Fantastic news you can now listen to the Jo Brothers Audacious Audio show, a mix of Social Media tips & tricks, Tech news and the Giant Sisters phenomenal women interviews, on Spotify and Google podcasts. 

You can find the links on Spotify here or if you are on Android y ou can download the Google Podcast app and have the Google AI help serve you up content curated for you. So be sure to look  or ask via audio for search terms "Jo Brothers Audacious Audio" or "Giant Sisters" to listen.

Happy Listening !

​Giant Sisters celebrates and shares phenomenal women's voices and stories in their own words in Podcasts, Film, Art & Entertainment. 

We are delighted to celebrate our 25th phenomenal woman being interviewed. For more information on Giant Sisters visit our website or any of the podcast channels below http://www.giantsisters.com  
iTunes
SoundCloud 
Stitcher
AnchorFM
YouTube

Throughout history most women's and girls stories were not documented and saved. Even great achievements, discoveries, inventions, and acts of bravery have been omitted from our recorded history. In fact in some cases if women's stories were recorded they may have been given a man's name or called by the name "anonymous". 

​NO MORE! 
Lets change that and start recording phenomenal women's stories in their words, their thoughts, their hopes, their dreams, their voices. Giant Sisters was launched as a podcast show and this blog with  art, books and film in development.
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I hope you enjoy listening to  stories from our phenomenal women and that you are inspired, guided, uplifted,  that you laugh, enjoy, celebrate and admire the resilience, strength, courage, emotional intelligence, love, kindness and focus that all Giant Sisters possess.​​ - Giant Sisters Founder - Jo Brothers
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Giant Sisters is powered with Love by me Jo Brothers 

An amazing TED Talk interview with Gwynne Shotwell President and COO of Space X talking about reaching Mars within the next decade and using the Big Rocket Falcon for people to travel point to point around the world within 30 minutes, again this will be a reality within a decade.

Other than the increase in numbers on every platform, Netflix saw a huge increase from the 2017 numbers, reflecting the ongoing search for "great content" to capture the attention of customers 60 seconds at a time.

Also note the increase in Voice first devices being shipped by Amazon. This will continue to increase rapidly.

Thanks to the creators of this infographic - @LoriLewis and @OfficiallyChadd 

Image credit: Visual Capitalist

 ​I am often asked, "Jo, how do you work with people and companies?" It is a great   question. - Click Here to read my reply

If your business has customers that live in Europe and you interact with them digitally then you need to be aware of your responsibilities with the GDPR - General Data Protection Regulation which comes into enforcement on May 25 2018.  This applies to any company any where in the world and non compliance could result in heavy fines.

Here are some helpful links with more information on the GDPR and what you need to know

Official GDPR Portal 

Facebook - What is the General Data Protection Regulation?

Forbes - Here are the 8 things every business needs to do now to get GDPR ready by Bernard Marr

The Verge - Google offers an unusually clear view of how it manages user data ahead of GDPR

Countdown: Preparing for GDPR - Microsoft 

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I am often asked, "Jo, how do you work with people and companies?" It is a great question. - Click Here to read my reply 

Wow! a huge move in the Voice and conversational commerce this week as Google launches a Google AI digital assistant at Google I/O this week. I have been to Google I/O before and it is an incredible experience where the latest inventions are all released for the year.

So in the demonstration that showed a video of a Google digital Assistant calls to book a hair appointment & dinner reservation. Google Duplex - text to speech. Google Duplex can make calls for you. 

The amazing thing is the AI Assistant can have a full conversation with a human and sound human and inserts umm's and tones that we all use in conversations of this kind, meaning the AI was indectable as being AI.  

Did you know that over *60% of people access social media at least once a day in New Zealand?  Using social to start a conversation with your customers makes good business sense, but if you don’t know where to start it can all be a bit daunting. 

