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MoneyWise
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charlotteobserver.com/business

7 mistakes
to avoid in
the market
Tweet a little, or a lot?
By Mark Jewell
Associated Press

So is it time to get back in?

Investors left anxious after
the stock market’s wild ride
Businesses aren’t sure
over the last year have reason
Social media pioneers
to be a bit more confident. say microblogging site
Volatility has eased, and the
attracts customers
three major stock indexes –
the Dow Jones industrial
with free advertising
average, the Standard & By Andrew Dunn
Poor’s 500 index and the andrewdunn@charlotteobserver.com

Nasdaq – had their third
straight monthly gain in May.
Wall Street’s advance since
it hit 12-year lows on March 9
has been stunning. Since then,
the Dow is up 29.8 percent,
while the S&P 500 index is up
35.9 percent and the Nasdaq is
higher by 39.9 percent
But be careful. It’s easy for
investors to trip up in good
times and bad. And potential
pitfalls have emerged amid
the market’s turnaround.
For starters, don’t presume
the recent gains will continue
Jen Diaz never parts with her two
BlackBerrys, even when overseeing
plumbing installation inside her
half-painted store. Her scrapbooking
and stationery boutique doesn’t
open for another two weeks, but she
already has a substantial presence –
on Twitter.
She’s closing in on 100 followers
of her business account, people she
hopes to turn into customers for her
store, Oh Scrap!, after its grand
opening.
“It is such free, great advertising,”
she said of the microblogging serv-
ice. “People who don’t use it are at a DAVID T. FOSTER III – dtfoster@charlotteobserver.com

uninterrupted.
“Nobody expects to go
straight up from here,” said
Greg Pinto, a certified fi-
nancial planner with Boston-
based Baystate Financial Serv-
ices.
Here are seven mistakes
individual investors should be
careful to avoid in the current
market:
disadvantage, especially with the Jen Diaz reads a message – and sends a Tweet – on her two BlackBerrys while readying her soon-to-open store Oh
Scrap! paper boutique. She carries two BlackBerrys, an iPod Touch and a laptop so she can Tweet as she works.
younger crowd.”
The free service allows users to
post short messages and distribute
them to other users via computer or
cell phone. Most people use them to
communicate with their friends.
HE LOVES IT/SHE HATES IT
But businesses around Charlotte –
ranging from Fortune 500 power-
houses such as Duke Energy to res-
It builds connections It’s far too impersonal
taurants such as Matt’s Chicago Dog By Andrew Dunn By Christina Rexrode
– are joining the social networking andrewdunn@charlotteobserver.com crexrode@charlotteobserver.com

1
Trying to time the market.
You hear it from financial
planners and even invest-
ment pros all the time: Don’t
presume to have the psychic
ability to know where the mar-
ket is headed.
The inclination to follow the
herd by selling as the market
tanks and buying back in after
a recovery starts can be espe-
cially damaging. A study by the
Boston-based consulting firm
Dalbar Inc. found that a buy-
and-hold investor who put
$10,000 into an S&P 500 index
mutual fund in January 1989
would have ended up with
nearly $50,000 by the end of
2008, had they not made any
changes expect for annual re-
balancing.
But an investor who darted
in and out during rallies and
slumps over that same 20-year
period would have seen that
$10,000 grow to less than
$14,500.
site.
Small businesses are finding they
can connect with a local audience
and attract more customers through
the Web version of word of mouth.
Larger companies who might have
dipped their toes in social media as
first became popular say they’re
finding ways to turn the buzz into
more sales and more effective cus-
tomer service.
“There are more people under-
standing how to put real strategy
behind it,” said Jason Keath, a Char-
lotte-based social media consultant.
Before, he said, they were interested
SEE TWITTER, 2D
I’ve heard Twitter called “the service you never
knew you needed until you had it.” I’d say that’s
about accurate.
At first, I was skeptical. Now, I can’t imagine life
without it.
I signed in for the first time in November 2007
but didn’t use it more than twice in a month until
April the following year. Even
then, I didn’t know what to do with
it besides describe the saga of
cleaning battery acid off my car
floorboard.
But over time, I figured it out. I
got the hang of the lingo, found
some like-minded souls and
Dunn learned how I could best use this
technology – which is looking
more and more not to be just a flash in the pan. It’s
not just that I’m 21; after all, Oprah’s on it now.
I reach out to my nearly 1,300 followers both pro-
fessionally and personally.
SEE LOVE IT, 2D
TA L K F R O M T H E TO P
As a consumer, I’m an ideal member of the Twit-
ter demographic. I’m 26, employed and genuinely
care about things like a spring sale at my favorite
store.
But please, oh please, don’t assume that Twitter
is the way to my heart or my wallet.
I can’t stand the stupid Web site, whether people
are using it for personal or busi-
ness reasons. I hate the way it
keeps people constantly plugged
in to technology. I hate the way it
reduces all communications to 140
characters or fewer, as if anything
longer isn’t worth the effort. I hate
how people think they’re staying in
Rexrode touch just by reading each other’s
updates about where they’re going
for lunch. I hate the self-love and self-promotion of
it all, the way everyone assumes that everyone else
cares about the minutiae of their lives.
I really don’t care if you went to the gym this
SEE HATE IT, 2D

