Telling Better Stories – or “I Went to a Mall”

It’s been forever since I’ve made a post and I don’t really have much to add now. More will be coming on search, local, and social. I promise.

Yesterday I went to UnSummit 3 which is a fantastic event, geared for full participation on topics from marketing, social media and even music. One particular session was called Telling Better Stories. This was the first time I’ve seen Jake Nyberg from ThreeVolts speak and was beyond impressed. It had to do with attempts to make videos go viral and how it can backfire on you.

Ok, this is only loosely related. I don’t have a video to try to make viral, and not even much of a story. In fact, this is only about my dock connector which didn’t allow me to import UnSummit pictures to iPhoto so I had to replace an accessory.

Where do you buy one of these? The Apple Store at the MOA. There are some people who know how I feel about malls in general, especially if there’s a traffic jam.

Finally inside and no surprise, the first thing I see is Favre love.

I did not stop here.

Once I got to the Apple Store, the transaction was fast and painless. The clerk even complimented my Deftones T-shirt.

Apparently, wearing a worn out Deftones T-shirt makes me a perfect candidate to buy very expensive hand cream at a kiosk. I played along.

Here, stick your hand inside our magic bowl with crystals.

Smooth hands, huh? Buy two jars and we’ll give you a “today-only” discount.

This guy was really persistent. I told him I needed to check with my wife hoping he’d go into the “oh, you let HER make your decisions” pitch but he didn’t. Nope. I didn’t suddenly get married – should probably work on that.

Walking further, the lady at the Hair Extensions kiosk did not stop me to try to sell me extensions. I’m guessing her kiosk sales pitches work better for those who are not follicly challenged.

Oh, big surprise. More Favre love.

The way home included a stop at Holy Angels HS for a rec-level soccer game. This is Al running with the ball. We lost 3-2, but that’s not bad for a bunch of 40 year olds. Go Weasels FC!

So that’s the story. The new USB cable allowed me to import my UnSummit pictures to iPhoto which are now up at Flickr.

I do plan to get more posts out about search, local and social. Hopefully I’ll be able to tell stories that go along with it.

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Cedar Rapids Flood – Running Tour 15 Months Later – Day 2

Yesterday, I arrived in Cedar Rapids and decided to run a first leg of the Cedar Rapids flood driving tour and made it from Point A-I. Early this morning, I got up to run the remaining Points J-Q.

This morning’s jaunt was a bit longer and more humbling. Yesterday’s run had remnants of homeowners rebuilding their houses waiving at me as I ran by. This morning’s run was virtually vacant. It was in southern downtown and west in the Taylor neighborhood which still smelled like flood – 15 months later.

A couple blocks from my hotel I found an unknown checkpoint at a barber shop.

Barber Shop

From there, it was to southern downtown to Point J, the Legion Arts Building which had 11 feet of water.

CSPS - Legion Arts Building

Across the street, a gutted out House.

House by Legion Arts Building

From there, it was about a 6 block run to Point K – St. Wenceslaus Church. There was complete damage to the basement and some on the main floor. It appears to be back up for services.

St. Wenceslaus Church

Across the street? Not so pretty with a row of vacant, gutted homes.

Gutted Out Homes

Point L was next at the National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library where the water reached 8 feet. It appears to now be functional.

National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library

A view of the Czech Village from the north. About half the business appear to still be vacant.

Chech Village

Another Czech Village view from the south.

Czech Village

Here’s a vacant, gutted out house in the Czech Village.

Gutted Out House In Czech Village

Point M says it all. Total gutted out home for this Cedar Rapids resident.

Point M - Another Gutted House

Near there is a Flying Wienie Chicago Dogs shop. People really seem to like it. I don’t know if it is open or not.

I couldn’t find Point N, but a house nearby has a message.

Keep Off Yard

A couple blocks from there, a family is trying to rebuild their home. No one is picking up the trash on their boulevard.

Trash on Blvd

Point O is the Linn County Administration Building. It doesn’t look damaged although they still have temporary headquarters elsewhere.

Linn County Administration Building

Between the next check point, a couple of drunken tweens still up from the night before were looking for 40 ounce beers. I did not have one on me. I’m not against a bad 40, but don’t prefer to carry one when I run.

Near there, a particular home has a message.

