When Douglas Communications Group and Ken Hebenstreit, Bookseller go on a road trip, we are wired.  Here’s a list of our electronic helpers:

• Two laptop computers
• Smart phone, with 12-volt and 110-volt chargers
• 35mm camera
• Flip video recorder
• A 12-volt to 110 converter, to use computers in the car
• A converter to plug the smart phone into the car’s cassette player, so we can stream audio and play MP3s through the vehicle sound system, and
• The piece de resistance:  A Mifi card.

I’ve wanted to try Mifi ever since I learned about it, and boy, is it dandy.  Just turned it on and both our computers immediately found the wireless network.  It worked in the car, so we could stream Pandora radio even when we didn’t have 3G coverage.  It’s faster than the hotel network.  3/6/10

My longtime friend, planner Rod Arroyo, has followed his heart into an additional career as a photographer.  His book, Royal Oak by Night, is available in stores around town or, of course, direct from Rod.  See his work on his website.

Here’s one of our latest projects:  A new Web site and e-newsletter for Ken Hebenstreit, Bookseller. We chose the developer because they are specialists in online bookstores.  They have a superior back end, but their design parameters were limited.  Still, we used it to serve our underlying marketing strategy.

Among book sellers, with stores and on the Web, even those named for their founder never feature that person.  That’s natural.  They want to expand and need to be able to delegate to others. We wanted to differentiate Ken from the rest.  In his narrow niche, he will always be a solo act.

Our strategy then was to give the site Ken’s personality, using his photo and writing in a breezy, first-person style. Ken’s product line, first edition fiction, is highly specialized and technical.  People spend hundreds, even thousands, of dollars on a book.  They have to trust him.

Photographer Robert Stewart took beautifully-lit photos of Ken and his books.  Designer Nancy Cohen took her inspiration from Ken’s lavender shirt to create a colorful palette with purple, orange and green.  (OK, it looks a little like Fed Ex, but only if you think about it.)

We revised Ken’s Constant Contact e-newsletter to match and created new business cards and new signage and sports shirts for book fairs.  2/26/10

Should you be your own PR person? Many small businesses might think that doing their own PR is a good cost-cutting decision; however, the real cost might be to your business’s success. To a degree, you can do it yourself — but amidst all the demands of running your own company, hiring someone else with real experience to take care of your publicity might be the better option.  Here’s the rest of the story from the small business section of the American Express’s Web site. Thanks for Kim Adams for the source.  2/26/10

Early in my career, printed collateral materials ruled.  Big budget projects were full bleed, four color.  We’d agonize over the design, the paper, the copy.  We’d strategize audiences to create materials that spoke to many, or splurge on different versions for difference audiences.  We’d dole them out via mail and at events.  Clients gasped at the cost, but paid it because it was the only way.

Today, any business can have a communications tool that is colorful, infinitely flexible and accessible 24/7.  It speaks to every audience simultaneously.  It is interactive.  And still people flinch when they find out what it costs to create a good Web site.

Maybe because other digital marketing tools, like e-newsletters, are free, we think our Web sites should be cheap.  Indeed, they can be.  But truly – truly – you get what you pay for.

Good Web sites are expensive, but think about it: They are the most important thing in your marketing program.  They centralize your image like nothing else in the past, ever.  So don’t give it to your brother in law, who’ll do it “free.”  As I said last month:  “If you think it’s expensive hiring a professional, wait until you hire an amateur.” 2/26/10

As I advised a client who’s new to social media, Facebook is heaven for the passive aggressive.  If you don’t want to be friends with someone who’s requested it, just ignore their request.  If forced to friend (using a noun as a verb – ack!) someone undesirable, hide their posts.  Extreme action:  Accept them as a friend, then dump them.  They’ll never know. 2/26/10

Our new site is designed with Wordpress, whose capacity extends beyond blogging.  You’re reading our blog here, but the rest of the site is comprised of static pages.  They’re easy to update, and those regular content updates keep the search engines interested.

A blog site’s design is based on a theme.  Wordpress offers a number of nice theme templates,  but I designed the theme myself using an inexpensive application called Artisteer.

Municipalities find that privatizing their building departments is one of the easiest ways to ease their budget woes.  Crain’s Detroit Business reports on a new initiative by Carlisle/Wortman Associates.  Here’s the Crain’s article or, if you don’t have a subscription (and, pray, why not?), view it here.

In my checkered past, I was the VP for marketing and development at Detroit’s first business incubator, The Metropolitan Center for High Technology.  Fostering entrepreneurship seem to me like an excellent economic development tool.

I’ve returned to those roots as a mentor at Detroit’s Tech Town, whose mission is to “create and strengthen a culture of entrepreneurialism in Detroit and Michigan, leading to vigorous and lasting economic growth.”

They have programs to help people start new business and rejuvenate existing ones.  They foster and find funds for those with intellectual property. They help execs from large corporations (read: auto industry) transition into management roles in smaller business.

There’s other valuable stuff, too.  Visit their website.

About 20 grads came together at the first Leadership Detroit “Tweetup”* on January 19 at Oak City Grille in Royal Oak.  Back row, from left:  Dave Rudolf, D. Erickson & Associates; Cary Junior, Malise Associates; Rachele Downs, CB Richard Ellis; John Witherell, Detroit Edison; Dan Piepszowski, Detroit Regional Chamber; Joseph Howse, Neighborhood Service Organization.  Front row: Jeffrey Antaya, Plante Moran; Amy Amador, Mercy Education Project; Mary Riegle, American Diabetes Association, and David Reich, w3r consulting.

*Tweet-up:  An impromptu event announced on and open to anyone who learned of it on Twitter or through similar social media.