2
Clinging to unrealistic ex-
pectations. Investors ac-
customed to seeing
blue-chip stocks retain most of
their value have been stunned
over the last year. For example,
General Electric Co.’s stock
sank below $6 in March of this
year, some 80 percent off its
52-week high of $31.
GE stock has lately traded
between $13 and $14. Investors
used to seeing such stocks
trade at much higher prices
might be inclined to think
they’ll eventually return to
their old levels. Not necessari-
ly.
Sometimes, a company’s
long-term prospects simply
are no longer what they once
were. The same can be true for
the broader market: Just be-
cause the S&P 500 topped
1,500 a couple years ago
doesn’t mean it will reach
those dizzying heights again
anytime soon.
“A lot of people are excited
by the notion that they can get
pick up shares of these house-
hold names very cheaply,
thinking they can hit a home
run,” said Mark Passacantan-
do, of Financial Planning Part-
ners LLC in Westwood, Mass.
“But the market is so complex,
it would be a mistake to look at
current prices versus previous
prices.”
SEE MARKET, 6D
HARRIS DELOACH JR., SONOCO CHAIRMAN AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
Packaging giant shifts to consumers
By Kirsten Valle Q: Why is the company focusing on its
kvalle@charlotteobserver.com consumer packaging business? How is
HARTSVILLE, S.C. — Sonoco Products Co. isn’t a household name, but the shift going?
So much of our consumer businesses
its packages are in millions of shoppers’ pantries worldwide.
are food-related. In a recession, the con-
The 110-year-old, $4.1 billion packaging giant manufactures every- sumer tends to stay home more. People
thing from Pringles canisters to Febreeze bottles to industrial prod- continue to eat the Oreos, eat the Snick-
ers. It’s just less sensitive.
ucts, such as paperboard tubes and cable reels. Sono- Eight or nine years ago, 60 or 65 percent
co has 300 facilities in 35 countries, including about of our business was in the industrial side.
six in the Charlotte area. We decided in 2001 to flip that. Today,
about 54 percent of our business is on the
Despite its size, Sonoco has felt the recession’s consumer side. We’ve gotten there
pinch. The company had 17,500 employees at the end through new-product development, new
customers in existing markets and new
of last year, down from 18,600 the year before, compa-
DeLoach markets around the world.
ny filings show. Yearly earnings fell 23 percent in
2008, to $164.6 million. Return on its stock is down 25 percent in the Q: Because you supply packages to so
many different kinds of companies, do
last year, though that’s a better performance than many peer compa- you have a better handle on the econo-
nies in the S&P 400 Materials Index, which is down 40 percent. my than most?
Sonoco – which is headquartered 80 miles southeast of Charlotte We are an early indicator of what is go-
ing on with the economy. We actually
in Hartsville (population 7,500) – has long been known for its ability started seeing a downturn in May of 2007,
to adapt, officials say. Now the company is shifting toward more when our tube business, which is indus-
consumer products, which are less sensitive to downturns, and tak- trial related, turned down a little bit.
I would like to say we are seeing a re-
ing other steps to rebound. surgence, but we’re not. But in the last sev-
Harris DeLoach Jr., Sonoco’s chairman and chief executive officer, eral weeks, mostly in Asia and on the in-
dustrial side in textiles and film produc-
spoke with the Observer recently about the transition, the economy
tion, we have seen some uptick. Whether SONOCO PHOTO
and innovation – including how his company has helped keep Oreos it’s sustainable, it’s too early to tell. Sonoco, located 80 miles southeast of
fresh. Questions and answers have been edited for brevity and clarity. SEE TOP, 3D Charlotte, developed this cereal lid.
TWITTER
• from 1D
more in quick-hit sensations, like cre-
ating a popular YouTube video.
Keath is planning Social Fresh, an
Aug. 24 workshop for businesses of
any size that want to learn how to use
Twitter and similar applications.
The main goal of social media strat-
egy, Keath said, is to encourage a two-
way conversation between business-
es and customers.
“Social media really brings home
the relationship at the local level,”
said Wayne Sutton, a Raleigh-based
consultant who will speak at Social
Fresh. “It brings folks in the doors.”
It’s a growing audience. Twitter’s
unique visitor count grew 1,382 per-
cent between February 2008 and Feb-
ruary 2009, according to Nielson On-
line. More than 12 million U.S. adults
use Twitter, making up about 7 per-
cent of Internet users.
Getting off the ground
Small businesses just starting out
on Twitter usually begin using it in
two ways: to update product informa-
tion in real time and to get the compa-
ny’s name to the public.
Diaz will hold the grand opening
