Google continues to track you through apps and services like Google Maps, weather updates, and browser searches that can tell your GPS — any app activity can be used to track you.

There is a way to stop this. If you turn off “Web and App Activity,” in your settings, which is enabled by default, Google will no longer be able to store information about where you’ve been from Maps data and browser searches that pinpoint your exact GPS coordinates. However, turning this off prevents Google from storing information generated by searches and other activity. That can limit the effectiveness of the Google Assistant so be warned. You can also manually delete this data by heading into myactivity.google.com and clicking on specific geo-stamped entries or by deleting batches of entries sorted by date or web service.

The post How To Stop Google Tracking Your Location appeared first on Arekibo Digital Agency Dublin.

What is social media? When we break down the words, looking up “social” gives us a definition:

‘needing companionship and therefore best suited to living in communities.’

There’s an important word here: “needing”

When a user WANTS to do something versus when they HAVE to do something, their psychological interaction is far more personal. They pick and chose what they wish to be stimulated by and they feel like they are in control of the terms.

Media, is the substance we absorb and share. An important factor here is that, when someones says the phrase “Distribute that on social media,” everyone has a personal and different idea in their head as to what that means. To some it’s Facebook, to others it’s Twitter. How we decide which interaction we want to achieve should help how we leverage the information we present.

When we examine how we use this substance, at how we spread the “social media jam” in our sandwich, there are many unwritten rules, depending on what format of social interaction one wishes to engage in. These vary from the length of blog post headlines, to the length of email subject lines, to the length of videos to the number of words in a LinkedIn post. Knowing and leveraging these unwritten rules helps form a better connection with our clients and enables us to get our message across more succinctly.

(source: https://blog.bufferapp.com/optimal-length-social-media)

In looking at these optimal content quantities, it’s also a good idea to consider the psychological frequency our users are tuned into. We all know that Twitter posts are 140 characters long. At least, that’s what we say. We actually all know that Twitter doubled the capacity of tweets to 280 characters in mid 2017, so we know there’s more content available to us, but in our minds, we’re still tuned to the phrase “140 characters or less”. This is often what leads to really long Tweet threads, the notion that we don’t have as much space to say what we want to say. Secondly, in looking at our optimal tweet length above (71 – 100 characters), we find that not only are our Tweets better performing if they are shorter, they also come in under the old quota.

We have all seen Tweets, like these, with a long, long thread of Tweets, relating to a topic that is important to the author and feels that we should appreciate too. The problem with these threads, is they are often very long (based on anecdotal average, roughly 10 Tweets in a thread) with some authors creating threads that are incredibly long (the American journalist Seth Abrahamson is a noted example). While we may not take the time to read or even come across these threads in our timelines, our peers and colleagues may take the time to read them and feel they are worth sharing with the single word:

“Thread”

On its own, this word has become a trope in context. Without this context, it is meaningless. It tells us nothing about the thread, what its contents are or what it relates to. All it says to us, peers, friends or admirers is “I think this is worth your time to read.” The problem occurs when the user gets to the end of a thread and finds, it wasn’t actually worth their time.

When we look at the amount of content a thread like this produces, taking an average of 10 tweets per thread, this ends up at around 1400 characters (or 2800 characters in new money). Again, we say “new” quotas, even though they’ve been in place for over a year now. Looking at the average length of a “7 minute read” blog post, we’re coming in around 8000 characters (for reference, this post is approximately 8,300 characters long). So a 10 Tweet thread is well on its way to being a short blog post. Also, if a blog post is written in this way, it’s very easy to expand on points that might have been kept concise due to Twitter’s limitations.

In looking past just the construction of the blog post, we can also look at the longevity of various social media interactions. The following image illustrates the average lifespan of social media posts:

source: http://rebeccacoleman.ca/2017/04/21/social-media/whats-the-lifespan-of-a-social-media-post/

Twitter have made updates lately to show you Tweets you “May have missed” or “While you were away” and Instagram’s feed has always been a law unto itself (though the 2018 update telling you when you’ve caught up with everything you’ve missed, while a welcome addition, means users are less inclined to continue past that point and discover older posts), but the tweets and posts shown tend to be more B2C related and based on other users interactions (e.g. a tweet gets lots of likes, you are more likely to be shown that as a tweet you may have missed). Other than this, it is worth re-iterating just how short the lifespan of a Tweet or a Facebook post is. The only way content on these platforms is going to live longer is if they go viral and going viral is not something that can necessarily be planned. It’s what we hope and would aim for but it’s neither predictable nor always achievable.

