7 Things First Time Home Buying and Content Marketing Have In Common

My fiancée and I recently bought our first house. Having chased this dream for two years, finding the perfect starter home made me realize how similar the experience can be for hoteliers and DMOs contemplating content marketing for the first time.

So if you are looking to get into blogging or an e-newsletters series to help you increase your attraction factor to meeting and event planners, consider these tips:

1. Never rush into the first idea that comes to mind: We thought the very first house we looked at was a winner. Within 6 months of losing the opportunity to another buyer, we could not see ourselves living there. So while strategizing about creating content for your hotel blog, take a step back and ask "Is this the best content for what we want to achieve?" Perhaps you need the input of a content strategist, or a few meeting planners, to ensure your content is on the mark. 
2. Keep trying: After every house we lost, got outbid on, or just couldn't secure; we were devastated. But we persevered and found the one. The same applies to content marketing. This is a process that may take time, and you may not get it right immediately. But keep trying, and you will start to attract more readers – and eventually, more leads! 
3. Use trusted sources: When buying a first time home, you get information from all over the place. Some good, some not so good. When creating content for your destination or hotel’s blog or e-newsletter, solidify your position by citing your own organization’s experts AND the occasional outside source. Your Conference Services may be a great gal, but if you can also show that her team building ideas are based on recent research at Harvard, you’ll elevate the trustworthiness of your content. 
4. Ask for help: Never assume doing it all yourself is the best process. Upon visiting what we thought was the dream house, an inspector found major deficiencies. So it goes for content generation: make sure you have several people committed to generating ideas and contributing. And get help to proof before you post! 
5. Checklists, checklists, checklists: Finding the perfect home consisted of forming a checklist of everything we wanted, needed, and could live without. Checklists are a great way to ensure you don’t miss some of the necessary fundamentals along the way – does this content give at least one valuable tip to a meeting planner? Does it link to more resources on our website? Does it have a call-to-action? Etc. If you have a checklist of the elements that your content need to have at the start of the campaign, then you are more likely to stay on track. 
6. Filling the space: When buying a house, you need to account for the space you have, furnishings you have and what you’ll need to get. It’s the same with content marketing. Ensure your material doesn’t feel cramped. Fill it with useful information – content that a meeting planner would find valuable. Never just fill space with promotional stuff. Adapt your layout to what has worked in the past but don’t be afraid to change things around once in awhile. 
7. Get Social: When you move into your first house, you need extra hands, so you reach out to your social network. The same can be said with your content marketing. Posting your material to social media will bring in those extra visitors you need to ensure the campaign is successful. Never be afraid to use every tool in your marketing arsenal to publicize your content. Just make sure you balance your stuff with other engaging social media tactics. 

Taking simple tips like these are a great way to tighten up those offers and if I may impart one final tip, make sure your campaigns are organic. Take lessons like these, life lessons, to move forward and grow in content creation.

From Beyoncé to gardening: 6 tips for successful inbound marketing

I saw this video clip the other day by social media entrepreneur Gary Vaynerchuk, during which he instructed his audience to "Beyoncé" their approach to social media. His exact words were: "put a f*@$#?! ring on it!"  In his own unique, if profane style, Gary was emphasizing the need to build relationships on social media, and not expect it to be a miraculous cure.

But that really can apply to any marketing activity. Whether you are using social media, attending tradeshows, or putting together a traditional advertising plan, there is no such thing as overnight success.

I prefer to liken the current state of business-to-business sales and marketing to that of gardening. It's not as sexy, I know, but having just spent the weekend clearing winter debris from the flowerbeds around my house, I am reminded that whether you're looking to develop business or grow plants, you need:

Yes, this is me, with a bug net
over my head and all!

A Plan - Whether you want a garden to make your house look nice or to grow your own vegetables, you can't just start seeding and planting anywhere, willy-nilly.  Similarly, you shouldn't jump into social media, content marketing or a website redesign without a clear goals and an understanding of how these things work together to generate inbound leads for your hotel, CVB or meetings services business. 

Commitment - The world has jumped into social media because it's "free" and it's easy.  Perhaps.  But the simplest things take commitment of time and manpower.  Just like your garden needs watering and weeding, your inbound marketing program will require consistent attention.  Yes, you can hire a gardener (a.k.a. outsource), but your commitment will simply shift from time to money.

