Storms Wind and Storm Essay Example

Storms: Wind and Storm Essay Weather In the world of poetry. Writers use many literary and poetic devices to achieve their end goal, whether the goal is a type of emotional or perhaps some other type of response. In her poem Storm Warnings, Adrienne Rich uses unique structural style including many poetic devices, such as structure, imagery, and descriptive language to reveal literal, as well as metaphorical meanings in her poem. This structure lets the poem progress in an organized and chronological manner, in order to explain an external as well as an internal conflict that is being held by the speaker. The emotions of the speaker run parallel to the storm happening on the outside; Rich uses this as the story metaphor. The main message of Storm Warnings Is that one cannot prevent bad things from happening, but some of the time, one Is able to stay out of the path of less than desirable situations. Storm Warnings is also composed of physical contrasts, such as the contrast between inside the house and outside of the house. This ties Into the mall Idea of Internal paralleling external, as well. Although the author Is writing about and even describing a literal storm, what she Is also writing about are her internal and emotional struggles and conflicts. In the third stanza, the poem refers to the mastery of elements (Line 2), speaking of a change in the weather, which also relates to the fact that humans are unable to change or avoid similar changes. The poet describes the fact that she can only watch the storm In the first stanza. This relates to when she talks about how humans are helpless on the inside and only able to close the shutters (21). We will write a custom essay sample on Storms: Wind and Storm specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Storms: Wind and Storm specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Storms: Wind and Storm specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer The whistle of the wind, or whine (23) as Rich uses, cannot be stopped. The zone of gray unrest (4) in the first stanza Is made black by the fourth stanza and readers realize that the storms threat Is not only a physical one, but It threatens her mood. She remains calm even as the storm reaches its climax. The poet comes to realize that in certain, extreme circumstances, a storm may break glass, externally, but internally, she comes to find that storms In the mind have the ability to break as well. Though she Is physically safe Inside her house and protected from the storm outside, despite the dark atmosphere inside, the howling wind outside still disturbs her. This suggests that individuals do not have much power over the storms that occur and the moods they fall into, except for the ability to endure them, despite the possibly disturbing atmosphere they create. Despite the disturbing storm, the poets split stays calm, As the wind is walking (3), the poet simply leaves the book (5) on a pillowed chair. This is an example of imagery like the authors refer to in the textbook. The speaker begins to think for the next couple of stanzas. In the final stanza, she draws the curtains, lights a candle, and Is now ready to sit out the storm. Despite feeling disturbed by the powerful and seemingly destructive storm, she is able to keep her emotions regarding the storm under control. Despite a mood change, which is made apparent when she mentions, the weather in the heart, (13) she remains in control due to specific procedures she appears to have learned from past storms. Storm Warnings challenges the natural Instinct to reject rather than confront change. (Mariner) As a storm rolls in and begins to rage, the character is brought 1 OFF out AT ten comfort AT near pillowed canal (5) Ana must leave Deanna near KICK Ana t fantasy in it to deal with the less than ideal situation at hand. She is still anxious, fully aware of the change that is occurring and knowing there is nothing she can do to av ert it. Although the shutters are closed and the curtains drawn, the keyhole Aragua (24) continues to acknowledge the whine of the wind, revealing that the protagonist cannot completely separate herself from the storm. In Adrienne Riches poem, Storm Warnings, the speaker makes it clear that regardless of knowing that something is going to happen or not, people are not able to change the fact that it is going to happen. In Storm Warnings, Rich relates the unpredictability of and the lack of control humans have over the weather, to the fact that pain and hurt, emotions in general, can be the same.

john warr essays

john warr essays Civil War Art is a big part of history today. People today us it to remember the war. How did people survive, where did people live, why did we fight are all questions and wonders of people today. Artist these days and back than drew about those questions. It gave people a mental picture on how our world was back than. Also what the Civil War was about. Today there are many artists that paint pictures about the Civil War. Civil War Art is very valuable. It brings back the life of the Civil War. Artist chose the sight or the position of what they are painting. It really affects the final painting. They choose to paint the scars of a direct shell hit. Paintings also of bulges in coats were shown from having a rock lying for so long in their "patch pocket". Artist paint mainly only three-quarter of the killed soldiers, paintings show swollen and blotted bodies that have been laying out in the heat for quite a few days. John Warr was one of the many artists today that draw paintings of the Civil War. Warr lives in Northern Alabama. Began Painting in 1980. His interest in the Civil War photos and reenactments. He decided to do a confederate scene. Many of John Warr's paintings have quite a bit of wildlife in them. Which is another of his interest to paint along w/ Civil War Art. Amy Lindenberger another artist that draws scenes of the Civil War. Amy lives in Ohio where she has been painting quite a few of her Civil War paintings. Amy was always interested in Civil War. With her two daughters she became involved with Civil War reenacting. She noticed by reenacting that there is more to the lives of Americans who lived at the time of the War than just what occurred on the battlefield. The war had a big impact on the common soldiers and to the families. She now has a series, which focuses more directly on the war's impact on the common soldier and the families. Dale Gallon was very interested in Civil War Art...

ECON 337 3 Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

ECON 337 3 - Assignment Example It emerges that the new reforms in the 80’s led to the reduction of poverty and inequality due to the foreign trade and investment strategies. However, the rural areas were also recovering from the poverty cycle as influenced by the spurt in agricultural growth. The political economy played an instrumental part through the land redistributions that ensured every family had an agricultural venture. As a result, the internal aspects enabled the country to improve on its economic objectives rather than the presumed global integration. Similarly, the domestic public investment policies, especially in education, infrastructure and agricultural research propelled the growth and rural poverty reduction. The state of poverty and well being in India were spurred by the social indicators in employment opportunities, gender inequality and maternal health had registered improvements (Bardhan 26). The country was ensuring that the citizens would be productive by taking advantage of the soc ial developments in the important sectors. The resultant impacts were that the Indians introduced strategies that empowered everyone to venture into economical businesses in the region. Although poverty and social well-being remains to be a priority of the government, the economic growth tends to alleviate the imbalance. This implies that reforms encouraging domestic investments are making the local citizens to come up with business ideas that the government can help to finance for prosperity. The reasoning behind Bardhan arguments is that global integration only facilitated increase in spending. The improvements in social indicators and social well-being were factors that promoted global integration because the country was now ready to consider various opportunities (Bardhan 30). This implies that, without the domestic reforms and investments, global integration could not be achieved. However, the slow pace in some sectors

Blogs Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

Blogs - Essay Example However, what we miss to realize is that those who fail to make a good impression does not necessarily translate to someone’s real potential at something. Just like today’s notion of a not so service-centric yet title focused notion of leadership, I would say that this diminishes the impact of leadership to people & society as a whole. What society misconstrues is that it looks at leadership closely based on what it is called, highlighting the role of being a â€Å"leader† instead of looking at it as a responsibility of being able to lead a group with different capacities, beliefs & personalities. With this said, I would say that the most effective leader is measured not only based on whether a certain goal is achieved but most importantly, how one imparted wisdom & helped each member of a team to perform significantly in a group. As it is said, it is not only the destination that counts, but also the journey where all the learning happens. The first clear shot each of us had on leadership would probably be in school when we are required to work in groups for a certain project. Though each of us have different experiences what is common to all would be the fact that in the real world, some people would have to take on the role of a leader while others as followers. Though a lot of us still have not learned to appreciate the beauty of a follower’s role, one of the things that we might miss from focusing too much on taking the role of a leader would be the fact that being a follower intensely shapes one’s character more than being a leader. Why? Well, first of all, being a follower which is invisibly looked down on in society would teach one to be humble especially when one gets his or her first run on obedience. Aside from which, what makes it even harder would be when you encounter a situation where your adrenaline knows deep down that your idea is better than what is being presented but you have to submit just because

Reflective Journal Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Reflective Journal - Essay Example It is our destination and the process of reaching the end of that destination. It is the real meaning of Martin Luther King Jr.’s vision: a sympathetic community where race and social class is surpassed and economic and social justice is the tenet and not the exclusion. It is as well the vision of this empowerment paradigm to social work tradition. The paradigm becomes profound and stretches out to integrate further explanation of how-to and for what reason, enlarged by stronger professional, community, multiethnic, multicultural and global points of view on empowerment mechanism and the commemoration of differences. Countless individuals still desire to live in a society where dearly loved community can be built, where caring bonds of affection and knowing unite us together through our differences. We just cannot give up that yearning. We call for such ties not for the reason that we embrace utopian dreams but because we have wrestled throughout our loves to build this community. The petite circles of affection and care we have been able to shape in our personal lives embody a tangible realistic note that beloved community is not a fantasy, that it previously is present for those of us who have carried out the task of enlightening ourselves for higher consciousness. Ambivalence and indecision indicate the likelihood of resistance. The social work business can be signified as a victorious hegemonic knowledge, yet it cannot attain absolute finality on its manner of perceiving the world: One of the unique features is the pursuit for ties of mutuality and collective identities, through which individuals and their concerns and motives are shaped and which transcend involved exchanges between individualized individuals. This pursuit may have been diminished, yet it has not been totally eliminated. There are other discussions wrestling for articulation from users of services provided by social work: types of

