One Year Without a Car

A year ago today I donated my car (I had actually stopped driving it earlier than that, but who’s counting. . .)

For the past 365 days I have relied on my bicycle, bus or carpool to get where I need to go.
Benefits:

• Saved at least $3,000 (and that is without a car payment factored in!)
• Didn’t gain weight because I was biking so much
• Learned how to get around the city of Minneapolis better
• Got to know the businesses in my neighborhood much better and felt a stronger sense of belonging to a community
• Felt less stress (biking helped me energize before arriving to work and unwind my mind before getting home)
• I also felt better about doing my part to save the earth
  

Other changes:

• Was Loosing track of new music and local radio programs so turned to Pandora.com and 89.3 the current online for music.
• Used my iPod more for podcasting and music listening since I wasn’t listening to radio in my car
• Bought a “Go Pass” for the local transit system
• Treated my bike better (more tune ups, oiling the chain etc.)
• Had to plan events with friends in advance because getting to things like Friday night happy hour took a little longer
• My friends and I established new norms for hanging out such as: they gave me a ride, I bought the first round, or they would bike with me!

All in all this has been a good experiment. I don’t plan to get a car yet. Maybe I’ll make it another year. . .

Three Stats to Start the SEO Conversation With Your Organization

319 million searches are performed each day (Nielson/NetRatings)
82% of Internet users never make it past the 3rd page of results (iProspect)
85% of Internet users use search engines to find products and services (Nielsen/NetRatings)

Three words to incorporate into the marketing agenda: Search Engine Optimization

Wolframalpha – Hoax or a dreamy new online search tool?

Today I was reading BBC News about http://www.wolframalpha.com/.

Apparently, this new search tool uses a technique known as natural language processing that will aim to answer questions directly as opposed to just bringing up a bunch of optimized web pages.

The search tool will answer simple questions like, “What is the height of the Empire State Building?” or “Who was the king of England in 1875?”. Much of the content is supposed to be sceintific but there will be some limited cultural information on topics like pop stars and films.

Today I googled, “what is the fatality rate of the swine flu” and I did not find a direct answer. I probably could have found the answer at the CDC site but the answer was not really that important to me to keep searching.

I wonder if this wolframalpha.com site will answer questions like, “what is the fatality rate of the swine flu?”

I guess I’ll have to wait and see. The site goes public in May 2009. I’m a skeptic when it comes to searching for quality information on the Web so I’m hoping this wolframalpha thing isn’t just another let down. Dr. Wolfram, the mastermind of the search tool, claims that the goal of the site is to, “make expert content accessible to anyone, anywhere, anytime” according to this article: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8026331.stm

Well, I hope you reach your goal Dr. Wolfram.

Consumer Education

You can say what you want, but I am glad that the financialstability.gov website has a "decoder" for financial jargon. Education is important.

http://www.financialstability.gov/roadtostability/decoder.htm

On that note, education has long been a tactic (an effective one) for financial institutions. Think about it. If you educate your customers/members on financial literacy what can that do for your bottom line?

Fill in the blanks:
If my customers/members learn to save more, and about the tools our financial institution provides, our deposits will _______.

If our customers/members learn how to invest and grow wealth our deposits will ________.

If our customers/members learn how to use mortgages to their advantage our loan numbers will be _______ today and _______ tomorrow.

If our customers/members learn the importance of credit ratings our loan default rate will _______.

If our customers/members view our financial institution as a resource for financial knowledge they will_____________(let me help on this one: tell a friend, trust us with more money, carry multiple accounts with us, use more products and services, bank with us for life).

Education is a great way to expand value for your customers/members etc. The same applies to other industries (health care, travel, sports, music, etc.).

A Positive Perspective From A Credit Union CEO in Southern Oregon

Today I read a blog post from a CEO of a credit union in Southern Oregon.

The post provides a response to the barrage of bad news and “down-and-out forecasts” regarding the state of our economy. He advocates for supporting local businesses by spending instead of penny pinching the economy to death. In the post he suggests ways to fuel his local economy:

“with one purchase that you were putting off, with one employee that you chose not to layoff, purchasing a new car because the price is lower than you could ever imagine, attending one concert that you thought you couldn’t afford, or supporting one charity that can multiply the value of your donation several times over.”

Link to post: http://askgeneatrogue.blogspot.com/2009/04/rally-caps-on.html

His credit union is building a new branch in Medford, OR. That expansion will create construction jobs in his local market and other jobs related to public relations, marketing, staffing for the branch, etc. It was inspiring to read this CEO’s post, especially when it seems like all I read in the news is that companies are laying people off, budgets are being slashed, and that it will take eons for the nation to recover from this economic crisis.