Proper Tools - You can plant your garden with just a spade, but it'll take you a long time.  Same goes for inbound marketing; you can "rent" tools such as marketing automation and social media management tools to make your life easier.  

Fertile Soil - All the fancy tools in the world won't help you if you don't have good dirt.  In business terms it means good data.  And if you need to improve the quality of your business soil, maybe it's time for some data cleansing or list building.

Professional Advice - This weekend I noticed some beast was digging holes all over my flowerbeds.  Turning to my gardening forums I soon found out it's likely a skunk, looking for grubs.  Now I have professional advice to help me solve the problem.  If you have a stinking problem turn to a professional who not only knows the technology, but who also understands your business.

Patience - You can fertilize all you want, but you can't rush nature to produce tomatoes faster.  So it goes with building relationship with meeting and event professionals.  You need to give your inbound marketing plan time to work.  Which obviously means this isn't going to be a miracle cure if all you have is a big gaping hole.  The good news is that any sales pipeline is fixable -- with time and effort.

Creating Content for Inbound Marketing: 10 Tips

When considering a shift to inbound marketing, meetings industry suppliers at times question me on the content creation demands that such an approach will create.  Hoteliers, DMOs and other service providers wonder if they have enough material to sustain a blog or other resources, how they will find time to generate material regularly, and who is going to write the required content.

As a small company that publishes two blogs (with at least one post each per week), two monthly e-newsletters and the odd white paper, I completely understand the concern.  Creating content for your inbound marketing program can seem like a full-time job!  When things get “crazy busy,” content creation is an easy task to put on the back-burner.

As with any business strategy, there is no silver bullet, but here are some practices that have worked for us:

Finding the Material

• Start with the easy stories: what new services, facilities or partnerships can you write a short announcement about?  Resist the temptation to sound too promotional; instead, show how these new developments will help meeting planners. 
• Put the limelight on one of your clients (with their permission of course). Demonstrate how working with your hotel or destination the group was able to achieve specific goals.
• Comment on an industry issue, event or trend. This could show your understanding of issues, or that you are "in the know" about news. 
• Use the calendar to your advantage.  Offer advice for theming events (from Valentines Day to Christmas), seasonal menu offerings, ideas for team building. 

Finding the Time

• Start by making a commitment you can live with. When I started blogging three years ago I posted once per month; now I'm up to once per week. 
• Stick with a schedule. If you commit to posting every Monday, for instance, it'll become easier to create that habit. 
• Write a few filler pieces for those busy periods when you just can't find the time. 

Finding the Writer(s)

• Just because you're the Director of Sales & Marketing, it doesn't mean YOU should be the main blogger.  Look for a person who likes to write.  Hint: Often these are people with the longest emails... 
• Ask your staff, suppliers and even outside partners or other bloggers to write an occasional post. At Greenfield we encourage team members to contribute by giving four hours of paid time off for every blog that gets published (click here for our latest post by one of our Client Care Specialists). As for outside contributors, the added exposure, especially the inbound links to their own site, often is incentive enough.
• I happen to like writing, but sometimes I have no time.  That's when I do one of two things: dictate my thoughts into my iPhone and ask someone to edit, OR I turn to my good friend and business collaborator, Mitchell Beer.  I'm at the point now where I can talk with Mitchell for thirty minutes about three different topics, and he'll produce three blogs for me!

Creating content for your inbound marketing program isn't rocket science.  But having a sound strategy will ensure that your efforts don't stall along the way. 

#Eventprofs: 6 Tips to Leverage Inbound Marketing

In the last few posts we have been discussing the trends that are leading meetings industry suppliers to shift the way they market their hotels, destinations and other services to meeting planners (see Understanding the NEW Sales Process and Inbound Marketing for Meetings Industry Suppliers).

This post will outline how successful salespeople leverage their company’s inbound marketing efforts. For this I need to look no further than Greenfield Services’ own Director of Client Solutions, Meagan Rockett.

Meagan started as one of our Client Care Specialists in 2005 and quickly rose through our ranks to become our Director of Client Solutions two years ago.  Many of our clients and industry colleagues have said to me how they “see Meagan everywhere.”  In a short time she has established herself as a trusted – and highly visible – supplier and partner.  This makes me proud because Meagan’s only executive sales experience has been the last two years in her current position with us.  She is a natural but I believe the key to her success also has been her ability to leverage our inbound marketing model.

