Fast Five

SWC’s Fast Five

So, Disappointment(s) of the Week – chances are grim of finding a rental home or buying a garage door. Very specific we know but if you are in those markets, bummer! Redeeming News of the Week – there are ways to promote your brand online that sidestep the noxious humble brag syndrome, headlight technology is coming that doesn’t blind you so others can see the road and, eggs, did you know they are fighting for your attention.

So, here’s this week’s Fast Five:

1 7 ways to promote yourself on social media without bragging

Self-promotion on social media has become integral to brand building but your followers could easily move on if they’re not getting something back. It’s not just about advancing you. Self-promotion can land differently if you follow seven strategies that are aimed at simply helping others.

2 Want to rent a house? Good luck!

Renting a home is even harder than buying one in the unrelentingly hot U.S. housing market. Remote workers fleeing coastal cities during the pandemic spurred double-digit increases in housing costs and squeezed supply. Rental prices for single-family homes grew an average of 7.8 percent in 2021.

3 Supermarket’s egg aisle has some of the hottest branding in the store

As more egg brands have started to appear on shelves, they’ve gotten increasingly creative in their efforts to catch a casual shopper’s eye. Premium eggs brands, long dogged by confusing terminology (what’s the difference between cage-free and free-range?), have started to favor design rather than language as a means of indicating quality.

4 The great garage door holdup

These last two years, the garage has become the answer to all kinds of pandemic problems. It’s the remote office, the home gym and the one-room schoolhouse. Homebuilders used to order garage doors several weeks before finishing a house are now ordering them before the foundation is poured.

5 New headlights approved that won’t blind oncoming drivers

Anyone who has ever been blinded by high-beam headlights will be happy to hear this. U.S. highway safety regulators are about to allow new high-tech headlights that can automatically tailor beams so they focus on dark areas of the road and won’t create glare for oncoming drivers.