Impact of Tariffs on U.S Trade and Economy

Impact of Tariffs on U.S Trade and Economy Abstract This paper analyzes current trade tariffs in the United States and their impact on trade and the overall economy.   It notes that the United States has, over the past three decades, engaged in more open approach to trading with trading agreements like NAFTA.   Although such agreements have had negative effects in jobs losses in certain economic sectors, it has been beneficial in growing trade among the signatories of the agreement.   The paper also notes that the United States has some of the lowest tariffs overall with trade-weighted import tariff at 2% for industrial goods which constitutes 90% of all imports.   The consequences of the liberal trade approach have been the continued increase in American trade deficit that topped $811 billion in 2017.   In spite of the growing trade deficit, the United States has remained has the largest economy and has grown robustly over the decades with the exception of considerable slowdown after the financial crisis. There are ongoing concerns as noted in regard to the trade spat with China that could lead to the imposition of tariffs and counter-tariffs potentially leading to full-scale trade war which would negatively affect the economies of both nations. Existing uncertainty also impacts investment in sectors that are geared towards exports and could lead to lower than projected economic performance.  Ã‚   Impact of Import and Export Tariffs on U.S. Trade and Economy A trade tariff is one form of trade protectionism that is employed by nations creating a barrier to trade.   There are a range of reasons including encouraging local product that prompts governments to impose trade barriers including trade tariffs.   This paper evaluates existing trade tariffs in the United States (U.S.) and their impact on the country’s trade and economy.   It utilizes practical examples of the application of the concept of trade tariffs and economic impact. Current Trade Tariffs on U. S. Imports and Exports Trade barriers are imposed for several reasons. Some of the reasons are: protecting local jobs, protecting newer industries, encouraging local production, reducing reliance on foreign suppliers, reducing payment problems, and promoting exporting (Collinson, Narula, & Rugman, 2016).   There are a range of trade barriers including: price-based barriers, quotas, and tariffs. Each of these trade barriers is applied relative to efficacy in meeting intended consequences.   There are other measures such as: international pricing (cartels like OPEC), non-tariff barriers via rules and regulations, foreign investment controls, and exchange controls (Collinson, Narula, & Rugman, 2016, 2012).   A tariff is a tax on goods that are shipped internationally (Collinson, Narula, & Rugman, 2016, 2012, p.177). It is a commonly utilized trade barrier.   It serves the purpose of anti-dumping and protecting specific industries. Tariffs that can be imposed include: import tariff, export tariff (least used), transit tariff, specific tariff, ad valorem tariff, and compound (combines specific and ad valorem tariffs) tariffs (Collinson, Narula, & Rugman, 2016, 2012).   Ad valorem and specific tariffs are the most commonly used trade tariffs.   The intention is largely to regulate import volumes.   Trade flows are impacted by: inflation, national income, government policies, and exchange rates (Madura, 2011).   Ã‚  According to United States Trade Representative [USTR] (2018), approximately 96% of all imports are industrial goods which are non-agricultural.   The country has a trade-weighted import tariff of 2% on all industrial goods (USTR, 2018).   It mostly employs either specific or ad valorem tariffs; more than 50% of all industrial goods imports enter the country duty free (USTR, 2018).   The United States has largely maintained open markets to international trade. Ad valorem tariffs are based on the percentage of imported goods value with specific tax based on number of shipped items (Collinson, Narula, & Rugman, 2016, 2012).   Industrial goods imported into the United States include: machinery, chemicals, autos, clothing and textile, leather and footwear, and petroleum among others (USTR, 2018).   A significant proportion of the goods are imported due to trade agreements.   There are multiple bilateral and multilateral agreements. The country has multiple bilateral trade agreements with countries like Korea, Peru, and Singapore.   It has multilateral trade agreements including Central America/Dominican Republic FTA (CAFTA/DR) and NAFTA.   They are designed to expand opportunities for United States workers/businesses globally and reduce tariff and non-tariff barriers.   The country is able to impose limited specific tariffs with the advantage being greater access to export markets.    According to World Bank (2018), the value of United States exports was $1.45 trillion and total value of imports was $2.25 billion in 2016.   The country exported 4,563 products to 223 countries and imported 4,558 products from 220 countries (World Bank, 2018).   Consumer goods were the largest imports followed by capital goods, intermediate goods, and raw materials. The bulk of the country’s (96%) were industrial goods (USTR, 2018).   The country’s top five export markets are: Canada, Mexico, China, Japan, and United Kingdom (World Bank, 2018).   The top five import markets are: China, Mexico, Canada, Japan, and Germany (World Bank, 2018).   Canada and Mexico are members of NAFTA along with the United States.   The economic syndicate was established with the intention of reducing trade barriers between the three nations and is currently being reviewed by of the United States. NAFTA eliminated most non-tariff barriers and gradually reduced import and export tariffs between the three countries (Komar, Uniiat, & Lutsiv, 2016).   By 2008, all trade tariffs existing between the three NAFTA members were eliminated.   In addition, agricultural exports that attracted 12% customs rate became duty free (Komar, Uniiat, & Lutsiv, 2016).   It led to massive increase in trade between the nations and boosted inter-country relationships.   There is obligation on each member to maintain the principles of the agreement with few exceptions that would allow for imposition of tariffs (Komar, Uniiat, & Lutsiv, 2016).   Canada and Mexico have since become among the three largest trading partners for United States.   China is the largest trading partner of the United States (Romei, 2018).   The size of trade relates to the $506 billion in exports to the United States (Ip, 2018). The bulk of Chinese imports including: cellular/wireless phones, portable computing equipment, and communication products that are imported duty free.   The recent move to impose tariffs on Chinese imports does not affect the top five imports (Romei, 2018).   United States imposed varying tariffs on 1,333 goods from China with China retaliating by imposing 25% specific tariffs on 106 American-made products (Romei, 2018).   In 2017, the value of Chinese exports to United States totaled $506 billion or 4% of GDP while United States exported goods worth $130 billion to China representing 0.7% of GDP (Ip, 2018).   The American tariffs on the 1,333 imports goods was about 25% for total goods valued at $50 billion are pending trade negotiation (Davis, Zumbrun, & Wei, 2018).   They come on top of previous 25% tariffs on Chinese steel imports and 10% tariffs on aluminum (Davis, Zumbrun, & Wei, 2018). United States has signaled the intention to levy further tariffs.   The administration has threatened to impose an additional $60 billion worth of tariffs (Davis, 2018). In addition, it also intends to tighten restrictions on technology transfers and acquisitions (Davis, 2018).   These measures are geared towards reducing the $375 billion trade deficit by at least $100 billion (Davis, Zumbrun, & Wei, 2018).   The United States has preferential trade arrangements with the European Union with Germany and United Kingdom being its largest trading partners in the economic alliance.   However, the current American administration has also threatened to impose tariffs on a range of European imports (Bershidsky, 2018).   The goods that United States has threatened to impose a 25% import tariff on are: steel, cars, and aluminum (Bershidsky, 2018).   European Union threatening counter-tariffs with ad valorem tariffs at 25% on cosmetics, Harley Davidson motorcycles, bourbon, and jeans (Bershidsky, 2018).   The United States has refrained from imposing import tariffs until recently. The current moves have been politically motivated, presumably to address trade imbalance. It has an effective trade-weighted import tariff of 20% with 50% of imported goods entering the country duty free (USTR, 2018).   United States has leveraged on bilateral and multilateral trade agreements largely to enable its firms and people access more markets.   The recent administration has upended previous trade policies and in addition to imposing tariffs on selected products from China in particular, and is currently renegotiating NAFTA.   The progress of the renegotiation will be evident in the next few months and potential application of tariffs. Impact of the Trade Tariffs on U. S. Trade and Economy Free trade has led to significant trade deficits with most of the largest trading partners. The more noticeable trend is the widening deficit that the United States has experienced in trading with China.   Since 1998 with the exception of 2010, the trade deficit has continued to widen to reach $375 billion in 2017 (Davis, Zumbrun, & Wei, 2018).   The United States only have a trade surplus with Africa and South and Central America with low trading volumes between them (Romei, 2018).   According to Romei (2018), the United States had a trade deficit of $811 billion in 2017 and was up $59 billion year-on-year.   China accounted for $376 billion or 46.4% of the trade deficit (Romei, 2018).   Pierce & Schott (2016) noted that reducing of trade tariffs between United States and China after the latter’s ascension to WTO led to significant reduction in manufacturing employment.  Ã‚   The implication is that China has greater access to the American market. Industries exposed to changes following the elimination of tariffs shifted towards more Chinese imports with gradual shift towards less labor-intensive production (Pierce & Schott, 2016).   There was accelerated mechanization and automation of production.   A similar pattern was not experienced with policy stability with the European Union.   Thus, proliferation of free trade agreements has had varying effects on depending on particular trading relationships.   Cherkashin et al., (2015) noted that trade preferences including reduction of tariffs offered by one country had positive spillover effects to others in reference to trade between the United States and Bangladesh.   They noted that counterfactual agreements promoted exports of intermediate goods especially when applied at later stages of production.   In the case of trade with Bangladesh, there was the strengthening of production capabilities of the country.   China has had significant advantage in the size and cost of labor impacting manufacturing in the United States. Trade barriers like tariffs and quotas are additive and increase the median price by up to 14% according to Irarrazabal, Moxnes, & Opromolla (2015).   They noted that â€Å"an additive import tariffs reduces welfare and trade by more than an equal-yield multiplicative tariff† (Irarrazabal, Moxnes, & Opromolla, 2015).   Tariff changes impacts how industries operates. American firms took advantage of cheaper production costs in China to increase imports at lower costs.   In China, the reduction in import tariffs following its entry to the WTO changed the structure and organization of ordinary exports and processing trade (Brandt & Morrow, 2017).   It has been a contributing factor in the ballooning trade deficit between United States and China.   Cut in input tariffs increased Chinese content in exports (Brandt & Morrow, 2017).   There was the realization that the country could not only produce intermediate goods but finished goods as well. Some firms produce intermediate products in certain markets and then re-export them for finishing (Manova & Yu, 2016; Bai, Krishna, & Ma, 2017; Jà ¤kel & Smolka, 2017).   Increasing importance of factors of production influenced international trade.   Factor abundance from free trade policies and factor prices change via policies such as trade tariffs influence trade structure in different countries (Jà ¤kel & Smolka, 2017). Thus, the impact varies from country to country.   Economic policies have significant economic impact, such as fast growth of South Korea through reduction in trade tariffs and bilateral FTA with the United States (Connolly & Yi, 2015).   Trade policy uncertainty impacts investment even in low tariffs trade regimes (Handley, Kyle, & Limà £o, 2015).   Posturing among countries during negotiation creates such uncertainties. The current trade squabble between the United States and China is one such example. The posturing between United States and China as well as other trading partners threatens to reduce investment in the economy.   Ã‚  Handley, Kyle, & Limà £o (2015) noted that the level of export investment during periods of uncertainty was lower. Free trade agreements have had positive impact from an overall perspective in promoting trade (Cooper, 2014).   The influence of having bilateral and multilateral FTAs is that it creates certainty that promotes investment.   In the United States, there has been concern about the impact of FTAs on employment. According to CoÅŸar, Guner & Tybout (2016)   the trade-off in regard to open economies is higher national income and higher unemployment.   Higher unemployment is countered by labor market reforms reducing aggregate job turnover (Guner & Tybout, 2016).   Despite losing jobs in certain industries, the United States has gained in overall employment boost. In analyzing the Brazilian economy, Dix-Carneiro & Kovak (2017) noted that regions that had significant cuts in trade tariffs experienced declines in formal employment and lower earnings.   Liberalization is generally positive from a national perspective but adversely affects certain areas relying specific commodities.   It informs the need for countries to have the ability to impose specific tariffs.   The United States has applied such tariffs to protect the steel industry.   Therefore, there are counter-effects that are specific to different regions depending on the structure of trade relationship.   Trade liberalization has also been positive for enhancing corporate social responsibility (Flammer, 2014).    The United States having liberalized its economy with few import tariffs has experienced significant increase in trading deficits with major trading partners. Even with the ballooning trade deficit with China, it has greater leverage (Ip, 2018).   The driving factor with the increased trade deficit that United States has experienced with China is driven by American consumers.   However, the comparative size of the imports relative to each country’s GDP favors United States at 0.7% compared to China’s 4% (Ip, 2018).   In the event of imposition of widespread trade tariffs, China is likely to be impacted more.   The current situation creates uncertainty for both countries in the industries that have been targeted. There are worries notably in the automotive industry about NAFTA renegotiation and trade issues with China. The negative impact of trade tariffs is that they increase the cost of goods which directly impacts the consumers.   The level of trade imbalance that has been created by liberalization of trade has been significant in the context of the trade between United States and China.   The country has trade deficits with close trading partners in NAFTA due to factors of production.   It has created political concerns about trade fairness and potential negative economic impact.   Mexico is a cheaper production alternative to American automakers which has been the bone of contention in the renegotiation of NAFTA.   The current standoff between United States and China is likely to persist.   China has indicated that it will only make the tariffs effective in circumstances where the United States does the same (Romei, 2018).   Therefore, the measured approach to the trade now could simmer for some time prior to any settlement negotiations.   China is waiting for the signal from United States prior to actualizing the tariffs creating uncertainty.   There are existing discrepancies in the trade deficit with the European Union due to skewed bilateral agreements (Bershidsky, 2018).   The reality is that the trade deficit could slow down due to imposition of tariffs. There could beneficial negotiations that eliminate the tariffs.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Conclusion The United States has accumulated significant trade deficits with its largest trading partners.   The deficit has been increasing but has not negatively impacted economic growth.   The threat of trade tariffs could upend relationships, creating uncertainty and impacting global value chains.   In the end, the United States remains as the most important consumer markets.   The purposed tariffs by the U.S. and from the U.S will have a huge effect on the economy of the United States and China but also the rest of the globe. References Bai, X., Krishna, K., & Ma, H. (2017). How You Export Matters: Export Mode, Learning, and Productivity in China. Journal of International Economics, 104, pp. 122 – 137. Bershidsky, L. (2018). The Effects of Tariffs and Counter-Tariffs would be smaller than the Bilateral Discrepancies in EU – U.S. Trade Statistics. Retrieved 24 April 2018 from https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2018-03-06/trump-s-trade-war-ignores-basic-eu-us-trade-statistics Brandt, L., & Morrow, P. M. (2017). Tariffs and the Organization of Trade in China. Journal of International Economics, 104, pp. 85 – 103. Cherkashin, I., Demidova, S., Kee, H. L., & Krishna, K. (2015). Firm Heterogeneity and Costly Trade: A New Estimation Strategy and Policy Experiments. Journal of International Economics, 96 (1), pp. 18 – 36. Collinson, S., Narula, R., & Rugman, A. M. (2016). International Business (7th Ed.). Harlow, UK: Pearson Education Limited. Connolly, M., & Yi, K-M. (2015). How Much of South Koreas Growth Miracle Can Be Explained by Trade Policy? American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, 7 (4), pp. 188 – 221. Cooper, W. H. (2014). Free Trade Agreements: Impact on U.S. Trade and Implications for U.S. Trade Policy. Current Politics and Economics of the United States, 16 (3), pp. 425 – 445. CoÅŸar, A. K., Guner, N., & Tybout, J. (2016). Firm Dynamics, Job Turnover, and Wage Distributions in an Open Economy. American Economic Review, 106 (3), pp. 625 – 663. Davis, B., Zumbrun, J., & Wei, L. (2018). U.S. Announces Tariffs on $50 Billion of China Imports. Retrieved 24 April 2018 from https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-announces-tariffs-on-50-billion-of-china-imports-1522792030 Dix-Carneiro, R., & Kovak, B. K. (2017). Trade Liberalization and Regional Dynamics. American Economic Review, 107 (10), pp. 2908 – 2946. Flammer, C. (2014). Does Product Market Competition Foster Corporate Social Responsibility? Evidence from Trade Liberalization. Strategic Management Journal, 36 (10), pp. 1469 – 1485. Handley, K., & Limà £o, N. (2015). Trade and Investment under Policy Uncertainty: Theory and Firm Evidence. American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, 7 (4), pp. 189 – 222.   Ip, G. (2018). Leverage Will Determine if China or the U.S. Come Out on Top in Trade Conflict. Retrieved 24 April 2018 from https://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2018/04/05/leverage-will-determine-if-china-or-the-u-s-come-out-on-top-in-trade-conflict/ Irarrazabal, A., Moxnes, A., & Opromolla, L. D. (2015). The Tip of the Iceberg: A Quantitative Framework for Estimating Trade Costs. Review of Economics and Statistics, 97 (4), pp. 777 – 792. Jà ¤kel, I. C., & Smolka, M. (2017). Trade Policy Preferences and Factor Abundance. Journal of International Economics, 106, pp. 1 – 19. Komar, N., Uniiat, A., & Lutsiv, R. (2016). Efficiency of the North American Free Trade Zone. Journal of European Economy, 15 (3), pp. 280 – 292. Madura, J. (2018). International Financial Management (13th Ed.). Mason, OH: South-Western Cengage Learning. Manova, K., & Yu, Z. (2016). How Firms Export: Processing vs. Ordinary Trade with Financial Frictions. Journal of International Economics, 100, pp. 120 – 137. Pierce, J. R., & Schott, P. K. (2016). The Surprisingly Swift Decline of US Manufacturing Employment. American Economic Review, 106 (7), pp. 1632 – 1662. Romei, V. (2018, April 5). US – China Trade Tariffs in Charts. Retrieved 23 April 2018 from https://www.ft.com/content/e2848308-3804-11e8-8eee-e06bde01c544 United States Trade Representative (2018). Industrial Goods. Retrieved 23 April 2018 from https://ustr.gov/issue-areas/industry-manufacturing/industrial-tariffs World Bank. (2018). United States Trade at a Glance: Most Recent Values. Retrieved 23 April 2018 from https://wits.worldbank.org/CountrySnapshot/en/USA/textview

