One of the more popular methods of reputation marketing these days is guest posting. While guest posts are technically just regular posts on a different blog than yours, they can have a lot of benefits. Be it getting your brand mentioned on a different platform, or having quality backlinks to your website, Guest Posts make a lot of SEO contributions for your blogs or website. Most guest authors write such posts to embed backlinks, however, it also helps in connecting with your peers in the industry. This article will give you a better idea on how Guest Posts differ from PR significantly and how does guest posting help your business along with get an understanding on what are D0-follw links.
Know Why Guest Posting can help your business better than PR (Public Relations)
While guest posts are not much different from regular posts, there are certain guidelines and principles one must follow while writing a guest post, and here is a brief summary of the same.
While guest posts are written with a special attention to backlinks, the outbound links should be equally accentuated, and specially the anchor text.
When writing a guest post, give the viewers the best value for their time, and offer valuable insights and cover the topic extensively without looking vague.
Avoid guest articles or blogs on sites with a lot of guest content, since the backlinks don’t contribute much to the SEO to your own website or blog.
Write the blog or the article in a way that the readers would want to share them, hence increasing your viewership, as well as that of the guest platform.
Last and the most important one, proper research must be done while guest posting, as it is one of the ways you can establish your brand as one of the leading one’s in the industry.
Technically, all the links that you share in a blog and attach anchor text to are Do-follow links, unless modified to be no-follow links. All do-follow links act as votes of confidence telling the search engine of the quality of the article or blog.
No-follow links have a piece of code that restricts this action, and they do not count as votes for better SEO rankings. When it comes to code, the only attribute that differentiates do-follow and no-follow links is the ‘rel’ attribute, which does not exist with regular/do-follow links while it refers to a keyword ‘nofollow’ for the no-follow links.
Apart from your content reaching a wider audience, Guest Posting has a lot more to offer. Some of the important benefits of Guest Posting and Blogging are discussed below.
Guest Posting is a step beyond your personal network, and makes connecting with influencers relatively easy.
By writing for others’ blogs, you establish your own credibility, and viewers will recognize your brand and be more receptive.
Guest blogs and articles may contain one or more backlinks directing to your website, making a valuable contribution to the SEO of your own website.
Picking a relevant website for guest posting will help you connect with more people interested in your niche, and generate more leads.
You also receive insightful and valuable feedback from your peers and competitors in your community to enhance your strategy.
With guest posting, you also sharpen your marketing skills including content research, writing voice, and influencer outreach.
What is Public Relations and how does it help your business?
Public Relations (PR) is a professional assistance to a company, brand or an individual to help create a positive image and reputation of the concerned brand in the general public. This is achieved through paid or even unpaid communications, social media handles, and sometimes even personal engagement and campaigns. Public Relations is an important aspect in portraying a business or a brand in good light, and to expand its reach and audience.
Assuming that Guest Posting is just an extension of PR, owing to their strategic similarities is a common misconception. Contrastingly, Guest posting is very different, and a lot more convenient than PR, with a lot more benefits. Here are few reasons why Guest Posting should be your go to route for reputation marketing, and not the usual PR.
Guest Posting Vs Public Relations
Interacting with industry professionals, prospective customers, and an audience interested in your niche is what guest posting is all about, and that is what you need for brand recognition. PR isn’t of much help for getting the word out.
PR is more inclined to journalists, and places most of the control in the hands of journalism in contrast to guest posting, where you own the quill, and have the ability to methodically post interactive content.
With PR, there is no gist of competition and the campaign is mostly product/company centric. While it isn’t wrong, the objective of building a trusted brand that stands tall among its peers is not something PR is good at.
PR backlinks redirect viewers directly to the homepage of the concerned brand or company, exponentially depreciating its value. This deceases click through rates while increasing bounce rates. A better approach would be to add context to the content that you create, which is something you would often find in guest posts.
PR doesn’t display the part where your product excels, rather it tells a story. As much as the reader is interested in a good story, this doesn’t add value or credibility to the product. On the other hand, Guest Posting does exactly that, and even gets you an audience that is interested to read about your product.
PR and Guest Posting, while sometimes thought of as extensions of the same thing, are surprisingly quite different. Moreover, even the press releases, an integral part of PR, rolls out stories way different than what the readers actually need. But as much as they are different, in a way, good PR and Guest Posting complement one another, and when used efficiently, they can be quite an effective duo. However, the bottom line is, regular PR does not add the technical value to your product as much as a good guest post would, and neither it can encompass all the benefits that guest posting has to offer. And hence, decisively speaking, PR is not as effective and influential as a robust guest post, and does not possess the capabilities that a good guest post with do-follow links does.
One of the biggest changes 2020 has brought in a company’s work culture is that most businesses have now switched to remote work.
Whether you are a two member team, or a large group of collaborators, work is mostly done remotely and might stay that way for a while. Even though there are a lot of advantages having small teams working from their homes, the biggest disadvantage to this type of collaboration is network barriers.
In a company, every team member shares the same network which made collaboration easy. Sending or receiving files instantaneously without having to rely on 3rd party solutions were the norm in offices. Needless to say, using different methods for sharing and collaboration via screen sharing is a tedious process, and its costs a lot in time and effort.
Remove all your network restraints and barriers using Simply5. This application allows your remote working teams to connect to a single virtual network and cast local web services, applications and file with just a click of a button.
Simply5 is a great addition to fasten your workflow and fulfill all your networking needs.
Simply5 CloudLAN will turn your remote working teams into local teams by allowing developers to access each other’s computers without any restrictions. You an also access code running on your colleague’s system, without any need to use server hosting.
You can access to CloudLAN room, a virtual private network which allows your users to connect and communicate with each other’s private IP’s as if you were sharing a local area network in your office.
Get access in real-time – Access and consume the latest version of Web Apps/ API as your team works on it.
Share your localhost – With Public and Team URL’s, share the latest version of code running on your localhost. Get an updated list of services hosted by your teammates.
Debug API’s faster – Using a Public URL, make under-progress API and websites accessible by anyone from anywhere without setting up servers.
Share files without uploading – Share files with complete privacy with P2P sharing. You need not compromise your security by uploading files on third-party apps and software.
Collaborating made easy with Private IP – Create quick demos and by sharing the project with anyone without relying on hosting servers.
Collaborate and share your project with your team
Secure access – Set up a collaborative and safe remote networking environment without any compromise in security. Simply5 lets you observe APIs and web apps in real-time as your team codes, making debugging lightning fast.
What is a CloudLAN room? It’s a virtual VPN network to which all your users can connect to & communicate with each other over private IP’s like you are connected on the same LAN network.
How many devices can be connected by a user? Each user can connect using 2 devices simultaneously to a CloudLAN room
What is a Server License? Servers feature is built for cases where you have an always-on machine to which you would like to have secure & private connectivity it. The adoption process is as simple as running a single command on the server terminal.
