Social media has become a major part of digital marketing, with each social media network offering distinct avenues for organic storytelling. For small businesses, social media can be a very accessible form of marketing as it may drive traffic to their website and reach audiences relatively effortlessly, especially since people spend 28% of their time online on social media. Furthermore, social media platforms like Pinterest increasingly integrate features for direct social sales.

Pinterest is a web and mobile application that allows users to create a “catalog of ideas,” CEO Ben Silbermann explains. As the name implies, Pinterest serves as a virtual pinboard that businesses can use to showcase their products, services and interests using visually interesting campaigns. So, how can Pinterest be part of the conversation with your target audience?

Each social media network has specific features that can propel a digital marketing campaign to success. Instagram especially has many business-friendly features and offers various opportunities to showcase your creativity. Yet, small businesses often find social platforms that aren’t Facebook too intimidating and shy away from niche networks like Instagram. The latter, however, can actually result in a higher ROI—if done right. Make sure to familiarize yourself deeply with the do’s and don’t’s of Instagram in order to make the best use of your resources.

Whether it’s the Facebook group “Bernie Sanders Dank Meme Stash,” Donald Trump’s use of alt-right memes, Hillary for America’s “Meme Queen 2016” video, the Libertarian Party’s $30,000 investment in “internet web memes,” or Jill Stein’s promotion of “Dank Jill Memes” on Twitter – these web vignettes have become a substantial part of political discourse in this election year. And yet, they largely fall flat.

So, why do political memes fail to be “dank?”

Much of market and academic research transcription involves qualitative research as both frequently include recorded field notes or interviews. We will review the qualitative research process by examining its relationship to quantitative research, explaining its design, and describing its methodology.

Qualitative vs. Quantitative Research

Qualitative research is a method of inquiry used in the social sciences to explore the complex processes of human behavior. Specifically, qualitative research focuses on the why and how of our motivations, decisions, reactions, and meaning-making. Unlike quantitative research, which produces empirically measurable data, qualitative research methods are designed to yield primarily non-numerical data. However, social phenomena can be explored through both lenses.

If a film scene lasting a little more than a minute depicts oral sex performed on a woman without showing nudity, does the movie in which the scene appears merit an R rating or an NC-17? Both, apparently." - Steven Zeitchik, Los Angeles Times 

Although Blue Valentine and Black Swan depict the same sex act, this analysis argues that the films received different ratings from the Motion Picture Association of America because each one produces a different knowledge of sexuality. Blue Valentine resists disciplinary surveillance by affirming female pleasure and challenging the conventional male gaze. On the other hand, Black Swan plays to the panoptical male connoisseur by reflecting a phallocentric gaze and reinforcing the disciplinary themes of madness, lesbian-spectacle, and the good-girl-gone-bad. Consequently, Blue Valentine's articulation of oral sex was initially rejected, while Black Swan's depiction of oral sex was sanctioned; Blue Valentine was subject to harsher disciplinary sanctions by the MPAA than Black Swan.