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Columns

  • All about social media marketing

    Many business owners feel a sense of urgency and peer pressure about creating a social media presence before they’re ready because they assume they’re losing business to more tech-savvy competitors.
    But panic is a poor driver of decisions, and that’s why the entrepreneur needs to begin with a set of clear business objectives that will guide his use of these versatile tools.
    When it comes to business and marketing planning, strategy comes first and tools second.
    Whatever the marketing tactic, a business owner needs to know what he wants to accomplish before the ads start to air or the social media channels go live. Every business needs an overarching strategy for reaching its goals. The strategy is the foundation of its marketing plan, which, in turn, supports the company’s social media plan.
    Goals for social media marketing should be specific, measureable, attainable, relevant and time-bound — or S.M.A.R.T., in business jargon — so the business owner can stay on track and adjust her strategy to suit changing circumstances.

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  • The high cost of free speech

    I’m one of the few people I know (presuming of course that I know myself) who has actually read the U.S. Flag Code, Title 4 of the United States Code. The Flag Code is a federal law, which specifies treatment, display, respect, and permitted usage of the United States flag.
     The U.S. Flag Code is quite severe in its restrictions and interpretations of those three colors. In Section 8-J, it deems the flag as a living object - “The flag represents a living country and is itself considered a living thing.”
     Of course, we’re just talking about a piece of cloth (with high lead content if manufactured in China). But emotions can run very high over that cloth. Rip up a $990 designer Reed Krakoff T-shirt (like Ann Romney wore during one of her speeches on how her family was in touch with average Americans) and people will laugh at you. Rather, they should laugh at anyone stupid enough to spend that much money on a T-shirt.
     However, tear an American flag in half and it’s no laughing matter. Wars have been waged over lesser emotional responses.

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  • Beware of hidden flight, hotel fees

    The last few years have been tough economically for many people. Unemployment fears combined with plunging home, stock and retirement account values caused many to forgo big vacations — even though stressful times are when we most need to recharge our batteries.
    But with the economy turning around, many families are cautiously dipping their toes in the travel pool once again.
    Hotel occupancy rates have risen in many areas and airports are as crowded as ever.
    Airlines and hotels are notorious for tacking extra charges onto their bills. Here are a few to watch out for:
    A few airlines allow one free checked bag (Southwest still allows two), but most charge up to $25 for the first checked bag each way, and even more for additional pieces.
    Plus, most now tack on hefty fees for overweight and over-sized checked and carry-on luggage, so measure and weigh your luggage carefully.
    Expect to pay extra for things like changing flights, extra leg room, priority boarding, unaccompanied minors, pets, Wi-Fi access and food.
    Some airlines even charge extra to speak to a live person, or to buy your ticket at the airport counter or by phone.

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  • Watch for big money in politics

    Do you remember the days when we had a year off between election campaigns? Even better, we had a year off from negative political advertising.
    No more. Announcements for next year’s gubernatorial campaign began even before the 2012 elections. Governor Susana Martinez never quit fundraising. She just had a big fundraiser in Taos and Palm Desert, Calif., that made the news. It isn’t unusual for first-term governors to raise money year-round for four years.
    Attorney General Gary King announced for governor long before the 2012 elections. He had been asked to make a politically controversial investigation and decision so felt he had to reveal his conflict.
    Soon after the 2012 general election Sen. Linda Lopez, of Albuquerque, and Clovis Mayor Gayla Brumfield announced their Democratic candidacies for governor. There likely will be several more announcements shortly.
    In fact, some possible candidates, such as Howie Morales, of Silver City have announced they may announce for governor.
    Most confounding of all is a negative Republican campaign that has already begun against Democratic Sen. Tim Keller, of Albuquerque. Keller has been mentioned as a possible gubernatorial candidate but has not announced.

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  • Safety agencies need to be impartial

    The explosion of the fertilizer plant in the small town of West, Texas, a few weeks ago, killed dozens of people, injured many more, and blew the walls off numbers of buildings. Has that affected your thinking about how to reduce the cost of government?
    Texas Gov. Rick Perry commented in a televised interview that maybe we need to consider toughening the regulations on the storage of such dangerous chemicals.
    That’s the same Rick Perry who, as a presidential candidate, famously called for the elimination of three major federal agencies and couldn’t remember one of them. Eliminating government excess sounds a whole lot easier in fuzzy generalities than in the wake of a tragedy.
    Shall we reduce the staffing of the agencies that enforce the regulation of the storage of explosive chemicals? Regulations generally are effective only when regulatory agencies are capable of enforcing them. Do you need more evidence? Think back to Wall Street, 2008, and policies based on the belief — expressed by the former chairman of the Federal Reserve, among others — that the financial industry would regulate itself.