Comparing social media posts with content added to a personal or business website, there are a number of obvious advantages. The first is the content is personal; it lives on your own URL and drives traffic to your site and subsequent content. Also, the content is owned by the author, not residing on a third party platform. This is not always detrimental, though it does allow for better branding from a personal perspective. It’s common to post on Medium, due to its wider reach, but having a source link back to your own content is highly useful. Through related posts and cross-site browsing, value is added to the overall content of the site by encouraging users to explore more. The content is also more portable, in that it can be spread easier across multiple social media channels and platforms, while still routing back to the original site. This allows much greater information collection regarding the posts (e.g. analytics, postbacks, demographic data, SEO, etc). Repeat business is also easier to generate more organically by allowing the reuse of the content in a similar format with different audiences in the future. We’ll touch more on how that can be done in a minute.

To give a piece of anecdotal evidence, Arekibo published a blog post in September 2011 about restoring a [MySQL database from a backed up Program Files] (ironically, providing a link to this will generate more traffic again, but anyway). We use various SEO tools and, as you can see from the screenshot below, we have dynamically created “Recent posts” on the right, which encourage cross-site browsing. So our users are constantly being exposed to new content and being invited to explore our content more.

The more links that a web page attracts from elsewhere on the web, the higher it’s Page Authority will be in the eyes of search engines. Authority is passed around a website through internal links so if a page with high authority is close to another page in the site hierarchy or structure, then some of that authority will rub off on the secondary pages too, ultimately bringing up the Domain Authority of your entire site.

If your content is valuable enough to enough people, it essentially becomes “evergreen” and starts working for itself – bearing in mind we haven’t shared this blog post on any social media in 3 years – it steadily built up traffic over time through shares and inbound links and crept up the Search Engine Results Pages until suddenly in late 2017 it began to appear at the top and traffic blew up. Imagine if this had been a tweet or a twitter thread instead?

So let’s go back to the prior example of our tweet that starts our “thread of discontentment”. Looking at how this original thread could work as a blog post, we can reference that post more easily and make the content far more portable a day, a week, a month or even a year later. We’re still channelling traffic through a portal that we control both the SEO and the analytics on and we’re constantly driving traffic to one root source; our own website.

Of course, we can also easily publish this link to different platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn, we can generated a podcast or video blog on the topic, driving users back to our parent content and giving us those vital analytics we so richly desire. There are so many positives to this, from brand awareness to market presence, it seems somewhat obvious that this should be the case, but this is not always so.

To sum up, it’s highly advantageous to channel users back to our own content, via social media channels. This isn’t to say that social media channels on their own aren’t useful; they provide the quickest, most accessible way of connecting with our customers and provide huge value added returns to both our business and our audience. All we are saying is, we should be more vigilant and more disconcerting about where our content lives, so that we can get the most out of it and leverage it to our greatest advantage.

In our next post, we’ll look at some of the pitfalls to avoid with regard social media content distribution and a subject that you won’t believe is true…!!!

Watch a video of this talk and read some Q & A responses from Tady with 3XE Digital

The post Nothing worse than a bad KISSER – Part 1 appeared first on Arekibo Digital Agency Dublin.

MOST RELEVANT APPS

1. Snapchat
2. Instagram
3. YouTube
4. Netflix
5. Spotify
6. Facebook (and Facebook Messenger)
7. Tumblr
8. Twitter

The rest is up to the teenager and their preferences. If they’re into Gaming, they should consider Twitch and Discord. Music-lovers could go for Shazam or Soundcloud and Sports-folk might be interested in Fitbit or All Football Pro.

POPULAR GAMES

Much like apps, your choice in video games is dependent on your interest in genres. However,

some popular critically acclaimed games include The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Overwatch, Persona 5 and The Last of Us.

