Facebook has announced what will likely be the tech industry’s biggest Initial Public Offering of stock ever. What do practitioners of feminism, a philosophy centered in the experiences of women, have to say about the political economy of the world’s biggest social technology? They’ve raised a number of interesting questions so far.

It seems that everyone has an opinion about Facebook’s stated goal of being a force for good in the world. Feminists online have also raised questions about the company’s unusually exclusive all-male Board of Directors and about mega-powerful COO Sheryl Sandberg’s public calls for women to pull themselves up by their own bootstraps. Is a cultural phenomenon of historic proportion, what does the Facebook IPO mean with regard to gender?

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The seven-member Board of Directors is made up entirely of men, something Bloomberg points out is true of only 11% of the Fortune 500 overall. Angie Chang, Co-Founder & Editor-in-Chief of Women 2.0, an online community dedicated to women founding companies, writes:

The all-male board of Facebook makes you wonder why a company serving a user base of at least 50% half women has no female representation on the board. We told ourselves that women board directors can build value and bring win-win strategies to the table – let’s #changetheratio here.

Bloomberg’s Carol Hymowitz contrasts the all male membership of the board with Facebook’s avowed social mission to empower the world and to Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg’s powerful advocacy for women.

Facebook generally declines to comment on issues like this. It’s typical of Silicon Valley’s libertarian-leaning culture to believe that the best way to overcome injustices connected to gender, race, class and sexual orientation, are to ignore the existence of gender, race, class and sexual orientation. That approach may leave unresolved long-standing institutional, economic and cultural factors that stand in the way of equal opportunity and which cannot be overcome by society as a whole through the self interest and sheer force of will of people on the margins of power.

Sheryl Sandberg is the second most visible person at Facebook and will likely become a billionaire in the IPO. She’s often said to be a prominent advocate of women in the workplace.

Doug Barry points out on Jezebel, though, that Sandberg’s position is a very particular one: that women are fundamentally responsible for their own career development in corporate America and need to pull themselves up by their own bootstraps.

Sandberg is well known for her 2010 TED talk Why we have too few women leaders, which has been viewed more than 1 million times.

Sandberg’s message is directed at the elite crowd gathered at TED and adresses women who are not gaining top power positions in the organizations they work at. She offers three primary pieces of advice. “One, sit at the table,” by which she means give yourself the credit you deserve and aim high. “Two, make your partner a real partner,” or make sure that heterosexual married couples contain parents with equal earning power and responsibility and that men are encouraged to take responsibility around the house. “And three, don’t leave before you leave,” in other words keep seizing new opportunities despite the possibility you might take time off to have a child.

Those are relatively conservative political admonitions that speak primarily to the problems experienced by the women in society who are already closest to power.

Barry writes on Jezebel:

Not only is Sandberg exceptionally smart, but, after graduating from Harvard Business School, she landed a job at the World Bank as the chief of staff first for Larry H. Summers then the Treasury Secretary. A job at Google followed before she joined Facebook in 2008, an opportunity that Sandberg was prescient enough to take full advantage of. If success really is preparation meeting opportunity, Sandberg was more than prepared for her chance at professional success, but some women believe that when she insists on aiming high, she’s discounting the fact that her meteoric rise owes itself, at least in part, to some very favorable circumstances (including the fact that her husband, Daniel Goldberg, is a successful entrepreneur in his own right and the couple doesn’t have to worry about finding child care for their two sons).

Barry quotes Sylvia Ann Hewlett, president of the Center for Talent Innovation and director for the Gender and Policy Program at Columbia University:

I’m a huge fan of her accomplishments and think she’s a huge role model in some ways, but I think she’s overly critical of women because she’s almost implying that they don’t have the juice, the chutzpah, to go for it…I think she’s had a golden path herself, and perhaps does not more readily understand that the real struggles are not having children or ambition. Women are, in fact, fierce in their ambition, but they find that they’re actually derailed by other things, like they don’t have a sponsor in their life that helps them go for it.

