Be My Valentine .... Who was this Man they Call Valentine?

One would think that such a popular occasion as Valentine’s Day would have a clear history of the word that defines it. Since Valentine is a name, the question is not what it means, but to whom does it refer, and what did Mr. Valentine do to deserve for you to ask your beloved to be his namesake?

As I  learned in exploring the meaning behind everyday words, an amazing amount of the context behind names has evaporated over centuries like morning dew. Here’s what we know about what it means when you make someone your Valentine. Valentinus was a relatively common name in the late Roman Empire, meaning “strength.” Words with the same root include “valor” and “valiant.”

Historical records point to not one but several Christian martyrs named Valentine. The earliest reference is to a saint buried on February 14 outside of Via Flaminia, in Italy. Nothing is known about this saint besides his name. Ancient Rome was a difficult place to be a Christian. Under the rule of Claudius II, Valentinus the Presbyter was thrown in jail for officiating at Christian weddings. Presbyter is synonymous with “priest” and “elder,” a person in leadership in the underground Christian community. While he was in jail, Valentinus impressed Emperor Claudius, who kept him in his company. This arrangement worked until the emperor condemned Valentinus to death for trying to convert him to Christianity, at which time he became a martyr for the early church.

Choosing a sweetheart on this day dates to 14th-century English and French court circles. This fashion is credited to Geoffrey Chaucer, celebrated author of The Canterbury Tales and more:

“For this was on seynt Volantynys day
Whan euery bryd cometh there to chese his make.”
[Chaucer, "Parlement of Foules," c.1381]

So what are the implications of these saints for “Will you be my Valentine?” That you are willing to risk all for love? We don’t have a definitive answer, and would love to know what you think. Share your thoughts with us, below.

How to Win on Facebook.

How to Win on Facebook: 8 Lessons Learned From Analyzing 1 Billion Posts

by NEIL PATEL on FEBRUARY 5, 2016

If you want to know what works when it comes to marketing, you need to study the competition.

This includes the tough competition, but the weak competition as well.

By doing this, you can determine why the best succeed, and why the others fail in their efforts.

To do so effectively, you need to look at one particular area of interest.

The 3 X C Global Marketing Team decided to compile as much data as possible on marketing on Facebook, and then complete an in-depth analysis.

Overall, they analyzed over 1 billion Facebook posts and came up with findings that will change the way you market on Facebook. 

We are  kind enough to share their data with me, and allow me to walk you through it.

I’ll break down the findings, and let you know exactly how you should use them.

But first…

Why Facebook? Why not any one of the hundreds of other social networks?

While it would be worth analyzing other networks as well, Facebook is the place to start due to its size.

As of the start of 2016, Facebook has 1.59 billion active users per month. That’s over 20% of the global population.

This means that customers for just about every imaginable business are on Facebook.

Finally, no other social site drives even close to as much referral traffic as Facebook. It’s a unique platform because users are more than willing to click on links to visit content on outside websites(like yours).

Okay, so we have the right network, and a ton of data.

Let’s look at the findings.

1. The best time to post isn’t when you think it is

When you make posts on Facebook, they are shown to some users that have already “liked” or followed your page.

The exact number (or percentage) will depend on your organic reach.

Your organic reach is determined by a bunch of different factors. The most important ones are the amount of engagement you get on your posts, as well as how much competition there is from other posts.

Competition is a crucial factor. If there are tons of posts made from friends and other pages a user has liked made around the same time, Facebook can only show so many of them. The more competition, the less likely yours will be shown.

Intuitively, it makes sense to post when the most users are online, which is during the day. That way, a greater percentage of your followers could potentially be exposed to your posts.

But the 3 X C Global Partners  analysis actually found the complete opposite.

The red line in the following graph represents your competition; the amount of other posts being made around the same time.

The blue line shows you the engagement that posts receive at different times in the day. Engagement includes commenting, sharing, and liking posts.

The pattern is extremely clear.

Posts get the most engagement when the total amount of posts is at its lowest.