KEY POINTS

•  Smartphones are becoming faster, more powerful and more connected at an astounding rate. Teenagers are keen to take advantage of the latest devices and apps to stay up to date with the latest trends for fear of being left out.
• Social Media dominates the lives of teenagers. Teenagers spend most of their time online using app such as Snapchat and Instagram chatting to friends and browsing pages. However, very few social media websites are used by Teenagers – only the ones that have the critical mass using it tend to be used often.
• A certain amount of caution has to be taken when using technology. Not only for the risk of a security breach, but so we don’t spend too much time with our technology. In short, technology is supposed to enhance our lives, not become them.
• The surge of free mobile games has changed the landscape of the gaming industry radically. Some big companies are now employing free-to-play models or in-game-purchases in their console games. However, gaming is still a popular pastime among teenagers, with some using it to launch online careers.
• The problem of sleep deprivation remains unsolved and may worsen as children start using technology at earlier ages. It’s up to parents or teenagers to log off to get some rest.
• The increased usage of streaming sites like Netflix and YouTube have brought traditional media companies up to date with current technology. Now it isn’t uncommon to see TV companies making a Netflix-only show or articles on breaking news on YouTube.
• Engaging the target audience is critical for marketers, especially with a teenager’s short attention span. Viral videos and social media competitions are the best way to achieve this.

Blogs in this series:

• Introduction and Devices
• Gaming and Social Networking
• Advertising and Traditional Media
• Engagement
• Sleep Deprivation and Security

If you have any questions about this report, please feel free to contact us here.

Written by Jim Xi Johnson.

The post Teens and Technology – The “New” Teen Survival Guide appeared first on Arekibo Digital Agency Dublin.

In the previous report by Arekibo and Jack Connery on ‘Teen Digital Life,’ it was stated that “leaving a mobile phone under [a teenager’s] pillow while they sleep…is now commonplace.”

However, when asked about this, only 14% of teenagers admitted to doing this. All of the others said they either left their phones on their desk or on the floor to charge overnight. In any case, while the phone is definitely in close proximity to its owner, it is rare to have it under their pillow. This is probably a good thing, especially with the news last year about Samsung Note 7 phones “exploding.”

It also seems that it may have become easier to get a good night’s sleep, thanks to new ‘mute’ options on most social media, making sure teens aren’t disturbed by notifications during the night. Of course, getting to sleep is still a problem, as the lights emitting from the screens stop you from producing melatonin, a hormone that regulates sleep. It is controlled by your body clock and the amount of light you’re exposed to every day. It’s advised that teens go an hour without screens before bed – however, this can prove tricky, since teens would normally use this time to catch up on posts or chat with friends.

When surveyed on using technology before bed, around 43% said that they only found it hard to sleep “occasionally”, while another 43% said they didn’t feel any sleep deprivation. The remaining 14% felt the ramifications of their late-night browsing. These results suggest that teenagers aren’t aware that technology is reducing their rest or they are so used to sleep deprivation that it feels ‘normal’ to them.

It’s important to note that teens may not be the only ones affected by a lack of sleep – apart from insomniacs, toddlers, who have been given iPads as toys, also experience sleep deprivation, at a much earlier age than the current generation. Will this worsen the problem, or will a solution arise? Only time will tell.

SECURITY

Teenagers are no strangers to the ‘dark’ side of the web. Many teens use it to stream free movies, download free music and access programs you’d otherwise have to pay for.

To this end, teenagers are quite safety-conscious having learnt from parents, siblings or themselves how to stay relatively safe, while still getting what they want.

That said, teens aren’t experts and can be caught out. Recently, one of my old friends accidentally gave his password to a scammer who was phishing. This is where a scammer will create a fake page of an established website and ask a user to put in private information. Because of my friends’ mistake, he gave away his Facebook password which let the scammer send spam to all his friends.

Other online problems include ransomware, puppet scams and key-logging software. Ransomware is software that encrypts personal files and only unlocks them at a price. Puppet scams are the evolution of the email spam, using information on social media to personalise the message. Keylogging software is surveillance software that can record keystrokes put into a computer – hackers use it to find passwords. According to our research, about 57% of teens are only concerned about cybersecurity “sometimes.” Just under 23% are concerned about their safety and the rest responded with “no.” The main concern for teens is the breach of their private information.

