Dear Bill St. James ... and "Flashback"

Dear .. dear Bill St. James, 

You and I have now shared more Sunday mornings than I did with my former hubby. 

This morning I woke and came to my sun-filled kitchen, flipped the button on the java pot and went to turn my radio on.  My Sunday morning routine, Flashback, a pot of java and creative thinking time.  I thoroughly enjoy it!!

This morning however, I was perplexed because my favorite radio station in the world was playing static.

You would have to know the whole story behind that, Bill St. James ... I'll tell it in full another day, but in short ... that radio group is the place I really began learning about marketing and advertising in 2001, but sometimes I feel like they couldn't market their way out of a paper sack for themselves.

One of the fruits of this little problem (that I don't think they know they have) is that I can only occasionally pick up my favorite radio station in the world in my apartment.  I can't pick it up at ALL in my office, but I can pick it up perfectly in my car.  I've tried to arrange my media area in my kitchen to allow for the best reception of the station, but this morning ... there's NOTHING!

Anywho, Bill St. James ... I told you all of that, to tell you this ... your marketing REALLY could use some work.  I've only begun to investigate your situation ... but I can tell you with absolute certainty that I searched (off and on) for two hours to find a place to listen to your radio program online.  That's not groovy .... not groovy at all.


With all due respect .... let me give you a quick run down of what I would do if I were you, Bill St. James::

1. I would set up a FB page.  I found a Facebook Group that I think is associated with you... and I joined it, but it only has 7 members.  Well, 8 members now, ;^)  You're welcome!!
2. NEXT: I wouldn't just leave that FB page sitting there rotting in cyber-eternity ... I'd POST some things to it.  Now, I know that's a really outlandish and out of the box idea, Bill St. James ... but stick with me :)  I would have someone posting some of the songs and clips that you're playing ON Facebook, with the link to the "Listen Live" site. 
   
   I would post every day through the week ... do you realize that many of those in your demographic are sitting at their desk all week sharing links on Facebook?  They could be sharing YOUR links.
3. THEN: I'd tie all of your sites in with "Google" so that it's easy for people to share and sign up. (i.e., they can sign up through their google account, they don't have to set up a NEW user name and password)
4. Call me crazy, Bill St. James ... you wouldn't be the first ... but I'd even attach a WIDGET that had the capability to ADD Flashback with Bill St. James to one's Google or Outlook calendar, thus popping up a reminder on their computer or phone when the show is airing. 
   
   As you may well know, people have Internet on their phones now (in great numbers!!), therefore it wouldn't matter if they were "near a radio", they could just click the button and play your radio show right there on their phone.

These are just a few ideas for you.  I thoroughly enjoy your radio show ... it's absolute GOLD for anyone who's a fan of music and nostalgia!!  Keep up the groovy work!!

Yours Truly,
Kim Comer Jackson

For you fans of music and nostalgia reading along,
please check out Flashback with Bill St. James.

If you enjoy my thoughts on marketing,
please feel free to click on
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I Have a Droid, But I Don't Have my Contacts ... Is There an App for THAT?

I realize of course that I can get in the car, go back to the Verizon store and wait in the "Armageddon line" ... but that takes up SUCH a chunk of my time....


In early May, my beloved Samsung Alias took a nose dive ... only to resurrect itself a week later. I’ve been carrying it for phone numbers on occasion, but I keep forgetting to power it down after, so it keeps keeling over and I keep losing the power cord.

I pulled my friend of 30 plus years from her busy schedule to set me up with a loaner. She's a big high up whoopdeedoo at Verizon, so aside from being one of the treasured people in my life who has been around the longest (which is priceless!!) she's extremely helpful when it comes to phone situations.

I began to acclimate to the phone she had loaned me and I liked it. It was a VG something or other? It was user friendly in most situations. I never bothered to set up my social networking on it because I didn't plan to have it very long.

One afternoon I wandered into my bathroom and the toilet was making a funny noise. I made a few adjustments and it returned to it's normal state. In my bubbling self-sufficient glee, I reached for "my" phone to text my Dad to tell him of my accomplishment.

"Hey Daddy-O!! I just fixed my own KAMODE!! Woo hoo!"

As I hit send, I realized that MY dad's number in my phone says "DaddyO". Bizarre, I know...but it works for me and it IS my phone. The thought process rattled through my head within a second.

I shouted, "Sweet Fancy Moses!!! That's not my dad, that's Mendywright's Dad!!!!" I hit end repeatedly as fast as I possibly could. Crisis averted. I did however at that moment realize that I MUST get my communications situation under control.

I was leaning toward the Droid. One of my workplace pals had gotten one and I’d poked around on it a bit … mostly trying to help him figure it out, but I’d decided I was really liking it.

My fear was overwhelming though. I love electronics and I’m a COMPLETE gadget geek … don’t get me wrong, but I’m also a rambling cluster of an accident waiting to happen. I wasn’t sure if I really wanted to be wandering around with this caliber of phone.