How is CloudLAN safe and secured? Each CloudLAN room is linked to a Virtual Network instance, to which the members are connected to using an encrypted tunnel. All the communication happens securely over this encrypted connection. Make sure you use Team VPN when connecting over unsecured public Wi-Fi networks for secure browsing.
How many rooms can a user create? There are no limits on the number of rooms a user can create, if you are part of multiple project teams please create multiple rooms & invite them to respective project rooms
Can a user create multiple rooms using the same lifetime deal? No, the One-lifetime deal coupon code is valid only for creating a single Room subscription.
Creating unique and engaging graphics is time-consuming. If you’re in marketing then you must know how important it is to the overall marketing strategy.
You need to hire a graphic artist who understands the message you’re trying to convey and create visuals that can align with your brand goals. The process consumes a lot of time, effort, and money.
Meet Pixelixe.
Pixelixe allows users to design graphics, create and edit images
An extraordinary tool that offers a graphic and image creation platform that lets you design unique graphics as efficiently as possible!
Featuring a white-labeled integrated editor, editing tools, and design automation that lets you create amazing designs. You can launch your social media campaigns by hiring a graphic artist or agency and save a lot of time. The best thing about Pixelixe is that you don’t require any technical knowledge whatsoever.
Pixelixe offers its users a collection of more than a million images, thousands of icons, and fonts. You can even drop and edit your own images and download them easily.
Get started by accessing Pixelixe’s amazing collection of images and templates. With the image editor, you can easily design your own graphics or choose a pre-designed template for your project. You can even customize these designs for your business or your clients.
Pixelixe includes a high-quality Image Editing API that allows you to manipulate and transform images within minutes. You have a variety of options like flip, resize, opacity, crop, filter, rotate, blur, bright, and invert
Embed graphics easily
Pixelixe makes it easy for you to embed customizable graphics, PDF editor, or images on your website. You can easily integrate Pixelixe on your existing website.
Pixelixe lets you add your own assets, design your logo and assign colors to your website for a smooth user experience. Once you finish editing your site, Pixelixe’s rest API will create in it real-time in the URL of your choice.
Automation
If you’re new to marketing then you can use Pixelixe to automate Image creation, and create new templates.
Each design that is saved is considered a template. Pixelixe has the ability to generate unlimited variations of designs or images based on those templates. To integrate Image automation API into your website, all you need to do is to follow along with the API documentation and benefit from ready to use code snippets.
Automate image creation in Pixelixe
All the text and images in a template become objects you can modify and get the image generated for you by Pixelixe.
You can generate multiple variations of any template so that your clients or team can reuse, modify or edit them anytime.
Pixelixe – Pricing
Free/Forever
6 downloads per month (PNG or JPEG)
+300 Fonts
Access 700.000 stock photos
10 Photo Effects
No account required
No Multi-format resize Automatic Resize (From Instagram post to Banner Ads for example)
No saving feature
No import/Export
No transparent background
No account needed
Pixelixe Pro – 8.99/month or 6.99/billed annually
Unlimited downloads (PNG, JPEG, PDF & HTML)
+900 Fonts
Access 1.000.000+ stock photos
40+ Photo Effects
Organize your photos with folders
Multi-format resize Automatic Resize (From Instagram post to Banner Ads for example)
Save graphics in the cloud (Unlimited Storage)
Import/Export graphics on your hard drive
Save templates from your creation
Download with transparent background
Pixelixe API – 49.99/month or 39.99/month (billed annually)
With the White-label editor, can I access designs created by my customers?
Yes, Pixelixe’s API will push graphics edited by your users in real-time on your server endpoint (URL of your choice). This way, you remain in full control over the user experience. For example, you can decide to ask for payment before downloading the output. You can decide to publish or share graphics online or whatever best suits your needs.
Is it possible to integrate and test the white-label editor in our development, staging, and production environment?
Yes, with the API plan, you will be able to integrate the editor in all your environments (development, staging, and production). You will get one API key, but it is possible to “programmatically” change the integration settings for each platform.
For example, if you want to change the endpoint on your side in which our API will push designs created by your users, you can overwrite the URL when calling this API on your dev or staging environment.
This way, you can make sure everything is running smoothly before releasing the final solution in production.
How many users can we have with one API key?
Unlimited. As per Pixelixe’s business model for the White-label editor, it is based on page views (1 editor view = 1 API call to our platform), it does not matter how many users you have, the editor can be opened, for example, 25.000 times by the same users or one time by 25.000 different users, it won’t impact the pricing.
You know the drill when it’s performance review time. Sometimes, it’s hard for someone to deliver face-to-face performance reviews, so giving a performance review effectively should be a skill in corporate culture. Performance reviews are one of the few tasks that create a lot of anxiety among employees and to balance positive feedback with the need for improvement is always a thin line.
A go-to tip to make performance reviews successful in your company may differ but universal principles about how to talk to an employee and discuss his or her performance, are the same. These tips for performance reviews are applicable in your daily short conversations with your employee, and they are also needed at times when there is a discussion about job goals and performance.
You may get the notionthat a performance review is an opportunity to unload a long list of criticisms, but that’s not 100% correct. Rather, it’s an honest evaluation of the employee’s performance, both good and bad. Think of the performance review as a way to celebrate the positives and emphasize areas where improvements are needed and can be made too. When you build your performance review around those metrics, it gives your employees the information they need to grow within their position and benefit the business as a whole.
What Should A Performance Review Look Like?
The basic characteristics on which effective performance reviews are built are:
Communication
Collaboration and teamwork
Problem-solving
Quality and accuracy of work
Attendance and dependability
Ability to accomplish goals and meet deadlines
Effective Performance Reviews
So, how you chose to format and grade these components are up to you. Some organizations use the grading method of assigning A, B, C, D, and F, some use scaling order of 1 to 10, and some use percentage. Whatever system you chose, ensure that the performance review is effective and understandable, and communicates the information clearly in a concise manner.
Do’s and Don’ts: Principles to Remember While Doing A Performance Review
Do
Don’t
Make it clear at the beginning of the year how you’ll evaluate your employees with individual performance planning sessions.
Offer general feedback; be specific on behaviours you want your employee to stop, start, and continue.
Give your employees a copy of their appraisal before the meeting so they may have their initial emotional response in private.
Talk about compensation during the review; but if you must, divulge the salary information at the start of the conversation.
Deliver a positive message to your good performers by mainly concentrating on their strengths and achievements during the conversation.
Sugar-coat the review for your poor performers; use the face-to-face as an opportunity to demand improvement.
While performance review methods and approaches may differ, but these tips to review any performance review effectively will never ditch you. But they will help you make performance reviews polite, positive, and motivational. These tips will help you inspire the best from your employees.
