What exactly is spam you ask? A quick breakdown of the intention of spamming:

• Advertising on a massive scale
• Manipulating online voting systems
• Destabilising a critical human equilibrium (i.e. creating an unfair advantage)
• Vandalising or destroying the integrity of a website
• Creating unnatural, unethical links to boost search engine rankings
• Accessing private information
• Spreading malicious code.

In other words, spam is any unwarranted interaction or input on a website, whether malicious or for the benefit of the spammer.

The spam plague

There are really only two ways to deal with spam; one is to filter it through one of the popular programmes such as Akismet or Mollom on your server side, or (to get to the point of this article) use CAPTCHAs.

Automated spam plagues website owners to no end, so CAPTCHAs are appealing and compelling … initially. The time needed to moderate and review user-generated content versus the time needed to implement a CAPTCHA is what pushes most developers to do it.

CAPTCHA is very popular, and the reCAPTCHA project estimates that over 200 million reCAPTCHAs are completed daily and that it takes an average of 10 seconds to complete one.

CAPTCHAs approach the problem directly from the user side and focused on stopping spammers. But unfortunately this means, for the most part, the actual user is overlooked and the normal behaviour of the user is affected to some extent. Casey Henry looked at the effectiveness of  CAPTCHAs on conversion rates and suggested a possible conversion loss of around 3% which could possibly dent your business sales.

Solving CAPTCHA codes

Personally I can’t stand CAPTCHA codes. Most of the time I rack my brain trying to decipher what it says and when I enter it, it’s normally wrong! Stanford University released a report entitled “How Good Are Humans at Solving CAPTCHAs? A Large Scale Evaluation” recently, and they revealed a shocking stat that most audio CAPTCHAs (developed for the visually impaired) take an average of 28.4 seconds to complete and also noted some issues for non-English speaking users! This doesn’t even begin to delve into people with dyslexia and other special needs…

The question is, are CAPTCHAs so unusable that they shouldn’t be used at all? Perhaps more importantly, does a usable CAPTCHA that cannot be cracked exist? If the answer is no, what is the real solution to online spam?

One of the greatest advantages that humans have over machines is our ability to visually recognise patterns. The most popular CAPTCHA technique derives from this. Developers have explored many options such as games, equations, recognition tests, and even interactive tasks. The most popular type of CAPTCHA used now is text recognition (as seen on the reCAPTCHA project).

Optical character recognition technology

reCAPTCHA was created in the home of the CAPTCHA pioneers and is now run by Google. The project uses scanned text that optical character recognition (OCR) technology has failed to interpret. This, in theory, provides unbreakable CAPTCHAs. The project also provides audio alternatives for visually impaired users.

Another take on the basic text CAPTCHA was introduced in late 2010 by Solve Media, whose solution was to replace text with an advertisement and a related question, a move that many saw as too invasive.

Some suggestions have gone the way of answering logic questions that are based on questions a 7 year old can answer. These are more accessible than text and image recognition; a big advantage but it comes at a price.

Are CAPTCHAs the right solution?

First, the time required to read and comprehend these questions will vary because they are unusual and unknown to users. Secondly, computers can still break these CAPTCHAs with the likes of IBM’s Watson recently showcasing an eerily human-like ability to process language.

The biggest problem with logic questions is that they’re specific to a language, usually English. Providing millions of questions in every language in order to avoid alienating potential users would be a huge task. When presented with such a daunting prospect, the same question resurfaces: are CAPTCHAs the right solution?

One of the more interesting ideas that has come about is ‘Friend Recognition’. This was an idea by Facebook called social authentication and is used to verify account authenticity. What it does is show you a few pictures of your friends and asks you to name the person in the photos. The theory is that hackers might know your password but they don’t know your friends’ names.

There is only one problem: how many people can actually recognise most of their ‘friends’ on Facebook? The reality is that friend requests are exchanged like products at Hi-Fi Corporation. As clever as Facebook’s idea might be, it is flawed.

The deciding fact

Despite all the research that goes into CAPTCHA-breaking, most spammers are not going to go to the effort of defeating them. The sheer quantity of websites available to attack and the speed at which they can do it means that CAPTCHA-breaking is unlikely to concern many spammers.