Biography of Wyatt Earp :: essays research papers

Wyatt Earp was born in Monmouth, Illinois Monday, March 19, 1848 and died Friday January 13, 1929 in Los Angeles, California of the flu. Wyatt Earp is mostly famous for his gun fight at the OK Corral in Tombstone, Arizona 1881. But, there are more interesting facts about his life and you will hear them today. In 1876 Wyatt Earp was hired as an assistant Marshall in Dodge City, Kansas, one of the worst places in America at the time. In Dodge City daylight muggings and nighttime shootings were an everyday thing. When Wyatt became a lawman there he was able to stop the crimes without killing anybody, he put them in jail. One of his techniques was called ?buffaloing? where he would knock a criminal on the head with his favorite weapon, the Colt 45. In 1878 Wyatt met Doc Holliday. They became friends when Doc shot a man who was aiming at Wyatt?s back. Doc was also involved in the battle at the OK Corral. Doc suffered from Tuberculosis and went from 200 pounds to 122 pounds in the year after the gunfight. He died in 1883. The gunfight at the ok Corral started and ended in thirty violent seconds, but, it must have felt like thirty minutes to the fighters. Eight people were ready to fight. On one side were Wyatt, his brothers and Doc Holliday. On the other side were the Clantons and their gang of Cowboys (horse thieves and cattle rustlers of the time). They all had no intention of being disarmed. Frank McLaury, a Cowboy, had the best aim of the group. He was shot by Wyatt and was the first to die. Everybody started fighting. In the end, almost all the cowboys died, Ike Clanton begged for his life and was thrown in jail. Morgan Earp was shot in the shoulder. Virgil Earp was shot in the leg. Doc was shot in the hip. Only Wyatt came out unharmed.

