PardonMyFrench

JCP&L Failing At More Than Just Electrical Power

JCP&L or also known as Jersey Central Power and Light is unfortunately my forced power supply company in Long Valley NJ.  This isn't the first time I've been without electrical power and those of you that know me for a long time, know how important electricity is to me. However, this is the first time I'm generally angry with JCP&L and it's not due to the lack of power, it's due to their lack of communication.

OK so quick background.  Hurricane Irene blows into town.  We have electricity - no problem through the night and then through most of the day on Sunday.  The kids and I even went outside to play catch in the afternoon.  Then as I was bragging on Facebook our power went out around 3:30.  It's still out  The only reason you are reading this post is that one of our friends in Long Valley lent us their generator (we had more than one person offer us). We didn't plug in our fridges or freezers because they defrosted on the overnight.   So over 24 hours later still no JCP&L but that's not what has me angry.

What has me angry is the utter lack of communications from this company - specifically this "lack of information, restoration chart".  It's inexcusable in a world of texting, internet, Twitter, and Facebook.  How can a company in 2011, not know these tools exist and they are dirt cheap.  Let's take a look at how awful their communications are:

1. That chart has not been updated.  Does anyone in this state actually believe you have NO RESTORATION INFORMATION?  Of course not.
2. When you cruise Twitter, all there is information on how bad their communication process is.  People are downright angry not due to the lack of power but due to the lack of communication.
3. How about a text messaging program or email program to let me know when you have restoration information.
4. Writing about email, PSE&G who I use for the office building in Union NJ has been emailing me once a day since Irene was bearing down on NJ.  JCP&L - nothing.
5. When you visit their website you see a big graphic regarding the hurricane so clearly someone there thought, hmmm, let's throw up a graphic except the clicks to that graphic bring up useless information including links to useless press releases.
6. Oh back to the "no restoration information" map, when you look at power outages in Long Valley the count is going down which means power is being restored, so clearly, THERE HAS TO BE AN UPDATE OF SOME KIND.
7. So, no Twitter, FB, website updates, email updates and no useful press releases.  All of which are cheap and could probably be handled by existing staff.  So what happens? People call into their call center and this drives up costs and actually creates angry customers who have to sit and listen to hold music.
8. Finally, my last rant, I am sick and tired of being told not to touch a downed power line.  Give me something more useful than that

Seriously JCP&L you have to be better than this.  Communications in the digital world aren't so hard and if I was there, I guarantee you I can make a positive business case just by saving on inbound calls.  Please try to embrace some kind of digital communications before the next power failure.  Imagine what would have happened if there was a real disaster.

PardonMyFrench,

Eric

 

Bing versus Google on Local Search Results

My wife just walked into my office and asked if had the number to our local Long Valley, NJ PNC bank.  So like the smart mouth I am sometimes I said "You know there's this thing called Google" and then I gave her the phone number.  As she walks out she says "I use Bing!" which was an awesome reply. So out of curiosity I went to Bing and then to Google and typed out the exact same search queery "pnc bank long valley, nj". And do you know what I found, Bing's results were organized better.  See these screen shots:

Now we'll look at Bing. Right up at the top is the Long Valley branch phone number.  Now it is hard to find it on their local map, but I know it is Long Valley because of the NPANXX combination (908876).  Of course at the bottom is the Yellow Pages listing.

Now let's pop over to Google and here's their screen shot.  At the top is the main PNC Bank page with some links but nothing there about branch locations and historically those bank branch locators take too many clicks to get the answer.  #2 result is Yahoo's local listing where the phone number is which is what I originally gave to my wife.  #3 is a job listing and #4 is Google's local listing with a much easier to read map and the phone number.

It is almost like Bing knew I just needed the local branch phone number and not everything else.  Google correctly listed the most relevant search for PNC Bank at the top but put the local listings at the bottom which is not quite the order for a local search.  Anyway, Google is still #1 for me but Bing offers a good product - Yahoo and the rest are not relevant.

