Tag Archives: Featured

Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders go after Donald Trump at town hall in Columbus, Ohio

Ohio Democratic Presidential Town Hall

COLUMBUS, OHIO – Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders participated in a town hall event in Columbus, Ohio, Sunday night. The event was televised on CNN. The town hall followed a joint appearance at a dinner hosted by the Ohio Democrats. Each candidate also campaigned individually in Ohio, which holds its primary election on Tuesday.

Clinton said she’s received private messages from foreign leaders asking to endorse her candidacy in hopes of defeating Republican front-runner Donald Trump, who Clinton said is encouraging violence and chaos to win over voters.

Clinton refused to name the dignitaries, though she says she told them that the election must be decided by Americans. But, she says, her experience as secretary of state will offer a powerful contrast with Trump, should they face off in the general election.

“At our best, Americans have rejected demagogues and fear-mongers,” she said.

“…I believe that I will have an opportunity to really focus in on how dangerous a Donald Trump presidency would be for our standing, for our safety and for the peace of the world,” she added

She also said she supports a “very limited use” of the death penalty in cases where there are “horrific mass killings.” Clinton said the states have “proven themselves incapable of carrying out fair trials that give any defendant all the rights that defendant should have.” She added that she would “breathe a sigh of relief if either the Supreme Court or the states themselves began to eliminate the death penalty.” But Clinton added that she thinks the death penalty should still be kept “in reserve” for limited cases in the federal judicial system, citing the Oklahoma City bombing and the 9/11 attacks as examples.

“But what happened to you was a travesty,” Clinton said. “I know that all of us are so regretful that you or any person has to go through what you did.”

 

Sanders called on Donald Trump to “tell his supporters that violence in the political process in America is not acceptable.”

The Vermont senator was asked about the Republican front-runner’s statements that the Sanders campaign sent protesters to disrupted Trump’s rally in Chicago. Sanders called Trump a “pathological liar” and said his campaign has never encouraged “anybody to disrupt anything.” He added he hopes “Mr. Trump tones it down big-time and tells his supporters violence is not acceptable in the political process.”

Originally Written and Published by Associated Press

 

Sanders wins: Ohio judge rules 17-year-olds can vote on election day

Bernie-Sanders-Campaign

Sen. Bernie Sanders notched a potentially significant win on Friday evening when an Ohio judge issued an order, allowing 17-year-old voters to participate in the state’s presidential primary on Tuesday. Franklin County Common Pleas Court Judge Richard Frye ruled that 17-year-old voters who turn 18 by the day of the November election can vote in the primary, though not on ballot issues or for any contests that would actually elect someone to office.

The ruling trumps a recent move by Secretary of State Jon Husted, a Republican, to block 17-year-old voters in the state from participating on election day, on the grounds that the teens would be voting for delegates, not nominating candidates directly. In December, Husted revised the state’s election manual, which previously allowed the practice. Frye’s ruling came in response to a suit by nine 17-year-old registered Ohio voters, who disputed Husted’s interpretation of the law.

The ruling is a victory for Sanders’ campaign, which separately filed a federal lawsuit on Tuesday against Husted’s order. The Sanders campaign accused Husted in the suit — which was put on hold Friday by a federal judge — of trying to stop younger voters from exercising their democratic rights.

“It is an outrage that the secretary of state in Ohio is going out of his way to keep young people — significantly African-American young people, Latino young people — from participating,” Bernie Sanders said.

Sanders campaign attorney Brad Deutsch said the ruling was a major victory.

“This is a huge victory for 17-year-olds across Ohio. Their votes for presidential nominees will now count when they vote on either Tuesday or over the weekend in early voting,” Deutch said in a statement.

Husted blasted the ruling and said he would appeal.

“This last-minute legislating from the bench on election law has to stop,” he said, according to The Associated Press. “Our system cannot give one county court the power to change 30 years of election law for the entire state of Ohio, 23 days into early voting and only four days before an election.”

Younger voters have rallied to Sanders’ idealistic message, helping deliver victories over his rival Hillary Clinton in a number of close primaries.

Original Article Published by  via POLITICO

 

The Real Cause of the Flint Crisis

flint-michigan-the-atlantic-

Written by: JACOB S. HACKER AND PAUL PIERSON

The shocking crisis in Flint—where state cost-cutting mandates led to lead-tainted water that has poisoned thousands of children—has become a metaphor for American political dysfunction. Yet it should also be a reminder of how much Americans’ health and well-being depend on effective public policies. Rather than see Flint as another case of government failure, reinforcing distrust and cynicism, Americans should instead see it as a call to action. Using the power of government, American society once solved problems like those now plaguing Flint and too many other communities. And it could do so again, if it overcame the widespread amnesia about the enormous benefits of active, responsive government… Read Entire Article HERE

 

 

 

Vine Fame: The Social Media Millennials

INSTAGRAM, VINE AND SNAPCHAT: THE SHIFT OF SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING TO MILLENNIALS

The days of text only ads and billboards are a dying breed.