Describe the Process Consultation Essay

Describe the  process consultation. Discuss when it should be used and how it applies to organization development. Process consultation (PC) is a general framework for carrying out helping relationships. It is oriented to helping managers, employees, and groups assess and improve processes, such as communication, interpersonal relations, decision making and task performance. Schein argues that effective consultants and managers should be good helpers, aiding others in getting things done and in achieving the goals they have set. Thus, PC is more a philosophy than a set of techniques aimed at performing this helping relationship. The philosophy ensures that those who are receiving the help own their problems, gain the skills and expertise to diagnose them, and solve them themselves. Thus, it is an approach to helping people and groups help themselves. Schein defines process consultation as â€Å"the creation of a relationship that permits the client to perceive, understand, and act on the process events that occur in (her/his) internal and external environment in order to improve the situation as defined by the client. † The process consultant does not offer expert help in the form of solutions to problems, as in the doctor-patient model. Rather, the process consultant works to develop relationships, observes groups and people in action, helps them diagnose the way they are carrying out tasks, and helps them learn how to be more effective. In the OD literature, team building is not clearly differentiated from process consultation. This confusion exists because most team building includes process consultation—helping the group diagnose and understand its own internal processes. However, process consultation is a more general approach to helping relationships than is team building. Team building focuses explicitly on helping groups perform asks and solve problems more effectively. Process consultation, on the other hand, is concerned with establishing effective helping relationships in organizations. It is seen as key to effective management and consultation and can be applied to any helping relationship, from subordinate development to interpersonal relationships to group development. Thus, team building consist s of process consultation plus other, more task-oriented interventions (Cummings & Worley, 2009, p. 253). Describe the key success requirements for a microcosm group intervention. A microcosm group onsists of a small number of individuals who reflect the issue being addressed. For example, a microcosm group composed of members representing a spectrum of ethnic backgrounds, cultures, and races can be created to address diversity issues in the organization. This group, assisted by OD practitioners, can create programs and processes targeted at specific problems. In addition to addressing diversity problems, microcosm groups have been used to carry out organization diagnoses, solve communications problems, integrate two cultures, smooth the transition to a new structure, and address dysfunctional political processes. Microcosm groups work through â€Å"parallel processes,† which are the unconscious changes that take place in individuals when two or more groups interact. After groups interact, members often find that their characteristic patterns of roles and interactions change to reflect the roles and dynamics of the group with whom they were relating. Put simply, groups seem to â€Å"infect† and become â€Å"infected† by the other groups. The following example given by Alderfer helps to clarify how parallel processes work. An organizational diagnosis team had assigned its members to each of five departments in a small manufacturing company. Members of the team had interviewed each department head and several department members, and had observed department meetings. The team was preparing to observe their first meeting of department heads and was trying to anticipate the group’s behavior. At first they seemed to have no ‘rational† basis for predicting the top group’s behavior because they â€Å"had no data† from direct observation. They decided to role-play the group meeting they had never seen. Diagnostic team members behaved as they thought the department heads would, and the result was uncanny. Team members found that they easily became engaged with one another in the simulated department-head meeting; emotional involvement occurred quickly for all participants. When the team actually was able to observe a department-head meeting, they were amazed at how closely the simulated meeting had approximated the actual session. Thus, if a small and representative group can intimately understand and solve a complex organizational problem for themselves; they are in a good position to recommended action to address the problem in the larger system (Cummings & Worley, 2009, p. 279). Discuss why the matrix structure is the best and most flexible organization structure. Some OD practitioners have focused on maximizing the strengths and minimizing the weaknesses of both the functional and the self-contained-unit structures, and this effort has resulted in the matrix organization. Matrix organizational designs originally evolved in the aerospace industry where changing customer demands and technological conditions caused managers to focus on lateral relationships between functions to develop a flexible and adaptable system of resources and procedures, and to achieve a series of project objectives. Matrix organizations now are used widely in manufacturing, service, and nonprofit, governmental, and professional organizations. Every matrix organization contains three unique and critical roles: the top manager, who heads and balances the dual chains of command, the matrix bosses (functional, product, or area), who share subordinates: and the two-boss managers, who report to two different matrix bosses. Each of these roles has its own unique requirements. In a matrix organization, each project manager reports directly to the vice president and the general manager. Since each project represents a potential profit centre, the power and authority used by the project manager come directly from the general manager. Matrix organizations, like all organization structures, have both advantages and disadvantages. On the positive side, this structure allows multiple orientations. Specialized, functional knowledge can be applied to all projects. New products or projects can be implemented quickly by using people flexibly and by moving between product and functional orientations as circumstances demand. Matrix organizations can maintain consistency among departments and projects by requiring communication among managers. For many people, matrix structures are motivating and exciting. On the negative side, these organizations can be difficult to manage. To implement and maintain them requires heavy managerial costs and support. When people are assigned to more than one department, there may be role ambiguity and conflict, and overall performance may be sacrificed if there are power conflicts between functional departments and project structures. To make matrix organizations work, organization members need interpersonal and conflict management skills. People can get confused about how the matrix works, and that can lead to chaos and inefficiencies (Cummings & Worley, 2009, p. 319). What is the TQM approach to employee involvement and how does it differ from other approaches? Discuss Deming’s influence on this approach. Total quality management (TQM) is the most recent and, along with high-involvement organizations the most comprehensive approach to employee involvement. Also known as â€Å"Continuous process improvement† and â€Å"continuous quality,† TQM grew out of a manufacturing emphasis on quality control and represents a long- term effort to orient all of an organization’s activities around the concept of quality. Quality is achieved when organizational processes reliably produce products and services that meet or exceed customer expectations. Like high-involvement designs, TQM increases workers’ knowledge and skills through extensive training, provides relevant information to employees, pushes decision-making power downward in the organization and ties rewards to performance. When implemented successfully. TQM also is aligned closely with a firm’s overall business strategy and attempts to change the entire organization toward continuous quality improvement. TQM is a philosophy and a set of guiding principles for continuous improvement based on customer satisfaction, teamwork, and empowerment of individuals. TQM applies human resources and analytical tools to focus on meeting or exceeding customer’s current and future needs. There are a series of planned improvements that will ultimately influence the quality and productivity of the organization. Like high-involvement designs, TQM increases workers’ knowledge and skills through extensive training, provides relevant information to employees, pushes decision-making power downward in the organization and ties rewards to performance. When implemented successfully TQM also is aligned closely with a firm’s overall business strategy and attempts to change the entire organization toward continuous quality improvement. (Cummings ;amp; Worley, 2009, p. 359). Discuss the motivational approach to job design. What are the key dimensions that lead to high work quality and internal motivation? The motivational approach to work design views the effectiveness of organizational activities primarily as a function of member needs and satisfaction, and seeks to improve employee performance and satisfaction by enriching jobs. The motivational method provides people with opportunities for autonomy, responsibility, closure (that is, doing a complete job), and performance feedback. Enriched jobs are popular in the United States at such companies as AT;amp;T Universal Card, TRW, Dayton Hudson, and GTE. The motivational approach usually is associated with the research of Herzberg and of Hackman and Oldham. Herzberg’s two-factor theory of motivation proposed that certain attributes of work, such as opportunities for advancement and recognition, which he called motivators, help increase job satisfaction. Other attributes that Herzberg called hygiene factors, such as company policies, working conditions, pay, and supervision, do not produce satisfaction but rather prevent dissatisfaction—important contributors because only satisfied workers are motivated to produce. Successful job enrichment experiments at AT&T, Texas Instruments, and Imperial Chemical Industries helped to popularize job enrichment in the 1960s. Although Herzberg’s motivational factors sound appealing, increasing doubt has been cast on the underlying theory. Motivation and hygiene factors are difficult to put into operation and measure, and that makes implementation and evaluation of the theory difficult. Furthermore, important worker characteristics that can affect whether people will respond favorably to job enrichment were not included in his theory. Finally, Herzberg’s failure to involve employees in the job enrichment process itself does not suit most OD practitioners today. Consequently, a second, well-researched approach to job enrichment has been favored. It focuses on the attributes of the work itself and has resulted in a more scientifically acceptable theory of job enrichment than Herzberg’s model. The research of Hackman and Oldham represents this more recent trend in job enrichment. Considerable research has been devoted to defining and understanding core job dimensions. Figure 50 summarizes the Hackman and Oldham model of job design. Five core dimensions of work affect three critical psychological states, which in turn produce personal and job outcomes. These outcomes include high internal work motivation, high-quality work performance, satisfaction with the work, and low absenteeism and turnover. The five core job dimensions—skill variety, task identity, task significance, autonomy, and feedback from the work itself—are described below and associated with the critical psychological states that they create (Cummings ;amp; Worley, 2009, p. 377). References Cummings, T. G. , ;amp; Worley, C. G. (2011). Organization development ;amp; change (11th ed. ). Australia; Mason, OH: South-Western/Cengage Learning.

A Clock Work Orange essays

A Clock Work Orange essays This Stanley Kubrick film A Clock Work Orange is a multifaceted work of art with many different layers. One of the most prominent layers of this film is the one that relates to Behavior Modification. It shows quite colorfully the basic components of respondent conditioning such as; neutral stimulus (NS) unconditioned stimulus (US), unconditioned response (UR), conditioned stimulus (CS), and the conditioned response (CR). As well as higher order conditioning, discrimination and generalization. This movie expresses many of these aspects of behavior modification. Which is often portrayed in an obvious and over the top manner to prove a greater point. In doing so they have also illustrated some of the many misconceptions people have about behavior modification. In the beginning of this movie we are introduced to Alex, a young boy with a quick wit and a flare for Ultra Violence. The evil we see him indulged in before his "conditioning", starts with him and his gang maliciously beating an old homeless veteran and ends with him brutally killing a middle age well-to-do women. This last act of deviance lands him in jail and on the path to respondent conditioning. Respondent conditioning starts with the understanding that certain type of stimuli elicits a certain natural response. This is referred to as the US and the UR. In respondent conditioning we use these in conjunction with a neutral stimulus to get a CS and a CR. I will now identify the US, CS, UR, and CR as it pertains to the film. The behavior that was trying to be manipulated in this movie was Alexs evil tendencies towards sex and violence. The unconditioned stimulus the government used was the toxins they injected into Alex. This caused an unconditioned response of paralyzing nausea and dry heaving. They paired the dry heaving and nausea with videos of explicit violent sex scenes. There by making violence and sex the c ...

