The Passion Test meeting At K-W

I stopped by the Keller-Williams office today to speak with old friends Kevin O'Brien, Nicole Bunch, and Steve Renzulli about The Passion Test. Because Keller-Williams is putting on workshop based on the Law of Attraction in January, I thought it a good idea to give them the low-down on The Passion Test and the workshop we'll be presenting in the Wilmington and North Myrtle Beach areas soon.

After the meeting, which was a lot of fun, I recognized Jan Justice, a broker with Keller-Williams who was sitting behind the desk at the entry. I recognized Jan because we recently became friends on Facebook. When I mentioned to Jan why I was there she told me that just this weekend she'd signed on to The Passion Test website to check out the free Passion Test Profile that's available on the home page. That was quite a coincidence.

So it was a good meeting. K-W is known for its training, which is offered to people outside as well as inside their company, which I think is a nice service for the community.

Visions & Dreams - A Locally Owned Business in Wilmington

At the suggestion of friends, Marge and I stopped by Diane Young's Visions & Dreams store in Wilmington this afternoon. Located at 4403 Park Ave., Visions and Dreams' tag line is 'Products & Services for Mindful Living'.


Diane Young, the owner of the shop, is a Reiki Practitioner. Her store provides meeting and workshop space for practitioners who wish a physical location for their work. Visions & Dreams also has books, crystals, stones, jewelry, and a variety of other products.

In the photo below are Diane Young and Hiromi Williams, a Therapist who works with crystals and gemstone sticks with acupressure and body relexology treatments.

Easily reached just south of Kerr Avenue on Park Avenue, Visions & Dreams is a comfortable place to visit.

The store's phone number is 910-799-1001 and the web site is www.visionsanddreamsinc.com .

Just Say GAR!!

GAR stands for Gratitude, Attitude, and Readiness. GAR is Bruce Brown's formula for clearing confusion, turning around negative feelings, and being ready to make the most of life.

Karen Chevrotee Ribbon-Cutting November 23, 2009

The group gathered early for today's North Brunswick Chamber of Commerce ribbon-cutting at the NBCC offices for Karen Chevrotee's Wilmington Realty South.

In the photo below are Pastor Jay Merritt, photographer Bob Baer, Reator Brenda Bozeman, NBCC Executive Director Terry Grillo (back to camera), and Connie Reeves of Azalea Plaza.

While the others were chatting in the lobby Karen was in the reception room cutting the coffee cake.

Now you know why we call him "Digital Bob". Check out Bob Baer with his iphone.

NBM and SBM magazines' publisher Justin Williams literally rolled in with Ava Grace. That's SendOutCards Marge Brown and PrePaid Legal's Monica Clark in the background.

Brenda moved in so she and Ava Grace could have a close look at each other.


NBCC board member Dana Fisher of Bradford Mortgage came in dressed for a winter fashion show.

NBCC board member Connie Reeves, who's prepping for her annual role as Mrs. Claus.

The group gathered outside for the ribbon-cutting.

It may look like Bob was standing on my car windshield, but he wasn't, he's actually on a small stepladder, but I liked this shot anyway. Maybe I should call him "Hood Ornament Bob".

A tighter, more formal shot just before the cut.

And here's the dramatic moment!

Welcome, Karen, we're glad to you as part of the growing, active North Brunswick Chamber of Commerce.

Greeting Card Marketing Tip #14 - Wedding Anniversaries

Here’s a way to really stand out with your clients: send them a wedding anniversary card. It might not always be appropriate, for all businesses or professions, but a great idea if your business has reason to work with both members of couple, for example, financial planners, decorators, travel agents, home or car repair businesses, insurance sales folks, and real estate brokers.

You needn’t make a big deal about a client or prospect’s wedding anniversary, a simple card will be enough. I suggest that you don’t get too funny, cute, or clever, but rather just send a card wishing them a happy anniversary and a closing. You can make it more personal if you’re close with the couple but otherwise just keep it simple – remember a wedding anniversary is a shared holiday and what one partner might find amusing the other might find offensive, so beware.

One big reason you don’t need to put too much into writing a message in an anniversary card for clients is because this is a time when the mere act of observance may be way more than anyone else does (possibly one or both of the couple, too). So just keep it simple, but do it.

You might ask, “Who sends anniversary cards?” And my answer is, “You do, if you want an easy way to get your clients’ attention.”

Greeting Card Marketing Tip #13 - Un-Birthday Cards

Okay, so you get the importance of sending birthday cards to your clients, prospects, referral sources and all that but you don’t have anyone’s actual birthday in your database. You’d love to get started but you feel stymied. Well, here’s a way to solve that problem so you can start right now, retrieve a lot of the birthdays of your existing contact database, give the card recipients a laugh and perhaps have them think you’re a pretty clever marketer.

Send an un-birthday card. Send cards to anyone in your contact list for whom you don’t have a birth date and say something like, “Well, I’d really like to send you a birthday card, but I don’t know when it is. So here’s the deal. If today really is your birthday, then woohoo, PAR-TEE! If your birthday was some time in the last six months, I’m sorry I missed it but I won’t miss it again if you send the month and day of your birthday – that way I can be sure to send a card next year. And, if your birthday is coming up in the next six months, well, you get an extra card – or you could just consider this one somewhat to really early. But please send me your birth day and month, too, so I can be more timely next year.”

Now, you probably don’t want to use those exact words, but you could if you’d like. The idea is to make it personal, make it perhaps a bit humorous and keep the focus on getting their birthday date.

And in the meantime, you’ve sent a card that touches on a personal matter, revealed some of your own personality to them, and overall made the point that you intend to continue valuing them and working on the relationship.

You could send these cards to everyone on your list at once, or divide list into twelve equal groups and send 1/12th of the cards each month, or send one a day. The point is you can start sending birthday cards even when you don’t know people’s birthdays.

What is The Passion Test all about?

In the early 1970s Marge and I took an intensive weekend course called Adventures in Attitudes. That was the first of many personal development courses, books, and training experiences I have experienced in the last four decades. Most of the seminars, teachers, books, workshops and so forth have been helpful, lending insight and in some cases helping me make significant directional shifts in my life. A few of the experiences stand out as pivotal for me personally, including Brian Klemmer's K&A Samurai training series of personal mastery and leadership workshops and Eckhardt Tolle's book The Power of Now. And now there is another.

I'm elated to introduce you to The Passion Test. As I say in the short video below, The Passion Test is a book, a test, and a system. It can be different things to different people because it contains much more, but at it's core The Passion Test is about helping people discover what is truly important in their lives and then changing their lives so they align more closely with their passions.

Here's the video:



Marge and I both found The Passion Test an easy to use yet profound tool and system. When we recommended the book to friends, we were quite surprised how most, whose experience with personal development seminars, teachers and books ranged from none at all to extensive, felt this book and the system it presents is extremely valuable.

Based on our personal experiences Marge and I sought and achieved certification to be Passion Test Workshop Facilitators. What that means is we are licensed to offer 3-hour Passion Test Workshops and also a two-session One-on-One Passion Test Course.

We would be delighted to speak with you about The Passion Test and how you might use it. You can also find more information on The Passion Test as well as a free Passion Test Profile you can online with an immediate report, please click on this link. (Please note that the link is an affiliate link which means that if you find something on the site you want to purchase or sign up for, I'll get credit for that and perhaps a slight commission.)

To talk with me about The Passion Test Workshop or the One-on-One Passion Test Course, please email me at Bruce@quantumresultscoaching.com or call me at 910-297-8753.

Greeting Card Marketing Tip #12 - Birthday Greetings with a Big Extra!

Ordinarily I do not suggest stressing or even mentioning your business when you send a birthday card to a client or prospect, but there is a way you can combine a birthday greeting with a special mention of your business. That method is a strictly limited time offer that is linked to the recipient’s birthday.

If you run a restaurant or ice cream shop, I mentioned in the previous tip the idea of making the birthday card essentially a coupon that can be shown to receive free ice cream or a free appetizer. That approach is used fairly commonly and it certainly works, but this tip goes way beyond the coupon-level gift.

The strategy I’m suggesting is more appropriate for businesses with medium to large ticket items. The idea is to give the birthday card recipient a huge deal, one that goes far above typical coupon gifts that may be available from many outlets. For example, if you typically give 10% off coupons in ads or other promotions, using this once-a-year per person event I would suggest 30% or more off your pricing. If you’re a carpet company for example, where you’ll often include installation or pads for your cost or deeply discounted, with this strategy, you’d include either, or maybe both, for free – and not jack up the price of the carpet.

The goal of this type of campaign, which you might only run one every two or three years – and publicize it that way, too – is to cause genuine excitement over the very high value available in association with a birthday card from your business. If you do implement the program but want to limit the years it’s offered, combine it with your product and customer knowledge – for example, if you know that people replace carpet once every 6 years, then why not over the over-the-top dea on their birthday during the 5th year after purchase.

The concept of giving outrageous deals, even irregularly, combined with a birthday card can be powerful if implemented well, but you do have to balance the discount with business costs – in the end you should at least break even on any deal.

Greeting Card Marketing Tip #11 - Birthday Cards - A Must Do

If you do nothing else with greeting cards, send birthday days. I’ll go so far as to say you should consider sending a birthday card to everyone you meet but for some that will be impractical and the argument is much stronger to send birthday cards to select people and around your market niche.

Certainly you should send birthday cards to your best customers, to your hottest prospects, and to your most frequent referral sources. If you go that far, though, why not send birthday greetings to all your customers, all your prospects, and all of your referral sources.

There is no question that birthday cards are appreciated, even if you just send a standard card off the shelf. Of course, as with all contacts or “touches” in relationship marketing the more personal the content the more effective it will be, but birthday cards are suitable for everyone and even someone who doesn’t get it that birthday cards mean good marketing can catch on that this gesture is important.

You can read the literature, and the books, about the car sales people, insurance brokers, real estate agents and others who have risen to and stayed at the top of their fields, nationally, by establishing and consistently maintaining birthday card programs. This concept isn’t something only I espouse, or that card companies tout, the track records are clear for all to see that birthday cards can build and keep a business.

Stores, restaurants and retail shops often have birthday clubs and while one function is to offer something (a free ice cream cone, free appetizer or dinner, a special gift or service) when the card is presented during the recipient’s birth month, the greater win is the recognition by the customer that her or his birthday was noted and acknowledged.

When we implemented a birthday card program in one of our businesses and subsequently e-mailed a long list of past clients and contacts asking for their birthdays (we usually only ask for and get the month and day), we were elated by the massive positive response. A totally unexpected positive result was the number of people who thanked us even for asking and a few who wrote that they were looking forward to receiving cards from us.

