Privatization of the worlds water and wars of water

Privatization of the worlds water and wars of water Water is a human right to all mankind. However, over 1.1 billion people in the poor nations lack access to safe and clean water. A shortage of water results in the perpetuation of diseases, an escalation of poverty, and even early deaths.Advertising We will write a custom research paper sample on Privatization of the worlds water and wars of water specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Among the poor countries, the public sector is charged with the responsibility of managing ninety-seven percent of all the water (Segerfeldt para. 1) and as such, the sector is largely responsible for failing to provide the more than one billion individuals with clean and safe water. Privatization of water leads to better incentives and superior competencies. Attempts to privatize the waters of the world have however elicited strong resistance, not to mention stirring strong emotions and feelings among those affected. Privatization ends up treating water as a commodity, and not a human right and so in the long-run, the poor have no access to it. On paper, water is regarded as a basic human right but still, one has to pay for it. To gain a further insight into the issue of privatization of the world’s waters, the paper shall examine three articles. First, Joshua Ortega’s article, â€Å"water wars: bottling up the world’s supply of water† shall be explored. The article, â€Å"private water saves lives† by Fredrik Segerfeldt shall also be assessed and finally, Jeff Fleischer’s article, â€Å"Blue Gold: An interview with Maude Barlow† will also be examined. As Segerfeldt (para. 1) notes, over 1 billion people globally, a majority of them from the poor nations, lacks access to safe and clean water. This is despite that fact that only about 8 per cent of all the water available globally is sued for purposes of human consumptions. This is an indication that the inability of the more than 1 billi on individuals globally to access clean and safe water is not as a result of water shortage, but is due to bad policies. For example Segerfeldt (para. 1) observes that Cherrapunji, India often regarded as the world’ wettest place, also suffers from periodic water shortages. The public sector manages about ninety-seven percent of the entire water distribution channels in the poor countries and as such, it could be held responsible for the lack of access to clean and safe water by the more than 1 billion individuals in these countries. Those poor nations that have decided to privatize the water sector have witnessed an increasingly higher number of the citizens accessing water, in comparison with the other nations in which water is still managed by the public sector.Advertising Looking for research paper on government? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Privatization the water sector results in an improved scope of distribution and quality of water. This has culminated in violent demonstrations and protests globally. International trade agreements have also played a pivotal role in the commercialization and privatization of the world’s water. For example, the definition of a good, as provided for by GATT, also included water. Initially, NAFTA sought to include water as a good and then later on, changed it into an investment. This therefore gave the members countries the impetus to privatize it. The issue of scarcity has also played a significant role in helping to facilitate the privatization of water (Fleischer para. 3). This has effectively resulted in a mushrooming of companies that are involved in the bottling and sale of water. For example, nowadays, we have come to accept bottled water as part of our lives and for this reason you will find it on planes and in restaurants. Therefore, because access to safe and clean water has become hard, people have now turned to drinking bottled water. A lot of people hold the perception that compared with tap water, bottled water tends to be more pure and healthy. However, as Ortega has noted, this is nothing more than a marketing illusions (para. 1). As he has further reported, a 1999 study by NRDC (National Resources Defense Council) revealed that one out of every five samples of bottled water that the four-year study had sampled contained such carcinogens and neurotoxins as toluene, xylene, and styrene. Tap water is regulated more stringently in comparison with bottled water, in spite of popular misconceptions. As a matter of fact, bottled water may contain certain levels or fecal coliform of Escherichia coli under regulations, unlike tap water. Furthermore, it is not mandatory to disinfect bottled water for Guardia or cryptosporidium. One wonders then how contaminated tap water finds its way into the U. S. market. It is important to note that the bottled water industry enjoys very relaxed regulations, not to mention t hat the standards for bottled water are less-stringent in comparison with those of tap water. As a public resource, it is important to ensure that the consumer has access to extensive documentation in the content and quality of tap water (Ortega para. 5). On the other hand, because bottled water is treated as a soft drink, as opposed to a public resource, this could help explain the less-stringent regulations. If the global public water resources are to be commercialized through a privatization process, would we be faced with a relaxation of the hitherto stringent regulations that characterizes public water? If this were to happen, then we can no longer be guaranteed of clean and safe water and this culminate in a rising epidemic of water borne disease and deaths.Advertising We will write a custom research paper sample on Privatization of the worlds water and wars of water specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More It is not just the poor thir d world countries who are confronted with the issue of access to clean and safe water. Even the industrialized countries in Europe, Canada and the U. S have a limited control over their own water resources, much less than they can imagine. To start with, the high rates of pollution has resulted in mining of ground water at a faster rate that they can actually be replenished (Fleischer para. 8). This is an indication that we could in fact be faced with a water crisis in the years ahead. Faced with this grave reality, the governments in the developed nations have begun questioning about who needs to pay for the water, and who needs to access it. This has only acted to enhance the commoditization and water through privatization. Conclusion Most of the water supply systems in the poor nations are under the management of the public sector and due to poor mismanagement individuals in these countries are faced with the problem of accessing clean and safe water. On the other hand, in those countries whereby the water sector has been privatized, there has been an improvement in terms of quality and service delivery of the water. However, it is important to note that the privatization of water has turned it into a good first, and then a service. As a result, the stringent rules and regulations that characterize the treatment of tap water often meant for public consumption, faces being jeopardized, as can be evidence by the mushrooming of bottled water companies. Scarcity of clean and safe water is also a problem in the developed nations due to pollution as a result of such human activities as mining. Threes need to find a balance between access to clean and safe water, and a determination of whether to privatize or publicize the world supply of water. Fleischer, Jeff. Blue Gold: An Interview with Maude. January 2005. 19 January, 2011. https://www.motherjones.com/politics/ Ortega, Joshua. Water wars: Bottling up the worlds supply of H2O. March 2005. 19 January, 2011. ht tp://old.seattletimes.com/html/opinion/2002213327_sundaywater20.html Segerfeldt, Fredrik. Private Water Saves Lives. August 2005. 19 January, 2011. https://www.cato.org/publications/commentary/private-water-saves-livesAdvertising Looking for research paper on government? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More

Quotes That Reveal the Most Hate Around Us

Quotes That Reveal the Most Hate Around Us Hatred is a powerful emotion. Unless kept in check, hate can cause an avalanche of destruction. It wreaks havoc on relationships, breaks up families and even takes innocent lives. It preys on civil societies. With hate, dark thoughts of revenge and destruction can cloud the mind. These quotes illuminate this most devastating and destructive emotion that has been with man throughout time and illuminated in religious texts as well as pop culture. Famous Quotes on Hate Jonathan SwiftWe have just enough religion to make us hate, but not enough to make us love one another. Kurt TucholskyThose who hate most fervently must have once loved deeply; those who want to deny the world must have once embraced what they now set on fire. Maya Angelouâ€Å"Hate, it has caused a lot of problems in the world, but has not solved one yet.†Ã‚   Coretta Scott KingHate is too great a burden to bear. It injures the hater more than it injures the hated. Oprah WinfreyYou cannot hate other people without hating yourself. George Bernard ShawHatred is the cowards revenge for being intimidated. William Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatraâ€Å"In time we hate that which we often fear.†Ã‚   Rene DescartesIt is easy to hate and it is difficult to love. This is how the whole scheme of things works. All good things are difficult to achieve, and bad things are very easy to get. The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.Hatred paralyzes life; love releases it. Hatred confuses life; love harmonizes it. Hatred darkens life; love illuminates it. â€Å"Let no man pull you so low as to hate him.†Ã‚   Napoleon BonaparteA true man hates no one. Lord ByronHatred is the madness of the heart. AristotleTo enjoy the things we ought, and to hate the things we ought, has the greatest bearing on excellence of character. Stephen KingMonsters are real, and ghosts are real too. They live inside us, and sometimes, they win. Victoria WolffHate is not a good counselor. Charles Caleb ColtonWe hate some persons because we do not know them, and we will not know them because we hate them. Sir Walter RaleighHatreds are the cinders of affection. Zsa Zsa GaborI never hated a man enough to give him his diamonds back. Arnold SchopenhauerHatred comes from the heart; contempt from the head; and neither feeling is quite within our control. Henry Ward BeecherThere is no faculty of the human soul so persistent and universal as that of hatred. Kathleen NorrisHate is all a lie; there is no truth in hate. George EliotHatred is like fire - it makes even light rubbish deadly. Henry Emerson FosdickHating people is like burning down your own house to get rid of a rat. Ivy CullerHate less; live longer. John Steinbeckâ€Å"Try to understand men. If you understand each other you will be kind to each other. Knowing a man well never leads to hate and almost always leads to love.†

