We’re two days out from Thanksgiving (also known as the top holiday on the calendar, in my humble opinion), so the holiday season is officially in full swing. It’s hard to believe that we’re nearing another turn of the calendar, but as it seems year after year, the time simply seems to accelerate once summer comes to a close.

Thanksgiving is a time to reflect and appreciate life’s gifts. Friends, family, health, prosperity—all deserve to be at the forefront of your thoughts as you saddle up to the Thanksgiving spread at the table.

While every year presents its own unique challenges, Thanksgiving is the day to ruminate on the good things you’ve been afforded.

That’s what PR/PR will be doing on Thursday, albeit on different coasts. I’m holding down the fort per usual here in Orlando, while Russell is visiting with family in California. We want to extend our thanks and warmest wishes to our clients and friends, and hope that you have a truly special Thanksgiving.

You’re what makes doing what we do worth it each and every day, and we’re grateful for the relationships that we’ve been able to build over the years.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving, and we’ll see you on Monday morning!

The holidays evoke many sensory reactions. We’re a bit over a week out from Thanksgiving, but you can already smell the pine and cinnamon, you can imagine the hugs from your family that you have not seen so far this year, and you can taste each and every dish that will grace the table.

This time of year is incredibly special, and it’s also presents a unique opportunity in the public relations space. You see, the run up to New Year’s allows for some direct pitching to newsstand magazines and daily newspapers with a creative tie to the holiday season.

Are you a hiring expert? Conduct some media outreach about the hiring challenges around this time of year, and what HR personnel can do to mitigate it. Inversely, how can job-seekers overcome the scheduling speedbumps that present themselves in the final two months of the year?

Are you a sales trainer? Well, it can be a challenge to push a deal over the finish line when the end-of-year financial crunch comes into play. How can salespeople secure business in the backdrop of Thanksgiving and Christmas?

Perhaps your career focus resides in the IT space. Well, there’s going to be a deluge of new computers, tablets, and phones opened up on Christmas morning. Provide a step-by-step guidebook for potentially clueless or overwhelmed family members to get their loved ones all set-up on their new gadgets stress free.

Those are just a few examples of the ways you can tie your singular expertise to the holiday season when conducting media outreach for interviews. The connection may not appear obvious at first, but usually with a bit of brainstorming the picture becomes clearer—and as do the opportunities to apply your knowledge and capabilities to business situations in the context of the holidays.

The media is constantly seeking creative angles to approach common topics around the holiday season. Do some outside-the-box thinking, identify how your know-how applies, and stretch your topic to secure some valuable press before your carve the turkey or begin to open presents.

The odds are high that there’s a military veteran in your life. We all know someone, be it family or friend, who has served in the U.S. Armed Forces, and while we’re immensely appreciative of their service each day, Veterans Day is a special mark on the calendar every year to acknowledge their sacrifice to our country.

Speaking personally: I’m honored to call a group of venerated veterans my friends. Today they make their respective livings as emergency medical physicians, marketing executives, and IT technicians, but they’ll always be Army Rangers, Navy Corpsmen, and Marines. They’re the faces you meet daily that you may not know have put their lives on the line to secure the freedoms that you enjoy.

I’ve been privileged to get to know this group, and while we don’t necessarily talk about their individual experiences in combat, it’s abundantly apparent in their personalities that time in the military has been a defining aspect of their character.

It’s understated, but commands respect—as it very well should.    

At PR/PR we want to extend our unending thanks to the veterans who have served in defense of this nation. You are what makes America the wonderful country that it is.

Does the time change have you feeling extra aggravated this week? Perhaps the added stressors of the coming holidays have got you a bit on edge, or one of your coworkers is just getting under your skin a little more than normal. You open your Twitter feed and begin to rage-type, ready to shout your frustrations into the digital void. Stop typing immediately, because it could cost you your job.

Especially if you go extremely over the line like former Cleveland Browns safety Jermaine Whitehead, who took to Twitter after Cleveland’s loss on Sunday and decided to threaten some of the users in his feed.

That decision immediately cost him his job.

Everyone is aware that social media behavior can get you into hot water, yet each and every year we hear of a high profile firing directly related to content posted online. A handful of celebrities have had to apologize for past posts, or in the case of Jermaine Whitehead, find themselves unemployed because of a moment of frustration.

The cautionary tales abound, but for some reason the message still doesn’t seem to connect with some people. I’m sure you’ve seen it on your own newsfeeds—the uncle with the propensity to overshare online, the aggressively political friend from high school. Some people just have a penchant for stepping in it on the internet.

Former Cleveland Browns defensive back Jermaine Whitehead is one of those.

So whatever has you especially annoyed on this Tuesday afternoon: be sure to keep it above board on your social media profiles.

Happy Halloweek! While we topped out at 90(!!!) degrees yesterday, the decorations are out in full force and so will the trick-or-treaters on Thursday evening. You may have seen news stories pop across your Facebook newsfeed drawing awareness to those costumed participants carrying blue buckets, so we’re going to talk about that a bit in today’s blog.

Campaigns for social awareness have exploded on Facebook, and it’s unfortunate that many of them end up being products of exaggeration or simply turn out to be flat-out false. According to this online campaign, trick-or-treaters sporting blue pumpkin buckets have been diagnosed with some form of autism, and it was devised to diminish judgement of older children (or even adults) with the disorder as they ring doorbells.

The post may have triggered your skepticism—but it’s absolutely true! The campaign began last year with a post from Alicia Plumer, mother of a 21-year-old autistic son who loves to trick-or-treat. So no reason for alarm bells when an older child with a blue pumpkin bucket rings your doorbell, this is an actual social campaign designed to do some good and create happiness.

Of course there may be some who decide to abuse it, but don’t let the exceptions drive the rules—let that candy fly.

You’re right to be cynical when it comes to social media-driven campaigns, but in the case of the blue bucket this Thursday, keep in mind that there’s someone with autism behind that vampire mask or goblin hood.

Social media can be a medium to do worlds of good, and this appears to be one of those cases. Happy Halloween!