These are the best practices she exhibits and what you should look to do with your team:

1. Be a keen learner:  Meagan is an avid consumer of research reports, white papers and blogs about associations. She has made it her mission to understand her clients’ pain points from our work with them at Greenfield but also from what she observes with other solution providers.  This positions her as the helpful adviser, not as a stereotypical salesperson.
2. Be a thought leader:  With her appetite for information Meagan is able to connect the dots.  And while she appears to be very proficient at documenting outcomes in her blogs and monthly enewsletters, the truth is that she works with a writer/editor to do that (and he is terrific – click here to learn about Mitchell Beer and SmarterShift).  And this is the crux of inbound marketing (a.k.a. content marketing in some circles): you need to know your stuff but if writing is not your thing,get someone to help you.
3. Be willing to share:  Social media is the third pillar of inbound marketing.  Meagan shares the resources that she creates with her social media followers, carefully to striking a balance between posting Greenfield content, sharing industry news or other consultants’ association management advice and engaging followers in relevant conversations.
4. Expand your reach:  This is where the inbound marketing model begins to take a life of its own.  Meagan began blogging in 2011, and she steadily has grown her circle of influence with followers on Twitter, and several groups on LinkedIn.  Not a huge followership, but a quality one.  And recently her social media activity led to guest blogging invitations on Cvent, Socious, MeredithLow.com and XYZ University.  Her influence is being leveraged by other inbound marketers eager to associate their brands with thought leaders like her!  
5. Don’t Sell – Create Conversations: With the steady stream of content Meagan is never at a loss for opportunities to open dialogue with clients, prospects and other interested parties.  She participates in groups and answers questions on LinkedIn.  When appropriate, she asks online contacts to chat by phone or meet in person.  With our marketing automation platform, she knows when someone downloads a tips sheet or our Pulse Report, and she’ll reach out by email or phone to see what they thought of the material.  The point is that she never has to feel like she inconveniencing someone with a sales pitch.
6. Give Value, Not Swag:  As the owner of the company, one of my favourite secrets to inbound marketing success is that we choose to give valuable resources at tradeshows and other industry events, not trinkets.  Promotional products have a place in the marketing mix, but they can also attract the wrong kind of prospect if used just to draw traffic at a show.  For the last two years at the CSAE National and Ottawa Tête-à-Tête Shows, Meagan has sent emails inviting association executives to pick up a copy of a research report, a tips sheet, or other resource that would help them in their work.  We didn’t have throngs of people lining up to grab the latest electronic gadget or squishy toy – we had serious, interested buyers.

And there you have it: our own Greenfield “insider tips” to helping your sales team successfully leverage inbound marketing efforts. 

Could this work for your organization? We invite you to leave us a comment or ask us a question!

5 Steps to Inbound Marketing for Meetings Industry Suppliers

In our last post we concluded that preventing a slump in your sales means that you should always be prospecting.  But in the new sales process, to “always be prospecting” means having an inbound marketing approach and the infrastructure to support it.

What does this mean for meetings industry suppliers such as hotels, CVBs, convention facilities and other meetings industry services?  This post aims to demystify inbound marketing and identify the components of a sound strategy. 

First, Some Definitions

According to Wikipedia, “inbound marketing” was a term coined by Brian Halligan, the founder of Hubspot in 2005.  It’s a process by which a business seeks to pull or attract prospects to their website with useful content.  With inbound marketing the potential client drives the process because he/she finds information and controls when and how the message is consumed.

This is in contrast to outbound marketing, which pushes messages to prospects.  This would include most traditional marketing vehicles – TV, radio and print advertising, along with direct mail, telemarketing and email marketing all attempt to interrupt prospects and grab their attention.  Even though it is several years old, the poston Hubspot’s blog provides a great perspective.   

Step One: Focusing on “Being Found” First

But why is inbound marketing such a big deal?  Why all the emphasis now on content to attract prospects to your website?  It’s because of the growingimportance of the online world; buyers, whether consumers or B2B, now want control of the sales process.  They investigate potential purchases online first.  They expect to find the information quickly.  And if they don’t find it they may reach out to friends or family through social media.  It’s the self-serve mentality.  So if a company is not easily found online, or if its content is lacking in what prospects are looking for, it is out of the game.

