How To Pronounce Divisive

How To Pronounce Divisive How To Pronounce Divisive How To Pronounce Divisive By Maeve Maddox A reader has called my attention to the changing pronunciation of divisive: I am very active in politics and frequently watch television programs which feature political topics.  One of THE most frustrating- and very common- mispronunciations I hear is with the word divisive.   I was taught that it is pronounced with a long i on the second syllable- ie: resulting in it having the same, long i sound as the word divide. Many seemingly well-educated and otherwise intelligent people pronounce it with a short i sound on the second syllable.  I have checked my hard-copy dictionaries, and they all back up my pronunciation of the word. Am I so backward that I missed out on a revolutionary new way to pronounce this word?   If not, why do so many people pronounce it incorrectly?   Do they believe it makes them appear cool- or part of an exclusive club- or something?!   Do you know when- and why- this trend started? The reader hasn’t missed any new ruling on how to say divisive. The standard pronunciation is still with a long i in the second syllable: di-VY-siv. Charles Elster (The Big Book of Beastly Mispronunciations) devotes two cantankerous pages to the misguided â€Å"short-i† divisive, establishing the credentials of the â€Å"long-i† pronunciation by citing various dictionaries. He remarks that the first time he noted the nonstandard pronunciation in the context of politics was in 1989 in G. H. W. Bush’s inaugural address. Within fifteen years, â€Å"the erroneous pronunciation,† as Elster calls it, had begun to infect otherwise careful speakers, including Robert Siegel, cohost of NPR’s All Things Considered, who twice said [di-VIH-siv] during an interview that aired on August 30, 2004. Elster suggests that the short-i pronunciation may have what he labels â€Å"the my-pronunciation’s-better-than-yours appeal† for some individuals, but that careful speakers will continue to pronounce the second syllable of divisive with a long i. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Spelling category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:"Based in" and "based out of"50 Nautical Terms in General Use50 Plain-Language Substitutions for Wordy Phrases