The BBC, which is one of the most highly scrutinized institutions in the UK, recently comented:

“Visually impaired participants expected full accessibility from the BBC and we felt it would affect our reputation to use them. Elderly users had issues with the distorted text. The logic puzzles were found to be odd and patronising. The audio was struggled with. Overall, extremely negative feelings were expressed towards CAPTCHA technology,” said Rowun Giles, BBC.

Alternative options to CAPTCHA do exsist without the need for user involvement. CAPTCHAs just don’t cut it in todays web world as an effort to combat spam as it’s creating a bump for the user to contend with.

As I mentioned earlier, services such as Akismet and Mollom all analyze and flag spam automatically, but why not develop your own system that is tuned to the mechanics of your website? Taking away the need for the user to stop spam will improve usability and the user’s impression of your website. Manual checking is sometimes a sacrifice worth making.

The Honeypot method

The idea behind the honeypot method is simple: website forms would include an additional field that is hidden to users. Spam robots process and interact with raw HTML rather than render the source code, and therefore would not detect that the field is hidden. If data is inserted into this “honeypot”, the website administrator could be certain that it was not done by a genuine user. Remember thieves (i.e. spammers) are looking for minimal work for high payoff, the method used does not stop intruders so much as the presence of any hurdle.

The incentive to spam needs to be removed, then spam will slowly wear away over time and eventually remove the need for CAPTCHAs. But in reality, we are likely to see a combination of technology and law hopefully dealing the death blow to spammers.

For now researching the alternatives such as Akismet where spam detection is silent to users and implementing them on our websites is definitely the way forward. It will inevitably help with conversion rates and site usability, if users want to comment on your site, it should be a simple experience.

In conclusion, invisible systems are the way to go to create a normal web experience for your user and for now CAPTCHAs should be the last thing on your list of spam detection!

Based on this article by David Bushell: “In search of the perfect CAPTCHA”.

Marketing LIV Village Online

DigitLab has been involved over the past few years in establishing LIV’s online presence through the website and social media channels. These platforms have successfully created income streams through international and local online donations. In addition to raising much-needed funds, the LIV online portfolio has presented LIV Village in a clear, engaging and dynamic fashion to potential partners looking to invest in the village.

Taking to social media

The social media platform has also opened up an opportunity to build a community of passionate supporters across young and older generations. This community has become fertile ground for empowering LIV ambassadors with information and personal connection to the LIV Village project.

Raising awareness via activists

DigitLab has also been working with GivenGain to promote LIV to potential “activists” who raise money for LIV through online donations as they do something to raise awareness and funds for LIV. This has lead to a number of activists using the social media channel to administrate and promote their campaign.

Launching the new website

Today, we are proud to announce the launch of the new LIV website. As the project has grown we have understood that there was a need to restructure the existing content and create new content to better communicate the plans and vision of LIV to the public. The new content strategy has made it much easier to digest the magnitude of what LIV is doing and provide a good mechanism for people to get involved.

Working ourselves out of a job

It has been great to see LIV grow and we always held on to our strategy to equip LIV with the tools rather than to become a long term expense to the project. LIV recently hired a social media manager to look after the online profiles which we are very excited about. Its fantastic see a client grow like this and to see the importance of online marketing. DigitLab continues to work with LIV as design & technical support and consulting around their online campaigns.

Congratulations LIV, we are proud to have walked this road with you.

We would like to invite you to take a look at the the website and catch the vision of LIV. It truly is an amazing project and we feel honoured to be a part of it.

It must be Google! Since the beginning of time (well since 1998 that is), Google captured our attention and became our ‘go-to guy’ when we needed information!

Google or ‘googol’ is a mathematical term for the number represented by the numeral 1 followed by 100 zeros (a really massive number!) This is apt because it encompasses Google’s mission to organise an infinite amount of information on the web.

Search engines help us organise data so that we can find what we’re looking for instantaneously.

Being part of Generation Y, I don’t remember too much of my life without search engines. I remember a brief time of going to the local library with my parents and trying to find information for school projects – spending hours reading through encyclopedias and newspaper clippings. Wow, that was a while back! But once I was in High School, search engines and online encyclopedias were the ultimate source for all project research.

