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creative briefs |
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I've said for years that the press release has a new lease on life thanks to the Internet. That has been confirmed by new research about how professionals are using press releases.
From sales tool to reaching consumers directly, PR pros say they have multiple goals for this venerable tool.
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Friend Jim Deitzel is the honcho at the Rubbermaid blog. If you want to see how a corporate blog should be run, check this one out. The brand does an excellent job of showing how its products solve your everyday problems. It's about solutions, not sales.
Some recent stories were about festive holiday containers, what this blog has taught me about organization, and garage makeover.
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Hello again. Thanks to you and all the forwards of this newsletter last month, we sent $1,000 to Crisis Assistance Ministry. We're continuing to promote charitable giving by launching our Holiday for Charity program. We'll talk about that this time, and how not to be caught naked online.
Happy Thanksgiving. Now, let's get going.
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Creatively yours,
Harry Hoover
harry@my-creativeteam.com |
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Holiday For Charity |
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By Harry Hoover
Americans spent more in two months on holiday items than they did all year on charitable giving in 2007. Holiday retail sales for November and December 2007 in the general merchandise category were up about 1.7 percent, totaling roughly $469.9 billion, according to the National Retail Federation. Charitable giving for 2007 set a record, topping $306 billion.
I am not against capitalism &ndash far from it. But I think that Americans should be giving at least as much to charity as they are spending on holiday gifts. So, we started a program called Holiday For Charity in 2002, and once again My Creative Team is promoting the program that provides some simple ways to help the less fortunate.
The number one thing you can do is ask friends, family and business associates to donate to charity instead of buying you gifts. I think a lot of people would donate to charity in someone's name but they don't feel right doing it unless they have that person's approval. So, give them your OK and help someone who needs it more than you need a Christmas gift.
Here are some other elements of Holiday For Charity:
- sell the holiday gifts you receive online at eBay's GivingWorks and donate the proceeds to charity
- register and shop at iGive.com, whose merchants donate a portion of each transaction to your charities
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Are You Naked? |
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By Harry Hoover
Here in the Charlotte area a number of teachers are in danger of losing their jobs because of online indiscretions. They posted objectionable items in their Facebook accounts. Last time I checked Facebook was the fifth most visited site on the web with millions of visitors each day.
Did these teachers not know that? Anyone can see what you are saying. When you utilize social media, you are naked online for all to see. If they are that dumb, should they be teaching our children?
I've seen many - mostly younger - people airing out too much online. Savvy HR people Google candidates before hiring them. How would you look in an HR search?
This gets back to personal branding, a topic on which I've written a lot. A brand rests on truth, not on a thin veneer of calculated actions. So, like any good brand, you must nurture and maintain your reputation. All of your actions - offline and online - add up to form your personal brand. As Warren Buffett said,
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