Contrast Essay for The Great Gatsby

How to Write a Compare/Contrast Essay for The Great Gatsby SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips A very common essay prompt/discussion topic for The Great Gatsby is to have you compare and contrast a pair of characters in Gatsby. Why do teachers love these prompts so much? These compare/contrast essays are an opportunity for you to tie the character similarities and differences to larger observations about society and class, the American Dream, or identity in the novel. They also allow you to practice standard English class skills: close reading, using lines from the text as evidence, and taking a stance and presenting a supporting argument in an essay. We’ll go over some basic dos and don’ts for writing compare/contrast essays before diving into some analysis of the most asked-about character pairings. Keep reading if you have a Compare/Contrast assignment on the horizon! Article Roadmap The do's of acompare and contrast essay The don'ts of a compare contrast essay Why some characters are paired for comparison more often than others Analysis of and essay topic ideas for the most common character pairs: Nick and Gatsby Tom and George Tom and Gatsby Daisy and Jordan Daisy and Myrtle What to Do in a Compare/Contrast Essay Like anything you write for English class, your essay should be clearly organized, with a thesis statement (a one-sentence summary of your argument), and topic sentences for each body paragraph. And you should definitely have an overall argument! The point of the compare/contrast essay isn’t for you to just list the differences and similarities between two characters, you need to take those observations and make a larger argument about the novel as a whole. That larger argument allows you to practice writing an essay that contains an argument, which is a skill that nearly all English teachers are focused on building. To take a quick example, don’t just list the differences between Tom Buchanan and Jay Gatsby. Instead, make an argument like, â€Å"Fitzgerald’s portrayal of wealthy New York society through Jay Gatsby and Tom Buchanan allows him to critique both old money and the newly rich, while reserving his most pointed critiques for the old money crowd.† (Obviously, that’s just one example, and there are dozens of potential arguments you could make while comparing and contrasting characters in Gatsby!) Make sure to address your larger argument in each body paragraph as you draw out the similarities and differences between the two characters. Don’t get caught in the weeds as you tease out the many differences and similarities in each character pair. Always link back to the bigger picture. Finally, analyze each quote you use – in other words, don’t stick a quote in your essay and do nothing with it. Make sure to explain how and why the quote demonstrates a key similarity or difference, and what that means for your bigger argument. What to Avoid in a Compare/Contrast Essay Don’t just list differences and similarities without an overarching argument. Although you can definitely start brainstorming by making a list of similarities and differences, just presenting that list in essay form won’t get you a good grade, since you need to go deeper and explain what the similarities/differences suggest about the novel as a whole. And, on the other side, don’t make big claims without some evidence from the text to back them up. For example, don’t say â€Å"Tom is selfish while Gatsby cares about others.† Prove those two separate claims (Tom is selfish† and â€Å"Gatsby cares about others†) with relevant lines from the book. (And if you’re having a hard time locating good quotes, find a digital version of Gatsby you can search using the CTRL-F function. It’s a lifesaver when gathering relevant quotes for an essay!) The garden gnome agrees - our essay tips have helped him out more than you'll ever know. Why Are These Characters Paired Most Often? We will tackle these major pairings in the next sections of this article: Nick Carraway and Jay Gatsby Tom Buchanan and Jay Gatsby Tom Buchanan and George Wilson Daisy Buchanan and Jordan Baker Daisy Buchanan and Myrtle Wilson Before we dig into the analysis, you might be wondering: â€Å"why are we only comparing characters of the same gender?† or maybe â€Å"why not other pairings? Why not Jordan and Myrtle, or Nick and Tom?† We are focusing on these specific pairings because they are by far the most commonly asked about pairs in essay prompts and discussion topics for The Great Gatsby. And we want this guide, first and foremost, to be helpful to students as you work on assignments involving Gatsby! Furthermore, these pairings help teachers get you to explore some of the novel’s larger themes. For example, comparing Daisy/ Myrtle or Tom/George can help you explore the differences between the wealthy and the working class.Comparing Daisy/Myrtle or Daisy/Jordan can help you explore the changing status of women during the 1920s. Comparing Tom and Gatsby can get at the old money/new money divide. Finally, differences betweenNick and Gatsby raisesome of the novel’s larger questions about the American Dream, repeating the past, and identity. In short, these pairings have become common because they each allow fairly easy access to one of the novel’s larger issues. That’s not to say you couldn’t also explore some of those themes by comparing, say, Jordan and George, or Daisy and Gatsby, but cross-gender compare/contrast essays can be challenging because the status of women and men is so different in the novel. If you are interested in seeing how a particular male and female character are paired, you may be better off studying them through the lens of love, desire, and relationships in the novel, or through the way they relate to one of the novel's symbols or motifs. With those thoughts in mind, let's jump into the top 5 pairings! For each pairing, we will suggest a few possible larger arguments you can either build from or disagree with, but these are far from comprehensive! You should add to our analysis of the characters and come up with an argument you’re excited about. Quick Note on Our Citations Our citation format in this guide is (chapter.paragraph). We're using this system since there are many editions of Gatsby, so using page numbers would only work for students with our copy of the book. To find a quotation we cite via chapter and paragraph in your book, you can either eyeball it (Paragraph 1-50: beginning of chapter; 50-100: middle of chapter; 100-on: end of chapter), or use the search function if you're using an online or eReader version of the text. Nick Carraway and Jay Gatsby Although Jay Gatsby and Nick Carraway varyboth in outlook and temperament, they are also alike ininteresting ways. Despite somewhat similardesires, attitudes, and social positions, Nick and Gatsby make very different choices during the novel. Love and Romance.Nick and Gatsbyboth want womenthat are out of their reach, although in different degrees. Daisy is miles above Gatsby in terms of social class. Jordan and Nick are of the same social status, but Jordan doesn't seem free to make her own decisions since an aunt controls her financial life.There is a significant passion gap between Gatsby and Nick as well. Gatsby obsesses over Daisy- he has thought of nothing else for five years, going as far as to buy a house across the bay from her just in case she notices. Nick, meanwhile, is attracted to Jordan's cool and self-sufficient demeanor, but he is clearly not in love with her, as he himself notes ("I wasn't actually in love, but I felt a sort of tender curiosity" (3.159)). Approach to Women.Both men are not particularly interested in the inner lives of the women they want to be with. Gatsby is devastated when Daisy doesn't want to renounce her relationship with Tom completely. Similarly, Nick cavalierly discounts Jordan's penchant to lie, cheat, and generally be cynically uninterested in other people, and then is deeply disappointed when she acts this way after Myrtle's death. Class and Social Standing.Although bothGatsby and Nick are outsiders to the wealthy communities of East and West Egg, Nick is a much more in-between character socially than Gatsby. Nick is familiar with the ways of the old money crowd because of his own family's privilege and the fact that he is related to Daisy. Gatsby isnot only self-made, but is a criminal whois desperate to pass as part of the old money elite without knowing its customs or rules of behavior.What isolates Nickfrom East Egg life is his Midwestern values and the importance he places on morality and decency. Gatsby is isolated from everyone by the fact that he can never actually be himself - he is always playing a role and putting on his "Oxford man" persona. It may be this sense of feeling out of place that connects them. Outlook and Temperament.Gatsby is an optimist (almost to a delusional degree)while Nick is a realist who finds Gatsby's idealism inspiring and admirable. Gatsby believes in his ability to shape his own life and future, which makes sense since he has managed to transform himself from a farmer to a successful gangster, to impersonate an "Oxford man," and to accumulatea fantastic amount of wealth in a very short time. This belief in his power translates to Gatsby being sure that he and Daisy can go back to their month of idyllic love ("'Can't repeat the past?', he cried incredulously. 'Why of course you can!'" (6.129).Nick tries his best to be an objective realist and to reign in his tendency to judge others. He is deeply in awe of self-directed men like Gatsby, and even Wolfshiem (Nick is amazed to think that one man could be behind a huge event like therigged World Series). Ambition.Gatsby dreams of greatness. As a young man his mind â€Å"romped like the mind of God,† and so as an adult, he seems to have made good on this promise by buying the most ridiculous mansion and throwing the most extravagantparties (6.134). Nick is much less ambitious in comparison. While he comes to New York seeking excitement, he doesn't want to be the wealthiest bond salesman on Wall Street or to have the biggest house. He is happy to be an observer at the edge of the drama rather than being in its midst. Nick and GatsbyEssay Ideas Here arepotential arguments to build on or disagree with based our observations. These are certainly not the only possible arguments, so be creative! Make sure your essay considers what the similarities and differences between Nick and Gatsby reveal about the novel as a whole. Nick is a passive person and Gatsby is active, which is why Gatsby is the hero and Nick simply the observer. Nick has much more in common with Gatsby than he thinks he does, which explains why he becomes so enamored of him. Nick serves as a foil (someone whoserves as a contrast)to Gatsby, which makes Nick the best possible observer of Gatsby. At the end of the novel, Tom says that Gatsby â€Å"threw dirt in [Nick’s] eyes, just like Daisy’s,† meaning thatboth Nick and Daisy were taken in and could never see the true Gatsby: a narcissist and a criminal.Tom is right - the whole novel is Nick trying to spin a negative character into a positive one. Nick Carraway: master of spin or just along for the ride? Tom Buchanan and Jay Gatsby As they battle overDaisy’s love, Tom Buchanan and Jay Gatsby sometimes seem surprisingly similar - particular in their self-centeredness, wealth, and concern with appearances. At the same time, these surface parallelspoint to majorconflictsin their social class, and say a lot about the world of the novel. Appearance.Gatsby is driven by his materialism to be very invested having fashionable clothes, a beautiful mansion, and visually overwhelmingparties - for him, the outfit is the thing that makes the Oxford man. Meanwhile because Tom doesn't have to dress the part of the moneyed elite to be one, he is instead veryattuned to the behavior of others. This is why he immediately seeshow fakeGatsby's persona is, both because of Gatsby's overly ostentatious clothes, and because of how much Gatsby misreads the fake invitation from the Sloanes. Tom is never fooled into thinking that Gatsby isanything other than an upstart, and mostly likely a criminal one. Self-Centeredness.Tom and Gatsbyare both completely selfish, and fully convinced that their desires have to be acquiesced to by those around them. Tom, for example, starts his affair with Myrtle by pressing himself against her on a train platform - basically, his version of flirting is bodily assault. Gatsby, meanwhile, also thinks nothing of starting anaffair with a married woman, assuming that his obsessive feelings are enough to justify any behavior. Wealth.Despite the fact that both are unimaginably rich, these men come from totally different sides of the big money divide.Tom comes fromold money and is forever worried about the encroachment of the nouveau riche, minorities, and others onto what he thinks is his. At the same time, Gatsby is the most successful of the novel's many ambitious social climbers, using his lack of ethical scruples to parlay his criminal activity into a higher social status. Power.Tom loves being powerful and wieldshis power directly. He is physically aggressive and uses his body to threaten and intimidate (Nick, for one, is clearly very cowed by Tom's bulk). He is also quick to violence, whether it's socially sanctioned - like his football accomplishments - or not - like when he breaks Myrtle's nose without a second thought.Gatsby also holdssignificant