This means your website MUST be properly optimized.  Unfortunately, search engine algorithms are always evolving and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is an ever-changing art and science.  One day a particular practice is recognized and encouraged; the next day, it is frowned upon.  But it is important that your site have the “bones,” the right SEO architecture, to get found. 

Step Two: Developing Content to Reinforce SEO

Putting flesh on those bones, one of the best ways to build your site traffic is to provide informative, educational content that both users and search engines find helpful.  This is when you choose to create resources such as blogs, podcasts, video, eBooks, white papers and other helpful material for your various target markets.  

It is important that this content be factual and non-promotional in tone.  And that you regularly update and add to that content so that you have something to talk about with your social media strategy with step three:

Step Three: Using Social Media to Share Content

Once your site is optimized and you have a foundation with solid content, you use social media to share your content and events.  The right social media strategy will provide helpful information to prospects and followers, striking a balance between posting your own content, sharing industry news and articles, promoting your own events or special offers, and engaging followers in relevant conversations.  

The above visual provides a great example of what is required to be found online today: being found on the internet entails formulating a solid SEO strategy, steadily augmenting your site with relevant content, building interest and generating inbound leads through social media.  

Step Four: Capturing and Nurturing Leads

The fourth component that often gets overlooked in the above scenario is integrating a marketing automation platform that allows you to capture leads and nurture them until they are sales-ready.  That's because according to many experts, only 5-15% of leads are considered to be "sales-ready".  The rest must continue to be nurtured with information to "ripen" until they are ready to buy.

Marketing automation may involve integration with your existing CRM.  At a minimum this platform should capture leads: requests for downloadable material (where you ask prospects for basic information in return for the free information), subscriptions for e-newsletters and promotions, registrations for any live events or webinars, etc. 

A proper marketing automation platform also will enable you to segment prospects (is the contact an established planner managing a large trade show, or a volunteer looking to market a local fundraising event?), and regularly disseminate nurturing communication to stay top-of-mind and spur engagement.

Step Five: Allowing Prospects Self Identify When Ready

The above-described process is largely one that takes place without the intervention of a salesperson.  Prospects browse online and choose the information they need.  They raise their hand when they are ready to talk to someone in sales by emailing, clicking on a chat window, or calling a toll-free number.  While this should not eliminate the need to proactively contact prospects at the appropriate moment, this does mean that the salesperson is now more of a guide for interested prospects, and less of a prospector “dialing for dollars,” looking for business from raw sources.

So there you have it, the basic architecture of an inbound marketing system to help your hotel, CVB or meetings industry business attract potential clients and generate leads.  In our next post we will explore how successful sales team leverage inbound marketing efforts. 

Advice for Meetings Industry Marketers: Top 12 Blogs of 2012

As we look back upon the last year, I thought I would share what our clients, colleagues and other followers in the Twitterverse saw as our most helpful blog articles (based on the number of hits, re-tweets and other social media shares):

The Difference Between Meeting Planners and Suppliers  – this post discusses the differences we’ve observed between meeting planners, who ask questions and contribute advice on social media, versus director-level meetings industry suppliers, who seem barely visible on LinkedIn or Twitter.  How can these Directors of Sales & Marketing possibly devise successful marketing campaigns if they don't know what planners want?

Six Tips to Effective Email Marketing for #Eventprofs – Jeff Chabot, Greenfield’s Web & E-Marketing Programmer reviews best practices for email marketing for your hotel, CVB or special event facility.

Generation Next: Are Demographic Shifts Having an Impact on Meetings?  – this post originally was published in Corporate Meetings & Events Magazine.  It discusses how retiring boomers and the growing proportion of GenX and GenY cohorts are changing how meetings are planned.

Six Tips to Successful Content Creation for #EventProfs – generating content is a key component of a successful inbound marketing program.  This post offers advice on how to produce a steady stream of blog posts, nurturing emails and other articles.

Lead Spam and the Commoditization of the Meetings Industry – Some Answers – this article features an interview with Kristi Casey Sanders, VP Creative/Chief Storyteller for Atlanta Metropolitan Publishing, publisher of Plan Your Meetings.  Part 1 offers background on the issue of Lead Spam.