Capital Punishment, A life and Death Issue Research Paper

Capital Punishment, A life and Death Issue - Research Paper Example Opponents also assert that the practice is overtly costly and racially biased while not realizing the intended outcome. Proponents think it is neither cruel nor unusual, quite the opposite, they think it fair and just. The objective of this study is to discuss the moral and legal concerns that literally are a life and death issue and is a key barometer when measuring a cultures collective conscience. The ‘eye for an eye’ faction not only accepts but insists that the death penalty be sustained and has supporting rational to back up their argument which will be covered comprehensively in this discussion. It will also take into account the opponents’ reasoning concerning why it should be eliminated along with the legal precedents concerned in an effort to achieve a comprehensive view of the capital punishment debate. Legal speaking, capital punishment is not unusual, by definition, unless one acknowledges the racial bias that exists throughout the justice system. The law cannot define whether it is cruel or not. Cruelty can be defined only by the collective social conscious of a society. The legal interpretation of the combined ‘cruel and unusual’ is open to debate, to some extent but the general usage of the word ‘cruel’ refers to vicious punishments that cause extreme pain. Most legal scholars agree that punishments that include body dismemberment or torture are unquestionably classified as cruel. The term torture was evidently open for debate during the past decade but the word means essentially the same universally; causing unwanted physical or mental anguish. The word ‘unusual’ is normally understood to mean going beyond what is an equitable application of punishment for an offense. For instance, if ten people were ticketed for a traffic violation and judge fined nine of them $150 but one was charged $1500, this punishment would be considered ‘unusual.’ Taken together in the phrase, †˜prohibiting cruel and unusual punishment’ signifies that the penalty should be apportioned equitably according to the specific offense committed. A ‘life’ prison sentence is an acceptable punishment but not if this punishment was imposed for jaywalking, that would be an obviously unacceptable sentence imposition because it is considered excessive and extreme given the nature of the offense. Excessive is a term that is also open to broad interpretation in both the legal and public realm. Some would contend, for example, that any amount of time imposed for ‘crimes’ such as the possession of drugs, prostitution and gambling should be interpreted as excessive consequently ‘unusual.’ The Supreme Court has on many occasions judged the merits of the death penalty and this action is interpreted as punishment which is cruel and unusual by the Constitution. The Court has consistently ruled the language of the Eighth Amendment does not prohibit t he death sentence as punishment. The Constitution was meant to be and is a malleable document, however. The judicial interpretation of the Eighth Amendment has evolved to some extent throughout the years. Therefore the Court could potentially reverse this standpoint at a future time as result of changing societal values. For instance, whipping convicted criminals was routine until the late Eighteenth Century. This practice is now considered to be inappropriate because society’s attitude changed to define it as a ‘cruel’ punishment. With respect to capital punishment, however, â€Å"

Intel and AMD Processors Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Intel and AMD Processors - Essay Example Dell XPS 625 Desktop Computer contains the processor developed by AMD. This processor is AMD Phenom X4 940. Another specification of the system is its 500GB hard disk and 6GB of the RAM (Dell MT2, 2009). Here we have an optional facility of the Radeon HD 2400 Pro in its place of a GeForce 8800GTX. A Creative X-Fi supplies sound, gigabit Ethernet is onboard, and eight available USB ports make sure that you will never go wanting on the accessories side. This system has an Integrated Sound Blaster Audigy. There are also 8 USB ports. On the Windows XP, we have better performance and additional functionalities. If we talk about the system performance then we will be able to see that this system is the addition of the XPS 625 is a solid player for the better performance in its series and price significantly fewer than Dell QX9650 system. The XPS 625 is a multimedia computer that is checked AMD's impending mainstream 2.83-GHz Penryn Q9550 processor was identical to the XPS 625 by means of t he over-clock enabled QX9650 CPU in each other esteem except in cost (Simms, 2007). The XPS 625's midrange tower case a modish mixture of sleek black plastic plus silvery metal-conceals the unit's simply genuine disadvantage: It was immediately one free of charge drive cove. One main feature of this system is quietness.   There is a huge amount of the ventilation in the system body so that is can be easily vacuumed. So working with it in an industrial sector is really easy. We can use it for the production area.

Problems associated with hangings at Tyburn Essay Example for Free

Problems associated with hangings at Tyburn Essay In Britain the punishment of execution was given to all the criminals they hang the criminals by neck till the death, for this purpose the Tyburn used the old trees, they hanged many people by at a time and in early periods the execution was performed in front of all the people of country this activity was the centre of attraction for all the people whenever they come to know that they are about to hang someone. They all used to gather there and watch it, the first gallon was enough to hang ten people at the times but later on they modify it and make it smaller than before but still it was capable of hanging 6 people at a time, later on the protestant force them to stop giving this punishment on every crime whether its small or big they just sentence the hanging till death which was not considered as the moral act. Later on they stopped execution in front of citizens and give this punishment in prison only in the presence of William Willis, the chief custodian, the surgeon of the prison, the governor and also another warder. This article also discusses all the details about the hanging process, the changes which were made and what the people believes about this process. The observation shows that few of people believes that the execution should carried out to save our nation and tomorrow and they also consider execution good as it gives the lesson to other criminals while on the other hand few people believed that execution is a dreadful act which should be stopped and the government should give one chance to every illegal person, in this article we will discuss all of the facts and then come up with the conclusion. Hanging of Tyburn In an Anglo-Saxon period the Britain exploit the process of execution for philanthropic the chastisement to the inhabitants who commenced any sin like rape, killing some one or when anyone go beyond their spiritual believes and execute any kind of peccadillo in opposition to their religious believes etc. Up to the year 1868 chastisement were conceded out in frontage of multitude of people this unfasten way for openhanded punishment turn out to be the motivation of enthusiasm for the community of Tyburn, almost all of the citizens gather round there in order to see how did they hanged the offender however later on in the Gala Days time the hanging were to be had in the penitentiary, the large crowd also congregate there to protest against this execution for the reason that numerous people from their society were dead because of this punishment so they start protesting against it. The history gives you an idea that there were almost 10,935 death sentences in England along with Wales alone, for the duration of the years 1735 to 1964, these executions consist of on 10,378 men as well as 557 women. This method of chastisement was becoming the intimidation for the populace of England day by day, they make use of their historical trees for benevolent this punishment, these trees were gigantic as much as necessary to hang up eight men at a time. To demonstrate the exact panorama of hanging let us have a look how do they perform it, it is believed at the time of hanging the hangman is observed casually smoking his pipe, they bring the condemned in the cart come along his sarcophagus along with an exhortative priest the population of Britain does not like this way of punishment at all and they just wanted to get ride of this. (Hanging, March, 23, 2000; Lesley Nelson). In the year 1783 9th of December the first executions was observed on New gate’s, new drop scaffold, at that time nine men as well as one woman were dangled at the same time. Edward Dennis along with William Brunskill performed this execution intended for an assortment of offences. It was a large box like structure with two uprights supporting two parallel beams from which a maximum of a dozen criminals could be hanged at once. There was a platform in which prisoner stood, the platform had the length of 10 feet and the width of 8 feet, when the lever or pin was moved the action on a drawbar under the drop occurs after this they roughly fell to level of their knee it is believed that the new drop had 96 customers flanked by February moreover December of 1785, by means of 20 men be suspended scheduled on the 2nd of February of that time. During the mid of the year’s 1820s, the way of punishment as hangings became less common than before, the double beam gallows was no more used in the process hanging and were substitute with a solitary beam prototype but this solitary beam gallows was still enough to hang six people at a time. In the year 1571, the tyburn arranged the triple tree; the reason for establishing these trees was to eliminate previous diminutive structures, so that they can dangle 24 criminal at a time. In the year 1649, 23rd of June they hanged 23 men as well as one woman because these people were conscientious for burglary in addition to robbery; these 24 prisoner have been get across at the position of execution in 8 carts (Execution at Tyburn). There was a further great execution in the year 1740 on 18th of March subsequent to the famous shoplifter and robber, Jenny Diver who was hanged with 19 additional criminals. Until the end of the year 1759 the Tyburn’s triple tree was remained in their use. Later on the changes were made in process of execution they were modified by the time and finally it was legally proved that executions should only make in the prisons as it was damaging the humanity from the population day by day, it is the believe of people that by hanging people openly they are supposed to be responsible for making the others innocent people scared as well. In the year 1900 the execution was only done on prison. Let us have a look on typical execution of 1900’s now, at the beginning of world war one a small number of the penitentiary generally allowed the press reporters to be there only at the time of execution when the male criminal was being hanged. The report of hanging in Abel Atherton at Durham in the year 1909 8th of December the implementation subsist of Henry Pierrepoint, the reporter recount that it was early morning 7. 50 a. m of Wednesday, the person who works under the Sheriff makes his entry in the prison along with the three reporters of newspaper. Two of the custodians bought the Atherton in to the area of the doctor, the hands of Atherton were immobilize, later on they show the way frontward to the gallows throughout a demonstration which was also consisting of the Chief Warder, the Atherton was detained by the help of custodians on both of the side, Pierrepoint along with his subordinates which includes William Willis, the chief custodian, the surgeon of the prison, the governor and also another warder. When the Chaplain was in attendance inside the hut at that time Atherton was plunged, his legs were grip down by Willis at that time when he was plummeted in behind of Willis legs, the noose was placed over the head of Atherton and the noose was also accustomed before pulling the white hood above him by the Pierrepoint. Close by the assize magistrates clock instigate striking at that hour Pierrepoint unconfined the fence in giving Atherton. The process of hanging has to be over before the striking of clock stopped, the press men narrates that when they looked down they feel like that Athertons death was immediate and his body was still hanging absolutely. The bell of the prison began clangor in addition to the putting to death shed was locked up parting Atherton hovering on the rope designed as the regular hour. This was of execution was much better than before but still hanging was measured as the act adjacent to the ethical values. Few years later little revolutionize were made in execution but this law remains same and the people commence the more protest against these acts as they were never in favor of killing someone. Now we will have a detailed views on history incidents which shows what do the people believe about it and ho did they take hanging be neck for any sot of sin whether its robbery. Rape, murder or prostitution, we will also review what are the believes of communities about execution and what are the demands of citizens related to the punishment of hanging till death (The history of judicial hanging in Britain 1735-1964). The last incident of hanging occur in Scotland in the year 1820, they hanged the 22 men together these people were hanged on 13th and 14th of July. Before the half of the century people began to give their ideology about this chastisement it was John Locke who reveals that the most important intention of government of the state was the preservation of national another reason according his point of view for this act could be to provide security for the property and also for securing the life of the person. It is believed that Lockes thoughts were moderately in observance by means of a noninterventionist state appearance which recommended the tolerant regulation of wealth plus decree. He was the one whose statements shows that he was in the favor of execution and he makes his all effort to make this fact clear in the eye of viewer but he did not achieve his goal completely.