Getting the most out of search engines

Boolean life!

Some might say we’ve all become lazy and rely too much on Google. I say, we’re definitely fortunate, but having something like Google, which gives you literally ‘googols’ of information, can be hard to chew on sometimes. To sift through masses of information to find what you’re actually looking for – a task and a half!

The way I use Google and benefit from it has changed somewhat over the past decade. In the past I would type in a question or one word and hope for the best. But these days I use the greatest search tool of all – Boolean magic! Knowing how to make searching easier saves time and ultimately helps result in more valuable and relevant information at a faster pace – to keep up with the world we’re living in.

The term ‘Boolean’ is often encountered when doing searches on the Web. Boolean refers to a system of logical thought developed by the English mathematician and computer pioneer, George Boole.

I find all mathematical inventions magical – but Boolean search is amazing because the majority of people who use this technique don’t even understand the math behind it. Boolean searching helps us find an infinite amount of relevant information and eliminates the excess information that isn’t relevant to the searcher.

Searching for information, the Boolean way

And / or / not – the Boolean operators

The 4 operators we use are the AND (+), OR   ( | ), NOT (-) and NEAR (~) operators.

If you want to find information with the words ‘Lily’ and ‘How I met your mother’, you would type “Lily” AND “How I met your mother” into the search engine. All articles with both of those terms would appear in the results. This helps when you’re looking to narrow a search by combining both terms.

If you want information that contains either the word ‘dogs’ or ‘cats’, type “dogs” OR “cats”. The articles that come up will either be articles which reference cats, or dogs, or both. This helps broaden your results if you’re looking for excess information on a topic.

The NOT operator is definitely my favourite because you can exclude words you don’t want mentioned in articles. If you’re looking for information about movie franchises, but you want to exclude any mention at all of ‘Twilight’, you can search “movie franchise –twilight”. This is helpful to focus your search and obtain only the results you’re focusing on.

The NEAR operator is helpful when trying to find two words near each other in articles. If I’m looking to find ‘eggs’ within three words of ‘bacon’, I’d write the search like this ”egg bacon”~3.

Research done right

The magic of Boolean is that we don’t need to know the math behind it; we just need to know how to use it to our advantage to get the most out of search engines.

Just the other day, my ‘baby boomer’ parents sat astonished as I explained the amazing day we had in the office celebrating a colleague’s birthday with gifts, tea, and home-made cake (which has become a tradition in our office)!

How a work colleague was greeted on her birthday!

Besides the birthday celebrations, they can’t believe the relaxed, fun atmosphere of the office, where everyone jokes and laughs; ‘the chief’ always keeps connected with each and every employee; working hours are flexible; no-one worries about ‘proper office attire’; and music is played to make sure nothing gets ‘too serious’. It’s in this upbeat environment that “Team Digitlab” thrives and excels!

One of the main reasons for this changed environment is due to the changing image of the typical employee.

Come Recommended stated in an article by Dan Schawbel that there are a few differences between the two, namely the baby boomer (between the ages of 48 and 65 years) and Generation Y or Millennial employee (born between 1981 and 2000), and employers should keep these in mind if they wish to keep a productive and happy workplace!

Schawbel identified the following:

Image © comerecommended.com

1. Generation Y (or Gen Y) employees require your immediate attention

We’ve grown up with access to the internet and therefore instant answers to any questions we have. We like constant feedback and therefore appreciate regular feedback sessions with mentors who we can learn from.

2. Gen Y employees work when they want to work

Not to sound too much like spoilt brats, we like flexible work hours. In today’s new digital age, we understand what work needs to be done and how to do it; and therefore should be able to negotiate the hours we spend in the office.

3. Gen Y employees don’t believe in a rigid hierarchical structure

We believe that everyone has an opinion and should be heard. We also like transparency and truly feel part of the company when we are continuously kept informed regarding future projects, etc.

Gen Y employees also want to work in a place where they can socialise informally and know that they are working for a company that is always striving to stay fresh, modern, and up-to-date; with state-of-the art technology or concepts.