Performance Reviews Shall Not Become Cliche
Tips For Conducting Performance Reviews Effectively
1) Make the Environment Comfortable
It’s important that the environment in which you hold your performance review should be comfortable as possible as it goes a long way toward putting your employee at ease even before the meeting begins.
There’s nothing wrong with using a conference room for a performance review, but sit next to the employee rather than 20 feet away and try doing what you can to put them at ease.
Holding your performance reviews in a location other than your office is an ideal way to minimize distractions. It could be a coworking space or a quiet café. Even simple interruptions like phone calls, emails, or your mobile phone beeping, someone knocking on your door; always try to diminish the effectiveness and poignancy of what you have to say.
If you have decided to hold the performance review in your office meeting room, then silence your phones, turn off your email, and hang a “Do Not Disturb” sign on your door before the meeting starts.
This goes with managers wondering where to start when they’re faced with putting together a performance review. The suggestion would be to review the job description. When preparing it, ask yourself these questions as the basis for the rest of your Performance review:
Did the employee satisfy all the responsibilities and requirements listed in the job description?
Were there certain aspects left lacking?
I mean this may work wonders and can make your work go easy. But while you’re looking at the job description, make sure it’s up to date. Only when the job description is up to date and accurate will you be able to provide a fair performance review.
4) Conduct Reviews Frequently
Conduct Reviews Frequently
Don’t make your performance review an annual event because it may sound weird when employees are having snacks while they are already feeling overwhelmed for the reviews pending. Instead, provide feedback throughout the year. Many businesses hold performance reviews at the end of major projects. Some set them every three months. Always choose a frequency that’s right for your business and your employees. And be sure that the performance review isn’t a surprise. Your employees should know when it’s coming.
5) Don’t Let Only Recent Performance Fill Your Evaluation
Don’t let the most recent activity of your employees fill your evaluation. A performance review should be based on everything that occurred since the last review, not just the past week or month.
Try to look at the big picture, not just the time last month when the employee saved a big project or the time, he missed a critical deadline — it can help you be more objective with your feedback.
Basically, a performance review should be based on three key points:
Company-specific core competencies.
Position-specific competencies.
Achievement.
The first two competencies may include skills such as organization, company/product knowledge, attitude, and anything else that’s important for the job. If your company hasn’t defined these competencies yet, now is a good time to do so.
7) Weigh Each Aspect Of The Employee’s Performance
It’s essential to weigh each aspect of your employees’ performance. Your performance review should be divided in a manner, for instance, company-specific competencies should be worth 20%. Position-specific competencies should be worth 30%. Achievement should be worth 50 percent (I mean this is a must to keep them going on).
8) Hold an Annual Face-To-Face Performance Review
No matter if you are conducting a written performance review for a long time then a face-to-face performance review meeting can make an annual event in your business. A written performance review is useful for more frequent evaluations, but it’s beneficial to hold a face-to-face review at least once per year. You convey a great deal with your tone of voice and expressions. Those things don’t come across in a letter, no matter how well-written. The face-to-face performance review also makes it possible to have a discussion about your employee’s work, rather than just a one-sided monologue.
9) End with The Positive Note
Think of your performance review as a sandwich: the positives are the bread and the negatives are the meat, lettuce, and condiments.
As we mentioned, it’s a good idea to lead with the positive to set the right mood for the performance review, but it’s also smart to end on a positive note. Chances are, the first and last thing you talk about them will be what the employee remembers most. If that last thing is negative, it could affect everything they do when they return to work.
End on a positive note, even if the employee has plenty of things to work on — so they feel good about themselves and secure in their job.
Always End The Review With A Positive Note
10) Be Open & Honest with Employees
Honesty is the best policy, so don’t be afraid to be open with your employees about their performance. Don’t sugar-coat your assessment or beat around the bush. Your employees will know when you’re being overly-flattering, and the review process is hard enough without making your employees decipher what you’re trying to say. It’s satisfying when it goes all right, because somehow in a manner everybody knows where they went wrong and where they were best at.
Before presenting your review to an employee, gather feedback from her co-workers. It can also be informative to your analysis if you ask the employee herself how she thinks she’s doing. Peer feedback and self-appraisals can go a long way toward giving you the most complete picture possible of an employee’s performance.
Effective Performance Reviews
12) Use the Right Language
The words you use are just as important as the message you’re trying to communicate. That’s why it’s vital to use the right language during the performance review. Be as clear and specific as possible without sounding trite and insincere.
Avoid general terms like “good,” “great,” and “excellent.” Opt instead for action words like Excels, Decisive, Responsive, Dedicated, Knowledgeable, Honest, Thorough, etc.
These types of words are more descriptiveand, are more meaningful.
It’s also a good idea to create a list of strengths and weaknesses phrases for common parts of the performance review, such as Attendance, Attitude, Customer Service, Dependability, Flexibility, Interpersonal Skills, Leadership, Performance, Teamwork, Time Management, and more.
For example:
A strengthphrase for performance is:
Michael excels at developing strategies that deliver results.
A weakness phrase for performance is:
Does not take initiative unless prompted.
A strength phrasefor attitude is:
Does not let difficult circumstances get her down.
Aweakness phrasefor attitude is:
A negative attitude in some situations has a tendency to cause problems.
Just be sure to elaborate on the phrases you choose so that the employee has a clear idea of what you mean.
13) Set Goals
Reviewing old goals and setting new goals is a crucial component of every successful performance review. Because this is what actually a performance review means at the end. When you set goals for your employees, you give them the direction to work. You give them away to quantify their performance. They can look at what they’re doing and ask, “Is this habit getting me closer to achieving my goals? What can I do that would make it easier to reach those goals?”
4 Examples Of Performance Reviews
Here are some examples of performance reviews that may really work in explaining to you. Now performance reviews can be categorized as Good review, Satisfactory Review, Poor Review, Combination Review.
1. Good Review
Chandler exceeds all expectations in his role as a server. He always has a positive attitude. He adapts easily to rapid change in the workplace. He works well under pressure by herself and with other team members. He is detail-oriented and completes tasks in a timely manner. He even seeks out additional responsibilities when his schedule isn’t that tight.
2. Satisfactory Review
Cheshta meets all company expectations in her role as a customer service rep. She adapts well to client demands and changing workloads. She maintains a sense of detail and a positive attitude even under pressure. These skills, though, come at the expense of time management. And while Sheen shows an aptitude for leadership, she doesn’t actively seek out leadership training or opportunities.
3. Poor Review
At times, Kopal can be very effective at her job as a shift manager when she is engaged in her work. Unfortunately, Kopal is frequently late, and this seriously impacts the productive hours of her workday. During the next quarter, we would like Kopal to focus on attendance—being clocked in and ready to work at the start of her shift.
