Last night I had to call one of our banks, Bank of America, to follow up on a rebate check for my new Fujitsu ScanSnap that bounced (it’s that “crisis” thing again, I guess). It’s a great scanner, but I am a bit annoyed at having to do double to paperwork due to their third-party rebate service having insufficient funds.

After I got that piece of business settled, the bank customer service person asked me if she could tell me about a great new credit card they were offering. I sighed and waited for the spiel.

The customer service woman (whom I will refer to as Bank Lady going forward) started with, “You’re already pre-approved for $15,000. And for the next 12 months, this card has 0% financing and only 7.5% after that, which is the lowest in the industry.”

I interjected, “Does the card have any cashback bonuses?”

Bank Lady replied, “We offer cash advances.”

“No,” I said. “Cashback bonuses, you know like 1%, 2%, or 3% back on purchases.”

Bank Lady paused, confused. “It’s 0% for 12 months.”

“I know,” I said. “What about you giving me 1% or 2% back?”

Confused pause by Bank Lady.

I clarified, “I don’t keep a balance on any of my credit cards so the APR percentages don’t matter to me. What I’m looking to find out is if your card will pay me to use it. I have one that gives me 3% back on my purchases.”

Bank Lady replied, “What’s the finance rate on that card?”

I said, “I don’t know. I don’t keep balances on my cards, so the finance rate doesn’t matter! I am asking if the card gives bonuses or cashback.”

“Oh, you mean points or something like that?” Bank Lady said in a moment of breakthrough.

“YES!” I said

“No, we don’t offer any points,” Bank Lady said. “But we do have 0% for 12 months…”

I interrupted: “I’m not interested. My credit cards pay me money; I don’t pay them!”

After a few courteous thank you’s between me and Bank Lady, the call ended.

I was in shock… I don’t think this poor child of the modern era even knew that credit cards could pay you, much less that you didn’t have to keep a balance on them and search aimlessly for the lowest percentage rate.

Wow is all I can say. But the good news is that I found a new passion that I could tackle the speaking circuit with: credit common sense. I have a few things to say about mortgages too!

One other thought: shouldn’t banks be educating their customers on how to better manage their finances instead of taking advantage of their lack of financial sense?

I think this will be an excellent feature for many groups. I already want to start adding the monthly luncheons for my local PRSA and NFPW chapter. Plus, it will give me a reason to log on to Linkedin more often.

The thing that I see that’s missing is the ability to invite others to your events, like Facebook does. Also, the events that show up are auto-selected, rather than something you choose. But no matter what the bugs, this is a great new feature.

I imported all of my contacts into Linkedin (which I’ve been intending to do for about 6 months). Now, after the holiday, I plan to let it rip and so how many of my business associates I can connect with through the site.

Check out the new Linkedin events feature (there’s even a video). And while you are there, connect with me.

Uh-oh, I thought: PR disaster. Some auto-billing mechanism is creating a havoc.

Sure enough… The city of Attleboro, Mass. sent a nastygram to a 74-year-old blind resident threatening a lien on her house if she didn’t pay her water bill balance of 1 cent.

To make matters worse, the city was unapologetic and blame-focused when questioned by the newspaper. My mouth actually dropped open when I read the city’s spokesperson’s statement on the whole mess.

Read and be in shock: City Collector Debora Marcoccio said, “My question is, how come it wasn’t paid when the (original) bills went out?”

Yeah, how dare an elderly blind woman mess up her payment by a cent!

I was appalled as a communicator. How hard is it to apologize? The spokesperson only needed to say that the city’s water billing system has faults and that they would immediately settle the account, forgiving the 1 cent mistake. An apology supplemented by swift action would have saved the day.

The homeowner pointed out that paying the bill would cost her 42 cents just for the stamp. Not only does the city of Attleboro look like its made up of a bunch of jerks, but it’s also being made a laughingstock by the national AP newswire.

What a kind word–and action–would have done to save this city’s reputation in this situation.

Read the full article.

Yesterday, thanks to a Twitter post from Peter Shankman of Help a Reporter Out, I read a post on the 10 Best Social Media Tools for PR Professionals and Journalists on mashable.com. I love this post, and I’ll probably be spending some time tomorrow checking out all these tools.

The list includes Shankman’s Help a Reporter Out, as well as tools like PitchEngine and ReportingOn. I was especially excited to see Media People Using Twitter and Twellow, because I find Twitter’s search functionality difficult to use.

Why are these tools so wonderful? Because accessing the right people for an effective PR pitch can be an expensive and time-consuming job–not easy for those of us with smaller budgets. However, this enables us to get great, well-written information into the right hands. I guess I’m becoming a bit of a social media junkie.

What did they do?

According to Jason Della Rocca, executive director of the International Game Developers Association, his association used new media to inexpensively and effectively promote their conference.

Della Rocca’s conference marketing tips include:

• Set up your conference’s website using a free, self-hosted blog system. Check out IGDA’s conference website.
• Encourage subscriptions to RSS feeds on your site. This will keep your members updated without having to do as many “push” marketing emails.
• Post your content on other blogs. Have staff members share information about your event by posting and commenting on other relevant blogs.
• Examine and use your site statistics. You can find out who is linking to your blog and what keywords they are searching for on Google by examining your blog statistics.