power, but his methods are much more indirect. Still, whether he is offering Nick some illegal bond trading action, or showing off his get-out-of-a-ticket-free card to a cop on the highway, Gatsby is clearly happy to be in control of a situation. Love. Tom and Gatsby both seem to be in love with Daisy. But what does that really mean to each of them? For Tom, Daisy is clearly partly appealing because she completes his horse-riding, East Egg, 350-thousand-dollar pearl necklace lifestyle. He cheats on her because he clearly has never denied himself anything, but he also understands Daisy as a person. He knows that she is too weak to leave him, but he also loves her enough to tolerate her affair with Gatsby and to stay with her after Myrtle's murder.Gatsby's love, on the other hand, is in some ways purer because he so idealizes Daisy and connects her to all of his other hopes and dreams. But this love is overly pure - he doesn't really seem to know Daisy as anything other than an idealized object, and is incapable of accepting that she has led a life apart from him for five years. Tom and Gatsby Essay Ideas In a compare/contrast essay, you can’t just present a list of similarities and differences. You also need to have an underlying argument you’re supporting. Feel free to take these at face value or as jumping-off points for your own thoughts. Tom loves Daisy as a person, Gatsby loves her as an idea. Both Tom and Gatsby’s tendency to control women and see them as prizes reveals the misogyny of the 1920s. Although Tom sees Gatsby as someone from an entirely different class than him, what they have in common (selfishness, affairs, obsession with appearances) makes a larger argument for an overall moral hollowness of the rich of any class. We see both Gatsby and Tom through the eyes of Nick, who worships one of them and hates the other. In reality, they are both much more similar than different, and their different treatment reveals Nick's insecurities and biases. Gatsby gives new meaning to letting perfect be the enemy of the good. Tom Buchanan and George Wilson At first, most readers see Tom Buchanan and George Wilsonas opposites. But, these markedly different characters face very similar circumstances andoffer two takes on masculinity and power in the novel. Appearance and Presence.Where Tom is strong and cowering, George is meek and shrinking. Tom exudes power and confidence while George tends to just fade into the background. These differences are borne out in the way these two men interact with the world. Tom is violent towards others, while George’s instinct is to be passive or to try and escape situations, the notable exceptions being his locking up of Myrtle and murder of Gatsby. Tom is confident, privileged, and assured while George is timid; George is â€Å"ruled by his wife† where Tom is selfish and acts on his own desires. Reaction to Adversity. There is a dramatic difference in the way the two menreactto the factthat their wives are cheating on them. Tom notices Daisy’s love for Gatsby and immediately starts making power plays. On the other hand, George discovers Myrtle’s affair and is undone by it. Nick compares the two men in a memorable description: â€Å"the shock had made him physically sick. I stared at him and then at Tom, who had made a parallel discovery less than an hour beforeand it occurred to me that there was no difference between men, in intelligence or race, so profound as the difference between the sick and the well. Wilson was so sick that he looked guilty, unforgivably guiltyas if he had just got some poor girl with child" (7.160). In this description, Tom is â€Å"well† and George is â€Å"sick.† Theseare certainly arresting ways to describe Tom's more traditional masculinity and George's less overtly masculine character. Tom is self-assured in the face of adversity and immediately takes action to win Daisyback,insisting on driving Gatsby's car, bullying those around him into driving to Manhattan, and using his romance skills to remind Daisy of the pluses of their relationship. Meanwhile, George's weaknessmakeshim look sick and guilty as he contemplates Myrtle's betrayal and isdriven to violence to reassert his power over her. Approach to Women.Both Tom and George assume they know what’s best for their wives: Tom dismisses Daisy’s professed love for Gatsby despite their obvious closeness, while George is determined to take Myrtle out west once he learns about the affair. But, while it seems that Tom does fundamentally understand Daisy and is right about her unwillingness to leave their marriage, George is unable to hold on to Myrtle either emotionally or physically. She is killed trying to run away from him. Tom and George Essay Ideas Differences in attitude and outcome, despite a relatively similar situation, reveal some unexpectedtruths aboutthe world of the novel. Argue the reverse of any of these topics for a really provocative essay! The fact that Tom manipulates George into killing Gatsby and then himself (which allows Tom and Daisy to walk away from the entire affair without consequence) shows the huge privileges of having money in the novel. Nick's approach to Tom and George shows his admiration of a physical, brutish, domineering kind of masculinity. The fact that the relatively good guy turns into a murderer while the bad guy lives to cheat another day isavery cynical takeon what happens in a world without a moral compass. Perhaps it shouldn't be surprised that the meeker man turns out to be the ultraviolent one. Daisy Buchanan and Jordan Baker Despite Daisy Buchanan and Jordan Baker'ssimilar â€Å"white girlhoods† (1.140) in Louisville, their attitude and motivations are quite distinct, making them really interesting to compare and contrast. Attitude and Outlook.Both Daisy and Jordan display an entitled, bored attitude that’s typical of Fitzgerald’s depiction of the old money segment of wealthy New York society. The fact that they are introduced in tandem, both lying on the couches in their white dresses, speaks to their initially similar attitudes. But soon we see how different their takes on this kind of life are.Daisy is increasingly despondent, even nihilistic, asking in Chapter 7, â€Å"what shall we do today, and tomorrow, and for the next thirty years?† (7.74). Jordan meanwhile is a pragmatic opportunist, who sees possibilities everywhere, arguingthat â€Å"life starts all over again when it gets crisp in the fall† (7.75). In other words, Daisy’s pessimistic attitude from Chapter 1 comes through again, while Jordan, despite coming across as cynical and sharp, actually still seems excited about the possibilities life has to offer. Appearance and Personality.Both Daisy and Jordan very alluring in their own way, though Daisy’s allure comes through her enchanting voice and feminine charms, while Jordan is masculine, â€Å"jaunty,† witty, sharp, and physical.Daisy maintains a squeaky-clean reputation despite moving with a fast crowd, while there are plenty of rumors about Jordan’s cheating in golf, and Nick comments on her dishonest attitude.More significantly, Daisy is incredibly self-absorbed while Jordan is very observant. Role in Society.Daisy seems caught between what society expects of her and some deeper, more powerful desires she can’t name, resulting in restlessness, depression, and her affair.Daisy is sticking to her prescribed societal role by marrying and having a child, while Jordan plays golf, â€Å"runs around town† and doesn’t seem to be in a hurry to marry, at least in the beginning of the novel. Perhaps Jordan is still somewhat optimistic about the possibilities of life since she hasn’t settled down yet, while Daisy realizes that nothing major in her life will change at this point.Jordan, meanwhile, is content to chase after fun and intrigue via other people’s bad behavior. And she doesn’t get dragged down by the tragedy in the book – on the contrary, she is callous in how little Myrtle’s death seems to shake her, coolly calling Nick the next day and asking him to meet like nothing has happened (8.50-61). Perhaps her motivations are a bit less accessible to the reader since her role was significantly downsized between some of Fitzgerald’s earlier drafts. But in any case, as we watch Daisy struggle in her marriage, what we see of Jordan is cool, calm, collected, and rather uncaring. Daisy and Jordan Essay Ideas So what are some possible conclusions we can draw from Daisy and Jordan’s characters? One of the most common strategies is to tie the differences between these women onto oneof the book’s larger themes, like the role of society and class or the American Dream. Another is to think about an important feature of the novel, like Nick’s narration, and see what these two characters can reveal about it. With those strategies in mind, here are some potential arguments you could argue for or against! Jordan and Daisy, because they are generally disempowered, both use their sexuality in different ways to gain power, with different results. Despite Jordan’s overt cheating and lying, Daisy is, in fact, the more morally compromisedperson. The way Nick treats Jordan versus the way he describes Daisy revealsthe novel’s preoccupation with Gatsby above all, to the detriment of the female characters. Dear Diary: Today I cheated at golf yet again! But it was nothing compared to what my friend Daisy did... Daisy Buchanan and Myrtle Wilson While Daisy Buchanan and Myrtle Wilson obviously come from very different backgrounds and have conflicting motivations, they also have some surprising similarities. Physical Appearance.Daisy and Myrtle both derive power from their looks. Myrtle's comfort with hervoluptuous bodyis clearly appealing to Tom, while Daisy's magnetic voice and ethereal presence obsess Gatsby. Throughout the novel, Myrtle is frequently reduced to being just a body - one to be used or violated by those around her. Tom sees little inMyrtle besides someone to either rub up against, have sex with, or punch at will; George resorts to imprisoning Myrtle while she eggs him on to "beat" her (7.314) the way Tom does; and finally, Daisy gruesomely rips Myrtle's body apart with a car. Meanwhile, Daisy's voice also serves to make her less of a person in her own right and more of an idealized, mythic figure from fairy tales. For Gatsby, Daisy's voice is appealing because it is "full of money" (7.105) - he is attracted to her not because of who she is, but because he sees her as a prize. Social Standing.Myrtle puts on the airs that Daisy has been born and raised with. This allows Myrtle to wield considerable social power within her group, as seen by how her guests fawn on her at the Manhattan party she throws. Daisy, in contrast, never exerts such overt power over a group – rather, she seems to move with crowds, doing what it expected of her (for instance marrying Tom despite still loving Gatsby). Love and Relationships.Daisy and Myrtle’s marriages are strikingly quite different. Daisy and Tom are able to stay together even through serial affairs and murder. They end uployal co-conspirators, protected by their wealth. Meanwhile, Myrtle has nothing but disdain forGeorge despite his evident love for her. Still, both womenuse affairs with other men as a way toescape. Daisy wants to get away from an increasingly unhappy marriage and try to recapture the spontaneity and possibility of her youth, while Myrtle loves the status that her affair with Tom grants her.However, both learn that they can’t escape forever through their affairs. Obviously, their biggest difference is thatDaisy gets to walk away from the novel unscathed, while Myrtle gets killed. Daisy and Myrtle Essay Ideas Here are ways to write about these different women who face similar choices with dramatically opposite conclusions. Despite their similarities in action and motivation, Daisy is protected from any lasting harm by her wealth and old money status, while Myrtle is punished for the same behavior, revealing how the class system in America protects the wealthy. The novel refuses to give any inner life to women, and instead reduces them to their physical qualities no matter what social class they come from. Daisy and Myrtle's similar treatment by the narrator and by the men around them shows that gender trumps class when determining status. Daisy and Myrtle’s similarities reveal how hollow the progress of the women’s movement really was at that point in time. Despite the big gains the movement made in the early twentieth century, including winning the right to vote and pushing for more freedom in how they could dress and act, both of these women’s lives aren’t vastly improved. They’re both trapped in unhappy marriages, they both rely on their looks/charms/sexuality to get what they want, and neither of them has even a chance of pursuing a fulfilling life through a career. The butterfly may be beautiful, but it's still trapped. What’s Next? Now that you’ve gone over the novel’s most popular compare/contrast pairings, check outour analysis of the novel’s romantic pairings in our guide to love, desire, and relationships in The Great Gatsby. Have an essay about a symbol or motif? Get started with our symbols overviewand motifs overview. Still a little hazy on some of the plot elements in Gatsby? Not to worry, we have you covered with our complete book summary! Want to improve your SAT score by 160 points or your ACT score by 4 points?We've written a guide for each test about the top 5 strategies you must be using to have a shot at improving your score. Download it for free now:

