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Entry posted January 5, 2009 by Mark Wallace
It seems like everyone always does a "predictions" blog or article around this time of the year. Since I must have read 50 or more of these types of posts and articles focused on technology predictions during the holiday break, I thought I would share what I feel are the hotter social media and technology related trends that might be of interest to the environmental professional members of commonground.
So here are my five in no particular order. Please note that there is no scientific methodology applied to this list - just one opinionated guys viewpoint...
- Social media, like everything else, will have its challenges over the next year. However, the companies that survive will emerge stronger than ever in 2010. Some of the bigger challenges will include all the naysayers publishing controversial articles and blogs titled "SOMETHING SOCIAL MEDIA RELATED.....is Dead" for their own business benefit and exposure, risk that new viruses will be generated from social networking sites, success in monetizing social networks will be limited at best, and VC money or the lack thereof will result in significant market consolidation.
- Mobile technology will be hotter than ever in 2009. New phones, applications, and improvements are causing people like me to burn through phones and develop relationships with the sales people at our local AT&T store. Expect that trend to continue and expect a bunch of new cool social media applications including the ability to leverage your community membership of choice easily and intuitively via your phone.
- The ability for a company to maximize its search engine optimization (SEO) will be one of the primary drivers in helping companies hit their goals in 2009, 2010, and beyond. There have been a few varying opinions on this lately, but don't believe the negative press. Just look at the facts. As of June 30, 2008, the World population as reported on the World Internet Usage Statistics web site was 6,676,120,288 and 1,463,632,361 or roughly 22% of the population uses the web. That means a huge market has not been penetrated yet and like the 73.6% of the US market that has been penetrated, they too will learn to "search" or "google" everything.
- Twitter popularity will continue to go through the roof, but look for some rough seas ahead for them in the press once they try to make some money and struggle like Facebook has.
- SaaS technology adoption will continue to grow rapidly at larger enterprises and not just small/mid size companies. Lower cost, flexible, and secure, open source providers are making it easier for IT buyers and budget conscious companies to say yes to innovation.
A few blogs and articles highlighting predictions for 2009 that I found to be very interesting and informative include ones from Peter Kim , CMS Watch, Tim Bajarin, Online Media Daily, Mashable.
Please feel free to add any that you think should be on the list and/or share other articles you found interesting.
Happy first full week of 2009.
- Entry posted December 30, 2008 by Mark Wallace
Most of the time I write about social media topics and trends. However, today I am switching gears a bit from the norm.
We all know how pivotal righting the real estate market ship is in the turnaround of our current economic crisis. This past weekend, I was on weather.com and came across the following link titled the Top 10 Most Polluted US Cities as published by the American Lung Association for 2008. See below results.
Top 10 U.S. Cities Most Polluted by Short-Term Particle Pollution:
1) Pittsburgh, Pa.
2) Los Angeles/Long Beach/Riverside, Calif.
3) Fresno/Madera, Calif.
4) Bakersfield, Calif.
5) Birmingham, Ala.
6) Logan, Utah
7) Salt Lake City, Utah
8) Sacramento, Calif.
9) Detroit, Mich.
10) Baltimore, Md./Washington, D.C./Northern Virginia.Top 10 U.S. Cities Most Polluted by Year-Round Particle Pollution:
1) Los Angeles/Long Beach/Riverside, Calif.
2) Pittsburgh, Pa.
3) Bakersfield, Calif.
4) Birmingham, Ala.
5) Visalia/Porterville, Calif.
6) Atlanta, Ga.
7) Cincinnati, Ohio
8) Fresno/Madera, Calif.
9) Hanford/Corcoran, Calif.
10) Detroit, Mich.Top 10 U.S. Cities Most Polluted by Ozone:
1) Los Angeles/Long Beach/Riverside, Calif.
2) Bakersfield, Calif.
3) Visalia/Porterville, Calif.
4) Houston, Texas
5) Fresno/Madera, Calif.
6) Sacramento, Calif.
7) Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas
8) New York, N.Y./Newark, N.J.