The 48 Most Essential Marketing Skills You Need to Be Successful

The 48 Most Essential Marketing Skills You Need to Be Successful As a marketer, you know the industry is continually changing. From fresh tactics to emerging trends, theres always something new  to  learn. So you jump on to Google and read the first page of results. And you see list after list of skills that marketers *should* have. It can be a bit overwhelming. So, weve done our best to narrow down the essentials. What weve come up with is a list of 48 foundational marketing skills we think are most important to build and develop. We’ve also included links to guides and resources to help you learn and implement each skill. Keep reading and see where you can fill in the gaps in your skillset. These Are The 48 Essential Marketing Skills You Need To Be Successful 2018Download The 11 Step Guide To Learning A New Skill Knowing how to learn is a skill in itself. But, its a skill anyone can master. By following the steps in this guide, youll learn how to: Get past the fear of failure. Develop an efficient and repeatable system for skill-building. Understand how to take on new tasks and succeed, even if youve never done something before. Get it free now, and use it to build any of the following 48 skills well cover in this post.Get your free guide on building #marketing skills from @:Introducing the Academy: Looking for insider marketing knowledge to improve your skills even further? Join the Academy now. Why Do You Need To Continually Develop Your Marketing Skills? If we’ve said it once, we’ve said it a thousand times. The marketing world is evolving. If you can’t stay on top of the latest skills in the market, how can you expect to be successful? Your audience is constantly being bombarded with ads, messages, distractions and a whole lot more. You need the skills that will allow you to create marketing strategies that let your content stand out in a crowd. Here is the list of top skills marketers should consider keeping in their toolbox in 2018. Which marketing skills are most essential to posess? Start with these 48 from @.12 Basic Marketing Skills That Should Be On Every Marketer’s Resume Why focus on the basics? Shouldn’t you have those down by now? You might, but a brush up never hurt anyone. There’s also the fact that the what’s now considered a basic marketing skill may have changed from what it was ten years ago. Plus the basics are what build your foundation as a successful marketer. If they start to crumble the rest of your skill set will go right along with it. Here are the 12 basic skills that should be on every marketer’s resume. 12 Basic Marketing Skills That Should Be In Your WheelhouseThe Ability to Write Well Writing is the foundation of everything else that a marketer does. Without strong writing skills, everything else you do will falter. Writing comes into play whenever you’re creating ad copy, social media posts, press releases and so much more. You need to be able to comprehensively communicate your message at all times. Recommend Reading:   40 Content Writing Tips to Make You A Better Marketer Now Internal Communication Skills As a marketer, you’re not just communicating with your target audience. You’re communicating internally with your co-workers and boss as well. Keeping clear and consistent messaging within your marketing team means you can get more done and you don’t have to worry about another team member running a project off the rails. In addition to communicating with your co-workers, you also need to be able to talk to your boss and upper management. Can you explain your projects and anticipate the questions or concerns they’ll have in advance? Recommended Reading: 5 Tips To Create Effective Internal Communications With Your Team Interpersonal Communication Skills Interpersonal communication skills go hand in hand with internal communication skills. This particular skill set, however, is focused on how things are said not just what has been said. The reality of the situation is that we are all human and therefore we’re always communicating with each other whether we intend to or not. As a marketer, you need to be aware of the people around you and what you are intentionally or unintentionally saying at all times. Recommended Reading: Interpersonal Skills List and Examples Be A Confident Public Speaker Whether you’re standing up in front of your boss or client in the middle of a pitch meeting or you’re giving a live press conference, public speaking is inevitable. While that may have made you cringe in your high school speech class the fact of the matter is that as a marketer you need to be able to pitch your project or your product with ease. If you appear to have confidence in what you’re saying your audience will too. Recommended Reading: 5 Easy Ways to Become a Better Public Speaker Fast Maintain an Attitude of Lifelong Learning Another basic skill that should be on the resume of every marketer is maintaining the attitude of lifelong learning. As marketers, we’re always taking in new information whether that be a new advertising tactic or a research report that’s been published about our target audience. In other words, our job of learning new things is never done. The minute you close yourself off and think you know everything there is to know you’ll end up falling behind. So read every book you can get your hands on and listen to a podcast or two on your way to work. Recommended Reading: 10 Simple Ways To Engage In Lifelong Learning Be Type A Organized You wear many hats and balance many, many projects, which means that you need to be organized. Why? Because one misstep and $50,000 could fly out the window like that. Staying organized helps you avoid that because you and your marketing team members will be able to see what’s coming, plan in advance and side step massive mishaps. Recommended Reading: The Complete 16-Step Marketing Project Management Process That Will Get You Organized Know How To Set Goals 73% of CEOs  believe that marketers â€Å"lack business credibility and the ability to generate significant growth.† Ouch. That's because it’s easy to dismiss marketers as people in the corner drawing pretty pictures who don’t do anything. Yeah, I know. It makes my blood boil, too. So how do you solve all of that? You set goals that directly impact business objectives (that your company's CEO actually cares about). By creating goals that have a direct and positive impact on your business you can show your efforts  are paying off. Recommended Reading: How To Set SMART Marketing Goals Understand the Difference Between Goals, Strategies, and Tactics Let’s face it; goals, strategies,  and tactics go hand in hand when it comes to marketing, so it’s easy to confuse them with each other. However, being able to tell the distinction between the three is going to ensure you don’t get tripped up on one of them during your marketing process. Goals are the objectives that have been set by your marketing team that you need to meet by the end of a specified time period. Strategies are the organized plans that are composed of different tactics that outline how to reach your goals. Your tactics, on the other hand, are the steps that you take to help you achieve your goals. Recommended Reading: Understanding Goals, Strategy, Objectives And Tactics In The Age Of Social Be An Active Listener We all know that one person in our lives who is just waiting for their chance to speak in a conversation. What you’re saying is mostly going in one ear and out the other. As a marketer, you cannot afford to passively ignore your customers or your co-workers. Which is why being an active listener is an essential skill any marketer worth their salt knows how to do. Actively listening to the people around you means that you can find out the messages they need to hear. Doing this can help you perfect your campaigns and hopefully convert more people into paying customers. Recommended Reading: Active Listening: Hear What People are Really Saying Know How to Collaborate Across Multiple Teams Your marketing team doesn’t exist in a vacuum where it’s you vs. everyone else in your company. You need to be able to collaborate across multiple teams to complete your projects. This could mean working with developers, your video team, your product team, and more. All of that cross team collaboration means you need to know how to manage and communicate, so everyone who is involved in one project is always on the same page. Recommended Reading: 5 Ways to Improve Cross Team Collaboration Research Everything Marketing is part strategic intuition; part research to see what everyone else is doing. Successful marketers can research current trends and strategies and figure out which ones would work best for their company. There’s always new information out there for marketers to research and gather. Whether that be case studies, academic research reports or white papers, there are thousands of sources out there just waiting to inspire your next great idea. Recommended Reading: How To Boost Your Results With Original Research As A Marketing Tactic With Andy Crestodina From Orbit Media Studios This Is The Marketing Research Process That Will Take Your Content To The Next Level Openness To Trying New Things The last basic skill that should be in a marketer’s tool belt is an openness to try new things. Part of marketing involves simply testing these new things to see if they’re going to work. You’ll never know if something is going to work or not unless you try. Who knows, maybe your next great marketing tactic is the one you haven’t tried yet. Recommended Reading: When, Where, and How to Test Market 6  Introductory Design Skills Every Marketer Should Have Graphic design or any design really is vital for marketers to understand. Why? Because design helps us communicate the message that we want to send to our audience. You may not be at the same level as the graphic designer on your team but having a basic grasp of necessary design skills can help you communicate what you need and pinpoint what worked and why. 6 Introductory Design Skills Marketers Should HaveUnderstand How Responsive Design Works With the addition of tablets, mobile phones, and more, the way we access information is changing. The standard one size fits all website no longer applies because there are tons of different screen sizes out there. That’s where responsive design comes in. As a marketer, you need to understand how your message will look across a variety of different formats and ensure that it communicates the same idea. Recommended Reading: Beginner’s Guide to Responsive Web Design Grasp the Basics of Adobe Creative Suite Adobe is well known for their design products. Photoshop, InDesign, and Illustrator are just three of the tools that can help bring the images inside your head to life in an online format. Having a basic understanding of how those two programs work can help you and your designer save time. How? If you need a social media graphic that has to go out in 20 minutes, you can now do it yourself. It’s also nice to have an idea of the limitations this type of software might have so you can know what to expect when requesting something from your designers. Recommended Reading: Creative Cloud Tutorials Knowing How UX and UI Plays a Role In Your Customer Interaction The way you’ve designed your website and the experience your customer has interacting with it can affect the way they see your marketing messages. Knowing how your customers move and interact through with your content will allow you to strategically place your messages in the right place and the right time to maximize conversion potential. Recommended Reading: 5 Big Differences Between UX And UI Design Keep Common  Design Specs and Sizes On Hand You’re probably going to request a lot of designed content over the course of your career. This could be anything from social media ads to long infographics. Make it easier for your designer by having common design sizes and specs on hand at all times. Not only will this save them time in guessing the size of the images you need, you’ll also know how much space you have to work with. Some standard sizes to add to your list could be: Social media photo sizes Social media profile picture sizes Social ad sizes and specs Preferred infographics sizes Recommended Reading: The Best Guide to Social Media Image Sizes Every Marketer Needs Know How To Communicate Visualization Needs to Your Designer No one can read your mind. Thank goodness, right? Here’s the problem, since no one can read your mind, how are they supposed to be able to see the impressive idea you have for your next infographic? The truth is they can’t, and an excellent skill for marketers to have is to be able to communicate with their designers about the vision they see inside their head. Can you explain expectations and details to your designer in a way that helps guide them to create the piece you’ve pictured? Recommended Reading: How to Communicate Effectively with Designers Understanding The Basic Principles of Graphic Design The final skill that any marketer should have on their resume is the ability to understand the basic principles of design. Knowing what makes a successful image can help you identify what’s connecting with your audience. Concepts like: Color Theory Composition Theory Typography And more can help you identify what makes a design tremendous and what caught the attention of your audience. Recommended Reading: 8 Principles of Design to Help You Create Awesome Graphics 6 Social Media Skills To Add To Your Resume Social media is the latest and greatest addition to the marketing world. Which means that marketers need a specific set of skills to stand out in this new landscape. If you don’t stay on top of your skills and techniques, there’s a good chance your content will be buried in an avalanche of other stuff. End of story. The following are six simple skills you should have a grasp on. 6 Social Media Skills For MarketersKnow How to Write For Each Social Channel Not all social media messages are created