Author Archives: Sam Easterbrook

1. Happy Holidays! Here’s A Card & Opening Hours

   by Sam Easterbrook | 22nd Dec 2016

   

   As 2016 winds down we’d like to take this opportunity to wish you a happy and peaceful holiday season.

   We’ve even made you card!

   

   That’s Bob the Reindeer and our super talented EVS volunteer Auguste created him as well as the card.

   Alongside spreading festive cheer in this post, we’re taking the opportunity to share our opening times over the Christmas period. As you may know we have a range of different services, projects, helplines and buildings that fall under the ProMo-Cymru umbrella, so we thought we’d collate them all in one handy place.

   Christmas Opening Hours

   EVI – Ebbw Vale Institute

   EVI closes Friday 23rd December 5pm and is opening 28th, 29th, 30th December (10am-3pm). Then it’s back to normal on Tuesday 3rd January.

   Helplines: Meic & FamilyPoint Cymru

   The Meic helpline will continue to be open over the Christmas period from 8am till midnight everyday including Christmas Day.

   • Phone – 080880 23456
   • Text – 84001
   • And instant message

   FamilyPoint Cymru will extend its opening hours and will be available everyday 9am – 5pm via

   • Phone – 0300 222 57 57
   • Text – 07860 052 905
   • And instant message

   The offices

   Harrowby Street, that’s Core Services & Management and Royal Stuart Workshops – Communications, Media & Arts and Social Action – closes on the afternoon of Friday 23rd December and will reopen on Tuesday 3rd January.

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   So our helplines will remain open and there will also be regular content going up on FamilyPoint over the festive period. We’ve dusted off the old 12 Blogs of Christmas idea. We will be publishing a series of articles covering mental health, things to do, money, recipes, physical health and much more for families in Wales. TheSprout will also have fresh content on it between Christmas and New Year. The internet never sleeps and neither do our sub-editors.

   Have a wonderful break and see you in 2017!

    

    

2. Glitch, Don’t Kill My Vibe: 3 Apps To Mess Up Your Pictures

   by Sam Easterbrook | 1st Dec 2016

   

   Want to give your images a cyberpunk edge? Sam, our editorial co-ordinator here at ProMo-Cymru, shares 3 online web apps that can seriously glitch up your pictures.

   In a good way.

   I have a bit of a thing for stuff that is wonky. Things that have been a bit mangled, a bit messed with. Whether that’s Rothfink’s rust buses, to low bit rate mp3s, I love it when things start to go a bit wrong. This is especially true when it comes to pictures. Glitches, screen tearing, datamoshing, all are good in my book

   “There is currently no real consensus on the difference between the terms “glitch” and “bug.” In general internet nomenclature, both words refer to errors that work against authorial intent, but “bug” is often cast as the weightier and more blameworthy pejorative, while “glitch” suggests something more mysterious and unknowable inflicted by surprise inputs or stuff outside the realm of code. Often the terms are used interchangeably.” — Alex Pieschel, Glitches: A Kind of History, December 2014

   This is the original image that I’ll be using to illustrate the possibilities of the glitch…

   

   So, do you fancy glitching your pictures silly? Here’s three places on the web that can help you do just that.

   1. Image Glitch Tool

   

   The first site I came across holds a special place in my internet heart. Image Glitch Tool is the best and purest of the apps on this list, what with the results often unrecognisable from the original,

   2. Image Glitcher

   

   Image Glitcher is the most Instagram friendly of this bunch, as it has the option to add CRT Lines for full retro stylings.

   3. MOSH

   

   

   

   This is my new favourite thing. MOSH datamoshes your pictures to within an inch of their lives. Not only is there loads of controls, but you can record animated gifs and can play with it in real time when you enable your webcam. MOSH is a brilliant free resource that makes amazing images. Also, if you press and hold the space bar and hit record, this happens…

   

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   We love creating amazing images here at ProMo-Cymru and offer a range of services including photography, and bespoke skills training on Video, Photography and Animation.

   Media Production

   Skills Training

   Please get in touch if you’d like to discuss ways we can work together to create positive change. And share with us your glitchy masterpieces on Twitter and Instagram – @ProMoCymru.