PardonMyFrench,

Eric

For Cajun Food in New Jersey, Try Butler's Louisiana Kitchen in Long Valley

    ***UPDATE ON 4-23-09********** We stopped by last night and there was a note on the door that Butler's is temporarily closed due to the economic conditions.  You should call before you just show up.  I really hope it is temporary because the food in Long Valley is just pizza, burgers, and beer.***********************

We love Butler's Louisiana Kitchen in the center of Long Valley, NJ.  Our entire family has eaten there about a half dozen times and ALL of us love the food.  Those that you know me, know that I love finding great restaurants and I'm happy to report that there's a great place just 10 minutes from my house.  We've tasted the following menu items and have loved them all:

• Smoked Hog Wings
• Creole Hot Salad
• Seafood Gumbo
• Smoked Brisket and Smoked Ribs - both have been ordered multiple times per visit!
• Jambalaya
• Etoufee
• Beans, Greens, and Mac-Cheese

The only complaint that I have is that the food isn't spicy enough for me, but that's me being a little picky.  Seriously the food is awesome, priced right, and you can bring your own booze.  So since this is a recession busting time, allow me to resurrect Old School Facelift for Butler's for marketing the restaurant:

OLD SCHOOL FACELIFT #10: 5 QUICK RECESSION BUSTING MARKETING TECHNIQUES FOR BUTLER'S

1. Revisit Your Web Designer to Talk Social Networking:  The way to build a business online is to tap into social networks these days.  It helps with a couple of things:  it helps your Google rankings and it gets people talking about your business online.  You don't need to change the site much, but you could link out to say a YouTube page or a Facebook page.  On YouTube you could post videos of your recipes, Saturday nights shows you are hosting, and on Facebook you could allow people to load up photos, comment, and Fan you (that's friending in business terms).
2. Online Coupons:  Sure, somebody is going to tell you that you need an email list to send out coupons, but that is too old school for you.  Build up your Fans on your Facebook page and push messages and coupons out there.  Simple stuff, like take a picture of a coupon you designed and load it up and let any fan get access to the photo.  Bingo cheap coupon marketing.
3. Cajun Cooking Contests:  Run questions in your Facebook page asking people to tell you what their favorite Cajun recipes are and then have a night of customer request menus.  Run other contests like showing people making their own Cajun recipes at home, naming menu items, or loading up reviews of the restaurant.
4. Display Ads:  Google now has a build your own banner ad product that you can geo-target.  Their network covers about 80% of the US so you can get a ton of cheap cost per click impressions or CPM ads and cover say a 60 mile radius around NJ.  Trust me I pretty much pioneered the Google Blast or Google Surge for politics and it will work.  Also, once you have a decent enough Facebook fans, you can use their DIRT CHEAP ad platform that also lets people know if anyone in their personal network is a fan of Butler's - that's a cool Word of Mouth Marketing tool.
5. GOOGLE PAY PER CLICK ADS - I saved the best for last.  Run pay per click search ads targeted to searches in a 60 mile radius around Long Valley.  I'd organize the campaign in this manner and if you make me a lunch or early dinner, I'll set you up for free.  Oh and before I forget, under no circumstances should you pay for print advertising.
   
   • Brand name
   • Cajun
   • Restaurants
   • Long Valley

If you want good Cajun food and are tired of the standard pizza stuff, try Butler's Louisiana Kitchen.  Get the ribs or the brisket and post your thanks below. 

PardonMyFrench,

Eric

The Value of a Political Lawn Sign - Too Much to Ignore

About a month back I wrote a post called What's The Value of a Political Lawn Sign where I looked at the local town committee race between Republican Jim Harmon and Independent turned Democrat Kevin Nedd.  Basically, Kevin made a no political sign pledge and Harmon did not.  Well the results are in and Jim Harmon won.  So what does that tell us about the value of political lawn signs?  Well it turns out there were probably other factors at work, but I wouldn't run a race without them especially the ones that go on supporter's properties.

