THINKing

Creativity 2012 – Week #4

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It Takes Two In The Innovation Tango – Which is better for innovation – a lone creative or a group of creatives?

Innovation And The Art Of The Story – The art of storytelling is nothing new. Storify co-founder and Hacks/Hackers founder Burt Herman discusses the next generation of the centuries-old craft.

Creativity 2012 – Week #3

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The Rise Of The New Groupthink – Creativity happens to a single person working alone, not in a group.

January Brainstorm – A few ideas to get your little gray cells percolating as we jump into 2012.

Calling All Guest Bloggers

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Here’s a shout out to all guest bloggers. This is a new year and I want new voices here on THINKing.

Creativity 2012 – Week #2

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A Creative New Year’s Resolution – Get creative in 2012 -  there is some evidence to suggest that we may be heading for a creativity crisis.

Here’s What Creativity Looks Like – It’s a connect the dots puzzle, but you have to define the dots, too.

Is Everything Old New Again?

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OK, it’s 2012 and like a caterpillar, it seems, marketing is completing its metamorphosis. But really, it’s only the tactics that have changed. At least in my view. We’ve talked a lot about this. Back in 2009, we addressed this subject,

Creativity 2012 – Week #1

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The 5% Creativity Challenge – Most of us don’t have the staff and resources to disappear for weeks on end, but we all have the ability to schedule two, one-hour thinking sessions each week (5% of a 40 hour week).

Top 10 2011 Posts

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We’ve posted on a wide variety of topics in THINKing this year, and based on what you have been reading, you must like the variety. Let’s take a look at the Top 10 posts from 2011. You might find something on the list that you missed.

Word

It is true that I am sometimes a grumpy curmudgeon, however, I also know a little about word usage. So, please let me help you so that you won’t look like an ignoramus when you attempt to create an act of literature.

Creativity 2011 – Week #52

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It’s the last week of 2011 and we have had some good creativity links this year. I’ll be compiling home into pdf form shortly.  Happy New Year and enjoy this last installment in 2011.

Thinking About Thinking

I’ve been thinking a lot recently about thinking. Done some research on the topic as well. As a creative thinker, you are trying to generate new ideas. These ideas typically come when you put together two ideas which have not been paired previously. Sounds easy enough, right?

A Holiday Gas

You have to love clients who clearly understand their brand, their audiences and have the courage to communicate with them in their vernacular. That’s why I love the folks at Newell Rubbermaid. They get it.

LinkedIn – Branding

We’ve been talking recently about LinkedIn and the numerous ways you can utilize the platform for yourself and your organization. We see at least six business functions (see list below) in which LinkedIn can assist your company. We have already addressed #1. Today, we take a look at branding.

QR Code Update

You might remember our piece recently about the Top 15 Uses For QR Codes. We have been seeing a lot of content recently on this topic, so we thought it was time for a curated update.

How Is Social Media Like A Mullet?

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When you live in the South you sometimes still see the male hairstyle known as the mullet. As Joe Dirt said in the movie by the same name, a mullet is “business in the front, party in the back.” And that is how social media is like a mullet: it’s both business and personal.

A Silent Message From Your Customer

Your customers are telling you something, but aren’t saying a word. Most businesses will never get the message because they are too focused on what they want, not what the customer is asking for.

LinkedIn For B2B – The Series

We have recently concluded our series of posts on how to use LinkedIn for business-to-business purposes. Below, you’ll find an easy-to-navigate overview that takes you to the complete posts.

7 Strategies For Employee Communication Through Social Media – Part 1

Five Ways To Not Be A Weiner

I’m sure you have heard about Democrat Rep. Anthony Weiner’s PR problems stemming from his inappropriate online relationships with at least six women. This cretin provides an example – albeit a bad one – from which we all can learn.

Fortune 500 Friday – 7/8/2011

Since My Creative Team works with Fortune 500 firms, we often like to share the marketing techniques of these big boys with you. Many of these techniques can be replicated by marketers in any size business. So, let’s see what the big boys have been doing.

QR Codes Revisited

QR codes, we believe, have a place in marketing. However, they are not just for directing traffic back to your website. The future of QR codes is in making the user’s life easier. We plan to explore this in a future post.

Scan Me

By Harry Hoover

The QR code above is provided by ScanMe, where you can develop your own QR code that provides access to all of your contact information to anyone with a smart phone. Go ahead and scan mine to find out how to connect with me on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook. Below is what you see if you scan the QR code.

Crowdsourcing Your Social Media Strategy

By Harry Hoover

I joined an interesting Tweetchat July 11, moderated by Socialfresh. Each week a company will be selected and anyone who wants to can wade in to help develop a crowdsourced social media strategy using the hastag #socialfresh.  It was fun and there were some good ideas generated, but a lot of the ideas were way off-target. Here’s why:

Generate Your Own Infographics

Above is an infographic generated using Visual.ly, a service that allows users to create their own infographics. These visual representations of data are a great marketing and public relations tool. Are you using them in your marketing and PR?

Here are a few infographic resources you may want to investigate.

Brands Still Matter

I just ran across this piece, Why Brands Don’t Matter Anymore, by John Jantsch, who knows his marketing. But I have to disagree with his headline, which was probably written to create a hint of controversy. (If you read the piece, you’ll see that he and I don’t truly disagree on this topic.)

All Branding, All The Time

We write a lot here about brands and branding, so I thought I’d pull together a compendium of some of our better pieces on the subject to make it easier for you to find.

Bad Marketer, Naughty Marketer

I’ve been in marketing communications since shortly after the earth cooled and I have seen a lot of poorly conceived advertising and marketing programs. But in today’s unstable market, I’m seeing some unstable marketing, too.

Creativity Boost #1 – Mindtrip

Creativity is one of the key topics we discuss here at THINKing. So, we decided to develop a series of posts that focuses on ways to boost your creativity. Today’s boost: the mindtrip.

Top 10 Posts To Improve Your Writing

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Top 10 Story Starter Tips For Blocked Bloggers - Are you blogged out? Got writer’s block big time? Never fear, your doctor of creativity is here. I have some big time block busters.

Creativity Boost #3 – Dictionary Excursion

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Today, we’re heading to the dictionary for a creativity boost. Here’s what I want you to do:

You’re going to select six words and use them to write a story of less than 250 words. You will select your six words from:

Creativity Boost

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We’ve been providing a series of creativity boosting exercises. I’m putting them all together here to make it easier for you to navigate to them.

Creativity Boost #1 - Creativity is one of the key topics we discuss here at THINKing. So, we decided to develop a series of posts that focuses on ways to boost your creativity. Today’s boost: the mindtrip.