It often seems like professional development books are a dime a dozen. In fact, a search of Amazon.com yields nearly 40,000 books to choose from. If you’re looking for something to read and don’t feel like sifting through thousands of options, take a look at our recommendations – you might find a good place to start.

Nathan: Now Is Too Late 2 by Gerald R. Baron

Alexis: Stumbling on Happiness by Daniel Gilbert

Ashley: Ben & Jerry’s Double Dip: How to Run a Values-led Business and Make Money, Too by Jerry Greenfield and Ben Cohen

Doreen: StrengthsFinder by Tom Rath

Deborah: Who Moved My Cheese? by Spencer Johnson, M.D.

Jenni: The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference by Malcolm Gladwell

Have we missed one of your favorites? Share your suggestions in the comments!

Photo credit: jcarbaugh

If you’re looking for good public relations case studies, just open a history book. Recently, Gary McKechnie, author of USA 101: A Guide to America’s Iconic Places, Events and Festivals, spoke at an event for one of our clients. He gave an excellent historical example of a phenomenal fund-raising effort.

Most people know that the French built and funded the Statue of Liberty. However, many forget that America was tasked with raising money for its pedestal. And it cost a lot – almost as much as the statue itself. Traditional fund-raising campaign strategies to erect the statue faltered. After all, it’s hard to get excited about this call to action:

Raise money for

The Statue of Liberty’s

pedestal fund

Enter Hungarian immigrant Joseph Pulitzer, successful journalist and owner of the New York World newspaper. In an editorial, he chastised the wealthy for not getting behind the project. He also challenged the middle class to raise money, because he proclaimed this was America’s statue – not just a rich man’s gift. In a clever PR move, he promised to publish the name of any contributor to the fund-raising campaign.

Regardless of whether you were an aristocrat who donated $500 to the cause, or a paperboy who donated five cents, your name was printed in the paper – in equal point size.

The result? 120,000 people contributed a little more than $100,000. It brought the country together to show that Lady Liberty wasn’t a “New York statue,” but an American icon. As an ROI side note: It also increased Pulitzer’s newspaper circulation by 50,000.

The successful approach of bringing small and large donations together for a common cause rings true today. Just look at the Haiti text messaging effort, which has already raised more than $800,000, and the Obama fund-raising campaign model. History repeats itself.

Photo credit: Itinerant_wanderer

Check out this 4-minute speech from social news site Reddit.com’s co-founder Alexis Ohanian. In it, he shares a real-life example of the power of the social media through the rise of Greenpeace’s Mr. Splashy Pants.

With more than 400 million people on Facebook, the fan page feature has become an increasingly popular way for companies and organizations to connect with users. A fan page can be registered, created and published in 20 minutes. And for some organizations, that might be enough to attract fans. But how does either party benefit from this type of relationship?

Similar to the Opening Ceremony, the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics fan page is an example of going above and beyond. The page engages its 1.4+ million fans by providing video, photos, a discussion board, breaking news and even commentary from Olympic athletes. Fans can also play one of three “mini-games” or submit their own Olympic photos for a chance to win a daily prize of two tickets to the Games.

Your brand might not be ready for a page of this magnitude, but this provides inspiration as to how a fan page can work, when done correctly. If you’re ready for a fan page, there are numerous options for filling it out: Share photos from an event, ask questions on the discussion board or upload a recent presentation. The possibilities are endless. In the international competition of social media, how can your organization’s fan page become a champion?

I had another “why didn’t I write about that” moment when I read Patrick Lencioni’s BusinessWeek article about Domino’s Pizza’s latest ad campaign. In the article, Lencioni talks about the company’s willingness to own up to its shortcomings and admit to not living up to their brand. As a result, he believes they will sell a lot more pizzas in the months to come, not because of the new ingredients they promise, but rather because of their “willingness to cross a line that most companies won’t even approach. Domino’s chose to make itself vulnerable.”

Reading the article, I tried to think back to the last time I had a pizza from Domino’s. While there are only a few pizza eating experiences I can qualify as “memorable,” I assume it’s been since college – maybe even high school since I tried their pizza. In any case, my impression of Domino’s is everything they described in the ad – ketchup for sauce and cardboard crust. Nothing I want to waste the fat and calories on.

