Author: Josephine Butler

Forget More Monday – It’s Cyber Monday!

Josephine ButlerBlog, Marketing, , ,
Jcrew.com, I'm coming for you on Monday!

If you’re anything like me, then you shied away from shopping on Black Friday. It’s not that the deals weren’t great – it’s that the masses of people were greater (and that’s just too much for me)! Perhaps that’s why I’m so excited that today is Cyber Monday, the biggest online shopping day of the year. In lieu of our usual More Monday feature, I want to offer up some tips for smart online shopping on this very special (and money-saving) day!

  • Use an online aggregation site to view deals across a variety of different sites. Otherwise, all of the deals can become overwhelming, writes Erin Williams of the Washington Post. She recommends trying out sites like DealNews’ Cyber Monday page and CyberMonday.com, a subsidiary of Shop.org.
  • Sign up for your favorite stores’ e-newsletters, says Real Simple. You’ll get advance notice about any special deals
  • Download apps. From store apps to Cyber Monday apps, there’s pretty much an app for anything and everything you’ve got on your shopping list, writes Forbes contributor Lydia Dishman.
  • Research, research, research! You may find a good deal on one site, but you might just find a better deal on another!
  • Do it on your own time. Dana, I promise I won’t make online purchases at work – I’m thinking about staying up until Midnight or doing it on my lunch!
  • Beware of scams. Sad, but true – there’s always someone out there that will try to steal your information. Only share credit card numbers and other personal information with trusted sites.
  • Have fun! For all of you other claustrophobic folks out there, this is your day!

Have any other online shopping tips for us? We’d love to add to our list!

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More Monday: Kutcher Calls It Quits

Josephine ButlerBlog, Social Media + Influencer Engagement, , , , 1 Comment on More Monday: Kutcher Calls It Quits

If you’re a fan of celebrity gossip (or even if you’re not), you’ve probably heard the news: Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore are getting divorced. To say it has overshadowed other controversies surrounding the young new star of Two and a Half Men would be an understatement. We’re here to fill you in on what you missed.

Last week, Kutcher, unaware of the emerging case of child sex-abuse against Penn State football coach Joe Paterno, tweeted the following:

Obviously, the only thing in poor taste was the tweet, but Kutcher later realized his mistake and quickly attempted to make amends with his many (and some very angry) fans — 8,403,607 to be exact. It was during this process that I think he really went wrong (the tweet I can easily forgive – everyone makes mistakes!).

In a short tweet on Nov. 10, Ashton wrote “Twitter Management” and shared a hyperlink to his blog. There he wrote, “Up until today, I have posted virtually every one of my tweets on my own, but clearly the platform has become too big to be managed by a single individual….I’m going to turn the management of the feed over to my team at Katalyst as a secondary editorial measure, to ensure the quality of its content.”

I think social media expert Peter Shankman put it best, “NO, NO, NO, NO, NO.”

“The second you hand over your Twitter account to your people,” Shankman wrote, “your account stops being real, your voice starts being ‘crafted’ and you start being out of touch.”

I couldn’t agree more.

Right now, more than ever before, Ashton needs to be able to speak for himself. Eight million fans didn’t sign up to follow some production company (albeit Ashton’s production company). They want to hear from Ashton.

So what can we take away from this? One: own your mistakes. Two: move on. Three: don’t give up.

What are your thoughts on the matter? What do you think Kutcher could do to wrong this right (and no, we’re not talking about the tweet itself, we’re talking about his decision to hand over his Twitter account). We’d love to hear more from you!

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Green Thought Thursday: Leaf Me Hangin’ On

Josephine ButlerBlog, Sustainability, , , , , , , , 1 Comment on Green Thought Thursday: Leaf Me Hangin’ On
Leaves on the Blue Ridge Parkway

Fall is one of my favorite times of the year. I can’t think of anything that I love more than the beautiful array of colorful leaves on the trees. But once those leaves fall off, it’s a different story.

Surprisingly, I actually enjoy raking leaves (it’s great exercise)! It’s what happens to those leaves after I rake them up that really puzzles me (or should I say, it leaves me hanging on?). On the one hand, I could bag the leaves up and put them on the side of the road for pick-up – these leaves will head straight to the landfill. Or, I could opt to burn my leaves – this can also be bad for the environment, cause irritation to your respiratory system and even contains cancer-causing agents (thanks for the tip, Nat Geo)! For today’s Green Thought Thursday, I want to share a few different options with you on how to go green during your fall yard clean-up.

  • Skip the leaf blower and grab a rake. It’s a pollution-free alternative!
  • Rake leaves into a pile and leave them there. The pile will eventually decompose, and you’ll have a nice source of fertilizer.
  • Mow your lawn. Sure, you’ll need to use a little gasoline to get the process going, but shredded leaves will decompose quickly and do a nice job of fertilizing and insulating your lawn.
  • Collect leaves into compostable bags and take them to your local community yard waste collection center (if you live in Raleigh, check out the City of Raleigh’s Yard Waste Recycling Center on New Hope Road) – they’ll compost the leaves into fertilizer for you!

Does anyone else have any great (and green) ideas on how to get rid of leaves? I’d love to hear your thoughts!