As you can see from this chart Harmon received 5,413 votes and Nedd received 3,203 votes.  That turns out to be the second most votes for any Democrat candidate on the slate.  Greenberg for Freeholder had the least amount of votes which probably represent the base support of WT Democrats and Democrat voting Independents.  Nedd didn't get as many cross-over Republicans and Independents as Obama, so what happened?

When Nedd flips over to be a Democrat the way for him to win was straightforward but difficult.  He would get probably like 99% of Democrats, but would have to pull about 20% of Republicans and then split the Independents. Given that he was also the Morris County Chair for Obama he would live or die by Obama's coattails.

There were Obama signs in town but no Nedd signs.  Both Nedd and Harmon dropped mail (an ABSOLUTE WASTE OF MARKETING DOLLARS) and both made robo calls.  Nedd probably got slightly more earned media but definitely not enough.  There were three campaign related sites in town.

• Jim Harmon Alexa Rating = 3,745,622 (1,467 hits)
• ReelectNedd Alexa Rating = 3,343,600 (1,643 estimated hits)
• KevinNeddSaid Alexa Rating = 6,205,655 (885 estimated hits)

I don't know the actual traffic ratings but the Harmon site has a traffic counter and if we use his site counter to Alexa rating ratio we can estimate the other sites visitors (next to Alexa).  None of these numbers are impressive and show a lack of community interest.  To put it in perspective, my own failed BofE campaign generated almost 3,500 visits in less than one month.  The Harmon and Nedd sites were up for months.

Based on the data above, I can only conclude that:

1. Political Lawn sign are important especially with the way Jim Harmon used them which was on supporter lawns only
2. Nedd didn't get enough earned media support from local papers to balance out the lack of marketing from the local signs
3. You can drop all the wasteful direct mail that you want, but the majority of the town showed no interest in either candidate's websites or the attack site which had some press.
4. While Nedd did well with the amount of votes he received, being associated with Obama hurt him a lot more in our town.  Of course Nedd did help get Obama elected President.

There really aren't any other conclusions.  For a local election it was very civil and didn't generate enough press for either candidate.  With quiet campaigns and lack of visible support/interest except for the signs, people pretty much voted like the top of the ticket.

PardonMyFrench,

Eric

What's The Value of A Lawn Sign?

It is the middle of October and thankfully my beautiful town of Long Valley NJ (aka Washington Township NJ) has not had the rolling hills and fall colors desecrated by a proliferation of campaign signs.  That is campaign signs for the local election here in town.  Sure I put up about 100 signs when I ran for Board of Education and along with the other candidates, the town was plastered with lawn signs.  In fact, one former board of education member gave me some advice when I met with him; that advice was "if you want to win, you'll put up as many lawn signs as possible".  So what gives with the local election?  Aren't campaign signs part of the basic political strategy?  Before I give some observations a little background.

• It is a town committee election between incumbent Independent turned Democrat Kevin Nedd and Board of Ed member, Republican Jim Harmon
• Kevin has been accused of putting up unattributed signs. 
• Jim Harmon wanted a gentleman's agreement with Kevin regarding when signs could go up.
• Kevin upped the ante and said let's not put any signs up and donate the money that they would have used to pay for the signs to a charity.
• Jim said he wouldn't have his campaign tactics dictated by his opponent

So what does the town look like?  I have yet to see a Kevin Nedd sign and I have seen a number of Jim Harmon signs but only I people's lawns and not on your typical "public" spots.  There are McCain signs as well as ones from "that other guy", but once again on people's property.  I wonder how long that will last?  I won't put up any McCain signs unless the campaign or the RNC asks me to (back in primary season I did it on my own because Senator McCain didn't have a ton of NJ infrastructure support until Rudy dropped out).

