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Invest in the Bay, and Northern Virginia Real Estate
Many early imperatives for residents and local business owners in 2009 have risen quickly from the ashes of the 2008 economic meltdown. Here's a few...
One is attention and investment in local travel and dollars in the Chesapeake Bay. While the "Save the Chesapeake Bay" effort has been well documented as a collosal failure in the past few weeks - there are many things we, as residents and local business owners, can do to help. For starters, visiting Southern Maryland, staying at Southern Maryland hotels, and spending some local tourism/travel dollars on the amazing things to do and see (vs. getting on a plane), especially during this "Celebrate Maryland 375" year of Maryland's founding. Read more about the shift from Southern Maryland farming to Alpacas and Agro-Tourism at PAX River Online...
Another imperative is investment in Northern Virginia real estate, whether your own or new. According to Ingrid Myers, one of the most experienced Northern Virginia real estate agents, the time has come for sidelined investor cash to be spent on Northern Virginia real estate investments and foreclosures - and it's already started. Additionally, now is actually a great time to invest in your own home, with the rapid shift of Northern Virginia home construction resources and investing to home renovations and repair (vs. new home building), along with significantly-reduced home contractor pricing.
A third imperative, especially for struggling local or regional business owners and traditional broadcast media, is use of online tools for Washington DC and Virginia Internet marketing, advertising and communications. Some are calling 2009 the "year of social media for business and government", as the confluence of a depressed market, smaller advertising budgets, and rapid growth of fantastic Internet Marketing tools and social media widgets add up to an imperative to shift advertising budget to cheaper and more effective online mechanisms. The use of social media for rapid message distribution and measurable social feedback isn't lost on the government, either - Local and Federal Governments' rapid uptake in the use of social media tools like Blogs, Facebook and Twitter will likely push businesses even harder to seriously consider joining the online dialogue and medium their customers already inhabit. (I'll point out that the Loudoun Times is truly the regional leader in use of online "PR2.0" social media tools, including all sorts of opportunities for readers to join and contribute to the local news and opinion dialogue).
Wishing you a happy, safe, healthy and prosperous new year 2009!
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