So it’s pretty clear that if you don’t include sending birthday cards in your business marketing program you are missing a huge opportunity.

Splish Splash Dog Wash in Leland - Ribbon Cutting

Today, Saturday November 21, 2009 Splish Splash Dog Wash is opening in Leland, North Carolina in the shopping center in front of Waterford off Route 17. Yesterday morning the North Brunswick Chamber of Commerce had the ribbon-cutting for this new service.

It made sense to me to bring Pepper, our 100-pound Giant Schnauzer, to this ribbon-cutting because she's such a camera hound I knew she'd like it. Below is Jack Brautigam, one of the owners of Splish Splash Dog Wash holding Pepper's leash. (She doesn't normally wear a bandana, but she still had it on from grooming two days previously - it disappeared by the end of the day).

A good number of NBCC board members, staff, and membership turned out for the ribbon-cutting, including Pastor Jay and Diane Merritt, who brought their dog for a wash and dry. In the photo below Diane and Jay are washing their dog while photographer Bob Baer, NBCC's Alice Razzano, and East Carolina Bank's Brian Hartzell look on.

Board member Tony Vlach, a commercial lines broker with Hibiske Nationwide Insurance came with Bella, who'd just had a visit with nearby vet (NBCC board member and Treasurer) Dr. Sheila Hanby. Not sure, but I think Tony and Bella use the same stylist. (What do you think?)

I caught this cartoonish shot of Pepper by accident. In nine and a half years of incessant photo taking of Pepper I've never before seen one where she looked like she belonged in a comic strip.

NBCC Executive Director Terry Grillo with Splish Splash owner Laura Brautigam, groomer Tami Bennikt, and owner Jack Brautigam.

Getting ready for the ribbon-cutting. Notice the three dogs in the picture. That's Dr. Hanby in the middle holding Bob Baer's dog.

And the ribbon was cut! This photo, btw, and the others that I'm in, were taken by Marge Brown.

Jay and Diane drying their dog after washing.


Alice Razzano and board member Brenda Bozeman.

A couplea Franks. Franklin Rouse of State Farm Insurance and Frank Williams of Pioneer Strategies. Pepper, too, of course.

NBM and SBM magazine publisher Justin Williams with ECB's Susan Crouse (thanks for coming on your day off, Susan) and Brian Hartzell.

I love this shot of Marge, just chillin' between the Splish Splash vaccuum stations.

Laura Brautigam talks with a chamber member Dave Seaton of Palmetto Publishing, and Pepper and me.

Jay and Diane holding their newly washed and dryed dog.

Bella and Pepper with Tony and me.


So now, within walking distance of each establishment we have a great vet (Capeside Animal Hospital), a gourmet dog bakery (Just for Dogs), and a dog wash (Splish Splash Dog Wash) all in Leland. The latter two are next door to each other, so stop by Splish Splash to wash your dog and then take her or him next door for some gourmet treats.

Greeting Card Marketing Tip #10 - Six Powerful Words

“It was nice to meet you.”

Clearly those six words aren’t very difficult to write. They’re also easy to understand. They don’t imply anything. They aren’t asking for anything. In spite of its simplicity, that short sentence can be one of your more powerful marketing statements – when you write it in a greeting card.

If you send a greeting card to someone within a day or two (at most) of meeting them and include just those six words plus the recipient’s name and your name, here’s what you’ve accomplished:

• You’ve acknowledged someone’s existence.
• You’ve made a positive statement about them, to them, without going overboard.
• You’ve demonstrated courtesy.
• You’ve demonstrated their professionalism by virtue of their providing you with their address.
• You’ve demonstrated your own professionalism by getting, keeping, and using their address to make contact.
• You’ve shown that you take positive action and don’t just float by meeting people.
• You’ve revealed that you may have a systematic method for contacting people and that you implement it – both gives positive impressions about your professionalism.
• While you’ve not commited to or asked anything, you’ve opened the door for more contact, whether it’s a response from the other person or more follow up on your part.
• You’ve also shown that even though you’re in business, you aren’t just about making sales, which can be a relief to others and allow them to feel better about continued contact, including the likely much more welcomed sales opportunity

Pretty cool, huh? You’ve done a lot with that simple card. If the card itself is personalized (like with their photo, or something personal (but still apppropriate) about you), then the effect can be even greater, but by sending a simple card you have laid good groundwork for building a new business relationship.

It’s interesting that the same exact words, “It was nice to meet you,” when spoke on leaving are almost social throw-aways and don’t really have much weight (though they are important enough that you shouldn’t neglect them). If you want to be in the top few percent who will actually follow up after meeting someone, and do it in a professional, none sales-y way, those same six words take on much more power.

Brunswick County Tri-Chamber Business After Hours 11-19-09

Marge and I just got home from another successful business networking event, this one hosted by the ever-expanding and impressive Brunswick Community College. We met in a room at the Odell Williamson Auditorium (you may recall the same place where The Buckingham's played in concert last summer for a North Brunswick Chamber of Commerce event). Tonight's Tri-Chamber Business After Hours was for the Brunswick Chamber of Commerce, North Brunswick Chamber of Commerce, and the Southport/Oak Island Chamber of Commerce. Catered by our own ('our' meaning Leland's) Antonio's Pizza and Pasta restaurant, there were drawings galore and many connections for those who showed up and met new people.

The first person we met entering the room was NBCC board member Frank Williams of Pioneer Strategies and Cape Fear Business News.

Next was Frank Bullara, owner of Bugsy's Cigars, also in Leland.

Leland's Magnolia Greens Comfort Suites Hotel was ably represented by Sales Manager Lee Ann Mitchell and Front Desk Manager Nicole Neuendorf.

Chamber stalwarts Carolyn Pirnat of Asset Storage, Mary Anne Fagerquist, and Prudential's Sharon Furman were dressed so similarly I thought they were going to entertain. Mary Anne, by the way, seen here laughing, is such a good sport and lively spirit that if asked she'd probably jump right up and do a great job.

We all know he'd rather (and I'm not joking) be called Santa Claus, but their names are really Scott and Connie Reeves.

Laura Patterson of Leland's Mulch and More and uber-proud grandmother of twins that put a brilliant sparkle in her eyes.

Barry Eagle, the honcho at the Magnolia Greens Comfort Suites Hotel.

Part of the NBCC crew, Scott, Marge Brown of SendOutCards, Jeff Harvell of Cape Fear Business News, and Executive Director Terry Grillo.

Santa and Me.

Marge and Bradford Mortgage's Dana Fisher. Dana is also a board member of NBCC.

Electrician Brandon Shaw of Artisan Electric and John Denison, owner of LogoDesigns, Inc.

A line up of North Brunswick Chamber of Commerce folk.

Photographer Bob Baer loves to climb on chairs.

Marge and our new friend Tom Roberts of Beach Property Solutions.

Okay, so there's Santa on the left, Wilmington City Councilman Charlie Rivenbark, George Patterson (in the blue shirt turned away from the camera, but just for those who are keeping score here, he's the grandfather of those twins I mentioned a while back), Tom Roberts, and Dana Fisher.


So yes, it was another good time. You can probably tell why many of us don't even need ovens or cookware at home - there's always another networking event to attend in our area.

Tweeting at Cardinal Lanes in Wilmington, NC

I arrived a bit late and had to leave early, but I was able to bowl two games at the Wilmington Tweetup held this month at Cardinal Lanes on Shipyard Boulevard. There were some seriously good bowlers present. And, then there was me. As a cruel joke a few years back someone gave me bowling shoes as a present (those are my shoes on the table, doing as much good there as on my feet when I'm bowling.

The group really got into it and had a lot of fun.

Gayle Tabor of Glynne's Soaps told the story of how her team won the league championship the first year and pointed to a plaque on the wall. She also explained the winning was based on most improved average and it was her team's first season ever bowling.

Sarah Barbee of FussBudget Promotions organizes the Wilmington Tweetups and always helps us have a good time in a nice place.

Renee Jones has her own bowling ball. It even has her name on it! Wow, my ball used to belong to someone named 'House'.

It seemed like every time I looked up, Renee was getting a strike! (Do you think it would be a good idea if we all bought balls with the name 'Renee' printed on it? Would we all bowl better?)

It was a good time. Thanks Sarah for organizing it and thanks to all who came out.

Strictly Business back at Cameo Nightclub - 11-18-09

The first person I saw when I arrived at this week's Strictly Business networking event at Cameo Nightclub in Wilmington, NC was Jon Hicks of Ethos Design Studios. Strictly Business is hosted each week by Curtis Wright of The Big Talker FM. Curtis is a shy type, that's his car below.

Each week a non-profit organization is featured and this week it was the Cape Fear River Watch. Carrie Frohling works with CFRW and just got back from her honeymoon (oh-oh, maybe she has a different last name now, someone help me out?). Talking with Carrie was Ian Hunting, proprietor of The Pepperoni Grill in Boiling Springs.

Joe Abate, Program Director for Cape Fear River Watch and Brian Crounse, an event planner for the film industry who recently moved to Wilmington.

Robert Lewis of Lewis Dental Labs.

Jon Hicks chatting with Paul Whitehouse of Lopermedia.

The Big Talker Curtis Wright himself and Melinda Haynes of PrePaid Legal.

Pat Herrmann and Vincent Prisco.

Mark Evans of Green Cleaning Technicians and Paige Freeman of Sea-Comm Media.

Elaine Huston of PrePaid Legal and Rich Huston of UFirst.

Curtis, Scott Ball of Coastal Document Systems, and Russ Hauptman of Sea-Comm Media (last week I mistakenly wrote Russ's name was Doug, but he was a good sport about it).

Stephanie Williams of Edward Jones with photographer and landscaper Robert Freeman.

Elaine Huston with Jennifer Altman of SendOutCards.


Another fine turn out that was Strictly Business!

Sea Coast Realty Leland Office Oyster Roast

Each month Denise Kinney, the managing broker of the Leland office of Coldwell Banker Sea Coast Realty sets a contract goal for the 20-odd Realtors who work in the office. If we make or exceed the goal (or rather I should say 'when', because we usually make it), Denise plans a party. This year we've hit our goal most months, and last evening we had an oyster roast at our office to celebrate exceeding our October goal target.

Realtor Sean Skutnik, a multi-talented guy who also fishes, gardens, and cooks, did the honors of picking up and cooking the oysters and he did a fine, fine job. Here's Sean below with the initial load of oysters on the cooker (this was a very small portion of the oysters - we went through two huge cartons of them).

Office Manager Kari Essig and brokers Peter David, Linda Killian, and Craig Spafford.

Broker Howard Bailey, Kari, and Allyson Kinney with her mom Denise.

