After recently opening to the public, Google+ increased by 1,269 percent. With a recording of 50 million users, the social networking infant is on it's way to compete against established sites such as LinkedIn and MySpace.
Does this mean that Google+ will be the new Facebook within the future? This is all I hear from Google fanatics.
Even after three months of operation, no other social networking site has achieved 50 million users within such a short period. However, history has shown with other social products (like MySpace) that high levels of early growth do not always prove a global dominance within the future. Also, after spending weeks in a beta status, this growth spurt may have occurred from the site being released for the public.
Graph Developed by Leon Haland
During the week of September 24th, 2011; Facebook was recorded in having over 1.8 billion visits while Google+ only had 15 million. Also, in a blog posted by atelier-seo, Zuckerberg reported that 4 billion digital media content are shared on Facebook every day while 1 billion is shared on Google+. This shows Google+ only shares 25 percent of what Facebook shares.
When you do further number-crunching, Facebook and Google+ are nearly 7.5 years old and 3 months old, consecutively. If Google+ users share 25 percent of what Facebook users share within 1.11 percent of Facebook's lifespan then this new social site is a deep threat to Mark Zuckerberg.
Don't get me wrong, Google+ has an outstanding performance since its inception. But the future of the site is still complacent since it is a very young social network. The critical attribute is longevity and it will determine whether Google+ will sustain itself as a social network for the longhaul.
Having eleven records of the NBA Championship, the highest winning percentage of any Hall of Fame NBA Coach and being ranked as one of the Top 10 Coaches in NBA History says alot. And after retiring from coaching the Los Angeles Lakers, the legendary coach Phil Jackson still shows he has the wits to inspire greatness within the new Audi A8 commercial. It was aired during the 2011 NFL opening season only once, and although much buzz is not circulating from the advertisement, the commercial is surely unique in its communication.
The verbal irony of dealing with egos is what makes the commercial great since Jackson handled the self-admiration's of some of the NBA's top players like Micheal Jordan and Kobe Bryant who is known for carrying a big head. This is especially true since Mike Brown took over as head coach of the Lakers. The commercial plays upon this topic in a suddle yet savvy approach while also upholding Jackson's perception of being the "Zen Master".
His "Master Roshi" qualities helped persuade Michael Jordan to embrace the triangle offense for the Chicago Bulls which was briefly noted within the commercial. He also persuaded O'Neal and Bryant to temporarily put their issues aside for three consecutive title runs and recently helped a tear-jerkng Dennis Rodman compose himself through an emotional Hall of Fame acceptance speech.
In some ways, the Audi brand as a whole can be compared to Phil Jackson due to its historical reputation for achieving greatness making both a unique co-branding experience.
Being recognized as an innovative luxury car company, Audi is one of the oldest German-established automobile manufacturers that was started in 1910 in Zwickau, Germany. By 1931, Audi was the world's first volume-built car that incorporated front-wheel drive with 250,000 vehicles sold. And according to statistics from autospies.com, Audi's global sales as of May 2010 rose 14.6 percent with a total of 455,700 premium cars sold by the second quarter of 2010 outbeating Mercedes-Benz and BMW.
The Audi Type K 1921 Model
And as of May 2011, Audi still continues with progressing sales while maintaining a 19.5 percent lead (roughly 113,400 cars) ahead of Mercedes-Benz as stated by BMWblog. Audi also continues to be the leader within the Chinese market with a 44.6 percent market share followed by BMW.
With such history, high sales and large market share within Asia, Europe as well as the US; what better way to showcase these accomplishments then by teaming up with historical and well-accomplished figure Phil Jackson. As the commercial said, "True Greatness Should Never Go Unrecognized."
Society is changing socially and economically. An example of this drastic change are video games. Once seen as an escape from reality and a cause of lack in physical activities; video games are now used for work-outs, family get-togethers, house-parties and on-the-go thanks to smartphones. And with other drastic issues happening within society, such as education, healthcare and the economy; individuals are using video games to help make a better world.
One of these individuals is world-renowned game designer Jane McGonigal. Famous for her alternate reality games and humanitarian efforts, McGonigal believes Four Ingredients will not only help create humanitarian causes but will make a happy and meaningful life for individuals and the world.
