This week, we’re packing up the ol’ auto Bon and heading down to Florida. It should make for an interesting trip… Eight hours in the car with a little boy who mumbles gibberish like an auctioneer on “the sauce.” In Grayson’s (my son) case, milk – with a dash of Nilla wafer backwash – serves as his drink of choice.

While we’re in the sunshine state, Sarah and I plan to take the boy to Disney World. I figure this can go one of two ways.

A: He loves Mickey Mouse’s army of oversized characters, and even tolerates the heat and crowds of people.

B: He becomes “that kid,” raising hell in the happiest place on Earth.

Seriously, this is the first real “vacation” we’ve taken as a family. I feel so paternal. We’ve even bought a child leash to keep Grayson in check at the amusement park. I swore I’d never tether my kid, but with his sudden bouts of running toward bright objects, we want to be extra careful.

Ahhh, what a perfect postcard: Sarah struggling to get a grip on the toddler rope and me devouring a funnel cake, grease dripping down my shirt. Still, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t excited. The fact is, we’re going on a family trip.

For some odd reason, I feel like I’ve reached a new point in life. Maybe it’s the Ozzie and Harriet Rite of Passage. There’s just something about hitting the road with the wife and kid that seems slightly momentous.

I remember my father always getting ramped up for summer getaways. He’d watch the weather channel nightly in the days leading up to our departure. I’d go with him to fill up the gas tank, check the air pressure in the tires and buy snacks for the car. I didn’t think much of these preparations, until lately.

I wonder if he was proud to be able to take his family somewhere new, different. I know he didn’t say much during the drive, other than “Damn it, Stephen, look out your window and quit bothering your sister.” Still, I now understand the sense of accomplishment – even if it’s little that he must have felt.

Alright, enough nostalgia – I need to go pick up a collar for the boy.

Realizing I’m well overdue for writing a blog, I’ve decided to crank up MS word and start tapping some computer keys. I’m having trouble coming up with a good topic, though. See, in the background, Syfy’s Ghost Hunters keeps stealing my attention. Ohhhh, it’s the reveal. I hope that they captured some spooky EVPs. Yikes, Jason’s sporting a fairly deep bellybutton wedgie through his shirt. That’s scary enough.

Moving on…Yes, I’m a Sci-Fi nerd and authentic paranormal investigator. Well, not quite. Sarah and I once went on a Ghost Walk in St. Augustine. EMF detectors in hand, we shuffled along in a 90-degree swelter, paying $20 a piece to roam back alleys.

By the end of the night, I walked away $40 down. I did, however, break my streak of 27 years without a migraine. It’s funny how headaches work. Pressing heat and one woman screaming every three minutes about how she “captured an orb” on her Kodak camera… Let the throbbing begin.

I don’t mean to sound critical of the gal. She just seemed so convinced that she caught earth-bound apparitions – or as I call them, pollen. Sorry, but I don’t invest much faith in her scientific approach, especially when her photographic equipment is made of cheap plastic. Even so, she made the night entertaining.

Truth be told, I’m a wimp when it comes to everything paranormal. I’m not sure if I believe in hauntings, but I don’t want to find out if they’re real – at least not in person.

So why did I spend that Florida night ghosting (that’s what the cool investigators call it)? Well, I don’t know. I guess I’m complex.  Either way, I can appreciate what Ghost Hunters has done for Syfy, virtually taking the network from an unknown to a haven for geeks like me.

Marketing alone, the series’ name goes hand in hand with about every promo the channel runs. In fact, they’ve franchised the show – rolling out Ghost Hunters International and Ghost Hunters Academy. Talk about branding.

As business owners, I guess we can learn something from the show’s model. Let’s face it; they’re selling the chance to see the unseen. Every episode kind of mirrors the last. Still, a growing number of people keep watching, waiting for a glimpse of something, anything… They just don’t know what it is.

Call it wonderful packaging. Call it innovative advertising. But Ghost Hunters continues to scare the masses of fans – and the primetime competition.