I left fairly early but the festivities went on for hours.

I wonder what Denise will think of when we beat our goal this month?

SendOutCards Luncheon - Holiday Cards and Gifts for Business

Each month Marge and I sponsor a luncheon at Antonio's Pizza and Pasta in Leland, NC where we present a business topic and also provide information about SendOutCards - with the focus on using SOC for business marketing.

This month, with the holiday season upon us, the business topic focused right on the central point of our SendOutCards focus, "Business Holiday Card and Gift Giving." We had a lively group of about a dozen people and it was entertaining and informative (at least I thought so, but then I was the main speaker).

Before the luncheon started Marge Brown, Doc Hamm, David Merrill, Kerry Kasotsky, and Jennifer Altman chatted.

If you'd like more info about our monthly business topic meetings, comment on this blog or email Marge@FatCityCards.

Greeting Card Marketing Tip #9 - Portrait Is Better Than Landscape

If you only send standard greeting cards in your business marketing program, this tip won’t matter too much, because standard business greeting cards are typically thrown in a basket, taped or tacked to the wall, or thrown out. However, if you create custom greeting cards, especially with compelling photos of the recipient, or of you, or either’s business, there’s a better chance the person who gets the card may want to display it. And in that case, I strongly suggest you created portrait mode cards – they stand up better.

Horizontal cards are certainly attractive and if you use full bleed images odds are the cards will be in landscape mode. However, horizontally oriented cards don’t usually stand up very well.

Your goal is to either show up at a client’s home or office and see your card proudly displayed on a desk, counter, mantle, table or some other horizontal surface. Likely your client won’t put it there just so you can see it, but so others can see it, too – so here’s an easy, almost automatic way to help your clients and customers market and advertise for you.

So get used to either taking photos or cropping them so they’ll print on the front of a vertically oriented card. It’s a small technique, but we find it works quite well. In fact, we didn’t think of this, but discovered it when we visited clients and also when we tried to display cards in our own office.

BNI Business Attractors Meeting - 11-18-09

We had another lively meeting of the Leland BNI Business Attractors. We started by playing Frisbee and ended with a drawing. Oh yeah, and had some good networking, an interesting presentation by Aflac's Mimi Kronkowski, and guest Scott Schmidt. A bunch of strong referrals were given as well. Good meeting, folks.

Greeting Card Marketing Tip #8 - Keep It Short

When you send a greeting card to a business contact, don't write a lot. A short message is sufficient and if you write a long message you take a chance of diluting the impact of the card.

The way this works is actually sort of funny, but try this as a rule of thumb:

- Standard card: Medium length message, no more than two paragraphs.

- Custom card: Short message no more than two sentences.

The closer the photos and graphics are to the heart, the less you want the reader's head to get involved, so don't write much.

Greater Wilmington Chamber Mega Business After Hours - 11/17/09

They just keep getting better and better. Last night's Mega Business After Hours at the Coastline Convention Center, sponsored by the Greater Wilmington Chamber of Commerce drew an enthusiastic, sizable crowd.

The first people we saw went we entered were newly elected Wilmington City Councilman Charlie Rivenbark and his fiance Dana Fisher.

David Merrill of Hertz was in the middle of the action as usual. David has teased me that lately I've mostly included photos of his back or side at networking events, so I'm making up for it in this post, I hope. David is also the guy who started and manages the very helpful Wilmington Networking Events Calendar.


Rick Huston of U-First and David Merrill.


Mary Bennies of the still new but already successful Town Planner community calendar.

Amanda Smith of Glasgow Hicks Insurance Agency, attorney Jonathan Washburn, and Charlie Rivenbark.


Marge Brown of SendOutCards and Steve West of N2 Publishing.

That's Michael Moore's mom, Jeannette Raines and vendor Mike Kress of Auto Supply Co., Inc. in Michael's booth (Michael of course is the guy on the right).

Here's another smiling Michael, the dappper Michael Byrd of WordWright Web.

Nelly Webb of Tuscany Tile & Design and Jim Tuzzeo of Blueprint Financial Advisory Group.

Todd Godbey of Kidsville Magazine and Michael Byrd.




Marge Brown and Greater Wilmington Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Connie Majur-Rhett.David Merrill with Robert Lewis of Lewis Labs and Susan Bunce of Lewis Dental Labs.

Someone grabbed the camera for a last photo, this time of David and me.

Yet another fine, well-attended event by the Greater Wilmington Chamber of Commerce. Thanks to Vera, Connie, and everyone who made it possible.

Greeting Card Marketing Tip #7 - Make It a Campaign

When you send greeting cards one at a time for special occasions, to express your appreciation, to give notice to a recipient’s personal event or accomplishment or just to send a heartfelt message, those cards are likely the most powerful at building and strenghtening relationships. If you have a large clientele or customer, however, you obviously can’t spend all day every day designing and composing cards. So what’s the answer: campaign cards.

Campaign cards make use of several features of a strong card sending program (obviously I’m biased to SendOutCards because that’s what we use and we’re also SendOutCards distributors).

Campaign cards let you do the following:

• Use your contact management program or database for names and address so you don’t have to re-enter them.
• Use Groups or key field selection in the contact manager to filter and select the desired contacts for any compaign.
• Create meaningful text once, to be used for multiple cards (obviously this makes the card focus on your personal message, not on something personal about the recipient)
• Use the program’s merge feature so the first name(s) of the recipients are printed inside the card as well as on the envelope.
• Some programs (SendOutCards allows this) will let you add a more personal message for select individuals in a campaign mailing after you’ve set up the campaign.
• Campaigns can consist of one or more cards, with fixed or interval timing between the card sending dates.

When are campaigns useful? The applications go on and on, but you can effectively set up campaigns for:
• Holiday cards (and possibly accompanying gifts)
• Birthdays and anniversaries
• Seasonal cards
• Special announcements (don’t overdo this one) about your business.

The greatest savings in using campaign cards is time. By conserving your time but still sending personalized messages, you can make the most of greeting card relationship building and maintenance.

Meet the District Attorney - Rex Gore Speaks at NBCC Breakfast Meeting

Tuesday morning, North Carolina District 13 District Attorney Rex Gore spoke at a breakfast meeting of the North Brunswick Chamber of Commerce. The meeting was held at Antonio's Pizza and Pasta in Leland, which Mr. Gore described as a "Southern Italian" restaurant, because they had grits and sweet tea in the breakfast buffet.

NBCC board member vetrinarian Dr. Sheila Hanby and NBCC Ambassador financial planner Ken Schiess.


NBCC's Alice Razzano is in charge of speaker luncheons and breakfasts.

District Attorney Gore brought along displays of local programs.

And here's District Attorney Gore himself. He was at once an entertaining and convincing speaker.

NBCC board member Connie Reeves.

Another of Mr. Gore's displays.

A teen court display.

Diane Merritt (back to camera) of Victory Walk church, Deborah Cook of American Mini-Storage, and Marge Brown of SendOutCards.

Carolyn Pirnat of Asset Storage with Pastor and NBCC board member Jay Merritt making a point in the background.

NBCC's Mary Anne Fagerquist was on hand to take photos for the chamber. I don't think I've ever seen her without her smile.

Mr. Gore, Bugsy Cigar's Frank Bullara, and Well Fargo Mortgage's Alan Henderson.


Clearly the group enjoyed the presentation.

East Carolina Bank's Susan Cruse and NBCC President George Murray of Murray Art & Frame.

Glenda Ansley, Teen Court Coordinator in Mr. Gore's office spoke about that important program.

NBCC Executive Director Terry Grillo and Mr. Gore.

The three Franks wanted this photo included (NBCC board member Franklin Rouse of State Farm Insurance, NBCC board member Frank Williams of Pioneer Strategies and Cape Fear Business News, and Frank Bullara of Bugsy's Cigars).

Justin Williams of NBM and SBM magazines and Todd Godbey of Kidsville Magazine (both NBCC board members).

Mr. Gore opened his talk with some graphics of humorous and interesting use of the eight characters allowed on NC license plates - with examples of real plates. This is the one on his wife's car.

Usually our monthly speaker meetings are at lunchtime. This month we held it in the morning. We had a good turnout and a terrific speaker. Thanks, Ms. Ansley and Mr. Gore for your interesting presentations.

Greeting Card Marketing Tip #6 - Send Cards to People You Know

Greeting cards are powerful but they’re also very personal. For that reason, for the most cost effective use of greeting cards in your marketing program and for the overall greatest effectiveness, it’s best to send cards only to people you know.

Confusing greeting card marketing with mass mailing misses the point and the power of greeting cards and can also be extremely expensive. Mass mailings are by definition sent to large numbers of people – the recipients may be grouped by address, interest, location or some other demographic, but mass mailings aren’t personal. Mass mailings can be effective but they’re really not about relationship building. Greeting cards are used in their highest purpose when sent to people with whom you already have a relationship.

If you don’t already buy into the concept of relationship marketing, if you’re not convinced that most of your business comes from existing clients, friends, family, people you meet or network with, and other referral sources, first off I’d suggest you check that very carefully, either by analyzing your own business or finding out what others in your field think. But if you truly don’t think relationships matter more than anything else in growing and maintaining your business, greeting cards likely won’t help. Imagine, for example, if the Department of Transportation in a state with toll roads decided to send personalized greeting cards to everyone who went through a toll – that would be silly. If you can count your clients (or potential clientele) in the 100’s or 1,000’s then greeting card marketing by sending cards to people you know can replace direct mailing and possibly some of your other advertising and marketing campaigns with a more time, cost, and results effective technique.

Don’t let a low number of existing clients be a stumbling block here. If you’re just starting out and have few (or no) clients, you can send cards to vendors, colleagues (yes, even competitors – you might be surprised how powerful that can be in getting business), strong prospects, and good referral sources.

The point is that when you send a card you send a powerful, personal message – it’s most effective when received by someone you already know.

Little Shoppe in the Village - Ribbon-Cutting

We had another ribbon-cutting hosted by the North Brunswick Chamber of Commerce today. Peggy Stone, in the blue jacket weilding the giant scissors below, cut the ribbon for her new consignment and antique store in the Shoppes of Waterford in Leland, NC. It was a bright sunny morning and a good representative of NBCC Board, staff, and membership turned out to watch Peggy cut the ribbon and also to check out her store.

Inside you'll find furniture and decorative items in many styles.





Board member Justin Williams, publisher of NBM and SBM magazines brought his daughter Ava Grace. NBCC President George Murry, who also owns the neighboring Murray Art & Frame, promptly boosted Ava's sugar levels skyward by feeding her glaze from Krispee Kreme donuts.

