Dan Spellman ( My Two Cents )

It's The Right Thing To Do

       

Over Spring Break we made the annual pilgrimage to Kansas.  Traveling from Chicago to our childhood homes in Prairie Village and Clay Center, Kansas generally takes us through Des Moines, Iowa.  There you are able to choose between two paths – one that heads to Kansas City via I-35 or the other that continues West on I-80 and eventually turns South after Omaha, Nebraska.

 

    

Since our last trip took us through Kansas City, it had been over a year since we traveled West through the entire state of Iowa.  This year we stayed the course and enjoyed an interesting surprise.  Just outside of Anita, Iowa, you will find a different kind of crop.  Here the farmers are not just harvesting corn, they are also harvesting wind.

     

T. Boone Pickens has said that “America is blessed with the world’s greatest wind power corridor” and I would have to agree.  We lived in Omaha for a little over two years and I can assure you – Omaha blows.  

    

No, honestly.  It’s really windy there.

    

My kids were impressed to see the vast number of wind turbines here in the Mid-West.  As it turns out, “Iowa is the third largest producer of wind energy in the US, just behind California and Texas”, reports the Iowa Energy Center.  

    

While it’s great to see these efforts on a large scale, many people may question what we can do, as individuals, that would really make a difference.  The success of such events as Earth Hour, show that people are eager to become actively involved.  “No matter what your individual beliefs are about climate change,” states Darron Collins, WWF Managing Director, “energy efficiency is something everyone can understand in this economic environment.”  

      

Home Depot apparently gets it.  In today’s newspaper we found an ad for Eco Options, Home Depot’s new marketing effort to speak directly to consumers who feel passionate about this issue.  Their “Save Green. Live Green” promotion helps people feel good about spending their dollars at Home Depot.  We certainly did.  Our list of weekend projects included a trip to their garden store to pick up tomato plants and our free CFL light bulb.

     

More companies need to embrace the green economy like Home Depot and take advantage of the growing public desire for environmentally friendly products.  This became apparent when we completed another weekend project and visited an auto dealership.  As our kids and our cars grow older, it has become necessary for us to purchase a new car. 

Unfortunately, the salesman seemed to have the same short-sighted perspective as the auto manufacturers in Detroit.  When we asked to see their hybrid models, he asked why we were interested in purchasing a hybrid.  After a moment of pondering how to answer this question, my wife simply stated “because it’s the right thing to do.”

    

Until next time,

   

Dan

   

Get Off The Grid - Saturday March 28th

    

It’s time again for Earth Hour.  This Saturday, March 28^th, you will have the opportunity to participate in a worldwide experiment.  All across the planet, people will be turning off the electricity from 8:30 p.m. (local time) to 9:30 in an effort to raise awareness about global warming.

    

My family participated last year and we had a great time.  While Earth Hour is officially sponsored by the WWF (no not the World Wrestling Federation but rather the World Wildlife Fund) it might as well be sponsored by Parker Brothers.  With the electricity turned off, we decided to light a few candle and play some board games.

    

    

    

    

“Earth Hour began in Sydney in 2007”, reports the official website, “when 2.2 million homes and businesses switched off their lights for one hour. In 2008 the message had grown into a global sustainability movement, with 50 million people switching off their lights. Global landmarks such as the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, Rome’s Colosseum, the Sydney Opera House and the Coca Cola billboard in Times Square all stood in darkness.”

           

This year the target is 1 Billion people.

    

Obviously, it’s not hard to participate and you have the opportunity to be part of a global event.  Give it a try – and get off the grid.

    

Until next time,

    

Dan

    

    

    

 

Five Blogging Tips

    

Recently a friend of mine asked for a few tips on blogging.  As you know, I have been writing the My Two Cents blog for a while now.  At times it has come easily and I have created posts each week.  At other times, it has come slowly and I let a few weeks slip by between contributions.  But I have always found it to be a learning experience and a great way to share ideas.  After giving it some thought, I would offer these five tips.

    

Crank It Out.  Writing a blog is an easy way to start a conversation and share your ideas.  You don’t have to be the next Great American Writer – you just need a point of view on a topic of interest.  It could be about your community, your career or your mother-in-law’s cooking.  Once you have identified something you feel passionate about, it’s easy to share it with others around you as well as others around the world.