Slavery: Affecting Every Party Involved Essay example -- Literary Anal

Slavery was the greatest atrocity committed to a human being in America. â€Å"The Fires of Jubilee† a book written by Stephen B. Oates, helps further this argument with gruesome details of the atrocious and brutal practice of slavery. It describes the long working hours, the lost of dignity and destruction of the opportunity to self improve. Slaves were forced to toil the scorching fields for countless of hours in their lives without a chance of improving their occupation, social status or how they lived their lives. The brutalization that slaves had to endure is more apparent than brutalization suffered by the slave-owners. Fredrick Douglas stated â€Å"At this moment, I saw more clearly than ever the brutalizing effect of slavery upon both the slave and the slave owner.† It seems that slavery was advantageous to slave owner. This is far from the truth. Slavery caused slave owners to degrade into brutes after being brutalized by the evil of slavery. The validity of Fr edrick Douglas’s statement is unquestionably accurate. The most evident type of suffering slaves had to go through was the brutal physical burden placed on the shoulders of slaves. The great amount of intense and exhausting work led to many slaves â€Å"in consequence of being over-worked, and I was sick a long time.† (Bailey 356). Many slaves were force to work so much that their bodies could not take the physical toll anymore. While they were sick, they were finally allowed much needed rest, but immediately after they got better they would be put to work once again. One of the main tasks slaves were forced to do was picking cotton. â€Å"They picked until their shoulders and fingers ached to the bone† (Oates 22). Slaves also had to endure brutal and typically unwarranted physical a... ...h pens and ledger books moved down the line, examining slave and animal alike and assigning each a value† (Oates 30). Even though tremendously rare, there was also brutal violence committed by the slaves against their slave owners. Filled with rage and longing for revenge some, though very few, slaves poisoned their slave holder’s food, killing them. Secondly there was at least one slave insurgence. The most brutal and ghastly one was Nat Turner’s rebellion. During Nat Turner’s rebellion many atrocities occurred against white slave owners. One of these killings included slaves hacking â€Å"Joseph and sally both to pieces, bringing his ax down again and again† (Oates 70). The brutal effects slavery had on African American slaves were wretched. Slaves were born human beings, but deprived of their supposedly unalienable right and treated as though they were brutes.

