Obama laisse un bilan mitigé

Le maire de Lévis, Gilles Lehouillier, s’est réjoui d’avoir attiré 1307 nouveaux citoyens dans sa ville en 2016, ce qui lui permet de coiffer Saguenay au fil d’arrivée. «C’est vraiment un pas exceptionnel», a-t-il commenté avant le conseil municipal lundi soir. 

M. Lehouillier croit que Lévis continuera de grandir en 2017, étant donné le nombre de constructeurs qui cognent à sa porte en ce moment. 

«Malgré le fait qu’il y ait un essoufflement [en construction], nous, ça se maintient à un rythme assez élevé. Je pense que c’est le volet qualité de vie qui va faire la différence», a commenté M. Lehouillier.

L’auteur présumé de l’attaque terroriste qui a fait 39 morts au Reina, un night-club branché d’Istanbul, lors du réveillon du nouvel an a été arrêté par la police turque lundi 16 janvier, a affirmé lundi soir la chaîne de télévision d’État TRT. Le principal suspect dans cet attentat revendiqué par le groupe État islamique a été retrouvé avec son fils de 4 ans dans un appartement du quartier stambouliote d’Esenyurt au cours d’une opération policière, selon TRT. Il était en cavale depuis plus de quinze jours et des informations laissaient entendre qu’il n’avait jamais quitté Istanbul. Les autorités avaient entre-temps renforcé les contrôles aux frontières pour éviter que l’assaillant ne leur échappe. Selon l’agence progouvernementale Anadolu, le suspect arrêté se nomme Abdulgadir Masharipov, l’agence de presse Dogan indiquant pour sa part qu’il utilisait comme nom de code Ebu Muhammed Horasani au sein de l’EI. Ces noms figuraient dans les informations publiées le 8 janvier selon lesquelles les services de renseignements et la police antiterroriste d’Istanbul avaient identifié l’assaillant de la nuit du nouvel an comme un Ouzbek de 34 ans faisant partie d’une cellule de l’EI en Asie centrale.

Le suspect a été conduit au siège de la police stambouliote pour y être interrogé et d’autres opérations policières ont eu lieu dans la ville, ajoute Anadolu, sans donner plus de détails. Selon les médias turcs, l’assaillant était un tireur très bien entraîné qui avait combattu pour l’EI en Syrie et était devenu un expert en armes. Plusieurs médias avaient aussi affirmé que le tueur présumé s’était installé en novembre dans la ville de Konya avec son épouse et leurs deux enfants à son retour de Syrie afin de ne pas éveiller les soupçons. L’identité de l’assaillant présumé a donné lieu à quelques confusions au lendemain du massacre, certaines informations suggérant qu’il pourrait s’agir d’un Kirghize, d’autres évoquant un Ouïgour de Chine.

Cinq personnes arrêtées

Selon TRT, l’arrestation s’est produite lors d’une opération menée conjointement par la police et les services secrets turcs MIT. L’agence de presse Dogan a publié une photo du suspect, le visage ensanglanté et vêtu d’un tee-shirt, fermement maintenu au cou par un policier. Selon la chaîne TRT, le suspect résidait dans un appartement loué par un ressortissant kirghize à Istanbul, qui a été également arrêté. Selon Anadolu, cinq personnes ont été arrêtées dans l’opération de lundi soir, dont trois femmes. Au moins 35 personnes avaient déjà été arrêtées en lien avec l’attentat avant cette opération policière, selon le décompte d’Anadolu.

L’attentat au Reina avait marqué un début d’année sanglant pour la Turquie, déjà secouée en 2016 par une tentative de coup d’État et une vague d’attaques meurtrières commises par des djihadistes ou la rébellion kurde. Le but de l’attentat était de « nous dresser les uns contre les autres », avait averti le président Recep Tayyip Erdogan, mettant en garde contre un risque de « polarisation » après la publication de messages sur les réseaux sociaux critiquant le style de vie des personnes tuées dans la discothèque. La Turquie a été accusée par ses alliés occidentaux de ne pas avoir fait suffisamment contre la montée en puissance de l’EI, accusation que les autorités turques rejettent, faisant valoir qu’elles ont placé le groupe sur leur liste des organisations terroristes depuis 2013. En revendiquant le carnage du Reina, l’EI a reproché à la Turquie, pays à majorité musulmane, son intervention en Syrie et sa participation à la coalition menée par les États-Unis qui combat le groupe djihadiste en Syrie et en Irak.