4. Combination Review
Aishani meets some of the company expectations in her role as a barista but falls well short of others. She is an active listener, manages her time efficiently, and is always conscientious about the quality of her work. Aishani needs to work on demonstrating professionalism at all times and, though she works well by herself, would benefit greatly from additional team-building skills.
There are some tools that can make your work go super fine and easy. So to simplify your responsibilities every day, you need a scheduling task manager. Some of the features are:
Whatever you are providing them in the name of performance review just remember that you provide informal feedback before and after the performance review. If there’s something an employee needs to work on, be sure to make a note of it in their file so you can refer to it when it comes time for the annual performance review. This will help the employee work on their strengths and weaknesses every day.
How to handle your performance review?
Let them know they’re doing a good job so they don’t think they have to change. Even a simple “good job” email or note on their desk goes a long way toward helping them feel like a valuable part of the team.
In my opinion, performance reviews are the only thing which canenhancerelationshipsbetween employees and manager significantly, which is a boon for customers and work relationships. So, take these performance reviews into practice too, to make this job work effectively.
Frequently Asked Questions
How to do a performance review?
Provide regular, informal feedback. While performancereviews typically happen once or twice a year, feedback should not be limited to those short review periods.
Be honest.
Do it face to face.
Use tangible, pertinent examples.
End on a positive note.
Choose your words with care.
How to conduct a performance review?
Prepare all feedback ahead of time.
Keep your remarks clear and concise.
Provide employees with a copy of the completed evaluation form.
Keep employeereview meetings a two-way conversation.
End with a focus on the future.
Hold multiple evaluations throughout the year.
Employeeevaluation examples.
How honest should you be in a performance review?
The best employee evaluations are open and honest conversations, but it’s easy, without thinking, to disclose sensitive or confidential information about other employees or customers. Be totally honest and forthcoming about the employee’s performance, but remember.
Sam Walton was an American businessman and entrepreneur. He is famous for establishing the retailers Walmartand Sam’s Club. Walmart is an American multi-national retail corporation that operates a chain of hypermarkets. It eventually grew and became the world’s largest corporation by revenue and the biggest private employer. For a specific period of time, Sam was the richest man in America. He also received the Distinguished Eagle Scout Award from the Boy Scouts of America. At the time of his death, he had a net worth of $8.6 billion.
Sam was born in Kingfisher, Oklahoma. He lived with his parents near their farm. However, the family was unable to cope up with their financial needs through farming. Gibson Walton, Sam’s father, then decided to mortgage his farm and worked for his brother’s Mortgage Company which was an agent of Metropolitan Life Insurance.
The family later moved to Columbia, Missouri. He grew up during the Great Depression of the 1930s. He used to do the household chores like milking the cow, bottling the surplus, and delivering it to customers to meet the financial ends of the family. After completing his household errands, he used to deliver Columbia Daily Tribune newspapers on paper route and sell magazine subscriptions.
Sam Walton – Education
Sam became the youngest Eagle Scout while studying in eighth grade in Shelbina, Missouri. He then studied at David H. Hickman High School in Columbia and was given the title of the ‘most versatile boy’.
He graduated with a Bachelor of Economics from University of Missouri in 1940 and was voted as the “permanent president” of the class.
Sam Walton – Professional Life
Sam did various jobs to fulfill the financial requirements of his family during the Great Depression period. He waited tables in exchange for meals. He earned several honors and awards. He joined the Zeta Phi part of Beta Theta Pi fraternity. He also received the QEBH, the national military honor Scabbard and Blade. Sam Walton also served as the president of Burall Bible Class and Stephens College.
He joined J. C. Penney as a management trainee in Des Moines, lowa. This job paid him $75 per month. He resigned after 18 months in 1942 to join the military force serving in World War II.
Sam’s military journey taught him to be a giver rather than a taker. He also realized his interest in retailing and business while serving in the military. He joined the military in the U. S Army Intelligence Corps and supervised security at aircraft plants and at prisoner of war camps. He eventually acquired the prestigious position of captain. Sam Walton then left the Army and to work on his retail store idea.
Sam Walton – Startup
At age 26, Sam started his first variety store with a $20,000 loan from his father-in-law and $5,000 that he saved while serving in the Army. He then purchased a store which was a franchise of Butler Brothers chain. He offered prices as good or better than the nearby stores and consistently stocked a variety of goods in his store.
He opened his second store called the Eagle department store. After seeing the growth in sales, the landlord started rolling out some contracts/clauses which Sam wasn’t comfortable with. Sam was forced to leave the rented store and got fixtures for $50,000 which he called “a fair price”.
He purchased a new location in Bentonville that eventually grew from $72,000 to $105,000 in the first year of sales and then to $175,000. The new store was named “Five and Dime”. Sam was encouraged to escort more locations and open more Ben Franklin franchises.
The company was first labeled Walmart on 2 July, 1962 in Rogers, Arkansas. It was then called Wal-Mart Discount City store. Sam focused on marketing American-made products and worked on finding American manufacturers who could supply merchandise for the whole Walmart chain at reasonable prices to stand firmly before foreign competitors.
Sam’s model for Walmart Incorporation offered two advantages; the first one was ‘limited existing competition’. The second advantage was the gigantic store that discouraged businesspersons in the nearby areas from entering the market. He emphasized logistics, locating stores of regional warehouses, and distributing through Walmart-owned trucking service.
Sam Walton – Sam’s Club
Sam introduced Sam’s club, an American chain of membership-only retail warehouse clubs owned and operated by Walmart Incorporation. Sam’s Club was founded in 1983 and it was named after the founder. The company ranks second among warehouses clubsin sales volume with sales worth $57.839 billion. Sam’s Club operates 599 membership warehouse clubs in 44 states of the U.S.
Dropshipping and eCommerce goes hand in hand and have turned out to be gold for all those who are now sitting at home. It is one of the best opportunities to make money online with your own social media account. One of the fastest ways to market is to use Facebook ads manager for dropshippingbusiness. So, the question is, how to start dropshipping on Facebook.
Many are in a great deal of stress that they are putting more effort on Facebook ads vs Google ads for dropshipping so they rely on the organic traffic of Google. It might have worked a few times earlier, but promoting your online stores through Google ads is just futile. I mean if someone really wants to buy your product, then they will automatically go to Google but that isn’t scalable like Facebook is.
Facebook is the largest social network with 2.6 billion active monthly users so you can see how Facebook ads help your upcoming business. Facebook Marketing is easily scalable because its something you put in front of a few customers and can scale up to millions from them. It is never about creating just an ad but creating a successful Facebook ad. Here are the tips to use facebook ads manager for dropshipping business.
Create visuals with videos and high-quality images from Canva or alike.
