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Facebook Youth and Parent Portal

Facebook is stepping up to the privacy plate. They have recently launched their Parent Portal and Youth Portal, a platform to educate parents and teens about their service, address bullying, offer tips to stay secure, and how their data is being used. Continuing in our June series about data protection, we recommend exploration of this site for both the young people in our lives AND for the young at heart. Even if you have heard it all before, this is a good reminder for everyone.  Wri...

Feeling the Need to Protect Your Cyber Spaces?

Spring cleaning may be months away but now is the PERFECT time to do a digital clean up. I mean, what better to do while cozied up inside during this winter weather? Think how fantastic it will feel to brush away those discarded apps, obnoxious newsletters, and dusty subscriptions that you never use. Let's get started....

GRM Fieldays Bucket List 2018

It is Tuesday before Fieldays 2018 and the GRM team has boots on the ground. Chelsea - a.k.a. bosslady - arrived on Sunday and is scoping Mystery Creek to find sites to add to your "must-see" list. Will you be there? If so, PM us and tell us what to add to our Fieldays 2018 bucket list! ...

Why all of these privacy notifications!?

Does your inbox look a little like this? ...

Double the fun with SnapChat filters

If you use Snapchat, you will know that it has some great filters.  They can really make the difference between a pre or post coffee shot! In the past it has been a tricky finger juggle to get more than one filter onto your masterpiece, however now there is a new stacker button allowing you to layer the filters on....

VR Avatars soon on Facebook

Keeping up with the popular features of other social media platforms is what keeps each of them evolving and moving forward, and the popularity of Bitmoji's on other platforms has sparked Facebook to invest in creating their own customised cartoon avatars....

2G on 2degrees set to go

My first phone was a bright yellow Nokia brick.  I was 18. It was prepaid, and $20 would last about a month.  Texts costing 20c a pop, calls 40c a minute, and absolutely no thought of internet connectivity. My battery would last about a week even if I did play a few games of Snake or Tetris. 15 years ago it was an extremely useful commodity but clearly not used as nonchalantly as it is today. A phone like this would have been on my phone providers 2G network.Fast fo...

Facial Recognition on Facebook

Over the last day or so you may have seen a message like the one to the right appear on your newsfeed on Facebook.  Easy to scroll on passed but it's worthwhile knowing what it is about and deciding for yourself if you want it to remain active or not.While facial recognition is nothing new, it has been used to identify people in photos since 2010, this tool differs in the fact that it helps you find photos that you’re not tagged in and can let you know when others might be attempting to u...

Who Doesn't Love a Good List?

Updating you Facebook status?  Do you share your feelings, check in, create a poll, ask a recommendation or a question?  Now you can create lists using the status update function on Facebook.Rolling out this week you can create colourful lists, filled with emojis in a bulleted or numbered format, for whatever you feel you need to list to the world of social media....

Lights... Camera... Action!

Plucking up the courage to put yourself on video as part of your businesses marketing campaign is most business owners biggest nightmare.The fear of failure comes when they’re trying to remember exactly what they’re going to say and delivering it in a clear & concise manner.....without looking like you’re reading notes!Well we have a solution.You can look like a prime time news reader by using this great app.ParrotTeleprompter....

Instagram is Watching

Instagram has rolled out yet another new feature this week allowing your friends to see when you are active on Insta or when your last activity was....

The Rise of the Snap

Snapchat has recorded the most growth seen since 2016 in the last quarter according to statistics. With up to 187 Million daily active users, this platform is on the rise, especially popular with the younger generation with almost a third of adult users aged 18 to 24 years....

Extra.... Extra....

In line with Facebook's new algorithm the social media giant is aiming to bring communities together by boosting local news content on our newsfeed.With more and more people turning to social media to keep track of the news, as well as a place to voice their experience or opinion, it seems logical to narrow and direct this information on the newsfeed.With the ever dwindling printed news, and the immediacy of the online forum, this update will only help to keep us informed of what is going on aro...