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More Monday: Team Spirit Aboard the USS Carl Vinson

Josephine ButlerBlog, Marketing, , , , , , 5 Comments on More Monday: Team Spirit Aboard the USS Carl Vinson
Photo by Andrew Dye, photographer/videographer for reesenews.org

In an exciting season opener and a fitting tribute to veterans across the country, the University of North Carolina Tar Heels took on the Michigan State Spartans aboard the USS Carl Vinson, an active aircraft carrier that seven months before was the final resting place of Osama bin Laden before his body was buried at sea.

And who was the brains behind this carefully executed and wildly successful event? Let’s start with Michigan State’s athletic director, Mark Hollis, who dreamed up the event. After roping in Mike Whalen and his team at Morale Entertainment, an event production agency established as a “labor of love and respect to our fighting men and women,” it became a reality. And a wonderful reality, at that.

You wouldn’t believe the logistical undertaking this event truly was. From coordinating dates with the United States Navy (remember, the Vinson is an active aircraft carrier — it’s needed at sea) to figuring out how to pay for the event (advertising, grants and a sponsorship from Quicken Loans did the trick), it took a lot of negotiating between Whalen’s team and the United States Navy to pull off this whole thing.

So why do we, at Clairemont, get so excited when we talk about this event? Aside from it being a logistical challenge and my love for all things Tar Heels and Roy Williams and college basketball, this event never lost sight of the most important team there: our military.

Hosted on Veteran’s Day — 11/11/11 — this event was destined to be extra special for all of the active servicemen and servicewomen aboard. For starters, it was a chance to kick back and relax and enjoy a college basketball game (not to mention it was between two great teams — never forget that fateful night on April 6, 2009). It was also a chance to interact with some of college basketball’s former greats like Magic Johnson, James Worthy and one of my personal favorites, Tyler Hansbrough. Even President Barack Obama was on board for this — he couldn’t miss an epic rematch between the Tar Heels and the Spartans, but he also couldn’t miss being there to support our military.

My favorite quote of the evening came from Camp Pendleton Staff Sgt. Darian Washington in his interview with Julie Watson of the Associated Press. He said: “It’s a bittersweet moment for me. It shows they appreciate us. We haven’t been forgotten. It means a lot.”

How proud we are to have witnessed such a moving event — the celebration of one of America’s favorite sports with America’s favorite team — the men and women who serve and protect this country each and every day.

Now we want to hear from you. What were some of your favorite highlights from the event? What do you think about the PR/marketing efforts and messaging behind all of this? Drop us a line in the comment section below.

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Green Thought Thursday: The Rules of Recycling

Josephine ButlerBlog, Sustainability, , , 2 Comments on Green Thought Thursday: The Rules of Recycling
Our giant recycling bin at the Longview Center -- a thing of beauty!

Green Thought Thursday is a regular feature all about the baby steps we can take to protect our Mother Earth.

I can’t tell you how many Post-it Notes I’ve picked out of recycling bins. Hundreds, at least.  And no, it’s not because I have some weird obsession with them (though, we do love them at Clairemont). It’s because in the city of Raleigh and everywhere else, you cannot recycle them.

Really.

I think you’d be surprised to learn what you can and cannot recycle here in Raleigh — I know I  was. And that’s why I wanted to dedicate this Green Thought Thursday to listing those things out. According to the Raleigh Recycling Division, you can recycle the following:

  • Newspapers and inserts
  • White and colored paper (that’s not too bright)
  • Open junk mail
  • Old phone books
  • Magazines and catalogs
  • Paperboard, chipboard, SBS board and tubes (think cereal boxes, paper towel rolls, shipping tubes, etc.)
  • Corrugated cardboard
  • Glass bottles and containers
  • Plastic items (coded No. 1-5 and No. 7)
  • Plastic bottles with a neck (soda bottles, peanut butter jars, laundry detergant bottles)
  • Gable-top cartons (milk cartons and the like)
  • Juice boxes
  • Aluminum foil and food trays (that are clean!)
  • Plastic beverage rings
  • Cans, of course!

Things you cannot recycle:

  • Post-it Notes (and other paper with adhesive backing)
  • Bold- or neon-colored paper
  • Paper with staples
  • Checkbooks or books
  • Carbon paper
  • Napkins, tissues or paper towels
  • Plastic bags
  • Boxes with wax coatings
  • Aerosol cans
  • Auto batteries
  • Containers that once contained hazardous materials (like fertilizers, auto fluids, etc.)
  • Egg cartons
  • Non-food cans and non-food glass containers
  • Pizza boxes
  • Frozen food trays
  • Containers made of thin, brittle plastic (these can really mess up the sorting process)

For a more complete list, visit the Raleigh Recyling Division’s website by clicking here. The site also does a great job of listing out alternative drop-off locations for your unwanted items so that they won’t end up in a landfill. A final thought from our friends there: “You can help recycling markets by buying products MADE from recycled materials. We have to close the loop, BUY RECYCLED!”

What are some of your favorite post-consumer recycled products? We sure do love our Staples recycled copy paper (and we don’t even mind paying a little extra for it)!

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