Free2Thee.com

Posts Tagged ‘business’

In the course of any argument or discussion, good communicators need to know how to avoid logical fallacies. Logical fallacies weaken an argument by treating a false assumption as fact, but because many speakers and writers don’t take the time to consider the basis of their arguments, logical fallacies are fairly common in politics, business and even in interpersonal communication. This infographic about rhetorical techniques and logical fallacies (aka rhetological fallacies) by Information is Beautiful can help you understand these concepts better. To understand logical fallacies, you should consider the six main categories of fallacy types: attacks, content manipulation, faulty deduction, inaccurate cause and effect, emotional appeals and mental appeals. While there are dozens of different fallacies, most of them fall into these six groups. Attacks include ad hominems, in which the speaker attacks the other speaker rather than the counterargument. Unfortunately, this type of argument can be effective, but pointing out the attack will undermine its effectiveness. Content manipulation is exactly what it sounds like: changing facts in order to suit the goals of an argument. The classic example is a confirmation bias. The speaker ignores facts that do not support or that directly oppose his argument. Faulty deduction mimics a logical argument, but makes an ultimately illogical conclusion. The speaker might assume that a small sample size represents a whole group or that a general rule applies to all individual circumstances. Some faulty deductions are hard to spot, but they undermine an argument just the same. Inaccurate or garbled cause and effect is somewhat similar to faulty deduction, but these arguments try to draw a clear link between an observation and an assumption when such a link isn’t necessarily there. An example is denying the antecedent. The speaker might say that “new refrigerators are cold, so the only way to get a cold refrigerator is to buy new.” This falsely assumes that there is one logical explanation for why a refrigerator would be cold–that is, it is a new refrigerator. All inaccurate cause and effect fallacies make a similar logical leap from a fact to a conclusion. Mental appeals include the appeal to authority, which politicians frequently use. Saying something like, “that man must be guilty, because the police arrested him,” would be an example of an appeal to authority. The speaker is not addressing the core argument of the man’s guilt. Instead, he’s implying that the authority has expert knowledge of the circumstances and therefore must be correct. Other mental appeals make similar jumps in logic. An appeal to probability, for instance, assumes the inevitability of an event or circumstance without any reasoning. In an appeal to tradition, the speaker opposes change simply because it is a departure from established practices. Appeals to the mind appear to make sense at first, but they’re easily eliminated through logical counterargument. Appeals to emotion are almost identical, but they focus on fear, love, hate and other strong emotions. An appeal to spite is a classic example. The speaker might say, “republicans hate the environment, so trusting a republican’s energy plan is ludicrous.” Usually, appeals to emotion are less overt, but they ignore the logical parts of an argument in favor of controlling the listener’s emotions. All of these types of fallacies can quickly weaken a strong argument. In order to communicate clearly, you should remember to avoid these fallacies and know how to spot them in opposing points of view.

See the original post:
Rhetological Fallacies: Errors and Manipulations of Rhetoric and Logical Thinking

Today’s on-demand CRM solutions offer powerful capabilities for your sales and marketing organizations and a compelling value. But how should you choose a vendor? Whether you’re a large enterprise or a growing business, these Comparison Guides are for you. Are you up to speed on the latest offerings that fit your business? These free Comparison Guides will give you all the information you need. You’ll receive: 11 SMB vendors and 13 enterprise vendors compared Basic and advanced features for each system Up to date pricing And much more! Written by Ziff Davis Request Free!

Continue reading here:
On-Demand CRM in 2012

One of their biggest pain points for entrepreneurs and small business owners is reaching and attracting new customers. However, traditional advertising and PR can be very expensive and out of reach for small business owners. This eBook presents opportunities to generate PR & advertising for your business at a low cost. Request Free!

See original here:
60 Low & No Cost PR & Marketing Strategies

While professionals can use all social networking websites to promote their products, services and personal careers, each major social network has its own distinct advantages. An infographic from business consultant network Zintro outlines some of these advantages. Facebook is absolutely the largest social networking website with over 845 million users. 17.5 percent of the website’s users are in the 21-24 year old age group, followed closely by the 18-20 year old age group. Businesses should share blog posts, videos and other updates with Facebook users, but the website’s massive user base makes it difficult for businesses to effectively make personal connections with individual customers. Businesses should set up Facebook “pages,” which collect and display business info for interested visitors. Twitter provides a different type of interaction with customers. About 54.6 percent of Twitter’s 140 million active users are female, and the website’s simple format makes it ideal for quick interactions. The micro-blogging website makes it easy to give quick product updates or to start a conversation with existing customers and fans. Many large businesses are using Twitter to address customer complaints in a public forum. By addressing issues publicly, these businesses build a good brand reputation. LinkedIn’s demographics are fairly even, with an audience comprised of 51 percent male users. The business-focused social networking website has an audience of over 150 million users. LinkedIn is most effective for building a reputation in an industry or for making business-to-business connections. Professionals can also create groups to lead discussions with their colleagues and develop an effective web presence. Although some social marketing experts have written off Google+ as a fad, the website has over 100 million users and continues to gain a primarily male, educated audience. Google+ allows users to arrange their contacts into circles, which makes it easy to target specific groups. Google+ is a useful tool for starting conversations with colleagues or fans and may provide a means of establishing expertise in an industry.

More here:
Marketing Effectively Through Different Social Media Networks [Infographic]

Make sense of the Facebook Business Page Timeline using our new guide. Find out how to use Facebook’s new features to support your marketing and strengthen your lead generation efforts. In this 31-page guide you will learn: 6 Facebook Timeline features you should know Best practices for using Facebook Timeline Examples of great Business Page Timelines Request Free!

Read more:
Guide to New Facebook Business Page Timelines

The team from the Kenan-Flagler Business School, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill was awarded the top prize of $25,000 at the 2012 BU School of Management International Tech Strategy Case Competition sponsored by Ericsson. Team members included Jae Lee, Rohan Vaidyanathan, Christophe Renaud, and Maciej Dudek. This year’s competition focused on the role a Networked Society could play in innovating education. Each team was asked how Ericsson could develop successful business models that will create value for the world in a Networked Society through education and the sharing and combining of expertise. The winning team took a holistic, two-pronged approach to closing the gaps in communication and access to information with their “Education Technology Platform” (ETP).

View original post here:
School of Management/Ericsson 2012 Tech Strategy Case Comp Winning Presentation