Evolution of Formal Organizations Paper Term Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

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Enterprise and Enterprenerual Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

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Telecommunications and Networking Essay Example for Free

Telecommunications and Networking Essay Telecommunications and networking are complicated with very intricate design and structures built within them. Protocols are set in place to allow Ethernets, switches and gateways to achieve the abilities and capabilities of telecommunications and networking through data and voice transmissions of today and the future. Today’s society is set at such a high pace with such great demand for volumes of data and voice transmissions that telecommunications and networking need to stay the course to keep up with the demands of societal growth by way of new hardware, software and technological advances. a) What is a policy?  A policy is verbiage that consists of words and statements that gives internal and external structural requirements whereby employees, personnel and others can follow. Specifications within the said policy are set to form and guide internal and external functions. This policy paves the way for integrity within the business and/or corporation’s foundational structure. â€Å"Policy: A broad statement that specifies what should be accomplished†. (Panko, R., Panko, J. (2011). b) Distinguish between policy and implementation.  Implementations are a more specified set of instructions whereby policies are less specified but yet each has a set verbiage that applies to the structural integrity of the company’s bi-laws and laws. â€Å"Implementation Guidance: Instructions that is more specific than policies but less specific than implementation.† (Panko, R., Panko, J. (2011). c) Why is it important to separate policies from implementation? The separation between policies and implementation is important so that a set of rules, bi-laws and/or laws that govern the business or company is set in a way that is most important to the least important of rules, bi-laws and laws within that business structure. Structural integrity based upon policies and the implementation of those policies is essential to the internal and external growth that applies to that corporate business structure. d) Why is oversight important?  Oversight is a tool that guides management that should be required to be used in â€Å"every† aspect within the business and/or corporation. Management has an obligation to implement the oversight protocols throughout the business structure whereby it sets the guidance protocols within those structures foundational rules of guidance and policy. â€Å"Oversight: A collection of methods to ensure that policies have been implemented properly†. (Panko, R., Panko, J. (2011). e) Compare the specificity of policies, implementation guidance, and implementation. Policies would be a set of more formal verbiage where implementation guidance would be the guidance within that set of policies and this would then be followed by the implementation of both the policies and the implementations guidance’s. All three of these categories are molded into one that would become the set policies of the business or corporate guidance structure. f) Distinguish between standards and guidelines. The standards and guidelines distinguish between one another in a way that they each set separate rules within themselves whereby each arrives at context and messages. The separation of standards and guidelines is such that standards â€Å"allows hardware and software to work together and guidelines is a directive that can be followed but is not necessarily followed unless implementation is required. â€Å"Guidelines: A directive that should be followed but need not be followed, depending on the context.† (Panko, R., Panko, J. (2011). â€Å"Standards: A rule of operation that allows hardware or software processes to work together. Standards normally govern the exchange of messages between two entities.† (Panko, R., Panko, J. (2011). g) Must guidelines be considered? The consideration of â€Å"guidelines† is dependent on the â€Å"need† and sometimes is not necessarily followed nor is it a necessary requirement. The required consideration of â€Å"guidelines† is such that management and/or the implementation of the â€Å"guideline† can become a necessary requirement. Remembering that the necessity meets the requirement within the aforementioned guidelines. Guidelines are considered where the need meets that requirement and this can be an essential or non-essential requirement of a specified guideline. h) List the three types of oversight listed in the text. Audit is one form of oversight followed by reading log files and the third oversight is vulnerability testing. Each of these is a part of a policy that is set into place and followed by internal and external personnel. Management sets the pace and implements the oversight whereby each individual mangers proceeds with oversight proto cols to meet oversight rules. I) what is vulnerability testing, and why is it done? Vulnerability testing is an internal mechanism that is performed to prevent the intrusion of internal and external sources. The vulnerability testing is a test that allows for the intrusive behavior to begin â€Å"within† the company’s own system that shows visible signs of degradation and exploitations within the system. â€Å"Vulnerability Testing: is attacking your own systems before attackers do, so that you can identify weaknesses and fix them before they are exploited by attackers† (Panko, R., Panko, J. (2011). j) Why is it important for policy to drive both implementation and oversight? Policy is the final product that drives the internal mechanisms of the business and/or corporate structure from the hardware, to software, to personnel then up to management. Policy is for example â€Å"like gasoline is to the automobile without the gasoline the automobile will not run†. Implementation would be for example â€Å"like not having the oil that lubricates the engine within the automobile† and then oversight would be for example â€Å"like the brake fluid that allows the brakes of the automobile to function and stop the automobile†. Requiring each of these mechanisms to be included in the structure of the business and/or corporation is essential to building focal points that lead and pave the way to present and future growth from within that business and corporations foundational structure. Policy is a core driving force that is essential to day to day operations as well as to future implementations of guidelines. Conclusion Telecommunications and networking are the business and/or corporate structures essential tools that require policies, guidelines, oversight and implementation. The management within that business structure is and should be required to follow each and every policy and guideline whereby each manger gives instructions to employees and personnel to follow these sets of guidelines and polices. Implementation of all governed rules should be set at the management level to include hardware, software and security protocols. Society demands telecommunications and networking with data, voice and video capabilities and management is essential to meet these societal demands whereby management needs the policies and guidelines to implement and address all of these demands.