    

Set It Up.  Once you’ve decided to start sharing your ideas, the first step is to choose a blogging platform.  There are a number of services available.  Three major platforms you should investigate are Typepad, WordPress and Blogger.  Each platform offers different formats and benefits.  By taking a look at Technorati’s Top 100 Blogs, you can get an idea of the number of different platforms and styles available and decide which one might be best for you.

Write It Down.  In order to “hit the ground running” you need to create a list of topics to get you started.  Make a quick list of ten ideas for your first set of blog posts.  If you can’t think of ten, do a little research on Google and Technorati and discover what other people saying about your topic?  While the most enjoyable part of blogging is having the opportunity to share your ideas with others, don’t be afraid to select a few topics that require a little research on your part. 

    

Make It Fun.  Set yourself up for success by making it enjoyable.  I remember being told once to “smile when you speak on the phone.  People can hear your enthusiasm.”  The same goes for your writing.  If writing your blog becomes a chore, you simply won’t be able to create interesting blogs posts on a regular basis.  Remember, the whole point of writing a blog is to start a conversation with like-minded people.  If you don’t find it enjoyable, your readers won’t either.

    

Promote It Now.   With each post, you will want to set up the correct tags to allow Technorati and Google to find your blog.  Your blogging platform will help you with this.  However, you already have a great source for readers – your friends.  Promoting your blog on your Facebook page and to your email contacts is a great first step.  Once you have done that, you can find new readers by visiting similar blogs and writing comments.  As you do so, add a link back to your blog.  That way, you will be able to include your blog posts in the conversation.

    

It’s not hard to get started.  In as little as 5 minutes, you can create your own blog and begin sharing your ideas with the world.

    

Until next time,

    

Dan

    

    

    

Some People Just Don't Get It

     

A colleague of mine recently showed me an email he received from Wal-mart that touted a new customer benefit they are offering:  Site-to-Store Express.

    

We all know that the most powerful word in marketing is “FREE” – but Wal-mart just doesn’t get it.  Their new offer allows customers to pay only $29 and receive a year’s worth of benefits.  You might ask “what are these benefits?”  The answer is “not much”.

         

The terms and conditions for this offer state, “We estimate that S2S Express customers will generally be able to pick up S2S Express eligible products from the store within three to five business days (plus processing time) from the date the order is placed. Walmart.com does not guarantee delivery of S2S Express products within the estimated time or by an estimated delivery date.”

    

A few questions:

    

·        3 to 5 business days . . . really?

·        How long is “plus processing time”?

·        “Walmart.com does not guarantee delivery . . . within the estimated time”?

     

Let’s face it, free shipping (on qualifying orders) is becoming the standard on the internet.  I think it’s safe to assume that customers would expect a company the size of Wal-mart to not only offer this service, but to also deliver it faster than 5+ days.

    

Why not just swing by your local Wal-mart store and walk down the aisle and save yourself the $29 annual fee?

    

Until next time,

     

Dan

     

     

     

     

Would They Print It If It Wasn't True?

Remember when CNN changed the world by reporting news events as they were happening?  It was the beginning of the end for the newspaper industry.  However, now even cable news organizations are “old school”.

    

Who is reporting the news?  We are . . . on Twitter.

    

Today, CNN reported that “at least seven passengers were still hospitalized Sunday, a day after Continental Airlines Flight 1404 veered off the runway at Denver International Airport, skidded into a ravine and caught fire”.  But in the entire news report, they never mentioned Mike Wilson.

    

Mike was on flight 1404 and reported the incident as it happened on his Twitter account.

    

·        “. . .  I was just in a plane crash!”

    

·        “Ugh ... My glasses fell off in the mass exodus getting off the plane .. Can't see very well”

    

·        “This was crash #2 for me. Maybe I should start taking the bus.”

    

·        “Can't see much, but that's the crash site. http://twitpic.com/ut2c”

    

·        “Continental keeping us locked up at the presidents club until they can sort everything out. Won't even serve us drinks.”

    

·        “You have your wits scared out of you, drag your butt out of a flaming ball of wreckage and you can't even get a vodka-tonic.”