With unscheduled absenteeism at an all-time high since 1999, according to a survey carried out by the CRF Institute, shouldn’t you start looking at your own workplace and how it can be changed or tweaked? According to Crous, South African Manager of the CRF Institute:

“Absenteeism can be reduced by giving employees a working environment they don’t want to avoid, maximising wellbeing and minimising stress.”

Some tips for creating that workplace “Utopia”

1. Get to know your employees

Organise informal meetings and ask them engaging questions in order to get a better idea of who they are and what they want to achieve.

2. Allow for individual creativity

Once project tasks have been put in place, allow for open communication and discussion as to how to go about executing the project in the best way possible, i.e. bring them into the decision-making process.

3. Nowadays, employees want a more work-life balance

Be open to negotiating work hours – as long as the work is still done according to company policy. It’s not always necessary to enforce employees spend long hours in the office – especially if they can also do the work from home.

4. Ensure there is structure and clear understanding of goals and expectations in the workplace

Ensure everyone knows what the company’s goals are and encourage them to set their own personal goals.

5. Allow them to feel responsible

This is done by setting up the tasks that need to be done, and then allowing them to manage themselves to ensure that they do the work. Be sure to have weekly check-ups though in order to ensure that you stay in touch with everyone and prevent anyone from being overwhelmed.

6. Employees want to learn and better themselves – especially Gen Y employees!

Set up a mentor program; send them to conferences or get them enrolled into short courses in order to keep them interested and motivated.

7. Give consistent performance feedback and praise when necessary

“Having a personality of caring about people is important. You can’t be a good leader unless you generally like people. That is how you bring out the best in them.”
~ Richard Branson

Create and maintain an energetic workplace; strive to bring out the best of your passionate team of hardworking individuals; make sure they enjoy coming to work; and you should soon have employees that actually look forward to Monday mornings in the office!

In some countries, many of the largest publicly listed firms are family-owned. A firm is said to be family-owned if a person is the controlling shareholder; that is, a person (rather than a state, corporation, management trust, or mutual fund) can garner enough shares to assure at least 20% of the voting rights and the highest percentage of voting rights in comparison to other shareholders.^[1]
Some of the world’s largest family-run-businesses are Walmart (United States), Samsung Group (Korea), Tata Group (India) and Foxconn (Taiwan).

We have just finished designing the infographic below to create awareness of the impact and value of family business in todays world.

Family Business

Social media is more than Facebook or any other platform. It has become a very clear and valuable communication tool that, when harnessed correctly, can be leveraged to create very real value for business.

Managing knowledge with Wiki’s

A wiki is like wikipedia. A safe place where knowledge can be stored by anyone who works in your company. Allowing a dynamic process of knowledge management over a wiki can break down geographic silo’s in organisations and bring the company closer to a database of employee knowledge about the company and its processes, intellect, idea’s, projects and vision.

We have recently launched three internal wikis for companies ranging from mining to consulting and they are already benefiting from the collective gathering and distribution of information through this fantastic social medium.

The biggest success factor in implementing these systems was not the technology but instead was found in the strategic implementation of the project as it was deployed in tot he organisation.

CEO Blogs

CEO’s need a place to communicate and interact with their employees. No matter what size the business this need for communication will never end inside business. Employees need to hear from their executive and board members.

We have been involved in deploying a number of internal CEO blogs for our clients who are using the medium to connect with their employees and they are adapting well to the new communication style.

CEO blogs break past the hierarchy and allow leadership and employees to interact. The flat nature of blogging platforms mean that anyone can connect with anyone. Making the CEO more approachable. This approach leads to better leadership ability for the CEO as he/she will have a more personal connection with employees.

It has also been great to see how employees have responded well to the direct communication of company vision, goals and future ideas for the company. Internal blogging has definitely proved to be a wonderful technology to deploy better communications in both large and small organisations.

Let’s face it, no-one has the time, energy, or the patience to read a five page essay on why they should invest in your company. It’s for this very reason that Twitter is so effective. You’re limited to 140 characters, and have to get your point across in a matter of a few words, keeping it short and sweet.

If you can’t sell your products, services, or brand in 140 characters or less, it’s very unlikely that 1,400 characters are going to do any better.

So join the Twitterverse – literally the Twitter universe. Twitter has been so successful because it’s quick, free, constantly updated, and there’s no pressure to keep track of everything, so no threat of information overload.

