Accenture is doing now and in the future for its client base. This and many other creative marketing/informational channels that Accenture has created brings assurance and a sense of trust to customers who are uncertain with partaking in a service that really doesn’t produce a tangible outcome and cost thousands, if not millions, of dollars to perform. Works Cited Shadick, David (2011).Ernst & Young Better Manages B2B Marketing with Aprimo Marketing, Sun. 17 Nov. 2012. . â€Å"Services. † Linkedin n. pag. LinkedIn. Web. 17 Nov 2012. . â€Å"Apps by Accenture. † Google play n. pag. Google play. Web. 17 Nov 2012. . â€Å"Accenture. † About Accenture n. pag. YouTube. Web. 17 Nov 2012. . Appendix A1 – Social Network Metrics

The Wife of Bath s Prologue and Tale Or Wives Gone Wanton - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 3 Words: 955 Downloads: 3 Date added: 2019/10/30 Category Literature Essay Level High school Tags: Wife of Bath Essay Did you like this example? After reading the Wife of Baths Prologue and Tale, I can say this: Alisoun (the titular Wife of Bath) may be many things, but subtle is not one of them. If she thinks it, she says it. If she likes it, she loves it. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "The Wife of Bath s Prologue and Tale Or Wives Gone Wanton" essay for you Create order If she doesnt like it, shes going to raise hell until she gets it exactly how she does like it. You can tell that Chaucer has a particular fondness for her, in the way that he writes about her, and yet she is far from being an angel on a pedestal like Dantes Beatrice. Personally, I still cannot decide if I adore her or hate her. On one hand, she is an acerbic caricature of everything medieval misogyny taught and thought about women; shes been known to lie, shes a borderline nympho, shes manipulative and controlling of her husbands (yes, husbands plural), a gold-digger, and she presumes to know better than the men around her rather than bowing down to their assumed superiority. However, for a work of medieval literature, she is about as close to a feminist icon as we are likely to find. While society might try to rein her in or put her in her place (like the Friar who starts throwing a little shade her way when he thinks her prologue has gone on too long), she doesnt listen, she just keeps on doing her own thing while defending and promoting the unique privilege of being a woman. Alisoun is proud to be a woman in every possible way. She even has a name for her lady bits (she calls it her bele chose or pretty thing). She enjoys and exercises her sexuality to the fullest (reminding her audience that once husband number five joins the choir invisible, shes going to be on the lookout for husband number six, because shes not about to be chaste). She brags about her five marriages as a thing of honor rather than something of which she should be ashamed, a stance which she would defend to any seemingly pious critics out there with a slew of bible verses to back her up. She states that her many marriages have made her something of an expert in the ways of love, and that suc h experience allows her to tell her story. Then we finally actually get to the story she was going to tell in the first place. Upon first reading, I was confused by the time she spent introducing the story, thinking to myself, seriously woman, how damn long are we going to dwell on your love life here? Is there a point? Is this at all related to the story which you intend to tell? Once I read this section in its entirety though, I understood she was trying to set up the main point of her tale, that happiness in marriage for women means having mastery over their husbands and lovers and that men would be happier if they would just go along with it. Such dominion is ultimately what all women most desire supposedly, according to the Wife of Baths Tale, although I would highly contest that idea both in my personal life and in the evidence given by the story itself. After all, the only husband that Alisoun supposedly married for love and physically desired the most was the one whom she in itially couldnt dominate or control! To me, she makes it clear when she says in lines 513-519 that: I believe I loved him best, because he was of his love standoffish to me. We women have, if I shall not lie, in this matter a curious fantasy: note that whatever thing we may not easily have, we will cry all day and crave for it. Forbid us a thing, and we desire it He wasnt at her beck and call like every other man, and she loved him all the more for it. I felt that way about Jonathan. Believe it or not, I was once a hot commodity on the dating market and I had a veritable throng of guys hanging around hoping to either get a piece of tail or else hope to one day be my boyfriend, all of which were failing miserably in varying degrees. I was avoiding commitment like medieval pilgrims avoiding the plague. Then Jonathan stepped in. He was the only man who not only desired me for something more than a good time but also pursued me in a real way. He didnt follow me around like a lovesick puppy, nor did he try to put himself in my good graces by being a nice guy or by playing it casual while never really asking for a commitment like some of the guys I had been out to dinner with around the same time. He made his intentions clear and he treated me with respect. He made it clear he wasnt going to compete with a bunch of lunkheads and that he wasnt looki ng to just have a good time. If I wanted him, he wanted me, and he thought we ought to make a go of it if I did. Otherwise he wasnt going to waste his time. That made me want him like crazy, just by merit of the fact that I couldnt just string him along. Thats why I just dont buy Alisouns story, although now I understand all that misogynistic bullshit that Gawain was spouting in the end of his own tale in much better context. Sir Gawain is one sick mofo, who should have gotten his head cut off for his horrible crime of rape. He did not deserve a happy ending with a beautiful young woman. That really pissed me off.