In the last decade Jo pioneered Social Media for Air New Zealand, establishing the Social Media channels from zero fans through to the 1.5 million community size with a Klout score of 89+. Air New Zealand was the lead brand in social media for the 7 years she led it as Global Digital & Social Media Manager.  
Next up was Westpac where as Head of Digital & Social Media she spent 3 years unleashing digital and social media opportunities for both Westpac, it's customers and partners.  You can read some wonderful testimonials about her career over on the About Jo page.
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Choosing the right channel
Over * 80% of our online population visit Facebook at least once a month- that’s on average, 2.5M kiwis!  Setting up a Facebook page for your business is easy, and you can even set up a shop to sell products through Facebook.   The great thing about Facebook is that any activity from posts to paid advertising is measurable so you’ll always get a pulse on your audience, providing valuable insights. 
With over 500M active accounts, Instagram is part of the Facebook group.  Think visual inspiration – a way to tell your story using images and short videos.  Instagram for businesshave great tips and ideas, and if you want to advertise using this channel there are some creative possibilities to really engage your audience. 
If you want to share some great news, promotion or post a live update from an event, then you can “tweet” it.  A tweet is a message that has a maximum of 140 characters.  82% of the 313M monthly users use a mobile device to access Twitter.  The Twitter Small Business Blog is full of inspirational pieces to help you use this channel to its full potential and Twitter Ads could be another way for you to use paid promotion on social media. 

Are there any tips and tricks you would like to share?
I use Canva.com - where you can easily create eye catching designs using drag and drop features, pre-made professional layouts and perfectly sized social media graphics for Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.  Video is growing in popularity and you could use Adobe Spark Video or Adobe Spark Post to produce short video content or animated images. 

How often is too often?
When it comes to posting content it’s a case of quality over quantity – a customer would respond more to a well written post or an eye catching video, rather than a flood of posts that had little to no information that was relevant to them.  Posting once a day on each channel and making sure that this is useful and engaging would drive positive results. 

What is a good starting point for SME’s who want to drive their business through social channels?
For starters, identifying clear goals around what you want to achieve on a digital platform is vital.  A good place to find inspiration for this is by reading a range of case studies, based on real businesses just like yours.  That way you can see examples of what was achieved through different channels, whether it is driving more people to your website, increasing sales or developing brand awareness. 

How can a business owner learn how to use social media effectively and drive it themselves?
80% of kiwis on Facebook discover products and brands on the platform, so it would really make sense to start there.  Facebook Blueprint Global Training Program is an E-learning tool and is designed to help businesses tailor a social media strategy to reach their own goals.  Another resource that is just a plethora of information are the Webinars for Facebook and Instagram.  They cover a wide range of topics from finding the ideal audience to creative storytelling – all with the goal of helping you drive sales and build your brand.

Thanks for your time Jo- it’s clear that social is a great way to market your business, and these seem like very practical, straightforward steps in the right direction. 
*2015 Sensis Survey 

Originally posted on RedNews

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Hi everyone

I am often asked, "Jo, how do you work with people and companies?" It is a great question. 

So I thought I would write this blog post to explain Me, who I am and what I do and we can talk more if you want to work out more of the details in relation to working together. 

Firstly, the best way to understand who I am and what I can do is to think of the word "Mediapreneur". A Mediapreneur, like me,  is someone who understands the galaxies of media and digital platforms available to create successful businesses, brands, podcasts, blogs, film, books and learning academies to name a few examples. I have a unique understanding of media, the rise in digital and social media and the way in which people want to connect with each other, with content, with brands, with books, with video, with voice, with film. Ultimately it's all about people and connecting with them and gaining their most valuable asset time and attention via  a wide range of methods including conversation, storytelling, listening, observing local trends and massive global moments and being able to read early signs and signals to help adapt and change very quickly.

In the last decade I pioneered Social Media for Air New Zealand, establishing the Social Media channels from zero fans through to the 1.5 million community size with a Klout score of 89+. Air New Zealand was the lead brand in social media for the 7 years I led it as Global Digital & Social Media Manager.  