Hospitality and Meetings: Finding Ourselves in the Social Media Picture – a review of research that compares the social media activity across industries, and how hospitality, tourism and meetings organizations are woefully slow adopters.  It’ll be interesting to see if things change in 2013!

Why Every Hotel and CVB Should Consider Pinterest – This content-sharing network became the new social media darling in 2012, and this post discusses why hoteliers and destination marketing organizations should be jumping on the bandwagon.

Advice from a Meeting Planner to Suppliers  – our most popular guest post by meeting planner Cara Tracy, CMP, CMM, who is Director of Professional Development at National Speakers Association.

Meetings: The Red-Headed Stepchild of CVB Budgets? – Meetings, Conventions and Incentive Travel business rarely gets its fair share of marketing funds at most destination marketing organizations.  This post discusses the merits of shifting to an inbound marketing approach to leverage these precious funds.

Stop Polluting LinkedIN – my rant against people who think I should connect with them on LinkedIN even though I have never met or even spoken with them!

Think Magnets, Not Darts – our explanation of what is causing the shift from pushy, outbound marketing tactics to more engaging inbound marketing practices.

Too Many Hospitality Industry Marketers Are Like Politicians – fed up with election rhetoric, I was inspired to write this post.  But it’s not just a rant!  I also describe two successful meetings industry suppliers who have chosen to break from the pack and implement inbound marketing practices.

As 2012 draws to an end, we are so grateful to all of our followers, readers, colleagues and clients.  Greenfield’s conversion to an inbound marketing model has been a terrific journey, and we look forward to sharing more news, tips and trends with more hospitality and meetings industry marketers in 2013.

The World Didn’t End and Six Ways to Do Better

So the world didn’t end yesterday.  But apocalypse or not, it's important to remember each new day, month or year is an opportunity to do better.

Yup, that's me holding up the front page of the
Ottawa Sun's Dec. 21 issue.

Doing better is top of mind for me because not only was December 21, 2012 the day the world was supposed to end, it was also my 49th birthday. That’s right, the start of my fiftieth year!  And there’s something about milestones that makes me want to improve the way I live and do business.

I’ll spare you my personal intentions but as this year draws to an end, here are the six ways I resolve to do better professionally:

1. Be clear on who we do and don’t do business with:  last week I wrote about a few examples of when it's best to refuse business.  In a follow-up conversation with my sales coach, Colleen Francis, she urged me to go as step further and describe the types of clients we no longer wish to do business with.  While that may sound arrogant, the purpose is to make sure we waste nobody's time, ours or the prospect’s, so that we may in fact be better able to deliver excellent service to the types of clients we do want to do more business with.
2. Have more meaningful conversations:  the wider the audience, the more difficult it is to have significant dialogue.   Clarity about who you want to do business with allows you to reduce the number of prospects in your database that may otherwise dilute your time and effort.  For instance, it is easier to personalize your e-mail newsletter and have more in-depth content if your audience is highly defined.  (Read more advice on data management with our 7 Tips to Taming Your Database).
3. Improve the user experience:  Recently we had the pleasure of helping a long-time supplier with their website re-design and Search Engine Optimization.  We’d learned a lot in the last year about how to make a website generate more inbound marketing leads and it was great to put this knowledge to work for a valued partner.  This also made us realize we had to renovate our own site to improve on our own user experience.  Stay tuned for the changes.
4. Be more engaging with social media:  in a recent post, brand marketing agency CEO Bryan Kramer urged his readers to be more authentic in their marketing practices.  He had great advice.  While I had already started being choosier about my connections on LinkedIn (see Stop Polluting LinkedIn), now I also want to reduce the number of groups I follow so I can read posts more regularly and contribute more often.  (Next on my to-do will be Twitter, but that’s a whole other matter…!)   
5. Reach out more and in unexpected ways:  For the first time in many years I didn't send Christmas cards this year.   They were too many things on the go and I ran out of time.  I felt guilty for a while but then realized:  even if I was sending personalized cards, when everyone is doing the same thing, how does it matter to the recipient?  What if I could reach out at other times of the year, in a more meaningful way?  And with a smaller audience, it should be easier to communicate more regularly...
6. Try something new:  I may be turning 50 in 2013, but I never want that old dog who refuses to learn new tricks.  So I will be looking to my GenY and GenX staffers to help me implement new ways of bringing thought leadership and relevancy to our clients and community.  We're not sure what that may look like yet, whether it will be infographics, videos, or podcasts but I look forward to the journey!

