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Whats New in Social Media | Week Seventeen

As Pinterest matures into monetisation, we're about to see an expansion of its advertising including a new keyword search.The platform is preparing to offer keyword-based buying search to marketers, says Pinterest’s head of global sales Jon Kaplan.This feature will work in a similar way to Google Ads, giving marketers much deeper metrics around audience-based buying units.There will reportedly be over 400 points of data marketers can access to understand user behaviour and preference...

Using Disruptive Technology to develop Human Capital

Chelsea was fortunate enough to be asked to speak at this years ASB Rural Corporate conference in Auckland. The theme was 'Human Capital' with my direct focus on 'disruptive technology.'The conference was over a day and a half and was a mix of ASB customers/farmers and ASB Rural Corporate/employees from across NZ.For someone who has a group of sub-contractors working for her and no direct employees, I did question what I knew about Human Capital.I thought a little outside the square and drew on ...

What's New in Social Media | Week Sixteen

McKinsey is a global firm, comprising more than 10,000 consultants and nearly 2,000 research and information professionals. Their clients reflect their global nature with around 40% being in Europe, 35% in the Americas, 15% in Asia Pacific and 10% in the Middle East and Africa. They also serve a broad mix of private, public and social-sector organisations. The reason we want to showcase McKinsey&Company is because they have a very clever app called ‘McKinsey Insights.’ It gives you the abili...

What's New in Social Media | Week Fifteen

And they’re off!A few weeks ago we introduced you to Instagram for business and within the last week it has rolled out across New Zealand.Instagram for business adds in contact features, insights and the ability to promote a post like you would boost one on Facebook. More features will be added over time as they continue to fine tune the options for business.  We have activated this function for Grass Roots Media and we’ll be sure to fill you in with more detail as it happens....

What's New in Social Media | Week Fourteen

Have you tried out Canva yet?Over here at Grass Roots Media, we LOVE this smart, simple, online design programme.How is this relevant to Social Media you ask?This has to be the quickest way to create a beautiful graphic for social media without the cost of an expensive design programme or designer!With 10.6million users worldwide, Canva is one of a kind. The only downside at this stage is they don’t have a mobile App available in New Zealand...yet! Hopefully they�...

What's New in Social Media | Week Thirteen

Do you use Facebook ads?Do they work well for you?Could you be using them more efficiently?If you have a Facebook page where you need to convert views into sales, this little tool will be especially useful. Wordstream allows you to access your organic reach analysis, a ‘cost to reach’ calculator and learn more about your targeting options....

Be Dope

This blog was written by guest Contributor Jason Uden....

What's new in Social Media | Week Twelve

Here at Grass Roots Media we love using both Slack and Trello!Here’s a quick overview of each platform....

The Parent Collective

To round out our theme of community for May we have this blog is written by a guest contributor from Banks Peninsula, Annabel Craw. Agri professional, farmer, mother and innovator. I am constantly blown away by the fascinating range of people who make up our rural communities. Their education paths, their work and their experiences. And in our special part of New Zealand a fresh initiative is providing these motivated and talented people with the chance to continue to do what they love by break...

What's new in Social Media | Week Eleven

Instagram is visually stunning and allows the user to have a lot of fun with their business or story. It's your opportunity to create a digital storyboard for your brand. Great filters and a good hashtag search engine, allow businesses to really capitalise on the promotion of their wares by using their own images, images from their buyers and by joining forces with appropriately selected relatable and reputable business accounts to feature and work alongside. Just announced.....Instagram is pick...

The Perfect Formula for Youth in Ag

This is a topic on the lips of many who have already done their hard yards in the agricultural industry and primary sectors. Many have a close eye on those who are up and coming - what's the perfect formula for the next generation of farmers? Practical farm skills vs. book smarts and how are we going to best facilitate our young people to make sure they have equal portions of both? As someone who has spent her share of time at a tertiary institute studying agriculture I have most definitely lea...

Whats new in Social Media | Week Ten

For 10 years now Facebook has allowed photo sharing. This week they’ve taken it to a whole new level by allowing panoramic photos to be viewed freely with the drag of a mouse, or the real-time movement of a smart phone. The great part about this? All you need is a smart phone to be able to make one! The value in 360° photos is the ability to explore the world through the eyes of others and being able to see places you perhaps couldn't otherwise....