Photographer Bob Baer, Chamber Uber-Ambassador Alice Razzano, and Pastor Jay Merritt.

Realtor Linda Mehner and SunTrust Bank's Denise Harris.

George talks with Waterford resident Steve Boone (and yeah, he is the guy from The Lovin' Spoonful).

If you're in the market for an extra piece of furniture, an ensemble, or some decorative items, or if you're downsizing or re-decorating and looking for a place to sell your pieces, be sure to check out Little Shoppe in the Village.

Greeting Card Marketing Tip #5 - In Your Own Handwriting

Have you ever wondered why some print ads include a signature? Has it struck you odd that advertisers or business owners would want their signatures in such a public place? The simple answer is trust. When most people see someone’s handwritten signature on a document, they infer that the person who wrote it stands behind the document – the print equivalent of saying, “I give my word.”

Another trust-building technique in print ads is to include a straight-on face shot of the company spokesperson, preferably close enough that readers can see the whites of the spokesperson’s eyes. Looking someone in the eyes conveys trust. When a faceshot it combined with a signature the effect is multiplied.

Not all greeting cards lend themselves to including a good-sized headshot of the sender, and in fact that focus on the send can detract from the recipient focus that greeting cards for marketing should have. However, you should always make the effort to have your real signature included in the card. Company cards sent out with the company name printed at the bottom instead of a signature are overly formal and do not convey any sense of personal relationship with the recipient.

It’s also effective, though less important, to have the text of the greeting card printed using the sender’s handwriting. Actually, only very close friends and family are likely to recognize handwriting, compared to signatures, which are much more recognizable. Therefore it’s perfectly acceptable to use someone else’s handwriting for the card message if it looks somewhat similar to the senders. Of course if you’re hand writing the card then the same person should write and sign it, but if you’re using a computer generated handwriting font, choosing one that is fairly neutral without being obviously computer-created (meaning not too perfect), and is also legible is a good idea.

Using your handwriting in a greeting card increases the “human-ness” of the card. Using your own signature, whether hand signed or with a digital image of your signature, strengthens the relationship and can add the element of trust.

Greeting Card Marketing Tip #4 - Customize, Don't Standardize

Whether or not you use photos with your busines greeting cards, it’s highly desirable that you customize your cards. The greater the level of customization, the more personalized it becomes for both the sender and the recipient. If the purpose of sending a greeting card in the first place is to enhance a relationship, clearly a more personalized the card the better chance it has to fulfill its purpose.

Sending any card is better than no card, so if you’re in a rush of course it’s better to grab a card off the rack or from a standard collection than to ignore the chance to send a card. If you do use a totally standard card, look for one that conveys the desired emotion or expression and then add your own heartfelt words.

Very plain, formal corporate-style greeting cards do not convey emotion and are clearly company-focused. It’s doubtful corporate cards do much for building relationships other than expressing the most formal communications.

Sales and marketing departments of medium to large companies, even if required to use standardized, approved greeting cards, should press to adopt cards that, via graphics, photos, and/or printed messages, do the best possible job of addressing the target market’s needs and the company’s purpose. For example, if a business differentiates itself by depth of resources, or creativity, or environmental awareness, the most effective standardized cards to clients or prospects should do what they can to underscore those messages.
In addition to the greeting card’s content and design, special factors in the materials can also help a card to stand out. For example, using high qualilty paper, preferably from recycled materials that are so noted, is helpful. Another way to convey specialness is to use real, first class stamps instead of bulk mail or metered postage.

Anything you can do to customize your greeting cards that will help the recipient feel special will strengthen the relationship-building effectiveness of the cards.

Greeting Card Marketing Tip #3 - Picture This!

Words are okay, graphics and standard photos are better, and your own photos are best. When you take the effort to capture the image (you do always carry a digital camera, right?), transfer it to your computer, crop and maybe enhance it a bit, and then upload it so you can use it creatively and effectively in a greeting card, you send a clear message of care and importance to the recipient. Standard cards with stock photos aren’t very likely to be put on someone’s refrigerator door, no matter how clever, but even a relatively poor photo of someone’s child has a high door-ability potential.

What photos should you use in greeting cards? The last thing you should do is send cards with photos of your products or your business. The best are photos of your clients, your friends, their families, their pets, their homes, cars, boats, or whatever - the focus (oops, an inadvertant camera joke snuck in) should be on them. If you don’t have and can’t easily get digital images of your clients, the next best idea is to use personal photos of yourself, your pets, or even your children. The point here is that the card is being sent to a friend, so why wouldn’t you include personal photos.

Remember to use fairly high resolution photos in your cards so when they’re printed the images will be clear. It’s also a good idea to crop the original images to remove extraneous background content (why have a card front with 2/3 blue sky for example). Other simple photo editing to consider is red eye repair and being sure the photo is bright enough – even most rudimentary photo editing programs can easily fix either problem. You don’t need to be fancy with your photographs in cards, but the better quality the photo the better impression the card will make.

Photo cards are much more likely to be saved, to be mentioned and even to be shown to others – so make the most of your greeting card marketing by utilizing personal photos whenever you can.

Pepper in the Dog Park 11-15-09

Yet another Sunday morning Brunswick Forest Dog Park outing.









At the peak there were 16 humans and 14 dogs.


This week there was a quite a bit of running by the big dogs. Pepper came home and is out for the day!

As I count the many things I'm grateful for, this month and always, the Dog Park in Brunswick Forest is certainly on the list.

Greeting Card Marketing Tip #2 - It's Not About You

Let’s assume you want your business marketing to be as effective as possible, right? If it’s not the case that your marketing must matter, if you’re happy with just any mention of your business or any contact with your markets, most of what I suggest won’t really matter. But if your goal is effective, meaningful, impactful marketing, than do whatever you can to make your market feel special, and appreciated. This is a guiding principle in greeting card marketing: It’s not about you, it’s about the card recipient.

How would you like to hear, or see when you visit, that your business marketing greeting cards are kept right on the kitchen counter, refrigerator door, desk, display case, or some other prominent place at the recipient’s home or place of business? If your cards are about you, it’s not likely to happen. If you have photos of the recipient, his or her family, home, pets, or business chances are pretty good (frankly we have it happen all the time) that your marketing piece will be in full display to visitors to the car recipient’s home or business.

The purest way to keep cards about your customers, clients, colleagues, referral sources or prospects is to not mention yourself or your business at all, other than signing your name, or maybe mentioning a shared social or fun experience. As soon as you mention your company name, the card becomes a sales piece, and that’s exactly what you do not want.

When we first started using greeting cards in our marketing I almost always included a scanned image of my business card on one of the inside panels. Now I only rarely include my business card image. The cards are special, to me, and I hope they’re special to the recipients as well. So I keep myself out of them as much as possible.

Greeting card marketing is to build relationships, not to sell and not to convey other messages about your business. The more consistently you are able to focus card content on the recipient and not on yourself and your business, the more effective the powerful marketing company will be for you.

Greeting Card Marketing Tip #1 - It's Personal, Not Business

Effective marketing speaks to the market. That principal is valid with all marketing but never more so than in greeting card marketing. Greeting cards are effective and powerful to the extent they are personal. Cards about your business, cards that event hint at sales or advertising lose most if not all their effectiveness.

If you are going to use greeting cards as a marketing tool, continuously look for ways to make the cards you send personal. On very rare occaisions cards can mention your business, but even then it should be related personally to the recipient – for example, thanking a customer for a major purchase or contract. The majority if not all of the cards you send to clients, customers, and prospects should be focused on relationship building – the relationship between people, not between a person and a business.

Don’t let yourself fall prey to a common mistake of using the power of greeting cards to send clever messages about your business. If the message is about you personally and your business, for example your excitement about a new office, thats’s fine, but the focus must be on the people involved.

As you use greeting cards as a relationship buiding tool in your business marketing you’ll gain experience and stories about how the cards made your customers feel and those experiences will guide you going forward.

As long as you don’t confuse greeting card marketing with advertising or even traditional public relations, you’re on the right track. Just remember, with greeting card marketing, keep it about the people, not about the business.

Strictly Business in Leland at Antonio's - Nov 11, 2009

For the first time The Big Talker FM's Strictly Business "crossed over the bridge" to Leland for a business networking event last evening. Even though it was pretty rainy we had a fine turnout, so good that they're coming back again to the same location on December 16th (be there from 5PM till??.

Below North Brunswick Chamber of Commerce President George Murray of Murray Art & Frame greets guests while Big Talker FM Morning Show host Curtis Wright looks on.

Anna Schraff of Boys and Girls Homes, James Arnold of South East Commercial Services, and Steve Haughey of Worldwide Express.

Crowd shots.




Curtis did the drawing with the assistance of Producer and Photographer Paige Freeman.

Dana and Scott Ball of Coastal Document Systems.

Daniel Traveria and his family. They make Plaintain Chips locally and are starting to distribute them to food stores and restaurants.

There's David Merrill (I never seem to get a face shot, but at least a side shot is better than his back) - David's the guy who publishes the Wilmington Networking Event calendar.

Derek Sellers of Sea-Comm Media and Shari Watters of Deltacom.

Doug Tarble, Small Business Coordinator at Cape Fear Community College.

Erin Alderman of Nationwide Insurance and Sean Skutnik of Coldwell Banker Sea Coast Realty.


A bunch of folks,,with Frank Bullara from Bugsy's Cigars in the middle and Rick Huston on the right.

Frank Williams from Pioneer Strategies, Paige Freeman, and Doug from Sea-Comm Media.


Jamaye Despaigne of Wilkinson & Associates and Pat Herrmann of Morton Shull Advertising. Pat helped us (the North Brunswick Chamber of Commerce) by selling raffle tickets that benefitted the chamber. Thanks, Pat.


Jerry Ellis oof Telecom and Rick Huston of U-First.

Telcom's Jerry Ellis and Stephanie Williams from Edward Jones.

NBM magazine's Justin Williams and Sea-Comm's Derek Sellers.

Alpha Mortgage's Lam Nguyen and his wife Samantha Nguyen, a designer with Samantha's Coastal Interiors.

Paul Whitehouse in the background, with James Arnold of South Eastern Commercial Services and Linda Eldred of Tuscany Tile & Design.

Robert Freeman of Land Tech landscape company.

NBCC Executive Director Terry Grillo and my buddy Aaron Aiken.

Terry, Bradford Mortgage's Dana Fisher, and Blue Dog Network's Dana Vizneau.

Tony Vlach of Nationwide Commercial Insurance and Dennis Johnson.

Remember, you can always find out where the next Strictly Business and other events are being held in the greater Wilmington area (which includes North Brunswick County) by going to
http://sites.google.com/site/wilmingtonnetworking/ .

