Findling Events

Dateline 35,000 feet:

$2 for headset, $7 for a blanket and pillow - economies of scale have reached my limit, solution: fly less or fly where you REALLY want to. Just a few weeks ago a slight change in timing resulted in me flying from my bike on to Van Ness Avenue in San Francisco. Leaving the CalPac medical center I was not in such bad shape, but there were parts that were sore. The nurses said to me “given the nature of your injuries, you will need 4-6 weeks in order to recover.” Hogwash.

As I was leaving San Francisco last week the inevitable went down, Jet Farve. As the Pittsburgh Steelers are found next to my white blood cells in my veins, I could only imagine the fate those fans were left with - as if their own Achilles was traded to Troy. Then Dana Torres came along - no revelations, no light bulb went off, I really just had a good kick in the ass. Brett Farve is 38. Dana Torres is 41. Dana Torres is an Olympic swimmer in which at the start of the last leg of a 4×100 relay race the United States was in a solid 3rd place. By the end, at the completion of Ms. Torres leg, the US took Silver.

As I ride this plane back to San Francisco, where ideas are innovated on birth, so is redesigning my thought process. If anyone ever says “can’t” or “I’m getting to old for this…” - they are lying, pure and simple. Now granted our Dana Farve friends have personal trainers and the powers to sculpt this new found birth, but nonetheless, there it is, just because you are hovering the middle age mark or even ten years below it, that is no reason to sit back and relax on the laurels of mediocrity. I am in awe.

Clichés come and go, challenges are opportunities, but so are achievements. I wonder what the next day will bring, as sure as the sun will rise, what will I achieve tomorrow. A once knew an Air Force Colonel who once screamed in my face “excuses are only delaying failure.” Apparently Brett Farve and Dana Torres didn’t get the memo.

One superlative we never voted on in hight school was “first to go to prison after graduation.”   We mostly had good kids at James W. Robinson in Fairfax, VA, but alas here I am 12 years after graduation living in an amazingly beautiful city with views of prison.

Tonight at 6:30 I was supposed to head for a techie event, widgets and such.  All great stuff, been meeting some really nice folks here in San Franc since I’ve moved from New York.  I was getting ready to go and thought “tough week so far, stressed, I need to exercise.”  Well I just threw on a few more layers (yes it is cold here in the summer) and headed out to explore the streets, the hills and the views.  If you can ever get to the corner of Jones and Union at sunset…you might just see an amazing site:

[caption id=”attachment_158″ align=”alignnone” width=”300″ caption=”View of Alcatraz from Union & Jones”][/caption]

Findling’s lesson for tonight, sometimes just say F it and do what is best for you, l felt a whole lot better after walking up and down the hills of San Francisco….cheers.

B2B Marketers Eye Social Media, Web 2.0 Tactics

[by Laura Ramos]

Last Wednesday, Dan Klein — who heads up tech industry consulting here at Forrester — joined me on a teleconference to talk about how B2B marketers should “Define Your B2B Social Media Strategy.” Web 2.0 marketing is a subject of great interest to business marketers as almost 700 signed up for the Webinar, just over 300 attended, and 120 participated in a pre-show survey. The vast majority of the invitations went out to Forrester clients and, judging by the list of attendees, the participation ranged from large tech firms to small business services providers. Folks from software, hardware, telecom, agencies, start ups, database marketing, and media were present.

What did we learn from this interactive session? Here are a few highlights:

1) Social media use in marketing is just emerging. While 2/3 say they use email and Webinars in their marketing mix today, only 35% or fewer use blogs, online forums, video produced by marketing, podcasts, customer contributed content, or other Web 2.0 tactics.  Surprisingly, 42% said they are using social networks like Facebook — up from the 25% who said they did in our earlier 2008 research. (Click on the tiny picture below to see the data up close.)

2) Benefits are hard to gauge right now. Depending on which tactic they use, between 30 and 36% of respondents said it was “Too early to tell” whether using social media translated into marketing success.  In contrast, 25% said landing pages and Webinars successfully helped the generate leads in a measurable way.

3) Marketers are sticking with what works. As a result, 65% or more of the survey respondents said that Webinars, landing pages, video marketing, and online forums figure significantly in their 2009 marketing plans. On the other hand 55% or more said that RSS feeds, podcasting, widgets and virtual worlds were marginal or irrelevant in their futures.

4) And, finally, the most popular questions were about how to understand customers’ use of social media. They included: How do we figure out what customers are doing socially? What is the best way to get this information? How do we understand how Web 2.0- savvy our buyers are? How do we assess customer use of social media?

It’s the $64,000 question, isn’t it?  How to reach customers through this brand-spanking new medium. But it’s the wrong question for marketers to ask if they want to be successful with social media.  Social media use is about creating dialog and relationships with a community. The community says what is important, not the marketing folks. This is going to be a very hard lesson for B2B marketers to learn because it means putting the right people — technical, customer-facing, problem-solving people — in front of the community and letting them engage in an open, trustworthy manner. And they may not get the corporate messaging right everytime…

In this new Web 2.0 world, the right question is: how do I get to know my audience better and what they want from social interaction? For this, Forrester developed Social Technographics and the POST methodology, which we talked about briefly on the Webinar.

If you’d like to know more, check out our research on POST and Social Technographics. Or you can join me in Cambridge, MA on August 13 for my “Making B2B Marketing Work” work shop, where we will talk more about social media, among other topics.  In the meantime, let me know what successes you are finding as you explore incorporating social behavior and Web 2.0 tools in your marketing.

I wish I had mystical words to share, but clean and simple I had a great sunset last night here in San Francisco. Even if nobody ever read this “post” - I would feel better knowing that if you are looking for a place to get clean air in your lungs, take a load of, remove some stress - any form of the above, Ocean Beach within the city limits of San Francisco is a great place. Or wherever you live, take a few minutes to breathe without distraction or other stimulation every day, does a body a great good.