Use a Multi-Product Carousel.
Facebook Offers and giveaways can be a perk.
Target a price point.
Stop Selling! Not every ad is about Sales.
Call-To-Action Lead for Customers.
Target your website viewers and build communication with them through emails.
Target people based on various categories in the process of buying something.
4 Steps to Facebook Ads To Include Your Sales:
1. Set Up A Facebook Pixel
Setting up a facebook pixel is the most important step for a headstart to your campaign’s success. You can “Create a Pixel” from facebook ads manager or else facebook will automatically generate it. You can view your Pixel Code with the help of your Pixel ID from Shopify store Admin page, so you can search your Shopify Account within the store preferences.
2. Create An Ad
Create a new ad account to spread your brand awareness and reach out to people. Try increasing a lot of traffic on your online store with a minimum of 300k at first to get results within the geography too. Before that, set up your Facebook Ads Manager account first to hit the advertising campaign for the first time itself. You should consider optimization tips for impression and if you really want to dig further, create an “Add To Cart” option in spite of no actual purchase. This seems to be not very normal at first but believe me, this is a magnet for shoppers.
Tip: Using ‘All Ad Sets’ can give you a more detailed version of your Shop’s Performance. This helps you promote your business on facebook.
Facebook Ad Optimization Tool
3. On-Going Ad Check-Up
You have to measure the success of your campaign. Always keep a check on important features, like CPA(Cost Per Action). You should always pay attention to it because keeping it high at first would let Facebook optimize your campaigns with time. This might look like a poor plan but this is going to make your business profitable. CTR: When these numerals go down, it means that your feed is being skipped. Frequency will tell you the views on your ad gains and this helps you look onto the bigger audience your ad currently is for instance which age group your ad directs to.
4. Optimization
Optimization is the key to get the best results for ads campaigns. Look for the best age group and keep your entire budget according to that. Selecting geography to target your ad could be time-consuming but you just have to avoid targeting several different countries. This could even lead to dragging the performance of the ad set down.
Facebook Campaign Optimization
Basic Model of Dropshipping
Learning about dropshipping is fun but there could millions of doubts about it. The supply chain is a fancy term to dropshipping. You have to learn that it is a special type of retail method where you don’t have to actually stock products. Instead, just direct those sales to a shop who actually sells it because, with the help of the dropshipping model, it buys products from a third party and gets it shipped directly to the buyer.
The basic model is that seller buys inventory as needed from a third party to complete the orders. It basically acts as product curators with a mix of items to target marketing with customers.
Basic model of dropshipping
Reasons Why Dropshipping is a Popular Model:
Less Capital is required which is the biggest advantage of dropshipping.
Facebook ad shipping is easily scalable in comparison to traditional e-commerce businesses.
It is easy to get started because at the end of the day you don’t have to stock items or take care of your shops. You just have to track inventory for accounting and handle shipments.
Since you don’t need to stock the items but just offer an array of trending products to your existing customers. You can sell it directly with no additional cost.
The basic key to facebook ad dropshipping is to approach like any other online business but just not get caught up in the cycle of being overpaid. Since there is no magic to it, so you just have to approach in a different way while making a facebook ad.
Using Facebook Ads for dropshipping can work a great deal if you innovate with time. It is one of the swiftest routes to marketing. All of this is an ultimate guide to facebook ads for dropshipping. If you work properly, then you can be a professional businessman on an eCommerce block who actually knows how to automate sales.
Frequently Asked Questions – FAQs
Do Facebook ads work for dropshipping?
Definitely! It is a powerful combo but you have to keep an eye out on your ad strategy and continuously innovate when it comes to product curation, and keep your customer experience at a consistently high level.
Do Facebook ads work for Shopify?
Yes, if you are using Shopify, you can add the Facebook sales channel and sync products seamlessly to your ad account.
Can you dropship without ads?
Yes, you can. But the results won’t be as great as with ads.
Invented by software engineers Billy Markus & Jackson Palmer, Dogecoin is a cryptocurrency. It features the face of Shiba Innu dog from the “Doge” meme as its logo & name.
Discover all about the Story of Dogecoin in the article ahead…
Dogecoin is a form of crypto currency. It is a fun, new and rapidly growing form of digital/Crypto currency. Bitcoin, Litecoin, Ethereum are a few examples of Crypto currency. It is completely anonymous, decentralized and extremely secure.
Formation and History of Dogecoin
Invented by software engineers Billy Markus and Jackson Palmer, Dogecoin was intended to be a joke. Dogecoin features the face of Shiba Inu dog of the “doge” meme fame as its logo and namesake. It was introduced on December 6, 2013.
Dogecoin
Originally created as a joke, the inventors of Dogecoins wanted it to be a peer-to-peer digital currency which could amass a broader demographic than Bitcoin. On December 9, just 3 days later, the Dogecoin value jumped to 300% in value, rising from $0.00026 dollars to $0.00095.
Dogecoins – Headwinds
The growth occurred when the Bitcoin and other Crypto currencies swerved from China’s decision of forbidding the Chinese banks investing into the Bitcoin market. This was their first major setback as Dogecoin value dropped drastically by 80%.
25th December called upon dooms as Dogecoins suffered a major theft. Millions of coins were stolen by hacking the crypto currency wallet platform, Dogewallet. This incident spurred a series of tweets and made Dogecoin the most talked about altcoin on Twitter at the time. The Dogecoin community started an initiative called “Save Dogemas” to raise coins for people who lost them because of the theft. A month later enough money was donated to recover the losses. In 2015, one of the co-founders, Jackson Palmer walked out of the Crypto community.
Dogecoins – Breakthrough
In January 2015, the Doge community established a fundraiser to raise $50000 dollars for the Jamaican Bobsled team which had qualified for the Sochi Winter Olympics but could not afford to participate. Following this incident the Dogecoin and Bitcoin exchange rate rose by 50%.
Following the success of this fundraiser, the Dodge community continued raising funds for smaller charity events. They then set out to build a well in the river basin of Kenya. The Doge foundation led by Eric Nakagawa raised approximately $11,000 dollars. The donations were made by 4000 donors who donated 14,000,000 Dogecoins altogether.
On march 25,2014, the Dogecoin community raised 67.8 millionDogecoins to sponsor NASCAR driver Josh Wise. The car was named “98 Moonrocket” and debuted at the Aarons 499 Series Cup Race.
Dogecoin and Reddit
Dogecoin boasts about a community of 1.1 million on the online social networking platform Reddit. Reddit has been quite a catalyst in the soaring popularity of Dogecoin. The GameStop stock squeeze catered to the increasing number in the Dogecoin community.