What's New in Social Media | Week Nine

If you're anything like us, here at Grass Roots Media your cellphone is an extension of your hand, as a result you take snaps of everything and anything - because you never know, it might be great web content one day!You will probably have several thousand photos lurking in the depths of your device that you never end up seeing again. Your saviour is here, in the form of The Roll.The Roll rates your photos and categorises them based on location and topic, it's a little bit creepy....

A Guide to the Ultimate Rural Shindig - Part 2

So we’ve been over a few key points as the party-goer. However, the next step is when you decide to take the plunge and become the host!...

What's New in Social Media | Week Eight

Recently, if you have gone to update your Facebook status via your cellphone, you may have noticed a new feature available to you. Rather than just posting a witty paragraph or a great image, you're now able to post a live video! Just like everything else, this feature took a little bit longer to get to New Zealand, but we have now caught up with the rest of the world and Facebook have produced a handful of tips to help you get the most out of Facebook live. ...

Woolly Wisdom

New Zealand Wool is an amazing and under rated product. In my comparatively short life time, wool has never really been a significant feature in agricultural markets, to the point where it could potentially be considered a by-product of sheep meat production. This is a stark contrast from the days when my father was a child and he and his siblings were instructed to pluck any wool from fences and save it as if it were some kind of fibrous gold. Well...it was back then! The huge market value at ...

What's new in Social Media | Week Seven

Hootsuite  is a super handy tool if your social media campaigns are a bit more of a sideline to your business's marketing strategy. In a nutshell, Hootsuite is a scheduling tool. There's a plethora of platforms that Hootsuite covers and there's a range of ways that you can view, schedule and review your posts. ...

NZ Music Month

One of many reasons to love the month of May is it’s a month that is dedicated to something that is uniquely and truly kiwi - New Zealand music of course! New Zealand music month first began in 2001 and was started as an attempt to increase the amount of kiwi music on our airwaves, which at that time was only around 10%. The project has worked wonders and the success of this is reflected in the pumping crowds at the annual Homegrown festival and the dramatic increase of kiwi tun...

A Guide to the Ultimate Rural Shindig - Part 1

As 'technically' the New Zealand summer party season is coming to a close, it might be a good time to reflect on your participation in the festivities over the summer that has been. We’re now going to delve into the depths of a topic that is close to my heart - parties and events. If you’re about to throw your hands up and say “I’m too old for that!” You’re either shy or a liar. I am of the belief that everyone can have an awesome time at a party. Let’s start with the easy stuff - ...

NZ Young Farmers and their Community

New Zealand Young Farmers is an organisation that has evolved considerably since its establishment in the 1950's. One thing however has remained the same, the bringing together of young people in agriculture. This anonymous blog post shares the story of one young farmer, who's membership spans 11 years. ...

What's New in Social Media | Week Five

There are several features that make Pinterest a game changer. Previously Pinterest has been a platform with a bit of a stigma. Known for its DIY ideas and recipes it's not the first place you'd think to put content for your business.Here are a couple of features that make Pinterest so much more than meets the eye....

Get More Bang for your Buck

The venison industry in New Zealand has had a turbulent history. The deer industry boomed hugely back in the late 70s-80s when Tim Wallis started doing live captures - individual animals were worth thousands. The popularity has dwindled since then for a number of reasons. Firstly, deer are a challenging animal to handle. They require specific facilities, in terms of fencing and yards as well as being a challenge to muster and handle in close quarters due to their sensitive flight response....

What's New in social Media | Week Six

If the standard profile photo wasn't enough Facebook is now introducing the profile video rather than just the standard display picture. Initially launched in October 2015 the feature isn't available everywhere yet so if you're in New Zealand don't go rushing to add seven seconds of your live self to the internet quite yet. ...

Online Rural Communities

There is a slow but steady wave of change hitting the agriculture industry around the way in which we engage in social media. With that change, has come the discovery of different forms of social media for specific uses. The form I have found to be most valuable over the past 3 years, is the Facebook feature ‘Groups’....

What's new In Social Media | Week Four

We're all for new app's. Needless to say you need to have a phone with a big enough memory to hold them all, alas this app is one we highly recommend if you consider yourself a bit of a photographer and artist. Even for those who consider themselves amateurs it's a must have if you regularly post on social media platforms.It was first launched in March 2015, then voted app of the year that same year in eight different countries including Australia and the UK. It was also runner up for app of the...