However, this doesn’t stop them from going on to potentially harmful websites to pirate the latest movie. It might be that teens think that, from all the time spent on the internet they won’t fall for it. To an extent, when avoiding viruses and obvious spam, this is true. But with more unusual and well thought-out scams taking place, I think teens need to stop relying on a false sense of security and using a little more common sense.

Other blogs in this series:

• Introduction and Devices
• Gaming and Social Networking
• Advertising and Traditional Media
• Engagement
• The “New” Digital Teen Survival Guide

If you have any questions about this report, please feel free to contact us here.

Written by Jim Xi Johnson.

The post Teens and Technology – Sleep Deprivation and Security appeared first on Arekibo Digital Agency Dublin.

There comes a point when someone looks at our tech-induced generation and says ‘why?’.

As great as it is to have access to our friends and endless information at any time, anywhere, surely we would be wise enough to take a moment to ‘unplug’ every now and then and do what some would call “living a little.”

However, despite our best intentions, I’m sure most of us (even adults!) have gotten into the habit of checking our phone constantly, without thought. Hence, one has to ask, what are we doing on our phones that is so important?

One possible reason is that social media is designed to make a habit of us logging in. The best example of this is Snapchat Streaks – a feature that counts the number of days you and one of your contacts have been talking to each other in a row. While it may seem like a quirky little addition at first, it quickly becomes an OCD inducing messaging habit (after all, what will they think of you when you lose their streak?!) and oddly enough, gains you some bragging rights -Teens love to tell others what their longest streak is, while I wonder is that something to be proud of?

This also brings up another point – Teenagers hate to be left out, the worry being they will miss SOMETHING SUPER IMPORTANT! This contributes to the ‘always-on’ nature of technology and might be the reason teenagers are so nervous without their phones. This fear is great for companies as it contributes to possible ‘phone-addiction’ which means more time spent on screens.

It’s also a great deal harder to get away from screens with new smartwatches and interconnected devices that remind you of notifications you haven’t responded to. This makes it even easier to get sidetracked.

Another reason could be that we are not doing anything important when we are checking our phones. It may be that teens use phones to put off whatever needs doing: Whether it’s during study, continuing a conversation in real life, or research on projects turning to research on Facebook. Of course, there are apps that you can use to block phone access, but I haven’t heard of any teenagers using them.

And frankly, why would you want to use them, when you have an excuse to stop doing all the important stuff you have to do in your back pocket? So clearly we have a problem here. The solution? Some self-control, I guess. As I sit here typing away, I’m constantly resisting the urge to check my phone for messages.

There is no easy answer to this problem (bar the unfathomable thought of turning your phone off) so it seems teenagers will just have to make sure they use technology, and technology doesn’t use them.

Other blogs in this series:

• Introduction and Devices
• Gaming and Social Networking
• Advertising and Traditional Media
• Sleep Deprivation and Security
• The “New” Digital Teen Survival Guide

If you have any questions about this report, please feel free to contact us here.

Written by Jim Xi Johnson.

The post Teens and Technology – Engagement appeared first on Arekibo Digital Agency Dublin.

Having grown up surrounded by all forms of advertising, teenagers are well able to drown out the white noise around them. In order to catch their attention, many companies try different ways to make themselves known.

Some examples are sponsorship, online competitions or viral videos.

If you spend time on social media, you’ve probably come across some competition where “if you like, comment and share our page, you’ll be in the chance of winning a free [Product of page-owner]!” It’s not uncommon, and many teenagers participate because they have nothing to lose. This, in turn, shows more teenagers the competition, getting more people to enter. Because of this cycle, companies can get free advertising with very little effort.

Sponsorship is everywhere nowadays, but only recently have companies discovered a gold mine of unsponsored content – Online Personalities, or influencers, with a large social following. When working with these people, companies can give some of their products to Youtubers to use in their videos, or ask Bloggers to talk about their product in a post. For maximum effect, companies will tie this into a promotion or giveaway to capture the viewer’s attention.

Viral videos take the most effort out of the methods I’ve mentioned, but the results can be worth the time. A company that creates a video that’s engaging, funny and unique can become the talk of the internet for days, resulting in thousands of shares on Facebook, hundreds of retweets and millions of hits on YouTube – in short, a marketing director’s dream. Basically, the advertising campaigns that work best with teenagers are the ones that engage them, on the sites they log on with some kind of payoff at the end (be it an iPhone or sharing a funny video with your friends).

