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Business Leads. . . . . . . .26Networking & Events . . .25Lists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .21Out & About. . . . . . . . . . .25Smart Strategies . . . . . .22Viewpoint. . . . . . . . . . . . .31

SOCIAL SENIORSBaby boomers try

to grasp Twitter,Facebook.PAGE 15

SCOTT DANCE | STAFFsdance@bizjournals.com

When Gov. Martin O’Malley wraps up a flurry of campaign fundraising in the coming days, he’ll have some big names in the business community to thank for much of the millions of dollars he’ll likely report. And that’s not just from direct donations.

A finance committee of more than 100 members, led by Baltimore real estate lawyer Jon Laria, has been wooing contributions since this summer. And many of its members are also leaders of local indus-

tries that stand to benefit from policies O’Malley and lobbyists are pushing to the General Assembly, whose

2010 session begins Jan. 13.State law mandates that the cur-

rent season of political fundraising wraps up when the session starts. Until then, many businesspeople will be pulling their weight to draw donations to the governor, a Democrat and former Baltimore

Historic tax credit plan gains support

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SCOTT DANCE | STAFFsdance@bizjournals.com

The average person who files for unemployment in Maryland gets $311 per week from the state. Just north of the Mason-Dixon line, however, you can ex-pect about $38 more.

At the same time, employers pay taxes at a rate half of those levied in Massachusetts and double the rate Virginia charges.

By most measures, Maryland ranks in the middle

of the pack among all states for its generosity in un-employment benefits. And it ranks relatively low for its taxes on businesses, federal labor statistics show. But proposed reforms could change that mix.

The General Assembly is expected to tackle unem-ployment insurance reform as soon as it convenes Jan. 13. Various proposals coming from business-es, General Assembly members and Gov. Martin O’Malley could each shift the burden to employers

A delicate balance More jobless benefits may translate to higher taxes

Jason Calvert receives his $403 unemployment benefit each week on a Visa debit card.

Please see UNEMPLOYED, Page 12

Please see O’MALLEY, Page 12

HEATHER HARLAN WARNACK | STAFFhharlan@bizjournals.com

Gov. Martin O’Malley will push legislation in the up-coming General Assembly session extending the state’s tax credit program — used to recycle obsolete build-ings like the Can Company in Canton — for three more years and fueling it with a total of $50 million.

The anticipated bill is a relief to a loose group of 11 preservation organizations that have seen the Maryland Heritage Structure Rehabilitation Tax Credit program dwindle from almost $75 million in expenses in 2001 to roughly $5 million this fiscal year.

But advocates know the battle isn’t won yet. O’Malley and pres-ervationists must lobby lawmak-ers to revive the commercial and residential program, slated to sunset June 30, when the state faces a roughly $2 billion deficit next fiscal year. Among the hard-est to convince will be Del. Shei-la E. Hixson, D-Montgomery County, chairwoman of the House of Delegates Ways and Means Committee, who has been a vocal opponent in previous years.

Hixson could not be reached for comment.

Laria leads O’Malley fundraising efforts

Please see HISTORIC, Page 13

Vol. 27 No. 36 © 32 Pages January 8-14, 2010 $2.50

FIGHT GOESONJudge mulling Bill Jews’ severance pay.PAGE 6

ON THE WEB: GET BREAKING BUSINESS NEWS @ BALTIMOREBUSINESSJOURNAL.COM

Dixon to resignBaltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon will step down

Feb. 4 after pleading guilty to one count of embezzlement. A plea agreement resolves a pending perjury indictment and allows her to keep her pension. City Council President Stephanie C. Rawlings-Blake will become interim mayor. How will this change affect the business community? Read the BBJ’s coverage online at balti-morebusiness-journal.com.

INSIDE• Find out how much

projects in Baltimore City and select coun-ties in the region have received from the state’s historic tax credit program,PAGE 13.

Laria

When it comes to using technology to market her-self, 61-year-old Pikesville resident Carol Sorgen has

worked to stay ahead of the curve — though she doesn’t necessarily consider herself a techie.