Instagram Stories Update

This week Instagram has not only introduced GIFs to stories but this morning have released 'Type' Mode.  Very similar to Facebook's colourful status updates, type mode allows you to use a variety of colours and fonts to express your self in stories. When you open the camera to create a Story, you can see 'Type' on the bottom left hand side of the scene by the record button. If you click 'Type', you can see the colourful background options, with a range of fonts to choose from...

2016 - In Review

I don’t know about you, but for me personally, 2016 has been an absolutely amazing year.I honestly can’t fault it....

Quality over Quantity

Producing quality content consistently and frequently is a major challenge which requires dedication, creativity, insight, real-time industry knowledge and a unique perspective. If you want to reach far and wide across social media, you need fresh and original content above all else. While there is no guarantee, these types of content are more likely to be widely shared. No matter which medium you choose, your content must ring with your audience emotionally. Use a captivating caption to draw t...

Boost Your Blogs

Do you write blogs but feel they aren't visited as much as you would like?Perhaps you are considering adding a blog section into your business's website?Here are a few tips to get you started and set the scene:...

Augmented Reality + Marketing

Augmented reality is a relatively new phenomenon that is slowly seeping into marketing campaigns globally. What is augmented reality? You have Snapchat, right? Those filters you are having fun with are the simplest and most common form of augmented reality. Essentially a digital overlay over a real life image. Just recently, Ben & Jerry's broke new ground by using AR in Facebook as a clever way to release a new brand of ice cream. Users take a selfie, and the filter over...

Facebook Crisis Response

You may have seen this Facebook feature, perhaps during the Christchurch earthquake as shown below? Since then it has been changed from just location and safety check in, to in September being fully launched as the Crisis Response hub, not only for natural crisis but with increasing attacks.  ...

Facebook Polls Revamped!

Have you tried posting a Facebook poll recently? This month Facebook gave them an overhaul and no more will you just see tick boxes and a list of choices.  You now have the option to add either a photo or a GIF with each polling option. You can set a time limit from one day, one week, never or custom set a date range. The only thing is, that in this setting, you can only give two options to vote from and it gives you 25 characters to use in each option bar. Take note that any...

Legalities of Instagram Reposting

There are some legal considerations you should take time to think about when it comes to sharing content from other people on social media.And, with Instagram, there are additional considerations because the platform itself doesn’t support sharing content. So, before you start (or keep) regramming to Instagram, take a look below to protect yourself and your business.Disclaimer: Do not hold any of the information in this blog post as formal legal advice. If you have a concern or issue, please c...

Facebook Spaces

You've heard of 'virtual reality' haven't you? You know, the goofy headset shown in futuristic settings or being used by 'hard-core' gamers? Well, I'm here to break the news to you, Virtual Reality is not myth nor fable, VR is here and it's time to embrace it. One way you can do that is by reading further into 'Facebook Spaces' A demo was given by Facebook's, Mark Zuckerburg in early October as he was viewed as a cartoon version of him self, joined by others while he demonstr...

Pinterest from a business perspective

Pinterest is by its very nature a visual medium: everything on the site you post is an image. Images are the fastest and most direct form of communication we have. Pinterest is extraordinarily sticky: users spend more than an hour and a half on the site every month, sharing and resharing content. It’s a site that's very easy to get lost in, so retaining the user’s interest is key. Therefore the more varied and interesting your content is the better. Pinterest is a viral marketing machine: mo...

Pinterest Real Estate

Pinterest Real Estate!? What does that even mean? Pinterest images should be long and narrow to take up the maximum amount of visual space and get noticed! Look at your favourite pins and see what the images have in common so you can see what types of images are repinned and shared. Create images that are up to 735 pixels by 1102 pixels. This creates an engaging invitation to repin your pinned article....

Two-Person Instagram Live Feed

Going live on video can be very daunting, especially on your own, yet is an essential tool for businesses to show their authentic side and be 'in the moment'. So Instagram is coming to your rescue with the introduction of two-person Instagram Live Feed The live videos can be up to 60 minutes and the replay lasts for 24 hours. You can't keep it past the 24 hours. You can download the video immediately after you stop broadcasting (and before you share it), or you can take that video and repurpose ...