Typically the value of the signs lets people know in a public way that they support the candidate and it is ok to vote for the candidate (targeted at undecideds).  It goes after the herd mentality that people want to vote for a candidate that has a large following and they want to feel good about their vote.  It also helps with GOTV (get out the vote) in a cheap, cost effective way.   I guess there is some brand value too, but I don't place much weight in that at the national level.  Bottom line - it helps with GOTV and the herd mentality of voting with a majority.  You'd think that would be useful in a local campaign.

However Kevin Nedd has abstained from the lawn sign strategy.  I know Kevin and he isn't dumb.  He is probably betting that he has enough registered Democrats and that he has good name recognition.  Kevin also is relying on letter writing, his public record, interviews in the local paper, and his status on the Town Council to keep his name in the public domain and to communicate with potential voters.  He also knows from the gentleman's agreement that a lot of people dislike those signs especially the ones in common areas.  He also has a detailed driven website.  By not putting up the signs he is trying to set a standard for local elections.  Perhaps there will be direct mail (yuck) and an email campaign, but as of now he is "signless".

Jim Harmon meanwhile is employing signs but in a respectful manner.  I see nothing wrong with supporters putting up signs on their property.  Jim is also relying on direct mail, interviews, the Board of Education (it has less visibility except when it comes to Math), and for a period of time was running a lot Google search ads in NJ.  The bulk of the search terms have since be replaced by advertising for an attack site called KevinNeddSaid but I am unsure as to whether they are linked because there is no official campaign disclosure on the website.  The KevinNeddSaid ads are heavily rotated in.  It is curious that the ads never appear together at the same time, but that's a question for Google.

So without the signs it really comes down to who knows their base better and who knows the undecideds in town better.  Who can best bring their case to why voters should support them and who sounds/reads better in local debates and articles.  Who has better brand awareness and can appeal to make their case to the herd voters.  The GOTV aspect of lawn signs will be delivered by the National Campaigns. 

It should be very interesting to see how this turns out and what weight the lawn signs really have in an election.  Back in my old AT&T Bell Labs days, this is what you'd call a control treatment experiment with the extra treatment being the lawn signs.  Of course this local election isn't a kosher experiment because the underlying controls are not normalized between the campaigns, but still it makes for interesting observations.  Personally, I already have my own theories on how it will turn out.

PardonMyFrench,

Eric

Old School Facelift #9 Laser Works by Carolyn Monday from Hackettstown New Jersey

I was at a birthday party Saturday night and I ran into Carolyn Monday who owns a company on Schooly's Mountain in Hackettstown, NJ called Laser Works Treatment Center.  The company uses laser therapy to treat smoking habits and since I've never smoked a legitimate cigarette in my life (more on that below) I really wasn't interested in whether it works or not.  I was more interested in whether Carolyn should have her own static website or not to promote her services.  So, let's take a look at:

