Saran Wrap and Aluminum Foil - What You Didn’t Know

I received a note from a family member the other day with an interesting bit of information.

Saran Wrap and Aluminum Foil have a little known fact about them.  I have used them for years and been frustrated by rolls that pop out of the box while trying to tear off just the right amount to cover the bowl with the queso or macaroni and cheese.  Would you believe that those boxes have a design feature that prevents the roll from coming out of the box while tearing off what is needed?

On either end is a small perforated spot that has written on it “”Press Here to Lock End”.  Then, by pressing a finger or spoon handle, or something else handy into the hole, sure enough the roll is then locked into place and easier to handle.  Amazing ingenuity that is largely unnoticed.

 

National Memorial For Martin Luther King, Jr.

I read an interesting article in Portfolio (a Conde’ Nast publication) this week regarding raising funds for The Martin Luther King Jr. National Memorial Foundation Project.  The rendering of the proposed 30′ tall granite piece is pretty cool.  It shows Dr. King emerging from a mass of granite to symbolize a reference to a line from his “I have a Dream” speech - “hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope”.  Just a little over one month ago we reminisced over the 40th anniversary of his assassination.  Yet the project still lacks the remaining $7MM needed to break ground and enact the memorial.  In a nation of over 300MM people, $7MM seems like such a small gap to span.  Join me in contributing.

 

LinkedIn - Social Marketing for Business

I joined LinkedIn many years ago.  At the time, many saw it as a nuisance because no one really knew what being connected online was all about.  Now, social media, social marketing and web 2.0 tools are not only adopted, but increasingly pervasive.  To that end,

 

Renewing a Car Registration

I live in Texas.  I am sure other states have developed similar programs, but www.texasonline.com is just brilliant.  I literally just renewed the registration on my car for Denton County in 1 minute and 45 seconds.  All I needed was my insurance card and a credit card.  How did we ever survive in the “old days” going through lines, phones and mail to do this task.  I can get online from the comfort of my home while I am actually doing associated tasks and get something done with the government.

While I am happy to pay the extra $2.00 for this service, I do have to quetion it.  By using technology and being able to minimize the face-to-face contact, should not the cost decrease?

 

RateThat Swag - Google Color Ball

In this edition of “Rate That Swag”, I am going with the Google Color Ball - I don’t know what else to call it.  It is a white translucent ball with a small button on the bottom and a battery.  I received it at the Google Dance at the Santa Clara SMX show in February 2008. 

When the button is pushed once, it turns on and glows green.  Pushing it again turns it off.  The next push of the button yields a green glowing ball.  I  found out, by dropping it, that if it is on and receives some sort of impact, it will then fade in green, then red, then flash and then turn off.  Kind of fun.  It is on my desk at work and everyone cannot help but to play with it.  Interesting note, one of my colleagues noted that this was the first time they saw a piece of Google swag that did not have its trademark multi-color logo. 

 

SMX Social Media Day 2 - Long Beach

As mentioned for day 1 of the SMX Social Media Conference in Long Beach, Day 2 was equally as impressive.  Day 1 was more of the nuts and blots of the tools available.  Day 2 was more about how we as marketers can use these tools to enhance communities.  And I am careful to use the words “to enhance communities”.  Social Media and Social Marketing should not be about clubbing customers or prospects over the head with shotgun marketing messages.  It should be about creating a conversation, cultivating relationships, and delivering results.

I have pulled from dormancy many of my social web 2.0 accounts now that I have a better context for them.  This includes:

• Twitter - http://www.twitter.com/kstraw - a great way to micro blog and keep contacts informed
• Digg - http://digg.com/ - rate items of interest - articles, blog posts, and more
• Reddit - http://reddit.com/ - reddit is a source for what’s new and popular online.  Vote on links that you like or dislike and help decide what’s popular, or submit your own!

All of these are great ways to keep up with information and people.  It also provides opportunities to update others as well.

I enjoyed hearing Jason Calacanis, Randy Woods, Jimmy Wales and Michael Gray.  Too bad Vanessa Fox was not there.

Again, I would highly recommend attending this show for anyone looking to build marketing relationships.

BTW…make sure to get the 4×4 at In-n-Out when in Cali…

 

SMX Social Media Conference in Long Beach

The SMX Social Media Marketing Conference in Long Beach has been phenomenal so far.  It is an intensely packed “how to” that should be a requirement for all multi-channel marketing people out there.  I have been around web 2.0 and social marketing aspects for the last four years thanks to Kevin Koym.  Being that I like to stay on the cutting edge, I am glad KK showed me some of the good stuff coming down the pike.  This conference has done a stellar job of bringing it all together - and I still have a packed day of information for tomorrow.

 

Francis “Hank” Henry Acts Again!! - Funny Money

I had the great pleasure of working with Hank at JCPenney a few years back.  Always the master of improv in the office while making every meeting and project most enjoyable, I must highly recommend seeing him on an actual stage.  This is a local Dallas plug - he is currently performing in Funny Money in Coppell at the Theatre Coppell.  You can see more information about him and his other roles at his website Hank Henry.

 

Going Euro - The Nurburgring is Amazing

It has been almost two years ago, but one of the best trips I have ever taken was to Germany with my business partner Steve Patti.  We had just embarked on developing a country club concept for Central Texas.  Not a typical country club, but a motorsport resort country club.  It is called the Bergrennenring.  As such ,we were able to secure an appointment with Hermann Tilke - world renowned F1 track designer from Aachen, Germany.  At the meeting he agreed to do the design work for the tracks and offered to have us come out and watch him race his Lamborghini at the Nurburgring.

For those who don’t know, the Ring (as most call it) is an epic 24.4 km circuit (including the 3.6km F1 portion designed by Tilke).  It is amazing.  While I did not get to drive or ride on the course, we did get to watch some top notch enduro racing from multiple vantage points.

Here is a video of the course as seen from the drivers perspective -

 

And here is what a Porsche 996 GT3 RS looks like

Amazing…

 

Marketing Headhunter Knows the Score

Today I received a note from Harry Joiner - THE Marketing Headhunter.  The guy is a walking irony - He places marketing professionals into high-level, high powered positions in and around e-commerce; all the while being a brilliant marketer in his own right.  I can only imagine how many of his clients have just asked him to take their open position.

Anyway, back to the note.  In a cutting edge move, he is now offering the ability to list open Online Retail Jobs on his site at OnlineRetailJobs.com.  Here are further details -

Effective immediately, the cost to post jobs at www.OnlineRetailJobs.com will be ZERO. To post a job for free, all you have to do is call 678-795-0900 for the monthly discount code. That’s it. No strings attached.

He will continue to advertise this job board in Internet Retailer magazine. (This month’s ad is on page 69.) The badge on the site will continue to say “Post a job for $147 for 30 days.”

This month’s code is “headhunter.”

In his words - “I am doing this because when I was a beef trader back in the 1990’s, my boss used to say ‘You can’t worry about disintermediation. It’s going to happen anyway. Your suppliers and buyers do not operate in a vacuum. Find real ways to add value and the profit will take care of itself’.”

Post early and post often - IT IS FREE!!  BTW, check out his blog listed in my blogroll to the right.  Good stuff.