   Original cover image: By Jørund Føreland Pedersen (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons

3. Music In The Workplace: Do’s & Dont’s

   by Sam Easterbrook | 24th Nov 2016

   

   “Ah, music,” he said, wiping his eyes. “A magic beyond all we do here!”
   – Albus Dumbledore
   Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone

   Music can stir the soul, move the feet and bring tears to the eyes. Yet music can be noise to those that don’t want to listen to it. And this noise is even worse when you’re trapped somewhere and forced to hear it.

   Sodcasting: noun – derogatory, slang
   The practice of playing music through the speakers of a mobile phone in a public space.
   Collins English Dictionary

   And the office is a public space, a shared space anyway. So is playing music in the office sodcasting? It depends on your organisation, your colleagues, and your policies.

   Your organisation

   Do you work with vulnerable people on sensitive subjects? Maybe leave Idles for the bus ride home. Are you a cool arts company? I’d almost expect to hear some cracking tunes floating around the office.

   Idles – Well Done (Idles have just announced a UK Tour and they’re playing Clwb Ifor Bach, Cardiff on Wednesday 5th April 2017).

   Your Colleagues

   All the same age and into the same stuff? Then grab that aux cable. Yet most organisations will have people of differing ages, tastes and tolerance. In this instance it may be wise to stick to safe radio stations like BBC Radio 2 and BBC 6 Music. These stations have the added bonus of being advert free. Because nobody likes radio adverts.

   Your Policies

   Do you have restricted access online? Or limits to how much data you can use? It’s probably best not to get into trouble by streaming the latest Teki Latex mix on SoundCloud. You may also have policies on appropriate language, so save Run The Jewels for home time too.

   Run The Jewels – Oh My Darling (NFSW – Not Safe For Work)

   

   Yet if you work somewhere where you get on with your colleagues and everyone has an interest in it then you can make music work for you in the office. This is because music can raise output, morale and creativity. Perhaps you can put a rota in place, where everyone gets an hour with the speakers? Have you ever played The Chain? Otherwise you could compromise and listen to 6 Music or one of the suggestions below?

   Sam’s 4 Listening Tips For A Happy Workplace

   Sam, our Editorial Coordinator, sits nearest the speakers in our office, so here are his selections for a harmonious office.

   1. NTS

   

   Image Credit: Rhythm Section

   NTS is an online radio station based in London with studios in Shanghai and Manchester. Broadcasting underground music live, 24/7. They play everything and they are totally Mexico. NTS broadcasts amazing tunes that you’ve never heard before, however it can get pretty extreme pretty quickly, so I’d advise against jumping straight into the live output. Instead head to their MixCloud page where you can find recordings of their shows. I’d recommend SunCut and Floating Points as excellent office listening.

   2. Stamp The Wax – Monday Morning Mixtapes

   Stamp The Wax’s Monday Morning Mixtapes are a great way to start the week, with their selections of ambient, soul, disco, chill-out and tropicalia. Laidback.

   3. Birdsong

   Birdsong was the breakout hit of early DAB Radio. It was only ever meant as an experiment, a 25-minute loop of birds and countryside to fill spare capacity on the fledgling format. Yet when it was axed there was uproar. It’s no longer on DAB but you can still listen here.

   4. Buddha Machine

   Somewhere between an instrument and a listening device, Buddha Machines are small plastic boxes that plays meditative music loops composed by Christiaan Virant and Zhang Jian.

   Music @ ProMo-Cymru

   We love music at ProMo-Cymru and we offer 2 services that involves making sounds.

   1. African Drumming Workshops

   African Drumming Workshops

   Our drumming workshops are fun, interactive and educational. Through making music in a group, we are able to build confidence, encourage teamwork, promote creativity and improve coordination.

   2. Leeders Vale Studio @ EVI

   EVI houses a 32 track recording studio and offers industry standard platforms such as Avid Pro Tools 10 &11 and Apple Logic Pro.

   If you’re interested in drumming workshops or recording at EVI, then please contact us. You can do so via: 029 2046 2222 and info@promo.cymru.

