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Rural Women New Zealand on Rural Communities

Rural Women New Zealand (RWNZ) has been an authoritative voice in rural communities since its beginnings in 1925. Its aim is to strengthen rural communities, and it is very proud of what it has achieved....

What's New in Social Media | Week Forty Five

Instagram has launched a new Instagram Direct that makes it “fast and easy to turn any conversation into a visual conversation with photos and videos.” All texts, uploads, and reshares sent in Direct will soon appear in the same thread with disappearing photos and videos, which allows users to “seamlessly go back and forth with friends.” Disappearing images and videos will be highlighted in blue in the inbox, where they can be viewed and replayed once. The new Direct is no...

Magic happens outside your comfort zone...

I recently heard a quote along the lines of “Try getting out of your comfort zone, it’s where the magic happens,” which really resonated for me. When I was a young girl growing up in the urban jungle of Auckland I would never have dreamt that in my early twenties I would move away from my family and friends to follow my heart and the love of my life to live on a farm in the Deep South. I have lived in Dipton, Southland for nine years. Dipton is a rural town roughly a 50 minute drive n...

What's New in Social Media | Week Forty Four

How do you know which form of social media will work the best for your business?  Which ones MUST you have and what is optional? Well, it's a little more complicated than a 'one-size-fits-all' solution I'm afraid - but I promise, it's actually not tricky at all! Here are a few tips to help you decide what forms of social media you want to integrate into your social media strategy! (Because you have one, right? No? Call us NOW!) I'll touch on the most prominent forms of media ...

Sweet Louise and their Pink Bales

Did you know that the idea of wrapping hay bales in pink started in New Zealand? It’s now spread to the UK and other parts of Europe. All to raise awareness of breast cancer, particularly for rural women. In New Zealand, Agpac generously donate a percentage of sales of pink wrap to Sweet Louise. The last couple of years they have donated $23k each year, all to help women living with incurable breast cancer....

What's New in Social Media | Week Forty Three

CNNTech production assistant Lisa Fischer, 22, suggests picking things that are "interesting or funny in the moment but not long-term interesting enough to post as like, an Instagram." Yes, really. If Facebook didn't own Instagram I'd be calling them out for this but it appears the success of Instagram Stories has rubbed off and they are trying their luck on more channels! Facebook Stories sits at the top of your mobile news feed and has two distinct parts: Direct and Stories. You’ll find Dir...

What's New in Social Media | Week Forty Two

Yes you heard correctly! Yet another Instagram story update that looks remarkably familiar...  Geofilters, stickers, temperature, time and different ways to write. All we need now is filters and it will be nearly identical to Snapchat! As I have mentioned before, yes I do prefer Instagram stories personally and have recently increased from around 140 views per day to 180. Do you want more viewers? One way to do this is by keeping posts frequent. This means your icon will show...

What's New in Social Media | Week Forty One

LinkedIn has always been the go-to social platform for business professionals of any kind. But lawyers have noticed the benefits of other social platforms and are starting to branch out. According to MyCase, 73% of lawyers have a personal presence on LinkedIn, 27% use Facebook for professional purposes, and 23% use Twitter for professional purposes....

Viberi and the Blackcurrant industry

Blackcurrants are a household name in New Zealand and in the cooler areas of NZ, all the old home gardens had a bush or two. A lot of our grandparents would have fed us up on them to fight off colds and flu's, and with good reason as blackcurrants are very high in vitamin C, typically 5 times more than oranges and many times more than most other fruits and berries....

What's New in Social Media | Week

Let me introduce you to the beautiful tool that is the Adobe Colour Wheel. Here at Grass Roots Media we work with colours every day. Whether is be in designing a companies website or logo, or creating images for content, we are continually looking for colours that stand out and compliment each other. How can this be helpful to you? Do you have a colour in mind that you'd love to use in your branding but you aren't sure what other colours to put with it? This would be perfect. How else would you ...

Bottoms Up?

Drinking sheep milk can be a real challenge for many people – particularly those ‘off a farm’. I spoke at a food futures event in Palmerston North recently and afterwards offered small servings of sheep and cow milk to those that attended. My claim is that we really don’t know an agricultural industry’s until we let it products slide over the hundreds of alert taste buds in our mouths. ...

What's New in Social Media | Week Thirty Nine

Facebook recently explained that Live video will soon be able to host two-person remote broadcasts, allow you to schedule streams, and create virtual waiting rooms where viewers can hang out ahead of live streams. You can also add MSQRD masks and face filters to your profile during a live stream!...

A vision for Horticulture in New Zealand

 The Horticulture NZ vision is;...

