Pics and Video from Rugby World Cup 2011 Opening Ceremony

Amazing light show by the crowd - countdown to the opening of the Rugby World Cup ceremony

Eden Park scrubs up well

Opening ceremony

Crowd shot as the NZ National Anthem is sung at the RWC opening ceremony

Lone fan waves his flag during the game

Try time 

Mexican wave

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The Twitter Wall

I was greeted by this Twitter Wall when I arrived at the office today.

Hilarious tweets crafted by the amazing Bhavika Rambhai.....who knows me better than I know myself.

Such an amazing wall.

Thanks so much doll xx

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Could You Wake Up Tomorrow And Find Your Facebook Page Deleted?

Image source: http://www.freeiconsweb.com/

Imagine if you woke up one morning and found your entire Facebook Page had been deleted. All those followers, posts, images.... gone. Well it could happen and here is why. Facebook doesn't provide advanced permissions for Facebook admins. Once you are an admin you can do everything to the Facebook Page, just as all the admins can. Various levels of access and security would be great (Mark - are you listening?) because until this exists, there is a certain amount of risk involved with being a Facebook admin.

To become an admin of a Facebook page, you use your own personal Facebook profile. Which means if you get your password hacked, or if someone uses a computer or phone where your password is cached, they can get into the Facebook Page and maliciously delete posts, upload images, post unauthorised content - or even delete the other admins or the entire Page if they have your password.

If you are on Twitter you will know how much DM spam has been doing the rounds lately. This is from people who have clicked a link and entered their password into a fake site. So.... if your Facebook password is the same as your Twitter password then some of you should be feeling very uncomfortable right now if you are also Facebook Page admins.

To reduce this risk there are a few options.

1. Create a personal Facebook profile that is used only for administering the Facebook Page. Unfortunately this is against the Facebook Terms of Use which specify only one profile per actual living and breathing person, so if you want to run that gauntlet hoping Facebook wont find out then you are more game than me.

2. Limit the number of admins to your page to as few as possible and put the fear of God into them. The less admins, the less risk.

3. Encourage all your Facebook admins to amend their security settings to alert them via txt or email when their profile logs onto Facebook from an unknown source.

If you are really nervy about it, you can require a security code to be entered for every logon - depending on how often you log on, this might be a strong security measure or a real pain in the... errr... neck.

4. Turn on https browsing if you use any public wifi.

5. Regularly check any Active Sessions running elsewhere (ie where you are still logged into Facebook) and End them.

All of these settings can be accessed via Account Settings > Security on your personal Facebook profile.

Get busy!

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Will The New LinkedIn iPhone & Andriod App Put You In Time Out?

LinkedIn recently released an updated version of their iPhone app (version 4), Android app and a new HTML5 website. It's a nice looking app, and is a great improvement on the previous iPhone version. This has been driven by the mobile usage of their social network which has increased 400% each year. The home screen is divided up into 4 main areas: your profile, updates from your network, groups you have joined and your inbox.


Here's the launch video showing the features and user interface of the new version.

One drawback is the lack of integration with your iPhone contacts which would be useful. You also can't see who has looked at your profile as you can on the full website - and lets face it, this is the page most frequently checked by everyone on LinkedIn.

One other important point to keep in mind is that when you connect with someone using the iPhone app, you are not given the opportunity to either specify how you know that person, or to insert a personalised message. The invitation is sent with the boiler plate template wording which says " XXXX has indicated you are a Friend. I'd like to add you to my professional network on LinkedIn." This means you can't indicate whether you worked together, attended the same university previously, or if you met them at a recent conference or through a mutual connection. 


No biggie, right? Well actually it might be. There is a little known limitation within LinkedIn where if 5 people indicate 'I Don't Know This Person', then you will not be able to send any further connection invitations without knowing the email address of the person you are connecting with. There are also a limited (undisclosed) number of invitations you can send as a 'Friend':

From the LinkedIn Help Centre:  

You've reached the limit of invitations you can send without email addresses to people you've identified as a Friend during the invitation process.

So..... using the smartphone app to send connection invitations may push you closer to this mysterious limit and one day you could find you need an email address for any future connections to your profile.

Or your invitation could be rejected using 'Do Not Know' (as you are probably not a Friend -with a capital F- of the person you are connecting with) and after 5 strikes, you will be put in LinkedIn time out.

Food for thought.

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How I Was Invited To Join #SXSW Panelpicker 2012

Recently I was honoured to be contacted by the amazing Joyce Sullivan and Finxtra's Liz Lumley to be invited to join a panel submission with Anna O'Brien (ex Citibank VP Social Media) and Sarah Carter (Actiance) for SXSW Interactive in March 2012 (a massive Digital Interactive Festival in Texas attended by 20,000 people each year).

The reason I am so honoured is that I'm just a social media mad Kiwi chick literally living on the bottom of the world, and have not met any of these amazing ladies based in the USA and UK. But they reached out to me and invited me to join them on the basis of my social media presence combined with working in the finance industry (as they all are). If that's not a great reason to be devoting a bit of your day to mixing it up on social media, then I don't know what is!