Breaking news: as it happens

Not many companies can claim to have kept the newspaper publishing industry awake at night, but Twitter can. Ever since I signed up for a Twitter account, it has replaced my newspaper. “Mark Zuckerberg buys Instagram for $1 Billion”…guess who was the first to know? Twitter is churning out the news as it’s happening, and not necessarily from journalists or news sources, but on-the-ground eyewitnesses. Anyone can break the news on Twitter.

And unlike Facebook, where it is regarded as socially unacceptable to update your status every hour; with Twitter there is no such thing as tweeting too much. Whether you’re posting a link to your blog, making users aware of your brand, or just staying informed, having a social presence online gives you a competitive advantage.

I’m a Twitter junkie, and I’ve witnessed many businesses using Twitter not only as a means to advertise their products and services, but also as a way for them to engage with their potential and existing customers.

Any response is better than being ignored

As an online platform, Twitter can help companies remain to be seen in a favourable light in the eye of the consumer if they’re able to respond to customer queries (or complaints) in a timely and polite manner.

I recently had an unpleasant experience with my mobile network, and when I took to Twitter to express my grievances, threatening to change networks, I was pleasantly surprised by the response. My network provider replied within a few minutes, tweeting me a few times, apologising and providing me with several solutions to the problem.

Although I was disappointed with the service, and still had no reception for two days, I appreciated the response. Knowing the company cares enough to respond to every single query, whether they can help every time or not, makes the customer feel appreciated and acknowledged.

You can’t ignore Twitter

So if your business is not on Twitter right now,what exactly are you waiting for? We’re long past the days of social networks as the realm of tech geeks. Signing up is simple!

Here’s an easy to follow step-by-step instruction to help you set up a Twitter account:

1. Visit http://twitter.com
2. See where it says New to Twitter?
3. Fill in your full name, or company name in this case, your e-mail address, a password, and then click Sign up for Twitter.

And voila! Welcome to Twitter!

Photo © britannica.com

With technology tripping over itself in its rush from one improvement to the next, progress and change have never been more rapid.

Even ‘rapid’ seems an understatement. Except in one area: education. And that seems to be the case globally, not just here in South Africa, where we’re still struggling to give every child an education, never mind figuring out how to give them an education that keeps pace with global trends.

In 2006, Claudia Wallis wrote an article in Time magazine titled How to bring our schools out of the 20th century, and in it she mentioned this story:

“Rip Van Winkle awakens in the 21st century after a hundred-year snooze and is, of course, utterly bewildered by what he sees. Men and women dash about, talking to small metal devices pinned to their ears. Young people sit at home on sofas, moving miniature athletes around on electronic screens. Older folk defy death and disability with metronomes in their chests and with hips made of metal and plastic. Airports, hospitals, shopping malls – every place Rip goes just baffles him. But when he finally walks into a schoolroom, the old man knows exactly where he is. “This is a school,” he declares. “We used to have these back in 1906. Only now the blackboards are green.”

Missing: 21st century learning

The green boards may be white now, but for the majority of schools around the world, nothing else has changed all that much. As Wallis writes:

“Kids spend much of the day as their great-grandparents once did: sitting in rows, listening to teachers lecture, scribbling notes by hand, reading from textbooks that are out of date by the time they are printed. A yawning chasm (with an emphasis on yawning) separates the world inside the schoolhouse from the world outside.”

Schools need to close the gap between how children are learning at school, and how they’re engaging with digital multimedia at home. A one-size-fits-all approach doesn’t work anymore. If we consider the breakneck speeds at which other areas are advancing, then it’s fair to say that education missed the rapid transit train, and is now stuck waiting for the bus, and in some cases, walking.

According to NBC News, in China some parents are forking out for personal tutors for their 3 year olds. And others are sending their toddlers for ‘early MBA lessons’. Says Li Tue Er, a child education specialist:

“Society demands a whole new range of talents. It’s more fierce than any time in the past 20 years with a market for jobs that never even existed in the past.”

Accounting for the individual in online education

Will all classrooms eventually look like this one? Photo © NJLA on Flickr

In this age of information and digital assimilation, children need to be equipped with more than just math, english and science. They need technological and information literacy that can take them into a globally competitive job market.