   So do you play music in the office? Tweet us your recommendations – @ProMoCymru

4. Do you want to be as efficient as NASA?

   by Sam Easterbrook | 6th Dec 2016

   Do you want to be as efficient as NASA? As quick and responsive as Buzzfeed?

   As big as Airbnb?

   Then… ‘just Slack it’.

   There is a multitude of apps for getting things done and communicating with groups of people. But one that stands out above all others is the collaboration platform called Slack. Hence the phrase ‘just Slack it’. NASA, Airbnb and Buzzfeed are some of the many organisations and people singing its praise and using it to do really interesting things.

   Slack is a tool for working on projects with other people. That may sound very similar to email or social media platforms like Facebook or Whatsapp.

   Slack somehow is better, at times far less annoying and easier to use.

    

   

   Source: Slack Brandfolder

   If you want to work on a project with a friend or a large group then you can create ‘channels’ where you can have conversations and upload or link to any important documents or other websites. Where Slack really comes into its own is being able to look back and search through previous conversations and keep track of how the overall project is developing. If you have a new team member join, this is really useful as they can see how the conversation developed and access all the information they need in one place. This makes Slack feel really accessible and welcoming of new people.

   Slack also loves emojis and whilst being fun it allows you to reduce the amount of back and for emails, it can take to convey an idea to another person. People who use Slack love it because it reduces the number of emails they send to each other and helps people achieve the perfect state know as ’email zero’.

   Slack is free! There are paid plans but generally, you only need these if you are working for a large organisation. If you start your own Slack team and are looking for collaborators to join let us know and we’ll feature your group!

   Related:

   Transforming your communication

   How To Create Low Cost, High-Impact Content

    

5. Anti-Bullying Week 2016: ProMo-Cymru Marks the Date

   by Sam Easterbrook | 9th Nov 2016

   Two of ProMo-Cymru’s projects, Meic and TheSprout, will be delivering anti-bullying campaigns this year for Anti-Bullying Week 2016 (14th – 18th November).

   How can you make a difference?

   It’s really simple to support us this year: just share our content! Here’s where you can follow our campaigns:

   

   Meic

   Meic’s Facebook and Twitter feeds will be full of images featuring artist Gavyn Wrench — these were produced in collaboration with SchoolBeat, Children in Wales and Welsh Government and feature quotes following consultations with children and young people.

   Watch out for: vox pops with children and young people featuring their views on bullying, and a competition to win a signed image from Gavyn Wrench himself!

   There will also be featured articles with tips for you people who might be going through difficult times because of bullying.

   TheSprout

   

   This November, TheSprout is offering time credits for young people (11-25) who submit any articles about bullying. They’ll also be helping to host the Meic image competition — so spread the word to any budding artists or writers! You can follow their campaign on Facebook, Twitter, and on TheSprout.co.uk.

    

6. 4 Tips For Doing Peer-To-Peer Support Online

   by Sam Easterbrook | 13th Oct 2016

   

   Peer to peer support, that’s service users helping other service users with advice, experiences and tips can be incredibly powerful.

   Peer-to-peer support adds honesty, real-life experiences and character to your website. It can also get tricky if the advice that’s being offered isn’t great or down right wrong.

   Here at ProMo-Cymru we use a tried and tested method of peer-to-peer support on three of our websites:

   Aunty Sprout on TheSprout.co.uk

   This is an online Agony Aunt for 11-25s in Cardiff to share whatever is concerning them.

   A Problem Shared… on FamilyPoint Cymru

   This is our platform for parents and families across Wales to share an issue that is affecting them.

   Grab The Meic on Meic

   Similar to Aunty Sprout but Wales-wide.

   They all follow a similar format: A user contacts the website through a contact form on the website. We send it to our helpline advisers to provide a response. We then publish online and encourage readers to use the comments section to share their advice.

   So how can you make peer-to-peer support work for you, your service and the people using it? Here’s our 4 tips…

   

   1. Respond straight away

   Someone has taken the time to share an issue or problem with you. Have a stock response in place and send as quickly as possible. Thank them for their message, honestly say how long it will take for the article to go live, and offer helplines that can help them straight away. For us at ProMo we tend to direct to the Meic and FamilyPoint helplines.