Under my leadership Air New Zealand had break through digital and social media strategies that were recognised globally as world class. Air New Zealand was ranked in the top 5 Airlines globally for social media impact compared to its operational size of being the 45th largest Airline by fleet at that time.  This included running the largest social media digital footprint in New Zealand, and included developing leading edge content, live streams, the leading global aviation blog, creating a movement with customers turned fans, the Flying Social Network, Social Media breakfasts with Randi Zuckerberg, Guy Kawasaki, Teddy Goff, Chris Dancy. In fact so much I could write for days, so I would love to talk to you if you have any questions.   

Next up was Westpac where as Head of Digital & Social Media I spent 3 years unleashing digital and social media opportunities for both Westpac, it's customers and partners.  You can read some wonderful testimonials about me and my career over on my About Jo page. 

Ways of working with me
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- Yes I am available to work with you by the hour as well as by project across a wide range of expertise. 

- Yes I bring all of my over 20 years of experience to you. So we can work together on e.g  Strategy, Business Strategy, Digital & Social Media strategy, Innovation, Digital campaign development through to social media / digital channel launch, Creative ideas, Content development, Video storytelling, Writing compelling content for websites, apps, etc, Reputation Management and Crisis Communications, Social Media training for teams, Internal Communications strategy, Internal Ambassador Strategy and more.

- Yes I have led global digital and social media marketing channels for the past ten years including into China and leading WeChat, Weibo, YouKu, for both Air New Zealand and Westpac.

- Yes You can hire me on retainer for 3 months, 6 months, 1 year or longer

- Yes I do social media training for teams and businesses.

- Yes I am often called into businesses to give Keynote talks on a range of topics or custom made.

- Yes I am available for public speaking at events. Here is a list of where I have spoken and on topics. 

- Yes I do facilitate business and digital marketing workshops for companies, teams, groups and organisations.

- Yes I develop customer connection strategies that connect hearts and minds. The content could be video, voice, blogs, images, events and more.

- Yes I do manage CEO, C-Suite, Public Figures digital persona's and profiles and I am able to help you too.

- Yes I love seeing people, brands and businesses thrive and become more successful after I have worked with them.

- Yes I work with a broad range of people with my 1on1 Digital Coaching - I work with C-suite, Business leaders, Entrepreneurs, brands and individuals who are passionately curious. 

- Yes I have a podcast - Jo Brothers Audacious Audio where I share Business tips, Social Media tips and tricks, and my hot new show Giant Sisters talking with phenomenal women. It is on iTunes, Stitcher, AnchorFM, SoundCloud and a wide range of podcasting platforms and YouTube.

- Yes I have written and self-published 11 books and can talk about the why and how of digital publishing, the process of writing a book, publishing it, launching it, loving the process (which is a story in itself). 

- Yes you can buy one of my books on Amazon 

- Yes - I then translated some of my books into Mandarin, Spanish and French.

- Yes - I have created animated videos of my children's series The Extraordinary Tales of Queenie Alice Moon.

- Yes - I was a Contributor to The Huffington Post for seven years. 

How to reach me
If you would like to work together, or have me talk at an event, do a workshop, do coaching, develop a strategy etc please email me on jo@jobrothers.com or message me here or on LinkedIn.

On my Giant Sisters podcast show I interview phenomenal women from all walks of life and we talk life, strategy, thoughts, influences and more.  You can visit Giant Sisters at www.giantsisters.com to find out more.

Rachel has 15 years' experience advising blue-chip financial institutions, private equity funds, trustees and corporates on a range of lending and capital markets transactions. She is Founder of The Blockchain Boutique a legal practice specialising in blockchain and crypto which will launch in 2018.

Rachel is a former partner at NZ law firm Bell Gully, with experience at leading London law firms Allen & Overy and Olswang.  She founded Bell Gully's FinTech team and has advised NZ's leading blockchain businesses on transactional and compliance-related matters. She is ranked by legal directories, including Chambers Asia-Pacific 2018 and The Legal 500, as a leading/recommended lawyer in both banking and finance and investment funds. 
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