Technology can help teachers take education beyond text-based learning and rigid lesson plans, and engage their students in what some people are calling ‘learning 2.0’.

In a digitally-equipped classroom, teachers can customise the learning experience for each student, creating a personalised curriculum around their needs, and with students moving through lessons at their own pace. Students can spend more time on a subject area when and where they need to, and move quickly on to other areas without wasting time waiting for the rest of the class to catch up.

In this way, teachers can actually spend more time giving one-on-one attention where students need it most, than they would ever have done in a traditional classroom where children are often left behind in the rush to move on with the rest of the class.

So what does the digital classroom have to offer?

• Digital simulations to demonstrate concepts that wouldn’t be physically possible otherwise
• Advanced research skills
• The locationless classroom
• Cross-cultural communication
• Global learning via video conferencing
• Strategic thinking and problem solving
• Real-time assessment and feedback on a student’s progress
• Inter-disciplinary thought and learning
• Social learning, where students can communicate and collaborate with others whether they’re in the same room or miles away
• The application of academic theory to practical problems
• Support for struggling learners and supplementary learning material
• Mobile learning
• How to be discerning as a consumer of information
• Teaching with games
• and much much more as technological advancements make anything possible.

Take New York City Department of Education’s pilot program called School of One, featured in Freakonomics Radio podcast, How Is a Bad Radio Station Like the Public School System?:

“The School of One tries to take advantage of technology to essentially customize education for every kid in every classroom and help teachers do their job more effectively.”

The digital divide

Photo © johnarudkin.net

The locationless classroom is not a new concept. Some people’s parents may remember going to school via shortwave radio – when even the nearest school was hundreds of miles away, and you would never meet your classmates. People balk at the idea of the digital classroom but it’s already happening in far-flung places. In Branson Colorado, population 100, 850 children attend the public school … via the internet.

So what’s holding education back? Resources for one. It’s crazy to think that banking has taken us to the point where you may never actually have to step into the bank to open an account or manage your money. But some children still have to walk miles and miles just to go to a school where teachers are overburdened and under-resourced.

In the schools that are trying to equip themselves for the classroom of the future, they face bandwidth issues – who will provide the high-speed internet required for every child on a mobile device? In other schools, the ratio of computers to students is 1:20. In this digital age, it’s difficult to fathom that there are children growing up who don’t know what Google is. What will happen to these learners that the 21st century is leaving behind?

How do they bridge the digital divide?

It’s an important question and one that I don’t have an answer for. But it’s one that we should be thinking about as a society. Local schools thinking global is just the beginning. We need to be preparing every child for the jobs that we haven’t even imagined yet.

It’s not that my life is governed by the applications installed on my phone, but rather  that I have become accustomed to the convenience offered by these apps.

With Facebook’s recent $1 billon acquisition of Instagram (my personal favorite), many people are questioning the future of the app. A possible future without Instagram is not something I’m pleased about and this has had me thinking about the applications I use and how they have become an integrated part of my personal life. To better understand this I thought it would be fitting to break down a typical day for me, looking at each mobile app I engage with throughout the day…

First things first

• Typically my day begins with a greeting from Alarm Clock Pro. My main reason for choosing Alarm Clock Pro over my phone’s standard clock was the gentle wake-up, which can be set to play any song from your phone’s music player.

• The first thing I do after waking is check my email, SMSs and Whatsapp. Whatsapp is a cross platform instant messenger that allows me to chat to and share content with all of my contacts. As far as applications go, this is probably the most used item on my phone and has quickly replaced SMSing as my main form of communication with friends and family.

• Another part of my daily routine is checking updates on my various social media platforms. To do this I use the respective platforms applications, which include: Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Google + and LinkedIn.

• Throughout the day I use free time to check on these platforms. If I find articles of interest, I add it to my Instapaper ‘Read It Later’ and videos are queued on my Squrl account.

Getting around: app life

• I’m very bad at directions and no matter how long I’ve lived here, I still get lost driving around my neighborhood. Luckily, there’s an app for that. TomTom have condensed their GPS technology into an incredibly intuitive and user-friendly app, which is simply called TomTom Southern Africa. My favourite function of this app is the ‘Google Search’ feature, which allows you to punch in the name of a business or building and the app will use Google Maps to find the address and location for you.