for Oh Scrap!, off N.C. 49 near
Carowinds, on June 13. She said she
plans to send messages via Twitter
describing new inventory, special
events and promotions. She’ll interact
online with people around Charlotte
to help build brand recognition.
Oh Scrap! also has an active Face-
book account. Though that social me-
dia site has more users – about 200
million – businesses see Twitter as an-
other arrow in their quiver.
“If you’re a small business, you’re
going to use every resource you have
available,” said Melissa Lavergne, di-
rector of branding and publications at
the Charlotte Chamber. She updates
the chamber’s Twitter account with
podcast and event information.
Matt Sielsky, who owns Matt’s Chi-
cago Dog on Tryon Street, turned to
Twitter trying to improve business af-
ter losing some banking-industry cus-
tomers to layoffs.
Sielsky regularly got several dozen
calls from regular customers each
morning asking about the special of
the day and the soup of the day. He
decided he could generate some inter-
est in his restaurant by distributing
that information on Twitter and ad-
vertising his feed on a sign outside the
door. People still call, and the account
has only 15 followers. And though he
hasn’t seen any noticeable increase in
business, he said it couldn’t be hurt-
ing.
“In this economy, with all the lay-
offs, we need to search for every ave-
nue we can get,” he said.
Plotting a course
Summer Plum, who owns the mas-
sage and organic tea company Felici-
tea, held a tea tasting uptown Thurs-
day as part of a Twitter event she orga-
nizes every two weeks. Plum began
using Twitter about a year ago and
now has about 500 followers.
She also uses Twitter to broadcast
when she has a chair massage set up at
the Common Market near Central Av-
enue or at the Tailgate Farmers Mar-
ket near East Boulevard.
Plum said she’s gotten two to three
times more business since she started
using Twitter, and her account has
about four times as many followers as
her e-mail list had subscribers.
“It gives you that push you’re not
going to get anywhere else,” she said.
“It pays my rent some months.”
For larger businesses, Twitter strat-
egy is focused more on adding a hu-
man element to the company.
Duke Energy, which created a social
media director position last week, has
about 600 followers on its feed, which
gives updates on power outages. Mi-
Jen Diaz’s Oh
Scrap! will
open June 13 –
but she
established a
presence on
Twitter well
before that to
attract
customers.
She says
she’ll use
Twitter to
describe new
products and
build buzz
about events
and
promotions.
DAVID T. FOSTER III – dtfoster@charlotteobserver.com
chelle Pearson, the new director, said
the company also monitors what
Twitter users are writing about the Business and Twitter
company. Pearson is helping develop Social networking experts offer businesses the following advice to succeed
a new strategy for Duke on Twitter, on Twitter:
which will likely involve more direct
engagement with customers, she said. • Spend some time listening first and finding users in your area.
Dell has more than 560,000 follow- • Participate in conversations. Don’t go for the hard sell.
ers, and the company reports selling • Be focused. Tweeting about wildly disparate topics will lose you followers.
$1 million more over the holiday sea- • Be authentic and sound like a real person.
son last year through Twitter alerts. • Make sure your followers are your intended audience. If you’re a restaurant,
The company also offers special dis- followers from the other side of the country won’t help much.
counts only to Twitter followers.
Slow to start Twitter vocabulary
Not all businesses are jumping on Tweet: An individual message posted through Twitter
the bandwagon. The main reason: Tweet-up: A real-life meeting organized via Twitter.
time commitment. Followers: People who have signed up to regularly view your Tweets.
“That’s one more thing that I have @: Used to direct a message at somebody (Ex. @YourName, how are you?)
to stay on top of,” said Hillary Moul- Hashtag (or #): Used to designate the theme of the tweet. (Ex. It’s pouring
liet, a friend of Diaz who owns Art down rain at the #CocaCola600). This makes tweets easier to search using
Space Studio in the same shopping search.twitter.com.
center. “The list of things to do is so Retweet: Reposting a tweet from somebody else that you thought was partic-
long already.” ularly stellar. Preceded by the letters “RT” or “retweet.”
Restaurants have also been slow to
adopt Twitter.
“It’s a little slow going,” said Craig
Observer on Twitter
Utt, a restaurant marketing strategist. Get the latest news from Observer writers at twitter.com/theobserver.
He’s been pushing restaurants to use And for headlines from CharlotteObserver.com, go to twitter.com/charobs.
Twitter to organize events, but has en-
countered hesitancy. “You’re talking
about some of the busiest people
around.”