[caption id=”" align=”alignnone” width=”500″ caption=”Amazing Sunset”][/caption]

A colleague of mine in San Francisco sent me the following graphic, and it makes sense for search enginge thoughts, as well as, well…life? It would seem as I move along in my project there is at time as lack of good foundational tools, like patience, planning and education. If that background is not there, how do you build your credibitlity, trust and reputation?

There are millions of sites out there, almost seemingly millions a day. In the projects I am working on now that shift of “listening” to your customers is happening more and more. But I also expect that as the scale of economies takes effect, small and medium sized businesses who did not have a great web precense will start to very soon. That can only mean a much larger marketplace for the world.

MSNBC.com

Backup has left American’s terminal brimming with hundreds of bags

The Associated Press

updated 1:32 p.m. PT, Wed., July. 30, 2008

NEW YORK - A software glitch crippled the baggage handling system in an American Airlines terminal at Kennedy Airport on Wednesday, delaying some flights and causing a luggage pileup at the ticket counters.

The malfunction created big problems throughout the day for passengers flying out of Terminal 8, one of the newer buildings at JFK.

Thousands of customers had to leave their luggage behind and hope it would be delivered later. The breakdown was galling to some passengers already steamed over the airline’s recent decision to start charging fees for each checked bag on flights within the United States and Canada.

“I’m just not happy. I think it’s crazy,” said Mike Howell, who was en route to San Diego after visiting New York City. “If they do charge people 15 dollars per bag, they should get it right.”

The problem developed at around 4:45 a.m., when a piece of software failed in the computer that reads the bar code on each piece of tagged luggage, and then whisks the bag via conveyor belt to the proper gate.

With the automated system out of service, airline employees were forced to sort each bag by hand. They quickly became overwhelmed by the task.

The airline tried delaying flights for 60 to 90 minutes, hoping that would be enough extra time to get them loaded, but lots of luggage still didn’t make it aboard.

The airline’s engineers and technicians from the system developer were still working to diagnose the software problem Wednesday afternoon, said airline spokesman Tim Wagner.

Because of the crisis, American waived its fees Wednesday for travelers checking fewer than three bags at JFK. Starting in June, the airline, like most of its competitors, has charged $15 for one checked bag or $40 for two bags. Passengers may still carry on luggage for free.

Wagner noted, however, that a majority of the flights affected by Wednesday’s baggage problem were international, and thus not subject to the fees in the first place.

The airline had about 67 scheduled departures at JFK on Wednesday.

Some bags were being diverted to nearby LaGuardia and Newark airports and put on alternative flights.

Wagner said he could offer no immediate estimate on how long it might take the airline to sort through the backlog and get each bag to its proper destination.

© 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Hello New York,

About 8 months ago I turned to a few friends and proclaimed “I’m leaving New York in June” Nobody actually thought I would do it, they thought it was a joke, a bluff - a hoax! So it was, after eight years in Manhattan I moved to San Francisco two months ago. I happy to report that after to months on the west coast - I’ve never been happier. I actually started to understand what it physically means to understand my own mind and body.

I write to my friends in New York, there is a charm that is Manhattan, it makes you feel like you are on top of the world and it is center of the universe. And to some extent, that is true, but I am also happy to report there is an alternative feeling to that world that enables you to more closely monitor who you are as a person.

Over eight years I knew a lot of people, and to some extent I can divide them into 3 groups:

1. Those that love New York, would never leave and thrive on the existence.

2. Those that want to leave, want to move, find another ground - but never do.

3. Those that want to leave, want to move, find another ground - and find the courage to do so.

My point is, in the last two months a gorgeous woman who has the intials DW taught me a great lesson. Change, no matter how big or small, to induce upon your own self takes courage and a dash of blind faith. I woke up this morning to the view below (granted I’m dog sitting), but working from home today I ate my lunch next to the lapping waves of the Pacific Ocean. OK, yes, there are MASSIVE forest fires just north of here, I was thrown from my bike a week ago and it is cold here during the summer. But in the last week or so I felt an opening in my mind - the ability to think clearly again, to write again - to illuminate my sense of humor.

I send much love to my friends and community in New York, you made me, and I will never forget that, like many events I experienced from 2001 attacks, to blackouts, to watching the leaves change to New Year’s in Times Square.

Be good and keep the Apple crisp!

Am I working hard or hardly working? I am working on ideas and thoughts and useful subjects that I could write in my public display of brain power, but for today, I’m going to share my friend Erin, she is a gorgeous girl and I get to watch after her this week!

Incredible. You put up a note that you are going to show a form of nostaglia and the masses FLOCK. I was very impressed last night with the crowd that came out to the Breakfast Club movie last night in Dolores Park. Folks were cold, loud and stoned - but this is San Francisco, we play hard and work hard.

I think about how I am looking at different companies who want to get their “product” out there, imagine if getting your idea out there was as simple as showing a John Hughes Movie?! Cheers, great flic!

I moved to San Francisco six weeks ago and in part had hoped to clear my mind of New York City noise (physically and mentally). That process was going smoothly, and….well, it still is. In part, I wanted to start to write in this tool again, to connect, to reach out - to network if you will.

Yesterday as I rode my nice new bike along Van Ness Avenue/Street here in San Francisco I was side swiped and thrown from my bike. First, I am OK, a bit bruised, scrapes here and there, but otherwise fine. I wanted to say that there is one piece of equipment that saved me from a great deal of extra pain, my helmet.

If you ride a bike, and do not have one of these, I beg you for the love of all that is holy, buy one and wear it.

More to come and hope to update this as much as I can on a daily basis!