E-mail 'drafts' on Glenwood death kept secret

A couple things:

1) There's a death at a state-regulated care facility and the state regulators appear to be asleep at the wheel; and

2) The Des Moines Register reports that, during this period of time, the governor and his family are on holiday in Florida, at the residence of their longtime family friend of nearly 40 years, Bill Knapp, who coincidentally happens to have donated $112,500 to Culver's '06 campaign and at least $25,000 toward his re-election.

Well, three things, counting the comments readers posted.

3) Wow, commenter JackDM, you sound like a government insider. But like many people who post comments on the Des Moines Register's web site, you perpetuate ignorance. And by the way, if you want to refer us to a law, just give us the code chapter and section so a few of us can at least try to follow along, instead of ensuring none of us can because you don't have the digital fortitude to paste a functioning web address.

As a member of the free press, I feel the Register has an obligation to get to and report the facts regarding the handling of public government matters, just as any other citizen. As regular citizens, we should encourage their efforts to shed light on matters of public interest.

After all, public employees and elected officials have no right to privacy in their government jobs and offices, except in narrow and well defined circumstances. Nearly every action they take should be known or knowable to the public. If they act reasonably in their dealings, then they have little cause for concern. This issue isn't remotely related to the right of privacy we enjoy as citizens in our own homes. Public business on taxpayer time isn't protected.

So to the state, I say open up and be transparent; own your actions, whether right or wrong. People have a tendency to forgive honest errors in judgment, but lack of honesty and integrity is shameful.

And to the person that said court records aren't available online, check the state's judicial web site, if you have the brains, and you'll see they are!

If the story's true, I say good job Register!

People as brands

I hadn't been paying attention close enough to really embrace that people could be brands, although I think we all understand the power of certain individuals (Oprah).

The amazing thing about this dynamic is that there are actually individuals with active audiences. Large audiences. And extremely active. One person has 30,000 people that follow his tweets. When he makes a remark, tens of thousands of people get it, as if he were a walking, talking radio station. And he is, with his wireless device.

There's more about this in this really nice free mini-seminar by David Armano...


Watch Personal Branding, David Armano, Critical Mass in News Online, Webisodes, and Game Videos  |  View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

So you got fired from your media job?

If you're one of the sad sacks that works (or worked ) for a company that doesn't think a web site is of any consequence...well, that's telling of your company AND you.

Commercial media is about attracting an audience and convincing advertisers you have a big one. The only remaining issues are value, orders and collecting revenue. That's been a constant for hundreds of years and the dynamic is not likely to change this century.

However, it's not gonna be 1970 forever; audiences, advertises and technologists change their minds about the particulars from time to time. So the recipe for success? Adjust methods accordingly. Season for taste. Always serve hot.

ffn-banquet-final

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Shawn Johnson Interview on WHO Radio

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Olympic Gold Medalist Shawn Johnson visits with Van & Bonnie on WHO Radio, Des Moines, Iowa.

Unsustainable realty market continues off track

According to the Des Moines Association of Realtors(tm), over the past 30 years, the median price of existing homes has increased an average of 6% every year. And since 2000, the average home sale price has increased more than 25%. Sound sustainable? If the median inflation rate is 3%, then for the past 30 years, homes have outpaced inflation at twice the rate. And in the last decade, the sale prices have skyrocketed. And the only thing that can mean is that people are able afford less home than in years past -- unless, of course, you remove borrowing restrictions and open up mortgages to people who can't pay back the money.

Ads: My first professional gig

My first paid ad was for a place called “Computer Center”, located in Central Plaza in Fort Dodge and I got the gig as a creative contest winner while in college. Their business was computer training and troubleshooting. Their goal was clear; they wanted walk-in business prospects. The spec was for a 15-second ad:

(SFX: Downward sweep to bass chord)

“Computer Center will train you. Computer Center will troubleshoot. Computer Center. Computer Center for today's competitive business. Central Plaza. Fort Dodge.”

(SFX: upward sounder)

The strengths of the ad were bullet-point branding and memorable audio punctuation. Unfortunately they vacated the campaign in short order and failed altogether by the following year.

Web 101: it's a sales brochure, stupid!