Marketing isn’t what it was 10 years ago (or even 5), with all the advancements of technology and data the past few years have brought. According to HubSpot, half of all new marketing hires will require technical skills. Here are some that will probably be on that list of job requirements.

Photo courtesy of Pexels.com

1. Analytics

The very cornerstone of marketing as an industry is understanding the target audience in order to reach out to them effectively. In the modern world, that is best accomplished through collecting and analyzing data–often in large amounts.

Jess Vadino, senior strategist at Monetate, says, “No marketer needs to be a data scientist, but marketers should know the ins and outs of analytics platforms they use – and those their clients use. Someone who works with e-commerce clients, for instance, will be that much more valuable when they can point to the impact their work has had on the clients’ business KPIs, not just SEO ranking.”

2. SEO

Some people may claim that SEO is dead, but for marketers, that couldn’t be further from the truth. Organic search results have the potential to be much more powerful than paid ads, especially if they make it to the first page, and it’s been estimated that nearly 40% of customers find the company through search.

That said, algorithms and best practices are constantly evolving, so SEO is one skill that requires consistent updating and refining. Because of this, many companies prefer to have a dedicated SEO expert (or a team of them) rather than more general marketing professionals who know some SEO. Still, it’s well worth the time for any marketer to invest some time in grasping at least the basics.

3. HTML/CSS

Many marketing roles involve writing–whether it’s sales pages or blog posts. Being familiar with HTML at the very least will expedite the process of getting that content on the site and looking good.

Plus, Vadino adds that it makes cross-team communication much smoother: “While I’ve never had to write code as a marketer, understanding the basics makes conversations across teams so much easier.”

4. WordPress (or related CMS)

Tying in with the above, blogging and publishing content is key for marketing. Therefore, as a marketer in 2017, knowing how to get around a content management system (CMS) is crucial.

WordPress is one of the largest–to the point where it actually runs 27% of the entire Internet (nearly 16 million sites)–so starting there is your best bet. The good news is once you understand how to get around one CMS, it’s not tricky to get around another.

5. Video

Online video marketing (including the new darling, live video) is invoked by many marketing professionals as the future of the field.

“We saw this trend emerge in 2016 on almost every major social network, as brands looked to video as a way to communicate more easily with their readers,” says Divya Kunapuli, Director of Marketing at NGP VAN. “In 2017, marketers should not only know how video is used in marketing but master scripting, shooting, and editing videos for Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, etc. As someone who is self-taught in video production, I can attest to how simple it is to learn (especially given how you can do it all on your phone).”

Amber van Moessner, Director of Content at Livestream, weighs in on the power of streaming live. “Audiences spend more time with live video, and are willing to show up, participate, and join the conversation on social media more so than with VOD (video on demand) or blog content.”

The trick (and difficulty) to live video, though, is that it still has to be polished and compelling. “In 2016 we saw too many brands propping up folks who were not camera ready on Facebook Live to sometimes disastrous results,” says van Moessner. “Marketers and publishers need to be sure they’re ready to create high-quality live video for audiences in 2017, and that includes everything from equipment to on-screen talent. As this becomes the norm in content marketing, only the best live video will stand out.“

This is a problem that can easily be resolved by making good use of the Internet when promoting your brand.

The purpose of this post is to educate you on the different ways you can promote your brand more effectively.

The most important thing to branding is consistency. The mistake that you can make is that of saying one thing this week and contradicting yourself next week. This simply means that you cannot be trusted. The question you need to ask before you embark on marketing is this; what is your business really about? The answer to this question will guide you through the process.

Being consistent in branding creates brand recognition. This is what enables you to reinforce your brand. Regardless of the number of channels you are using to promote your brand, you must always make sure that you are consistent in your branding strategy.

One thing you need to understand in online marketing is that your website is the face of your brand. This will be the customer’s first stop before they come knocking on your doors. If they don’t like what they see on your website, chances are they will never do business with you. It is this reason that makes optimizing your website important.

More often than not, when it comes to optimizing their website, most people only focus on search engine optimization. Although this is important since you want your website to be found by more people, you still need to optimize your content. You need to make your content more appealing to prospective clients. It is also important that you spend a little more time making sure that your web design is user-friendly and that your website loads up at lightning speed.

In the realm of online marketing, social media is the most reliable tool when it comes to brand promotion. This is because it helps you connect with your customers at a more intimate level. It is also important to note that most of your prospective clients are on social media. The use of social media will further help you generate quality links and content for your website.