A Stakeholder View of Strategic Management in Chinese Firms

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF BUSINESS STUDIES VOL 15, NO1, JUNE 2007: pages 1 of 13 A STAKEHOLDER VIEW OF STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT IN CHINESE FIRMS Dr Xueli Huang1 Dr Scott Gardner2 Despite the fact that China has emerged as a driving force of the world economy over the last decade, little research has been undertaken into how Chinese firms strategically manage their businesses. This paper develops a theoretical framework of strategic management in the Chinese firms through reviewing and synthesising five strategic perspectives that are relevant to the Chinese context: the Industry Structure View (ISV), Resources-Based View (RBV), Institutional View (IV), Relational View (RV), and Stakeholder View (SHV). We elaborate the relevance of the SHV in the Chinese context and its relationships with other strategic perspectives. Finally, we offer several managerial and research implications based on the theoretical framework developed. Key Words: strategic management, Chinese firms, stakeholder perspective I. INTRODUCTION One of the most significant developments in the global economy is the re-emergence of China as a major driving force of the world economy. Since the implementation of the open-door, market-oriented policies in 1979, China has quadrupled its GDP and sustained a significant average growth rate of over 9 per cent. The foreign direct investment (FDI) in China in 2004 amounted to US$ 60 billions, making China the biggest FDI destination country over three consecutive years from 2002. Chinese organisations now compete fiercely in domestic markets, and the international trade arena, with the value of China’s international trade accounting for over 70 percent of its GDP in 2004. The Chinese have also expanded their business operations to other countries as illustrated by the recent examples such as the Levono, China’s largest Personal Computer (PC) manufacturing company, acquiring IBM’s PC division, and the unsuccessful bid of China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC), China’s third largest oil company, for Unocal, the ninth largest oil company in the USA. Despite the important role played by the Chinese economy in general, and Chinese firms in particular, in the global economy, China has been considered as one of the most underresearched regions in the world (Tsui, Schoonhoven, Meyer, Lau, & Milkovich, 2004). Although interest from executives, academics and media on Chinese business matters has 1 Dr Xueli Huang is Senior Lecturer at the School of Management, Edith Cowan University. Email: x. [email  protected] edu. au 2 Dr Scott Gardner is Associate Professor at Murdoch University. Email: s. [email  protected] edu. au 1 A stakeholder view of strategic management in Chinese firms increased dramatically over the past several years, little research effort has been devoted to studying the strategic management of Chinese organisations. This paper investigates strategic management in Chinese organisations. In doing so, an attempt is made to integrate the current literature on strategic management, focusing on the two dominant perspectives of the past twenty years: the Industry Structure View (ISV) (Porter, 1979) and the Resource Based View (RBV) (Barney, 1997; Prahalad & Hamel, 1990; Wernerfelt, 1984). It also examines Post, Preston and Sachs’ (2002) conceptual schema of complementary perspectives for strategic analysis of 21st century corporate environments – the Stakeholder View (SHV). In attempting to make sense of increased strategic complexity and the central role of networks of human relationships in shaping economic activity in Eastern (notably Chinese) and Western markets, our analysis will call upon the ISV, RBV and SHV with additional reference to other contemporary strategic perspectives including the Relational View (RV)(Dyer & Singh, 1998), and the Institution-Based View (IBV) (Peng, 2002). By focusing these lenses on how business is conducted in the cultural context and commercial environment of China, this paper aims to: 1) enhance understanding of why and how the strategic behaviours of Chinese managers differ from those of Western managers? 2) explain why the SHV is relevant to Chinese management practice; and 3) develop an integrated theoretical framework that can be used for guiding future research into the unique characteristics of strategic management in Chinese organizations. II. LITERATURE REVIEW The Industry-Structure and Resource Based Views How firms behave and what determines a firm’s performance in international competition are two of four fundamental issues in strategic management (Rumelt, Schendel, & Teece, 1994). Searching for sources of competitive advantage has been a key theme for strategy researchers and business managers over the past five decades. Consequently, a number of strategic management views or thoughts have emerged that explain either sources of competitive advantage or how firms form strategy (Mintzberg, Ahlstrand, & Lampel, 1998). The ISV and RBV are two prominent views that have endured in the literature and in practice despite significant reconfiguration of global market boundaries and technologies over the decade to 2006. The fundamental assumption of ISV proposed by Porter (1979) is that a firm’s performance is primarily determined by the environment, including both macro environment and industry environment within which it operates. These two broad sets of environmental factors heavily influence the attractiveness of a position for a firm to occupy. As such, a firm uses its market power, or in Williamson’s (1991) terms, ‘ strategizing’, as a primary means to generating supernormal returns or achieving competitive advantage. The second prominent perspective of strategic management is the RBV proposed by Wernerfelt (1984) and subsequently developed by strategic scholars, most notably by Barney (1986; 1997), Rumelt (1984) and Teece and his colleagues (1997). The RBV 2 International Journal of Business Studies argues that a firm’s competitive advantage is primarily based on the heterogeneity of the key resources and capabilities it owns or controls, particularly those that are difficult to mobilise. It is the heterogeneity and immobility of these unique resources and core competence that earn a firm’s supernormal rents. In Williamston’s term, firms adopting this approach are ‘economizing’ (Williamson, 1991). Although the RBV has been widely used in strategic literature, its contribution to the theoretical development has been recently challenged (Priem & Butler, 2001). The Relational and Institution-Based Views Although these two schools of strategic management mentioned above have contributed significantly to understanding of the firms’ strategic management practices and behaviours, the quest continues. Recent effort devoted to this area has resulted in several promising and interesting developments over the past decade which are relevant to the study of strategic management in Chinese organisations, including the Complex Response Process View (CRPV), (Stacey, 2003), Relational View (RV) (Dyer & Singh, 1998), Institution-Based View (IBV) (Peng, 2002) and, more recently, the Stakeholder View (SHV) by Post, Preston and Sachs (2002b). There are considerable overlaps across these views that attempt to balance the long standing use of high level and rational industry analysis to explain firms’ strategic behaviours, within a defined marketplace, with a more dynamic, processual, and ultimately political view of strategy. This is focused on human motives and interactions within inter-connected, local, national and global networks or constituencies. The Relational View (RV) (Dyer & Singh, 1998) proposes that firms can achieve abovenormal returns through profiling and actively managing their network of relationships with other business organisations, particularly with suppliers and users. Dyer and Singh (1998) also outline four mechanisms through which these inter-organizational relationships can generate competitive advantage. They are: 1) investing in relationspecific assets to gain productivity in the value chain; 2) substantial knowledge exchange, or sharing between participating organisations to enhance inter–firm organisational learning; 3) leveraging the complementary resources and capability of alliance partners to develop new products and services; and 4) using effective governance to reduce transaction costs. As Dyer and Singh (1998) argue, one of the major benefits of this view is that it extends the unit of analysis for sustainable competitive advantage from a single firm (RBV) or single industry (ISV) to a network of inter-organizational relationships. The RV can be regarded as a middle range theory as it only focuses on a limited number of concepts (Neuman, 2003). Another recently developed view that is relevant to the studies of strategic management in Chinese organizations is the institution-based view (IBV) (North 1990; Peng, 2002). This view attempts to explain why the strategic decisions of apparently similar firms in different countries vary, and considers institutions as a new set of independent factors, besides a firm’s resources and its industry structure, that influence its strategic choices. According to North (1990), institutions are â€Å"the rules of the game in the society†. More specifically, Scott (1995) refers to institutions as â€Å"cognitive, normative, and regulative 3 A stakeholder view of strategic management in Chinese firms structures and activities that provide stability and meaning to social behaviour†. Thus, institutions help identify what strategic choices are acceptable and supportable, reduce uncertainty, and provide consistency to firms. Based on this view, therefore, institutional factors constrain the choices a firm can make, and are often considered in the strategy literature as part of the environment under which organisations operate. Organisations in different countries behave differently because the political and legal systems, social norms and values vary from one country to another, and these are important elements which influence strategic decisions. In other words, the institutional framework, as defined by Davis and North (1970) as â€Å"the set of fundamental political, social and legal ground rules†, in different countries influences firms’ strategy and consequently their performance. The IBV has shed much light on our understanding of strategic behaviour of firms in different countries, and could be good platform for developing new theoretical perspectives that are pertinent to the emerging business culture of China. (Peng, 2005). The Stakeholder View A more recent development in strategic thinking is the stakeholder-based view (SHV) (Post, Preston, & Sachs, 2002b). In line with the institution-based view, the SHV recognizes the important role played by political and social arenas shaping organisational decision making and performance. Post, Preston and Sachs (2002) build on this broad position, arguing that organisations, and particularly powerful multinational corporations, need to actively develop, maintain and manage relationships with their key stakeholders, including governments and communities. This proactive cultivation and long term management of strategic relationships contrast to the IBV, which suggests passive conformance to the rules. It is however quite consistent with management as understood and practiced in Chinese business networks. It therefore deserves more detailed discussion and elaboration in this paper. According to Post, Preston and Sachs (2002) the stakeholder view holds that â€Å"the capability of a business enterprise to generate sustainable wealth, and hence long-term value, is determined by its relationships with critical stakeholders† (p. 1). There are two primary, but implicit, assumptions on which the SHV is based. First, a firms’ sustainable and long-term value is determined by three broad types of factors: industry structure, resource base, and social and political setting. It combines the external and internal environments of the firm, and human relationships within its immediate sphere of operations and broader constituency as lo ci for analysis. Second, within this broad constituency there are critical stakeholders whose relationships with the focal firm influence its performance either positively or negatively, (See Figure 1). Thus, the authors (Post, Preston, & Sachs, 2002a) argue that the SHV both integrates the industrystructure view and RBV into a broader analytical framework for understanding strategic decisions and actions, and complements them through a broader understanding of how the industry position, resources and firm performance are affected by social and political factors. International Journal of Business Studies Figure 1 The stakeholder view of the corporation (Post, Preston, & Sachs, 2002, p. 55) The theoretical foundation of the SHV can be traced back to the stakeholder theory popularised by Freeman’s seminal work on stakeholder management and its ethical implications (Freeman, 1984). Since then, the stakeholder concept as a significant element in strategic management theory and practice has been widely used in varied settings, including the public sector and not-for-profit organizations in the USA and various European contexts. Following Freeman’s discussion of the purpose and ethical considerations of stakeholder management, Donaldson and Preston (1995) proposed three types of stakeholder theory: descriptive, instrumental and normative. Descriptive stakeholder theory attempts to describe and explain specific characteristics and behaviours of business organisations, instrumental theory is used to identify the connections between stakeholder management and organizational performance often where profit motive or advantage over rivals are dominant considerations, whilst normative theory focuses on the interpretation of corporate functioning, including moral and philosophical guidelines for operations and management (Donaldson & Preston, 1995). Based on this typology of stakeholder theory, instrumental motives and the quest for competitive advantage through stakeholder management appear to have dominated in the literature over the past fifteen years. However this has been offset to a certain extent in recent years by an increased focus in the literature on the role of stakeholders and stakeholder management in the practice and adoption of corporate social responsibility by US and European multinationals (Laszlo, 2003; Sirgy, 2002; Vogel, 2005). In common with other major US based stakeholder theorists, Post, Preston and Sachs (2002) widely disseminated notion of the SHV has been developed primarily from observations of the characteristic management behaviours within a small number of large US and European based multinational corporations, which they refer to as â€Å"large, complex enterprises† (p. 9), citing examples such as Motorola, Shell, and Cummins Engine Co. The reasons for adopting this particular case-based research method is that it 5 A stakeholder view of strategic management in Chinese firms equires an in-depth and comprehensive understanding of the organisations under study, and that the development of the relationships with its critical stakeholders is often evolutionary and path-dependent. Summarising the strategy perspectives discussed above, an integrative framework can be proposed as shown in Figure 2. Figure 2. An integrative model of strategic management in the Chinese organisation Is the SHV pers pective appropriate for understanding and explaining strategic management in Chinese organisations? Whilst the SHV ocuses on the relationships with key stakeholders and its impact on the long-term organisational wealth, many have observed that unique business relationships, or Guanxi, have been based on characteristic behaviour of Chinese managers. Thus, there is a coincidence between the SHV theory and Guanxi practice in China. Using the distinction provided by Argyris and Schon (1978) between theory and practice, one could wonder if the SHV is a theory espoused and consciously enacted by Western managers in recent years, but imbued in Chinese business practices for many centuries. As stated by Donaldson and Preston (1995), how stakeholder theory is understood varies from country to country, even in the highly developed market capitalist economies, of the USA, Europe, and Japan. The current Chinese context, in an economic, and more so, social and political sense, is vastly different from those of Western countries. Therefore, it is helpful at both a conceptual and practical level to examine how and why stakeholder management is practiced by Chinese firms. In the following section, we attempt to explain strategic behaviours of Chinese business practitioners, particularly the relationships between stakeholder management and other 6 International Journal of Business Studies dominant strategic views through examining the Chinese business settings and making use of the theoretical insights offered by the SHV. III. THE RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN STAKEHOLDER MANAGEMENT AND OTHER STRATEGIC VIEWS IN THE CHINESE CONTEXT Although the five strategic views mentioned above have been largely developed independently, a close examination of these views reveals that overlaps exist between some of them. In the following subsections, we focus our discussion primarily on the relationship between the SHV and other views. Stakeholder management and resource-based view in the Chinese business setting Based on the RBV, an organisation can generate supernormal rents through the identification, acquisition, and use of its resources that are valuable, rare, difficult to imitate and non-substitutable (Barney, 1991). Although human resources have been considered as one of the four major categories of resources within the firm, RBV has not looked beyond the properties of these resources. The focus of this view is