Hopefully you're already sold on the fact that you need a web site. Now we're planning what should be presented therein.

Remember to give your customers a point of action that’s easy, like visiting your easy-to-remember web site, the half-step between your advertising and your brick-and-mortar store. Therefore, it should identify clear benefits to the visitors.

Every step of marketing is a sales pitch. From the first words in your advertising, you're trying to convince people to stay with you throughout the pitch. Later in the process, you're asking prospects to take specific actions. After they've visited your web site, the next step should be clear: to call, email or visit.

Unless you're closing the deal on an ecommerce web site, its purposes should be as sales literature and a point of contact, not a dumping ground for hard-nosed disclaimer speak, dry facts and boring data that makes legitimate prospects cringe.

Some business people have become hardened by a few unappreciative customers. Don't let your resentment be your prospects' first impression of you. Focus on the same benefits one would find in your printed brochures.

Business 101: It's okay to be judgmental

When you run a business and wait on customers who have chosen you over a sea of competitors, you owe it to them to objectively judge how well you're doing.

Put yourself in the shoes of a customer from time to time. Look at the hoops they have to jump through before they’re able to get back to their lives. Pay attention to wait times, and what people see while they're waiting. If someone’s standing at a counter waiting, they're keenly aware of the performance of your employees. They see your people plod along oblivious to customers.

I actively count employees are on the job and compare them to active orders being filled. I tend to resent watching employees perform tasks unrelated to serving customers ahead of me. When nothing is being done to advance orders, the wait seems endless.

It’s frustrating to watch servers stand in one spot as they wait for people who plod along behind the scenes, who have no sense of purpose and who are oblivious to the business at hand -- all the while condiments are depleted, trashes are full and tables are disgusting. The server's job is simple, but requires constant discipline: provide fast, friendly service.

You can't fix problems you don't see. So thank customers first by judging your service.

Ads: Pick radio, it’s more effective

Magazine advertising aside, newspapers get the bulk of ad dollars, far ahead of radio. And in fact, more is spent on Internet ads than radio campaigns by $1 billion. But none of that changes the apples-to-apples demonstration that proves radio’s response is 14 times more effective than newspaper’s when it comes to driving traffic to a web site. Want to see the test?

http://www.mondaymorningmemo.com/?ShowMe=ThisMemo&MemoID=1768

Ads: replace hype with authentic grabbers

If you're in retail business, don't make the mistake of thinking you're in the entertainment business in your marketing. Awards don't sell snow blowers.

Be cautious not to use cute ideas for cute-sake. Grab attention in an unfamiliar, attention-getting way, but remember to bridge your opening line in a believable way, and support the opening and bridge in your copy.

Opening example: "Now would be a horrible time for a flat tire!"

If you've placed this ad during morning drive, at the height of morning rush hour, you now have seized the attention of every driver on the road at that moment, and each are now imagining what a flat tire would do to their day.

The ad doesn't have to be about tires or tire repair. In fact, that would be too obvious an opening even for a towing service. But now that you have their attention, carefully craft your bridge to bring people into your story.

Bridge example: "You don't have any spare time today and there are probably a pretty good number new tasks waiting for you when you hit the office."

See, a flat tire would be inconvenient because your customers are time-starved like the rest of the free world. This ad now can take any direction it needs to.

Body example: "Since the odds are squarely against your actually getting a flat, you now have a few more seconds to stop at the Barry's Good Java drive-thru to pick up an exotic coffee reward. And when we hand you the cup, we'll also give you a card good for another cup tomorrow -- on us -- as a thank you for trying us out. Barry's Good Java. A few more extras; no nickels & dimes."

Notice how we got attention without hype? Then we bridged into our story. Then we told the story, and made a suggestion that offered a benefit to the morning commuter along the way. Nothing terribly devious, just good clean attention-getting.

PLACEMENT
Now we wouldn't have been terribly selective about which radio station we used to placed the commercial; we're interested in reaching as many people as we can afford to reach. That simple. For this we pay attention to CUME (total weekly station audience) or AQH (total simultaneous listeners within a day part) during the 5a-10a (AMD) day part. Our major focus is on placing one commercial an hour M-F on the station you can afford.