All in all, just being on social media is not enough. You have to keep your social media profiles alive. Post relevant content regularly and allow your followers to participate. The proper use of social media will promote your business, enhance brand visibility, boost brand loyalty, and also grow your sales among other things. The social media platform enables small businesses and corporations to compete on a level ground. You can also stream your social media feeds on your digital signage screens in your business so that your customers know what is happening on your social profiles.

The quality of the content you produce and distribute has to be of great quality. This is the best way to gain visibility. You need to remember that Internet users are looking for quality content. If you only provide them with information that they can find anywhere, they will definitely lose confidence in you. This will definitely hurt your reputation.

One of the best strategies you can use to create better content is to start by understanding the plight of your consumers. What do they really want? What problems are your target consumers facing and how can your products and services help solve these issues? By providing them with high quality content that solves their problems, you will be able to effectively win their hearts. If you are not a great writer, do not hesitate to work with freelancers or content development companies. They will save you time. However, before giving them the green light, make sure that they completely understand your objectives.

Studies show that people are more inclined to view videos than to read text. This is the main reason why you need to incorporate video marketing in your strategies. Businesses of all sizes can leverage video marketing. Create a unique video that appeals to your target audience and post it on such channels as Vimeo, YouTube and Metcafe. Posting branded videos that are relevant to your niche is considered to be a very effective way of promoting your brand, driving traffic to your site and also making your brand stand out. You can also add the video on your social media profiles and post it on your blog and website.

The distribution of press release is yet another effective method that you can use to enhance your brand visibility as well as recognition. The best thing about this option is that it is inexpensive. If the press release is picked up by the Google News, your brand will get more coverage.

When it comes to online marketing, you have to capitalize on blogging. Setting up a blog is easy and you can post virtually anything so long as it is relevant to your target audience. A blog will help enhance your brand visibility as well as boost your chances of success. Blogging will further improve your search engine ranking, establish brand validity as well as increase your reach. Blogging will further enable you to build stronger relationships with your customers. Whenever you add a new post on your blog, make sure that you add a post on social media that informs your followers of the new post.

When it comes to branding, the key to success is being consistent and authentic. If you are open and honest with yourself, the value of your brand will increase and it will be more authentic.

Image: Photospin

Author Bio

Kay Green is the CEO of RKG Marketing Solutions, a company focused on online branding. She advises new businesses to make use of DoPublicity in order to learn more on marketing.

This article appeared at: www.eggmarketingpr.com 

Two women kneel on the ground and attempt to remove caps from water bottles positioned between two men’s thighs with their mouths.

Strange though it may sound, this is not a scene in an adult movie, but a video reportedly taken at an annual dinner held by the instant messaging department of the Chinese internet giant Tencent.

The sexually suggestive footage first appeared on Miaopai, a Chinese video sharing platform similar to Vine. The video quickly went viral and ignited criticism and discussions across social media.

Displeased netizens raged that it was “shameful”, “disgusting” and “disrespectful to women”.

Tencent then issued an official statement on Chinese social media site Zhihu to apologise, condemning the inappropriateness of the game and vowing to “reinforce management and oversight so something like this will not happen again”.

An executive in charge of the social network games department also posted an internal apology on Tencent’s Weibo account, saying:

“As department head, I sincerely apologise, especially to the female colleagues who felt uncomfortable or offended. We will tackle this problem head-on and correct our values, and we want to say sorry to our female colleagues. The annual party is a department activity, and represents the company’s image; we’ve lapsed in our oversight of the party games, and have caused much inconvenience. The various opinions, suggestions and criticisms by everyone have been taken into account, and I can only hope that you can stop circulating the video to protect our colleagues’ privacy.”

A human resources manager posted later, announcing demerit points for the employees involved, and reminding other departments to “keep to company values and culture, and reinforce management and oversight so something like this will not happen again.”

However, netizens criticised that the tech company censored their posts by deleting their videos on Weibo.

IveExperiencedSexism accuses Tencent: “While you (Tencent) apologise on Zhihu, you censor Weibo… is this PR or a sincere apology? @Tencent if you guys feel stressed at the end of the year, do you need us to think up of some non-sexist ice-breakers?”

An anonymous user claimed to be a former Tencent employee also posted that “it’s a long-standing tradition” and outlined previous acts of sexism at Tencent.

“As a former Tencent employee, this isn’t surprising – it’s a long-standing tradition. At a games division annual party three years ago, there was another lurid game where colleagues had to kiss each other through a piece of tissue; a female colleague refused, but was pressured into doing it. I feel embarrassed that I worked at Tencent, and I hope the executives can reflect and stop the sexist behaviour from happening again.”