Cedar Rapids - Forgotten City

I got lost for a bit but then found Point P which is Taylor Elementary School which received 3 feet of water. This is a good 7 blocks from the river.

Taylor Elementary School

Point Q was the last on the list. The Cedar Rapids Community School District still have temporary locations.

Cedar Rapids Community School District

On the way back to the hotel, I noticed an official driving tour sign at the Veterans Memorial building.

Driving Tour Point at the Veteran's Memorial

Back to the hotel, there were plenty of these signs.

Rebuild Downtown Cedar Rapids

These two days of running was somber and it allowed me to truly appreciate the city. For readers in Minnesota, Cedar Rapids is not much different than a Rochester or St. Cloud which has rivers within it. The biggest difference is that Cedar Rapids is larger.

These pictures alone doesn’t do justice. You’d have to be there.

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Cedar Rapids Flood – Running Tour 15 Months Later

More of a personal/fun/somber post… I’m in Cedar Rapids today and will be in Iowa City Sunday and Monday. Remember the 2008 flood that wiped out so much of Cedar Rapids? There’s a very informative Cedar Rapids flood driving tour to view the damage and rebuild.

This sounded like a good idea but I wanted to run it and learn more about the flood. The hotel shuttle driver was very kind and dropped me off at Ellis Blvd by the Cedar River northwest of downtown. From there, I felt somber and lucky. Here’s what the Cedar River looks like today.

Cedar River on a Normal Day

I didn’t see the Time Check House at Point A, but a couple minutes into the run this house was in front of me – 15 months after the flood.

Gutted Out Home

After a block of these homes, there was one that was completely redone.

Rebuilt Home

Point B on the list was the Boys & Girls Club. The building still stands, but is considered close to a total loss with original three feet of water into the 2nd floor.

Cedar Rapids Boys & Girls Club

Just a block away are some still-abandoned homes.

More Boarded up Homes

Point C is the Mother Mosque. It had 10 feet of floodwater, lost a ton of items and is now fully restored. This is seven blocks from the Cedar River.

Mother Mosque

Here is one of many porta-potties that unfortunately still stand on corners.

Porta Potties

Point D is an old-fashioned A&W drive in which is still gutted. Just down the street, there were kids playing ball.

Gutted A&W on Ellis Blvd

A couple blocks away, this house was just totally destroyed.

Demolished Home

Next door? Two abandoned homes.

More Abandoned Homes

Point E was the Diamond V. Mills manufacturing plant. They’re very close to the river and somehow got to be up and running in a little over a week.

Diamond V. Mills

Point F wasn’t far from there. It’s the Cedar Rapids Central fire station. 12 feet of water went through and a ton of equipment, files and supplies were lost.

Central Fire Station

Before the next point, I ran across the 1st Avenue bridge where a local was fishing. He stopped me and asked if I had any cigarettes. Although I do like to multitask, smoking and running are not things I choose to do simultaneously. I did ask him how high the river rose last year and he said it rose to right about the bottom of this picture.

Flood Crest

Point G is visible in the above image. It’s the Veterans Memorial Coliseum/Cedar Rapids City Hall. Most of their damage was in the basement.

Veterans Memorial Coliseum

Point H is the Paramount Theatre downtown. Flood waters reached eight feet and I don’t know the current status.

Paramount Theater Cedar Rapids

Point I is Sokol Hall and from what I understand is an niche extension of the University of Iowa. I could be way wrong on this. Nonetheless, boarded up hall 15 months after the flood.

Sokol Hall

A jewelry store has a graffiti message on their boarded up business downtown. It shows how much commitment Cedar Rapids folks have.

Bent Not Broken

Back to the hotel. Turns out it’s connected to the US Cellular Center, which would be awesome if there was an event there I wanted to see. No such luck. To age myself, I have been to a concert there before. Cheap Trick and Ratt back around 1987.

US Cellular Center

Overall, I’m humbled by this. These pictures don’t really show the damage this flood has done as 90% of my run was completely underwater 15 months ago. One thing is for sure, the folks in Cedar Rapids don’t give up. It’s still a great city, second in population to Des Moines.

Tomorrow morning I hope to run the remaining points J though Q. We’ll see as it’s quite a jaunt. I’m in Iowa City at 10:45am for my nephew’s baptism so timing will be a crunch.