Alcohol and the Family Essay -- Alcoholism Drinking Essays Research Pa

Alcohol and the Family    In the United States alone, there are 28 million children of alcoholics - seven million of these children are under the age of eighteen.     Every day, these children experience the horrors of living with an alcoholic parent. 40%-50% of children of alcoholics grow up and become alcoholics themselves. Others develop eating disorders or become workaholics. Children of alcoholics receive mixed messages, inconsistency, upredictability, betrayal, and sometimes physical and sexual abuse from their parents. They are made to grow up too fast because they must help keep the family structure together by doing housework and taking care of siblings since the alcoholic is not doing his or her part. Children form roles that they play to help disguise the disease. The roles help distract people from seeing the real problem and serve to protect the family so it can continue to function. There are five roles that the family members will take on-- the enabler, the hero, the scapegoat, the lost chi ld, and the mascot. The enabler is usually the spouse or the parent of the alcoholic. He takes on the normal duties that the alcoholic would normally carry out such as cleaning the house, taking care of the children, or even something as simple as walking the dog. The enabler also makes excuses for the alcoholic. He may call his wife's boss and tell him she is sick when really she is home with a hang-over. Or he might explain to a neighbor that the living room lamp broke because the two-year-old accidentally knocked it off the table when in reality it was thrown across the room in a drunken fit. This act of covering up does nothing but harm the family in the end. The enabler is making excuses and lying to hide the true act... ...out the affects alcoholism has on the family, one may think that it is a life full of endless turmoil. There is help out there, though, which should begin in the school system. Schools need to educate kids about alcohol abuse and establish an ongoing trusting relationship with kids who need help. The children aren not to blame for the actions of their parents and they need someone to help them understand that it's not their fault and they can break the cycle. This way the children will know that they have at least one person they can turn to for help and that they aren't alone. Bibliography: 1. Children of Alcoholism, Barbara L. Wood, New York University Press, 1987 2. Working with Children of Alcoholics, Bryan E. Robinson, Lexington Books, 1989 3. Substance Abuse Treatment: A Family Systems Perspective, Edith M. Freeman, Sage Publications, 1993

Show on a Diagram How a Monopoly Firm Will Make Supernormal Profits by Restricting Ouput

Show on a diagram how a monopoly firm will make supernormal profits by restricting output. Discuss how the theory of contestable markets could impact on the price and output of a monopoly. Neo-classical theory defines monopoly as a market structure where one dominant firm supplies most or all output in the industry without facing competition because of high barriers to entry to the industry. The monopolist is a short run profit maximiser and due to the demand under a monopoly being moderately inelastic at any given price, the monopolist is said to be a price maker, unlike perfect competition where the firms are price takers. The diagram below shows the monopoly making supernormal profits by restricting output. The equilibrium profit maximising level of output is 0A where MC = MR, and price will be 0p. Supernormal profits are made, shown by the area on the diagram shaded red. If profit maximisation was not an objective for a monopoly, it might produce at the bottom of its average costs curve (AC). Thus, price being lower than P and quantity produced would be greater. However, because a monopoly is partly defined by wanting to profit maximise in the short run, this is not the case. C AC Price Quantity mR p A Demand 0 Under perfect competition, supernormal profits can only be made in the short run, due to low barriers to entry. The monopolist can earn supernormal profit in the short and long run due to not having to produce at the bottom of the AC curve and having high barriers to entry. These barriers to entry, preventing other potential new entrance from coming in and competing with the monopoly can take various forms. Perhaps the monopoly has control over the source of an essential raw material. Perhaps the monopoly has extremely strong brand loyalty and takes great care to protect its brand image and the loyalty of its consumers through extensive marketing. It has been shown that neo-classical theory suggests that high barriers to entry will earn supernormal profits for a monopoly. Contestable market theory, in which states that there is freedom of entry to the industry and where costs of exit are low, suggests that a monopoly will earn supernormal profits dependent to a large extent on the costs of exit from the industry. If the costs of exit from the industry are low, then the monopoly arguably won’t make supernormal profits in the long run. If a monopoly in the short run is charging high prices and earning supernormal profit, a competitor will enter the industry and take some market share from the monopolist by charging a lower price. The monopolist will react by reducing prices, forcing the new competitor out of the industry. This happens because the competitor cannot compete with the new lower prices set by the monopolist due to its costs being too high. Thus, if the costs of exit from the industry are low, it is worth the competitor entering the market and having earned supernormal profits in the short run. Though, once the competitor has left the industry and the monopolist raises its price again wanting to earn supernormal profits, another competitor will enter the industry reducing the monopolists overall profits and taking market share away from it. Clearly the only way to avoid potential competitors from adopting ‘hit and run’ tactics would be for the monopolist to price at a level where it only earned normal profits. In the long run the monopolist will increase output and decrease price, operating at the optimal level of output where MC = AC. Thus in conclusion it has been shown that a monopoly will make supernormal profits by restricting output. The monopoly chooses the output level to produce at, and wanting to profit maximise, it produces at the point where marginal costs equals marginal revenue. In contestable market theory, the established firm, the monopoly, must behave as if it operates in a perfectly competitive market to prevent ‘hit and run’ tactics by potential competitors, producing where MC = AC.