Magnolia Salon and Spa Ribbon Cutting

Here we go again with another North Brunswick Chamber of Commerce ribbon cutting, this time for Magnolia Salon and Spa on Grandiflora Drive in front of Magnolia Greens in Leland, North Carolina.

New owner Shannon Lane took over the business earlier this year.


Andrea Smith (in yellow) does pedicures and manicures and Tina Jones, seated, is the receptionist.

Stylists Sarah Curry and Autumn Strickland.

Stylists Deeanne Henson, Courtney Caudle, and Mindy Inman.

A wash station.

Styling stations.

Chamber members, staff and volunteers gathered for the ceremony. The fully visible faces of the folks below include Pastor Jay Merritt, Dana Fisher, Jamie Shoemaker, Tony Vlach, and Gina Schiess.

Tony Vlach talks with David Merrill of Hertz Rentals while NBCC Executive Director Terry Grillo and Shannon talk with Tina at the reception desk.

Mindy, Stylist Heather Williams, Sarah and Autumn.

Terry gives Shannan the low down on how our ribbon cuttings go.
OK, so front row only: Jamie Shoemaker, Terry Grillo, Tina Jones, Shannon Lane, Sarah Curry George Murray, and Donna Cameron.

The same crew with Frank Bullara now on the right end.

It's a cut!

And Shannon gets to keep the cut portion of the ribbon while NBCC President George Murray looks on.

That's Stylist Heather Williams in the center of the photo, with Autumn Strickland and Sarah Curry to her right (actually her left, our right).

Massage therapist Lori Petco and Andrea Smith.

Bob Baer, Mike Leggett, and Franklin Rouse.

Chamber stalwarts Alice Razzano, SunTrust Bank Manager Denise Harris, and NBCC Ambassador Jeannie Reilly.

Frank Bullara and Jeff Harvell.

Once again the ribbon was cut, the donuts were eaten, and we all had a fine time. Welcome to the Chamber, Shannon and all your crew.

Ever Hear of an Ab Circle?

I'd never heard of an Ab Circle before today, but when I stopped by the on-site sales office at Cove Landing in Winnabow this afternoon there was a strange contraption on the floor.

I asked what it was and Charlotte Palmer and Wendy Melville, the two on-site agents suggested I try it out. I did, they took this picture and 'nuff said about that experience.


I imagine the Ab Circle can do wonders for one's abs - assuming one could get the thing to start moving in the first place!

Papa John's Pizza Comes to Leland - Ribbon-Cutting

Today we had the North Brunswick Chamber of Commerce ribbon-cutting for the new Papa John's Pizza in Leland.

Julie Fertig of News 14 Carolina was on hand to capture the event for television.

Here's Julie with Chamber photographer Bob Baer and Coldwell Banker Sea Coast Realty broker Craig Spafford.

Justin Williams, publisher of NBM and SBM magazines came with his daughter Ava Grace. Diane Merritt and Alice Razzano said hello to the ever-ebullient Ava.

Comfort Suites Magnolia Greens Sales Manager Lee Ann Mitchell, Financial Advisor Jim Tuzzeo, Chamber Ambassador Bob Pine, Developer, Publisher, and NBCC Board member Jeff Harvell, and Asset Storage manager Carolyn Pirnat observed the gathering.

Diane, Alice, and Chamber Ambassador Mary Anne Fagerquist (the woman in red facing away from the camera).

NBCC President George Murray (holding the scissors), Executive Director Terry Grillo (with the ribbon), and Papa John's co-owner Bill Yates. That's Bill's wife Dawn in the background holding their daughter Caroline and son Jacob mostly out of the picture.

Town Planner calendar publisher Mary Bennies was picking up proofs of the 2010 North Brunswick Town Planner and stopped by to attend the ribbon-cutting. I got a quick peek at the proofs - wow, it looks awesome!

Lined up and ready to cut. Front row only are Lee Ann Mitchell, Connie Reeves, Terry Grillo, George Murray, Bill Yates, Papa John's co-owner Chris Lawley, Dawn Lawley with Caroline in her arms and Jacob standing in front, and Cheryl Lawley and her daughter Ashton.

Same crew, with the ribbon cut! Good job, Bill.

After the ribbon-cutting Terry Grillo had such a great smile I couldn't resist.

BB&T's Gina Marshburn, Bonnie Wallace, and Drew Roper were also on hand to welcome yet another new business to Leland.

Another successful ribbon-cutting - and to think, we don't even need to sharpen the shears because they get so much action. Welcome to Bill and Chris and all the staff at Papa John's.

Business Social Media Tip #31 - Anticipate Change

Social media use in business is increasing and changing in form and applications. These trends will continue. Don't deny or ignore change or, if you do so, ignore the transformations at least knowing that you will be missing out on opportunities - which may be just fine for some enterprises (I'm frankly at a loss to think of one, for even religions, art, and poetry have found great use of computer technologies, so I expect the same from social media).

The business healthy strategy is to expect change in technology including social media and make the best of it as soon as it's practical (please note, 'practical' does not mean the same as 'economical' or 'when we have time'). Practical in this sense means you should utilize relevant technologies as soon as they are stable and proved to be valuable in your business.

Even better than expecting and adopting technological change is anticipating change. If you can predict, for example, which way social media is heading, you can be among the first to enjoy the advantages of change. How does that sound? Pretty cool, huh? Well it is, but be aware that being an 'early adopter', while often exciting and sure to provide cocktail chatter, often comes with a price - newest technologies often sputter when they first hit the market and take a while to become stable. The cost to you can be money and time - two important resources indeed. If you can anticipate and get ready for social media change without over-committing time and money until the technology is stable and at least beginning to deliver, you'll be in the best position.

It's also important, when attempting to understand and predict change, to keep the subject in context. In the case of social media context includes personal computing and personal communications technologies, Internet access and speed, technology adoption and acceptance, and a growing world market.

Looking forward right now, left-brain trends to consider as you attempt to anticipate social media change include the increasing adoption of mobile communications devices (especially but not only phones), cloud computing (where applications and data reside on the Internet, not on physical devices one owns), the continued explosion of personal video, collaboration or collaborative utilities for various social and personal media sites, location technologies, and personal identification and tracking technologies. On the ever more influential right-brain side of development design, play, empathy, social reach, personal touch, and story-telling are all significant. So throw all those factors in a hat, pick any two or three and make your best attempt at anticipating the next big social media business application.

Business Social Media Tip #30 - Watch Your Numbers

So how do you know if your business social media marketing efforts are working? Are they worth the required time and focus? And how exactly do you measure social media effectiveness? If there is one number to watch to tell if you've made the right decisions regarding social media, what would it be?

I know what the answer is for me, but yours may differ.

Here are some possibilities of numbers to monitor:

-- Friends and Followers - If your goal is to build a massive following, sheer numbers of friends and followers could be the best measure of success. This is an easy number to track since social media sites routinely report how many connections you have - it's actually a device the social media companies use to keep us using their services, enticing us to be competitive and build larger followings so we'll feel somehow 'better'. But is a large following in the best interest of your business?

-- Grading or Influence Rating Services - There are third party companies that will track your influence. Two popular services for are HubSpot, Inc.'s Grader.com and Twinfluence.com. Grader.com for Twitter (there are other versions as well) tracks your updates, your followers, and those you follow and then gives you a grade on a 0-100 scale and will display your ranking in your location. Twinfluence.com provides a ranking and percentage rating based on "social influence" measures which are also detailed and explained by the site. Twinfluence provides more data than Grader, but the actual value for your business isn't proved.

-- Internet and Web Site Metrics - This is the world of hits, and eyes, and Search Engine Optimization (SEO). There are plenty of tools that measure Internet metrics and you can be sure that more will emerge for social media, some within the services themselves, others provided by third parties. Don't assume that the same metrics that work for a web site that sells products will have relevance to social media, where the most successful participants are often those who are most socially adept. In this respect, social media success might not be best measured just by numbers.

-- Your Bottom Line -- With all respect, the best number to watch to measure your business's marketing success with social media might be outside the purvey of the Internet, but rather with your accountant. Realtors know that the best advertisements are those that bring people who end up with a successful closing, not just people who want a tour of the area. If you have a way to track the source of your sales or contracts, that's the strongest tool at your disposal. Track where you first met people who brought your business revenue. If you connected in multiple ways, in person, through traditional ads, and through social media, you may have to be a bit subjective here to decide which made the strongest connection - (Why not use this as an opportunity to connect with customers by asking which contact mode was most important).

In the end, your financial bottom line is the most important way to measure effectiveness of anything you do in your business.

Business Social Media Tip #29 - Use Utilities

Third party utilities are programs that are created to help you get the most from other programs. Used judiciously with social media, third party utilities can save you time posting and even creating content, increase your presence by posting data in multiple places, and give you a higher level of control and extra features than you'll often get from using standard social media sites.

Many of the earlier business social media tips and strategies I've written about can be completely controlled by, assisted, or even augmented by third party utilities.

Presently there are utilities to help you set up sub-groups, create separate windows or columns to track search terms such as your company name, your personal name, or anything you desire, and there are also signaling devices that will alert you with visual and audio indicators when specified activity occurs.

You can take it too far with third party utilities and spend inordinate time trying to know about every utility available and also seek the very best ones. I suggest you find a reasonably strong utility suite and stick with that until you hear others bragging so much about another suite that you can't resist. Why waste time searching for the perfect utility suite when "good" will be good enough.

The trend now is for utilities to bridge multiple social media sites - for example a utility suite called TweetDeck works with both Twitter, Facebook, and MySpace. The concept of a utility "deck" is similar to a console or a dashboard that has indicators, readouts, or alerts for a variety of content or tracking data.

Unless you have a lot of time on your hands (and that likely leaves out most of us), I wouldn't advise switching social media third party utility suites more often than every 6 months - that's probably sufficient time to allow the fast changing list of utilities and menu of services and features to make significant leaps.

Another word of advice on the subject of utilities is it's best to let others work with the very first versions of any new program while the bugs are being worked out. Also, when new version of a program or utility is announced or launched, hold off for a month or two before switching or upgrading - it's not uncommon at all to hear people speak of new versions causing problems with old data, at least at first. So let others be pioneers so you can stick with your primary business, but still be on the lookout for the third party utilities for your social media management and creation.

Pepper's Morning at the Brunswick Forest Dog Park

Pepper and a passle of other dogs had a great time at Brunswick Forest's Dog Park this morning. Pepper, a Giant Schnauzer who weighs just about 100 pounds was probably the largest and heaviest dog there. A pair of 4 pound Yorkshire Terriers and a Chihuahua were the smallest, with some German Shepards, a Lab or two, several mixed breed dogs, and a feisty Cairn Terrier.

