Effects of Social Media and ROI for Small Businesses Research Paper

Effects of Social Media and ROI for Small Businesses - Research Paper Example So if there were one term that could be used to grasp the ubiquity of social media, it would be ‘instant dissemination’. Going by this versatility of social media, the way people research, access and purchase products and services around the world is fast changing (Cass, 2007, p. 11). Hence, as expected and would be deemed to be commonsensical, businesses, whether big or small simply could not expect to thrive and survive competition if they do not customize their approach in consonance with these pressing consumer trends and practices (Cass, 2007, p. 9). Especially in case of the small businesses, which have fewer resources to spend on infrastructure, consumer education, communication, and marketing and after sales service, social media offers a range of salubrious opportunities and possibilities. However, it does need to be mentioned that the positive advantages facilitated by the social media to the small businesses are qualified and subject to an array of initiatives , choices, precautions, objectives and constraints. Before delving on the effect of small media on small businesses, it is imperative to gauge the extent to which the small businesses are turning to social media for accomplishing a range of objectives and activities. As per a report published in Forbes, nearly 54 percent of the small and midsize businesses do actively ascribe to social media to advance their scope and this figure is expected to soar every year (Diana, 2010). What is even more impressive is that the engagement of small businesses with social media is not lethargic and intermittent, but rather happens to be really prompt and regular, considering the fact that nearly 35 percent of them have been found to be posting regular inputs and updates on social media sites such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and LinkedIn (Diana, 2010). Indeed, social media must be doing something good to these small businesses as 60 percent of them have acknowledged that social media has positive ly and propitiously influenced their business prospects (Diana, 2010). In a British study focusing on 269 small and midsize businesses, 46 percent accounted that an active engagement with social media has enhanced their brand awareness and 36 percent agreed that they have been able to grab much new business owing to social media (Diana, 2010). However, one simply cannot trust the positivity of social media for small businesses by merely considering only those who succeeded. As could be considered to be a commonsensical premise, there must be many small businesses which must have failed to considerably benefit from social media owing to a variety of mistakes and flaws in their strategy. As already mentioned that small businesses are marked by limited resources, they could only benefit from social media if they could use it to leverage business in a cost effective way and assure a favorable return on investment. In that context it would be pragmatic to delve on the varied benefits tha t social media offers to small businesses and how the small businesses could glean these benefits while assuring an optimal return on investment. One salient advantage of social media to the small businesses is that it could be easily used to reach a diverse and widely scattered customer base as social media as compared to the conventional media has a larger reach and a higher sharing potential (Coleman, 2012). One direct and immediate advantage of soci

Josephus, the jewish wars (c. 100CE) Term Paper

Josephus, the jewish wars (c. 100CE) - Term Paper Example Josephus and other Greek historians are not an exemption. An analysis of various classical historians literary works on the Jewish war McLaren in his book the† turbulent times† emphasizes on the need to differentiate between the Josephus narrative of his actual events, as well as the interpreting such events. According to him, he views Josephus bias life as the jest of his text instead of trying to know the extent of Judea turmoil in a more different way (Josephus and Whiston 12). Perhaps, by inquiring how Judea was run in the first century. The only way to ensure that happens is by establishing what led to its transformation from the stability to its downfall. All the same, it might be for a reason that the ideal method should actually be determined by the Jewish attitude in response to the Roman rule. For instance, being fully qualified is the only way to achieve the criteria for describing various incidents based on an individual. Some even insist that even if McLaren would appreciate that, his book end with such sentiments, it would still not be that negative (Mclaren 425). However, the positive side of his literary works is where he suggests that his case study calls for three main pillars that include the identification and isolation of the required investigation. In his view, there is a need to examine each incident based on the individual grounds. In light with this, he calls for assembling all pieces of relevant details regarding every incident that happened in Judea. As much as such issues have been raised, it is very evident too that, most of the valuable information is not only from the chronological events of the Josephus, but comes also from other sources such as the Philo, which has not been widely used in his book (McLaren 426). McLaren argues that, in order to appreciate the chronological events that took place in the Jewish war, it is necessary to keenly observe the long and short term causes of the war (Mclaren 425). He is also ve ry skeptical in regards to Josephus works as a historian as the Romans too had their own stories to say in their favor. That is the reasons why he has always attacked the Greeks for printing unreliable sources of references. According to the biblical times, the Jews came to significance due to the establishment of a Jewish center in Palestine. Josephus claims that judges were appointed from the Jews themselves. After a while, the Jews flourished giving them the best position to control the administration. This caused an alarm in the government, hence leading to the violence that erupted. Consequently, this led to the Jewish persecution in Damascus, a city that had a large population of Greeks. A total of 10,500 Jews were killed (McLaren 427). Furthermore, the Jews in Syria could not occupy prestigious positions in Arab countries. Jews are known for being notorious in surrendering to the Arabs. For four years, Syria was considered as the platform for the struggle between different ra ces, Jews being part of the struggle Josephus as a source of military history of the Jews war However, it is indispensable to note that, Josephus works is still accredited for, due to the support of the church leaders. This in itself tries to prove that the documents are reliable (Bloom 222). Despite this, there are still some doubts concerning the rebuilding of the Roman campaign in Judea. This is because he has employed the Greco-Roman records to prove some of his arguments (Bloom