   Yet by saying “respond straight away” I don’t mean set an auto-respond. Tweak and tailor your response to their concerns. Also if they’re at immediate risk then you have to contact the authorities. I oversee Aunty Sprout and APS and this has never happened, but you never know.

   

   2. Keep everything anonymous

   We ask for a first name and an email address, and this is our channel of communication with the user. We don’t publish any of that and we often change details, people’s names, locations and so forth so that we keep everything secure and don’t get anyone into trouble. This anonymity also allows writers to express themselves more freely, yet we ask for an email address so we have at least one way of contacting them.

   

   3. Provide an official response

   If you’re not confident in supplying your own replies then partner with a helpline or information provider that has expertise in that field. This can be done on an official basis and sometimes the organisation may ask for something in return. This can be as simple as a banner advert or promotion within the article, to a monetary agreement.

   via GIPHY

   If you’re in Wales why not partner with Meic or FamilyPoint – contact us at ProMo Cymru.

   But don’t be afraid to approach organisations on an ad-hoc basis, especially if they specialise in a topic that you don’t usually cover. Use social media to ask them to provide additional responses after you’ve published the article, as this works as promotion for both of you.

   

   4. Moderate the comments

   Pre-moderation or post-moderation. Do you let comments go live straight away and then take them down if they’re flagged by another user? Or do you moderate everything that goes live? There are pros and cons to both systems.

   Pre-moderation

   Pros: Secure – nothing goes up without you seeing it first

   Cons: Slows conversation down and users can get frustrated that their comments are not live straight away

   Post-moderation

   Pros: Instant and quick

   Cons: Offensive and inappropriate material can appear on your site without your knowledge

   You can of course set language filters but at ProMo-Cymru we tend to operate a pre-moderation system on our websites. If your peer-to-peer support pages are covering difficult or sensitive topics you may wish to pre-moderate too. If it’s more light-hearted or things like technical support then you’re unlikely to attract trolls and can do post-moderation.

   I hope these tips help with your peer-to-peer support pages and Agony Aunts, if you have any questions, or would like to team up with one of our helplines, then please get in touch.

7. How To Find Nice Copyright Free Images

   by Sam Easterbrook | 28th Sep 2016

   Looking for free images to jazz up your website and use on social media? Then check out our guide!

   A picture paints a thousand words… and makes your blog posts and articles look a helluva lot nicer.

   But you’ve got to be careful not to fall foul of copyright laws. You can’t just go on Google Images and grab what you like. Neither do you want to use standard clipart pictures that everyone else uses.

   Seriously, if I’d be happy to never see this guy again…

   

   Yet there are some sites where you can find great, engaging and free images. This is especially true if you’re a charity or in the third sector and not using them for commercial purposes.

   There are 4 types of free images that you can use

   1. Pictures that you have photographed or drawn yourself.

   2. Promotional pictures – Under what’s called ‘fair dealing’ (more info here), you can use images like film posters or album covers, if you’re talking about that film or album.

   3. Images that are copyright free – these can be pictures that are in the public domain such as national flags. Or they can be really old ones that the copyright has expired on. Have you seen those greeting cards with old black and white pictures with a pithy comment underneath? Now you know why there’s so many of them. Other copyright free images can be ones where the curator has forgone any copyright claim and has allowed their work to be freely used – these can usually be found on websites like Pixabay.

   4. Creative Commons images – these are images where the creator has given their work a Creative Commons licence. What this means in reality is that you can use their image for free as long as you credit them. These are the types of pictures we have used the most on TheSprout over the years. Most come from a website called Compfight.

   The key is using Creative Commons

   Creative Commons is a nonprofit organisation that provides free, easy-to-use copyright licenses to give public permission to share and use creative work. Somebody who uses one of Creative Commons’ licences basically changes the copyright from “all rights reserved” to “some rights reserved.” And that means as long as you credit the person who created the pictures on your blog or articles then you can use them.

