Twice in the last month, members of my team have said to me, some version of, “I’m feeling a bit overwhelmed – can we talk about it, please?”

Why am I writing a blog about this? Because I think it’s amazing. Not that people feel overwhelmed – but that they are able to talk to me about it. I think that’s pretty great, for two reasons.

Slicked-back hair and impeccable suits have given way to comfy pants and Zoom meetings. Newspaper ads and billboards have transformed into carefully curated Facebook posts and Instagram stories.

Clarity heatmaps is open source technology that allows you to get a very clear sense of which areas on your website pages drive the most engagement.

We love building online courses for our clients. We love training clients on how to use WordPress so they can update their own websites.

It took us surprisingly long to join these dots for ourselves: what if we created our own online course to teach people how to use WordPress?

1 July 2023 marked 10 years since we started Pomegranite. It’s surreal.

When Liz and I sat down a decade ago to write our business plan, we decided to pepper it with ways we would celebrate big milestones. For our 10th birthday, we thought, we’d have a big party, with an exciting entrance via parachute (how dramatic were our 20s!).

At its core, DE&I is about being able to identify when or if discriminatory barriers are compromising equity.

As a company that deals heavily with social media, it’s important to us to stay in the loop in terms of the latest social media news. With companies constantly making new changes and innovations, there’s often a lot to talk about!

Sometimes it really does feel like the right people cross paths with you at the perfect time.

With Melissa’s promotion to Operations Manager at Pomegranite (the best thing to happen since Taylor Swift rerecorded her music for herself), we needed more project management capacity within the team. I think it was maybe two days after Liz and I had this conversation when we heard that Rowan – someone we’d worked with before and knew well – was looking for a PM role.

What makes a brand memorable? Is it that inspiring ad that we can’t seem to stop talking about, the vibrant logo that we instantly recognise, or is there something deeper that goes beyond aesthetics?

It’s been so interesting seeing the different evolutions of Pomegranite over the years, as the business has grown, as the team has expanded, and as our lives have changed along with it all.

This year has felt, more than any before, like a new era for Pomegranite. With Liz about to go on maternity leave (a Pomegranite baby, guys!), the idea of another pair of hands to help run the business was very attractive. But, even beyond Liz’s time away, it made so much sense to have a central, holding role within the business. An operations manager.

How was your favourite product marketed to you? We all have it – it could be an item that you use everyday and swear by, or perhaps it’s a little more special, something that took some time to save up for. Either way, in the world of social media marketing, good brand alignment means it’s highly likely that your favourite brands run some of your favourite marketing campaigns too.

Do you feel most alive in the company of others and the excitement of bustling social events? Or do you enjoy the peaceful serenity of a cosy night spent indoors?

It’s hard to overstate the influence of technology on our daily lives. From the ways we connect with each other on social media to the ways we shop and even fall in love. But, what’s even more exciting is the way technology has become an integral part of our culture and economy, and how it’s continuing to transform our world right before our eyes.

One thing that continues to surprise me about running a business is how difficult it can be to find the right people to join the team. You need someone with the right skillset, and ideally the right sector experience. But you also need someone with a work ethic and career vision that matches your organisation.

What comes to mind when you think about artificial intelligence (AI)? Maybe it’s the latest craze of avatar-like selfies generated by the controversial Lensa app. Or the rumour that a Google scientist claims that AI robots are sentient. Whatever your take on AI, it is an ever-evolving and intriguing space.

If you haven’t heard about it, DALL-E 2 is an AI system that creates an original image from a descriptive prompt given by a user.

For my skills share, I gave our team a walk-through of the system and posed the question “Is Dall-E a threat to artists?”

The two responses I get most often from Callie, either on Slack or in Zoom meetings, are:

“Got it.” and “I’m on it!”

You know when you look into someone’s eyes as they’re talking to you and you can almost see the mental spreadsheets their brain is running through? Callie has that magical quality, so vital to project management.

In my most recent skills share, I did something a little different. I got the idea from the lovely person who will be doing my hair and make-up for my wedding. At the start of the trial we did, she began by managing my expectations, gently stating that the person in the reference I’d sent her had very long, thick hair, while I… do not. I told her I was under no illusions, we had a laugh, and throughout the process I was generally very impressed by her communication.

Email marketing can be a tricky topic with many nuances, and is sometimes overlooked. This blog contains an overview of the elements you can pay attention to to level up your strategy.

Feel like you’re surrounded by idiots? Armed with the DISC method knowledge, you’ll be able to understand and interact with others more effectively.

Traffic lights beep faster before the light goes green. Wheelchair ramps sit next to entrance steps. Braille is stamped into tv remotes. In the real world, accessibility tools for people with disabilities are (relatively) prevalent.

Slack workflows is a great tool available to anyone with a Slack Pro account. It’s a system where you can automate certain tasks within your Slack team, so you can minimise the number of separate programmes used, and do more on Slack itself. Because Slack can integrate with other apps, some of them are compatible with workflows, which opens up many more possibilities in making your workflow smoother and faster.

Over the years, I’ve come to realise that it’s not the ‘power’ or ‘value’ of social media that people need to learn more about; What is missing is a feeling. A sense of belonging, knowing there’s a place on social media that fits and is right for you and your organisation.

Every time we go through the hiring process (which, luckily, isn’t very often as our staff turnover is quite low), we get asked new and sometimes surprising questions. One question that’s as reliable as Eskom se Push, though, is, “What perks do you get if you work at Pomegranite?”

As one of the founders, I know I’m biased. So I decided to poll our team and ask what their favourite thing was.

At Pomegranite, our mission says: “We work with non-profits, change-makers and thought-leaders to craft their online presence. We believe everyone should have a voice.”
We’ve refined it repeatedly over the years with our team, getting to the heart of who we want to work with, and how we want to do that. We treat it as a compass when deciding what work to take on or pursue – it’s very important to us.
As with anything we hold as a guide, we like to interrogate it.