Category Archives: Business

Princeton Regional Chamber Events, useful tips from U.S. 1 Newspaper

Social Media Wisdom from Maisha Walker

Business, , ,

At the risk of not doing justice to Maisha Walker’s excellent talk on social media at May’s Princeton Regional Chamber Breakfast, here are some of her tips. I really don’t want to lose track of what she said, and I think it’s valuable for many of us.

Any new marketing technique requires a 6 to 12 month learning curve — first to learn the technology, then to soak up that community’s etiquette.

Experts say a human can have only 150 close relationships, but — for social media purposes — each of those 150 people have their own networks, making social media a powerful tool.

Nevertheless, social media connections aren’t helpful until you build them into relationships and make them real and local. Meet your connections!

Make sure you actually have a tangible goal that will affect your bottom line.

Realize you are a publisher. What will you publish?

Use the 80/20 rule. Twenty percent of your content should be highly unusual, surprising, attention grabbing.

Leverage all your resources, cross market, be consistent.

Track it, tweak it, repeat it. Don’t start any social media project if you can’t measure the results. It is not about traffic, it’s about customers.

In the photo at left, she highlighted the five social media tools that she recommends: LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and WordPress.

Debbie Schaffer of Mrs. G’s, no slouch in social media herself, said it was the best SM presentation she’d heard.

Smelling Salts to De-Stress the Modern Woman

Business, ,

In your purse, carry the aroma of lavendar or eucalpytus — known for soothing the mind and spirit, said the expert at Capital Health tonight. At the 2nd anniversary of Woman in Business Alliance, (WIBA), an enterprise of the Princeton Regional Chamber, more than 100 women heard some stress tips from Dr. Randi Protter. It was a gala occasion, for some photographs, click here.

Protter gave this unusual tip about soothing scents. You can’t carry the vial of lavender with you,she noted, it would leave your purse full of oil. But you can take a small glass vial and fill it with rock salt or kosher salt, then drip the essence over it. When you need a spa break, sniff sniff sniff.

Another good tip: try “square breathing,” in for four counts, hold your breath for four counts, breath out for four counts, don’t breathe yet for four counts. That works too. We all tried it.

Stress goes back to cavewoman days, said Protter, when women developed their output of cortisol and adrenaline. Back then, they had two choices, make dinner or be dinner. Now we have more choices, but we still have stress!

Twitter May Rule, but Press Releases are Alive and Well

Business, , ,

A press release is not an anachronism, says Anne Sweeney in a press release to me! And she’s right. Here is an excerpt from her excellent copy, where she says that the press release “is the launching pad for all your “new media” efforts..” and she goes on to offer four press releases for a modest sum. 

Here to tell, in person, about how to use new media is the speaker for the Princeton Regional Chamber breakfast, Maisha Walker, founder of Message Medium. She helped digitally brand Unilever, Columbia University, and Mars Chocolate.

Hearing her will lure me away from my favorite anti-aging yoga class, so I will be at tomorrow’s Business Before Business Breakfast. Register for $25 if you are a chamber member (and that includes all my PUMC friends). 


Sweeney reminds us, as I’m sure Walker will agree, to post the press release on your website, but also on Facebook “with a quick comment and an attractive photo” and hope it spreads virally. Also  “both the Facebook and the web link will show up on Google as two separate entries.” Hmm,  I didn’t know that. 

But I do know that a print item in the Ewing Observer (full disclosure, a Community News Service paper, as is U.S. 1 Newspaper)  brought somebody last Saturday to the New Jersey State Button Show. The visitor said that, at breakfast, she read the calendar listing and decided it would be a great way to spend a Saturday. The calendar listing came from a press release, so — yes — press releases are alive and well. 

Balmy Business After Business at ETS

Business,

Yesterday,  on the first really SPRINGy spring afternoon, about 100 people gathered for networking and sumptuous food at the Chauncey Hotel and Conference Center, on Educational Testing Service’s vast Rosedale Campus, part of the Princeton Regional Chamber’s Business After Business series. Sumptuous meaning — I have never seen a piece of beef as big as the “Steamhouse Beef” I think Brenda Savidge, Chauncey center’s conference planning manager, called it. (I took a picture of it but am not posting it, out of courtesy to  my vegetarian friends).

In addition to showing off its renovations, the Chauncey showed off its varied and tasty menu. This was one cocktail party where you really didn’t need to eat dinner later.