TRADITIONAL MEDIA

Traditional media has suffered in recent years due to the uprising of free entertainment on the Internet.

When teenagers were asked how they preferred watching programmes/videos, 57% said Netflix, 28% said YouTube and the rest mentioned other ‘pirate’ streaming sites like Showbox and GoMovies. The lack of mention of T.V. coincides with reports that suggest ratings have gone down across the board.

Going to the cinema has become more of a social experience for teens (ironic, considering watching movies in a cinema results in unanimous silence). If a teen wanted to watch a movie that wasn’t just released, however, they’re much more likely to stream it online than rent or buy a physical copy.

Due to the lesser importance of T.V. to teens, it has had less of a social status effect than it may have had in the past. Lucky teens may be allowed a T.V. in their bedroom for gaming or streaming, but otherwise laptops and phone will make-do.

So how is traditional media going to combat this?

Simple – If you can’t beat them, join them. Many popular talk shows have their own YouTube channel now, using it as a place to put up highlights or popular segments of a show. And you only have to take one look at the views of Carpool Karaoke with James Corden to see the success in that gamble. Many news sites now put up videos of their articles on their sites or on YouTube, as a quicker, more engaging way to give the news. These changes are great for consuming teenagers, but for any online personality (YouTubers, Bloggers etc) it poses real problems like having to compete with companies who have many more resources than them.

Other blogs in this series:

• Introduction and Devices
• Gaming and Social Networking
• Engagement
• Sleep Deprivation and Security
• The “New” Digital Teen Survival Guide

If you have any questions about this report, please feel free to contact us here.

Written by Jim Xi Johnson.

The post Teens and Technology – Advertising and Traditional Media appeared first on Arekibo Digital Agency Dublin.

Video games have changed massively to keep up with the evolving tech landscape.

For example, to compete with the services of phones and tablets, all new consoles now offer internet access, social media services, and other applications, such as Netflix. However, this hasn’t stopped mobile games from growing in popularity, probably due to the multitude of free games that don’t require Wifi. It’ has gotten to the point where big developers, such as Nintendo, are testing new mobile games. The result is games like “Pokemon Go” and “Fire Emblem Heroes”. All of this competition is great for teenagers, as the more competition means more games on both console and mobile and more services of higher quality.

Teenagers themselves use gaming as a social activity, whether playing and chatting online or offline. Broader and faster internet access has also lead to new gaming communities, online e-sports tournaments and the advent of streaming games, all of which teens can participate in. Nowadays, teens can make a career out of playing games professionally as a streamer or as a sponsored esports player.

While gaming consoles have become overshadowed by the mobile market, they are by no means irrelevant. Generally, teens see mobile games as ‘time-wasters’ and consoles as more ‘hardcore.’ It seems that Nintendo are trying to make the best of both worlds with the Switch, a console that has portable-play options of console games.

SOCIAL NETWORKING

75% of teenagers spend most of their time on the internet on social media sites.

It seems that many of the social media apps popular in 2011 have lost relevance. Apps such as Bebo, Skype and MySpace have disappeared and made way for newer apps. The critical mass have migrated to newer apps, the most popular ones being Snapchat and Instagram. However, people have kept Facebook, possibly because of the Messenger app or the popularity of Facebook. Twitter is also quite popular with young adults who grew up with it, and as a place where celebrities can announce news to the world.

Social media apps nowadays can be split into two categories, what I will call Messaging apps and Social apps. Messaging apps, like WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger, offer private chat messaging and free call services. They are trying to compete with the preinstalled SMS and Phone apps and become the first choice when someone wants to make a call.

Social apps, like Facebook and Tumblr give users the ability to share their interests, pictures and pages with everyone they are connected with. They are trying to entice users away from other competitors by offering more features, such as games, events and live videos. The most popular apps for teens, Snapchat and Instagram may be so popular because they combine the two kinds of social media, providing group chat messaging and public sharing platforms.

Other blogs in this series:

• Introduction and Devices
• Advertising and Traditional Media
• Engagement
• Sleep Deprivation and Security
• The “New” Digital Teen Survival Guide

If you have any questions about this report, please feel free to contact us here.