The response that I often receive to this is also the very same: “but why?”

Plain and simple, your audience is not there.

According to this article on Entrepreneur.com, a study done by the Pew Research Center stated that “71 percent of teens use Facebook, making it the most popular social networking platform among 13-17 year olds. Instagram is the second most popular (used by 52 percent), followed by Snapchat, Twitter and Google+.”

If this is true, why not spend all our social media advertising on Facebook? Here is why that is not a great way to target the millennial audience.

Where should we be spending our advertising money?

Millennials want their information fast. In areas where they can avoid wasting time, they will. Advertising spend would be much more valuable in Instagram and Snapchat rather than in traditional advertising spaces like magazines and newspapers.

This is not just unique to Millennials. Past generations have always wanted information faster and the precious commodity of time has not changed, so what’s the difference?

The difference now is that we are no longer limited by our resources to do so.

Enter the world of Instagram, Vine and Snapchat

Vine

The true power of a 7-second vine is found in news jacking, like Samsung’s launch of its Galaxy Note 4, and the caption that you create for it. A vine isn’t so much the quality of the video that is being shown that is important, but rather the idea you are trying to convey.

Why is Vine effective with Millennials?

• It allows users to create videos by themselves fast
• Quick information, seven seconds or less
• Feedback and views allow viewers to see its virility
• Integrates with Twitter

Vine allows its customers to record, pause and record until the 7 second time frame is up. Much like a cartoon and advertisements of old, it resembles the flipbook models of writing on the edges of paper and flipping to create a quick-moving story. This also allows for a lot of humor in the posts when done right.

Here are some examples of how businesses use Vine to capture its millennial audience:

Lowe’s is a great example of how you implement the loop feature of Vine. You can see that both the lint and debris from the vacuum end up creating the dog in the end of the Vine, which allows users to continually watch without realizing they’ve watched it multiple times. This is a feature of Vine that is very under-utilized but when it is done properly, Millennials love to share it. You can see that Lowe’s vine has been looped over 327,000+ times.

Many millennials are cutting the cord on cable and even avoiding paying for pay-per-view fights because they know they can rely on friends to send them Vine’s. Take alook here at the Ronda Rousey & Holly Holm fight Vine. Again, it’s fast, informative and has the power to go viral. Three things the millennial audience loves.

 

Instagram

benjer1 When Instagram announced that they were going to first integrate with Facebook, most questioned why it would not remain separate from another social media site. Their implementation of video and now advertisements have made Instagram one of the best places to advertise currently. But why?

• It’s quick,
• It’s 15 seconds maximum per video
• Continual User Growth for both personal and business use

What better ideal location to find your millennial audience.

Here are some unique things that individual brands are doing with Instagram and the ways that this targets millennials better than other brands:

Ben N Jerry’s (Source: Instagram)

Positives:

• No Text
• Focused on Product
• Good spacing between products
• Featuring top products

Negatives:

• A GIF or short video could have allowed for better brand recognition and exposure (i.e. Moving in a flavor at a time with an arm at a time)

Why Is Instagram so powerful?

Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom states “what advertisers should really latch onto is the fact that Instagram uses Facebook’s demographic data to serve up ads to the appropriate parties…Facebook helps us provide relevant ads to the users. You don’t want a 50-year-old male who is interested in autos seeing an ad for beauty-care products targeted at teens.”

The power of data, combined with advertising is a powerful tool that many have yet to un-tap on this platform. Visual content is the future of social media and the time to find a quality videographer for your business is now.

Snapchat

In an article by AdWeek, “70% of College Students Post to Snapchat Daily while only 46% post to Twitter daily and Facebook a mere 11%. So, as stated previously, Facebook is being used but it is not the future for digital marketers or for those wanting to capture a high volume of potential customers.

Why is Snapchat a powerful medium?

• It’s quick
• 10 seconds max per video/picture
• Disappears after use
• Over 100 Million Users and continuing to grow

With over 5+ billion views on Snapchat each day, companies like ESPN, Mashable, Time, PEOPLE, CNN, Food Network, National Geographic among others have used this space to create engaging content.

Here are some examples of what brands are doing:

• Goldman Sachs using Snapchat Campus Story to recruit new employees
• Buzzfeed creating graphics to screenshot and send to friends
• CNN highlights a story to show what life is like when you make $7.50 an hour
• CNN shows a story conveying the hot topics including racism in interracial families
• Mashable using the power of lists to engage users in reading some User Generated Content (UGC)

 

What’s next for millennials?

It’s time to get with the UGC and use your customers to create effective and engaging content. After all, this is no longer a world of what you say about your brand. Your customers are now your spokespeople and advocates for your brand. Whether that is positive or negative remains in your hands as to how engaging you are with them.

 

Written by:

Ryan Bennion is a content marketing/sports diehard as well as current founder of content marketing agency, B2Marketing. His experience includes stints in telecommunications, health & wellness and home services verticals. He is also currently a 2016 MBA Marketing Candidate at the University of Phoenix.