• Like most, I love sharing content, particularly in the form of photos. As a hobbyist photographer, I’ve always found the simplicity of my phone’s camera frustrating. Enter Camera+. Essentially this application takes your standard phone camera and gives you a lot more control over the photos you’re taking. This includes extra zoom, exposure, focus and some basic editing features.

• In the past I would upload multiple photos from an event or location as a new album. This whole process quickly became very tedious and frustrating, especially when traveling across country. As a solution to this, I’ve begun using Diptic. This simple app allows you to combine multiple photos on your phone and save the collage as a new photo.

• When I feel a photo is ready for sharing, I publish it to Instagram. After adding a filter, I share the photo across Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. My favourite thing about Instagram is that I can use it as a central hub not only for sharing photos but for checking-in too. By geotagging a photo in Instagram, I can use the app to check-in to a location on both Facebook and Foursquare.

• Occasionally, I will go to a venue that I don’t think is worth sharing a photo of, or worth bragging to my Facebook friends about. For cases like this, I will simply open the Foursquare app and check-in. After all, no matter how boring the venue, it’s still worth the points.

• Lastly, another app that I find myself using almost everyday is the Internet Movie Database. Whether it’s looking up reviews on a movie we are about to watch, settling the “Who’s this actress married to?” argument or putting the name to the face of an actor, I find myself pulling the IMDB app out almost every time I sit in front of the TV with my family.

I personally don’t feel that applications are a disruptive force, but rather have become an integrated part of our daily lives, adding convenience to our daily routine. I have covered only a handful of the many applications I use on a daily basis.

Take a second to look at your phone, your tablet and your computer. Think about your own personal routine and the hundreds of applications you encounter on a daily basis. The mobile app market is a multi-billion dollar industry and is constantly growing. Is there room to expand your own brand onto this medium?

I personally remember applying to about 400 jobs when I first graduated from university, and frustration doesn’t even begin to descibe my feelings during the process. Constantly putting my best foot forward and being ignored or turned down…

Then it happened – I was invited to an interview with a educational institution to apply for the Marketing Director position. What an indescribable feeling of joy it was when I heard that I got the job! It was worth all the frustration to know that my career was about to begin.

I have good and bad news for you, students of today. The bad news is that the job market is more competitive than ever. The good news is that you can do something about being seen before other candidates.

CV in a haystack (of CVs)

A growing trend in business is to use online channels to find the best staff. This goes beyond job portals where we can add our CV (400 times if you like!). The problem there is that everyone is submitting CV’s through online portals, making your CV one in amongst a million.

It’s no secret that companies are looking everywhere for the right employees. So let me ask you: can companies find you anywhere?

Standard Bank and a host of other top South African businesses are recruiting through Linkedin. LinkedIn is a corporate version of Facebook so you should find it pretty easy to work out how to use.

If you’re feeling lonely on LinkedIn you can always connect with me. LinkedIn lets you have this custom CV that is searchable on a local and international level and even makes it possible for people to contact you without the need of a recruitment agency.

Companies are also using Facebook to find out more about who you are, and even Twitter can help show your future bosses that you are an up and coming time-bomb of success. So to get you started, I thought I would share a few tips to get you off the ground floor…

Getting into LinkedIn

1. Register at www.linkedin.com.
2. Take some time to complete the entire profile and make sure you use standardised business english (in othr wrds no shrt sms spk).
3. Make sure you have a quick, concise, and interesting summary of yourself that shows your future bosses how great you are and how you will add value to their company.
4. Fill out your job history. Include any job you’ve had that can help employers see that you will be a good fit for their company.
5. If you have a blog or website, link to it from your profile by adding it under the websites section.
6. Same with Twitter. LinkedIn will ask for your Twitter details. This makes it easier for people to find your Twitter profile once they have found you on LinkedIn.
7. Connect with friends and family in order to start building your business network.
8. Now click on the companies section of LinkedIn
1. You can now start following any companies (like us!) that you would like to work for
2. When these companies have new job opportunities you will be able to see then on their LinkedIn page
3. Making it so easy to apply for the position.