Data Masking

An Oracle White Paper July 2010 Data Masking Best Practices Oracle White Paper—Data Masking Best Practices Executive Overview †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 1 Introduction †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 1 The Challenges of Masking Data †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 2 Implementing Data Masking †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. 2 Comprehensive Enterprise-wide Discovery of Sensitive Data †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. Enforcing Referential Relationships during Data Masking †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. 4 Rich and Extensible Mask Library†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. 6 Sophisticated Masking Techniques †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. 7 High Performance Mask Execution †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 9 Integrated Testing with Application Quality Management solutions11 Oracle’s Comprehensive Solutions for Database Security †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. 12 Customer Case Studies †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 2 Conclusion †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã ¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. 13 Oracle White Paper—Data Masking Best Practices Executive Overview Enterprises need to share production data with various constituents while also protecting sensitive or personally identifiable aspects of the information. As the number of applications increases, more and more data gets shared, thus further increasing the risk of a data breach, where sensitive data gets exposed to unauthorized parties.Oracle Data Masking addresses this problem by irreversibly replacing the original sensitive data with realistic -looking scrubbed data that has same type and characteristics as the original sensitive data thus enabling organizations to share this information in compliance with information security policies and government regulations. This paper describes the best practices for deploying Oracle Data Masking to protect sensitive information in Oracle and other heterogeneous databases such as IBM DB2, Microsoft SQLServer.Introduction Enterprises share data from the ir production applications with other users for a variety of business purposes. Most organizations copy production data into test and development environments to allow application developers to test application upgrades. Retail c ompanies share customer point-of-sale data with market researchers to analyze customer buying patterns. Pharmaceutical or healthcare organizations share patient data with medical researchers to assess the efficacy of clinical trials or medical treatments.Numerous industry studies on data privacy have concluded that almost all companies copy tens of millions of sensitive customer and consumer records to non-production environments for testing, development, and other uses. Very few companies do anything to protect this data even when sharing with outsourcers and third parties. Almost 1 out of 4 companies responded that live data used for development or testing had been lost or stolen and 50% s aid they had no way of knowing if data in non-production environme nts had been compromised. 1 Oracle White Paper—Data Masking Best Practices The Challenges of Masking DataOrganizations have tried to address these issues with custom hand-crafted solutions or repurposed existing data manipulation tools within the enterprise to solve this problem of sharing sensitive information with non-production users. Take for example, the most common solution: database scripts. At first glance, an advantage of the database scripts approach would appear that they specifically address the unique privacy needs of a particular database that they were designed for. They may have even been tuned by the DBA to run at their fastest Let’s look at the issues with this approach. 1.Reusability: Because of the tight association between a script and the associated database, these scripts would have to re-written from scratch if applied to another database. There are no common capabilities in a script that can be easily leveraged across other databases. 2. Transp arency: Since scripts tend to be monolithic programs, auditors have no transparency into the masking procedures used in the scripts. The auditors would find it extremely difficult to offer any recommendation on whether the masking process built into a script is secure and offers the enterprise the appropriate degree of protection. 3.Maintainability: When these enterprise applications are upgraded, new tables and columns containing sensitive data may be added as a part of the upgrade process. With a script-based approach, the entire script has to be revisited and updated to accommodate new tables and columns added as a part of an application patch or an upgrade. Implementing Data Masking Based on Oracle Data Masking , Oracle has developed a comprehensive 4-step approach to implementing data masking called Find, Assess, Secure, and Test (FAST). These steps are: ? Find: This phase involves identifying and cataloging sensitive or regulated data across the entire enterprise.Typically car ried out by business or security analysts, the goal of this exercise is to come up with the comprehensive list of sensitive data elements specific to the organization and discover the associated tables and columns across enterprise databases that contain the sensitive data. ? Assess: In this phase, developers or DBAs in conjunction with business or security analysts identify the masking algorithms that represent the optimal techniques to replace the original sensitive data. Developers can leverage the existing masking library or extend it with their own masking routines. ? Secure: This and the next steps may be iterative.The security administrator executes the masking process to secure the sensitive data during masking trials. Once the masking process has completed and has been verified, the DBA then hands over the environment to the application testers. 2 Oracle White Paper—Data Masking Best Practices ? Test: In the final step, the production users execute application proces ses to test whether the resulting masked data can be turned over to the other non-production users. If the masking routines need to be tweaked further, the DBA restores the database to the pre-masked state, fixes the masking algorithms and re-executes the masking process.Comprehensive Enterprise-wide Discovery of Sensitive Data To begin the process of masking data, the data elements that need to be masked in the application must be identified. The first step that any organization must take is to determine what is sensitive. This is because sensitive data is related to specific to the government regulations and industry standards that govern how the data can used or shared. Thus, the first step is for the security administrator to publish what constitutes sensitive data and get agreement from the company’s compliance or risk officers. A typical list of sensitive data elements may include:Person Name Bank Account Number Maiden Name Card Number (Credit or Debit Card Number) Busi ness Address Tax Registration Number or National Tax ID Business Telephone Number Person Identification Number Business Email Address W elfare Pension Insurance Number Custom Name Unemployment Insurance Number Employee Number Government Affiliation ID User Global Identifier Military Service ID Party Number or Customer Number Social Insurance Number Account Name Pension ID Number Mail Stop Article Number GPS Location Civil Identifier Number Student Exam Hall Ticket Number Credit Card Number Club Membership IDSocial Security Number Library Card Number Trade Union Membership Number Oracle Data Masking provides several easy-to-use mechanisms for isolating the sensitive data elements. 3 Oracle White Paper—Data Masking Best Practices ? Data Model driven: Typical enterprise applications, such as E-Business Suite, Peoplesoft and Siebel, have published their application data model as a part of their product documentation or the support knowledge base. By leveraging the published data models, data masking users can easily associate the relevant tables and columns to the mask formats to create the mask definition. ?Application Masking Templates: Oracle Data Masking supports the concept of application masking templates, which are XML representations of the mask definition. Software vendors or service providers can generate these pre-defined templates and make them available to enterprises to enable them to import these templates into the Data Masking rapidly and thus, accelerate the data masking implementation process. ? Ad-hoc search: Oracle Data Masking has a robust search mechanism that allows users to search the database quickly based on ad hoc search patterns to identify tables and columns that represent sources of sensitive data.With all the database management capabilities, including the ability to query sample rows from the tables, built into Enterprise Manager, the Data Masking a can assist enterprise users rapidly construct the mask definition – th e pre-requisite to mask the sensitive data. For deeper searches, Oracle provides the Oracle Data Finder tool during data masking implementation to search across enterprises based on data patterns, such as NNN-NN-NNNN for social security numbers or 16 or 15 digit sequences beginning with 3, 4 or 5 for credit card . numbers.Using the combination of schema and data patterns and augmenting them with published application meta data models, enterprises can now develop a comprehensive data privacy catalog that captures the sensitive data elements that exist across enterprise databases. To be clear, this is not a static list. This is a dynamic living catalog managed by security administrators that needs to be refreshed as business rules and government regulations change as well as when applications are upgraded and patched and new data elements containing sensitive data are now discovered. Enforcing Referential Relationships during Data MaskingIn today’s relational databases (RDBMS), data is stored in tables related by certain key columns , called primary key columns, which allows efficient storage of application data without have to duplicate data. For example, an EMPLOYEE_ID generated from a human capital management (HCM) application may be used in sales force automation (SFA) application tables using foreign key columns to keep track of sales reps and their accounts. When deploying a masking solution, business users are often concerned with referential integrity, the relationship between the primary key and the foreign key columns, in a database or across databases. 4Oracle White Paper—Data Masking Best Practices CUSTOMERS EMPLOYEES ? ? ? EMPLOYEE_ID FIRST_NAME LAST_NAME Database enforced Application enforced ? ? ? CUSTOMER_ID SALES_REP_ID COMPANY_NAME SHIPMENTS ? ? ? SHIPMENT_ID SHIPPING_CLERK_ID CARRIER Figure 1:The Importance of Referential Integrity Oracle Data Masking automatically identifies referential integrity as a part of the mask definition creation. This means that when a business user chooses to mask a key column such as EMPLOYEE_ID, the Oracle Data Masking discovers all the related foreign key relationships in the database and enforces the same mask format to the related foreign key columns.This guarantees that the relationships between the various applications tables are preserved while ensuring that privacyrelated elements are masked. In applications where referential integrity is enforced in the database, Oracle Data Masking allows these relationships to be registered as relate d columns in the mask definition, thereby applying the same masking rules as applied to the database-enforced foreign key columns. 5 Oracle White Paper—Data Masking Best Practices Figure 2: Automatic enforcement of referential Integrity Rich and Extensible Mask LibraryOracle Data Masking provides a centralized library of out-of-the-box mask formats for common types of sensitive data, such as credit card numbers, phone numbers, nati onal identifiers (social security number for US, national insurance number for UK). By leveraging the Format Library in Oracle Data Masking, enterprises can apply data privacy rules to sensitive data across enterprise-wide databases from a single source and thus, ensure consistent compliance with regulations. Enterprises can also extend this library with their own mask formats to meet their specific data privacy and application requirements. Oracle White Paper—Data Masking Best Practices Figure 3: Rich and extensible Mask Format Library Oracle Data Masking also provides mask primitives, which serve as building blocks to allow the creation of nearly unlimited custom mask formats ranging from numeric, alphabetic or date/time based. Recognizing that the real-world masking needs require a high degree of flexibility, Oracle Data Masking allows security administrators to create user-defined-masks. These user-defined masks, written in PL/SQL, let administrators create unique mask fo rmats for sensitive data, e. g. enerating a unique email address from fictitious first and last names to allow business applications to send test notifications to fictitious email addresses. Sophisticated Masking Techniques Data masking is in general a trade-off between security and reproducibility. A test database that is identical to the production database is 100% in terms of reproducibility and 0% in terms of security because of the fact that it exposes the original data. Masking technique where data in sensitive columns is replaced with a single fixed value is 100% in terms of security and 0% in terms of reproducibility.When considering various masking techniques, it is important to consider this trade-off in mind when selecting the masking algorithms. Oracle Data Masking provides a variety of sophisticated masking techniques to meet application requirements while ensuring data privacy. These techniques ensure that applications continue to operate without errors after masking. For example, ? Condition-based masking: this technique makes it possible to apply different mask formats to the same data set depending on the rows that match the conditions.For example, applying different national identifier masks based on country of origin. ? Compound masking: this technique ensures that a set of related columns is masked as a group to ensure that the masked data across the related columns retain the same relationship, e. g. city, state, zip values need to be consistent after masking. 7 Oracle White Paper—Data Masking Best Practices Deterministic Masking Deterministic masking is an important masking technique that enterprises must consider when masking key data that is referenced across multiple applications.Take, for example, three applications: a human capital management application, a customer relationship management application and a sales data warehouse. There are some key fields such as EMPLOYEE ID referenced in all three applications and needs to be masked in the corresponding test systems: a employee identifier for each employee in the human resources management application, customer service representative identifiers, which may also be EMPLOYEE IDs, in the customer relationship management application and sales representative IDs, which may be EMPLOYEE IDs in the sales data warehouse.To ensure that data relationships are preserved across systems even as privacy-related elements are removed, deterministic masking techniques ensure that data gets masked consistently across the various systems. It is vital that deterministic masking techniques used produce the replacement masked value consistently and yet in a manner that the original data cannot be derived from the masked value. One way to think of these deterministic masking techniques is as a function that is applied on the original value to generate a unique value consistently that has the same format, type and characteristics as the original value, e. . a deterministic funct ion f(x) where f(x1) will always produce y1 for a given value x1. In order for the deterministic masking to be applied successfully, it is important that the function f(x) not be reversible, i. e. the inverse function f-1(y1) should not produce x1 to ensure the security of the original sensitive data. Deterministic masking techniques can be used with mathematical entries, e. g. social security numbers or credit card numbers, as well as with text entries, e. g. , to generate names.For example, organizations may require that names always get masked to the same set of masked names to ensure consistency of data across runs. Testers may find it disruptive if the underlying data used for testing is changed by production refreshes and they could no longer locate certain types of employees or customer records that were examples for specific test cases. Thus, enterprises can use the deterministic masking functions provided by Oracle Data Masking to consistently generate the same replacement mask value for any type of sensitive data element.Deterministic masking becomes extremely critical when testing data feeds coming from external systems, such as employee expense data provided by credit card companies. In production environments, the feed containing real credit card numbers are processed by the accounts payable application containing employee’s matching credit card information and are used to reconcile employee expenses. In test systems, the employee credit card numbers have been obfuscated and can no longer be matched against the data in the flat files containing the employee’s real credit card number.To address this requirement, enterprises pre-load the flat file containing data using tools such as SQL*Loader, into standard tables, then mask the sensitive columns using deterministic masking provided by Oracle Data Masking and then extract the masked data back into flat file. Now, the application will be able to process the flat files correctly just as they would have been in Production systems. 8 Oracle White Paper—Data Masking Best Practices High Performance Mask Execution Now that the mask definition is complete, the Oracle Data Masking can now execute the masking process to replace all the sensitive data.Oracle Enterprise Manager offers several options to clone the production database: ? Recover from backup: Using the Oracle Managed Backups functionality, Oracle Enterprise Manager can create a test database from an existing backup. ? Clone Live Database: Oracle Enterprise Manager can clone a live production data into any non production environment within a few clicks. The clone database capability also provides the option to create a clone image, which can then be used for other cloning operations.With the cloned (non-production) database now ready for masking, the Oracle Data Masking builds a work list of the tables and columns chosen for masking. Other tables that are not required to be masked are not touched. Furthe r, the tables selected for masking are processed in the optimal order to ensure that only one pass is made at any time even if there are multiple columns from that table selected for masking. Typically, the tables with the primary keys get masked first, followed by the dependent tables containing foreign keys.Once the mask work list is ready, the Oracle Data Masking generates mapping tables for all the sensitive fields and their corresponding masked values. These are temporary tables that are created as a part of the masking process, which will be dropped once all data has been masked successfully. Using a highly efficient data bulk mechanism, Oracle Data Masking rapidly recreates the masked replacement table based on original tables and the mapping tables and restores all the related database elements, such as indexes, constraints, grants and triggers identical to the original table.Compare this with the typical data masking process, which usually involves performing table row upda tes. Because rows in a table are usually scattered all over the disk, the update process is extremely inefficient because the storage systems attempts to locate rows on data file stored on extremely large disk s. The bulk mechanism used by Oracle Data Masking lays down the new rows for the masked table in rapid succession on the disk. This enhanced efficiency makes the masked table available for users in a fraction of the time spent by an update-driven masking process.For large tables, Oracle Data Masking automatically invokes SQL parallelism to further speed up the masking process. Other performance enhancements include using the NOLOGGING option when recreating the table with the masked data. Typical database operations such as row inserts or updates generate redo logs, which are used by the database to capture changes made to files. These redo logs are completely unnecessary in a data masking operation since the non-production database is not running in a production environment, requiring continuous availability and recoverability.Using the NOLOGGING option, the Oracle Data Masking bypasses the logging mechanism to further accelerate the masking process efficiently and rapidly. 9 Oracle White Paper—Data Masking Best Practices In internal tests run on a single-core Pentium 4 (Northwood) [D1] system with 5. 7G of memory, the following performance results with reported. Criteria Baseline Metric Column scalability 215 columns 100 tables of 60G 20 minutes Row scalability 100 million rows 6 columns 1 hour 20 minutes Figure 4: Oracle Data Masking Performance scalability testsAs these results clearly indicate, Oracle Data Masking can handle significant volumes of sensitive data effortlessly both in terms of the number of sensitive columns as well as tables with large numbers of rows. Oracle Data Masking is also integrated with Oracle Provisioning and Patch Automation in Oracle Enterprise Manager to clone-and-mask via a single workflow. The secure high perfor mance nature of Oracle Data Masking combined with the end-to-end workflow ensures that enterprise can provision test systems from production rapidly instead of days or weeks that it would with separate manual processes.Optimized for Oracle databases Oracle Data Masking leverages key capabilities in Oracle databases to enhance the overall manageability of the masking solution. Some of these include: ? Flashback: Administrators can optionally configure Oracle databases to enable flashback to a premasked state if they encounter problems with the masked data. ? PL/SQL: Unlike other solutions, Oracle Data Masking generates DBA-friendly PL/SQL that allows DBAs to tailor the masking process to their needs. This PL/SQL script can also be easily integrated into any cloning process. 0 Oracle White Paper—Data Masking Best Practices Support for heterogeneous databases Oracle Data Masking supports masking of sensitive data in heterogeneous databases such as IBM DB2 and Microsoft SQLServer through the use of Oracle Database Gateways. Figure 5: Data masking support for heterogeneous databases Integrated Testing with Application Quality Management solutions The final step of the masking process is to test that the application is performing successfully after the masking process has completed.Oracle Enterprise Manager’s Application Quality Management (AQM) solutions provide high quality testing for all tiers of the application stack. Thorough testing can help you identify application quality and performance issues prior to deployment. Testing is one of the most challenging and time consuming parts of successfully deploying an application, but it is also one of the most critical to the project’s success. Oracle Enterprise Manager’s AQM solutions provide a unique combination of test capabilities which enable you to: ?Test infrastructure changes: Real Application Testing is designed and optimized for testing database tier infrastructure changes using r eal application workloads captured in production to validate database performance in your test environment. 11 Oracle White Paper—Data Masking Best Practices ? Test application changes: Application Testing Suite helps you ensure application quality and performance with complete end-to-end application testing solutions that allow you to automate functional & regression testing, execute load tests and manage the test process.Oracle’s Comprehensive Solutions for Database Security Oracle provides a comprehensive portfolio of security solutions to ensure data privacy, protect against insider threats, and enable regulatory compliance. With Oracle's powerful privileged user and multifactor access control, data classification, transparent data encryption, auditing, monitoring, and data masking, customers can deploy reliable data security solutions that do not require any changes to existing applications, saving time and money. Customer Case StudiesCustomers have had a variety of business needs which drove their decision to adopt the Oracle Data Masking for their sensitive enterprise data. These benefits of using Oracle Data Masking were realized by a major global telecommunications products company that implemented the above methdology. Their database administrators (DBAs) had developed custom scripts to mask sensitive data in the test and development environments of their human resources (HR) application. As the company was growing and offering new services, their IT infrastructure was also growing thus placing an increased burden on their DBAs.By implementing Oracle Data Masking, the organization was able to use the role-based separation of duties to allow the HR analysts to define the security policies for masking sensitive data. The DBAs then automated the implementation of these masking policies when provisioning new test or development environments. Thus, the telecommunications company was able to allow business users to ensure compliance of their non-production environments while eliminating another manual task for the DBAs through automation. The need for data masking can come from internal compliance requirements.In the case of this UKbased government organization, the internal audit and compliance team had identified that the nonproduction copies of human resource management systems used for testing, development and reporting did not meet the established standards for privacy and confidentiality. In joint consultations with their IT service provider, the organization quickly identified the Oracle Data Masking as ideally suited to their business needs based on the fact that it was integrated with their day-to-day systems management operations provided by Oracle Enterprise Manager.Within a few weeks, the service provider deployed the mask definitions for their Oracle eBusiness Suite HR application and thereby rapidly brought the internal non-productions systems into compliance. There are organizations that have internally d eveloped data masking solutions that have discovered that custom scripts ultimately have their limits and are not able to scale up as enterprise data sets increase in volume. This Middle East-based real estate company found that their data masking scripts were running for several hours and were slowing down as data volumes increased.Due to the stringent requirement to create production copies available for testing within rapid time-frames, the company evaluated the Oracle Data Masking among other commercial solutions. Upon deploying the Oracle 12 Oracle White Paper—Data Masking Best Practices Data Masking, they discovered that they were able to accelerate the masking time from 6 hours using their old scripts to 6 minutes using the Oracle Data Masking, an improvement of 60x in performance. ConclusionStaying compliant with policy and government regulations while sharing production data with nonproduction users has become a critical business imperative for all enterprises. Oracl e Data Masking is designed and optimized for today’s high volume enterprise applications running on Oracle databases. Leveraging the power of Oracle Enterprise Manger to manage all enterprise databases and systems, Oracle Data Masking accelerates sensitive data identification and executes the masking process with a simple easy-to-use web interface that puts the power of masking in the hands of business users and administrators.Organizations that have implemented Oracle Data Masking to protect sensitive data in test and development environment have realized significant benefits in the following areas: ? Reducing Risk through Compliance: By protecting sensitive information when sharing production data with developers and testers, organizations have able to ensure that non -production databases have remained compliant with IT security policies while enabling developers to conduct production-class testing. ?Increasing Productivity through Automation: By automating the masking pro cess, organizations have been able to reduce the burden on DBAs who previously had to maintain manuallydeveloped masking scripts. 13 Data Masking Best Practices July 2010 Copyright  © 2010, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved . This document is provided for information purposes only and the Author: Jagan R. Athreya contents hereof are subject to change without notice. This document is not warranted to be error -free, nor subject to any other Contributing Authors: arranties or conditions, whether expressed orally or implied in law, including implied warranties and conditions of merchant ability or fitness for a particular purpose. We specifically disclaim any liability with respect to this document and no contractual obligations are Oracle Corporation formed either directly or indirectly by this document. This document may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by a ny W orld Headquarters means, electronic or mechanical, for any purpose, without our prior wri tten permission. 500 Oracle Parkway Redwood Shores, CA 94065Oracle and Java are registered trademarks of Oracle and/or its affiliates. Other names may be trademarks of their respective U. S. A. owners. W orldwide Inquiries: AMD, Opteron, the AMD logo, and the AMD Opteron logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Advanced Micro Devices. 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French Words Nouveau vs. Neuf

