Demographics Demystified Slides Are Up!

So that took longer than I expected to get done!  But here are the slides from last week’s Demographics Demystified presentation.  (Hint: if you hop over to Slideshare, you can see my speaker’s notes below the presentation.)  Enjoy!

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Demographics Demystified at the 10/13 Networking Lunch!

If you’ve ever written a business plan or applied for a grant, you know how crucial it is to find the demographics you need — fast!  Thanks to some awesome tools from the Census Bureau, the Berkeley-Charleston-Dorchester Council of Governments and the CCPL Business Center’s online library, you can find a wide variety of local, state, and national figures in a snap.  I’ll demonstrate how to find the statistics you need with DemographicsNow, the BCDCOG’s Binary Bus application, and American Factfinder.

When: Wednesday, October 13th, from 11:45 AM – 1:15 PM

Where: Main Library, 68 Calhoun Street

For more information, email the Reference Department at askaquestion@ccpl.org, or call us at 805-6930.  Hope to see you there!

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Branding Bits from the Presentation

I really enjoyed Lee’s branding presentation this morning!  Here’s some food for thought I took away with me when it was all over.

• A brand is also an experience.  Think about Starbucks.  They are selling more than a product or service: being a third place, an experience, is a crucial part of their brand.
• Coca-Cola continues to be the most valuable international brand.  Although we may think of them as being part of an all-American event like a backyard barbecue, they do a great job tailoring their marketing to each country where they do business.  Target your brand separately to each target market!
• Generational branding…you don’t talk to Boomers, Gen X or Gen Y the same way.  [And we have some great books on that topic you can check out...take a look here, here and here.]
• Authenticity is key, especially in this 2.0-driven world.  What does this mean?  At heart, your brand makes a promise to the public.  Your reputation should show that you keep your promises.
• Solicit feedback from the naysayers who don’t like your brand.  Why don’t the like you?  If they were your customers, what went wrong?  Ask how can you make it right if you did something wrong.
• When you are working on branding, let your employees know what you’re doing and why.  Treat your employees well, while you’re at it.  If they are not treated well, their plight will conflict with your branding.  (Think about Wal-Mart’s struggle with the minimum-wage image they have, which conflicts with their main marketing messages.)
• If you say you’re Number 1, you better be able to prove it.
• If you think you don’t need to worry about your brand since you don’t use the Internet to find customers, think again.  Google your company or nonprofit and you are already out there.  Either you control your brand’s image online…or the world will.

I twittered a few other interesting points during the presentation, but I’m way too lazy to repeat them here.  Take a look at http://www.twitter.com/ccplbusiness if you’d like more!

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Free is Fabulous! Do-It-Yourself Business Research

Short on time and money? Did you know that you can use CCPL’s Business Center resources to build your own business-to-business mailing list, spy on your competition and find customized demographic reports for your marketing needs–for free?

I will show you how to conduct this kind of valuable business research from your home or workplace at Free Is Fabulous! Do-It-Yourself Business Research. 

This is one of my favorite things about the public library: we’ve taken your tax dollars and turned them into gold: access to thousands of dollars worth of proprietary business research–available to you at work, at home, anywhere you are, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week!

Come out & see how you can use CCPL’s Online Business Library to put your business on top!

When: Monday, September 28th, 10 – 11:30 A.M.

Where: Main Library Auditorium, 68 Calhoun St.

No registration is required.  For more information, email askaquestion@ccpl.org or call 805-6930.

Hope to see you there!

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SC Industry & Your Library

After the 18th annual South Carolina Industry Appreciation Week last week, we spent some time thinking about our local industries.   

Facts about Charleston’s Business Community:

• Charleston County has 11,959 business establishments as of 2006¹
• 179,971 workers were employed by these establishments in 2006¹
• Gross sales by Charleston County businesses were $12,880,870,684 during fiscal year 2005-06¹
• The top 5 industries in Charleston County by number of establishments are: Retail, Other Services (except public administration), Construction, and Professional, Scientific & Technical Services.²

I took some time to reflect on what we’ve done so far this year in the Business Center to help support entrepreneurs in our area.  Here’s what I discovered:

• SORE Counselors have helped at least 38 people in 12 visits to the Business Center in 2008
• The Business Center has helped 54 individuals with involved business questions and helped answer 18 questions from patrons at other library branches.
• The Business Notes email newsletter has 217 subscribers as of this week.
• 200 people have attended the 14 business reference events held so far in 2008 at the Main Library
• I’ve had the opportunity to tell 67 people about our resources at 4 speaking engagements this year.  (Two more chances for me to talk to folks are on the way next week!)
• 57 volumes were added to the Business Center reference collection in August alone.
• CCPL had added three online business resources in 2008: the DemographicsNow database, the Everyday Finance ebook, and the Small Business Resource Center, courtesy of the SC State Library’s DISCUS project.

We’re thrilled to have made a difference in the lives of everyone we’ve helped so far this year, and I look forward to working with even more of you in the months to come!

_______________
¹2008 South Carolina Statistical Abstract
² 2006 County Business Patterns, US Census Bureau

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