I arrived at the Verizon store completely prepared to walk right in and tell them to set me up with a Droid. I signed in at the desk and began to peruse over the phones. By the time my name was called, I had developed a pretty thorough list in my mind of what I wanted and didn’t want. We discussed a few phones and quickly narrowed it down to the Droid.

There were three different types of Droid on display. I have no idea the difference between them. One of the features I was searching for was a quality camera…the Droid I got has a 5 megapixel camera, I think. I can’t help but compare that to my first digital camera … a Kodak … 3.5 mega pixels if I remember correctly …. It was $250!!!! Ahhhh, the advance of technology.

I am becoming VERY fond of the Droid, whichever one it is…. (It does say Motorola). I have MUCH more to say on the subject of APPS and our undying loyalty to our electronics .... but that's all for now.

If you're one of the few folks in the world who have my phone number, please do send me a text so I can save your number......

Volume 1 - Real Estate

Volume 1
Real Estate

It amazes me that in this day and age, some business owners do not understand the importance of the changes we’ve witnessed in the transfer of communication and information over the last ten or so years. 

Admittedly, I have an over-wordy way of saying things.   The thing is, people are on the internet now. 

Many people spend the majority of their time on the internet at work, at home and on their phones.  No matter your demographic, it's becoming more and more likely that you're going to find them on the internet.

Last Sunday I was out house hunting with a trusted friend.  That may stop some of you dead in your tracks “Kim Jackson,” ...you might say …. “you can’t credit your way out of a paper sack….
Why would you look at houses?”

My answer to that is visualization and manifestation, my friends.  You either “get that” or you don’t …

if it’s latter, you really SHOULD have it explained to you, it’s some very enlightening stuff!

Anywho, I digress … my pal and I were driving around looking at houses. He advised me to look for houses that weren't necessarily for sale, but appeared to be a bit run down and without an occupant on streets that were nice otherwise.

We drove around and spied a tremendous find near the river .. in fact I would be able to see the river AND the Quincy bridge from my front lanai, should I find a way to own this house. This particular house did not appear to be for sale, only abandoned. The only signage we saw were the no trespassing signs,

which we promptly ignored to get a better view of the house.

The second little beauty WAS for sale. A tiny little doll-house looking place. It was very run down and had a very overgrown yard. I stood at the edge of the yard and imagined it after a good dosing of paint, whimsy and cozification. Seeing the name of the realty company printed clearly on the sign, I said to my friend, “Groovy … we’ll hit their website and know how much this place is within the hour!”

We rushed back to my apartment, went to Google, typed in “CASTLEMAN REAL ESTATE” and found pretty much nothing that was of any use whatsoever to advance my excitement about this property into a sale.  (yes I’m calling you by name… you should be ashamed of your lack of marketing and web presence)

After googling “Castleman Real Estate”, we found many business listings. Those gave the name and phone number … which wasn’t what I wanted. What I wanted was to be able to google and find a website for this realty company that contained well taken photographs of the interior of the home,

information about the year of construction and possibly a video. 

My friend needed to take off and so I bid him a good day … I then poured a fresh cup of java and began a 45 minute online investigation of this house. I can't put into words how perplexed I was that this company didn't have a website. 

Overwhelmed with other matters, I called my mother and told her about the house.  I asked her if she could look into it and find out the asking price.  This evening I learned that she called today and there was no answer at the real estate company.

_________________________________________

If I owned a real estate company, here's what I would do. 

• 
  
  I would first advise sellers that if they leave their precious velvet Elvis paintings on the wall, their make shift shelving tower piled full of mail and chachkies and don't bother to "present" their home in any way that the selling price will dramatically go down.
  
  ABC's 20/20 went to Bothell, WA and staged a home on camera
  with 32 talented ASP/ASPM Stagers.
• 
  
  http://www.stagedhomes.com/mediacenter/stagingstatistics.php

To be perfectly honest, it shouldn't really matter that a seller would make a better return.  They should be driven by the desire to make their house look as lovely as possible if they're trying to sell it, but that's just my outlandish opinion.

• 
  
  I would take advantage of social networking sites, blogging sites, video hosting sites and the like.  I can't imagine another purchase that's more driven on the emotion of the buyer than real estate.  It's critical to catch a prospect when they're as hot as possible and the place to do that is online, with a radio schedule flooding the website into the ears of unsuspecting listeners.
• 
  
  I would upload a minimum of two video tours per week.  Video tours don't have to be any sort of fancy camera work or cinematic artistry ... They need to be clear, thorough and somewhat steady. They need to provide an uncluttered view of the interior and exterior of the home so that the prospective buyer can imagine this place as their own home.
  
  These are just some thoughts from the nucleus of my noggin on the matter.  I see a lot of opportunity for the first realty company to jump on the 2010 bandwagon. I don't expect it to be the aforementioned realty company, but I'm certain there are realtors out there that possess
  drive and vision for their company.
  
  There you have it!