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  • Scandals provide vital media coverage

    “Ya think, DiNozzo?” Gibbs responds on NCIS when Agent Dinozzo offers something totally obvious. Today’s question might better be, “Just what were they thinking?”
    Two recent headlines create the suspicion that all may well not be right. For me, the stories generate wonder about the culture, the mindset of the Obama administration. Both touch New Mexico.
    The old news is the Internal Revenue Service using tax rules to intimidate conservative advocacy organizations. IRS games with the Albuquerque Tea Party reportedly started in late 2011. The IRS sought all sorts of documents from the group, including emails between board members.
    I have seen bureaucratic intimidation. A classic was the member of Albuquerque’s zoning board, the Environmental Planning Commission, instructing a developer to plant a tree in the front yard of every home in his subdivision. Other developers have muttered between their teeth about petty changes perpetually required that eventually destroy a project.

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  • Give state regulation secretary walking papers

    What’s going on with the state Department of Regulation and Licensing? Investigative reporters for the Albuquerque Journal have been all over the department and its secretary, J. Dee Dennis Jr.
    It’s not surprising. From the beginning, he was one of the governor’s most dubious appointees — a businessman and campaign contributor who ponied up $16,000. The governor promised that business people would have “a friend and an ally” in Dennis, a self-made man who founded and grew DKD Electric Co. in Albuquerque and was later CEO of a solar start-up company.
    State regulation could be less heavy handed, certainly, but the department with Dennis at the wheel has overcorrected, and it’s not good for anybody. Even more troubling is that he has reportedly abused his authority.
    Red flags have been there from the beginning.
    One of the first things Dennis did was to fire Bill Verant, the state’s respected chief banking regulator for 16 years.

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  • Senators vote for marketplace fairness

    In a rare bipartisan moment, something significant happened last week in the United States Senate and New Mexico’s two senators, Tom Udall and Martin Heinrich, helped to make it happen by voting to end the chaos and misunderstanding surrounding the sales tax and online purchases.
    And good for them and the 67 other senators who joined in bipartisan passage of the Marketplace Fairness Act.
    One of the major fictions about commerce today is that Internet sales are immune from what we here in New Mexico call the gross-receipts tax, but is more commonly known elsewhere as the sales tax.
    Yet, while the great bulk of online sales do go tax free, so to speak, others are in fact legally subject to the sales tax in New Mexico and other states with such a tax.
    By law, any retailer with an outlet, store or office in a state where a consumer makes an online purchase is required to collect whatever rate the sales tax is levied. So if you live in New Mexico and purchase a coat from Eddie Bauer, you are obligated to pay the 5.125 to 8.6875 percent (depending on location) gross-receipts tax levied on that sale.
    Why? Because Eddie Bauer has an outlet in New Mexico.

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  • Tourism pros love N.M. true campaign

    Thank God for Texans and their money.
    Texans help explain the 3.3 percent growth of leisure and hospitality wage jobs over the past year, say hospitality executives.
    The situation offers a big, “nnaahhh, so there!” to those who whined about the state Tourism Department choosing an ad agency based in (gasp!) Austin. As in Texas.
    Around Taos, Texans are making life economically better, but things have not returned to the peak of 2007.
    Silver City gets fewer Californians than in the past, though Alaskans come. Activity is generally fairly good. Bus tours and RV owners are coming back. Along the Turquoise Trail drive north from I-40 to Santa Fe, business is pretty good. New York is one source of visitors.
    These impressions come from conversations at the Governor’s Conference on Tourism, held in Albuquerque in early May.
    Conference sponsors ranged from the corporately huge to the sort of very small business that seldom generates a headline. ConocoPhillips was the big guy.
    A couple of years ago the company decided it should talk to the people around it. Given that tourism people talk to many others, and given that ConocoPhillips is the state’s leading oil and gas producer, talking to tourism people seemed obvious.

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  • Richardson busy, not out of trouble

    As long as we have been talking about Gov. Susana Martinez and former Gov. Garry Carruthers, we don’t want former Gov. Bill Richardson to feel left out.
    While our current governor darts around the nation and world, our immediate past governor, Bill Richardson is doing much the same. He is serving on numerous boards, some of which he heads. He is speaking at prestigious universities.
    He is writing a book, “How to Sweet Talk a Shark.” It tells of his experiences successfully negotiating with dictators.
    Richardson said the secrets are to connect with them personally. Let them vent about how badly the United States has treated them. Find out what they really need, not what they say they need. And use humor.
    Negotiating with dictators is dangerous business. Richardson was basically by himself with no protection other than his own wits. He always had quiet approval of the presidents he served and he was a U.S. official.
    But it all was taking place on a back channel. Richardson was good at it and has lived to tell the story. The book comes out this fall, but he already is being interviewed on television and in newspapers.

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