9) Baltimore, Md./Washington, D.C./Northern Virginia
10) Baton Rouge, La.Today, I read CNN's 10 Worst Real Estate Markets in 2009. All of the following areas are expected to lose 20% or more of their property value in 2009. Eight of the ten included are in California and many are from cities determined to be the most polluted.
California - Los Angeles, Stockton, Riverside, Sacramento, Santa Ana, Fresno, San Diego, and Bakersfield.
Florida - Miami
District of Columbia - Washington (Virginia too)After reading this and thinking about friends who are in CA, I am concerned about what might happen to them. I also cannot help but speculate about exactly how much impact the air pollution and other environmental issues have in the "big picture".
There are many talented people working on a long term plan. What is the short term plan? Clearly, the ripple effect could be unimaginable if we do not plug this leak in our ship.
What are your thoughts on how to potentially address these issues in 2009?
- Entry posted February 3, 2009 by Mark Wallace
When we launched commonground nine months ago, we set out to build the leading social network for property and environmental due diligence professionals. In just nine short months, we have grown membership to nearly 3,000 environmental professionals from 65 countries by continuing to deliver value to our members in the form of premium content, timely answers to challenging questions, and access to the collective insights of some of the brightest minds in our industry.
As a result of your membership, participation, and support, I am headed out to the the Environmental Industry Summit February 18-20th to accept a Project Merit Award from the Environmental Business Journal on behalf of you - our commonground members. I would like to personally thank you and congratulate you as the award is yours, I am just accepting it on your behalf.
If any of you are thinking about attending the Environmental Industry Summit, ZweigWhite and the Environmental Business Journal have agreed to offer a special discounted price for commonground members. All new registrations are eligible for $200 off the standard conference rate. To find out more details about the event, I recommend you visit their website or call their customer service line. Please reference your membership to commonground as part of your registration to benefit from the discounted rate.
For those of you who will be there, I would love the opportunity to meet up with you while we are in San Diego to find out how we can continue to make commonground more valuable for you. Please visit the link to the thread in the discussions area and we can coordinate calendars. Hopefully, we will see you in San Diego.
- Entry posted March 27, 2009 by Mark Wallace
Each day I come to the office knowing that my team is blazing a new trail with commonground. We are developing something that is entrepreneurial, valuable, and in many ways still unfamiliar, to many environmental professionals. It is never a dull moment especially these days as we take commonground to the next level.
Each day, I am lucky to gain access to so many great articles, blogs, and experiences because of my social networks, feeds, and Twitter. Today, I was thrilled to find this one. I believe it might be one of the easiest reads on the simple ways to embrace social media that I have seen in a long time. I encourage any of you who are exploring your online and social media strategy to read Valeria Maltoni's recent blog Conversation Agent: 7 Things I Learned Online That I Use at Work.
The key takeaways are:
1) Business relationships are taking new forms as customers, colleagues, and partners are communicating in new, more effective, and social ways. Zappos is a great example of a company that exemplifies this.
2) People and companies that are charged with social innovation typically start by just trying things to see if they work and either stick with them if they do or bail on them if they don't.
3) Delivering stuff to your customers (employees, partners, prospects) that is timely, transparent, and valuable will enable you to develop much deeper relationships than any of your traditional marketing collateral ever could.
One line that stands repeating from the article is this - "People are no longer a company's best asset, they are its best technology. Contribution and connection are the new currency".
Don't forget to set some reasonable goals before you start sampling. Remember the saying which is posted here in our office "a goal without a plan is just a wish" - Antoine de Saint-Exupery
- Entry posted November 12, 2008 by Mark Wallace
I just read a very interesting article on Treehugger. The article sites seven actions that our new president elect should consider implementing once he is officially in office titled 7 Executive Orders That President Obama Should Sign to Protect the Environment.
In summary, they are:
1) Reduce the Federal Carbon Footprint
2) Consider Climate Change in All Decisions
3) Protect Children From Chemicals
4) Environmental Justice
5) Transparent Regulatory Review
6) Protect Stronger State Laws from Weaker Federal Ones
7) Promoting Ecological IntegrityThe article and the report from the Center for Progressive Reform goes into a lot more detail than this summary.