Discussion threads on Reddit noticed that certain hedge funds were shorting the stocks of GameStop. Shorting or Short-selling is when an investor borrows shares and immediately sells them, and then repurchases them at a lower price. The investor then pays the borrowed money and pockets the difference. The catch here is if the stock price goes up, the investor has to repurchase the stock at whatever the new market price is. Ratifying this fact, the members of this Reddit group began pumping the stocks of GameStop. The hedge funds lost billions and GameStop stock prices dropped drastically.
The losses were so great that these investors halted buying of these shares by reaching out to various trading platforms. Knowing that this was possible, the investors turned to Dogecoins. The shares were stopped from buying and Dogecoin value raised to an all time high of $0.08.
How is Dogecoin generated?
The creating process of crypto currency is called Mining. Crypto mining involves solving cryptographic equations. Crypto mining is achieved after validating data blocks and adding transaction records to a public ledger known as blockchain.
Dogecoin is based on a similar algorithm as Bitcoin except it uses scrypt technology that means it cannot use SHA-256 mining equipment that Bitcoin uses, but uses FPGA and ASIC devices for mining instead.
Dogecoin vs Bitcoin
Dogecoin vs Bitcoin
In the battle of coins, Dogecoin seems to take the upper hand as it is termed inflationary and has no maximum limit. In the mining process of Bitcoin, miners solve the block every ten minutes to confirm transactions whereas in the case of Dogecoins, they solve this block in only one minute. That means there will be an abundant supply of Dogecoins in the future and we will never run out of them. Bitcoin on the other hand is deflationary as it has a maximum supply limit of 21 million.
Why is Dogecoin trending?
The Twitterati went crazy after the world’s richest man Elon Musk tweeted about Dogecoin. His tweet read “One word : Doge” and this led to a spike in the value of Dogecoin.
Elon Musk recently even bought Dogecoins for his son. International artist Snoop Dogg and singer Gene Simmons also posted tweets backing the use of Dogecoins. It has been talked about again as the Reddit thread “ShitoshiStreetBets” is aiming to raise the value of crypto currencies.
Dogecoins can be used for shopping, trading physical and tangible items in exchange for Doge on online social media platforms like Reddit and Twitter. Doge has also been used to sell a house, in pornography and poker industries.
Dogecoins are available for trading on various trading platforms. Binance, VCC Exchange, Bkex, PARIBU and Kraken are said to be amongst the safest platforms to trade Dogecoins.
How to buy Dogecoin?
Dogecoins, like any other crypto currency can be bought through online trading platforms or the Dogewallet. In India, you can buy Dogecoins through BuyUcoin, Bitbns and Zebpay.
Future of Dogecoins
Investors have predicted that Dogecoins will progress at a gradual pace unless tweets from the elite business tycoons take them uphill. It was created as a joke and for fun and the millennials connect to it because they believe it represents a light-hearted tribute to the internet meme culture.
However, it has survived the so-called crypto winter since its inception seven years ago and has been buoyant in its growth. Although its creators might have given up the crypto community, Dogecoins are here to stay.
Dogecoin – FAQs
How to invest in Dogecoin?
Dogecoins, like any other crypto currency can be bought through online trading platforms or the Dogewallet. In India, you can buy Dogecoins through BuyUcoin, Bitbns and Zebpay.
What is Dogecoin?
Dogecoin is a form of cryptocurrency. It is a fun, new and rapidly growing form of digital/Cryptocurrency. Bitcoin, Litecoin, Ethereum are a few examples of Crypto currency. It is completely anonymous, decentralized and extremely secure.
How is Dogecoin different from Bitcoin?
In the mining process of Bitcoin, miners solve the block every ten minutes to confirm transactions whereas in the case of Dogecoins, they solve this block in only one minute. That means there will be an abundant supply of Dogecoins in the future and we will never run out of them. Bitcoin on the other hand is deflationary as it has a maximum supply limit of 21 million.
How much is Dogecoin supply?
Circulating supply: 127 billion (113 billion coins have already been mined)
Who invented Dogecoin?
Dogecoin is Invented by software engineers Billy Markus & Jackson Palmer.
Finding aroommate can be tough and sometimes feel overwhelming. Whether you are looking for a place to live in or seeking someone to live with you its important to find a compatible match. Whether you moved in to a new city or you are looking for a roommate like Rachel, here are the top websites to find a perfect roommate for you.
Sulekha is a Chennai-based service directory and a reliable site to find roommate anywhere in India. Sulekha is a digital platform that provides services across 40 cities. Sulekha was founded in 2007 by Satya Prabhakar and currently serves in 5 countries India, United States, Canada , UK, UAE.
Sulekha is one of the largest service platforms in India. It has evolved from a local business listings site to a technology-driven matchmaking platform.
Olx is the fastest growing trading network headquartered in Netherlands and was founded by Fabrice Grinda, Alec Oxenford. OLX started operations in India in 2006.
Olx has also started its Roommate service in India and is currently operating in 20 states across India.
FlatMatch matches you with a suitable flat according to your requirements and with a compatible flatmate based on your personal preferences. FlatMatch was founded by Paresh Bansod and Buddhabhushan Naik. Their mobile app was launched in the market in November 2020 and now they are operational all over India with a special focus on Pune and Mumbai city. It is one of the few apps to find roommates in India.
Indianroommates Currently operates in 21 countries across the globe including India. With over 5,00,000 registered members, they make finding your perfect room or getting your room rented a fast and easy process. Indianroommate is a very reliable sites to find an Indian roommate across India or other countries.
Indianroommates
Flatmates
Flatmates is India’s most popular platform to find a room, PG, or a roommate. Flatmate was founded by Tanuj Chopra in 2015 and is headquartered in Asia pacific.
Flatmates Website
RentRoomi
RentRoomi is roommate finder service which helps you find available roommates or rooms in India. RentRoomi was founded by Nitin Sharma in 2016.
Roomster is the world’s largest social network for connecting roommates. It is available in 192 countries with 18 native languages. Roomster became the first roommate matching service to reach the Asian country back then. Roomster entered India in 2016 and witnessed success.
Roomster Website
Finding a perfect roommate to share your apartment is far more challenging than it seems. Whether you are looking for a place to live in or seeking someone to live with, its important to find a compatible match. We hope these sites to find roommates will help you in your quest to finding a perfect roommate for yourself.
Frequently Asked Questions – FAQs
What is the best site to find a roommate in India?
Some websites to find a roommate in India are:
Sulekha
Olx
FlatMatch
Indianroommate
Flatmates
RentRoomi
Roomster
What is the difference between a roommate and housemate?
In technical terms, a roommate is someone you share a room with while a housemate is someone you share a house with. But in general people use the term roommate to refer to anyone you are sharing a living space with be it a room or a house.
Is it better to live with a roommate or alone?
That is a personal choice but having a roommate helps with the bills and is less lonely.