   Where to find images with Creative Commons licences

   Compfight – TheSprout and FamilyPoint Cymru has been using Compfight everyday for goodness knows how many years. It’s great to find interesting and free images to accompany the articles submitted by young people and families. Compfight searches Flickr using the tags system. After your first search you can then drill down to just CC images on the left-hand side. Quick word of warning, the first two rows of images are usually Shutterstock ones (i.e. ones you have to pay for) and sometimes after a couple of searches Shutterstock will pop up in a new window. But it’s worth putting up with for the huge archive of interesting images that you can use for free.

   

   Campaign Monitor recently blogged about this topic and highlighted 6 other places you can get images. Meanwhile Buffer have a whopping list of 53 sites that you can get free images from! Buffer are also behind Pablo, which is a really useful tool for creating visual social media posts (it’s what I made the stick man image above on).

   Pixlr Express is also another useful tool to quickly edit and spice up free images with filters, frames and text. The beauty of Pablo and Pixlr Express is that they’re free to use and you can do it in your browser, so you don’t need to download any software.

   Interested in making the most of social media to reach your audience? Contact us here.

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   Related blogs:

   How to add Instagram to your boosted posts

   3 Reasons To Use Captions and Subtitles

8. 4 Viral Hashtags That Caused A Storm This Summer

   by Sam Easterbrook | 23rd Aug 2016

   Summer 2016 has been a bumper year for major events. With the Euros and Rio Olympics behind us and lots more ahead, what’s made these events really stick with Generation Screen?

   Hashtags (this little symbol —> #) have been rising in popularity since the launch of Twitter in 2006. They’re used to group social media posts together under a certain topic. People all over the world can join in a single discussion, just by using this useful symbol.

   Here’s four hashtags that blew our minds:

   1.  #TogetherStronger // #GorauChwaraeCydChwarae

   Flagship hashtag of the Wales FA, this really made its mark during Wales’ campaign during the UEFA Euro 2016 games earlier this summer. While it was later to be used by Hilary Clinton during one of her campaign speeches, it made a dent in Twitter with over 1.327m viewers settling down to watch the 2-0 defeat by Portugal in Wales’ last game of the competition.

   Why we liked it: Wales’ monumental success at the Euros was due mostly to their consistent ability to work together as a team. A hashtag that reinforces that ethos was bound to do well.

   2.  #Steddfod16

   

   The great thing about this little hashtag is that it really drew in people from all sides. Côr Hŷn Glynllyw were able to advertise their impromptu practise session in one of the stalls just by piggybacking onto this well-established tag.

   It also grouped together event photos, making it far easier to find further down the line:

   

   Why we liked it: Having a Welsh-only hashtag raises the profile of the language, and singles out the festival as a progressive event. It’s also an informal way of saying “Eisteddfod”, which really helped to reinforce it with young people, which guarantees the event’s future.

   3.  #Rio2016

   This hashtag has dominated the last two weeks of news coverage, while tracking the progress at the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. With the Paralympic Games only a couple of weeks away, it’s bound to have a resurgence (along side their own hashtag, #Superhuman). 

   Why we liked it: Its multi-lingual appeal also makes it a top hit on social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook. 

   4. #PrideCymru

   This year’s Pride Cymru festival in Cardiff brought over 10,000 visitors to Cooper’s Field.

   

   

    

   Why we liked it: One-off events with a dedicated hashtag guarantee a way in which all of your visitors can keep track of the conversation, get instant updates and let others know where they are.

   (Fancy seeing our own photos from Pride? View them here.)

   Images all sourced from Twitter

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   Looking to make an impression online with your campaign? Start a conversation with us.

   Other posts:

   How To Make Friends And De-Alienate People: 3 Must-Know Things We Learned From The Eisteddfod

   ProMo-Cymru @ WMC’s Festival of Voice

   3 Reasons To Use Captions and Subtitles

    

    

9. How To Make Friends And De-Alienate People: 3 Must-Know Things We Learned From The Eisteddfod

   by Sam Easterbrook | 11th Aug 2016

   ProMo-Cymru has two fully bilingual projects: FamilyPoint Cymru and Meic, aimed at families and under-26s, respectively. With the best of the summer (and hopefully weather) yet to come, we donned our best wellies and headed out to to engage with some of Wales’ half a million Welsh speaking families!
   