Written by Jim Xi Johnson.

The post Teens and Technology – Gaming and Social Networking appeared first on Arekibo Digital Agency Dublin.

With the help of Jim Xi Johnson, a sixteen-year-old intern at Arekibo, this white paper hopes to build on research done by Jack Connery in 2011 (report) and shares some insights into the digital lives of teenagers. In order to get the data, Jim surveyed his peer group in school basing his questions on the last report. Jim received approximately 50 responses to the survey.

It’s important to note that this report is not an analysis of teenage media consumption, but a report on how the relationship between teenagers and technology is changing, for better, or for worse.

Jim reports how times have changed over the last 7 years, from what devices they use to the top social networks for teens. 

What did we find out?

• Social media dominates the lives of teenagers who spend hours on Snapchat and Instagram but less time on the likes of Twitter and Facebook.
• Streaming has become a lot more popular recently using sites like Netflix and Youtube to be up to date with all the new tv shows, films and latest viral videos.
• Being different is vital for marketing to teenagers. Social media competitions or viral videos are a great way to catch their attention.

DEVICES

People have come to expect more from their technology as it evolves and teenagers are no different.

With improvements come new products, like faster laptops, more powerful tablets and cutting-edge computers. However, many teens still use phones as their go-to browser for their portability.

Teens generally have great technical knowledge of phones due to the amount of time they spend on them. Most new iPhones and Android phones are very popular and teens expect many of their features to be standard for all upcoming phones. These features include 4G, WiFi Hotspot, a lot of storage space, a high-quality camera and a high-resolution screen.

In terms of mobile operators, Vodafone has a heavy hold on the teenage market, 43% according to our survey.

This may be because many parents start their children on a Vodafone pay-as-you-go contract because they recognise the brand and the teenagers stick to it. Three, having bought O2 in 2014, is in second with 24% of surveyed teens using it. It seems that those on a pay-as-you-go contract tend to stick to their provider, while those on a Bill-Pay contract may be more likely to switch provider for a better deal.

What else will we cover during this series?

• Gaming and Social Networking
• Advertising and Traditional Media
• Engagement
• Sleep Deprivation and Security
• The “New” Digital Teen Survival Guide

If you have any questions about this report, please feel free to contact us here.

The post Teens and Technology – Introduction and Devices appeared first on Arekibo Digital Agency Dublin.

Founded in 2002, Arekibo is one of Ireland’s largest independent agencies. Specialities include digital consultancy, content creation, digital marketing and user experience design.

ACTIVITY

Our objective is to become our clients’ digital partner and we are committed and passionate about this. We have longstanding relationships with existing clients, where we are continuing to support the deployment and execution of their digital strategy. This includes the rollout of their digital strategy, new product development, technology enhancements, and data and analytics projects. New client business has similar ingredients, with a significant digital and operational strategy focus.

RESEARCH

Talking to your customers before you commence developing a new product seems like the obvious place to start, however, this isn’t always the case. Our product strategy and research services help our clients to engage with their customers to understand what they think of their new product idea or proposition well in advance of commencing design and build. The consultation between a business and their customer is vital and quickly puts the product strategy and its feature set into perspective. Your customer has a valuable point a view – neglecting this will prove to be very expensive and will also negatively impact your business.

Our emphasis on customer research before and during product development is to ensure that a product is designed and built for your customers. Competition is only one search away, and you can bet they are talking to their customers and forensically analysing the data to make their products and user experience better.

DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION

If you don’t have boardroom buy-in, you are not undertaking a transformation programme. If you’re not sure where to begin, consider what your customer needs from digital – what do you need to transform for them? Transformation must be sustainable and therefore needs to be adequately resourced, funded and continually supported by your executive team.

CLIENT WORK

We are fortunate to be working with clients who are passionate and committed to digital to deliver better services and experiences to their customers and staff. Our team are invested in ensuring that from a technology perspective we can streamline and enhance your capabilities in a scalable and secure manner. Without these technology solutions, our clients won’t be able to build the next phase of their business strategy. We deliver technology solutions that need to enable our clients to quickly adapt to their market and customer need. As a result, projects are technically complex and need to be carefully planned to ensure that the integrations between existing and new technology is perfect. The team enjoy these challenges and are very good at what they do. This makes delivering successful projects very satisfying for the team and most importantly our clients and their teams.