French Words Nouveau vs. Neuf English speakers sometimes find it difficult to translate new into French, due to confusion over the French words nouveau and neuf. In fact, the French adjectives have distinctly different meanings; the problem is actually caused by the fact that the English new has more than one meaning. Fortunately, this is an easy problem to remedy. Read over this lesson, learn the difference between nouveau and neuf, and you wont have any more trouble saying new in French. Nouveau Nouveau means new in the sense of new to the owner - a change or improvement; that is, something that is new because its different than what came before, regardless of whether it is brand new from the store. The opposite of nouveau is ancien (former).As-tu vu ma nouvelle voiture ?Have you seen my new car?(The car is not necessarily new out of the factory; new here means new to the speaker.)Il a mis une nouvelle chemise.He put a new shirt on.(He took off the shirt he was wearing and put a different one on in its place. The new shirt may or may not be new from the store; the important thing here is that it is different.)Cest nouveau.Its new.(I just bought/found/made it.)Nous avons un nouvel appartement.We have a new apartment.(We just moved.)Jai vu le nouveau pont.I saw the new bridge.(The replacement for the one that got washed out.) Nouveau precedes the noun it modifies and changes to agree in gender and number with it.nouveau - nouvelle - nouveaux - nouvellesNouveau has a special form for masculine nouns that begin with a vowel: nouvel. Note that une nouvelle is a piece of news and les nouvelles refer to the news in general. Neuf Neuf means new in the sense of brand new, fresh out of the factory, first of its kind. The opposite of neuf is vieux (old).Je nai jamais achetà © une voiture neuve.Ive never bought a new car.(I always buy used cars.)Il a achetà © une chemise neuve.He bought a new shirt.(He went to the store and bought a brand-new shirt.)Comme neuf.As good as new.(Its fixed, so now its just like new.)Nous avons un appartement neuf.We have a new apartment.(We live in a brand-new building.)Jai vu le Pont neuf.I saw the Pont neuf (in Paris).(Although this is the oldest bridge in Paris, at the time it was built and named, it was a brand-new bridge in a brand-new spot.) Neuf follows the noun it modifies and changes to agree in gender and number with it:neuf - neuve - neufs - neuves Remember that neuf is also the number nine:Jai neuf cousins - I have nine cousins. Nouveau vs Neuf In summary, nouveau means something has changed, while neuf indicates that something is newly-made. With this new knowledge, you shouldnt have any more trouble deciding whether to use neuf or nouveau.