    

Changes in technology have given everyone a camera (via their cell phone) and a news outlet (via their Twitter account).  Want to learn more?  Just ask the experts at Wikipedia.

    

Until next time,

    

Dan

    

      

Big Idea In A Tiny Package

    

If you have a Twitter account, you know that you have a limited number of characters per post.  As micro-blogging continues to grow in popularity, bloggers need to find ways to keep their “tweets” under 140 keystrokes.

  

If you want to reference another website, you could end up wasting your post by including a long web address.  This is where Tiny URLs come to the rescue.  You have probably seen references to them as you scan the web.

  

“TinyURL was created as a free service to make posting long URLs easier, and may only be used for actual URLs.”  Check it out by visiting TinyURL.com or by using the widget below.

  

  

Enter a long URL to make tiny:

  

  

Until next time,

  

Dan

  

  

Thumbs Up

    

Last week I attended the Internet Retailer Conference and Exhibition.  There were several productive meetings with presentations covering customer acquisition, social marketing, rich media and site design.  Several of the presenters were industry experts who have gained their experience by developing and managing some of the fastest growing sites in North America.  Other presenters have developed their expertise by providing the services to the largest web sites.

    

Accompanying the first three days of the conference were several hundred vendors who were available to explain how their products or services could be of benefit in the areas of SEO / SEM, m-commerce, web design and various other areas.

    

I’ve noticed a change over the past few years as more and more vendors are using thumb drives to distribute their marketing materials.  Not only do these devices allow marketers to provide rich content to prospective clients, but they also cut down on the weight – a benefit to the sales people who ship them to the events and a benefit to those of us who carry a cross-section of marketing materials back home.  It’s common practice for sales people, who work these shows, to offer trinkets embossed with their logos.  Offering a free thumb drive allows them to provide something of value (thumb drives are cool) that people will use over and over again.

    

Thumb drives (also known as USB Drives, Flash Drives or Jump Drives) are portable storage devices that plug into any of your USB ports on your computer.  They are compact and can hold a vast amount of data ranging from 64 MB to 32 GB – that’s a lot of storage space.

    

When using thumb drives to distribute your marketing materials, you should provide content in both rich media and PDF formats.  By leveraging video and Flash applications, you can craft a compelling message about the benefits of your product or service.  At the same time, by providing the same information in a PDF format, you ensure that everyone will have the ability to access your information regardless of their computer specifications.

    

Keep an eye out the next time you attend a trade show and let me know if you are seeing the same trend.

    

Until next time,

    

Dan

    

    

Turn Out The Lights

I don’t know if the lights went out in your house last Saturday night, but they went out in mine.  My wife had told me about Earth Hour earlier in the week.  I actually forgot about it until around 7:15 p.m. when I happened to be checking my Linkedin account and saw a question posted asking why Google had gone “black” for a period of time.  Conrad Warre posted an answer stating “Google turned black today as a gesture to raise awareness of a worldwide energy conservation [effort]”.

    

While Google acknowledges that simply turning their screen black does not actually save any energy, they “believe in doing [their] part to help combat climate change”.  “Further”, their web site states, “we think the ‘lights out’ idea’s individual-centered nature is something that millions of people worldwide can participate in.  In short, we really like it.  So we did something about it.”

    

It started last year when the World Wildlife Fund worked with the city of Sydney, Australia and convinced the Harbour Bridge and Opera House (along with millions of Sydney’s citizens) to go dark for an hour. 

     

Well, we turned out the lights and, to the initial complaints of our children, played board games by candle light. It turned out that everyone had a great time.  I won’t tell you that I’m the most environmentally conscientious person in Chicagoland, but I’m trying.

      

You can visit www.WorldWildlife.org/Climat to find out how you can make a difference throughout the year to fight climate change.

    

Until next time,

    

Dan

    

    

    

Maybe It Is Easy Being Green

It’s no surprise that environmentally friendly products are beginning to find more “shelf-space” across the web.  The number of blogs and web sites dedicated to this cause seems to be growing at an exponential rate.  Even some of the larger retailers are getting into the act.