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Print Yellow Pages Advertising and Getting the Best Rate

Last week, I met with a local business who specializes in different home repair projects. When I asked what their main form of advertising was they said it was through the Yellow Pages. Ok, good enough.

In the Minneapolis area, we get three print books a year. One from Dex which is our local distributor by default, one from Verizon and another from Yellowbook. I asked them which particular one they use, they sighed in sadness and said “all of them”. They’re losing money. Ugh!

Let’s take a look at these three distributors.

• Dex Doesn’t Know
• Returning a Verizon Phone Book
• Yellowbook Shows Opt-Out Incompetence

So, which print book should you choose when you advertise?

If any print book, I would say Dex. They’re the official “local” distributor to Minnesota.

So, how do you negotiate with other Yellow Pages reps who tout highly-inflated circulation stats? Some tips…

• Negotiate a final price for your ad
• Conservatively, lets say 20% of these books are thrown at boarded-up houses, closed businesses and to households who simply don’t use them. Negotiate 20% off from there.
• Considering in Minneapolis we receive three different print books a year, negotiate the deal at a third of the 20% off price.

This seems fair. It’s good for the local business and would hopefully entice the YP Association to implement a true opt-in system. I’d love to hear thoughts from anyone in the YP Association.

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Favorite Posts and Blog of the Week – Yellowbook, Social Media Then & Now, bg Theory, LLC

It’s been awhile since the last post, and almost two months since a favorites post.

Ed Kohler comes up on the favorites quite often and for a reason. He’s local and not afraid to speak his mind on controversial subjects. A post last week titled Yellowbook Shows Opt-Out Incompetence triggered close to 100 comments as of this writing. Ed and I share some similar views.

1. The Yellow Pages print book are useful for advertisers who find it beneficial.
2. For those who want to opt-out of print books, good luck. As of yet, it simply does not work.
3. Print book advertisers get screwed by circulation stats which includes delivery to boarded-up houses, vacant businesses and to the many households who do not wish to receive these books.

His video on this:

Next, Jason Douglas from SpyderTrap writes an insightful post titled A Social Media Then and Now. Much of it has to do with Twitter and how his messages have evolved sense his first tweet. I really like one of his ending sentences.

It is now acceptable to show more personality within your tweets, while maintaining a level of professionalism.

I absolutely agree.

Last but not least, I just want to suggest a blog for those of you who do PPC advertising. It’s the bg Theory blog from Brad Geddes. I first heard of him five years ago when he was at LocalLaunch.com and have been impressed ever since. My friend Clint from ThinkSEM happens to be fantastic at PPC and attended his recent two-day Google AdWords seminar in Minneapolis. He quoted something like “you think you know everything about PPC and then you see Brad present”. Big kudos to Brad.

If you’re on Twitter, you can follow him at bgtheory.

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New LinkedIn Subgroups – Uses and How to Set One Up

Last night I received an email from LinkedIn. Here’s part of it.

LinkedIn Subgroups

It’s pretty slick. I logged into my LinkedIn account, went to a group I created and a prominent Subgroups tab appeared right on top.

New Subgroup Tab

Click on the Subgroups tab and you see this.

Subgroups

This gives a good generalization of what makes up a Subgroup. What it doesn’t do is show you how to create one. Luckily, it’s not too hard to figure out but initially takes some digging around.

If you’re on your LinkedIn home page, you can click on the Groups icon. From there, you can over the Actions link which will give you a drop down menu with a link to Create a Subgroup. Note: only managers of the group will show the Subgroup option.

Create a Subgroup

From there, you can then create a Subgroup very similar to how you would create a group itself.

I admittedly don’t do nearly enough with the localmn group itself and don’t see any Subgroups in the near future.

So, what are good examples to create Subgroups? One could be national brands who want to localize their groups. This makes sense. Any other ideas? I’d love to hear your input.

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Cool Video Testimonial for Clint Danks

I have known Clint since 2005 and can absolutely vouch for his expertise at ThinkSEM. He understands PPC like most others do not.

Don’t take my word for it. Check this out! Two days ago while both of us were in Seattle for SMX, the President of a staffing software company (Gregg) decides to make a YouTube testimonial video. Clint knew he was getting some sort of testimonial, but had no idea it would be via YouTube.

Gregg also embeds the video on his blog. Way to go, Mr. Danks!