primarily internal with little attention who, outside the firm, can influence the processes of resource access, acquisition and use. The relationship between organisational performance and external resources has been convincingly elaborated by the resource-dependence theory developed by Pfeffer (1978). According to the resource-dependence theory, the organisation relies heavily on its external stakeholders for key resource inputs to survive and prosper. For Chinese organizations, there is considerable dependence on external stakeholders for resource acquisition and use. Typically these external bodies or parties would be partly those with authority for either allocating resources, such as governments and banks, or influencing resource acquisition and use, such as taxation departments, or Bureau’s of Industrial and Commercial Administration, which can exercise considerable discretion within the broader legal and regulatory framework impacting Chinese business contexts. One particular point in case is the role of the Chinese government. Historically Chinese governments have controlled much of the national wealth and resources, and been heavily involved in making economic decisions. For example, most of major investment decisions in the state-owned enterprises have been directly influenced by the Chinese governments. Moreover, anecdotal evidence, either from public media or the word of mouth conventional wisdom in China, suggests that cultivation of relationships with Chinese banks, other business entities and their employees, are important to support financing, timely information sharing and sourcing critical materials for business enterprises. Stakeholder management and the market-based view Establishing a strong market position in China is very difficult because Chinese markets, even market segments, are usually big due to its large regional population bases. The well-established, and usually large, state-owned enterprises also make it harder to operate competitively for new comers in the Chinese markets. Although many new business 7 A stakeholder view of strategic management in Chinese firms opportunities are continuously emerging, most of them are still heavily regulated by the Chinese governments. The governments can help and/or deter market position building through licensing (e. g. , taxi industry, iron ore importing), investment approvals (e. g. , steel mills), and issuing permits for key capital intensive activities such a commercial building and large scale infrastructure projects, whilst similar practices of these can also be observed in Western countries, the licensing and approval processes in China are often opaque and leave much room for discretion by government officials. Stakeholder management and institutional view As discussed above, the legal and political settings in China have profound influence on the strategies pursued by Chinese organisation. The legal systems in China have traditionally been loosely configured and left much room for interpretation. Chinese laws are usually not well codified and difficult to reinforce (Ahlstrorm & Bruton, 2001). Moreover jurisdictional boundaries between the governmental departments at the same level or governments at different levels often overlap. Therefore, favourable relationships with Chinese regulatory authorities can have a positive impact on the organisation’s performance. With regards to the political setting in China, the long history of feudalism in China from 221BC to 1912 has consistently shown a close link between political power and economic wealth. With the prevailing feudal system, political power was centrally controlled by the emperor and his royal family with business enterprises in China relying heavily on their government (emperor and royal families) for survival or prosperity. Coupled with the loose legal systems, favourable relationships with the Chinese government or royal family have traditionally been considered extremely important for business organisations to maintain their survival and growth. Modern Chinese history shows similar patterns of a close link between the government and business entities. Even after the Chinese communist party took over the power in 1949, the Chinese government controlled most of the country’s wealth. Many Chinese large enterprises are still state-owned. Therefore Chinese governments have been heavily involved in economic activities at both industry and firm levels over the past five decades. Developing a favourable relationship with various government departments and doing business under their authority or with their help, is still considered one of the most profitable courses for Chinese businesses to adopt in today’s global economy. It is good relationships with the government that help business organisations to grow and occupy a strong position in specific industries with provincial, national and international market penetration. This relational perspective on business and strategy has many historical and cultural precedents in China. Stakeholder management and relational view in the Chinese cultural setting Since the time of the Qin Dynasties Chinese culture has been dominated by Confucianism that stresses the importance of human relationships and harmony within a society. This requires that interpersonal relationships be appropriately arranged. The friendship (yi), which emphasized the mutually beneficial relationships between one and other, has been 8 International Journal of Business Studies egarded as one of the four characteristics of the fundamental tenet of Confucianism is humanity (ren). The central significance of these principles of friendship or egalitarianism has not waned in the Chinese recent history. In contrast, the Chinese Communist Party reinforced these ideas during the 1950s to 1960s, and more recently from the mid 1990’s to the present day, as a desirable social norm or virtue. At the business level, the Chinese governments have facilitated cooperation and collaboration among the state-owned enterprises in many business areas, such as new product development (Huang, Schroder, & Steffens, 1999). Frequent gatherings amongst businesses either through political meetings or economic activity among managers in China has also served to facilitate this collaboration and cooperation processes. Such institutional and cultural settings in China manifest in different behaviours including information sharing and informal governance, two of the four mechanisms suggested by Dyer and Singh (1998) which can be used by organisations to enhance their competitive advantage. It suggests that the strong cultural and institutional foundation that exists in Chinese business for developing reciprocal relationships. This can help improve organisation’s performance – a central principle for the Relational View. IV. THE STAKEHOLDER VIEW AND MANAGERIAL IMPLICATIONS FOR CHINESE MANAGERS AND RESEARCHERS This paper explored the relational basis on which the Chinese organisations compete in their domestic markets drawing comparisons with recent Western views of strategic behaviour. These were framed in a broader historical context of doing business in China. It is contended that the recent stakeholder view proposed by Post, Preston and Sachs (2002) provides much promise in terms of both theoretical and practical insights into how and why strategic management is practiced in Chinese organisations. However, clear differences in Chinese and Western social and political systems, and the stage of capitalist evolution need to be considered in applying the SHV to the Chinese settings. As stated by Donaldson and Preston (2005), how stakeholder theory is understood varies even in the market capitalist economies. This is more evident in the contemporary Chinese context, where social and political settings are vastly different from those of Western countries. A number of managerial and research implications are proposed from this paper. First, we have presented an integrated framework of strategic management that indicates the mechanisms linking relationships with key stakeholders and organisational performance. It is proposed that whilst developing and maintaining these relationships has been traditionally valued by Chinese as part of their culture, contemporary Western strategic management thinking would seek to equate effort spent on this area with measurable performance outcomes and long term competitive advantage. With this in view, the integrated framework presented could be used to provide Chinese managers with a more holistic and formalised view of strategic management to support the development clearly articulated objectives and productive long term interactions with key stakeholders. A stakeholder view of strategic management in Chinese firms Secondly, it is clear from the framework presented that the stakeholder view is only one of the approaches for creating organisational wealth. Several types of organisations are competing in the Chinese markets and each could be competing on different basis. Multinational corporations compete on their market position and resources, whilst stat eowned enterprises compete on the basis of being institutionalised within political and cultural settings, providing strong market influence and ready access to resources. Most local private firms may compete on the cultural settings, flexibility and speed of decisionmaking. As the Chinese governments gradually level the playing field for all business players, the political settings in China will be changed. Therefore, managers of Chinese organisations, particularly state-owned enterprises, need to develop relationships with other types of new era capitalist stakeholders who can help build strong market position and/or gain access to key resources. Thirdly, relationships with the stakeholders need to be considered as strategic (intangible) assets for business organisations in Western markets and as a powerful means to compete in China. As in the West, these relationships are located within a broader social and transactional knowledge networks (Kaplan & Norton, 2004; Nahapiet & Ghoshal, 1998), containing untapped strategic value for Chinese companies operating locally, regionally, and globally. Currently many Chinese managers spend much effort practicing a stakeholder theory in a fragmented way at a one – on – one, individual level. Whilst the compounding effect of the aggregation of these individual relationships is not clear, there is an argument with respect to the SHV to support a more strategically aligned, and systematic integration of these routinised interactions at the organisational level. This is one of the most challenging issues in implementing stakeholder theory in the Chinese organisations, as most of the relationships with key stakeholders are based on the trust between individuals, rather than between organizations. Looking to the future merging of Chinese and Western business practices organisational structure also needs to be redesigned to manage the relationships with key stakeholders. This is crucial. Although stakeholder orientation can be built into organisational culture, people need to be assigned to facilitate the ongoing integration and implementation of stakeholder management. There is no doubt that stakeholder management is both a science and an art. It requires intuition and human skills – more art than a science. However, it also requires systematic, rational, and analytical techniques. A number of stakeholder management techniques have been developed over the past decade, which may support the integration of stakeholder management into mainstream in to the strategy processes of Chinese businesses- most notably stakeholder mapping (Johnson, Scholes, & Whittington, 2005), and cognitive mapping (Eden & Ackermann, 1998) which help to tap into the social capital and relationships embedded in broader business networks. Finally, from a methodological point of view, the SHV points out the importance of a more holistic and integrated approach in understanding strategic management in Chinese organisations. So far, most of studies on Chinese management have used existing Western management theories to explain the Chinese business phenomena. In other 10 International Journal of Business Studies words, they exploit the existing theories, rather than exploring the Chinese management practice or behaviours to develop new theories from a Chinese perspective. Veteran researchers have called for a better balance between exploration and exploitation in conducting business research in China (Tsui et al. , 2004). Given that the stakeholder view is still in the developmental stage in the US and European corporate domain, empirical studies, including rigorously researched case studies, are urgently needed to empirically test the approach, and by extension, its potential application to strategic management theory building and practice in a Chinese context. REFERENCES Ahlstrorm, D. , & Bruton, G. D. (2001). Learning from successful local private firms in China: Establishing legitimacy. The Academy of Management Executive, 15(4), 72-83. Argyris, C. , & Schon, D. A. (1978). Organizational learning: A theory of action perspective. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley. Barney, J. (1986). Organizational culture: can it be a source of sustained competitive advantage? Journal of Academy of Management Review, 11(3), 656-665. Barney, J. B. (1991). Firm resources and sustained competitive advantages. Journal of Management, 7, 49-64. Barney, J. B. (1997). Gaining and sustaining competitive advantage. Sydney: AddisonWesley Publishing Company. Davis, L. , & North, D. (1970). Institutional change and American economic growth. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Donaldson, T. , & Preston, L. E. 1995). The stakeholder theory of the corporation: concepts, evidence, and implications. Academy of Management Review, 20(1), 65-91. Dyer, J. H. , & Singh, H. (1998). The relational view: cooperative strategy and sources of interorganizational competitive advantage. The Academy of Management Review, 23(4), 660-679. Eden, C. , & Ackermann, F. (1998). Making strategy. London: SAGE Pub lications. Freeman, R. E. (1984). Strategic management: A stakeholder approach. Boston: Pitman. Huang, X. , Schroder, B. , & Steffens, P. (1999). The Chinese Steel Industry in Transition: Industry Perspective on Innovation Policy. R Management, 29(1), 17-25. Johnson, G. , Scholes, K. , & Whittington, R. (2005). Exploring corporate strategy (7th ed. ). Sydney: Prentice Hall. 11 A stakeholder view of strategic management in Chinese firms Kaplan, R. S. , & Norton, D. P. (2004). Strategy Maps: Converting Intangible Assets into Tangible Outcomes. Boston: Harvard Business School Press. Laszlo, C. (2003). The sustainable company: How to create lasting value through social and environmental performance. Washington: Island press. Mintzberg, H. , Ahlstrand, B. , & Lampel, J. (1998). Strategy Safari. Sydney: Prentice Hall. Nahapiet, J. , & Ghoshal, S. (1998). Social Capital, Intellectual Capital, and the Organizational Advantage. The Academy of Management Review, 23(2), 242-246. Neuman, W. L. (2003). Social Research Methods: Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches (5th ed. ). Sydney: Allyn and Bacon. North, D. C. (1990). Institutions, institutional change and economic performance. Melbourne: Cambridge University Press. Peng, M. W. (2002). Towards an institution-based view of business strategy. Asia Pacific Journal of Management, 19(2,3), 251. Peng, M. W. (2005). Perspectives – From China to global strategy. Asia Pacific Journal of Management, 22, 123-141. Pfeffer, J. , & Salancik, G. R. (1978). The External Control of Organisations: A Resource Dependence Perspective. New York: Harper & Row, Publishers. Porter, M. E. (1979). How competitive forces shape strategy. Harvard Business Review, 57(2), 137. Post, J. E. , Preston, L. E. , & Sachs, S. (2002a). Managing the extended enterprise: the new stakeholder view. California Management Review, 45(1), 6-28. Post, J. E. , Preston, L. E. , & Sachs, S. (2002b). Redefiningg the corporation. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press. Prahalad, C. K. , & Hamel, G. 1990). The core competence of the corporation. Harvard Business Review(May-June), 79-91. Priem, R. L. & Butler, J. E. (2001) Is the resource-based â€Å"view† a useful perspective for strategic management research? Academy of Management. The Academy of Management Review, 26 (1), 22-40. Rumelt, R. P. (1984). Toward a strategic theory of a firm. In R. Lamb (Ed. ), Competitive St rategy Management (pp. 556-570). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. 12 International Journal of Business Studies Rumelt, R. P. , Schendel, D. E. , & Teece, D. J. (1994). Fundamental issues in strategy. In R. P. Rumelt, D. E. Schendel & D. J. Teece (Eds. ), Fundamental issues in strategy: A research agenda (pp. 9-47). Boston: Harvard Business School Press. Scott, W. R. (1995). Institutions and organizations. Thousand Oaks: Sage publications. Sirgy, M. J. (2002). Measuring corporate performance by building on the stakeholders model of ethics. Journal of Business Ethics, 35, 143-162. Stacey, R. D. (2003). Strategic management and organisational dynamics (4th ed. ). Sydney: Prentice Hall. Teece, D. J. , Pisano, G. , & Shuen, A. (1997). Dynamic capabilities and strategic management. Strategic Management Journal, 18(7), 509-533. Tsui, A. S. , Schoonhoven, C. B. , Meyer, M. W. , Lau, C. -M. , & Milkovich, G. T. (2004). Organization and Management in the midst of societal transformation: The People' s Republic of China. Organization Science, 15(2), 133-144. Vogel, D. J. (2005). Is their a market for virtue? : A business case for social responsibility. California Management Review, 47(4), 19-35. Wernerfelt, B. (1984). A resource -based view of the firm. Strategic Management Journal, 5, 171-180. Williamson, O. E. (1991). Strategizing, economizing, and economic organization. Strategic Management Journal, 12(Special issue), 75-94 13