Mary Harris of Mary Harris Events (left) took a tour with Gary Abramson, catering sales manager. A longtime friend (Abu Ibrahim) and I met and made new friends, including Maurice Galimidi of Allegra, Joanna Filipek of Kistler’s Minuteman Press, Ronald Granberg of Clearwater Investment Management, attorney Ralph Gerstein,two instructors from the Raritan Valley Flying School, Neil Vaneerde of Reidsound, Sarah Dale of One Simple Wish, Michael Felici and Kyle O’Gorman of Nelligan Sports Marketing Inc.,Robert Formisano of Morgan Stanley, and Rodney Warner of Szaferman Lakind. We also talked to “old” friends, including James Salter II of Business Writing that Works, John Thurber of Thomas Edison State College, and Edie Kelly of Edward Jones.

All this under a white tent overlooking the lake — a beautiful setting for a wedding, and indeed one is scheduled for the weekend. Enjoy the weekend — I’ll be at the button show!

Scan – Then Enjoy – Your Photos

Business

 A flooded basement spurred me into action. After almost losing 50 years of precious photos, like the adorable one at left of me with my sister and cousins, I got them organized and scanned with the help of Stephanie Black, Photographer and Photo Organizer.

Stephanie offers scanning, retouching, archiving, and photo sharing services. She comes to your house with her deluxe extra-speedy scanner. You get a DVD with all your photos on it, organized into files. Her mantra is — make copies of everything, then keep only the good ones, the ones you really want to see in scrapbooks, to flip through them over and over again. The rest you can see on a screen.
She puts your photos through her factory-fast scanner. You get a DVD with ALL your photos on it, organized by folders, i.e. “1972” or “Alice wedding” or “picture of Grandma” or whatever.
A competitive photo scanning by mail service exists, but you don’t get the same personal service. For instance, Black does minor retouches as she scans. Plus you don’t have to worry about the photos getting lost in the mail.  
Because she is a professional photographer, she can take proper photos of your larger prints, rather than your having to send them to an expensive scanning service.
Once the scans are done, she can help you make a book or online gallery for sharing purposes.

Black is based in New York but comes to Princeton frequently and will be here through Wednesday, February 6. Email  stephblackphoto@me.com to find out more or make an appointment.

So did you guess which is me? Standing with my tall sister, I’m the second from left, age eight. 

Gadgets, a Gala, and Entrepreneurs

Business

Uncertain about which techie treat to gift or get? Doug Dixon does his popular show and tell at the Princeton Public Library on Wednesday, November 28, at 7 p.m.  Click here for the print version, the cover story in U.S. 1 Newspaper. 

Oops, maybe you are going — or want to go — to the Princeton Regional Chamber gala that same night. The Business Leadership Awards Gala will honor Georgianne Vinnicombe, Martin Johnson, Herb Greenberg, and Peter Inverso.  (These are some pretty amazing people who will give interesting acceptance speeches. I’m told there are barely a handful of tickets left, but you can still go.)

Dixon will also speak Tuesday, December 4, at 10 a.m. at the Hopewell Township Library, and at 1:30 p.m. at the Ewing Township Senior Center; and Wednesday, December 5, at 7 p.m. at the Hopewell Train Station.

The Keller Center at Princeton University is fully scheduled for the next week. On Friday, November 30, at 7 p.m., it’s fun (and often enlightening) to listen to the students compete at a “pitch contest” at Robertson Hall. 

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Johann Schleier-Smith (left), the entrepreneur who founded Tagged, a social media firm, will speak on Tuesday, December 4, at 4:30 p.m at the Fields Center. 

Aneesh Chopra, Obama’s former CTO, speaks on Monday, December 10, at 4:30 p.m. at Robertson Hall. 

ACG New Jersey offers Path to Going Public – latest trends in financing and growth strategies  on Thursday, December 6, at 6 p.m. at the Westin. 