Organizations across the nation have had the case of the “Chicken Littles” and I believe pessimism has contributed to our falling sky. On the other hand, in some instances the cutbacks of the big corporations are not entirely bad because smaller organizations, like this credit union in Oregon, have the opportunity to grow and increase market share.

I’m still not going to go out and buy a car (On June 10, 2009 I will have been without a car for one year); but in the spirit of putting my “Rally Cap” on as this CEO blogger suggests, I’m off to enjoy a nice dinner at a restaurant. . .

Before I sign off, there was one more thing in his post that got my mind cranking. In the post he writes, “We must look to the future and find ways to create jobs in our community and rally Southern Oregon to economic revival!”. I’m not sure if his credit union hires companies and individuals from other states or not, but I hope they do. If every state in our union chose to only support locals, how would that impact the big picture of our national economy?

Social Media Sites Creating a Smaller World for Businesses

According to an article in the The New York Times 3-28-09, Facebook will register its 200,000,000th user this week. Taking into account that just eight months ago Facebook celebrated their 100,000,000th user, the growth is staggering.

I wonder if Mike Zuckerberg, Facebook's 24 year old CEO, even has time to consider the ramifications of such a rapidly growing social media site? With a million new users every day from all over the globe, what will Facebook look like five years from now?

With online translating tools, the decline of language barriers, and the speed of information exchange online, the biblical symbol of the “Tower of Babel” seems to be melting away.

As more people connect in cross-continental romance, idea exchanges, and commerce online, I don’t think anyone can predict the full extent of globalization we’ll experience over the next decade.

Facebook has a goal of being used by everyone in the world to share information seamlessly. While 200 million out of 6 billion is a tiny number, it will be interesting to see where the number of Facebook users is at another eight months from now.

Whether it is Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, or a new Google application – I think one thing is certain; companies that have been watching from the social media sidelines need to dive in now to compete effectively.

One of the blogs I’ve been reading lately is Jaffe Juice; if you are looking for a great idea exchange about conversational marketing, I highly recommend checking it out.

Time to go update my Facebook status. . .

Marketing. . . Where does it all begin?

Marketing. . . Where does it all begin?

Where does a good marketing strategy begin? Well, I guess that depends on how we define strategy. But in a perfect world, here is my off-the-cuff-rough-sketch of my view of a good business/marketing set up.

Company: People of Integrity, Passion, Intelligence and like-minded values form a company. The company has a strong leadership team and the best employees available. Hire people that share common goals, vision, incentives. . .

Consumers: The Company gets to know their target audience(s) really well: what they need, what they want, how they go about finding information to fill their needs and wants, where they hang out and tell their friends about how they get their needs and wants met, etc.

Products and Services: After finding what the consumer wants, the company develops the *best products and services to fill those needs/wants. *best can be in value, price, or quality

Branding: Develop a brand linked to company values, consumer wants, and the products and services that the Company offers. Make sure the brand is true to who you are, and resonates with consumers. Don’t guess.

Training: Train your staff to live the brand.

Marketing*: Develop a comprehensive marketing strategy and series of plans that use a blend of push, pull and conversational marketing tactics/plans/strategies. Marketing must be linked to ROI. In today’s age, the best (successful) companies are tapping into cutting edge or even bleeding edge technologies and methods. Blending social media, word-of-mouth marketing, direct mail, radio, TV, (other traditional media outlets relevant to the target audience). *Disclaimer – this is an off-the-cough-rough-sketch, feel free to chime in with your ideas and edits bloggers.

Measurement: Track responses to marketing elements (each individual outlet and call-to-action) and associate the number of responses with actual dollars saved, earned or lost. In the best case scenario it looks something like this: consumer A calls because they saw postcard C to buy product Y and after the advertising costs and man power were factored in brought the company $40,000 profit.

Tweak: Tweak the marketing plans for the future based on results, segments, new products, new challenges, new competitors, new buying habits, new anything. . .

Openness: Be open to new ideas and solutions. Listen to critique and invite the “red ink”.

Ongoing Customer Service: When you screw up, listen to your customers and fix it.

Never say, “I have it all figured out”, the second you do, somebody else will figure out something better. At least that has been my experience. The times I’ve lost to my competition are when I’ve had my guard down. I’ve lost, not just in marketing or sales but also in soccer, debate team in college, paintball, chess and poker. I’m not saying business is as simple as playing a game, but it is a lot more fun when I think of it that way.

On that note: if you read this blog – I invite your input and “red ink”. . .