Conversely, there’s too much competition during peak times (during the day), which leads to low engagement.

The conclusion from this data is to post between 9 and 11 PM in the timezone that most of your followers lives in.

BuzzSumo mainly looked at U.S. pages, but you can apply the findings for any timezone.

Why? Because they tested it for another country – France.

They found that posts made between 11 PM and midnight had the highest average engagement (240.06 shares). Likewise, posts made from 10 AM until noon performed the worst.

Almost identical trends.

2. Certain types of posts perform over 5 times better than others

There are 6 main types of posts you can make on your page as a business:

1. Questions
2. Image posts
3. Videos
4. Links
5. Giveaways
6. Coupons/Discounts

As part of the analysis, BuzzSumo looked at the performance of each type. Note that interactions means the same thing as engagement (total number of likes, shares, comments).

There’s one type of content that isn’t on the graph that actually performs better than all of them.

No, I didn’t lie to you before, there are only 6 main types. But there are a few different subtypes of each of the types.

Most importantly, the 3 X C Global Partners team dug in different types of question posts, and found something huge.

Question posts combined with images resulted in an average of 616.70 interactions. However, questions posts that were only text only received 144.45 interactions (terrible).

Finally, the analysis didn’t just look at the total number of engagements. It also included the breakdown by each type of engagement (comments, likes, and shares).

There’s a few interesting points of notes on that graph:

• videos get the highest number of average shares (83.87)
• giveaways get the highest number of average comments (33.91)

While the high number of comments is interesting, keep in mind that comments are usually required to enter giveaways, and are almost always low quality.

A more practical analysis would need to look at the average length of comments for each post type (maybe an idea for a future research project for the 3 X C Gl0bal Partners).

Overall, we can make the conclusion that images and videos perform best when it comes to overall interaction, while videos are best if you’re looking for shares in particular.

Additionally, combining questions with images (or videos) will yield the best results; do so whenever possible.

3. Sunday is a special day, especially for businesses on Facebook

Not all your posts will be as important as others.

You’re going to want to make sure that important posts (like links to your website or product announcements) are as optimized as possible, so that as many people see them as possible.

We’ve already determined a time range when you should post, but we haven’t looked at the best day.

The analysis revealed that posts on weekdays all receive nearly the same amount of interactions (on average).

However, posts on the weekend receive a significant amount more:

Sunday is the best day to post, with an average of 401.75 interactions, followed by Saturday at 365.30 interactions.

The research didn’t reveal the reasons why this happens, but you can take your own guess. Perhaps people use Facebook more on weekends, or businesses don’t post as often (less competition).

Regardless, you now know that posts on Saturday and Sunday will get more engagement than the weekdays. Save your important posts for the weekend.

4. The optimal length of articles for Facebook users is…

If you’re using Facebook as a business, you’re going to be linking to your content (you better be).

And as I mentioned at the beginning, most Facebook users are happy to consume content on other websites.

However, it turns out they have a preference for this content.

3 X C Global Partners found a strong correlation between the performance of a Facebook post and the length of the article that is being linked to.

As you can see, when a post linked to a short article (of under 1,000 words), it received the fewest number of interactions (171.65).

Posts that included 1,000-2,000 word articles performed the best (277.37 interactions), followed closely by 2,000-3,000 word articles (274.06).

The most interesting finding to me is that posts with articles of over 3,000 words performed about 18% worse than the other in-depth articles (225.02 interactions).

Since I use Facebook heavily for Quick Sprout, and most of my posts fall into this final category, I might not be getting the most out of Facebook.

This post (that you’re reading) falls under 3,000 words, do you like it better?

The bottom line is that Facebook users enjoy in-depth posts, but they also don’t want to spend hours reading one. Keep your posts between 1,000-3,000 words when possible.

5. Users aren’t on Facebook to read

There are 2 main components to a Facebook post.

There’s the description of the post (the blurb you type), as well as any link or media you attach.

It turns out that the shorter your description, the better the post will do.