Social Media 101: Selling Never Works

Business

Why social media for nonprofits? This is Americaand this is fast, said David Yunghans of Constant Contact. He led a pretty fabulous morning workshop, sponsored by the Princeton Regional Chamber, at the Nassau Club on October 24. I attended along with four others from Princeton United Methodist Church, and I also took notes on behalf of Not in Our Town Princeton and United Front Against Riverblindness – as well as for my personal blog, Princeton Comment. The next session is Tuesday, November 20, and I highly recommend it. It costs $20 for chamber members, $25 for others.
Information is everywhere, Yunghans noted. People are using Facebook as a search engine. His first anecdote was about how one tweet “How about helping a charity that helps kids” resulted in a sponsored fundraiser netting $75,000. (It was his Tweet, and it helped the charity his wife runs.) He says he can reach 1 million people in 60 seconds. 
The secret sauce of 21stcentury marketing: Selling never works.  Don’t ask for anything. Just report what is happening. Show people what you have done with their money. Tell them what you are going to do with their money. Always tell the truth. The new style of advertising: deliver a value statement, not a donate or buy me statement. 
Be patient. People will not give money until they are ready. You may or may not get paid today, but you will get paid. Don’t give up on them (He told the story of the chef who unfriended him, because he never opened her emails, but he just happened to be ready to pay her $5,000 for a birthday trip for his wife. He could have found her but didn’t). 
Reject the old marketing paradigm, the top down funnel, known as A.I.D.A. The new marketing – a reverse funnel – is a pyramid. Instead of trying to get the most possible clients, focus your time on the small group of people who already know you, love you, care about you, who will be heartbroken if you fail. Ask them to speak well of you. But you must ask. The difference between asking and not asking is huge. (Example, helping an author whose business was in the tank, and 18 months later, she is keynoting in Paris and has a 230,000 Twitter following. Now, if he asks a return favor, asking her to tweet something, he gains 25 new followers.)
People will not donate until they are ready. Don’t give up on them (story of the chef who unfriended him, because he never opened her emails, but he just happened to be ready to pay her $5,000 for a birthday trip for his wife. He could have found her but didn’t). 
Show value. The economy has changed everything. What matters is the value you provide. Show photos of children being helped. Show what is happening to the money.
Here are some of his quick tips.
Save time: Clean up your inbox — use www.nutshellmail.comto organize and combine your comments, alerts, etc. on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. You can choose how often you want to look at them.
Learn how: www.socialquickstarter.com,  a free Constant Comment product, shows you how to do everything on the major social media platforms. His company’s motto, a good one for every organization, is “give away relevant information for free.” Says Yunghans, “People follow me because I find information and let other people know about it. I am building trust.”
Add followers. Start with one, build slowly and honestly. Think of Aunt Minnie, the town gossip on the party line. You want the Aunt Minnies to talk about you. With social media we can, as one person, talk to many people. (Yunghans suggests you don’t need to, and shouldn’t, share personal information on your organization account or even your personal account that you are using for business. I have heard differing opinions about this. Other experts say ‘it makes you real.’)
Keep checking your reputation with Socialmention.com. You can set the search to find anything said about you in the past 24 hours or in the past week or month. Among other measures, it measures sentiment and passion (more than one visit). Use a Boolean search (in quotes) for a more accurate search.
Overcome objections of a dinosaur board with statistics. The fastest growing segment on the Internet is people older than 55.  It is free. They have time. They want to put up photos of their grandchildren.   
Tell the truth.People will verify it. On the web, 98 percent speak of you in a positive or neutral way. One percent are trolls, so ignore them, don’t engage. The other one percent may be telling the truth – a perfect time to engage. People believe yelp and trip advisor because real people are telling their version of the truth, and you have to sift through that.
Brand yourself on the Internet. Put logos on everything you send out – and don’t change the color. When people sign up they have to know and recognize your brand. Make sure your colors and logos are correct and they know who you are. Secure the vanity URL.
Use videos. They work if it is something fun.. When I checked socialmention.com for my church I found the most adorable video of a festival of children’s choirs, held in Princeton, and the kids are singing Dona Nobis Pacem. What a great video to use on our Facebook page. (Yes, I know there might be copyright problems but I betcha Dona Nobis is out of copyright!)
If you were at this workshop, chime in! Comment or tweet your favorite tip! 

Pictured, from left — me, Sarah Harris, Andrea Spuck, Yunghans, and Iona Harding. Not shown, Lula Crawford). 

Social Media: The Architect of Our Intimacies?

Business

Get a double dose of communications skills on Wednesday, October 24. Particularly if you work for a charity — or support one with your time — you will want to take the first of three social media sessions designed by the Princeton Regional Chamber for those in the non-profit arena. In this breakfast workshop at the Nassau Club, 8 to 10:30 p.m., a rep from Constant Contact will teach why social media is important (DUH), how social media has changed the non-profit landscape, and how to get started with it, get content, and find success. The discussion will include Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Cost for non-profit chamber members: $20, $5 more for non-members. That includes a full breakfast.