One of the most well-known rivalry in the technological industry is between Apple Inc and Microsoft Corporation. They are two of the largest companies in the world as both Apple and Microsoft have touched market capitalization value of $1.5 trillion in 2020. Both the companies have revolutionized the technological industry by providing us with two very different software applications and gadgets such as Mac and PC.
They are two of the most established companies when it comes to the production of computers. Both Apple and Microsoft are competitors even in different sectors of the industry like hardware devices like smartphone and PCs, advertising, making software’s, operating systems, etc. Apple main aim is to produce gadgets like iPhone, Mac, Apple watch , etc, while Microsoft focuses on making software applications for different devices and giving license for their software services.
Which is why both the companies have different approaches to marketing strategies. Let’s put a light on some of the key points from the marketing strategies of both companies and check how you can implement them in your business.
Apple Inc is one of the most well known American corporation which is popular for creating unique designs and selling electronics, computer software and online services. The headquarters of people Inc is situated in Cupertino, California. The company is credited for designing products such as Macintosh range of computers, iPad, iPhone, iPod, Mac, Apple watch, etc. The company is also know to make software such as iLife, the safari web browser, iOS and iTunes among others. Apple now operates in over 350 stores around the world and offers both software and hardware.
The success story of Apple
The success of Apple Inc. is solely because of the contributions made by the cofounder and entrepreneur, Steve Jobs who created good looking, easy to use products and the ability to create innovative products that consumer’s desire. The company was created during the unstable economic situation of the 1970’s. The company introduced Macintosh in 1984 after which it also got its widespread recognition because of its marketing and advertisements for its products. In 90’s after jobs resignation, apple lost a huge market share to its lower priced competitors Microsoft and Intel.
In 2000, when jobs returned and became the CEO, Apple gained it prominence after the launch of iMac and the Think different campaigns. In August 2011, Jobs resigned as CEO due to health issues, which led to Tim Cook becoming the new CEO. And the rest is history. Apple’s annual revenue for 2020 was $274.5 billion, making Apple Inc the world’s most valuable company. As of January 2021, Apple has achieved the title of becoming the world’s largest PC vendor and also becoming the world’s fourth largest manufacturers of smartphones. Apple is now also the world’s largest music retailer with iTunes.
Microsoft Corporation is an US based multinational technology company which is headquartered in Redmond, Washington. The company is known for manufacturing, licensing and selling software’s, consumer electronics, PCs, etc. Some of its well-recognized and popular contributions to the tech industry is Microsoft office suite, internet explorer, Xbox video game consoles and a variety of PCs. Microsoft is also one of the top five tech companies in the US that includes Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon and Microsoft. In 2020 Microsoft became the 21st company in the Fortune 500 list.
The success story of Microsoft
The company was founded by Bill Gates in 1975 . The company was made from contributions of the ideas of two individuals Bill Gates and Paul Allen, as they were interested in computers and programming. The company rose to prominence in 80s with developments like Altair 8800, MS-DOS and the most popular Microsoft windows. Bill gates was then replaced by Steve Ballmer as the CEO in 2000. In the 90s the company made major acquisitions of Skype for $8.5 billion in 2011 and LinkedIn for $26.2 Billion in 2016.
Microsoft provides a vast range of products and service that are aimed at satisfying the customers on what they want in the software industry. In addition to this, the company has extended its operations in other sectors in order to enhance its competitive advantage. The company now offers a wide range of products, software’s and servers for its user’s desktops, laptops, tabs, gadgets and servers including internet search with Bing, cloud computing with Azure, mixed reality with Hololens and software development with visual studio.
The Target Audience of Apple and Microsoft
Apple Inc. has both software and hardware products and services, for software it has iCloud, iLife, iMessage, iMovie, iTunes, etc and for hardware it has iPhone, Macbook, iMac, Apple watch, iPad, etc. Which is why the apple has a vast array of target audience as it keeps expanding its market with every new product. Apple already has 1.5 billion users who fall under the age bracket of 22 to 55 years old. The male to female user ratio is 60.8% to 39.2% showing that it is expanding in the male market.
Apple also targets people with medium to high income individuals who live in metropolitan cities and are loyal to the brand. The occupation group of Apple users are considered to be students and young professionals to even managers and executives. Microsoft also has both software and hardware products and services. Everyone from the middle class house at least owns one Microsoft hardware or software that is because the target audience of Microsoft are people who don’t necessarily have a high income.
Microsoft’s target audience age group range from 16 and older and from both urban and rural areas around the world. They also target young crowds that are usually students, employees and professionals and are loyal to the brand. Microsoft also uses the approach of STP which is Market Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning in order to bring about communications in marketing as it enables the company to make propositions their priority.
Apple’s marketing mix shows us how the company matches with its business activities to the conditions in the worldwide market for information technology, consumer’s electronics and online services. While Microsoft’s is known to be marketing mix that shows how rapid invention and innovation can be combined with effective approaches to maintain a strong share of the market. Here are the 4Ps (Products, Place, Promotion, Price) of both the companies.
The marketing mix of Apple
Product mix
Apples products mostly comprise of mostly of both hardware and software which involve information technology. Apple although has more hardware products and some of the well-known products are Mac products line, iPhone line, iPad line, iPod line Apple watches, Apple TV, while it software products are software of devices, accessories, cloud services, digital content, etc.
Microsoft on the other hand started out as a software developer and still continues to give it its first preferences. However this company has grown to include an variety of products and services. Some of its products are providing different software to various devices, Apps, Xbox Video game consoles and entertainment.
Placement mix analyses the selection of appropriate places or venues that are used by the company to distribute its products. Apple Inc. placement involves apple owned locations and other parties that the company authorizes to distribute its products. Most of Apples distribution happens from Apple store locations, Company owned website and online stores for desktop and authorized sellers and lastly the telecommunication companies.
Microsoft tries to maximize its reach in the sectors of both computer hardware and software market. The company does its distribution on their official website, authorized sellers and Microsoft stores.
The marketing mix of Microsoft
Price mix
Apple uses two pricing strategy which are Freemium pricing strategy and premium pricing strategy. Apple uses premium pricing strategy to set high prices for its products which is why apple products are more expensive then android products, with this it maximizes profit margins.
In the freemium pricing case apple products are free but customers have to pay to access better features, for example the company offers free 5 GB iCloud storage but if the user wants more they can by purchasing. However Microsoft applies suitable pricing approaches like Market-oriented pricing strategy, Freemium pricing strategy similar to apple’s and Buy only what you use price strategy.
Promotional mix
Apple promotes its products in various ways to include different channels and parties. Apple also uses word of mouth, marketing campaigns and beautifully planned ad video that reaches out to their target audience. Microsoft aims on creating effective communication strategies and tactics which can be used to attract target audience. Both Apple and Microsoft uses tactics such as advertising, sales promotion, direct marketing, personal selling and public relations to promote their products.