Given the expertise of all of our members, I would love to hear your opinions on this list and how our President elect can make an immediate environmental impact.
Are there any others they are missing? Does this sound like a good start?
- Entry posted March 10, 2009 by Mark Wallace
Often times, those of us who live in the social media space tend to talk a language that is foreign about social technologies. I get accused of that all the time by my co-workers who are probably laughing as they read this blog. Many of the environmental and property due diligence professional members of commonground who are just beginning to use social technologies, as well as some of my co-workers, have started to ask me more and more frequently about Twitter and how to use it.
There are many how to guides out there. If you search Google, you are very likely to find enough instructional videos, information, and posts to keep you busy for months. There are a couple that I think do a great job of explaining the benefits, how to set it up, and how to use it once you have an account. Therefore, I am going to keep it simple.
- Read 17 Reasons Why Your Business Should be on Twitter to understand how it is changing business and why you, and your company, should sign up for an account if you have not already.
- Check out the following slide show titled Twitter Basics for Non-Techies for a step by step tutorial on how to set it up.
- Read the following post on Twitter Best Practices for some helpful hints on ways you should use it.
Lastly, just get started. Once you are up and running, add your twitter address to your autosignature, your business card, blog posts, and your Linkedin and Facebook pages. You are now on your way.
You may also want to check out my earlier post 2009 = 240 or Less. As always, feel free to add me to contact me on twitter at @mwallcomm if you have any questions.
- Entry posted January 9, 2009 by Mark Wallace
When I get in conversations about social media with coworkers, partners, and customers, it seems like I always end up discussing the following comment and question.
There are so many social networks out there - which ones should I use?
It seems like a simple question that everyone assumes I can answer, but it is actually quite complex. Communities like LinkedIn, Facebook, and Myspace are ones that many of us already use. However, there are so many others that are offering terrific benefits to members for free and for a fee.
- If you practice law or are interested in it, you might find the Legal Talk Network of value.
- If you are a federal, state, or local government employee, you may find govloop of value
- If you work in the world of commercial lending, you may find value in WannaNetwork.com
- And of course, if your are an environmental professional, I hope you find value as a member of commonground
There is one thing in common about all of my recommendations. You, not me, has to find value out of the community in order for it to make sense for you. Whether you join a community for answers, peer feedback, product information, friend connections, ratings and review, customer support, etc., you need to realize benefit from your membership. If you don't, the answer is common sense - it is not right for you.
So, the only advice I can give you is this:
1) use your best judgement on whether you think the community you are considering joining is right for you.
2) sign up and check out the content, who the other members are, and the quality of the information
3) decide whether you feel you are getting value out of your time and participation
4) stay a member as long as you are realizing benefit - either professionally or personally
There are many communities out there. Good luck finding the ones that are the right fit for you and we hope you continue to find significant value as a commonground community member. If you don't, please let us know how we can better serve you by emailing commonground@edrnet.com.
- Entry posted February 23, 2009 by Mark Wallace
I just returned back from the Environmental Industry Summit in San Diego where commonground received a Project Merit award from the Environmental Business Journal. This might sound strange to many of you, but it was the first time I had to travel via plane on business in nearly six months. For those of you who know me, that is far from the norm for me.
When I arrived to Logan Airport, a whole new world of airline fees was introduced to me since the last time I flew.
Checked bag fee - $15.00 each way
Comfort kit (pillow, blanket, headphones, etc.) - $7.00
Any Coke product including spring/sparkling water or juice - $2.00
Fresh brewed coffee - $1.00There are more, but these are the new ones. Remember the Southwest commercial where they talk about the fees to use the bathroom? If you don't, I have included the youtube link. I could not stop thinking about it when they were presenting my options.
There was a gentlemen on the flight who asked the stewardess if they carried tap water. When she answered yes, he said "That's great, I just wanted to make sure if a passenger was choking and did not have $2.00 he would get some water". I felt bad for her and the other airline staff members as they were taking a lot of heat.