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2nd Fun Seattle Morning Run

Again I’m copying the concept of Ed Kohler by mapping out runs… without the mapping. A big reason for this is because of the SMX Seattle conference that just wrapped up. I’m hoping to provide a dedicated post regarding the conference, but face it. If you’re following the conference at all, you’re already receiving enough blog posts and tweets regarding it. I’ll post my thoughts later.

So, before the conference this morning I left the Marriott and started a northbound run at the Bell Street train station on Alaskan Way.

Bell Street Station

Ran up Alaskan Way, turned up some hills and wound up at Olympic Park and found art.

art

Ran up Lower Queen Anne and found a Dick’s Burger location. This rivals the Lions Tap for you fellow Twin Cities readers. I did not stop to eat. It was 7:00am.

Dick's Hamburgers

Took a Mercer Street run and saw the Queen Anne hill. It’s steep. I did not run up the hill.

Queen Anne Hill

Ran back toward Seattle Center and saw where the Sonics used to play. I cannot cheer for the OKC Thunder

Arena once known as the Sonics home

You can’t beat the old VW Bus in the Seattle Center.

VW Bus

You can’t help but taking a pic of the Space Needle

Space Needle

Running back to the hotel I ran across a few very cool shops

Lava Lounge

Get ‘yer local punk and metal at Singles Going Steady

Singles Going Steady

Last picture overlooking Alaskan Way

Alaskan Way

The end. Off to conference. Good sessions represented.

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Pictures of a Fun Seattle Run

Ed Kohler is the king at this and I haven’t registered for MapMyRun.com yet, but figured a tour of Belltown/Downtown Seattle was in order.

Got up early this morning for a quick run before day-one of the 2009 Seattle SMX conference.

Woke up to see this partial Puget Sound view from Alaskan Way and Blanchard.

View from Hotel

There’s a sweet running and biking trail right under the Alaskan Way Vioduct. Driving on it or running below it would be less then stellar if an earthquake happened.

Alaskan Way Vioduct

Wound up running a 1.5 mile or so to SODO and took a picture of a Safeco Field sign.

Safeco Field

Running up 1st Avenue, the Pyramid Ale building across from Safeco was in view. It’s a good brew.

Pyramid Ale

Since I’m by Safeco, it makes sense to run around the Seahawks Quest Stadium, quite possibly the coolest NFL (and soccer) stadium built to-date.

Qwest Stadium

And of course, the Seattle Sounders FC also plays there.

Seattle Sounders - Now Part of the MLS

From there, it’s a run to Pioneer Square. I heart Pioneer Square and spent many nights there during my 20’s.

Pioneer Square

Spent a few late-night dollars back in the day at this Pioneer Square Pizza joint. I’m not sure if it was called Mario’s Pizza at the time.

Mario's Pizza

My old buddy Jim used to work at this magic store in the mid 90’s.

Magic Store

I thought this was a fireman tribute to 9-11 but it appears to have been built before then.

Firefighter Statue

I’m not sure what this was about. It was around 1st avenue and Madison.

1st Ave and Madison

Alley in downtown Seattle. It’s certainly not a bad alley.

Not a Bad Alley

Back to the waterfront. Neat view of West Seattle.

View of West Seattle

Lastly, a quarter-mile from the hotel, Pier 62-63.

Pier 62-63

The run turned into between quite a little jaunt. Very fun. I hope to do the same tomorrow morning in a different neighborhood. I heart Seattle.

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Favorite Posts/Press/Site of the Week

It’s been awhile since I’ve done a “favorites” post.

First, big kudos goes out to David Mihm on his 2nd annual local search ranking factors. 27 prominent people contributed to this.

I’m happy to see that the first factor is claiming your business in places like the Google Local Business Center and others. I’m also happy to see that claiming a PO Box (or a fake UPS address) instead of an actual address is a negative factor. That leads to local search spam. Uncool.

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Next, I’m happy to say that my sis and bro-in-law at BuyOnlineNow has made the Internet Retailers 2009 Top 500 Guide once again.

I know the company all-too-well, and you can take my word that they are all full of awesome. Customer service has always been the key. This is why they are full of awesome.

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Do You Know Who I Am?

Really slick new social portal. Got talent? Feel free to go there and sign up. The talent could be niche acting, musicians, comedians, sports, etc. More to come…

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