Apple is known to be the best companies when it comes to branding and tech marketing. They don’t just market their products they try to market a brand identity. One of its main market strategies is to keep the products and marketing simple because they don’t want to overwhelm their prospective customers with too many choices. Apple lets its products speak for themselves with their simplistic design and easy to understand descriptions and simple visuals.
One of Apple’s best marketing strategies is hyping its products and making a creative campaign. The other reasons are that they understand their target audience and try to reach out to them in the language they will understand which is done by simplifying the marketing process. One of the points of Apple’s tech marketing is that they know how to speak directly to their consumer. They also create brilliant video ads and billboards that showcases human needs and speaks to the customer’s human needs.
Microsoft on the other hand depends completely on showcasing its product effectiveness and usability. Microsoft spends a lot as it depends on B2B marketing that directly sells its products to the customers. Microsoft has also updated its marketing strategy which is now based upon customer feedback and market changes. In this day and age, Microsoft has somehow managed to develop not only its marketing but also its products in order to match the rapid rate of change in today’s market.
Microsoft’s marketing strategy is to drive its enterprises business by creating cloud based solutions that will stick with its consumers. Microsoft uses a mix of demographic and behavior segmentation strategies to segments the market into different group with similar characteristics. Segmenting based on demographics is important for products like Operating systems and Office products which are applicable to everyone.
Apple has several competitive advantages over its competitors one of which is that it produces superior technological products with good OS and technology like iPhone, Macbook and iWatch making it a leader in the market space. Apple has also repeatedly taken the top spot for its brand equity and also has loyal customers. Apple has increased its revenue over the past years and also has high margins.
One of the major competitive advantages of Apple is the amount it spends on R&D, always thinking about the future of the company. Microsoft offers both software and hardware products and services, from Microsoft tablet to Xbox console games to even software. So one of the main competitive advantage that Microsoft has over its competitors is the strategy of making acquisitions. Microsoft has so far acquired companies like Hotmail, Skype and even Nokia.
Microsoft is a main competitor to apple because its operating system is installable on any PC or laptop and there is no hardware binding on the operating system which is a problem noticeable in Apple gadgets. It also has a vast product line and has worked upon TCO which is total cost of ownership so as to make the software easily and economically available to the customers.
Frequently Asked Questions – FAQs
What are some of the Apple’s products?
Apple products mostly comprise of mostly of both hardware and software which are Mac products line, iPhone line, iPad line, iPod line Apple watches, Apple TV, while it software products are software of devices, accessories, cloud services, digital content, etc.
What are some of Microsoft products?
Microsoft also has software and hardware products and usually provides different software to various devices, Apps, Xbox Video game consoles and entertainment.
What is Apple’s marketing strategy?
Apple marking strategy involves keeping its products and ads simple, knowing their target audience and reaching out to them, getting good feedback, a well appreciated customer experience.
What is Microsoft’s marketing strategy?
Microsoft marketing strategy focuses on showcasing its product effectiveness and usability and implementing customer feedback to create user-friendly products at a reasonable price.
Satya Nadella’s Microsoft made headlines when it intended to take over the American image-sharing social media servicePinterest for $51 million dollars, the Financial Times reported. Apparently this acquisition has reportedly stalled.
Previously, Microsoft had been looking forward to buying the US operations of the Chinese media app TikTok. But the deal banged as Walmart and Oracle secured the deal. However, Walmart and Oracle might push back while President Joe Biden looks over new regulations relating to security threats posed by the Chinese apps.
Microsoft’s interest in Pinterest
Pinterest Growth
Pinterest is a social media service that enables you to save and discover trends and ideas in the form of pin boards. This information could be in the form of short videos, images and GIFs. It boasts about hosting 400 million users in a month. Women were their pioneer users and now 50% of their users are millennials. Although starting out as a “social media” platform that uses boards, the company has been putting continuous efforts in visual search and e-commerce such as online shopping catalogues.
The deal with Pinterest would have been Microsoft’s largest acquisition, twice of what it spent after acquiring LinkedIn, a professional social media platform for $21 million dollars. Microsoft continues to pursue its goal of accruing a portfolio of active online communities which could run on Azure, its online cloud platform. Pinterest currently leans on Amazon Web Services (AWS) for providing infrastructure.
However, Pinterest has walked away from the deal stating it wants to remain an independent entity. The online social media service has seen an enormous growth during the pandemic.
Pinterest has seen a 36% growth in the number of users compared to last year. Pinterest is the 4th largest social media platform in the US as Facebook and Instagram and YouTube hold the top spots.
More than 40% users in the US have a Pinterest account. Pinterest is on the 10th position ranked by the Prophet’s Brand relevance Index after major giants like Apple, Spotify and Disney. It has been crowned first position in surveys like “makes me feel inspired” and “inspires me to be more creative” categories.
Microsoft is a multinational corporation that develops, licenses, and supports various products and services related predominantly to computers. After its Initial Public Offering, its market capitalization was close to $519 million. Microsoft’s first acquisition was Forethought in 1983. It developed a presentation program which we all know as Microsoft PowerPoint.
In 1977, Microsoft acquired HotMail.com, a web mail service for $500 million, its largest acquisition at the time. Co-founded by Jack Smith and Sabeer Bhatia, Hot mail was a free web mail service with user base of 8.5 million at the time.
In May 2011, Microsoft acquired Skype, a VoIP creation of Skype Technologies for 8.5 billion. Skype is available on smartphones , desktops and iPhone devices. it enables audio, video calls, personalized messaging and low rate calling to mobile networks and landlines around the world.
Microsoft would be reaching a milestone in terms of its online community base if it acquires Pinterest. It did so by acquiring the professional social networking site, LinkedIn in 2016. It also acquired GitHub, a code repository that helps network software developers, and Minecraft, an online game that last year passed 131 million users. After all the impedance and reluctance shown by Pinterest…
Will Microsoft continue to pursue its goal to acquire Pinterest? Can this acquisition happen?
Frequently Asked Questions – FAQs
Is Microsoft acquiring Pinterest?
Microsoft is intended to take over the American image-sharing social media servicePinterest for $51 million dollars. Apparently, this acquisition has reportedly stalled.
Why did Pinterest walk away from the deal?
Pinterest walked away from the deal of Microsoft, stating that it wants to remain an Independent Entity.
What is Pinterest?
Pinterest is a social media service that enables you to save and discover trends and ideas in the form of pin boards. It is the 4th largest social media platform in the US
What are major Microsoft’s Acquisitions?
Professional social networking site, LinkedIn in 2016.
GitHub, a code repository that helps network software developers
Minecraft, an online game that last year passed 131 million users.
Ashwini