So will this ad strategy work? It’s interesting to note that this decision was not done out of crisis as was Toyota’s recent admission to “not living up to standards.” Domino’s market share has been strong even through the recession. So, what about those customers who have been buying their pizza for 50 years? How will they feel when told that the pizza they have been eating is “totally devoid of flavor.” And what if they don’t like the new and improved Domino’s (can you say New Coke)? And will this mea culpa really cause people to change their perception of the company and the food they serve? Short term, it appears to be working – their stock value is up $4 from December. Long term – Domino’s had better taste good enough to not only get people talking about the pizza – but also to get more of them buying it.

Photo credit: AngelsWings

CBS’s Sunday Morning may be one of my favorite all time television shows. There is something about a cup of coffee, the newspaper and their segments that seem to make everything right in the world. I can remember watching as a kid and catching myself being truly interested in what I considered to be one of my parent’s shows – yikes.

This last Sunday was no different, and it led to me watching an 8-minute 12-second segment (Selling Your Home for Charity) that I have been thinking about and talking about all week. It focuses on a family who downsized their home and used proceeds from the sale to start a non-profit organization assisting families in Ghana. The story posed the very important question: “How much should you give to charity?” One statistic noted that Americans give approximately 2.2% of their individual annual income to non-profit organizations. This statistic was juxtaposed with a vignette about Willie Mae Dorsey, a Publix cashier who donates 10% of her $25,000 annual salary. Point being: Often, the people who earn the least give the most, as a percentage of their income.

All week I have been thinking: What if we were all like Willie Mae and reached deeper, (giving 5%, 7% or 10%) to help people in need? How would the world be different? Suddenly the idea of ending hunger or poverty doesn’t seem as unreachable. It certainly has me looking to see what else I can be doing to be more like Willie Mae.

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Commercials aired during the Super Bowl have long been considered “the best of the best.” Reaching millions of viewers (and costing millions of dollars), these ads are companies’ time to shine – or fail miserably. So what did the Costa DeVault team think of this year’s offering? See our highlights reel below.

I loved HomeAway’s Super Bowl commercial featuring Chevy Chase and Beverly D’Angelo from the National Lampoon’s Vacation franchise because it was nostalgic. My favorite line was when Chase thought that the hotel water he was getting was complimentary. And the hotel clerk responded, “No, sir. It’s complementary water – with an “e.” Meaning it complements the room and isn’t free.” -Doreen

I liked the Denny’s Chickens Across America commercial advertising the free Grand Slam breakfast. Any commercial that’s funny – and genuinely makes me laugh out loud – is considered a win in my book, and Denny’s had me at chicken astronaut trying to scream in space. While you won’t find me waiting in line for my free Grand Slam, I will remember the ad. However, this also begs the question, last year people waited for hours to receive a free Grand Slam breakfast without the Super Bowl ad, or really any advertising at all. Were three runs at upwards of $3 million a pop (estimated cost) really necessary? Or were the ads just meant to increase brand awareness?  -Brooke

Although the screaming chickens for Denny’s commercials made me chuckle, my favorite Super Bowl commercial goes to the Doritos “House Rules” commercial. There was a literal “LOL” moment. Doritos had the second most commercial spots, behind Budweiser so the odds were good. Doritos never disappoints! -Ashley

My favorite Super Bowl commercials are usually from Budweiser and while this year’s Clydesdale vs. a bull race didn’t disappoint, as a dog lover, my vote goes to Doritos. I’m referring to the commercial featuring a guy taunting a dog (wearing a bark collar) to bark for a chip. Who wouldn’t enjoy watching the dog get revenge by removing the collar and putting it on the guy, then stealing the bag of Doritos and barking every few seconds to shock him? So funny! -Kelly

Although the Doritos commercials made me laugh the most, I found the contrast between job search competitors Monster and CareerBuilder interesting. While CareerBuilder reused their usual theme of employees disliking their jobs and wanting a new one (i.e., 2009, 2008, 2007), Monster went a different route with their fiddling beaver commercial. During a time when many are unemployed, I think Monster made the viewers smile, whereas CareerBuilder may not have connected with as many people. Plus, past Super Bowl favorites have shown us that you can never go wrong with animals. –Jenni

My favorite was probably the E*Trade commercial about the girlfriend – especially when Lindsey comes on the screen at the end and says, “Milk-a-what?” I laughed out loud. I am a total sucker for the E*Trade baby commercials, every year.

The only one I re-watched right after it finished was Audi’s “Green Police” video. I didn’t particularly like the commercial … but they had an anteater on a leash at: 41. Watching it again was obligatory. -Alexis