It’s clear that posts with 0-50 characters (that’s about 0-10 words usually) get the most interactions by far (411.16).

The number of interactions a post get go down as the number of characters in a post increase.

The simple takeaway is to make your descriptions of posts as short as possible. Leave any detailed explanations in the content that you link to instead.

6. Whatever you do, don’t post YouTube videos

As we saw earlier, videos get a good amount of engagement on Facebook (and the most shares).

However, there’s a certain type of video post that far exceeds the others.

There are 2 popular options:

• Embed YouTube video:
• Directly upload/embed a video on Facebook:

You wouldn’t think there’d be a big difference, but the results from the 3 X C Global Partner's team’s analysis showed otherwise:

When it comes to the number of interactions that video posts get, embedding a YouTube video only gets an average of 140.75 interactions, a fraction of the 951.48 interactions that direct embed videos get.

You might suspect that there’s not a sufficient sample size of directly uploaded videos on Facebook, but the 3 X C Global Partners team accounted for that.

For this particular segment of the analysis, they analyzed over 53 million YouTube video posts, but also over 25 million direct embed posts. While that’s not as many, it’s a great sample size.

The bottom line is that if you make video posts on Facebook, take the time to upload the source video onto Facebook itself.

When you’re making a post, click the “upload photos/video” tab at the top of the text area, then choose the file from your computer. Then fill out the options like adding the title.

7. Facebook users like Instagram

Facebook integrates nicely with other social networks.

If you use Instagram as well, you can check the Facebook option while posting a photo and it will also be posted to Facebook.

It looks like a normal Facebook picture post, with a small difference of saying (“from Instagram”).

You wouldn’t think this would make a difference, but the analysis proved otherwise.

Pictures that are posted on Facebook through Instagram received 23% more interactions than images uploaded directly on Facebook.

I honestly don’t know why this happens (theories welcome in comments), but the data is clear.

If you’re posting pictures on Facebook, and also use Instagram, use the post to Facebook option that Instagram offers.

8. The effect of hashtags probably isn’t what you expected

The final big area of the massive analysis looked at the effect of including hashtags in posts.

You know what hashtags are, right? Any tag that is preceded by a “#” is a hashtag (e.g. #QuickSproutisgreat, #GamesofThrones).

In the past, hashtags almost always improve the amount of engagement that you get on most networks.

Well, the research says otherwise on Facebook:

You can’t argue with data: Posts without hashtags received 34% more interactions than posts with hashtags.

Unless you have a specific reason to include a hashtag, leave them off  your Facebook posts.

Don’t apply these findings until you read this

There’s one key thing that you need to remember to apply these findings effectively.

Understand that these findings are correlations. They look at the average effect of different variables.

What this means is that the findings are best practices.

If your audience behaves significantly different than the average audience, your optimal Facebook posts may look different.

These findings are great starting points, but they may or may not be right for you. Start by implementing them, but then test other options as well to confirm if they are the best or not.

Conclusion

Let me quickly summarize the 8 best practices that came from the 3 X C Glocal Partners's research:

1. The best time to post is between 10 PM and Midnight of your audience’s local time
2. Posts with questions and images get the most engagement
3. The best day to post is on Sunday
4. Posts that link to articles between 1,000-3,000 words get the most interaction
5. Short post descriptions get by far the most interaction
6. Directly embedded videos get over 6x the interaction of YouTube videos
7. Images posted through Instagram get a 23% boost in engagement
8. Posts with hashtags get less interaction than posts without hashtags

These are all backed by an insane amount of data, and are great best practices to follow for your Facebook marketing.