Enjoy this holiday season and we look forward to the conversation in 2013!

Too Many Hospitality Industry Marketers Are Like Politicians

Now that the Ontario elections are over we can all heave a sigh of relief. Finally we get our airwaves back!  No more ads about how this or proposition that. No more hearing what the incumbent did or didn't do…

Meetings industry marketers can be so much like politicians we love to detest... These are the marketers who shamelessly pander for business, like politicians pander for votes.  Giving what they think the audience wants to hear, regardless of vision or ideology.

Witness the following slogans taken from one recent meetings publications.  These are all from a hotel, a venue or a CVB:

• Inspiration Meets Here
• Ideas are Only as Good as Their Inspiration
• Share Ideas, Stay Connected Be Inspired
• Blue Sky Thinking at its Finest
• Our Corporate Training Facility Will Inspire You

A whole lot of blah blah blah, all about inspiration, but really nothing that differentiates each venue, or city...  Is it any wonder many meeting planners, both full-time and occasional, treat meetings industry suppliers like commodities?  So many sound the same! (for more reading on the Commoditization of the Meetings Industry check out the following blogs on Lead Spam 1 & 2).

But what would vision in marketing a facility or destination look like? Good question.  I don't purport to have all the answers, but here are a couple examples of at least more visionary marketing than what we've been subjected to in the past:

Pebble Beach Resorts, Pebble Beach, CA:  Recently I received an email from this Resort (where I had stayed a few years back) and they were offering me a complimentary download of their first White Paper titled "Why Savvy Business Leaders Use Golf to Grow Their Business".

All I had to do was confirm my information and give them permission to stay connected.  It promised to provide me with timely information so I could become a "Pebble Beach Insider".  It made me feel special and the White Paper offered great tips to planners and corporate executives on “selling” a golf-based event at a high-end resort like Pebble Beach. 

According to their VP of Sales, Tim Ryan, the promotion did extremely well, and brought them several RFPs just with one email deployment.  I thought their approach was very innovative, and completely aligned with the principles of inbound marketing that we’ve been preaching about (see also the following blog posts: The Difference Between Meeting Planners and Suppliers, Think Magnets,Not Darts, Six Tips toSuccessful Content Creation for #EventProfs).

National Conference Center (NCC), Leesburg, VA:  I have been following this IACC-certified facility for quite some time now.  They have a great blog that blends insights about the meetings industry, with profiles of clients and event posts on line staff.  Recently when Sarah Vining, their Marketing Manager, left to accept a position at the 4-H Council, they blogged about her departure, giving her a nice farewell tribute, and reporting on one of her last projects. 

But they don’t just blog about stuff, they also create useful resources for planners, with white papers about diverse topics such as Enhancing Meetings Through Food, Understanding Generational Differences, and Technology's Secret Potential to Empower Participants.  Check them out at:  http://www.conferencecenter.com/resources.cfm.

Both of the above organizations seem to have clearly understood what Simon Sinek author of Start with Why has called the Golden Circle. If you're not familiar with Sinek's work, you ought to check out his TED Conference video. But essentially Sinek argues the following: people don’t buy WHAT you do (hotel rooms, conference center facilities), they buy WHY you do it.  He says that all the top-performing, most inspirational leaders and brands think, act and communicate completely differently from the rest of the pack. They tell WHY they are in business, then how, then what, not the other way around. 

In the work that both Pebble Beach Resorts and the National Conference Center have done, I believe they have clearly articulated their why to their audience and consequently have risen to a level above their peers in their marketing efforts.  With its white paper Pebble Beach told me their WHY is to help business generate more business.  It’s not about their ultra-luxurious rooms or meeting space, it’s not even about golf.  Their WHY is about creating an environment where people make better connections, strike partnerships and close deals.

Similarly the NCC’s WHY is about creating better relationships but their execution is so different and personal that a planner would never confuse the two entities.  I can’t say quite as much about many of the organizations in the North American meetings industry…

The moral of this story is this: Business-to-business buyers and consumers alike are tired of the noise in the marketplace. They seek alignment with organizations and brands that stand for something beyond just what they deliver and how they deliver it. How will your hotel, convention center, or destination rise to this challenge?