equal. What works for one channel may not go over as well on another. For example, hashtags are great when they’re used on Twitter and Instagram, but they don’t do much for Facebook posts. Knowing the differences between the message types that need to go on each channel can help your content stand out in a sea of other stuff. Recommended Reading: How To Write The Best Social Media Posts [Backed By 6,399,322 Messages + 11 Studies] Have a Decent Amount of Social Media Algorithm Knowledge Social media algorithms are intelligent systems that sort through content and showcase what it believes the user would most likely want to see based on interactions from previous content. These algorithms can’t be tricked or fooled. You can’t post your content and then try and trick the algorithm into showing it to more of you fans. Well, you could, but that’s going to backfire on you sooner rather than later. Algorithms are the social networks way of telling you what content they want to see posted to their newsfeeds. After all you are advertising and posting content on someone else’s turf. For example, live video is going over well on Facebook. Therefore it would make sense to assume that the Facebook algorithm rewards live video content. If you want to boost your presence on Facebook, you could consider creating more live videos. Recommended Reading: How Do Social Media Algorithms Affect You Be Able to Keep Up With Social Trends and Ideas The social media landscape changes at an incredibly fast pace. The minute you’ve got something down, something new surfaces and you’re off to the races again. A proficient social media marketer (and marketer in general) can keep up with those changes by continually thinking ahead and keeping their social strategy head on a metaphorical swivel. Maximize those trends before they hit their peak and get ready to move on to the next one. Recommended Reading: Social Media Trends Change Quickly. This 6-Step Guide Will Help You Keep Up Being Disciplined to Not Chase After Every New Network Social media networks appear and disappear. A new one may surface, but that doesn’t mean it’s going to be the next Facebook or Twitter. As a marketer it’s up to you to decide whether or not joining a new network is best for your business. Just because Pinterest works for one company doesn’t mean it will work for you. You need to follow your audience and let them lead you to where they are. Recommended Reading: How to Create the Best Documented Social Media Marketing Strategy In Eight Steps Understand Marketing Strategy (And How to Apply It to Social Media) A skill that marketers must have is being able to see and understand the marketing strategy that goes into creating a social media presence. Don’t just chuck your social media profiles to an unsuspecting college grad and assume that because they’re young, they’ll know how to get your company noticed on social. No. Wrong. Do not pass Go, do not collect $200. Social media, like every other one of its marketing counterparts, requires strategic thinking, planning, and execution. This means you can’t just throw up a bunch of posts consistently and hope it works. You need to apply the same marketing methodologies you'd use for any other channel, and apply it to your social strategy. That includes understanding your audience, writing great copy, understanding analytics, and more. Recommended Reading: How To Develop A Winning Social Media Content Strategy (Free Template) Know How to Generate Creative Campaign Concepts The last skill social media skill that should be in your portfolio is knowing how to generate creative campaign concepts. Campaigns are a considerable part of the social media presence your business creates. Because there is such a massive amount of content out there, you need to be as creative as possible to stand out. Take Arby’s for example. Their entire Facebook presence is dedicated to nerdy references reenacted by everything from curly fries to ketchup packets. Exterminate! Exterminate! Exterminate! Posted by Arby's on Thursday, December 21, 2017 Think outside the box consistently and hopefully watch your social presence grow because of your creative efforts. Recommended Reading: How To Generate Data-Backed Social Media Campaign Ideas 24 Creative Social Media Campaign Examples to Boost Your Inspiration Social Campaigns: Simplify Your Social Promotion 9 Killer Content Marketing Skills You Need To Develop The content you create as a marketer can have a significant effect on your company. Which means that solid content marketing skills are highly sought after in today’s marketing climate. Here are nine skills that need to be a part of your portfolio. 9 Content Marketing Skills Every Marketer NeedsBeing Able to Write Clear Content That Informs The age of the internet means that there is a ton of information at everyone’s fingertips. Which means that your content needs to be able to stand out by doing one thing: Subtly sell your product  while still providing your reader with value that they can’t get anywhere else. A good marketer knows the balance between writing to sell and writing to inform. Recommended Reading: The 5 Skills You Need to Become a Successful Content Writer Master the Art Of Copywriting To Sell Unlike content writing, copywriting is all about selling. Mastering this form of writing means that you can craft copy that sells your product in a snap. It also doesn’t have to be written from scratch. Using the right formula can help you craft the perfect copy every time. It’s up to you to find the line that takes it from a standard boilerplate to selling machine. Recommended Reading: The Ultimate Guide to No-Pain Copywriting (or, Every Copywriting Formula Ever) Be A Storyteller People don’t buy logic; they buy emotions. As a content writer, you need to create copy that appeals to the emotional side of your readers. Your product may kill 99.5% of bacteria, but what sells it is the fact that they’ll be able to keep their family healthy and safe from germs or serious illnesses. As you write any content, find the way to connect your customer’s lives to your product. Play up the frustrations they are experiencing and tell them the story of how your product is going to make it all better. Recommended Reading: How To Use Your Blog To Tell A Story How To Write Like A Journalist To Be A Better Marketing Storyteller Know How to Use Your Content To Teach A skill we don’t usually associate with marketing should also be on your portfolio list; teaching. Can you teach with the content you create? This could be anything from teaching about how to use your product or a new concept (that just so happens to tie into your product). Take ’s blog for example. One of our core pillars is centered around actionability or going beyond giving advice and showing people how to execute it. Whether it’s a simple step by step video on how to use your product, or an in-depth explanation blog post, use your space to teach your audience want they need to know. Recommended Reading: 7 Ways to Make Your Content More Actionable Be Persuasive Part of being a good marketer involves being able to be persuasive. After all, there are hundreds of products that could help your customer with their problems. Your message needs to be able to persuade them that yours is the best option out there. Your messages should craft a clear and concise story that explains the benefits of your product and why you triumph over the rest. Recommended Reading: 58 Ways to Create Persuasive Content Your Audience Will Love Have Strong Research Skills One of the keys to writing great content is the ability to research. We’ve mentioned this a bit earlier in the post, and when it comes to content writing, research couldn’t be more critical. Writing content that is backed by well-researched opinions increases your own authority. It’s one thing if you write a post and haphazardly throw advice out there. It’s another thing entirely if you can back it up with another source that your readers trust. By researching your opinions, and backing them up with reputable sources you can show your readers that they can trust you. Once they trust you, they can trust your product. Recommended Reading: 10 Research-Based Tips for Writing Better Content Know How to Measure Your ROI â€Å"How much money did the post you just spent writing for 8 hours at 15 dollars an hour make me?† â€Å"I don’t know†, probably isn’t the answer they want to hear. Proving the return on investment that your content marketing has made isn’t easy. In fact, 78% of marketers struggle with it. There are, however, ways to find the data you’re looking for. It all comes down to writing content that encourages your readers to take a conversion step and finding a way to monetize those actions. Recommended Reading: This Is The MROI Formula Your Marketing Team Needs To Be Using Measure Marketing ROI: Proving Value When It Can’t Be Measured Be Well-Read Part of developing your content writing and marketing skills is reading what others around you have done. I’m not saying you need to consume every Game of Thrones novel in a week, but being well read across a variety of subjects not only helps increase your general knowledge, but you’ll also be able to see what works and doesn’t work when you write your content. Start small at first, maybe subscribe to a blog or two as you begin to integrate reading into your routine add in a variety of books, magazines and more. To stay on top of news or to find sources try tools like Feedly  or Flipboard. Or for those of you who don’t like to read as much, podcasts and videos are also great options. Recommended Reading: 10x Marketing Formula Have a Deep Understanding Of How The Marketing Funnel Works When content marketing is done well, it can help lead your potential customers through your marketing funnel and help them convert into paying customers. How does this work? You need to create content for every stage in your marketing funnel. The top part of your funnel will contain the most content and probably cover the broadest topics. You want to catch the attention of as many people as you can. As you work your way down the funnel, your content will become more specific, helping guide your readers to the logical conclusion that your product is the best one for them. Recommended Reading: Content and the Marketing Funnel 4 Analytics Skills That Are Essential For Any Marketer Data helps drive the entire marketing process. It helps you see if your efforts are working, track what your customers are interacting with and so much more. Analytics skills are essential for marketers because you need to be able to pull data and interpret it to give your marketing strategists the most accurate information as possible. Without data to guide you, it’s like driving blindfolded; you’re just guessing. Here are the four skills that should be a part of any marketer’s arsenal. 4 Analytics SKills That Are Essential For Any MarketerBe Able to Interpret Customer Data to Influence The Decision Making Process In case you haven’t already guessed your customers are what makes your world go round. What they do and interact with can prove the success (or failure) of your marketing strategies. It’s up to you to pull that data from those interactions and interpret what your customers are trying to tell you. Do they like seeing videos of your product in action or do they prefer screenshots in a blog post? Let your data guide you in the right direction. Recommended Reading: How to Drill Into Data to Extract Powerful Social Media Insights Know and Understand Data Science According to NYU  data science is: â€Å"Data science involves using automated methods to analyze massive amounts of data and to extract knowledge from them.† A skilled marketer needs to be able to find and sort through massive amounts of data to find the insights you’re looking for. If you collected data every time one of your potential customers does anything, you’d have thousands of data points to sort through. As a marketer you should know what you’re looking for, where to find it and how to interpret it for your boss and co-workers. Recommended Reading: Data Science is the Latest In-Demand Skill Set For Marketing Know How to Use Data to Tell a Story Numbers and data don’t lie. They tell you if you’ve met your goals or sorely missed them. However, you can’t just point to your data and say â€Å"see it worked.† I mean you could, but you don’t want to be subpar at your job, do you? Marketers need to know how to take the data that you’ve gathered and turn it into a story that explains what happened and why it happened in plain English. Your marketing campaigns could be massive, and data is great but when your boss turns to you and asks so why did this campaign work your answer should be more thorough than just â€Å"well we planned a really creative social campaign.† Recommended Reading: 3 Ways to Tell a Story With Your Data Understand Data Visualization The last need to have skill in your analytics tool belt is the ability to understand data visualization. Numbers and data points by themselves are boring. Not to mention they don’t jump out at you and say â€Å"hey I’m the most important one here.