How to Expand Your Organic Growth on Facebook and Twitter for Free

How to Expand Your Organic Growth on Facebook and Twitter for Free When it comes to social media, every brand wants in on the action. It’s no secret that social media marketing works only if a brand actually has fans or followers. Amassing a respectable audience on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ (is that still a thing?), Linkedin, Instagram or any of the other platform du jour  is tough. Many brands and small businesses want their social media presence to be organic, meaning no money invested. Having a good, or great, social media presence can help any   business grow like wildflowers. But, this will only happen after it develops a large following and then works consistently to engage, educate, and cultivate this audience. Brands want the growth and audience, but aren’t willing to pay for it. Seems like a catch 22. Can a brand simply grow their social audience organically?   Is that even possible in today’s pay-to-play landscape? Here are some metrics. Here’s a 10 step recipe for growing an organic audience on Facebook and TwitterHow to Get 129% Organic Growth on Twitter and 239% on Facebook With 100% Organic Tactics No, this isn’t a fairytale in the land of make believe that is social media. It’s actually the metrics after recently (within past two months) concluding a relationship with one of my first social media clients ever. The client, let’s call them DFX (name changed), works in the financial sector so the competition is high, with tight regulations in terms of release of specific information, and it just so happens to be that within this aspect of the industry, some brands are known for tactics that fall within the â€Å"grey area† of digital marketing. After closing up with the DFX, it’s pretty clear that brands can still boost their audience even without investing money. Will it take time and effort? Absolutely, but the euphoria of surviving numerous Facebook algorithms and outperforming your competition is worth it all. Trust me, I’ve been there. So, how did they succeed in growing organically?   Here’s a 10 step recipe for growing an organic audience on Facebook and Twitter (and it even worked a bit on Google Plus too). Here’s a 10 step recipe for growing an organic audience on Facebook and TwitterKnow the Fundamentals to Grow a Social Media Audience the Right Way Organic growth is based on three fundamentals: Consistency Knowledge Being real (authenticity) Brands must be consistent. If any brand attempts to implement any of these strategies for even a month and then gives up, I guarantee that they will fail. Social media is a long-term game. It’s a marathon, not a sprint. Limited on time? No problem, just pick a few of the strategies and be relentless in executing them. Brands must know their audience (we all know what happens when we assume things about people)? Understand their patterns, their preferences, their input. Social media is always about being real. There’s no room for bots, auto responders, auto DM’s, and egg heads. It’s about conversation. Organic growth on social media is just as much about knowing, educating and maintaining current followers as it is about gaining new ones. Recommended Reading: The Six Types of Social Media Content That Will Give You the Greatest Value With that introduction, here’s how DFX grew their social media audience organically (all images and screenshots of content are used with permission). With this information in hand, any brand can launch an organic growth campaign. Recommended Reading: Facebook Marketing Strategy: Why You Need One (And How to Build It) 1. Perform a Social Media Audit After vowing to embrace the fundamentals, an important step in growth is to first assess what’s been done. Conduct a social media audit of your existing process, strategy, and flow. Calendar of content: Yes, this is number one on an audit. Without a content calendar that stresses consistency, valuable brand focused and industry relevant content the entire social media and digital effort will be sloppy. Audience mapping: Identify leaders, influencers, and key figures in the space. Content should be shaped and guided by the conversations of these industry figures. Focus the brands engagement efforts and optimize content to this audience. Additionally, the content style of others in your space should offer insight into what resonates with the readers. Timing: Content should be posted at optimal times based on the highest concentration of readers. The easiest method to start an audit about timing is to use Facebook Insights   which will highlight the trends. Frequency of content sharing and use of hashtags: Posting content at the right time is one aspect of timing. The frequency of sharing relevant content to these audiences is also important. It does take a bit of trial and error. Using hashtags can also boost reach of your content. How often is content posted? When are hashtags, if at all, used? How many hashtags? Image Quality: Unfortunately, this is a problem that many brands confront (more about this later). This should be as important as the rest of your content. Is the image shareable? Will it look right when shared across digital channels? Has it been tagged on the CMS backend? Word Choice: Brands often auto share their content without being mindful of what will actually engage their readers. Engagement vs Automation: Every brand schedules content. Automation helps, but it can’t replace human interaction and engagement. How often is content scheduled and pushed out and how often does the brand engage with its users, those who share its content? After conducting a detailed, unbiased, social audit it’s time to move on to the fun part: successful organic growth. Note: The above audit served as the ongoing reference point for the DFX social team to refine and revise its strategy. Any brand can use this audit style. 2. Build Out Your Content Calendar In order for a brand to truly grow its organic audience and, by default, its reach, it needs to be strategic about its posting of content. Creating a proper schedule that drills down to the topics, the word choice, timing, style on each social platform, what call-to-action (only one per post please), awareness of important calendar dates within the industry or relevant holidays, will focus all marketing and communication efforts. Synchronizing these efforts is the most important. Why? Knowing these critical pieces of information eases the entire flow of content to be a deliberate process. A complete content calendar spans over a few months and includes all of the postings and themes that will be focused on during this time frame. The calendar should be amenable to change, as trends shift and brands need to modify accordingly. A calendar should not only include campaign themes, but also any events, sponsorships or webinars. offers a very detailed content calendar  for free. A content calendar should not only include campaign themes, but also any events, sponsorships or...3. Try Reverse-Engineering Hashtags For several clients, I’ve found that the best way to identify which content should be posted on what days, was to reverse engineer the calendar based on hashtags. How can hashtags define an entire content calendar? Hashtags simply let a brand associate their content, tweets, or posts with a larger conversation on a global scale? Yes, global. So a brand can easily grow their page by using a hashtag? Yes!   It's like adding keywords to your message to make it globally searchable. Which hashtags are right for your brand? Use Hashtagify to identify the relevance of a specific hashtag and other relevant ones associated to the main one. Once identified, brands can then leverage this information for competitive research, content curation, and influencer mapping. Every industry has hashtags. Remember, they’re like keywords. Recommended Reading: How to Use Hashtags Effectively Without Being Annoying 4. Search For Relevant Twitter Chats Once a brand has mapped the right hashtags, go one step further by searching for relevant Twitter chats. These weekly or bi-weekly online conversations on Twitter are a secret way to grow an organic audience. Use the Twubs  to search the extensive calendar for relevant conversations: Access a global network of relevant people, engage in meaningful conversations within its industry, and identify active users all organically. For the sake of example, a company working in the travel industry. Every Tuesday, there is a conversation called #ttot, travel talk on Twitter. On this day, travel professionals from around the world engage in industry related conversations. Why not leverage this to grow your audience? Bam! Your brand has just created its content bible by reverse engineering a content schedule framed around relevant conversations, industry topics, and optimal engagement.Tuesdays are now set in terms of branded content. Continuing with the travel theme, any destination is rich with history. Why not use the popular #TBT (throw back Thursday) to highlight the changing landscape of a location over time?! With two days of content framed around hashtags, the rest of the week should be much easier to plug in. Recommended Reading: 30 Social Media Engagement Tactics That Will Boost Shares And Conversions 5. Know that Timing is Everything Once you know what to post, now it’s time to determine when to post it. Organic growth starts with knowing when your brand’s audience is online. Timing for each platform does vary. We even wrote a post the best times to post on each platform, which digs deep into the topic of timing content for optimal viewing. For a day-to-day analysis, conducted extensive research  on optimizing the timing of content for best engagement. For DFX, Sundays, an otherwise slow time in the trading/ financial sector, was a chance for the brand to offer valuable information that is relevant to the upcoming week. It was also a time to highlight some key figures and personalities in the industry. Get more social media engagement by offering valuable content during off-peak times.Why? By offering valuable content on a slow day, DFX positioned itself as an active participant in the online conversation. It also presented itself as community-minded brand since every week the content on Sundays was focused around other brands. The proactive content and engagement approach, during an otherwise quiet time in the industry, significantly grew the brand’s organic audience. 6. Get Your Frequency Dialed In Once your brand knows when to post the content for optimal viewing, now the question is how often should a brand post its content. Guy Kawasaki is famous for his unique social media content strategy, sharing the exact content four times a day, eight hours apart. Why? Simply stated, why get 600 views when you can get 2400 by sharing it multiple times? Besides, if your audience sees your content more than once then they’re probably sitting in front of their computer for way too long. Recommended Reading: How Often to Post on Social Media [Proven Research From 10 Studies] A twist on the Guy Kawasaki method, which has helped many clients, is to share the same piece of content on Twitter four to six times a day and on Facebook two to three times a day, but each time either the image or the content (not the link) varies. How does a brand repurpose its content for multiple sharing throughout the day? Think about each blog post as a newspaper article. Every article has multiple angles that may interest a reader. Why not offer them as ‘new’ content options? Here’s a sample of the same link being shared three times in one day. This link got over 120 views in one day. When it comes to social media success, timing is everything.7. Understand Audience Mapping Organic growth on social media can be as simple as mapping your target audiences. Start by telling BuzzSumo  the category of content that best suits your brand, BuzzSumo will produce a list of the most influential people in the space, it will also share a list of content pieces that have performed extremely well. This makes your job a whole lot easier. If you have a BuzzSumo subscription, start by logging in. Then, select Influencers: Next, enter a keyword related to your industry, and click Search: Now, start following these people: For DFX, we mapped over 3,000 influencers and brands that we’d like to work with and engage in meaningful conversations (more on that later). 3,000. It took a long time to map them but the ROI was impressive. Once a respectable list is generated, sort each member of the audience, especially competition, by their social following. Next, is to follow these brands on Twitter and Facebook who share content that resonates with your brand profile. What will most likely happen is that top ones will rise to the top. Use their metrics as a benchmark. At DFX, we followed them across social channels, like Facebook Pages to watch, signed up to their newsletters, and subscribed to their RSS feeds. Watch your competition's Facebook pages, get their newsletters, and subscribe to their RSS feeds.Use a service like Nuzzel to do scour the internet of your main audience and their best performing content. They will email the most-shared content from your audience. If the list of influencers is really good, then the results will be super relevant, making organic growth a cinch. Guess what? Your brand has just mapped the right people and now it also knows what content is doing well. Once you know what’s doing well and what others are writing about, wouldn’t it make sense to add some value to the conversation by writing a content piece about the topic and mention these people?! Of course it would! Then, post the content and tag these brands. Unique, valuable content, targeted to your audience, and garnered by the leaders of your space. Organic growth was never so easy. Want to take the audience mapping to the next level? Create an interview series with these influencers as the guest contributors offering their thoughts on the industry and their vision on certain topics. Influencer marketing does work (for proof, here’s how Huawei rocked  their influencer marketing efforts). Now it’s your turn to share it and engage these people. Recommended Reading: How to Find Your Target Audience to Create the Best Content That Connects 8. Automate Content Unless your brand is Superman, there’s never enough time in the day to post content around the clock. Automation helps with making social media growth more efficient and effective. It’s not intended to be the only form of social media. Automation is half of the solution. Care to guess the other? Yup, engagement. See number 6. Once a brand understands that automation and real conversations are both  important, that real organic growth can take place. Looking for automation tools? Here’s a list of 9 social media management tools  that cross all platforms. Recommended Reading: Best Time Scheduling is the Easy Way to Get More Engagement [New Feature] 9. Engage Your Audience Social media is a behavioral shift. It’s not a broadcast platform. Engaging an audience and a community is one of the toughest aspects of social media marketing. Finding the right balance between branded content and audience generated content is not easy. For every brand it will vary.   For some it can be funny pictures, memes, videos, gif’s, or a white paper. Once a brand does have a following it means engaging, supporting and sharing their content, responding to their comments, and helping them if necessary. Social media is a behavioral shift. It's not a broadcast platform.How do you get more people talking about and interacting with your brand on social media? Stop talking about your brand! Yup, that’s right. Avoid being overtly promotional. The more narrative based content or industry related content and interesting pieces of information that aren’t brand focused will show the community how real the brand is. It may sound counterintuitive but it works. Want to engage an audience? Find a conference. No brands don’t have to attend every industry conference. Why not use the conference specific hashtag (there’s that reverse engineering thing again) as a means to engage in conversations?! Here’s a targeted conversation with a global influencer from DFX before a conference: Look at that! The brand engaged in a meaningful way and landed a meeting (face-to face) and took the conversation offline. 10. Take it Offline That’s right, one of the best ways of growing an organic social audience is to find ways to take it offline. That could be a phone call, a webinar, a meeting at a conference (via the hashtag), or webinar.   Bridge the online offline gap and a put a face to the brand. Make it happen. Tweeting and posting can be done all day, but until a real connection is made, the deal won’t be sealed. one of the best ways of growing an organic social audience is to find ways to take it offline.11. Aesthetics is Everything Visuals can make the entire difference in organic growth. It can boost brand visibility while supporting all digital efforts.   With such a cluttered social space, high quality, attractive visuals make a brand memorable. Visual content is easier for humans to process and is an easy way to generate more views, click throughs and followers. Rather than just use the same text, or the default image that comes up when putting a link to Facebook or Google Plus, why not be creative? Recommended Reading: How to Design Blog Graphics With Free Tools Consistent style of content and embedding of images that are high quality and relevant can make all the difference in organic growth and brand awareness. Social media marketing is a marathon. It will take time. The best metric of success in social media is the quality (not quantity) of your networks. Any brand that approaches social media from an organic perspective, the quality of their community will be a natural progression of the effort put in.