Old School Facelift #9 - Laser Works Treatment Center by Carolyn Monday

1. Natural Search Dilemma - Carolyn needs to start here.  She needs to figure out which 10 keywords she'd like to appear on.  Searching for laser works, hackettstown NJ pulls up her nice Google Local listing but that type of search predisposes that people are already looking for her.  "quit smoking laser nj" brings up quite a lot of listings but it doesn't appear that any of the top 20 results have a strategic advantage.  Unfortunately her own name doesn't bring up any results (until this post).  When I browse the list of results none of them appear to be blogs which means Carolyn could have some nice natural search results by constantly updating the site.
2. Getting a Good URL - Going back to the natural search results there appears to mostly static websites and unfortunately for Carolyn laserworks.com seems to be taken as well as laserworksinc.com.  Laserworkstreatmentcenter.com is a long URL but is available as is carolynmonday.com and carolynmondaylaser.com.  stopsmokingbylaser.com also works.  Personally I'd grabbed quite a few of them, but depending on how Carolyn wants to market her company would mean I'd either go carolynmonday.com or some version of stopsmokingbylaser.com.  Me, I'd go stopsmokingbylaser.com because I bet people that are hearing radio ads or reading articles are probably more likely to type that keyword in.  If you Google "stop smoking by laser" you'll see that nobody is using that URL and it seems extremely popular with the paid search advertisers.
3. Blog Content of StopSmokingbyLaser.com - I'd avoid the typical static website and opt for the blog site.  Revisiting my old board of education campaign site which now points to longvalleymath.com you can see how you can have a combination site with static pages but one that is powered by a blog.  So, I'd recommend wordpress as the blog platform because it is a) free b) easy c) has many different templates to choose from and d) has easy to use add-ons.  As I recall for about $15 she can purchase her URL via wordpress and have a blog site up in running in a manner of minutes.  Plus, the blog content will enable her to update her site a few times a week, hit the blogosphere running where there doesn't appear to be any competition, and make some headway in the natural search. 
4. Video Content - Ok, now I'm not writing that her product doesn't work or it isn't believable.  It does seem a little far out, but then again I've never smoked.  The best thing Carolyn can do to prove it works is to use video.  So, I'd hop over to YouTube and grab the page YouTube.com/stopsmokingbylaser.  Now she has a page that will host her own video (read commercials) for free.  All she needs to do is have a decent video with a tripod and some free, easy to use video editing software (or not) and she can film her office, materials, procedures, and even do a video series.  Wordpress also makes it very easy to host the video on the blog.
5. Customer Testimonials -  Does anyone every believe the infamous "this product is great by John from Kalamazoo, MI" quote?  Of course not, but if Carolyn actually filmed satisfied customers and put it up on her YouTube page, how much more powerful would that be?

You'll notice one thing missing that has been consistent in most of my Old School posts is I never mentioned paid search.  My experience tells me that the majority of her keywords would be very expensive judging by the competition that is already there.  I think Carolyn should eventually use paid search instead of say a newspaper ad, but she'd have to be very smart about how much she pays and which words she buys.  First priority for her business is to take care of the free, social networking opportunities and then branch out into paid advertising. 

BTW - I made this post at 9:01 AM and the keyword search {"carolyn monday", hackettstown, nj} had no search results.  By 9:45 this post appeared in the results proving how quick Google is and how quickly a blog post can influence results.   Also, this post is #1 in the "Carolyn Monday" keyword.

PardonMyFrench,

Eric

P.S.  I never smoked cigarettes because when I was growing up my father smoked a ton of Parliment cigarettes especially in the little Toyota he owned.  I can still smell that smoke blowing around that car and that pretty much ruined any chance I had to ever pick up a cigarette and put it in my mouth.  Plus, if you actually lit up a Parliment around me I'll actually ask you to put it out or go somewhere else.  Yes - any other cigarette but those vile Parliments.

I Got Palm Trees from Tucked Away Farms

Who doesn't like Palm Trees?  I just never thought it was possible until I read in the Sunday Star Ledger about a farm in the Califon section of Washington Township NJ (Long Valley is a section of Washington Township) called Tucked Away Farms.  Tucked Away Farms sells a hardy version of Palm Trees that can live in New Jersey.  I was intrigued, so the family and I with my mom in tow went to visit the farm and immediately bought two Palm Trees for around our deck.  Joe who owns the farm is very knowledgeable about plants, but my mom thought he was a little crazy.  My reply "Mom, the guy is selling Palm Trees in NJ, of course he is a little crazy."  Crazy like a fox.

The Palm Trees aren't cheap and require a lot of care especially for the first two winters.  We have to basically build a cage covered with industrial strength plastic to protect the plant; that is until the trees are used to the winters up in NJ, especially on Schooly's Mountain.  After the two years or so according to Joe we should be good to go.  However even with all of that care, there is nothing better than sitting on your back deck in the hot tub, listening to beach music with your own PALM TREES.  Every time I look at them I just grin.