† Data visualization is a way for you to help your co-workers and boss, as well as your customers, understand the most significant bits and pieces of data in an easy to read format. These could be anything from infographics to charts. You just need to find a way to work with your designers (or you could do it yourself) to find a way to bring your data to life. Recommended Reading: The 38 Best Tools for Data Visualization 11 Technical Skills and Tools Every Marketer Needs Technical skills and tools make the final piece of our marketing skills blog post. Marketing and technology are becoming more and more intertwined mainly because a lot of the projects that you take on as a marketer can’t be completed without them. Between strategy planning, design and numerous things you need to execute, trying to attempt it all without a tool would be insane. There’s just too much to do. So here are eleven tools and technical skills every marketer should have. The 48 Most Essential Marketing Skills You Need to Be Successful As a marketer, you know the industry is continually changing. From fresh tactics to emerging trends, theres always something new  to  learn. So you jump on to Google and read the first page of results. And you see list after list of skills that marketers *should* have. It can be a bit overwhelming. So, weve done our best to narrow down the essentials. What weve come up with is a list of 48 foundational marketing skills we think are most important to build and develop. We’ve also included links to guides and resources to help you learn and implement each skill. Keep reading and see where you can fill in the gaps in your skillset. These Are The 48 Essential Marketing Skills You Need To Be Successful 2018Download The 11 Step Guide To Learning A New Skill Knowing how to learn is a skill in itself. But, its a skill anyone can master. By following the steps in this guide, youll learn how to: Get past the fear of failure. Develop an efficient and repeatable system for skill-building. Understand how to take on new tasks and succeed, even if youve never done something before. Get it free now, and use it to build any of the following 48 skills well cover in this post.Get your free guide on building #marketing skills from @:Introducing the Academy: Looking for insider marketing knowledge to improve your skills even further? Join the Academy now. Why Do You Need To Continually Develop Your Marketing Skills? If we’ve said it once, we’ve said it a thousand times. The marketing world is evolving. If you can’t stay on top of the latest skills in the market, how can you expect to be successful? Your audience is constantly being bombarded with ads, messages, distractions and a whole lot more. You need the skills that will allow you to create marketing strategies that let your content stand out in a crowd. Here is the list of top skills marketers should consider keeping in their toolbox in 2018. Which marketing skills are most essential to posess? Start with these 48 from @.12 Basic Marketing Skills That Should Be On Every Marketer’s Resume Why focus on the basics? Shouldn’t you have those down by now? You might, but a brush up never hurt anyone. There’s also the fact that the what’s now considered a basic marketing skill may have changed from what it was ten years ago. Plus the basics are what build your foundation as a successful marketer. If they start to crumble the rest of your skill set will go right along with it. Here are the 12 basic skills that should be on every marketer’s resume. 12 Basic Marketing Skills That Should Be In Your WheelhouseThe Ability to Write Well Writing is the foundation of everything else that a marketer does. Without strong writing skills, everything else you do will falter. Writing comes into play whenever you’re creating ad copy, social media posts, press releases and so much more. You need to be able to comprehensively communicate your message at all times. Recommend Reading:   40 Content Writing Tips to Make You A Better Marketer Now Internal Communication Skills As a marketer, you’re not just communicating with your target audience. You’re communicating internally with your co-workers and boss as well. Keeping clear and consistent messaging within your marketing team means you can get more done and you don’t have to worry about another team member running a project off the rails. In addition to communicating with your co-workers, you also need to be able to talk to your boss and upper management. Can you explain your projects and anticipate the questions or concerns they’ll have in advance? Recommended Reading: 5 Tips To Create Effective Internal Communications With Your Team Interpersonal Communication Skills Interpersonal communication skills go hand in hand with internal communication skills. This particular skill set, however, is focused on how things are said not just what has been said. The reality of the situation is that we are all human and therefore we’re always communicating with each other whether we intend to or not. As a marketer, you need to be aware of the people around you and what you are intentionally or unintentionally saying at all times. Recommended Reading: Interpersonal Skills List and Examples Be A Confident Public Speaker Whether you’re standing up in front of your boss or client in the middle of a pitch meeting or you’re giving a live press conference, public speaking is inevitable. While that may have made you cringe in your high school speech class the fact of the matter is that as a marketer you need to be able to pitch your project or your product with ease. If you appear to have confidence in what you’re saying your audience will too. Recommended Reading: 5 Easy Ways to Become a Better Public Speaker Fast Maintain an Attitude of Lifelong Learning Another basic skill that should be on the resume of every marketer is maintaining the attitude of lifelong learning. As marketers, we’re always taking in new information whether that be a new advertising tactic or a research report that’s been published about our target audience. In other words, our job of learning new things is never done. The minute you close yourself off and think you know everything there is to know you’ll end up falling behind. So read every book you can get your hands on and listen to a podcast or two on your way to work. Recommended Reading: 10 Simple Ways To Engage In Lifelong Learning Be Type A Organized You wear many hats and balance many, many projects, which means that you need to be organized. Why? Because one misstep and $50,000 could fly out the window like that. Staying organized helps you avoid that because you and your marketing team members will be able to see what’s coming, plan in advance and side step massive mishaps. Recommended Reading: The Complete 16-Step Marketing Project Management Process That Will Get You Organized Know How To Set Goals 73% of CEOs  believe that marketers â€Å"lack business credibility and the ability to generate significant growth.† Ouch. That's because it’s easy to dismiss marketers as people in the corner drawing pretty pictures who don’t do anything. Yeah, I know. It makes my blood boil, too. So how do you solve all of that? You set goals that directly impact business objectives (that your company's CEO actually cares about). By creating goals that have a direct and positive impact on your business you can show your efforts  are paying off. Recommended Reading: How To Set SMART Marketing Goals Understand the Difference Between Goals, Strategies, and Tactics Let’s face it; goals, strategies,  and tactics go hand in hand when it comes to marketing, so it’s easy to confuse them with each other. However, being able to tell the distinction between the three is going to ensure you don’t get tripped up on one of them during your marketing process. Goals are the objectives that have been set by your marketing team that you need to meet by the end of a specified time period. Strategies are the organized plans that are composed of different tactics that outline how to reach your goals. Your tactics, on the other hand, are the steps that you take to help you achieve your goals. Recommended Reading: Understanding Goals, Strategy, Objectives And Tactics In The Age Of Social Be An Active Listener We all know that one person in our lives who is just waiting for their chance to speak in a conversation. What you’re saying is mostly going in one ear and out the other. As a marketer, you cannot afford to passively ignore your customers or your co-workers. Which is why being an active listener is an essential skill any marketer worth their salt knows how to do. Actively listening to the people around you means that you can find out the messages they need to hear. Doing this can help you perfect your campaigns and hopefully convert more people into paying customers. Recommended Reading: Active Listening: Hear What People are Really Saying Know How to Collaborate Across Multiple Teams Your marketing team doesn’t exist in a vacuum where it’s you vs. everyone else in your company. You need to be able to collaborate across multiple teams to complete your projects. This could mean working with developers, your video team, your product team, and more. All of that cross team collaboration means you need to know how to manage and communicate, so everyone who is involved in one project is always on the same page. Recommended Reading: 5 Ways to Improve Cross Team Collaboration Research Everything Marketing is part strategic intuition; part research to see what everyone else is doing. Successful marketers can research current trends and strategies and figure out which ones would work best for their company. There’s always new information out there for marketers to research and gather. Whether that be case studies, academic research reports or white papers, there are thousands of sources out there just waiting to inspire your next great idea. Recommended Reading: How To Boost Your Results With Original Research As A Marketing Tactic With Andy Crestodina From Orbit Media Studios This Is The Marketing Research Process That Will Take Your Content To The Next Level Openness To Trying New Things The last basic skill that should be in a marketer’s tool belt is an openness to try new things. Part of marketing involves simply testing these new things to see if they’re going to work. You’ll never know if something is going to work or not unless you try. Who knows, maybe your next great marketing tactic is the one you haven’t tried yet. Recommended Reading: When, Where, and How to Test Market 6  Introductory Design Skills Every Marketer Should Have Graphic design or any design really is vital for marketers to understand. Why? Because design helps us communicate the message that we want to send to our audience. You may not be at the same level as the graphic designer on your team but having a basic grasp of necessary design skills can help you communicate what you need and pinpoint what worked and why. 6 Introductory Design Skills Marketers Should HaveUnderstand How Responsive Design Works With the addition of tablets, mobile phones, and more, the way we access information is changing. The standard one size fits all website no longer applies because there are tons of different screen sizes out there. That’s where responsive design comes in. As a marketer, you need to understand how your message will look across a variety of different formats and ensure that it communicates the same idea. Recommended Reading: Beginner’s Guide to Responsive Web Design Grasp the Basics of Adobe Creative Suite Adobe is well known for their design products. Photoshop, InDesign, and Illustrator are just three of the tools that can help bring the images inside your head to life in an online format. Having a basic understanding of how those two programs work can help you and your designer save time. How? If you need a social media graphic that has to go out in 20 minutes, you can now do it yourself. It’s also nice to have an idea of the limitations this type of software might have so you can know what to expect when requesting something from your designers. Recommended Reading: Creative Cloud Tutorials Knowing How UX and UI Plays a Role In Your Customer Interaction The way you’ve designed your website and the experience your customer has interacting with it can affect the way they see your marketing messages. Knowing how your customers move and interact through with your content will allow you to strategically place your messages in the right place and the right time to maximize conversion potential. Recommended Reading: 5 Big Differences Between UX And UI Design Keep Common  Design Specs and Sizes On Hand You’re probably going to request a lot of designed content over the course of your career. This could be anything from social media ads to long infographics. Make it easier for your designer by having common design sizes and specs on hand at all times. Not only will this save them time in guessing the size of the images you need, you’ll also know how much space you have to work with. Some standard sizes to add to your list could be: Social media photo sizes Social media profile picture sizes Social ad sizes and specs Preferred infographics sizes Recommended Reading: The Best Guide to Social Media Image Sizes Every Marketer Needs Know How To Communicate Visualization Needs to Your Designer No one can read your mind. Thank goodness, right? Here’s the problem, since no one can read your mind, how are they supposed to be able to see the impressive idea you have for your next infographic? The truth is they can’t, and an excellent skill for marketers to have is to be able to communicate with their designers about the vision they see inside their head. Can you explain expectations and details to your designer in a way that helps guide them to create the piece you’ve pictured? Recommended Reading: How to Communicate Effectively with Designers Understanding The Basic Principles of Graphic Design The final skill that any marketer should have on their resume is the ability to understand the basic principles of design. Knowing what makes a successful image can help you identify what’s connecting with your audience. Concepts like: Color Theory Composition Theory Typography And more can help you identify what makes a design tremendous and what caught the attention of your audience. Recommended Reading: 8 Principles of Design to Help You Create Awesome Graphics 6 Social Media Skills To Add To Your Resume Social media is the latest and greatest addition to the marketing world. Which means that marketers need a specific set of skills to stand out in this new landscape. If you don’t stay on top of your skills and techniques, there’s a good chance your content will be buried in an avalanche of other stuff. End of story. The following are six simple skills you should have a grasp on. 6 Social Media Skills For MarketersKnow How to Write For Each Social Channel Not all social media messages are created equal. What works for one channel