Trees and a Renewal of Hope During Advent

We Christians are in the season of chopping down fir trees and bringing them into our homes so that we can adorn them with ornaments, sentiments, and lights (our family prefers color lights, but my beloved Mom prefers white lights).

In the midst of that, here’s a beautiful piece about the role that our plant partners can play in our own mindsets as we continue to recover from Hurricane Helene here in the Upstate of SC and in Western NC.

Conservation Corner: In times of tumult, plant trees to renew hope (Spartanburg Herald-Journal):

Would you believe me if I told you that even before the recent tropical storm damage, Charlotte and Atlanta maintain a higher tree canopy percentage than Spartanburg and Greenville?

Planting trees is a belief in, and a faith act for a better future. One does not plant a tree believing hope is lost for the next generation. Since that first Arbor Day, countless trees have been planted by millions of students, teaching the eternal importance of this tradition.

Google Shopping Gift Guide and Importance of Trending vs Popularity

Google’s annual Shopping Gift Guide is out for 2020. While it’s a handy tool for personal shopping, it also has some incredibly helpful stats for marketing and messaging.

The trick is to focus on trending items using data. The same is true for Instagram… the hashtags that you should be incorporating into your posts for more exposure and likes (and follows) are the ones that are trending but not necessarily popular.

So, if you’re looking for some fun market research in your business’ sector, don’t pass up these sorts of insights:

  • Monitors and headsets with microphones both saw 450%+ spikes in searches.

  • Searches for streaming increased 33% this year.

  • Searches for ring lights are at their all-time high, as they provide ideal lighting for video recordings and meetings.

The Google Shopping Gift Guide provides a helpful list of products rising in popularity based on Search trends in the US.

Source: Google Shopping Gift Guide