But back in 2002, she was the first among her self-employed friends to launch a Web site. Earlier this year, she ventured into the online social world, gaining a Twitter, Facebook and Linke-dIn presence. She spends about an hour each business day updating and moni-toring the sites, sometimes posting to Facebook relevant articles she’s written, or sending a tweet — @BaltimoreWriter — to let her 184 followers know she’s searching for a source for an assign-ment.

Sorgen’s not spending time network-ing online for social purposes, and she is not entirely sure if her efforts have di-rectly resulted in new work. But Sorgen considers the platforms integral to main-taining a certain level of professionalism

expected in today’s ever-evolving busi-ness world.

“It puts me on the same wavelength as my clients,” she said.

And that, experts say, is a pretty rare approach among baby boomers. Because when it comes to using online social net-working tools, Sorgen stands out as an early adopter among her baby boomer peers. Anecdotal and statistical evidence

strongly suggest that boomers — de-fined as being born in the postwar years, or between 1946 and 1960 — are, by and large, less than comfortable utilizing the Internet to drum up business, find a new job, or explore a different career path. But given how hard the recession has hit this age group, some say boomers can’t afford to ignore the Web-based so-cial networking tools at their disposal.

In November 2009, the unemployment rate for adults over 55 years of age rose to 7.1 percent, up from 7 percent in Octo-ber. It’s the highest monthly unemploy-ment rate this age group has seen since October 1992, according to a report by the AARP. The average length of unem-ployment for active job seekers jobs 55 and older stretched from 33 weeks to 36 weeks during the same period.

Despite boomers’ hesitation to plug into social networks to improve their employment outlook, industry experts say it’s never too late to log on. But they must first overcome barriers to using so-cial networking for career purposes.

Coddled within corporationsFor many boomers, the obstacles are

more mental than anything based in technology. Such is the case with Mer-edith Bower, a Baltimore public relations consultant in her late forties who writes about Baltimore’s privates schools for

Focus on Boomer Business

JANUARY 8-14, 2010 | BALTIMORE BUSINESS JOURNAL | baltimorebusinessjournal.com 15

peers. Anecdotal and statistical evidence cial networking tools at their disposal.

Page

18Page

16Are boomers

friending on Facebook?

Retirement planner

Bonnie Stein

NEXT WEEK’S FOCUSReal Estate & DevelopmentReporter Daniel J. Sernovitz compiles a report card on projects sure to be closely watched over the next 12 months and assess-es their progress in financing, construction and occupancy.

Freelance writer Carol Sorgen devotes time each day to Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. ‘It puts me on the same wavelength as my clients,’ she says.

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Please see SOCIAL, Page 19

A new kind of social call

Boomers seek comfort with online networkingE L I Z A B E T H H E U B E C K | C O N T R I B U T O R

January 8-14, 2010 | Baltimore Business Journal | baltimorebusinessjournal.com boomer business | 19

Look Who’s TweetingIncrease in the use of social networks by the 35 to 54 age group.

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

2009

2008

Regularly use social networksHave joined a social network

Boomer 2.0Percentage of the age group 35 to 54 who are using Web 2.0 media.

0%

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30%

40%

50%

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Subscribers to feedsBloggersSocial networkers

Social networks are growing the most rapidly among adults over age 35, according to a 2009 For-rester Research study. Last year

the 35-plus set boosted its participation by more than 50 percent.

Among the various forms of Web 2.0 media online — including RSS feeds, blogs, social networks and online vid-eos — social networks were the fastest-

growing and the most popular with all age groups.

Now more than half of adults over 35 are members of a social network, while one in five also blogs. It’s true, social media is no longer just a habit of 20-somethings.

Carolyn M. ProCtor | cmproctor@bizjournals.com Source: Forrester Research Inc. (www.forrester.com)

market factsWeb 2.0 is cutting across demographic groups — millenials, Gen Y, Gen X and boomers.

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Examiner.com, a Web site where local experts write about a variety of issues. Though Bower has a Facebook page, she generally doesn’t use it to promote her work — even though Examiner.com pays her more each time someone clicks on her published articles.

“I know it’s up to me to push it more. I guess I’m not very good at using social networking,” Bower said.