1. Satisfying Work
When a gamer is participating in a game they are intrigued with, they feel highly productive. "We have clear goals and a sense of heroic purpose. More important, we're constantly able to see and feel the impact of our efforts on the virtual world around us,"McGonigal mentioned within a Wall Street interview. She also exclaimed that as an outcome, the gamer feels a stronger sense of their own well-being and are more likely to set ambitious real-life goals.
2. Real Hope for Success
While playing a video game, a gamer has strong optimism in taking on new challenges. And when they fail, they consistently re-try until they win. This strong pursuit and optimism leads players in saving Princess Peach in a Mario game, reaching the most points within Guitar Hero and even beating Metal Gear Solid on difficult (which requires ALOT of pursuit from my experience).
3. Strong Social Connection When an individual finishes playing a game with another person, both are likely to trust eachother more. Gamers are also more likely to help someone in real life after they've played with that person through an online or video-game console.
4. Becoming Part of Something Bigger Than Ourselves
Storylines for video games have become more epic and compelling that massive multiplayer environments are invoking sensations of awe and wonder. Because of this, researchers have indicated that when a person is experiencing these feelings, there is a higher chance of that individual serving a large cause and collaborating with others selflessly. Feels like we need more people like this in the world, don't we?
These four factors are part of several alternate reality game projects that McGonigal has already applied. Two of her most popular a.r.g's are EVOKE and WORLD WITHOUT OIL.
EVOKE is best described as a ten-week crash course in changing the world. The goal is to empower people throughout the world to come up with solutions to our most urgent social problems (aka urgent evokes). As of January 2011, more than 19,000 players tackled real-world missions to improve food security, create more access to clean energy and end poverty in more than 130 countries.
The game also focused on players constructing and launching their own social enterprises. And after 10 weeks of the game debuting, more than 50 new companies were established. One of these enterprises is Libraries Across Africa which empowers entrepreneurs to set up free community libraries.
WWO is another alternate reality game that debuted in April 2007, when we experienced a substantial drop in the supply of oil. Individuals played through blog posts, videos, photo's, podcasts and even twitter. The key of the game is for players to visualize through these communication channels what would happen if the world ran it's last drop of oil. How would the lives of people change?
Players first read a news feed from other players on how a shortfall of oil was affecting their own lives and what they were doing to cope with the problem. And as the crisis continued, players updated eachother with further thoughts, reactions and solutions. As a result, the game had over 1900 players with more than 60,000 active observers with 1500 stories and solutions told.
With this kind of gaming content and collaboration, maybe video games can make a better world. Maybe we can discover the cure for cancer through a video game. But until then, hear what Jane herself has to say about this evolution of video gaming.
Everyone loves to be a hero. It symbolizes purity and goodness, because of this, no one likes to be a villain. A villain is perceived as evil and bad, however, it is reasonable to sympathize for them. And the more you sympathize for them, the more you see that villain's are not evil but advocates for change.
Drastic events or traumas happen within our lives that shape our perceptions and develop our morals we live by. Every person deemed good or bad go through this phase in life. It is a loss of innocence that individuals go through.
Two-Face and Ra's Al Ghul
Take for example Ra's Al Ghul and Harvey Dent, Batman's villains. Ra's Al Ghul lost his wife by the hands of a political figure who was not brought to justice. The loss of his wife and the injustice brought upon her death shaped his perception of how corrupt the justice system really is. In the case of Harvey Dent, he received his coined token from his abusive father who would use it as a "night game" that would always end with his father giving him severe beatings. Because of the trauma he suffered as a child, Dent struggled with the idea of free will and could not make choices on his own. This left choices to be decided on the flip of a coin with one side representing death and the other life.
Magneto
Within the X-Men comics, Magneto grew up in the Nazi camps during the dreadful years of WWII due to his Jewish ethnicity. During that time, his family was executed by the soldiers leaving him scarred for life. After surviving the Nazi camps due to his mutant powers, he later witnessed the same kind of inequality being pressed upon mutants by the human society. In a 2008 interview, Stan Lee mentions that "He (Magneto) just wanted to strike back at the people who were so bigoted and racist... he was trying to defend the mutants, and because society was not treating them fairly he was going to teach society a lesson."
