An Online Life Examined

At the dinner table last night, my wife and I were discussing computers, social media, and related topics. I joked that we spent 30 minutes talking about Twitter.

It’s no surprise to anyone – even my 83-year-old mother-in-law, who doesn’t understand it – that the world is digital, online, and impersonal. We communicate through email, tweets, posts, blogs. Sure, most of us still know how to actually talk to other people, and interactions are inevitable when we want to have our car’s oil changed or buy a pastry.

Even phone communication is diminishing with more online chatter. Most of the time I don’t want to talk to some idiotic Bank of America credit card representative – especially after going through a 2-minute voicemail tree; being on hold for 10 minutes; and transferred 3 times. Just let me send an email or have an online customer service chat. And I can actually be in touch more frequently with friends via email.

I have a staggering 16 email addresses (but only 2 that I commonly check). My passwords for financial sites, shopping sites, online news services, weather sites, travel-alert sites, and more are frequently very different (security, you know). Thus, I certainly can’t remember more than the most commonly used dozen or so. My list of account numbers and passwords is 8 pages long.

Most days, I look at a couple of weather sites, 2 local news sites, another 4 international news sites, 4 or 5 financial sites, about 8 travel blogs, another 6 wine/food blogs, a couple of travel news sites, 2 social networks, and probably another half dozen random sites. Nearly all my bill paying and banking is now done online. I actually complain when a bill arrives that I can’t pay by electronic transfer from my online checking account.

Sure, being a home-based writer gives me more time to fart around online than most people. But even I’m beginning to get tired of many things online. Of course, I could ditch all the “discretionary” online time – I could probably do everything really necessary online in about 30 minutes a day. Which is probably no more time than my dad spent most evenings paying bills, reading the newspaper headlines, and balancing checkbooks.

But I’m trying to wean myself a bit. I’ve taken many of the blogs I used to read daily off my toolbar – I may now just scan them every few days. I certainly have a lot less interest in the social network sites – their newness wore off pretty fast. I do have to stay on top of things a bit, as it’s important to my writing. But I’d really like to spend more time typing decent words in a row than clicking a mouse button.

“The unexamined life is not worth living.” – Socrates

The Modern World?

There’s been a passel of weird wine news coming across my computer screen the last few days. We’ve found a “new” wine group, the New World Wine Alliance, that doesn’t even have a website. We’ve then stumbled upon an older wine association, the World Wine Trade Group, whose website hasn’t been updated in at least two years. Then, we read the news that the progressive, modern state of Alabama has deemed a wine label with an 1895 painting to be pornographic.

Am I, too, so stuck in the “new and improved” mode that I’m shocked at an international trade organization that doesn’t have a website? Am I so out of touch with “old values” America that I’m appalled that an artistic representation of a nude woman flying through the air is found offensive by some?

Hey, I’m the one who wants to get back to nature, eat local, have a real sense of old-time community in my life again. The world sometimes just gets too odd for me.

Why Do Realtors Put Their Pictures on Business Cards?

We’re in the process of selling our house, and I got to thinking (often a dangerous thing). Why do Realtors put their pictures on business cards? (And on ads, brochures, shopping carts, signs, etc.) I’ve heard many explanations, but none are really convincing. “It’s a relationship business.” “It’s recognition.” “It’s vanity in a vain industry.” “It’s expected, since everyone else does it.” (This one makes a little sense – kind of like a negative feedback loop.)

Maybe all are a little true, maybe none. But from a sales and marketing perspective it doesn’t really make sense. A model or actor might put their photo on their card, but their face is their product; they are their brand. A Realtor’s product is a house, it’s not themselves. And a Realtor’s brand is more related to the company they work for than to themselves.

From a sales standpoint, it’s wasted real estate (sorry about that very bad pun) on the card/ad/brochure. The space that is used for an agent’s photo could be better used for another photo of the property, or a testimonial from a satisfied past customer, maybe a throw-away feel-good tag line (“An Agent Who Really Cares”), or even a special offer. (“10% off my commission in July” – Ha!)

