Someone once said that creativity is taking tow opposing ideas and making them work together in a clever way–sounds easy, doesn’t it?

If you look at many creative ideas you can see that there is a twist on the norm–the inventor of the idea or art or piece of work was able to take a different mental pathway than what most others would. Is this a learned skill or are some people just born with creative aptitude?

This is the question the Global Shift Blog addresses in this post.

What do you think? Is creativity born or bred?

We love to find new resources…check out the j-learning site for information and tips on how to participate effectively in the online journalism community. Here’s a great blog basics link from the site. Worth five minutes of your time to check it out!

http://www.j-learning.org/present_it/page/writing_and_editing_a_blog/

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/27/business/media/27adco.html?em

Visit the link above to check out the little blue ‘i’ initiative!

As with most things in life, when it comes to making information or content available, balance is everything. Too little, or too much,  information can leave people frustrated or apathetic.

The trick to effective communication is to use just enough content to capture interest, state your case, and give a clear call to action. The end. Even if your copy/message is really well-written. Save it for later. Quit while you are ahead.

By breaking down your content into manageable pieces, you have a much greater chance of earning the opportunity to share a little more with your audience in the future. The moral of the story: more frequent bite-size chunks of content will provide more opportunities to engage your prospects than an overload of information ever will.

Practice finding your sweet spot when it comes to providing content for your audiences to digest. They will reward you in the long run.

Sometimes it’s tough to feel inspired when writing the all-important call-to-action (CTA) in your promotional or corporate communication vehicles. The driver, of course, is a verb. For example, “Log-on to hamblincompany.com to read our latest blog.” In this CTA, ‘log-on’ is the word describing the action that you hope someone will take when they’re done reviewing your message. Some other CTA gems:

Call

Visit

Stop

See

Shop

Stock up

Save

Act

Share

Email

Refer

Start

Do you have some favorites? Share them with us!

What do you do when you run into a challenging marketing or business situation? Search the web for advice? Ask a business colleague in the know? At The Hamblin Company, our strategy is to do both of these things, bringing as many heads together as possible to create a course of action. Once we learn or discover something new or noteworthy, you can bet that the information will end up on this blog within the next few hours so we can share it with the world on the web.

After nearly 200 posts in over 20 categories on ‘We Think’ we felt it was time to extend a more formal invitation to marketers and business leaders at-large to pick our brains—whenever and wherever you like—by taking a peek at the blog. Just so you know, there’s fresh content there at least three times a week. And, we invite you to post your comments and questions—who knows, perhaps your query or thoughts will spark a new innovation or alliance with a fellow We Think-er.

If you know someone who might benefit from reading our blog, send them a link to it. We look forward to continuing to inspire you in the blogosphere!

Why does everyone think they are a marketer? Google this question and you’ll find: http://www.mpdailyfix.com/2009/05/the_value_of_a_marketer.html

Read it and you’ll have the answer to one of life’s great mysteries.

An interesting post from Pay Pal’s blog courtesy of Cameron McLean, PayPal’s General Manager for UK Merchant Services (love the use of actual staff members to write!):

We’re all used to the idea that women love shopping till they drop and men will do anything to avoid visiting the retail mall. Well, the latest story from PayPal’s UK Online Retail Report suggests the Internet is turning men into shopaholics.

The report, conducted for us by Experian, indicates that almost 13 million British men shop online today compared with 10.3 million women. And almost twice as many men as women are joining the ranks of online shoppers.

A closer look at the findings reveals more striking evidence of men’s dominance on Britain’s ‘online main street’. Men outspend women in every online category except groceries and clothing. It’s no surprise that men spent a lot more on technology – our love of gadgets is well served by online retailers – but men in Britain also spend more on health and beauty.

Why have men fallen in love with online? At PayPal, we think the sheer convenience of the Web appeals to men. While many don’t want to spend precious hours on the high street, they love the fact they can do internet shopping any time of day or night – even while watching the latest big football game on television. And it makes it so easy to compare prices and research products without trudging from shop to shop.

Men’s impatience should prompt retailers to make sure their websites offer a quick and enjoyable experience. It’s a sign of how far we’ve come that today’s websites contain far fewer distracting graphics than in the days of painfully slow dial-up internet connections. Just as importantly, they realise how crucial it is to clinch the sale by making sure shoppers don’t give up before they check out. It’s the online equivalent of shoppers seeing a long line to pay in a bricks and mortar store, prompting them to leave the goods and go elsewhere. This is where payment companies like PayPal can really help, by making it quicker to checkout and pay online: in many cases, in just a few mouse clicks.