Hugo Drax
Being a popular figure among the classic James Bond villains, Hugo Drax had a disturbing history of being tortured as a youth for being German and losing his father who was a German General fighting against the English during WWI. He grew a taste of vengeance and hatred towards the world for being tortured and losing his father. He perceived the world to be cruel and resulted in him becoming a Nazi bent on revenge within the classic action-thriller Moonraker.
These villains were once good people who were burdened with drastic events that changed their lives, a personal bildungsroman what you will. They are still people and like heroes, villains have sympathy.
Going back to Batman, Henri Ducard sympathizes with Bruce Wayne upon the loss of his parents. Due to this, he trains Bruce Wayne and nurtures him upon providing "true" justice. With Two-face/Harvey Dent, Dent struggles in doing what's right and wrong due to his multiple personality disorder. However, he sympathizes with Commissioner Gordon and Batman in helping to stop crime in Gotham City.
As for Magneto, he is depressed of losing his family as a child and is angered at the mistreatment of mutants. He therefore sympathizes with the mutants being treated unequal as he was during WWII. He vouches to be the protector of mutant-kind even if it requires deadly means. Within the movie Moonraker, Drax sympathizes with fellow Germans who lived in England and forms an alliance with them upon his quest for a new civilization in Space while taking revenge on the world who treated him and his country-men with disgust.
Sympathy is a positive characteristic and is shown in very different ways from these villains. As an end result, these villains are not evil but advocates of change.
Drax wanted to build a civilization in space within Moonraker and be superior to the world that treated him poorly. Ra's Al Ghul was an advocate for change in healing the world of corruption through any means necessary. Although Harvey Dent struggles with his alter ego, he attempts to change the system of justice by leaving it to fate. Magneto is determined to protect mutants as he believes them to be "Homo superior" and would set about creating a homeland on Earth where mutants could live peacefully.
From this analysis, all individuals can be seen as villains. All individuals aspire to some sort of change that is fueled by past events within ones life. Because of this, a villain is a subjective term to use. They are advocates of change who at times are brought down by an individual (hero) for the sake of sticking to the status quo. Sometimes, change can be a good thing.
The wars between Pepsi-Cola and Coca-Cola have been constant throughout the years. Especially now due to Pepsi's new campaign, "Summer Time is Pepsi Time."
As mentioned in Advertising Age, "It's the third effort from the company in the past year to attack a Coca-Cola brand."
Late last summer, Pepsi attacked Coca-Cola's Coke Zero with the Pepsi Max and this past March Pepsi's Sierra Mist took on Coke's Sprite.
However both companies benefit from the "Cola Wars."
Massimo d'Amore, CEO-PepsiCo Beverages America, exclaims that consumers love cola wars and that both companies SBU markets grow due to the battles. "Since we launched the Max campaign, Max is growing triple digits and Coke Zero is still growing, so everybody wins when we get into the cola wars."
However as a comeback, Diet Coke beat Pepsi as the country's No. 2 soda in 2010 which was just behind the full-calorie brand Coca-Cola. In response to this, PepsiCo said it will increase ad spending behind its beverage brand by 30%.
This is certainly a sign of a lot of work laid out for the newly restructured marketing teams of PepsiCo headquarters to tackle.
Both companies are alike in both financial, structural and taste (with Pepsi being just a little more sweeter than Coke).
Justin Dove from Investment U Research reports that some people theorize that both brand's labels have more to do with consumer's preferences than the actual soda. He further mentions how this is shown from each company's stock.
"Both Pepsi and Coke are favorites of super investor Warren Buffett. That's because both stocks have had strong growth and both are cash cows when it come to dividends."
- Justin Dove
Below are some other financial key findings Dove found:
Coke has increased annual dividends for 49 years running, Pepsi also has a streak of increasing their annual dividend for 39 straight years.
Coke's stock price has grown in value by over 50 percent since the beginning of 2009. Pepsi's stock has grown by about 40 percent in the same time.