SOCIAL MEDIA

Social media can become a bottomless pit that eats time and money and, for many, delivers very few results. Social definitely has its place in your digital strategy but you need to be very clear on what you want to get out of the various channels. Look at your competition and cross-industry peers to see what they do, and take inspiration from it. Be honest about your ability to create content. Manage and resource your social channels, and then start small and sustain and measure your progress.

Interested in finding out more about what Arekibo do? Feel free to contact us on 01-9052030 or Get In Touch.

Related Blog:

Digital Transformation Q&A with our Head of Strategy

The post Business Plus Interview With Martin Casey, Managing Director of Arekibo appeared first on Arekibo Digital Agency Dublin.

Lottie is a library which renders After Effects animations in real time. Combined with Bodymovin, an After Effects plugin which exports animations as JSON, a designer can simply handoff their animations as JSON code for their front-end developer to integrate in seconds without having to guess Bézier curves, duration, or any part of the animation!

So how does it work?

The first step is installing Bodymovin and downloading Lottie. Next, the designer creates their animation in After Effects as normal and exports the JSON file using the Bodymovin plugin. The designer then sends the JSON file and any assets exported with it to the developer. They create a Javascript file to link to the JSON and add any JS events required to the animation. The last step is linking the new Javascript file and the Lottie Javascript file in the HTML. That’s it! It really is as simple as that! There is even support for native iOS, Android and React Native as well as HTML.

If the designer wants to make any changes? Simple, they make their changes in After Effects and send the new JSON file to the developer. The developer doesn’t have to change anything other than relinking the new file!

Allowing developers to integrate animations without having to code gives designers have more freedom in their animations. Designers no longer have to consider whether it is buildable or not or how long it will take to build, if they can create it in After Effects it can be integrated into their app or website. A free designer is a creative designer and that’s what we all want right?

Where did it come from?

Lottie is a project from the lovely people over in Airb&b. After discovering Bodymovin they set out to create a flexible animation format which would support as many After Effects features as possible. Released as an open source library, anyone can download Lottie and start working on their own animations. They even have an app so you can see what other designers are creating and perhaps gain some inspiration.

How can we use it?

One of the main ways in which Airbnb use Lottie is to create custom animations within their app. Load animations, reactions when an object is clicked, etc. are just some of the ways in which Lottie can be used to add custom animation to a site or app.  The team recently teamed up the Noun Project and created a set of animated icons as an example or how we can use Lottie.

The hamburger menu above is an example of how an animation which we could use Lottie to run. It seems like a simple animation involving the three lines just turning around, however, the middle line gets longer while the other two lines get slightly shorter. Rather than trying to explain this to a developer, I can just send them a JSON file and it’s ready to go!

Many features have been built into the library to make it more efficient. One of the most useful is an optional caching mechanism so that animations used often can load a cached copy. This cuts down on load time and making your site run more efficiently. The team behind Lottie are constantly adding more features to the library to make it as usable as possible. These include gradient, type and image support as well as controlling view transitions with Lottie. Therefore it’s only a matter of time before we start seeing Lottie in motion across the web.

Interested in finding out more about what Arekibo do? Feel free to contact us on 01-9052030 or Get In Touch. 

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We have decided to do it again.

We joined the brilliant Paris2Nice team and combined all riders raised over €350,000 for our charities.

I wrote an article after last years ride ‘Why you should ride the Paris2Nice in 2018!‘ and I would strongly recommend that you consider signing up for this year – it’s not too late!

Help Team Arekibo

• Donate – You can make a donation on our fundraising page.
• Sponsorship – If you would like to sponsor ‘Team Arekibo’, we are producing a cycling jersey for this year’s ride and would welcome your company’s contribution (with your logo on the jersey, plus loads of mentions and thanks from ourselves and Arekibo’s marketing team). Please contact me or Luke Tritschler

Luke and I would greatly appreciate your support and every cent raised will go directly to LauraLynn.

Thanks – Martin and Luke.

The post Cycling From Paris to Nice Again For Laura Lynn appeared first on Arekibo Digital Agency Dublin.