The SXSW panelpicker is a cut throat business which allows the community to have their say on which topics they would like to see at the huge SXSW Interactive Festival. Which counts for nearly a third of the votes. The rest of the voting is made up of people I don't know and can't influence on the SXSW staff and advisory board. Hmmmmm.  That's where you come in.

There are 3,266 panels submitted this year. Eeeeek.

I need you.

Cast your vote here and send me to Texas! Voting closes on Friday 2 September 2011.

Thanks Mum, I know you are probably the only one reading this and voting. xx


PS: Here's the blurb on the panel submission - its going to be awesome.

FinTech Rockstars, Did We Mention We're Women? 

Tweet, trade, and be fabulous doing it. Hear from global financial services and technology leaders, who happen to be women, how they use social media to drive innovation and change in this highly regulated industry. In an easy to understand format, you’ll learn what social media regulation means in the day-to-day workings of financial services organizations. Insights into the use of social data and measurement metrics to support and promote your organization’s foray into social media will also be offered. With smarts, humor and grace, this group will share their secrets of success, and give you the essential tools you’ll need to be a Fintech Rockstar in your own organization.

1. What is going on today with social media use in financial services and technology around the globe?
2. Who is driving this global phenomenon? Panelists from US, UK, New Zealand to discuss
3. How social media drives and shapes our work lives > event planning, financial services, software development, customer service, branch management, compliance and regulation
4. How this group drives innovation in the financial services and technology industry
5. How to be a successful social media pioneer in a highly regulated industry

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Why You Should Think Before Swearing On Twitter

Image : http://www.zazzle.co.nz

There is a lot of profanity on Twitter (and social media in general). It's easy for us to let out a few hastily chosen expletives to express how were are feeling in the heat of the moment - whether good or bad.

But should you swear at a brand or company on social media?

I've seen quite a few F-bombs directed at companies via Twitter. On Facebook it's slightly more difficult due to the built in profanity filter. Oh, you didn't know about that? Yep, when you write on a Facebook Page's Wall, if the profanity filter is triggered, it will mark your post as spam and it will only be visible to the Page admins. Don't go round saying your post has been removed - it hasn't, it's just sitting in a spam filter along with other posts selling stuff, phishing or using other language that Facebook deems to be unacceptable.

But back to Twitter. There's a certain amount of anonymity with Twitter and this tends to remove the inhibitions that might exist when face to face. Would you use the same language if you were standing in front of a staff member in a retail store? I'm guessing not - one of the reasons might be that swearing in front of an actual person can be offensive and embarrassing, and another reason is that you would probably be asked to leave the premises.

However, it pays to remember that even online there is an actual person whose job it is to read your tweet and respond to it. Swearing and being generally offensive won't win you extra points (just think about how YOU would react to someone swearing at you), and its not necessary to get your point across.


So just keep that in might the next time you are thinking about dropping the F-bomb in a tweet. A few manners can go an awful long way.



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5 Steps To Get You Started In Social Media

This post originally appeared in the Gen-i newsletter FWD_VIEW

So…. you may be wondering what this social media malarkey is all about. You might have even been told by your CEO “We need to be in social media – make it happen” and be scratching your head about what to do next. Here are 5 easy steps to get you started on your social media path.

1. What’s the problem again? Jumping into social media just because there is always a story about it on Mashable or TechCrunch is probably not a very good reason to do it. Work out what problem you are trying to solve. Here are some reasons for having a social media presence:
a. To acquire new customers or increase traffic to your website
b. To get realtime feedback or insights from your customers,
c. Participate in the conversations that are already going on about you
d. Offer customer service via a channel that your customers already use
e. Generating sales leads (or even sales)
f. Be seen as a thought leader in your industry

2. Listen. There are plenty of free tools like Google Alerts, Tweetdeck, Hootsuite, Twitter search and SocialMention which you can use to search on key words for your business, industry or products. Hear what people are saying. Work out what you would like to say back to them. Look at your competitors to see what they are doing.

3. Resourcing. Who’s going to do all this Facebooking, tweeting and so on? Remember that the technology is free, but you need an actual person to post content, respond to customers, manage your social media accounts and be the voice of your brand. Choose someone who is passionate about your brand, not someone who is addicted to Facebook. Also consider which hours your community uses social media – this might be very early in the morning or later in the evening – social media is not normal business hours!


4. Risk. Nervous about the risk of being in social media? Ask yourself what the risk is of not being in social media - can you sustain the potential brand damage when there may be conversations happening at the worlds biggest BBQ and you can’t participate? Or miss out on the opportunity for word of mouth referrals? Other mitigants of risk include staff social media policies, a moderation flowchart outlining what you will and won’t respond to (including trolls), and good training for your social media team.


5. Measurement – how will you know if it is working? What does success look like to your business? Consider measuring the number of Facebook interactions (likes/comments), shares and Twitter mentions, retweets. If you have the resource, then tracking whether your sentiment is positive, negative or neutral can be useful – particularly over time. Also tools like Klout, Peerindex and others can help track your influence, reach and audience over time.

These 5 steps will help you shape up your social media approach so you are better prepared for stepping into the social sphere.

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