   So what did we learn from the week long festival in Abergavenny? Lots, but here are 3 things:

    

   

   1. 1a) How to approach someone at a picnic table, and 1b) how to win at merchandise

   It’s lunchtime at the Eisteddfod. There are picnic tables crammed with families on all sides. You’ve eaten your lunch, had a wander, but it’s back to work. But all the people you want to speak to are eating.

   This is where it really pays to have useful branded merchandise. As it turns out, absolutely no parent will ever turn down free wet wipes during lunchtime. [It is scientifically proven that a toddler can successfully smear ice cream over three people in under 12 seconds.]

   We were quickly building a reputation for ourselves as a helpful service; by the end of the week, people were asking after our wet wipes, as well as asking about who we are and what we do.

   Make your brand useful to people, and your audience will come to find you.

   

   2. Everyone loves dressing up. (Even people who say they hate dressing up.)

   At most events we attend, we try to have a photobooth on hand. While this might seem like a ploy for us to take stupid pictures of ourselves wearing horse masks, it’s actually an amazing engagement tool.

   We can show off our fancy camera skills, but it’s great for everyone: professionals fed up with the weather, or parents with kids who need distracting, and we get a guaranteed moment to talk to them about our service.

   The most important lesson we learned is that this drives traffic to our Flickr, Facebook and Instagram pages, and your audience can really connect with your message.

   

   3. It’s the taking part that counts.

   The most important thing we learnt from #Steddfod16 was how much more engagement gets done when you just give things a go. Whether it’s doing a quick walkabout and asking people about the competitions, or wearing a silly mask to draw attention to yourself — the biggest and best thing anyone can do is just take part, really. Think the festival’s about chairs and druids and mud? Go to the Eisteddfod and learn from people. Welsh a bit rusty? Find out how to say basic phrases.

   You should never underestimate how important it is to humanise your brand. What’s more human than just giving it a go?

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   Want to learn more about these projects? Visit FamilyPoint Cymru and Meic here.

   Interested in starting something new with us? Start a conversation now.

   Our other blogs:

   ProMo-Cymru @ WMC’s Festival of Voice

   Lessons From Europe: Digital Youth Information & Communication

    

    

10. Why Is It Called TheSprout?

    by Sam Easterbrook | 18th Apr 2016

    Here’s something we get asked a lot, so here’s Sam the Editor of theSprout.co.uk to explain why theSprout is called theSprout…

    If you don’t fancy watching the short video, or Sam’s big flappy hands are too much of a distraction then read on!

    Cast your minds back to 2007. MIA was throwing her Paper Planes. Gordon Brown was seizing power. Chelsea were winning the FA Cup. And online youth information was slowly becoming a thing.

    So in a little room in Grassroots on Charles Street, Cardiff, ProMo-Cymru held a meeting. Some keen young writers attended. Their task was to find a name for the website that was to marry online youth information with an interactive platform for young people to have a say in Cardiff.

    These keen young writers, some of who became the founding members of the editorial group (which continues to this very day, meeting on the last Thursday of the month in Cardiff Central Library) came up with the name. The idea was that this site was where ideas, movements, friendships, careers started from, where they sprouted from.

    

    It was nothing to do with Brussels sprouts… that came later.

    It was nothing to do with The Onion… though it might have been thinking about it.

    Anyway if you look at the logo, you’ll see lots of little arrows wiggling their way upwards, and they represent the idea of personal growth, of forward movement, and positive ideas, principles that continue to underlie what theSprout is about 9 years on.

    

    So there were go, why is it called theSprout? Because some young people said it should be. And because it made sense to them and made sense to us, then we went with it.

    TheSprout.co.uk is the online magazine for and by young people in Cardiff. It is underpinned by a youth information section and a directory of services of what’s available in the city. It’s kind of like an online info shop that is free to all and sometimes a free-for-all. We’ve published over 5000 articles and we’re hungry for more. Feed us here.