I also was a bit surprised last week when I cashed in 119,600 miles for two first class tickets for an upcoming vacation. I was short by 400 miles because the mileage had not yet been applied to my account. I then bought 1,000 miles to finish booking my two tickets. The cost was $27.50. And, the processing fee was $32.06. Imagine what your customers would think if you charged them the sticker price plus 117% to process transactions. Maybe the airline industry is on to something?
The USA Today recently reported that the US retail price for regular gasoline climbed an additonal 3.8 cents to a three month high, at $1.96 a gallon. The Energy Information Adminsitration indicated that is the highest it has been since November 17th - three months ago. I realize the airlines locked in fuel prices while they were high. However, the rising fuel cost defense seems like a bit of a stretch at this point.
I would like to pass along a word of advice to the airlines on selling 101. Customers like me are more than happy to pay more to fly if you are delivering more value in return(wireless internet, maybe a tv in the seats, more leg room, a preferred seat location, a friendly experience). Add the fees into the ticket prices and eliminate the additional fees. No one is purchasing sodas, no one is purchasing sandwiches, and very few people purchase the comfort kit on principal alone. I suspect no one would notice a few bucks on the fee. However, they will as an indvidual item and the only attention it will get will be negative.
Curious to hear your thoughts on this? Does this bother you too?
- Entry posted December 12, 2008 by Mark Wallace
No one reads my blogs. No one seems to comment on my blogs. I must be doing something wrong. Is this what you think sometimes? Well, you might be right.Forrester Research recently conducted a survey of 5,000 people which yielded some interesting results. 80% of the respondents consume corporate blogs, but only 16% of the survey respondents actually trust them. I have included the link to the Forrester Groundswell survey.
The three most trustworthy sources sited were:
1) 77% of respondents trust email from people they know
2) 60% of respondents trust consumer product ratings/reviews
3) 50% of respondents trust search engines
Jeremiah Owyang, wrote Health Check: How Trusted is Your Corporate Blog to provide insight on how to maximize your blogs potential to ensure it is in that top 16% deemed trusted. I encourage you to read it if you blog or provide advice to others that do. It provides some great points that we should all consider.
What is comforting is that I think the bloggers on commonground do a good job of following Jeremiah's recommendations. However, we can always improve and I always welcome your feedback on how to do so.
Remember, no one who reads your blog wants to see your logo, your marketing message/collateral, or your tagline everywhere they look, or links to them. They want to see a person and company that has the same social values, goals, and objectives they do. And, they want you to share something interesting or helpful. Hope you find this both interesting and helpful.
- Entry posted November 24, 2008 by Mark Wallace
How many of you work for a company that has been around for more than five years? During that five years, has your business evolved? Do you do business online? Do you or your company have a blog? Do you use twitter? Do you own a cell phone?I suspect many of you have answered yes to most if not all of these questions. When is the last time you thought about or updated the information you include on your business cards? My guess is the real answer is when whoever it was who is no longer with the company created the template.
It is ok - you can admit it, you are not alone.
A few weeks ago I encouraged you not to discount your autosignatures. This week I encourage you not to discount the value of your business card. The standard information is fine - we all know what that is, but there is valuable information you can add to improve the presentation of your credentials.
1) Link to your blog
2) Your twitter address
3) Link to a your social networking profile
4) Your cell phone
So, since I have been speculating throughout this blog post, I am guessing you are saying to yourself - Why bother? Anyone I give my card to will be able to get in touch with me - right? Perhaps, but think about when you give out cards. You are usually at a meeting where you have met someome new, at a trade show, a networking event, etc.. Chances are that many of the people you are handing them to do not know you all that well. And, the easier you make it for these folks to find and research your credentials, the higher likelihood you will convert them from suspects to prospects.The next generation of property due diligence professionals and our future customers are from the web generation. These millenials have had access to technology from the moment they were born. They leverage social media, they are influenced by trends, and they do the majority of their personal and professional business online. Do you think they want to do business with someone they perceive as like them or someone who is not? This time, I will leave it to you to speculate.
The next time you need to order cards, remember they have two sides. Use them both.