Many of the dogs met for the first time and they all got along. It was a nice time and today was a perfect day for it. In the first photo below part of group all ran to the gate to greet a newcomer. The rest of the photos are without captions, but the message of dogs at play is clear.

Business Social Media Tip #28 - Make It Easy on Yourself with Auto-Posting

A growing number of people use social media personally and for business, some just a little bit and others seemingly all the time. Others have no use for social media at all.

Do you know what these three categories of social media users and non-users have in common? They think maintaining an active social media presence takes too much time.

While non-users may also question the value or use of social media, even avid proponents of social media's increasing marketing force are concerned about the time it takes to plan, create, and post content.

The good news is you can significantly cut or at least control the time it takes to post a lot of content on multiple social media sites.

There are three primary methods you can use to multiply your social media impact:

1. Schedule your postings -- You don't always have to post content immediately. With many sites such as blogs your can schedule postings in the future. In some cases when the social media site doesn't have post scheduling you can use third party utilities for the same purpose. At first controlling the posting schedule may not seem to be a great time savings because you still have to create each post, but if you can create a batch of content at one time for posting over a later period of time, the efficient time management can be a great benefit.

2. Use multi-site posting utilities -- There are a growing number of third party utilities that enable you to create a single post that is then simultaneously posted to multiple social media sites and on blogs and web sites. For example, I currently use Ping.fm to simultaneously post anywhere from four to six entries on Facebook, Twitter, LinkIn, Plaxo, and MySpace every morning. Ping.fm also supports other social media sites but those are the ones to which I currently post.

3. Use RSS feeds -- With RSS feeding, the full definition and use of is beyond this tip guide, you can set up your blog content to automatically post on other sites, including web sites and social media. When I post on my personal blog all or part of the headline and a link to that blog are automatically picked up by Facebook and Twitter - a setting I made within my blogging program. If you have multiple blogs or websites you can also set them to feed content from one to the other.

You could spend most of your time keeping info on your web site, blog, and all your social media sites current - though it would be hard to stay in business. You could also spend money on third parties who will post on sites for you (using your content or content they create). Alternately, the three techniques in this tip can save you lots of time, increase your social media presence, and give you greater control of your schedule.

Business Social Media Tip #27 - Tag, You're There!

It's a wonderful world when others do your advertising, marketing and public relations for you. In social media it happens often that people will mention businesses or other people and in many cases they also include photographs. If you're out and about often in your community the odds are that you'll be at least noted on various social media sites. If you watch the sites of people who often post photos, especially on Facebook, make a point of checking for photos of yourself, your co-workers, your alliances, and your business. When you see yourself or someone you know in a photo, take the time (it shouldn't take more than 30 seconds) to 'tag' the personal or business in the photo.

Exactly how tagging works and how notice of the tagging is spread varies with different social media, but it's a good idea at least to search for instances when others have tagged you. One way to look for tagging is to search your personal or business name on Internet search engines, looking specifically for images. Also, if you were at an event it's pretty easy to search for that event, again using search engines, to see if you show up in any photographs.

Be aware that not all images that show up may be complimentary or to your liking. Forgetting unfortunate photos you and your friends might have posted during high school or college days, even contemporary photos where you look silly or awkward can be irritating. If you do find there are photos you don't like of you or your business, take a two pronged approach to remedy them:

1. Contact whoever posted the photos and ask that they be taken down (which may nor may not happen); and

2. Actively post and tag complimentary photos so that the earlier ones will be pushed further down on Internet search result. Obviously if you're a celebrity caught in a compromising or unfortunate photo, the photo itself may quickly spread to a wide audience with lots of hits and stay higher on search results, but for most people and businesses, it shouldn't take long to push down undesirable photos if you actively substitute better images for a week or two.

The bottom line with this tip is to take advantage of the opportunity to have images of you and your business play marketing and public relations roles for your business, and also be on the lookout for uncomplimentary images that you can attempt to remedy in the two ways mentioned above.

Business Social Media Tip #26 - Be a Selective Fan

In social media, as in real life, it's prudent to be selective in one's relationships. As much as it's desirable to establish a great number of connections and relationships for your business, have a care about indiscriminate fan relationships. The closer the alignment your business has with your personal passions, strengths, interests and beliefs the easier it should be to select individuals, groups, other businesses and causes to be fans of.

There are two primary purposes to be a fan of relatively narrow list:

1. Your market niche and specific target -- If you start with the assumption, which I taken as a given truth, that the path to business success and prosperity lies in defining a specific target market, with a narrow, definable and easily conveyed appeal, then you want to attend to your alliances, whether they are real or just perceived. For example, if your target market is New York Yankees baseball fans, it probably wouldn't be a good idea to publicly become a fan of the Boston Red Sox. You could logically be a fan of overall Major League baseball sites, or the Baseball Hall of Fame, but to give the impression of allegiance to a competitive team confuses the issue and die-hard Yankees fans be less likely to have great loyalty to your business presence. You'll also want to avoid having too many alliances - that, too weakens your core message. The more you dilute your business's social message presence with contradictory alliances or large numbers of unrelated alliances, the less effective it will be.

2. The Piling On Effect - Another reason to be a selective fan is the very real chance that if you happen to become a fan of an entity that has a strong stance on one side of a controversial issue (whether or not you're aware of that stance) is that people who hold the other side will ignore you or and have negative thoughts about your business. You also may find yourself flooded with fan requests from groups aligned with the side of the original entity. The point here is you can find yourself on a side of an issue whether you wish to or not, and your primary business message and presence can be lost or even hurt.

The more clarity you have about your business social media presence purpose and goals, the easier it is to choose alliances. Just because someone asks or suggests that you become a fan, a friend or a follower doesn't mean that you have to agree.

Leland Wins When Sea Coast Bowls for Charity - November 2009

Each Fall Coldwell Banker Sea Coast Realty holds a bowling event for charity at Cardinal Lanes in Wilmington on Shipyard Boulevard. Last night I bowled with the team from the Leland office and, while we didn't win the overall competition, we won in other ways, one in specific. But read on.

In the photo are Earl and Linda Cline, brokers at the Leland office. Linda bowled, very well in fact, and Earl cheered us on.

Doug Jackson, broker with the Leland after a particularly auspicious first ball leave.

Leland Office Manager Kari Essig was our powerhouse, scoring the highest of our group.


Our Managing Broker Denise Kinney (in the orange shirt) stopped by to give us words of encouragement. Denise was bowling with a team from the Southport office where she used to work. As you likely know, old bowling alliances are hard to totally walk away from. (And for people who know Denise, does she look like her daughter in this picture or what?)

Linda walking back trying not to gloat after a particularly good frame finish.

Here's a shot of some of the other folks from Sea Coast, notably super bowler Mike Rokoski from the Wilmington office and to his right with her hands on her hips looking up at the scoring displays, Sea Coast Academy's Sue Wehner, who each year organizes this event. Thanks again, Sue.

Okay, so here's how the Leland office won in this bowling competition. We shoulda won anyway for the most consistent scoring of any team. In the first game the spread between our lowest (that would be me at 103) and highest scores (Kari's 113) was only 10 points. Pretty cool if you ask me. So congrats, Leland for being consistent performers who show up for charity and for a good time.

Check out The River Room

Last month our buddy photographer Ray Baca and his business partner disk jockety and videographer Brian McArtan opened The River Room, an incomparable new river front meeting and event venue directly on the Cape Fear River in downtown Wilmington, NC at 18 S. Water Street.

Marge and I were out of town for the grand opening of The River Room so we went downtown to check it out and meet with Ray to discuss his vision for the space and to see the view of the river.



We also arranged to meet our friend and uber-promoter Jackie Willsie at The River Room to chat about some upcoming events. Jackie is the founder and president of the highly successful Wilmington Young Professionals group and also the owner and candlemaster of Port City Candles, which specializes in soy-based candles.

Here's Jackie entering The River Room.

To the left of The River Room entrance is a waiting/sitting area. Can you tell the proprietors of the space work in photography, video, and music? You can also catch a clue from this shot that wedding and wedding-related services and activities are central to Ray and Brian's work as well as the target market for bachelor and bachelorette parties, rehearsal dinners and luncheons, and full wedding receptions. As Wilmington's already strong reputation as a wedding destination grows The River Room is in a prime location.

The back of The River Room is a wide open space with high ceilings and plenty of riverview windows. Here Ray (on the left) is talking with Kent Milholland of NeoNexus Corporation about using The River Room for a company party.

With seating right now for up to 80 people dining with a dance floor and party capacity of 140 people, this space is a comfortable size. Note that you can also rent the space by the hour for business meetings, with rates that can easily accommodate even two or three person meetings for people without a downtown location.

One of Port City Candle's favor-style candles was in the center of the table at which we met.


For more information, be sure to go to The River Room website, http://www.TheRiverRoomEvents.com or call 910-251-8902.

And if you were to arrive by boat in Wilmington and dock at the riverwalk, here's what you'd see if you tied up near The River Room (photo taken after from the Jubilee Snooze and Cruise, a bed and breakfast on a 45-foot yacht.

1st Annual Christmas Festival Tournament at Cape Fear National

Yesterday was the occasion of the 1st Annual Christmas Festival Tournament at Cape Fear National golf course in Brunswick Forest in Leland, NC. Organized by the North Brunswick Chamber of Commerce on behalf of The Unity Group, the proceeds from the tournament will benefit the 17th annual Christmas Festival and Parade in Leland (this year on December 12th).

This was the first tournament at Cape Fear National and we used propane powered golf carts because electical power isn't yet available at the course (which officially opens on November 28th).


George Murray, President of the North Brunswick Chamber of Commerce displays the banners of the sponsors of the Christmas Festival Tournament.


NBCC board members Brenda Bozeman and Connie Reeves were on hand to register the early arrivals.

Triple Trouble - Joyce Throop, Marilyn Johnson, and Carol Koenig took over registration duties when the crowds started arriving.


NBCC Executive Director Terry Grillo.


Double Vision: Real estate brokers Les Christensen and Ophard Willis played on the Coldwell Banker Sea Coast Realty team. Can you see why we sometimes have trouble telling them apart?


Cape Fear National Golf Pro Ron Thompson and Director Chad Anderson.


Chelsea Cooley Altman and her husband Heath Altman. Chelsea is Miss USA 2005 and was the Honorary Chairperson of the tournament.


Representatives of eight of the sponsor teams participated in a sponsor-only, closest to the pin contest. Dan Cameron from the SunTrust Bank team won the prize.