Hey, I think I just wrote a blog.

Looking for a way to build your prospect database without glad handing at every after-hours event around town?  While not applicable to every business, social networks make the perfect tool for gathering information on potential clients.

Aside from allowing you to gather contacts 24/7, online resources like Twitter, Facebook, etc. provide other tangible benefits. First, the prospect must opt in to follow your company. Unlike mass e-mails, advertisements, commercials and so forth, social networks net only folks who are interested in your operation. They must be – they signed up for more details.

If maintained properly and on a regular basis, this targeted approach tends to yield loyal fans. They check in from day to day, recommend friends become followers, and keep your business name at top of mind. Moreover, these accounts build a relationship – the most essential rule of marketing.

Social networks have been around for some time, so none of this is new. However, the methods we use to run a social network campaign have changed. Companies continue to concoct fresh approaches to get the most people inspired to sign up.

One of the more elaborate approaches involves holding a contest of sorts. The business announces its goal to reach online supremacy – or something like that. For example, Acme Beer pushes for 500,000 new followers. If they reach this number, they will give everyone a free shirt that says “Official Acme Brew Taster.”

The idea is to create incentive to not only sign up individually, but to encourage others to sign up as well. The participants, in a sense, become part of a movement. As a result, Acme Beer gets a half-million contacts for its database. Even better, those same people serve as living advertisements, wearing apparel (that they clearly wanted) that dons the Acme name. It’s cross marketing at its finest.

Other ideas for growing social networks – hence building a prospect database – include offering valuable advice (weight loss tips, recipes, etc.), coupon codes to other Web sites, to-be continued content, etc.

Remember, the end goal isn’t to draw everyone and everything, but to reach a core of people with a real interest in your business. After all, these are the folks who most likely want what you’re selling.

When we moved to Wilmington seven years ago, the biggest draw for us wasn’t the beaches or the coastal weather. It was downtown – the historic homes and buildings, the restaurants, the shopping, the Riverwalk, the festivals and the occasional star sighting (maybe not so much for Steve). Downtown has been a prominent setting in our lives. We got engaged here, married here and now run a business from here.

It’s hard for us to believe there are people who live in New Hanover and northern Brunswick counties who do not take advantage of downtown. Yet we come across people all the time who never set foot there.

Why? Is it the parking? You won’t find cheaper parking in a downtown area (i.e. Charlotte, Charleston, Savannah…). Is it safety? Well, I don’t like being downtown after 2 a.m., but I feel that way about any city or town.

Do It Downtown is asking these same questions in a grassroots effort to promote downtown to locals. It’s an effort Bon’s Eye Marketing strongly supports, because, as Joan Loch, owner of Crescent Moon in the Cotton Exchange, said at the first Do It Downtown forum, “We need a thriving downtown 12 months a year.”

With five theatres, five museums, 20 galleries, 50 restaurants, 100 shops and more, downtown has so much to offer. It’s why Bob Jenkins, owner of Wilmington Adventure Walking Tour Company, moved downtown more than 30 years ago.

“Why did I move?” he said. “The history, culture, architecture, the people. There’s not another city in North Carolina that has the diversity that downtown has. I’ve had to find 23 different translators. What’s incredible is that they’re all Wilmingtonians.”

Jenkins called the Do It Downtown movement a “dream come true” for him. He pointed to a wood beam in the middle of The River Room, a meeting and event space where the first forum was held.

“That beam is 500-700 years old,” he said. “This room is held up by that. People come from all over the world to see this city’s history. A lot of locals take that for granted.”

Do It Downtown hopes to educate people about the uniqueness of downtown and to dispel any misconceptions about the area.

“It’s about community,” said Richard Davis, president of the Brown Coat Pub and Theatre. “We are strongest when all businesses downtown are strong. We need each other, and we need the people of Wilmington.”

If you don’t often go downtown or try to avoid it all together, why is that? The folks behind Do It Downtown want your input.