Native American and African before the Europeans

According to Kennewick Man in his article that â€Å"for NAGPRA and other related legal purposes, the federal government defines native Americans as any tribe, people, or culture that resided in the territory of the United States before historic European contact and exploration. At present, there are more than 2,000,000 Native Americans in the United States, represented by 769 federally recognized tribes† (See K. Man, â€Å"Who are Native Americans?† Past concepts of Native Americans). In Wikepedia, the free encyclopedia stated that â€Å"the term indigenous people of the America encompasses the inhabitants of the Americas before the arrival of the first European explorers in the late 15th century, as well as many present-day ethnic groups who identify themselves with those historical people (See â€Å"Indigenous Peoples of the Americas†. From wikipedia, the free encyclopedia).On the other hand, the National Museums Liverpool published in its website that  "the people of West Africa had a rich and varied history and culture long before the Europeans slavers arrived. They had a wide variety of political arrangements which include kingdoms, city and other organizations, each with their own languages and culture† (See â€Å"Africa before European slavery†. National Museums Liverpool).Native AmericansEven though cultural features included language, garb, and customs vary enormously from one tribe to another, there are certain elements which are shared by many of the indigenous people of the America (See â€Å"Indigenous Peoples of the Americas†. From wikipedia, the free encyclopedia).Native America music of North America Indians is almost entirely monophonic but there not notable exceptions. Traditional Native American music often includes drumming but little other instrumentation, although flutes are played by individuals. While the art of the indigenous people of Central Mexico and Central Americas comprises a major category in the world art collection. Their contributions are pottery, paintings, jewelry, weavings, sculptures, basketry, and carvings (See â€Å"Indigenous Peoples of the Americas†. From wikipedia, the free encyclopedia).*European Colonization*In wikipedia, its researched stated that â€Å"the European colonization of the Americas forever changed the lives and cultures of the indigenous peoples of the continent. In 15th century up to 19th century, their populations were ravaged by the privations of displacement, by disease and in many cases by warfare with European groups and enslavement by them. The first indigenous group that was met by Columbus was about 250,000 in number which were the Arawaks of Hispaniola and this group was enslaved by them. These European people also brought illnesses against which the indigenous people of America had no immunity† (See â€Å"Indigenous Peoples of the Americas†.From wikipedia, the free encyclopedia).   According to Dav id Ruvolo that â€Å"the history of America religion is dominated by the presence of Christianity brought to the New World by European settlers. Time had run out for the indigenous race that populated the continent of North America. Native Americans were faced with an enemy that was more advanced like with the Israelites of the sixth century B.C.E.† (See D. Ruvolo, â€Å"A Summary of Native American Religious†).*Africa before the European slavery*According to Olaudah Equiano on his autobiography which he wrote in 1789 stated that â€Å"the part of Africa which was known by the name Guinea to which the trade is carried on extends along the coast above 3,400 miles from Senegal to Angola and includes a variety of kingdoms. This kingdom is divided into many provinces or distinct. In one of the most remote and fertile of which is called Eboe. Equiano was born in 1745, in charming fruitful vale named essaka. The distance of the province from capital of Benin and the sea coa st must be very considerable, for Eboe Equiano had never heard about the white men or Europeans† (See O. Equiano. â€Å"Early Life†. Merseyside maritime museum).*Agriculture*As Equiano stated that their â€Å"land was uncommonly rich and fruitful, and produces all kinds of vegetables in abundance. All industries were exerted to improve those blessings of nature. Agriculture was their chief employment, and everyone even the children and women were engaged in it† (See O. Equiano. â€Å"Early Life†. Merseyside maritime museum).*Clothing*He continued, Equiano, which â€Å"their manners were simple and their luxuries were few. The dress of both sexes was nearly the same. It generally consists of a long piece of calico or Muslin, wrapped loosely around the body, somewhat in the form of a highland plaid. This was usually dyed blue, which their favorite color. It was extracted from a berry and was brighter and richer than any he had seen in Europe. Their women, o f distinction wore golden ornaments which disposed with profusion on their arms and legs. When their women were not employed with the men in tillage, their usual occupation was spinning and weaving cotton, which they afterwards dye and made into garments. They also manufacture earthen vessels of which they had many kinds† (See O. Equiano. â€Å"Early Life†. Merseyside maritime museum).*Dance and Music*Moreover, Equiano added that â€Å"they were almost a nation of dancers, musicians and poet. In every great event such as a triumphant return from battle or other cause of public rejoicing,   was celebrated in public dances which were accompanied with songs and music which was suited to the occasion† (See O. Equiano. â€Å"Early Life†. Merseyside maritime museum).*After the Europeans*West Africans had traded with Europeans through merchants in North Africa for centuries. In the 15th century, the Portuguese were the first traders who sailed down the West Afr ican coast. After that, the Dutch, British, French and Scandinavians followed. They were mainly interested in precious items such as ivory, gold, and spices, in particular the pepper (See â€Å"Africa before European slavery†. National Museums Liverpool).ReferencesMan, K., â€Å"Who are Native Americans?† Past concepts of Native Americans.Http://www.washington.edu/burkemuseum/kman/who_are_native_americans.htm  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   2.   â€Å"Indigenous Peoples of the Americas†. From wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indigenous_peoples_of_the_AmericasRuvolo, D. â€Å"A Summary of Native American Religious†. Http://are.as.wvu.edu/ruvolo.htm  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   4.   Ã¢â‚¬Å"Indigenous Peoples of the Americas†. From wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã ‚   Http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/maritime/slavery/abefore.asp  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   5.   Equiano, O. â€Å"Early Life†. Merseyside maritime museum.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/maritime/slavery/olaudah.asp#earlylife

My Worst And Best Friend Essays - Candy, Chocolate, Cooking

My Worst And Best Friend Essays - Candy, Chocolate, Cooking My Worst And Best Friend Sales by Management Responsibilities and Geographic Area Jan.Sep. Jan.Sep. Variation Real Internal Growth 2000 1999 Jan.Sep. 2000 in CHF billion % % TOTAL 59.5 54.4 + 9.5 4.2 Food Europe 19.4 19.8 - 2.0 1.9 Americas 18.0 15.7 + 15.2 3.6 Asia, Oceania and Africa 11.6 9.7 + 18.8 6.9 Other Activities 10.5 9.2 + 14.7 7.2 Vevey, October 20, 2000 As will be announced at the press conference beginning today at 10:30 (CET), the Nestl Group's consolidated sales reached CHF 59.5 billion during the first nine months of 2000, up 9.5 percent over the period January-September 1999. This confirms the generally good perspectives for the full year 2000. At comparable structure and constant exchange rates, sales growth amounts to 4.9 percent. Cumulative real internal growth at the end of September stood at 4.2 percent, even though the comparison basis was clearly more difficult than during the first semester. As expected, exchange rates had a slightly lower positive impact of 5.7 percent, while divestitures, net of acquisitions, lowered the consolidated sales by 1.1 percent. Nestl succeeded in making the necessary price adjustments amounting to 0.7 percent of turnover. European sales were strongly affected by the divestiture of the Findus operation (with annual sales of about CHF 900 million), as well as by the weakening of 1.8 percent of the Euro against the Swiss franc. Sales in the Americas benefitted from exceptionally strong performance in Mexico and a recovery in most Latin American economies. Zone Asia, Oceania and Africa registered continuing good growth in virtually all areas. Sales by Product Group Jan.Sep. Jan.Sep. Variation Real Internal Growth 2000 1999 Jan.Sep. 2000 in CHF billion % % Beverages 16.9 15.3 + 10.9 5.4 Milk/Nutrition 16.2 14.5 + 11.4 2.9 Culinary 15.3 14.6 + 5.0 4.1 Chocolate/ Confectionery 7.6 7.0 + 7.7 1.3 Pharma 3.5 3.0 + 19.7 7.7 Most product groups performed well, with especially strong growth in soluble coffees in Eastern Europe, Asia and Latin America. The water business also grew strongly, notwithstanding adverse environmental impacts (weather conditions in Europe and forest fires in the US). In the culinary sector, chilled products and frozen prepared dishes developed satisfactorily. Milks and nutrition saw good progress, mainly as a result of infant nutrition sales in Asia and of the powdered milk business. Chocolate and confectionery showed a welcome improvement, thanks mainly to Eastern Europe. Pharmaceuticals also experienced strong growth. Based on the figures available at this time, Nestl is confident of its ability to maintain a good growth rate both in sales and in profits for the full year 2000. | Top of Page |