That paragraph had a soft ending; there are far more unpleasant ways that many women are derailed than by a lack of a sponsor at work.

Courteney Martin, on one of the web’s most respected feminist blogs, Feministing, says that while Sandberg’s message to individual women is valuable, it is just one story.

In essence, her message is tantamount to The American Dream for the 21st century woman: the problem is not sexism or racism or classism, the problem is not pathetic work-family policy at the federal level, the problem is not collective. The problem is you. In the Gospel of Sandberg, individual women must find partners who will share the load and negotiate fiercely, overcome their own guilt about not being able to be fully present parents, and “lean in” to their careers despite the lack of structural or systemic supports that might make that feel even slightly safe or rewarding.

Reading this profile of Sandberg, I was reminded of Nigerian novelist, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s, incredible TED Talk, in which she talks about “the danger of the single story.” She explains, “The single story creates stereotypes. And the problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue, but that they are incomplete. They make one story become the only story.”

I actually think that Sandberg is smart and has great intentions with her message that women need to dig deep and stick to their own dreams. I agree with her in many ways… This is part of the story. But it’s not the whole story.

The rest of the story is better told by women who didn’t grow up with lots of familial and social support, women who didn’t go to Harvard, women who weren’t mentored by Larry Summers, women with different definitions of success and leadership.

To look at the bright side, perhaps Facebook’s social technology will itself help other women tell their stories and hear the stories of women other than the most privileged elite.

The world’s largest communication network between people is taking a big financial step, it’s infamously opportunistic with changing ideas of privacy and it’s lead by an all-male board and a woman whose perspective on gender is likely applauded by conservatives around the world. That all seems important to discuss.

Discuss

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Episode 19 begins our Local Knowledge series on basic skills youll need in order to run your small business Website using WordPress. Our lesson today kicks off with some background on using WordPress to power your small business website and concludes with a how-to video showing you how to log in to WordPress. This lesson assumes you have a working WordPress installation. Ill be continuing the WordPress for small business video tutorials by covering the most common things youll need to know to update your WordPress website on your own.

The Facebook chief may be on the hook for $2 billion in taxes with his company going public. But he’s not necessarily all that upset about it, because Facebook in turn gets a tax deduction.

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Business Insider

Just About Every Startup This Guy Has Helped Launch Has Taken Off Like A Rocket Business Insider We have people on our teams that handle everything from software architecture and analytics to social media, SEO and public relations. We have a whole team here that helps the founders with all aspects of the business. BI: How will you compete with …

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Lance Bachmann, owner and CEO of Local Internet Traffic, sits down with Northampton Valley Country Club to discuss the progress of their new website and internet marketing campaign. In just 30 days they have been listed for 235 additional keywords, and moved up 316 spots in search engine ranking, all thanks to Local Internet Traffic expert Search Engine Optimization team. www.localinternettraffic.com

Make no mistake – online video marketing is the “next big thing.” However, there are a ton of misconceptions about it floating around out there. The end result is business owners that are hesitant to jump onboard and who don’t think they have what it takes to use online videos as a marketing tool.

Chances are you don’t know these 6 things about online video marketing. And, until you understand them backwards and forwards,
you’re really missing out!

1. YouTube is the World’s Second-Largest Search Engine

How much time do you spend making your website “Google-friendly”? Why do you work so hard on it? Because Google has a tremendous reach. Heck, the word “Google” has turned into a verb that’s used day in and day out, all over the world. Need an answer? Just Google it!

But how much time are you spending, marketing through YouTube?

Did you know that YouTube gets more than 4 billion video views every single day? Yes, that’s “billion,” with a “B.”

And, don’t fall victim to the myth that getting exposure on YouTube is nothing more than a crap shoot. With just a few mouse clicks, you can optimize your video titles, descriptions, and tags – and even create your own optimized “About Me” and “Channel Description” areas – so that you’re more likely to pop up in a search. You can even take it one step further and organize your videos into different “Playlist Categories” that – you guessed it – have keyword-based names. That way, you’re optimized from top to bottom!