Is it a bit of a risk?  Sure.  My wife and I have a great track record with plants and gardening so we decided (I really convinced her) to give it a shot.  Of course I'm praying for a mild winter and my father in-law will help me build the protective covering, but we are excited.  After all, can you get pictures like these in your home in NJ?

If you want Palm Trees go to Tucked Away Farms.  Don't wait too much longer.

PardonMyFrench,

Eric

Political Online Advertising and Local Politics

During the Online Fundraising panel at the June 16th AAPC conference a pretty interesting discussion took place mainly between Andrew Rasiej and Benjamim Katz.  If you didn't know Andrew is of Personal Democracy-techPresident fame and Benjamins runs CompleteCampaign which provides technology solutions to political campaigns (he's also a competitor of Campaign Solutions).  Their discussion was along the lines of how very local races (public advocate, school board) should or should not use the internet to engage voters.  Benjamin decided to take the side that these campaigns aren't using internet tools other than website-donations while Andrew took him to task basically saying that there is a change occurring as more campaigns and governments become more open source. 

At one point, a woman in the audience stood up and described a situation she had where she used the web to get voters to help pass a school funding bill that failed the two previous (non-web) attempts. Ben's argument was lost (it kind of was in the beginning), but it got me thinking back to my own Board of Education race in Washington Township.  Sure I didn't win, but I can point to a lot of great things.

Why I Almost Got A Seat On My Board

1. I had a simple message which was to recall the Everyday Math curriculum in our school.  This led into a conversation about curriculum that had all the candidates speaking about it.
2. I knew that there was a large group of parents that had concerns about the curriculum and by speaking out against it, they gravitated towards me.
3. I provided as much information some with my commentary and others without it on my campaign website that was really a blog.  This allowed me to respond immediately and provide information in the form of videos, charts, and links.  I generated an enormous amount of traffic for a local campaign that really had nothing hot in it except what I generated on the math issue.
4. I used internet communications in the forms of email, display ads zipcode targeted in Yahoo, and zipcode targeted Google search ads to drive traffic and messaging.  It was so dominant that the Board President was relieved that she no longer had to see my face in her Yahoo mail everyday.
5. People passed my message and links around virally.
6. I pounded my message home about the math so much that the local newspaper generated earned media exposure for me.  I also had fans write letters to the editor and I put out a bunch of signs and made robo calls to voters.

Why I Lost By About 100 Votes

1. People were motivated to prevent me from getting on the board, specifically the local Democrats.
2. I didn't start early enough.  My first post on my website was 3/21 which was 25 days before election day.  I relied on an internet campaign that spread virally in town but I needed about another week or two to close the deal.
3. I should have consulted more people in NJ before deciding to run.  I did it on a whim based on my son's math homework.  I should have received more support from key Republicans in town and insist that I should have been linked to one of my other friends running.
4. There was a bit of a whisper campaign running that erroneously claimed I was friends with someone disliked in town by quite a number of people.  Plus there was talk of my sparse Board of Education voting pattern.  Neither one of these  was unfair in politics, but if I would have started earlier and received more base support it would not have mattered.
5. I started with a low base of support and low name recognition.

Basically if you are someone running for an office and using strategies that Ben Katz described that most of you use, you can probably still win.  You can overcome not using modern internet techniques to push your message and get support.  Riding someone else's coattails can still bring you to the top.  However, if you have a message and you have a strategy, you can bring the power of the internet to your campaign and become more open sourced.  You can use video, social networking, blogging, paid advertising, and etc to market yourself.

Why not let people spread your message for you?  Why not let them do what is most convenient for themselves and forward an email on or link to a video?  Stop using the same old tactics and run a well rounded campaign.  If you have enough old school support melded with modern techniques, you actually might surprise yourself and win.

PardonMyfrench,

Eric