Reddit Marketing Guide How to Drive Targeted Traffic - CoSchedule Blog

Reddit Marketing Guide How to Drive Targeted Traffic Blog Since you’re reading this on the internet, I’m going to assume you know what Reddit is. Even if you’re not a dedicated redditor, you probably have a general idea of what the site is all about. (If you really don’t know anything about Reddit, it’s basically a gigantic online community made up of user-generated and user-curated content.) Reddit ranks within the top 25 most-visited websites  in the world, and often sees more than one million unique pageviews  in a single day. Consider those last two points from a marketer’s perspective. Light bulbs going off yet? Simply put, if you go about it the right way, Reddit can be a major  source of targeted traffic  for your website- and ultimately lead to massive conversions. Additionally, Reddit is considered the â€Å"front page of the internet, for a reason- if your post makes it to Reddit’s homepage or to the top of a subreddit, there’s a good chance of getting coverage for your product or service or getting a link back if you’re promoting a post as a lot of influencers and publishers are scouring Reddit to find content for their own sites But, that’s a pretty big if. The thing about Reddit is, it’s not like most other social networks full of â€Å"everyday† users. While effective marketing on any social network happens when you provide serious value to the readers, because Redditors are good at spotting marketers, you better be prepared to provide serious value to the Reddit community. Redditors are good at spotting marketers, so you better be prepared to provide serious value.If it’s blatantly obvious that you’re using it just to promote your business, things aren’t going to go well for you. Not only do you face the possibility of being banned from posting within a certain area of the site (or possibly the entire site altogether), but you also run the risk of ruining your online reputation as a whole. Now, this isn’t to say that it’s impossible to generate traffic and leads by posting your own content to Reddit. But it’s not going to happen overnight, either. The following article will discuss the process you’ll need to go through in order to successfully leverage the Reddit community as a reliable source of long term - trafficas well as common pitfalls to avoid while doing so. (Sure you could skip this whole guide and bribe moderators, buy upvotes, and attempt to brigade other posts in an attempt to get your post front and center, but marketing isn’t manipulation and a strategy like this isn’t sustainable). Before We Move On, Get Your Free Reddit Blog Post Ideas Bonus Guide Supercharge your blog with Reddit. Download your free Reddit Blog Post Ideas Guide and learn how to mine the popular link sharing site to find awesome blog ideas. Reddit Marketing Guide to Driving Targeted TrafficWhy Use Reddit for Marketing? As a content marketer, becoming a redditor can benefit you in a number of ways: (As mentioned) It can help drive massive amounts of targeted traffic to your blog or website It can help you expand your audience base It can point you toward trending topics and areas of interest within your niche Let’s take a look at each of these benefits in greater detail. Recommended Reading: How to Use Reddit to Unlock Awesome Blog Post Ideas A Traffic Influx There’s no shortage of content marketers’ success stories with using Reddit to drive traffic to a specific website. Eddy Azar’s website went from 41 to 4,266 visitors a day  overnight  after he posted a single link to a post on his site. (Source  / Caption: Can’t argue with results.) Ryan Stewart discovered how to leverage Reddit to grow his traffic numbers by over 1,000 visitors  (an increase of about 33%). And Travis Levell also gained almost 1,000 site visitors  after posting a link to an article he’d written- and he posted it pretty much on a whim. Recommended Reading: 14 Time-Tested Tactics to Get Tons of Traffic From Social Media But there’s more to these examples than just traffic stats. After posting on Reddit: Eddy’s Medium following grew from zero  to over 14,000 in one month Ryan now uses Reddit to generate the majority of his traffic Travis earned over 600 signups for a brand new offering in the two weeks after posting So, not only did posting on Reddit help these guys get more eyes on their site, but it also helped them gain a larger following, and provide them the potential to grow their business. And that’s because†¦ Reddit Makes It Easy to Target Highly-Qualified Audience Members Reddit is made up of thousands and thousands of â€Å"subreddits†, which are forums dedicated to a specific topic or idea. Subreddit topics can be fairly general (such as /r/science  or /r/gaming), or they can be ultra-specific (â€Å"Squirrels eating unconventional things†). Yes, we’re serious. Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/SEUT/. There are also subreddits dedicated to educating the community in some way or another. On /r/explainlikeimfive/, members share simplified explanations of complex topics. On /r/todayilearned, people discuss interesting factoids they had never known before. What this means for you as a marketer is you can almost certainly find at least one (and, more likely, numerous) subreddits full of individuals who align perfectly with your ideal customer personas. As mentioned in the previous section, seeing an influx in traffic is one thing. Knowing that the new visitors to your site are champing at the bit to engage with you is another. Recommended Reading: 30 Social Media Engagement Tactics That Will Boost Shares and Conversions Reddit Uncovers Industry Trends as They Happen If something worth knowing is happening in your industry, you can bet Reddit’s members will be on top of it. Even if you’re just lurking through subreddits and not actively looking to generate traffic at the time, you can still glean valuable insight regarding: Your customers’ pain points Validate market demand  for your product or service New technologies in your industry News and events that could change the way your company operates The information you discover while browsing through your favorite subreddits can lead you to create new blog posts, fine-tune your marketing strategies, and better understand your customers. In this way, using Reddit can even indirectly affect your business in a positive manner. Recommended Reading: The Ultimate Blog Writing Process to Create Killer Posts How to Use Data to Fuel Your Content Marketing Strategy How to Find Your Target Audience and Create the Best Content Can You Build Instant Karma? We mentioned earlier that using Reddit to generate traffic is a fairly involved process (that’s totally worth the effort, mind you). So before we dig into the nitty-gritty of how to leverage Reddit to grow your business, we need to discuss karma. Reddit’s karma system essentially measures your reputation as a redditor. You can gain (or lose) karma in two different areas: the links you post, and the comments you make on posts. It might take you a while to reach this level of Reddit epicness. Source: karmalb.com/. While the number of upvotes and the timeframe those votes happen in a major part of how Reddit’s ranking algorithm  works, karma is an important aspect of achieving success on Reddit. Basically, you can think of karma as a means to an end. The higher your karma level, the more respect you’ll gain from the Reddit population (Also, some subreddits won’t even allow you to post links until you reach a certain level of karma).  The more respect you have from the population, the more likely they are to trust you when you eventually begin posting your own content. The more you are trusted, the more likely Redditors will give you an upvote (assuming whatever you are posting is epic), even if it’s self-promotional. #Reddit Tip: The more you are trusted, the more likely Redditors will give you an upvote:Though whether you gain or lose karma is technically up to other users, the general rules are: Posting valuable content, providing insightful commentary, and offering an overall positive experience will result in good karma. Acting selfishly, being rude, trolling, and begging for upvotes or clicks will lead to bad karma. As alluded to earlier, one of the biggest no-no’s when it comes to posting on Reddit is this: Do not  use Reddit solely to promote your own content. Redditors will see through you immediately, and, as mentioned earlier, will use any opportunity they can get to expose you to the community. (You eventually will  have the opportunity to promote your content, but we’ll get to that in a bit.) Do NOT use #reddit solely to promote your own content. Do this instead:Using Reddit to Drive Traffic Okay, now we’re ready to dive into the actual process of using Reddit to drive traffic to your site. In this section, we’ll discuss the following: Picking the right subreddits to focus on Becoming a valued member of the community Posting your content The logistics behind posting on Reddit Advertising potential on Reddit Let’s get started. Picking the Right Subreddits As we’ve discussed, there are literally thousands of subreddits to check out. Of course, not all of them are relevant to your industry. But there are likely dozens (at least) that are. But, even if a subreddit is relevant to your industry, that doesn’t necessarily mean it’ll be the best place to focus your efforts. An incredibly small sample of the list of Reddit communities. Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/ListOfSubreddits/wiki/listofsubreddits. Before you begin actually browsing through possible subreddits to join, ask yourself the following questions: What, specifically, are your areas of expertise? What value are you aiming to provide your audience? What are your target audience members interested in? The answers to these questions will help you narrow down exactly which subreddits will help you achieve your goal of driving more traffic to your website. Without considering these questions, you run the risk of focusing on a subreddit that, as it turns out, doesn’t provide the much in terms of mutual value. To find potential subreddits to join, search Reddit for keywords your target audience would use to search for your product or service. You’ll almost certainly be given a laundry list of subreddits to check out, some of which you’ll be able to screen out immediately. (Note: you can browse through the following list  to find the top 5,000 subreddits). If you live in the US, the second result probably isn’t for you. Source: https://www.reddit.com/search?q=content+marketingrestrict_sr=sort=relevancet=alltype=srcount=3after=t5_2rdsd. Once you’ve generated a decent-sized list of possible subreddits to hone in on, browse through them to get a good idea of: How many subscribers each subreddit has The most talked-about topics  and types of content that have been posted within the past month How active the community is in terms of posting and generating discussion Popular opinions held throughout the community Specific etiquette and rules for that subreddit Some of the rules for posting on /r/todayilearned. Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/. Regarding the last two points, each subreddit is a community unto itself. Taking certain actions or making certain comments that might be acceptable in one subreddit may not be so well-received in another. #Reddit Tip: Actions or comments acceptable in one subreddit may not be well-received in another.If it’s not immediately clear where the community stands on a hot-button issue, dig deeper until you know for sure. Otherwise, you’ll come off looking like an outsider, and will almost certainly lose karma points in the process. Consider using a spreadsheet to keep track of what’s acceptable to post where. Source: https://sumo.com/stories/growth-hacking-reddit/. Getting â€Å"In† With the Community Once you’ve joined a good amount of subreddits, and have learned as much as possible about the nuances of each, you’ll be ready to get involved. But this doesn’t mean you should start posting your own content just yet. Instead, begin by joining in the major discussions being held in the comments sections of the more popular posts. But don’t just offer canned responses. A run-of-the-mill comment might not necessarily result in bad karma. But it won’t get you any positive points, either. In other words, if your comment is boring and cookie-cutter, you might as well not say anything at all. On the other hand, an insightful comment full of facts, examples, or links to further reading will not only earn the respect of the community, but it will also keep the conversation flowing. Go out of your way to be helpful for good karma. Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/TheoryOfReddit/comments/18r63h/does_reddit_protect_your_karma_totals_from_mass/. If you happen to disagree with a comment someone else posted, that’s fine- as long as you’re respectful about it. Not only should you be respectful, but you also should back up your claims with (as mentioned above) facts, examples, and other documentation. Again, the point of commenting is to further the discussion, even if that means offering counterpoints and rebuttals. Another thing to consider when putting yourself â€Å"out there† on Reddit is the hivemind aspect  of the community. Essentially, this refers to the fact that a good percentage of redditors in a community will blanketly agree or disagree with you based on whether or not you’re â€Å"going along with the herd.† In other words, be careful when posting counterpoints (even when justifiably warranted), as you might end up getting down-voted for reasons other than the quality of your comment. Whether you agree or disagree, it never hurts to give kudos to others for voicing their opinion (and working hard to back it up). This extra bit of generosity can go a long way toward earning you a positive reputation within a subreddit, making it easier for others to trust that you’re there for the good of the community as a whole. Once you’ve interacted with other community members enough to start gaining some karma (and possibly making connections), you can then begin actually posting content. But not your own. Instead, share resources such as blog posts, videos, podcasts, and infographics that will contribute to the on-going conversations in the community. By sharing content which you have zero stake in, you’ll further the notion that you’re there to provide value to the community, not just gain publicity for yourself. Note that you should only share content if it will truly provide value to the community. In other words, don’t post dozens of links hoping a handful will resonate with other members. In the same way you (hopefully) don’t share every meme you come across with your friends on Facebook, be prudent when it comes to sharing resources in your targeted subreddits. Also, stay away from controversy as best you can. Yes, you want to get noticed within the community, but you don’t want to be known as a rabble rouser. Even if the content you’re thinking of sharing is  insightful and possibly valuable, if it’s too opinionated you run the risk of alienating a good amount of the community. Once you’ve become a valued member of the community, it’s time to start sharing your own content and generating traffic to your site. Posting Your Own Content on Reddit Now that you’ve built a reputation for yourself as an active redditor who cares about your industry and community, you can start sharing your own content. Regarding the actual content you share, follow the tried-and-true rules for creating epic content  you’ve (hopefully) always followed. At this stage, the importance of sharing incredibly valuable content of your own is essential. Of all the content you’ve shared during your time engaged with the community, you want your own to be the absolute best of the best. Recommended Reading: The 6 Types of Social Media Content That Will Give You the Greatest Value The content you share could be posts you’ve written previously - as long as it’s in-line with currently-trending topics in the subreddit. If the discussion steers toward a topic you’ve already written about (and your post meets the highest standard of quality), toss it out there for others to check out. You can also leverage the on-going discussions within your community and create new  content  that goes along with it. Use the skyscraper technique  to transform a so-so post into an absolute masterpiece. Provide information that supplements another user’s epic content. Or go against the grain and offer up a longform rebuttal. You might be wondering if it’s acceptable to post the same piece of content in multiple subreddits. The answer is â€Å"yes, with a ‘but.’† Begin by posting the link to the most appropriate subreddit (i.e., the one that prompted you to think of your content in the first place). Then, when posting to similar subreddits that would also get value from your content, include the phrase â€Å"[posted from /r/originalsubredditname]† in the subject line. Without this addendum, your multiple posts will look like spam to anyone who sees them in more than one spot. Now that you’ve begun sharing your own content, there are a few things to note: Don’t force it. You have a much better chance of gaining traction by posting articles that relate to the current topic than you do by posting something that came out of left field. Don’t stop posting other people’s content. The community will figure out your intentions if you start posting links only to your own site. Don’t beg for upvotes or clicks. The other community members don’t owe you anything. If they like your content, they’ll check it out. Tip:  Remember, just because you’re now at the stage of posting your own content doesn’t mean you can go back to marketing yourself. Being a part of the Reddit community is about providing value, not promoting your business. Logistics Behind Posting Content on Reddit These last pieces of advice will probably sound pretty familiar: When posting content to Reddit, make sure it’ll get in front of the most eyes as possible, and make sure the title begs to be clicked. Because Reddit’s massive community is active throughout the world, there’s no single optimal time to post your content. However, you can use Later for Reddit’s Subreddit Traffic Analysis tool  to figure out the best time to post on a specific subreddit. This tool requires you have a ballpark idea of how many upvotes you believe your content will get, assuming you post at the best possible time. For example, if you think you’ll get 50 upvotes, you might want to set the Vote Threshold at around 20-25. The best time to post on /r/science seems to be 8:00am on Wednesday mornings. Source: https://www.redditlater.com/analysis/#/r/science. While it’s possible to post at a less-than-optimal time and still see your fair share of upvotes, it’s best to get your content out there when you know the most people are looking - for two reasons: The human factor. The more recent the link, the fresher (and more-clickable) it will appear in the eyes of your audience. Reddit’s ranking algorithm. Newer stories are inherently scored higher than older ones. If your subreddit sees more than a few dozen posts per day, your content will easily get buried if you post at an inopportune time. One thing worth noting here is, you really only need to worry about the time you post when posting your own  content. Feel free to post other people’s content whenever you feel (as long as you follow the guidelines we set above). If only a small amount of people see those posts, it’s a no-harm-no-foul situation. On the other hand, if you post your own  content and nobody sees it, you’ve wasted an opportunity. Moving along, you also want to make sure your headline attracts as many viewers as possible. Similar to when creating the perfect headline for a blog post, you want to take time to craft a headline for your Reddit post that intrigues your audience and tells them what they’ll get out of clicking through to the full article. As should be clear by now, redditors are well-versed in all things internet. They’ve seen every clickbait headline known to man. Don’t do it. No matter how valuable your full piece is, no self-respecting redditor will click something with the phrase â€Å"you won’t believe what happened next!† in it. Use clickbait, and you can expect to get downvotedwhether your audience members actually clicked on your post or not. Recommended Reading: How to Write Headlines that Drive Traffic, Shares, and Search Results What About Advertising on Reddit? All throughout this article, we’ve made it a point to drill home the fact that coming across as a marketer on Reddit is all but a death sentence for your company. So how are you supposed to get away with actually posting paid advertisements  on the site? Well, the reason we left this for last is because you need to make sure you’ve done everything  else right up until the point that you begin thinking about posting ads on Reddit. Once you’ve been accepted into a subreddit community, you at least have a bit of leverage when it comes to selling your products or services to other community members. (Who would you  trust more with your money in the real world: a long-time town resident who you’ve known and respected for years, or the new guy who just moved in last week from parts unknown?) As long as you’re fully confident that you won’t face backlash from posting an ad to your most-frequented subreddit, it’s worth giving it a go. The three ways you can go about advertising on Reddit are: Sponsored Posts: These will be pinned to the top of the subreddit of your choice at a cost of $0.75 CPM (with a minimum purchase amount of $5). You can choose to either post link to external content, or to a full-length text post on that subreddit. Display Ads: If your advertising budget can handle it, display ads on Reddit work just as they do on any other site - with one addition: users can seamlessly upvote and downvote your ad, and even generate discussions about them, as well. To post these type of ads, you’ll need to speak directly with the Reddit team (rather than simply fill out billing info). Sponsored QA: Similar to Reddit’s famous (or infamous) Ask Me Anything sessions, sponsored question and answer forums allow you to set up a specific time in which you’ll provide answers to your target audience’s burning questions regarding your product, service, or industry as a whole. Again, to set up a sponsored QA session, you’ll need to collaborate with the Reddit team to determine how long you’d like the session to last, and which subreddits the session will be posted to. When actually creating content to be advertised on Reddit, the ground rules remain the same: Provide ultimate value: As we’ve said time and again, redditors hate marketers - unless you can truly  provide them something that will drastically improve their lives in one way or another. If there’s ever a time to share the absolute best you have to offer, this is it. Be real: Be honest with your intentions: you have something of value to sell, and you want your community to know about it. Also, be personable and true to your audience. If you truly are a part of the community, others will likely be more than happy to share their hard-earned cash with you if they trust you’ll give them something incredible in return. Learn from the experience: If you take the leap into advertising on Reddit and it doesn’t go as well as you’d hoped, don’t turn tail and run. Address your audience’s concerns, respond to negative comments, and figure out what you can do better the next time. Redditors want to know their  voices are being heard; if you tweak your campaigns to fit their needs, they’ll most likely forget all about the negative experiences of the past. Even if you do  see success with advertising on Reddit, don’t put all your eggs in one basket. Continue to share other content as you normally would, and reserve paid posts for when you have a major announcement to make, such as a product release or change in services provided. Ready to Start Driving Traffic With Reddit? If you’ve never actually used Reddit before, you might be under the misconception that it’s all memes and silliness. While it certainly has its fair share of ridiculous content, Reddit can also be an incredible source for marketers and entrepreneurs in terms of generating traffic and staying up with current industry trends. Now, all that’s left is for you to start building up that karma.