2. There’s More to Online Video Marketing Than Just YouTube

As powerful as YouTube is, it’s not the only horse in this rodeo. There are plenty of other video sharing sites where you can upload your creations and share them with your target audience.

A great way to make the most out of your online video marketing efforts is to look for sharing sites that are specific to your niche. Some searching may turn up video sites that are go-to resources for people interested in your niche – or that make it easy for people to find videos, without navigating a sea of irrelevant YouTube videos.

3. Longer Doesn’t Equal Better

Lots of people avoid creating online videos because they think they have to talk for hours on end to get their point across. But great videos come in all sorts of shapes and sizes. I’ve seen great videos that kept my attention for a full 20 minutes. I’ve also learned a lot from videos that are 2 minutes long. The length of your videos will be determined by what you’re talking about, and how long you can realistically engage your viewers.

And, if you still don’t think your videos are long enough, look at it this way – When you turn on your local newscast tonight, odds are that the lead story will be 1 and a half – 2 minutes long. If a reporter can squeeze all of the facts into a minute or two, so can you!

4. You Can Succeed With Online Video Marketing Even if You’re Camera Shy

Sure, giving your target audience a chance to see and hear you (and, thus, prove that you’re not some kind of slimeball or scam artist) is one of the great perks of online video marketing. However, if the thought of getting on camera has you crawling under the bed and trembling with fear, that’s OK. You can still use online videos to your advantage. To get yourself comfortable, do voiceovers instead of being in front of the camera. Just make sure that you don’t sit there and read verbatim off PowerPoint slides. The last thing that you want to do is bore your audience to tears!

And, really, no one expects you to have the on-camera charisma of Walter Cronkite anyway. As long as you can speak clearly, avoid the dreaded “umms” and “uhhhs,” and look confidently into the camera, that’s good enough. Instead of looking at the camera and envisioning the thousands of people that are going to be watching it, just pretend like you’re talking to a trusted client. That way, you’ll feel like you’re having a one-on-one conversation – and your fears will subside.

5. Most People Make Excuses About Online Videos, Instead of Taking Action

In the online video marketing world, the excuses are never-ending. You don’t have the right equipment – You don’t have the time to upload things – You think your voice sounds funny – Your hair doesn’t look good on camera – You don’t know how to write video scripts.

Luckily, all of these excuses make it easier for the people who actually get out there and do it! If you embrace online video marketing right now – while it’s still relatively new – you’ll be able to jump out ahead of the pack and become one of the “Joneses,” instead of always trying to keep up with them!

6. Creativity is More Important Than Budget

Don’t have a Spielberg-esque budget to blow on sets, lighting, and post-production? No problem! Sure, big companies like Doritos, Volkswagen, and Geico are making a huge splash in the online video world – but that doesn’t mean that your videos have to compete with theirs.

Instead of worrying about dollars and cents, come up with creative ways to get the job done – like turning your living room into a “studio,” having a kick-butt script, or using inexpensive editing software to come up with awesome animations. Remember, at the end of the day, the goal is to create online videos that your target audience will learn from, will remember, and will want to share with their family and friends!

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Online video marketing doesn’t have to be scary – as long as you have the right tools to get the job done. If you’re looking for online video scripts Video-Scripts-Online-Video-Marketing.html) that will have your viewers hitting the “like” and “re-tweet” buttons, talk to Nicole Beckett.

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6 Things You Don’t Know About Online Video Marketing – A SPN Exclusive Article

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For some golfers, it will be about majors, and for others, making strong marks Yonhap News Park believes that 2012 could belong to the runner-up from that tournament, Seo Hee-kyung, currently world No. 33. "Seo is looking very fine. She was the top player in Korean LPGA league before she went to play in LPGA tour and, she is gaining …

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Just when you thought a compact camera lens couldn’t get any longer, Nikon takes it up a notch.

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