The Migration Challenge...the West and Israel

SUMMARY: Over the past decade, Israel has been challenged by large scale migration from Africa, mainly from Eritrea and Sudan. Tens of thousands infiltrated into Israel from the Sinai border in order to find employment. Countermeasures by the government focused on border closure, deterrence, and the encouragement of voluntary exit. However, these measures have since eroded, and hence the question is whether infiltration into Israel will grow in 2016. Here the proven link between measures adopted (or not adopted) by a country and the scale of the infiltration should clearly be taken into account. A resolute policy is a barrier, while its erosion tends to encourage infiltration, at first in a few cases, followed by a growing tide. Israel must realize that its standard of living and proximity to conflict-torn areas in the Middle East and Africa expose it to the ongoing risk of illegal immigration. In response to this challenge, Israel must therefore adopt a clear, resolute policy. The failure of Europe in coping with mass immigration should act as a warning sign, as Israel faces the challenge of protecting its character as the nation state of the Jewish people.

In 2015, mass migration, whether it be of refugees from war-torn areas or simply jobseekers, became a leading issue in many Western democracies. In the United States, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is riding a wave of popular antagonism toward immigration. In Switzerland, the Swiss People’s Party, which demands limitations on immigration, won a decisive victory in the October elections. Immigration was also the focus of debate in the recent regional elections in France, to a considerable degree because of the November 13 terrorist attacks in Paris. Moreover, France is among the European Union countries seeking to formulate a uniform policy on the issue of migration, which pits principles of national character against humanistic values.

Overall, as public awareness to the issue of immigration rose, the political systems in most Western countries, heeding public opinion, moved in a more conservative direction. Concern about a change in national character as a result of the significant extent of the phenomenon has fed this trend. German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s remarks about her desire to “drastically reduce” the number of immigrants reaching Germany thus signals a watershed in German immigration policy, after one million immigrants entered the country in 2015.

For Israel, the issue of immigration has a known strategic significance, with far reaching consequences for the broader sense of national security. Israel is the only Western country with a land border with Africa, a huge “immigration exporter” to the West, and is also very inviting to the many Palestinians residing illegally in Israel’s borders.

Migration trends adapt themselves to the policies of the various target countries. A “softer” policy results in a stronger flow of immigrants, and vice versa, as evident in the examples of Sweden and Australia. Over the years, Sweden has adopted a liberal policy on immigration, which includes easily accessible welfare and integration conditions. Furthermore, Sweden grants permanent resident status to refugees or stateless persons after four years, and citizenship after a number of years of residency. It is no wonder that these conditions encouraged immigration to Sweden, and among European states Sweden granted the highest percentage of asylum requests (77 percent). In 2014, the number of requests for asylum was 80,000, 50 percent more than in the preceding year, when Sweden announced that it would offer permanent residence to immigrants from Syria, and in 2015, Sweden confirmed its acceptance of 190,000 immigrants. Thus, in recent years, Sweden has evolved from a homogeneous to a multicultural country, and has also criticized other countries in Europe for their tougher attitude towards immigration.

Nevertheless, given the growing flood of immigrants over the Oresund Bridge connecting Sweden and Denmark, and in light of the many homeless people in city plazas, a change in the atmosphere with respect to immigration is visible. A legislative process was begun that made it possible to close the bridge and reinforce the personnel stationed at the passport control areas on the borders, and it appears that these measures have slowed the flow of immigration. Sweden’s Prime Minister, who only a few months earlier had said, “My Europe doesn’t build walls,” recently stated, “Sweden is no longer able to accept the high number of asylum seekers we're seeing today.”

Australia provides a different example. Although a nation of immigrants, its tough policy features selective control of those entering its gates. Australia offers economic and social advantages, but its population is not large and it is therefore sensitive to dramatic changes in the national and cultural character of its society.

Early in the 21st century, after years in which many immigrants came to Australia, a Pacific Solution policy was adopted, whereby immigrants were transferred for “processing” to facilities on Nauru and Manus Islands. This policy, which deterred immigrants and reduced their number, was abandoned in 2007 (as a result of internal political developments), and the flow of those seeking legal asylum in Australia increased. In July 2013, Australia and Papua New Guinea signed a “Regional Resettlement Arrangement” (the PNG solution), whereby immigrants, assuming they were found to be entitled to refugee status, were transferred to Papua New Guinea. A facility on Manus Island was substantially expanded, and immigrants were sent there before being transferred to Papua New Guinea. If it is found that they are not entitled to refugee status, they remain in the facility, are returned to their country of origin, or are sent to a third country. As expected, human rights organizations have criticized this policy.