Nonetheless, although I’ve read postings on blogs from folks claiming to be (usually ex-) Realtors who didn’t have a photo on their card, I’ve never seen one myself (sort of an urban legend, like the alligators in the sewers of New York). And I’ve never chosen a Realtor by their look or their picture.

Guess it’s just another mystery of the universe, such as: Where do missing socks from the laundry really go? Why do you feel colder when it’s cold and humid, but when it’s hot and humid you feel hotter?

A Few Short Thoughts on Niche Marketing, Targeted Marketing, Branding

Very few industries understand the power of niche marketing. It’s often viewed as too expensive per prospect – not realizing that the quality of the lead is usually so much higher. American Airlines tried it a year or two back with their “women’s” website, but that is/was too broad of a niche. Niche marketing is usually seen as something that niche businesses do (manufacturers of fishing rods, motorcycles, etc.), rather than as a viable tool for general marketers.

Niche marketing differs from Targeted marketing in that Niche aims to appeal to a group differentiated by interests (“the pet-friendly airline”); while Targeted sends a specific offer (a “20% off” email to folks who haven’t flown in the past 6 months) to a distinct but undifferentiated audience.

And Branding shouldn’t enter into this at all. Again, few businesses understand what a brand really is. A brand is the message that a business presents to its customers. It is not just a tag line, not an ad headline, not a slogan. It is everything about the business/product – color, packaging, pricing, and, yes, sometimes the tag line or positioning statement.

Think of Spam (the canned food product, not email crime). Even if you’ve never tasted the product, you can probably picture the can in your mind – its size, shape, color. You probably know sort of what it is, and maybe what it might taste like. Thus, Spam’s Brand is one of the strongest possible.

Spam doesn’t even have a cute slogan – “The Breakfast of Champions,” “The Pause that Refreshes,” “Don’t Leave Home Without It.” Wikipedia shows a 1945 ad for Spam, and except for the recipe in the ad (Spam Upside Down Pie) the product pictured could be on the shelves of your local Safeway.

I've Always Thought of Myself as the Most Apolitical Person

Nothing is simple anymore, especially in politics and international relations.

I read several Cuba news websites and blogs. One says another is totally corrupt (meaning a mouthpiece of the Cuban government). Yet at times that “corrupt” site seems the most unbiased and newsworthy. Everyone has an agenda about Cuba. The Miami Cubans hate anything about Castro, even if it might be good. The reincarnations of Che at Berkeley (or wherever nowadays) believe anything anti Cuban is U.S. government propaganda. Is there no middle ground left?

In Iran, we have an obviously corrupt theocracy (is that redundant?) bent on obliterating freedom of choice, Israel, and the U.S. Most other nations have their panties in a wedge over the treatment of the demonstrators by the regime, but no country is willing to step up to the plate to say the so-called election was totally fixed. (But hey, Bush fixed the 2000 U.S. election.)

In Honduras, it’s a toss-up. Support a coup by the judiciary and army, or support an obviously megalomaniac president who was “democratically” elected.

Where’s my hole to crawl into?

Feed Up With Technology

We are more than just a little annoyed at Alaska Visa/Bank of America. They have reinstated a couple of fraudulent charges that we disputed (and obviously did not make). Still working on a resolution, but we don’t expect to use that credit card ever again.

The credit/identity theft/fraud world is getting to be a scary place. We read so many stories of rip-off this, rip-off that. Are there enough honest people in the world left to make a difference? Or are the scumbags who rip off grandmothers and send spam from eastern Europe going to win? And the Wall St. bankers raking in million-dollar bonuses for getting the entire world into the current financial mess?

It really does make one want to own a home with no mortgage; pay for everything with cash; drive a paid-off car; ditch the damn internet; and just be home in the evenings playing games with the family or watching movies. Guess I’m just fed up with humanity, and I need a good experience with someone to improve my mood.

Quiet

When there isn't much to say, mindful silence far surpasses mindless noise.

Beginnings

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