New Zealand's Asparagus Industry

We all know those soggy asparagus spears, wrapped in stale white bread, that appear alongside club sandwiches at certain family or community events. Then there’s the dubious smell some time after you’ve eaten it – we won’t go there! Asparagus can get a bad rep. But despite this, in New Zealand it is a strong & successful, though relatively niche, industry. The New Zealand asparagus industry incorporates approximately 60 growers with a total planted area of around 820ha – compare this w...

What's New in Social Media | Week Thirty Eight

Go on, Guess... How old is the internet this year? No cheating! One of my fondest memories of a computer as a kid was playing 'Where in the world is Carmen Sandiego' in the library of Sunnynook Primary School. Another one was SkiFree - My first stressful memory of the PC - trying to avoid trees and abominable snowmen! What are the games that you remember from the 90s? Even until a couple of years ago I couldn't imagine myself working mostly from behind a computer and being so reliant o...

The state of the avocado industry in New Zealand

Who likes eating avocados? If recent history is anything to go by, pretty much everyone! Ten years ago when I started my current role, a few mates of mine gave me a bit of a ribbing for taking up a job in the avocado sector. ‘What's an avocado?’ They asked, and ‘Who wants to buy them?’ Well, fast forward to now and I look at the growth the industry has seen and the popularity of avocados. Apparently it is now the most ‘instagrammed’ fruit on the plant, and is the ‘Oprah Winfrey’ ...

What's New in Social Media | Week Thirty Seven

As I write this I am listening to Little Big Town on Spotify. Did you know, to date, Spotify's music playlists have unlocked US$220 million in ad revenue for brands! I can't help but think, is this the next big marketing opportunity? It will be interesting to see what else Spotify will diversify into while they are on a roll!...

Orchard to Market: Encouraging Growers to Understand their Supply Chain

As an orchardist/producer we often hear of or see our products in the retail space and think “Gee, I don’t get that sort of return…”, “How can they charge that much…”, “Someone must be clipping the ticket….” Automatically there is a tendency to think that the middle man or the supermarket is making more money or margin than the grower. But have we stopped, thought and looked at our supply chain and questioned; what is the process our produce goes through t...

What's New in Social Media | Week Thirty Six

For anyone with an interest in social media marketing, graphic or interior design or purely just loves colours and stunning images, this is for you! Design Seeds is an eye-catching website with matching beautiful Instagram and Facebook pages to take you on a colour journey. Pulling colours out of images to create pallets to work with in your own spaces....

What's New in Social Media | Week Thirty Five

Sometimes I wonder, what's actually new this week? What have I found?  This week - no wondering is needed. I have found the holy grail of apps to help me survive 2017!! I don't know about you but I have to-do lists everywhere. In my diary, on unsynchronised sticky notes on my phone and laptop, hand written on scraps of paper and if I'm really losing the plot - on the top of my hands! Well I have just solved this ongoing dilemma and I am suddenly confident that I won't completely ...

2017 - Keeping in front of the pack

Well that all went quite quickly! How have we come near to the end of January already? I thought I would struggle to slow down and enjoy some time off - and I did for a few days there, once I got in the groove and realised I didn't have to write, chase emails and create content. It was a strange but welcome feeling after an especially hectic 2016! In global news, by some miracle (and 28,000 security personnel) Trump survived his inauguration and because of it, feminists are protesting and marchi...

Looking back while dreaming forward

ForewordUpon review, 2016 was a tough year down on Te Mara Farms. Not only did we have low milk prices to contend with, but we have an unprecedented slow start to the velvet selling season and we’re forced to enter into a mud fight, which many referred to as winter and spring. Yet, it’s not all doom and gloom. “Hard times are the best times” – Michael Hill Jeweller. It’s forced us to look at the farm and the budget together. It has made us look for opportunities to trim the fat and h...

What's New in Social Media | Week Thirty Four

Happy New Year! How's 2017 going for you?? Those new years resolutions faded off the radar yet? Mine faltered a bit today (Day 19 of the Whole30) but I'm hanging in there! Was one of your resolutions around social media and mobile or laptop use? Perhaps in cutting down on aimless news feed scrolling? Mine was - though NOT going well so far. I thought I would do some research to share with you around how you can get the most out of your social media usage....

Reaching for the stars....or that undiscovered planet.

What.a.year. If you asked me 18 months ago how I thought my first year self-employed was going to be I definitely wouldn't have been able to predict what 2016 has delivered. You always start off asking yourself 'Am I going to survive? How?' You then work feverishly to make sure you get some type of business plan in place, work out your business processes and ofcourse understand how to invoice (trust me this is harder than it seems at first!) Most importantly for me though....you surround yoursel...

What's New in Social Media | Week Thirty Three

Five months later than first expected - we have lift off! Emotiki was released on Wednesday and the range is fantastic!The general consensus based on Facebook feedback so far is that people are disappointed they can't yet be incorporated into the general emoji keyboard.The page has been good at responding and this is what they have to say on the matter -...