Just throw it away.

So I am in the market for a new point and shoot digital camera, basically to replace the one that got dropped. It seems like a pretty straight forward process, but as I am learning this is an overly complicated process, and I even know the exact camera I want.
It will be my third of the exact same camera in five years because the first iteration treated me so well and I now have back up batteries, chargers and SD cards. The problem is, what do you do with a 12 month old semi broken camera? It works most of the time, but it’s cracked, it won’t eject the battery easily and doesn’t always play nice. Some research reveals that there is a much better camera already on the market for less than the last one I bought, so a $100 repair job seems silly over a $170 new camera. Here is where it gets goofy. No one wants this camera…NO ONE! A camera shop wouldn’t take a credit for a trade in, or even take it to recycle it. “I think people just throw away old cameras” told over the phone by a camera shop employee. I was shocked.
The resolution is I found a company online that will take my old camera and donate parts or money to a charity of my choosing. Now, the shipping comes at my cost and I will get nothing out of the experience but a good feeling. What bothers me the most is that the calls to several camera shops all had the same advice…throw it away. Needless to say I found a proper home for my old camera that will benefit a charity of my choosing, but I am sad that it took this much effort to recycle.

Social Media

Don’t make me do it, please.  I really hate the idea of even bringing up the subject, but it is 2010.  Our senses are constantly BOMBARDED with information, videos, and pictures so it is unavoidable.  We are talking about the 1,000 lbs. gorilla in the (board) room that no one really knows what to do with it.  Millennials love it, Gen-Xers don’t really understand it, and baby boomers are just lost.  Here it is, social media. 

Honestly, I fought it for years.  I was fine with a well crafted email, a well placed phone call, or God forbid a 60 minute coffee date to catch up.  But now that I am sucked in both personally and professionally and  I can’t seem to get away.  My latest battle has come with trying to develop and  execute a comprehensive S.M. plan at my place of employment, while educating my boss.  On day two of the freewheeling social media plan my boss asked, ‘any updates or leads?’  I thought he was joking.  When he asked again on day five I had to sit him down and have a heart to heart.  I told him that this will be a thankless and tiresome job that might not turn into revenue for months, and even if it does we might not ever know that a job came from a facebook update or tweet.  His response was ‘what’s a tweet’?

Don’t get me wrong, I am not trying to belittle him for his lack of knowledge or experience on social media/ online marketing.  The point is that here you have someone that is highly successful in their industry and doesn’t know a lick about social media.  And then it hit me, Facebook is the new highway billboard.  You have to post (signs) everywhere.  I can’t imagine that the tire shop off the highway has cars lining up because of a killer billboard.  I am also sure that I will never get a phone call the starts, ‘your facebook page is awesome’.  No, they will probably say, ‘I found you online’.  The lesson, put up as many billboards as you can in as many different places as you can to get your message across; facebook, twitter, youtube, linkedin, flickr, etc you never know who is looking, or where they are looking.