Although I already tweet and (obviously) blog I’m eager to attend. For instance, I tweet and Facebook for myself and my church, and I blog for myself and Not in Our Town, but it’s often a challenge to figure out which “voice” I’m using when. I’ve never used Instagram, and I’m still distributing this blog the old-fashioned way, with emails. I want to pick up some pointers.

That same evening, New Jersey CAMA presents Sarah Morgan, 6 to 8 p.m., at the Delaware Raritan Greenway. After drinks and munchies she will talk about “Writing for Results: Why Writing Matters.” A communications manager at Merck, Sarah has a personal blog at sarah-morgan.com and tweets at twitter.com/sarahmorgan. Though it seems like a general topic, social media is sure to be included in her talk, because she wrote her Fordham master’s thesis on how social media is changing language. It’s $25 for members, $30 for nonmembers, and you can reserve by PayPal.

The CAMA event is for everyone. The more in-depth chamber workshops are theoretically only for nonprofits, but if you work in a for profit business, why not register as a representative of the charity you support? The chamber’s morning workshops will continue on November 20 and December 11, and, if you go to all three, you save money — the third session is free. The November focus is on best practices in email — how and why your email does or doesn’t get opened. The December discussion will range from brand awareness to driving donations.


Does all this social media worry you? You’re concerned about the lack of face to face interaction? You have reason to be. says Shelley Turkle (left) interviewed on Fresh Air this week and author of Alone Together, Why We Expect More of Technology and Less of Each Other. “Technology proposes itself as the architect of our intimacies,” she writes.

If it’s getting so important, as ubiquitous as Turkle warns, we need to learn to do it right. 



Chris Kuenne: An Idea Is Not Enough

Business, Technology & Innovation,

When you find one thing that you are passionate about, says Chris Kuenne, founder of Rosetta, explore it — academically or professionally. I talked to Kuenne for U.S. 1 last year, when he had just bought another firm and had 175 employees at American Metro and 725 people worldwide.

Just 10 weeks later he sold his digital agency to the giant conglomerate Publicis for $575 million. And no, he didn’t leak that. But it must have been in his mind. Ten years before he had evaded a Publicis takeover by buying out his division of another firm.

Read the U.S. 1 story to learn about his father, a Princeton University professor who died of Lou Gehrig’s disease. “He taught me that an idea is just not enough, you have to work it, develop it, and ultimately master it, for it to have relevance in the world,” said Kuenne then. Kuenne started out at Johnson and Johnson and got the idea of interactive marketing — working it, developing it, and mastering it.

Check out the short form of his bio on the Princeton Regional Chamber website. And sign up to hear Kuenne tell the secrets of entrepreneurial success at the Princeton Regional Chamber lunch on Thursday, November 3. His topic: “Marketing with Personality: Identify & Understand What Drives Consumers to Buy Your Product.” He has an amazing story.

Caldwell: Evangelist for Success

Business, Faith and Social Justice

He comes from three generations of Methodist preachers, and his father was an international leader in the areas of civil rights and social justice, but Dale Caldwell has turned his considerable talents of persuasion to improving the world in ostensibly secular ways. A graduate of Princeton, Wharton, and a Harvard executive program,  Dale Caldwell has been a senior manager at Deloitte, executive director of the Newark Alliance, deputy commissioner of the NJ Department of Community Affairs, a Certified Financial Planner, and CEO of 10 organizations, mostly recently Strategic Influence LLC. 


At the Princeton Regional Chamber breakfast on Wednesday, October 19,  at 7:30 a.m. at the Nassau Club, Caldwell will reveal his “Intelligent Influence” secrets on recognizing how people make decisions and what influences their decisions. “Influence is not purchased or assumed, it is bestowed,” says Caldwell. “Understanding how one is influenced, how to influence others, how to influence an organization, and how to influence outcomes is to understand how to create success.” 
In the career education arena, Caldwell wrote “School to Work Success” (now in paperback and Kindle), and founded the Residential After-School Program, Take-Your-Community-To-Work-Day, and School-to-Work Day. In the volunteer world, he was president of the New Brunswick Board of Education, Crossroads Theatre Company, and the eastern section of the United States Tennis Association. His love of tennis resulted in his latest book, Tennis in New York City: the Most Important Sport in the Most Important City in the World.  

If you missed the chance to see Dale Caldwell weave his speech magic at the Princeton Public Library’s TED X event, come to the chamber’s breakfast on Wednesday. It’s the chamber event where everyone gets to introduce themselves, and walk-ins are welcome. 


Next up: Chris Kuenne of Rosetta on Thursday, November 3.