As NBCC and Unity Group members and sponsor looked on, Chelsea made quick work of cutting the ribbon for the tournament.

At the end of the day players gathered under a tent for a meal and prizes.

Chamber and town folks representing the Christmas Festival and Parade were on hand, too.


Chamber volunteers Jeannie Reilly and Alice Razzano helped with the raffle drawings.

And at the end Ron Thompson announced the winning teams from the two flights.

This first year was a great success. Thanks to all involved for your participation and support.

Business Social Media Tip #25 - No religion or politics

Unless your business is involved with religion or politics, be wary, or at least careful with both topics in your business social media presence.

This may be one of those way-too-obvious seeming tips, but I'm not only talking about bringing up religion or politics yourself. It's quite possible, in real life of course as well, to find yourself in a religious or political discussion that was originally presented as a seemingly unrelated question or request. I don't want to spend a lot of space on this area, because I dislike focusing on negative anything, however, I do strongly suggest that before you take a side on any issue being discussed in social media that you do at least a modicum or research about the person, business, or organization asking the question.

I speak from experience on this one. I was asked by a friend if I was in favor of something that certainly sounded good for all. Before I responded, however, I looked a bit further at the website where my response would go and it turned out to be run by an organization with very strong political opinions, some of which I agree with personally, and others which I do not. Rather than pursue my research or the issue further, I just didn't respond to the request for my opinion. In my private life I do not hold back on opinions, but I do my best to keep my business communications focused on business issues and my target markets.

One of the first rules of social media success is engagement with other people and certainly that means conversation and of course that can include answering questions and stating opinion. In no way do I suggest you not communicate with others on social media - that would defeat the whole purpose of your business being there. I do, however, suggest that you exercise some prudence in your conversation - first because it's the case that once something is on the internet it's pretty much there forever and also because you can't practically control how someone else might use the information.

One other quick note on this topic. If you are a business owners and have employees or contractors produce your social media content, have and communicate a policy that addresses the types of content or subject matter, including conversational topics, with which you do not wish your business to be associated.

Strictly Business at Caprice Bistro - November 4th 2009

It wasn't just Strictly Business at Caprice Bistro last night, it was a lot of fun. The group upstairs at the popular downtown establishment was elbow-to-elbow and notably energetic.


The Big Talker FM weekly business networking event at various area restaurants keeps getting better - and better in this case means that people are finding the Strictly Business events an excellent place to make new business contacts. When something works people like to share the story and I've had several regular attendees tell me during the last month or so that these events are the most productive for them in making useful business contacts.

Steve Haughey of Worldwide Express and Jackie Willse of Port City Candles and the Wilmington Young Professionals Group (another hugely successful networking organization).


ACTIONCoach Reggie Shropshire, Jeff Harvell, publisher of Cape Fear Business News and Lighthouse News Online, and Paul Whitehouse of Loper Media.


These two folks are great examples of people who you'll see at most Strictly Business events, because they know it works. Mark Evans of Green Cleaning Technicians and Mary Bennies of TownPlanner local events calendars online and in print (Mary has recently started her Wilmington calendar after successfully launching the North Brunswick county version).

Wilmington Downtown, Inc.'s Executive Director John Hinnant with Orton Plantation's Event Coordinator and Marketing Director Abi Blackerby, Alex and Anna Hoggard of icwifi (intracoastal wireless internet) , and Lee Padgett of ClickCheckSave.com.

Elaine Huston of PrePaid Legal, smiling between Jerry Ellis of Telcom Communications and Rick Huston of U-First.



Scott Ball of Coastal Document Systems and Curtis Wright, the Big Talker FM morning guy and host for all Strictly Business networking events.


James Arnold of South-Eastern Commercial Servies, Anna Schraff of Boys & Girls Homes of NC, and Steve West of N2 Publishing.

Stylist Melissa Kinnamon of Nsalo Salon.


Pat Herrmann of Morton Shull Advertising and incomparable floral designer Djenana Ninkovic of Moxie Floral Studio.

Kimberly Ott Brumsey of KB Aesthetics Organic Skin Care and Waxing.

Fred Krumpel of Strickland's Window Coverings and Doug Kymer of ADT Small Business.

While Curtis was busy announcing drawing winners, Lee Ann Haggerty of Wilmington Downtown, Inc. had the real power, controlling the card bucket!
Jo Howell of Luxe Home Interiors at Mayfaire Town Center, Tanya Hall of Cape Fear American Red Cross Donor Services, and architect Gordon Hall.


Photographer Paige Freeman and Stephanie Williams of Edward Jones.


OK then, it was another great event. Click on this sentence to find out where next week's Strictly Business event will be held.

Business Social Media Tip #24 - Bring 'Em On! Accept All Followers

Pop quiz: How many followers or friends do you want on social media?

Answer: All of them!

Better answer: It depends. (Doesn't it always?)

When some people start using social media (and we're all really just starting, since it's a relatively new communications form), they keep their friend and follower lists at a minimum. Those folks have no intention of using social media to create new relationships, but rather as a way to communicate with their existing "tribe".

Others reach out, more or less openly, looking to make as many connections as they can, either just for fun, to be social, or to get their messages out.

Business use of social media parallels personal use. Many businesses want as all the people (and other businesses) they can attract as friends and followers. Other organizations would rather limit their social media circles to a select clientele (this likely won't compute for some, but what I'm thinking of here are, for examples, companies that have an extremely elite client base where the bar of entry is quite high, or possibly a company that caters to a very narrow interest.

So what should you do? Most likely the best bet, unless you already know you only want a very limited following, is to work for big numbers. So accept all friend and follower requests. It could also suit your objectives to use one or more strategies for building follower lists, such as searching for "friends" in certain locations or by particular interests. The various social media usually have built in friend search features and there are also third party utilities that serve that purpose.

When is it not a good idea to take all followers or accept all friend invitations? Often you won't know in advance, but, since many people will look at your existing friends/followers before deciding to follow you, if your list is slanted toward a specific demographic you might miss opportunities to expand your reach. For example, if your follower list is populated with people who all appear to be banks or news sources, you might not be followed by individuals looking for casual information or relationships.

You also can consider the wisdom of accepting followers if doing so exposes your existing list to others who might use the list for their own purposes. I don't want to make too big a deal about this and it's certainly true that with many social media sites even non-followers can see who your friends are, there's no reason to make it easier for spammers, for example, to use a social media 'friend' relationship with you to contact your real friends.

So pay attention to the types of friends and followers you attract and certainly at first be somewhat selective in an attempt to trend your follower list toward your target market. Once your list gets huge, of course, generally you won't have time or much reason to cull follower requests.

Downtowners Meet & Mingle at Front Street Brewery

Yesterday the Downtowners Meet & Mingle at Front Street Brewery met for the first time in a new location, this month on the third floor of the brewery, in what's called the Beam Room (so named in honor of the new beer they make that's stored in re-purposed Jim Beam whiskey barrels). If you haven't seen this room yet, you've got to check it out - it's spacious and capacious with several large flat screen TVs and one huge pull down projection screen (note to self, ask Marketing Director Ellie Craig for the projection screen dimensions).

The first folks I spoke with at the event were brand newly elected Wilmington City Councilman Kevin O'Grady. Kevin and his wife Diane were meeting with Front Street's Event Coordinator Christi Rohde planning a post-election celebration and thank you party for his supporters.


Liz Medina, a Fitness Consultant from the Racine Drive Gold's Gym was there, talking with Doug Erickson co-owner with his wife Margi of the C.W. Worth House bed-and-breakfast in the Historic District.

My friends Lindsay and Aaron Aiken moved to Wilmington from Pennsylvania just this week and were looking forward to meeting people at networking events. Here they are with Front Street Brewery's Ellie Craig.

Lindsay and Aaron also met (in person) Jenn Beddoes and Gayle Tabor of Glynne Soaps - they already follow the soap company on Twitter.

Jennifer Caslin of the Central and Eastern North Carolina Food Bank.

Gayle and Ray Baca, the proprietor and co-owner of the already successful, just opened The River Room at 18 S. Water Street (directly on the Cape Fear River).

Ray, Christi, and Ray's business partner Brian McArtan of DJ Professionals & Video.

Steve Purcell of 17th Street Deli and Amanda Rason of Time Warner Cable.


Dr. Tricia Delp and Dr. Fred Ireland of the newly opened CORE Physical Therapy in Leland, NC.


The room was filling even more as I left. Yet another successful Meet & Mingle - thanks, Front Street!

Business Social Media Tip #23 - Be Regular

You already know that dipping in and out of social media has minimum impact. If you only post or Tweet or update your status once in a while you'll certainly gain little business advantage and only chance connections with people you know. To consistently show up on your target market's radar, you really need to be a frequent poster. Beyond frequency, however, you will gain even greater benefit if you post content types that indirectly but consistently support your business.

Think of this question: What type(s) of information might my target market want to know? Particularly if this information changes often, if you post regular updates on social media, then your hope can be that people in your target market will discover and regularly return to your page or look for your posts.

It helps a lot in choosing the types of content to post regularly when you post information that matters to you, too -- that way you'll be motivated to look it up in the first place plus it can implicitly build your relationship with your followers or friends.

For example, as a real estate agent on the southeastern North Carolina coast, I'd like people who live elsewhere to understand how great our weather is. I also like to let folks know about the depth and variety of arts and cultural activities in our area and the types and frequency of business networking events. All of the above matter to me -- I love our weather, I'm interested in the arts, and I attend networking events. It makes sense to me that if I connect with people both locally and from other parts of the world who share my interests, I not only put out some common points of personal connection but I also might attract potential real estate clients.

So, every morning I post a short summary of the local weather report (often with a comment about going to the beach), I post a link to the day's entry in a locally generated arts and cultural event calendar along mention of one or two events that strike my curiosity or interest, and I post notes about upcoming business networking events. I also put in the hash tag #ilm in the posts - sorry for that techie bit, but it's a way for people who track our area by such markers to find my posts.

To break this example down just a bit further, the purpose behind my daily posts are to appeal to other people who appreciate nice weather, are interested in the arts, and who find value in business networking events. Doesn't it make sense that those people could be in my target market? Notice, however, that while those three topics relate personally to me, and to my business, that I'm not asking people to buy or sell real estate and not even mentioning the company name. So there's certainly no hard sell there.

The time commitment for me to post the weather forecast and arts and networking events is probably no more than five minutes daily, and I do it while drinking my first cup of coffee, which means many people who check social media early each day will see my posts. That those postings work for me is evidenced by the people who mention them to me in person or who comment on them online. A few have said they don't bother looking elsewhere for the weather, that they just appreciate the (very) general summary I provide.