   

   

GreenBiz.com reports that the Retailer Industry Leaders Association (RILA), a group of 55 retailers that account for over $1.5 trillion in sales, “aims to develop cleaner and greener business practices while making sure customers and policymakers recognize the progress made by the group.”

   

   

Wal-mart, which is a member of the RILA, has taken steps to have their vendors develop greener packaging.  Not only is this good for the environment, but it’s also good for Wal-mart’s bottom line. 

 

   

In fact, as I write this blog post, the bottle of water I’m drinking is promoting their reduction in packaging and its’ related environmental benefit.    Ice Mountain’s new bottle “looks and feels different because it is purposely designed with an average of 30% less plastic to be easier on the environment.”

   

   

While more and more people are showing that they are eco-conscience by using canvas grocery bags and switching to compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFL), many are asking what impact they can make on helping the environment.  InterCall offers a Green Quiz that will help you “test your knowledge and learn simple ways to be green at work.”  Through GreenConferencing.com, InterCall is using this quiz as a means of identifying prospective customers by offering to plant a tree for each quiz taken.  Although the promotional period has ended (12/31/07), you will find the quiz informative and fun to take.

   

   

GreenLights offers an interesting way to calculate the benefits (environmental and financial) of switching to CFLs.  “If every American home replaced just one incandescent light bulb with a CFL, we’d save enough energy to light 2.5 million homes a year and prevent greenhouse gases equivalent to the emissions of nearly 800,000 cars.”  Check out their savings calculator by clicking on the image below.

   

   

With the additional information on the web helping consumers learn more about how they can make a positive impact, and the business community realizing that reducing their carbon footprint can be profitable, I think we will begin to discover that only Kermit will find it difficult being green.

    

    

Until next time,

   

   

Dan   

    

    

Who You Callin' a "POTUS"

Living in suburban Chicago means that for certain holidays, my family and I must make the trip back to Kansas City.  As we made the trip last week, we traveled across the state of Iowa – the first battle ground in the race for the President of the United States (POTUS).

    

I thought it would be interesting to see how the Presidential Candidates used the Web 2.0 philosophy to drive their message to the people. In addressing this topic, I decided it was time to hone my video blogging skills and put together the first video edition of My Two Cents.

    

    

    

      

Although I accomplished the task, I must admit, this video post is both rough and dry . . . there appears to be a lot of work needed for my audio and segment transition skills. I’ll keep you posted on my progress!  :)

    

    

Until next time,

    

    

Dan

    

    

Making Holiday Dreams Come True

Every year my brother would comment that “this was the best Christmas ever”.  In the retail world its been a few years since we have been able to say that.  This weekend the season begins (officially – actually the stores, and some neighbors, have had their holiday decorations out for quite some time).

    

    

Since shopping is a social event for many of us, there has been a lot of talk this year about building this aspect into our web sites.  Lisa Wehr gives a few examples in her article Deck the Halls with Blogs and Videos: Improve Your Holiday Sales with Social Media.  Lisa is not alone in this observation.  I’m sure you have seen various cool applications that help customers enjoy themselves while on a given site. 

    

    

I came across one on Office Depot last week that was very creative -  Strange Little Office Beings (SLOBs).  With a Boris Karloff style voice over and a copy writer from the Grinch Who Stole Christmas, Depot has been able to create a very interesting rich media environment that I suspect is getting a fair amount of traffic.

    

    

When I first came across the SLOBs, they were highlighted in the main ad panel of Depot’s home page.  Using flash, they were able to create an eye-catching piece of marketing.  However, when I returned to the site earlier this week, it appears that it was pulled from the main home page ad and is now relegated to a small banner ad on the main category pages.  I wonder if they chose to pull the ad from this premium placement due to slow sales or if it was part of their prep for Cyber Monday.

    

    

   

    

The Big Weekend

    

As companies prep for the big weekend, they are using their home page space to preview their offers to the public.  While most of the country is focused on eating a turkey meal with all the traditional dishes, I will be going online to place my orders.  Many of you will go out on Friday to fight the crowds and try to get that great deal on the ipod or laptop (even though there is only a limited number of these items at each retail outlet). I will simply be going online.

    

    

    

Well, I wish you the best in your holiday shopping experiences and in your holiday sales numbers.

    

    

Until next time,

    

    

Dan