The Challenge for Israel

Over the past decade, Israel has been challenged by large scale migration from Africa, mainly from Eritrea and Sudan. Tens of thousands infiltrated into Israel from the Sinai border in order to find employment. With Sudan defined as an enemy country, and given the dire state of human rights in Eritrea, sending the infiltrators back to their countries of origin is problematic. Instead, measures focused on closing the border, deterrence, and encouraging voluntary exit. In addition, agreements were signed with other countries in Africa making it possible to send infiltrators there, albeit on a small scale. Israel initially took no steps to halt the phenomenon, which led to a major increase in its scope. Several years later, it was decided that a fence was to be built on the Israeli-Egyptian border, while the preventive and deterrent measures employed included the legal recourse of holding infiltrators in prolonged detention. An integrated policy was later introduced, designed to reduce the number of migrants in city centers and in Israel as a whole, and to encourage their voluntary departure. The monetary incentive for voluntary departure was increased, and infiltrators were transferred from city centers to Holot, an open detention facility. This policy began to yield results immediately after it was enacted in December 2013. In the first quarter of 2014, 4,000 migrants left Israel voluntarily, and infiltration by migrants was halted almost completely.

However, following a hearing by the Supreme Court in early April 2014, after the Court struck down the law in September, the number of those leaving plummeted. A rather weak law was later enacted, which reduced the detention period to three months, which was only one month longer than the detention period already set stipulated in the Entry into Israel Law. Here too, however, the High Court of Justice intervened: in 2015, for the third consecutive time, the length of time that infiltrators could be held in the detention facility was overturned. As a result, the entry of migrants into Israel resumed in the second half of 2015, although on a smaller scale.

The question is whether the extent of infiltration in 2016 will grow following the erosion of these countermeasures. Egyptian policy is already having an effect on the issue. The proven link between the measures adopted (or not adopted) by a country and the scale of the infiltration should clearly be taken into account. A resolute policy is a barrier, while its erosion tends to encourage infiltration, at first in a few cases, followed by a growing tide.

Infiltration from Sinai is not the only immigration challenge facing Israel. Fifteen years ago, Israel halted a large influx of Palestinians seeking to enter Israel on the basis of “family reunion” with Arab citizens. During the second intifada, security agencies became aware that many of the most severe terrorist attacks were being carried out by Palestinians who had gained entry into Israel in this manner. As a result, the Israeli government decided to ban family reunions and at the government’s urging, the Knesset enacted legislation forbidding family reunions, except for cases stipulated by the law. This law passed an appeal to the Supreme Court by a margin of a single vote.

An additional challenge facing Israel revolves around illegal residents and the possibility of a non-military mass storming of its borders. Israel does not have adequate control over those coming from Palestinian Authority territory, and the Israel Security Agency estimates that there are 50,000 illegal residents in Israeli territory at any given time. More than a few terrorist attacks in the current wave were carried out by illegal residents, and the phenomenon of illegal entry by Palestinians cannot be stopped unless it is addressed effectively. Except for storming of the Israeli border by a mass of Syrians (of Palestinian origin) during the Nakba Day events in June 2011, Israel has not yet been challenged by significant infiltration from neighboring countries, but it is best to prepare for this scenario. Israel is liable to encounter infiltration in the future, whether from a country defined as an enemy country (Syria) or from a country with which it has a peace treaty (Jordan). The destabilization of the countries in the region increases the risks of this type and brings with it both political and security risks as well.

Israel must realize that its standard of living and proximity to conflict-torn areas in the Middle East and Africa expose it to the ongoing risk of illegal immigration. In response to this challenge, Israel must therefore adopt a clear, resolute policy. The failure of Europe in coping with mass immigration should act as a warning sign, as Israel faces the challenge of protecting its character as the nation state of the Jewish people.