The article also suggest recruiting attendees to post articles about your event as it is going on–either on your blog or on their own blogs. Other areas to think about: establishing a Facebook group for attendees and recording videos and posting them on Google video or YouTube.

By the way, the IGDA’s conference was a sellout.

The great thing that I see about these ideas are that they are something association staff can do in-house or they can outsource to a marketing or tech vendor. My husband’s company often helps out groups with their meeting promotion sites, but most haven’t gotten quite this techy yet.

I hope that RSS will catch on soon with association members; I know it would have saved tons of emails at my last association.

Access the full ASAE article here.

I especially enjoyed this short checklist:

• Did I stick to my allotted time?
• Did I develop and present purposefully?
• Was I thoroughly prepared?
• Did I capture attention at the very beginning?
• Did I positively influence listeners?
• Was I appropriately entertaining, or at least not boring?
• Did I end only once?

To read more, go to http://www.maximumimpact.com/articles/read/article_7_reasons_why_speakers_flop/.

Although Thomas presented many great ideas, one of the takeaways I enjoyed most was the brainstrorming guidelines. We’ve all been a part of such ridiculous brainstorming sessions at work that you feel like you are stuck in an episode of The Office. These tips help participants toss away the crossword puzzles and really accomplish something productive.

Start by working alone.
Why did I never think of this before? Write all your good ideas down first so you can walk into the meeting feeling good. (Plus, it’ll give you a few minutes to check out everyone’s outfits.)

Put ideas on sticky notes.
This method can stop the painfully long process of reading out loud all of your ideas, plus it enables you to share your idea without getting shot down. Sticky notes can then be stuck to a flipchart and easily reorganized as the creative vibe takes off.

Make ideas specific and actionable, not general.
When you do speak your ideas, share examples of how your could be implemented, instead of making general statements like “improve ….”

Number all ideas.
This helps you keep the ideas in order, plus you can set a goal for the number of ideas you’d like to achieve. This brings something measurable to the meeting, plus it helps stimulate some competition and energy. According to Thomas: a good brainstorm session generates 100 ideas in one hour!

Avoid judging ideas when discussing.
AMEN! As an outspoken participant in these types of meetings, I would be worn out with the negativity produced by all those who chose to watch and judge rather than participate. Thomas says avoid evaluating ideas and don’t discuss the merits of an idea or express approval or disapproval. Strive for quantity instead of quality at this stage in the process.

Build on others’ ideas.
Add to an idea to make it bigger, smaller or merge it with another idea. You can also make an idea more actionable or look at it from another perspective. Just don’t criticize it.

Go crazy with your ideas.
With this safe envionment, you can be vulnerable. Making a wild idea more mainstream is easier than making a boring idea interesting.

These tips would make a brainstorming session that I would enjoy participating in!

I could blame this website’s interface, but in reality, I just wasn’t paying attention. It’s funny how all these years, I thought I was really detail-oriented. I think I even have it on my resume. And I do have fantastic attention to detail in areas like writing and proofreading.

But my attention to detail doesn’t apply to all areas. I have to leave that for the perfectionists. I know because I am married to a perfectionist. Let me tell you: Brett’s got a whole other level of attention to detail. Wow… that’s all I have to say.

But the good thing about my lack of detail is that I am able to see the big picture: the vision. All the details often clutter perfectionist’s perspective, but I can put those details in a box entitled, “Deal with that later.” I can make a plan to accomplish a big task, and I can usually handle most of the details.

Except occasionally, like today, I move a little too fast for my own good.

What’s your innovation style?
Just like personalities, people bring different innovation styles to the table.

Visioning
To imagine the ideal future

• What is the ideal long-term solution?
• What if we started from scratch?
• Why not?

Modifying
To refine and optimize what has come before

• What can we do to improve upon and optimize what we’ve done?
• What has been done before that we can build upon?

Exploring
To discover new and novel possibilities

• What assumptions can we challenge, and what new ideas would result?
• What is a metaphor for this situation - and how does it give us new insights and ideas?

Experimenting
To combine and test many combinations

• How can we get other people’s creative input on this?
• What can we combine to put together a new solution?

Which style are you?

I think I am a modifying style, although sometimes I also employ the exploring style.

I read this quote in Maximum Impact’s Leadership Wired newsletter today, and I thought it was very wise.

“The most successful businessman is the man who holds onto the old just as long as it is good, and grabs the new just as soon as it is better.”
~ Robert P. Vanderpoel

Interestingly enough, my husband is what many people would consider “an early adopter” of new technologies. We have many amazing technology tools that enhance our lives (and yes, he did wait in line to buy the iPhone on the first day).

However, in many cases, he waits quite a long time (sometimes even longer than the general public) to buy into new technology. When I ask him why he’s still waiting, he almost always says that the technology isn’t ready yet. Like the quote says, he’s waiting for the technology to be better than the previous solution before making a change.