As boomers go, Bower is not alone. A recent survey of boomers’ online social

networking habits bears this out. Al-though 96 percent of the 1,800 respon-dents said they use e-mail to keep in touch with family and friends, only 22 percent report-ed visiting social networking sites such as MySpace and LinkedIn.

Of those who haven’t, more than a quarter said they see no benefit to social network-

ing, according to the study’s creators, ThirdAge Inc., an online destination for boomers, and JWTBOOM, an integrated marketing agency dedicated to reaching boomers.

Carlos Hernandez thinks he knows why.

Hernandez, a San Francisco Internet trainer who created the workshop So-cial Media for the Uncomfortable, aimed largely at boomers, sees firsthand a lack of comfort with social media tools among his trainees — even those he describes as seasoned, educated, multiple-degreed professionals.

“They’ve been coddled within the cor-porate structure. The 50-year-old wants an instruction manual,” Hernandez said.

Teaching boomers how to get around social networking sites is one thing; teaching them the mentality behind it is another. Hernandez sees a long-en-grained corporate mindset as detrimen-tal to his boomer clients. Hernandez, who spent 28 years of his professional life in the electrical equipment manufac-turing industry, understands this mind-

set clearly. “I came from a competitive, corporate

environment. You shared information with your colleagues, but you tended to keep things close to the vest,” he said.

bridging generational gapsThe attitude appears to cut along a

generational divide. “There’s a real hesitation by boomers

to share personal information online, whereas people in my generation have grown up doing so,” said twenty-some-thing Ryan Goff, the social media direc-tor at marketing agency MGH Inc.

Some experts say that once indoctri-nated, users of online social network-ing tools often find it a very welcoming space.

“There are a ton of people who really want to help — there’s this spirit of gen-erosity that runs through the [online] community,” said Hollis Thomases, pres-ident and CEO of online marketing and advertising agency WebAdvantage.net.

For those who enter the online social networking world with a career boost or switch in mind, Thomases urges users to be as specific about their needs as pos-sible, noting their location and the type of employment they’re seeking.

Others suggest that tentative boom-ers may be more willing to give social networking a go if it’s accessible and fa-miliar. E-mail, according to the ThirdAge Inc. survey of 1,800 boomers, qualifies as such: 96 percent of respondents re-ported using e-mail regularly.

That’s why the founder of Posterous.com — a 28-year-old with his parents in mind — sought out an e-mail platform that would allow users to create their own blogs. Via conventional e-mail, Pos-terous.com allows users to type text, at-tach videos, sound and photos and then send content directly to their blog.

In line with keeping it simple, experts also recommend that boomer users new to social networking tools target those that cut through the clutter. With this goal, online networking tool LinkedIn presents a good starting point.

“It’s targeted to business populations. It takes a lot of the personal stuff out,” said Scott Testa, a social networking guru and business professor at Cabrini College in Pennsylvania.

ElizabEth hEubECk is a contributor in Baltimore.

social: Sharing personal info one hurdle to joining online networksFrom Page 15

‘thEy’vE bEEn CoddlEd within thE CorPoratE

struCturE. thE 50-yEar-old wants an

instruCtion Manual.’

Carlos HernandezSocial Media for the

Uncomfortable

Survey: Retirement expectations are not always matching reality

When it comes to retirement, Ameri-ca’s 50-somethings seem to be in a state of denial.

That’s according to the fifth annual Retirement Fitness Survey from Wells Fargo & Co. Although the economic downturn has forced people in their 50s to consider working an average of three years longer than they had hoped, their current rate of savings is unlikely to fund the retirement lifestyles they expect.

The firm found that people were plan-ning for retirement to last 21 years, even though they will probably live another 25 to 30 years.

“The recession should have been a wake-up call, and it wasn’t,” said Lynne Ford, head of Wells Fargo Retail Retire-ment.

About 23 percent of pre-retirees are saving more for retirement than they were a year ago. Most are saving the same amount, and 20 percent are now saving less. Those surveyed also have been overly optimistic about their in-vestment returns, expecting the value of their investments to grow by an average of 8.7 percent each year.

kElsEy volkMann | St. Louis Business Journal