In terms of market share, Coke owns the top two spots in the cola industry - Coke and Diet Coke - with Pepsi's flagship cola coming in at third.
As a competitive advantage for Pepsi, Coke lacks in diversification. Pepsi is tapped into the snack food market with brands such as Frito-Lay and Quaker while Coke relies on it's beverage diversification with Dasani bottled water, PowerAde and Minut Maid juices.
So at the end which one is better? The answer is neither.
In the end, it's all about preference. If you prefer your drink to be a little more sweeter with each sip, go with a Pepsi. But if you want to enjoy the whole can, then I'd recommend a Coke.
Both companies symbolize the bi-polar opposites and like The Joker and Batman, both complement each other well.
I read an interesting article from Forbes writer Gene Marks about reasons why some businesses should not invest or get involved with social media. I couldn't imagine why businesses would not use it. However, Gene Marks discussed some interesting reasons based off a recent survey from Webs. In the survey, the following statistics were found:
69 percent of business owners say they use social media at their companies.
Over 89 percent of businesses reported using Facebook.
However, 59.4 percent of those using social media feel that it has not met their expectations.
I found the last statistic shocking, so I conducted more research into this problem and discovered another interesting article by Stanford is Pushing Social called 4 Reasons Why Businesses Shouldn't Use Social Media.
Of the four reasons, the first one is the strongest: It's not where your customers and prospects are. This reason is relevant with Gene Marks business problem as he talks about his clients and their prospects.
“My clients sell things like two-sided polypropylene film, stainless steel coils and ridge ventilation solutions. Know anyone on Facebook looking for this stuff? Probably not.”
- Gene Marks
I surfed through Facebook communities and tweets in hopes of discovering stainless steel buyers and proving Marks wrong. However, he was right. Stainless steel customers and prospects are not on Facebook or Twitter. Which means they must be somewhere else, but where?
Businesses involved within the Oil, Steel and Construction industry find other ways to build their clients or customers such as referrals, trade associations and tradeshows like the Stainless Steel World Conference & Exhibition. For Marks, this is where his customers and prospects are.
It's easy to get caught up in the "social media bandwagon" since it is innovative, low-cost and is the new "sexy" trend in communication. But if your customers or prospects are not using it then social media is not for your business.
Protests in Greece are spreading due to the Greek Government imposing fiscal austerity in the country in order to receive European funding to lower the government costs that were caused by growing government deficits (overly borrowing) and the decrease in tourism and shipping that was caused by the late-2000s financial crisis.
According to Business Insider, an issue occurred in the beginning of 2010 where it was reported that Greece had paid Goldman Sachs and other banks hundreds of millions of dollars in fees since 2001 in order to hide the country's actual level of borrowing. The purpose was to give Greece the capabilities of spending beyond their means in order to hide their deficit from the European Union over-seers.
The Greek Government deficit is still a serious burden. According to Bloomberg Businessweek, the Greek Government deficit was estimated to be 13.6% of the country's GDP which according to London's Daily Telegraph is one of the highest deficits in the world relative to GDP.
As a visual, below is a graph showing Greece as well as other European countries government surplus/deficit as a percentage of their GDP.
Provided by Wikimedia
As emergency measures, the EU has established a European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) which is meant to stabilize the european countries that are members of the EU and are experiencing substantial government deficits. As an affect of this vehicle, fiscal austerity have been occurring which have resulted in less public sector jobs provided contributing to the 17% unemployment rate Greece is experiencing.
Greek protestors believe the fiscal austerity, haven tightened the fiscal and monetary policies of the country, will as an end result diminish investment and economic growth for the country in the long term. This could lead to a lower employment and GDP rate in order to battle the huge government deficit.
On CNBC, John Taylor mentioned that Greece cannot take on any more borrowing and will most likely need to be given monetary funds from the EU as a gift in order to stabilize their economy. If Greece defaults then they will be excluded from the Euro Dollar and the country will be in a much worse situation then they currently are now.
Although this will not have a drastic affect upon the European Union, more Greek citizens will lose their jobs and even their homes if the government does not act right and exacerbate their debt in a smart and strategic manner.
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