may not go over as well on another. For example, hashtags are great when they’re used on Twitter and Instagram, but they don’t do much for Facebook posts. Knowing the differences between the message types that need to go on each channel can help your content stand out in a sea of other stuff. Recommended Reading: How To Write The Best Social Media Posts [Backed By 6,399,322 Messages + 11 Studies] Have a Decent Amount of Social Media Algorithm Knowledge Social media algorithms are intelligent systems that sort through content and showcase what it believes the user would most likely want to see based on interactions from previous content. These algorithms can’t be tricked or fooled. You can’t post your content and then try and trick the algorithm into showing it to more of you fans. Well, you could, but that’s going to backfire on you sooner rather than later. Algorithms are the social networks way of telling you what content they want to see posted to their newsfeeds. After all you are advertising and posting content on someone else’s turf. For example, live video is going over well on Facebook. Therefore it would make sense to assume that the Facebook algorithm rewards live video content. If you want to boost your presence on Facebook, you could consider creating more live videos. Recommended Reading: How Do Social Media Algorithms Affect You Be Able to Keep Up With Social Trends and Ideas The social media landscape changes at an incredibly fast pace. The minute you’ve got something down, something new surfaces and you’re off to the races again. A proficient social media marketer (and marketer in general) can keep up with those changes by continually thinking ahead and keeping their social strategy head on a metaphorical swivel. Maximize those trends before they hit their peak and get ready to move on to the next one. Recommended Reading: Social Media Trends Change Quickly. This 6-Step Guide Will Help You Keep Up Being Disciplined to Not Chase After Every New Network Social media networks appear and disappear. A new one may surface, but that doesn’t mean it’s going to be the next Facebook or Twitter. As a marketer it’s up to you to decide whether or not joining a new network is best for your business. Just because Pinterest works for one company doesn’t mean it will work for you. You need to follow your audience and let them lead you to where they are. Recommended Reading: How to Create the Best Documented Social Media Marketing Strategy In Eight Steps Understand Marketing Strategy (And How to Apply It to Social Media) A skill that marketers must have is being able to see and understand the marketing strategy that goes into creating a social media presence. Don’t just chuck your social media profiles to an unsuspecting college grad and assume that because they’re young, they’ll know how to get your company noticed on social. No. Wrong. Do not pass Go, do not collect $200. Social media, like every other one of its marketing counterparts, requires strategic thinking, planning, and execution. This means you can’t just throw up a bunch of posts consistently and hope it works. You need to apply the same marketing methodologies you'd use for any other channel, and apply it to your social strategy. That includes understanding your audience, writing great copy, understanding analytics, and more. Recommended Reading: How To Develop A Winning Social Media Content Strategy (Free Template) Know How to Generate Creative Campaign Concepts The last skill social media skill that should be in your portfolio is knowing how to generate creative campaign concepts. Campaigns are a considerable part of the social media presence your business creates. Because there is such a massive amount of content out there, you need to be as creative as possible to stand out. Take Arby’s for example. Their entire Facebook presence is dedicated to nerdy references reenacted by everything from curly fries to ketchup packets. Exterminate! Exterminate! Exterminate! Posted by Arby's on Thursday, December 21, 2017 Think outside the box consistently and hopefully watch your social presence grow because of your creative efforts. Recommended Reading: How To Generate Data-Backed Social Media Campaign Ideas 24 Creative Social Media Campaign Examples to Boost Your Inspiration Social Campaigns: Simplify Your Social Promotion 9 Killer Content Marketing Skills You Need To Develop The content you create as a marketer can have a significant effect on your company. Which means that solid content marketing skills are highly sought after in today’s marketing climate. Here are nine skills that need to be a part of your portfolio. 9 Content Marketing Skills Every Marketer NeedsBeing Able to Write Clear Content That Informs The age of the internet means that there is a ton of information at everyone’s fingertips. Which means that your content needs to be able to stand out by doing one thing: Subtly sell your product  while still providing your reader with value that they can’t get anywhere else. A good marketer knows the balance between writing to sell and writing to inform. Recommended Reading: The 5 Skills You Need to Become a Successful Content Writer Master the Art Of Copywriting To Sell Unlike content writing, copywriting is all about selling. Mastering this form of writing means that you can craft copy that sells your product in a snap. It also doesn’t have to be written from scratch. Using the right formula can help you craft the perfect copy every time. It’s up to you to find the line that takes it from a standard boilerplate to selling machine. Recommended Reading: The Ultimate Guide to No-Pain Copywriting (or, Every Copywriting Formula Ever) Be A Storyteller People don’t buy logic; they buy emotions. As a content writer, you need to create copy that appeals to the emotional side of your readers. Your product may kill 99.5% of bacteria, but what sells it is the fact that they’ll be able to keep their family healthy and safe from germs or serious illnesses. As you write any content, find the way to connect your customer’s lives to your product. Play up the frustrations they are experiencing and tell them the story of how your product is going to make it all better. Recommended Reading: How To Use Your Blog To Tell A Story How To Write Like A Journalist To Be A Better Marketing Storyteller Know How to Use Your Content To Teach A skill we don’t usually associate with marketing should also be on your portfolio list; teaching. Can you teach with the content you create? This could be anything from teaching about how to use your product or a new concept (that just so happens to tie into your product). Take ’s blog for example. One of our core pillars is centered around actionability or going beyond giving advice and showing people how to execute it. Whether it’s a simple step by step video on how to use your product, or an in-depth explanation blog post, use your space to teach your audience want they need to know. Recommended Reading: 7 Ways to Make Your Content More Actionable Be Persuasive Part of being a good marketer involves being able to be persuasive. After all, there are hundreds of products that could help your customer with their problems. Your message needs to be able to persuade them that yours is the best option out there. Your messages should craft a clear and concise story that explains the benefits of your product and why you triumph over the rest. Recommended Reading: 58 Ways to Create Persuasive Content Your Audience Will Love Have Strong Research Skills One of the keys to writing great content is the ability to research. We’ve mentioned this a bit earlier in the post, and when it comes to content writing, research couldn’t be more critical. Writing content that is backed by well-researched opinions increases your own authority. It’s one thing if you write a post and haphazardly throw advice out there. It’s another thing entirely if you can back it up with another source that your readers trust. By researching your opinions, and backing them up with reputable sources you can show your readers that they can trust you. Once they trust you, they can trust your product. Recommended Reading: 10 Research-Based Tips for Writing Better Content Know How to Measure Your ROI â€Å"How much money did the post you just spent writing for 8 hours at 15 dollars an hour make me?† â€Å"I don’t know†, probably isn’t the answer they want to hear. Proving the return on investment that your content marketing has made isn’t easy. In fact, 78% of marketers struggle with it. There are, however, ways to find the data you’re looking for. It all comes down to writing content that encourages your readers to take a conversion step and finding a way to monetize those actions. Recommended Reading: This Is The MROI Formula Your Marketing Team Needs To Be Using Measure Marketing ROI: Proving Value When It Can’t Be Measured Be Well-Read Part of developing your content writing and marketing skills is reading what others around you have done. I’m not saying you need to consume every Game of Thrones novel in a week, but being well read across a variety of subjects not only helps increase your general knowledge, but you’ll also be able to see what works and doesn’t work when you write your content. Start small at first, maybe subscribe to a blog or two as you begin to integrate reading into your routine add in a variety of books, magazines and more. To stay on top of news or to find sources try tools like Feedly  or Flipboard. Or for those of you who don’t like to read as much, podcasts and videos are also great options. Recommended Reading: 10x Marketing Formula Have a Deep Understanding Of How The Marketing Funnel Works When content marketing is done well, it can help lead your potential customers through your marketing funnel and help them convert into paying customers. How does this work? You need to create content for every stage in your marketing funnel. The top part of your funnel will contain the most content and probably cover the broadest topics. You want to catch the attention of as many people as you can. As you work your way down the funnel, your content will become more specific, helping guide your readers to the logical conclusion that your product is the best one for them. Recommended Reading: Content and the Marketing Funnel 4 Analytics Skills That Are Essential For Any Marketer Data helps drive the entire marketing process. It helps you see if your efforts are working, track what your customers are interacting with and so much more. Analytics skills are essential for marketers because you need to be able to pull data and interpret it to give your marketing strategists the most accurate information as possible. Without data to guide you, it’s like driving blindfolded; you’re just guessing. Here are the four skills that should be a part of any marketer’s arsenal. 4 Analytics SKills That Are Essential For Any MarketerBe Able to Interpret Customer Data to Influence The Decision Making Process In case you haven’t already guessed your customers are what makes your world go round. What they do and interact with can prove the success (or failure) of your marketing strategies. It’s up to you to pull that data from those interactions and interpret what your customers are trying to tell you. Do they like seeing videos of your product in action or do they prefer screenshots in a blog post? Let your data guide you in the right direction. Recommended Reading: How to Drill Into Data to Extract Powerful Social Media Insights Know and Understand Data Science According to NYU  data science is: â€Å"Data science involves using automated methods to analyze massive amounts of data and to extract knowledge from them.† A skilled marketer needs to be able to find and sort through massive amounts of data to find the insights you’re looking for. If you collected data every time one of your potential customers does anything, you’d have thousands of data points to sort through. As a marketer you should know what you’re looking for, where to find it and how to interpret it for your boss and co-workers. Recommended Reading: Data Science is the Latest In-Demand Skill Set For Marketing Know How to Use Data to Tell a Story Numbers and data don’t lie. They tell you if you’ve met your goals or sorely missed them. However, you can’t just point to your data and say â€Å"see it worked.† I mean you could, but you don’t want to be subpar at your job, do you? Marketers need to know how to take the data that you’ve gathered and turn it into a story that explains what happened and why it happened in plain English. Your marketing campaigns could be massive, and data is great but when your boss turns to you and asks so why did this campaign work your answer should be more thorough than just â€Å"well we planned a really creative social campaign.† Recommended Reading: 3 Ways to Tell a Story With Your Data Understand Data Visualization The last need to have skill in your analytics tool belt is the ability to understand data visualization. Numbers and data points by themselves are boring. Not to mention they don’t jump out at you and say â€Å"hey I’m the most important one here.† Data visualization is a way for you to help your co-workers and boss, as well as your customers, understand the most significant bits and pieces of data in an easy to read format. These could be anything from infographics to charts. You just need to find a way to work with your designers (or you could do it yourself) to find a way to bring your data to life. Recommended Reading: The 38 Best Tools for Data Visualization 11 Technical Skills and Tools Every Marketer Needs Technical skills and tools make the final piece of our marketing skills blog post. Marketing and technology are becoming more and more intertwined mainly because a lot of the projects that you take on as a marketer can’t be completed without them. Between strategy planning, design and numerous things you need to execute, trying to attempt it all without a tool would be insane. There’s just too much to do. So here are eleven tools and technical skills every marketer should have.