I encourage you to think about your target market and the types of information that might matter to them, choose one or two info types, and start posting them regularly. You won't likely find people beating down your door to buy stuff the first days you post information, but if establishing an identity and building long term relationships with your market are important, being regular is a good way to work toward both objectives.

Business Social Media Tip #22 - You Win!

Here's a no-brainer, great way for any person or business to utilize social media: Announce to the world any time you win an award, accomplish a goal, or hit a major milestone. As long as you write with sincerity and enthusiasm, others will enjoy it and be attracted to your post.

You do want to be real about announcing your wins, meaning they have to be actual accomplishments and it's not appropriate to over-exaggerate or gush, but a little exuberance is just fine.

As always with social media, your personal cheer leading is best when balanced with other contributions. It's also a great idea, maybe even stronger, to announce and celebrate others' wins as well as your own.

When you announce your wins on social media, depending on the actual media, do what you can to share the story and the personal feelings behind the event. Blog posts are perfect for story telling and adding photos, but with Facebook and Twitter, for example, you need to tailor the length and content of your posts to the specific media.

Whatever media you use, don't be shy about including links to your blog or web site or other sites where interested readers can find more information or background.

SunTrust Bank of Leland, NBCC Business After Hours

On November 2nd the new Leland, NC branch of SunTrust Bank sponsored a Business After Hours for members and guests of the North Brunswick Chamber of Commerce.


Mary Anne Fagerquist of the North Brunswick Chamber of Commerce greeted arriving guests. Here's Mary Anne with SendOutCards' Marge Brown.


The delightful decor of this beautiful bank was a topic of constant conversation. In this photo Mark Koval of Communities in Schools, SunTrust's Angie Coats, and Carolyn Pirnat of Asset Storage.


Marge and Frank Bullara of Bugsy's Cigars.

NBCC board members developer and publisher Jeff Harvell, George Murray of Murray Art & Frame, and attorney Randy Rhodes.


Dennis Walsh of Charlie Macgrooders (with his back to the camera), Dr. Adams, and Mary Anne (also with her back to the camera).

Marilyn Johnson, Carol Koenig, and Joyce Throop. I don't want to say they were rowdy. (But you only have to look to figure that out.)


Food was served everywhere, but particularly in the conference room.

Board member Todd Godbey of Kidsville News and Mark Koval.

Mr. and Ms. Roy Lettieri - Roy's running for Leland town council.

George Patterson of Mulch & More, Justin Williams of NBM and SBM magazines, George Murray, with Dana Fisher of Bradford Mortgage (back to camera).
NBCC board members Dr. Sheila Hanby of Capeside Animal Hospital and Connie Reeves of Azalea Place.

CPA Ray Borges telling us about his and his wife's big news.

Ray, Marge, and Dwayne Starks of PC Doc Onsite.

Randy, Nationwide's Tony Vlach, and Alice Razzano, NBCC chamber luncheon and event organizer.

Coldwell Banker Sea Coast Realty's Linda Cline and Sun Trust Mortgage's Donnie Grooms.


Dwayne Starks (who won the Featured Member of the month (for December) with SunTrust Bank manager Denise Harris and NBCC Executive Director Terry Grillo.

A whole bunch of people. From the left, Roy Lettieri, Dana Fisher, Marge Brown, Mike Leggett, Dr. Adams, Heather Britt, Jay Merritt, and Scott Reeves.

If you twisted her arm, Laura Patterson would show you this photo of her identical twin grandsons, Blair and Hamilton.

Near the end of the event George was talking with Sheila and with Tricia Merritt of Coastal Coverings & Closets.


So this one will go down in the NBCC annals as the Business After Hours with the sunniest decor. It was a good time, thanks to all who came and especially thanks Denise and the folks at SunTrust Bank.

Stevens Fine Homes Halloween Party

Okay, so there are a lot of good things you can say about Craig Stevens and Stevens Fine Home Builders. I'm biased and that's clear, but with good reason. Near the top of the list, in my book, is that Craig knows how to throw a party. Last week at the Willowick subdivision in Wilmington, Craig threw a Halloween party for 400-500 of his closest Realtor friends.

No, that's not Craig sitting on the porch, you'll see him later.

We had great food, plenty to drink, prize drawings, and music, not to mention a whole bunch of great folk to hang out with.

When we checked in we saw that Craig and his sales staff were costumed as Native Americans.

Yep, and here's Craig, in the upstairs bonus room of the spacious model home used for the party.

Realtor Cynthia Wilkinson and Stevens onsite agent Charlotte Palmer.

Friendly Marge from Recycled Realty (not her real name and not a real company, though at least one person thought so, whose name will be withheld to protect the innocent).

Susan Harkin from Coldwell Banker Sea Coast Realty came as a bunch of grapes. I know Susan but still had to ask who she was.

Personal Chef Lori Eaton of Eaton at Home catered the event. As usual Lori's work was outstanding.



Not sure of this lady's name, but her costume was cute.

Craig making announcements with onsite agent Cynthia Rehberg on the left holding the drawing bucket.



Coldwell Banker Sea Coast Realty's Nora Ruehle had a hanger in her hair.





Realtor Renee Britt.

A good time was had by all, thanks again, Craig.

Business Social Media Tip #21 - Polling on Social Media

Did you know you can use social media for polling? Well you can, but it's best to do so only occaisionally. Here's why.

Remember that social media is not about selling stuff or speaking only to customers and prospects about your business. While you may be spending time, effort, and possibly money (via staff resources or third party sources) to keep up with and lead your business efforts and presence on social media, the primary agenda is not business.

Given that reminder, however, once you've established a significant following or friends' list, it's perfectly acceptable and often effective to poll your followers and even to solicit other responses.

If your question is simple and only one-dimensional, e.g., "Do you think mens' ties will be narrower or wider this year?" it's fine to include the question in your post. If you have a more involved poll, survey, or questionnaire, a link to the poll is probably a better idea, though the odds are great your response level will drop off a lot if you require anything that seems like work or requires going to another site.

You might consider offering a prize drawing or a small gift for everyone who completes your poll or survey, and that should up your response rate and, especially if you ask for names and e-mail addresses in the survey, give you more data on potential clientele.

It's worth repeating that you want to use polls, questionnaires, and surveys sparingly - over use them and your responses will suffer. Also, if you are a 'giver' yourself, if you take the time to help others and engage them online, odds are that when you post an occasional survey that your response rate will be much higher.

Business Social Media Tip #20 - Social Media as a Research Tool

Social media can be a convenient research tool with a time element you won't find elsewhere. Because you can search for what people are saying or posting about topics right now, your searches can have an unmatched immediacy.

Various social media differ in their usefulness as research tools. They won't replace scholarly or scientific historic research (probably ever, right?) but for tracking trends or current news and events, there's no current contender. You likely have noticed that virtually all major news outlets have a presence on Twitter, for example, and not only do they post headlines about major stories (with links to their web sites), they also often have reporters on the scene posting comments and commentary. Amateur news reporting, or maybe it's better called "real person on the street" via Twitter, including immediately uploaded digital images.

So how can you use social media as a research tool for your business? One way is to use key word searching. You can search for terms or phrases significant to your business or industry manually or, by using utilities such as Tweetdeck, set up searches that are updated automatically.

Twitter also has a Trending Topics feature that automatically displays on the home screen the most-talked about topics of the moment.

As social media matures, ever-stronger research tools and techniques will emerge. The value of being able to data mine the contemporaneous online contributions of 10's or 100's of millions of people will spur individuals and companies to invent (and possibly sell) tools for tracking the data you seek for your business.

DL Bianchi's Brickyard Ribbon Cutting

On October 22nd DL Bianchi's Brickyard in Southport, NC had a ribbon cutting organized by the North Brunswick of Commerce. I was out of town that day but Justin Williams of NBM and SBM magazines was on hand and was kind enough to share the photos below.

Prior to the ribbon cutting NBCC board members and staff gathered outside.

Getting ready to cut.

The owners of Bianchi's Brickyard, David and Julie, with their son Mark.

NBCC President George Murray chats with board member Jeff Harvell and Karen Sphar, Exceutive Director for the Southport-Oak Island Chamber of Commerce.

Inside the showroom guests were served a bountiful repast (only in November can you use the terms 'bountiful repast' with impunity).

Board members Frank Williams, Tony Vlach, Brenda Bozeman, and Justin Williams (oh-oh, I thought he took these pictures, hmm, it must have been someone working with him - Okay, just found out, Justin posed this next one and handed the camera to Jeff Harvell - good shot, Jeff).

George, Frank, and Tony.

NBCC board member Franklin Rouse, on the right, talks with one of the brickyard employees.

Business Social Media Tip #19 - Track Yourself

When you're in business there's possibly no more valuable information than what other people and companies are saying about you. With social media, since most of the content is in the public data "streams", it's easy to track comments and mentions of your company or your own name.

Why is it important to know what others say about you and your business? You're not just looking for compliments (which are nice to find) but it's also helpful to know if people when complaining about or criticizing. In addition to thanking or maybe returning the favor for someone who praises your company, with knowledge of what's being said you can also do damage control if someone is dissing you.

While you for sure do not want to get into a negative message exchange with anyone on social media, knowing what's being said does give you the chance to state (your version of) the facts.

Social media can also be a great tool for quality control (know what people do and don't like about your business) and customer relations. For example, if someone is happy with your business and says so online, you can thank them publicly - which is a nice thing to do. And if someone has a problem, imagine how powerfully positive it can be if you contact them based on their posting about it on social media and do what you can to make it right?

To an extent, you can also use self-tracking to test the effectiveness of your marketing and advertising in all media, including social media. Because many people Tweet or post about anything they do, have, or buy, tracking mentions of your company during or after a promotion can be a measure of the promotion's impact.

It's pretty easy to do simple tracking. Facebook and Twitter, for example, each have a search feature that makes monitoring mentions of your business, your products, or any of your personnel simple. Depending on the uniqueness of the terms you search on, you may have a lot of results, but built-in filtering can help separate the useful from the irrelevant.

If you're searching on your name, you might find that adding your location will narrow, or at least order the search results. If you have a common name, as I do, you many find another person with the same name in the your town who is mentioned on social media. It can get a little confusing in that case - not for your friends or for customers who know you, perhaps, but possibly for people who are just looking you up or only know you by name and not by your photograph.

I've been fortunate that the other "Bruce Brown"'s in my area are nice guys, but if they weren't or if they were in the news or mentioned on social media for negative reasons, I might not like it, but at least it would be helpful to know what's being said by or about a namesake.

The bottom line is that not only does social media give you the ability to communicate in public, it also provides tools that can help you track your impact and your image.