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Experts say a range of factors are at play as towhy the cities of Logan and Ipswich have among the worst vaccination rates in the country, and policymakers need to address that to turn it around.

New data released by the federal government shows 28.5 per cent of eligible people in the Logan-Beaudesert area, south of Brisbane,have had their first dose of the vaccine, while13.2 per cent are fully vaccinated.

Ipswich, west of Brisbane, has seen 31.8 per cent of those eligible get their first dose and 15.7 per cent get both jabs.

The highest rate in Queensland is Brisbane West, with 46.2 per cent receiving their first dose and 24.5 per cent getting fully vaccinated.

The data breaks down the first and second dose rates for eligible people aged 15 years old and over, indifferent geographical areas of every state and territory up toAugust 1.

Ipswich resident Neville Olbitzky said the low rates in his city did not surprise him.

"I did struggle [to book in], if it would have been simpler, walk-in, I would have had it a long time ago," he said.

The 65-year-old tried to walk in at the vaccination hub in the citybut was redirected to book online.

"Just kept saying to me 'go online', that's all I got, 'you've got to do it online', end of story, and because of that I just didn't bother," he said.

"I think people my age just do find it hard.

"It just turns you off all the hassle you've got to go through."

After multiple attempts to navigate the online booking system, he is booked in for his first dose next week.

But he said the process should be smoother to get more of the community vaccinated.

"It is frustrating, there's got to be a simpler way and I reckon you'd have a lot more people vaccinated," he said.

AP: Frank Augstein/Pool

Queensland University of Technology's Professor in social marketing,Ross Gordon, said there were multiple reasons to explain why Logan and Ipswich had lower rates.

"They're known as being lower socioeconomic status areas, soyou tend to have people with lower levels of education and from that lower levels of health literacy," he said.

"Other factors, as well, you've got higher populations of culturally and linguistically diverse people, and also the age of the population there you've got younger people living there."

He said that could all be linked to vaccine hesitancy.

ABC News: Chris Gillette

"Among culturally and linguistically diverse populations, there's an issue with communication and trust as well, so trying to address these issues is going to be key," he said.

"Among young people, we haven't really been thinking a lot or working a lot with young people through the pandemic so far in Australia.

"A lot of the focus has been on protecting older people so we've not really done the workto actually engage young people yet."

Dr Gordon said there was a difference between vaccine hesitancy and anti-vaccination beliefs.

"A lot of vaccine-hesitant people need a little bit of support and encouragement and reassurance and making it easier for them to get over the line," he said.

He said one way to increase COVID-19 vaccination rates would be through a more personal, community-orientated marketing strategy.

Health officials say younger peoplecanconsult with theirdoctor about getting the AstraZeneca vaccine. Here's what your GP will ask you

"Our strategy in Australia so far has been everything's come from government and health departments. We have to recognise that while a lot of the population trusts these sources there are some members of our community that don't," he said.

"That's where I want to see a more active role of community leaders in places like Ipswich and Logan.

"Putting those sort of people out the front of campaigns and communication and even featuring community members in vaccine campaigns brochures and social media.

"When people see another member of the community and those sorts of communications they're much more likely to trust them, because they know them, they represent them."

Health Minister Yvette D'Ath said she was working with regions with lower COVID-19 vaccination rates to see what could be done to improve them.

We offer tailored front pages for local audiences in each state and territory. Find out how to opt in for more Queensland news.

"We need everyone vaccinated at that high level, to open up the whole of Queensland," she said.

"We do a lot of consumer advocacy to reach out and see why it is that we have vaccine hesitancy, or why we're not coming forward.

"We need to break down the data as to whether it's AstraZeneca or Pfizer, the age groups, we have seen pretty consistent numbers across the state in Pfizer and [AstraZeneca] but we want to have a look at those numbers a little bit closer."

Ms D'Ath said the state government would look at language and engagement within multicultural communities.

"So we want to do that not just in testing and messaging around staying home but about vaccination," she said.

"We'll continue to work with all sectors of the community and to get that message out."

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Breaking down the latest news and research to understand how the world is living through an epidemic, this is the ABC's Coronacast podcast.

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Ipswich and Logan have some of the lowest COVID-19 vaccination rates in Australia. What's behind the slow take-up? - ABC News

CO Derry marketing automation software company Zymplify is investing 1.5 million in its business and intends creating 26 more jobs.

Portstewart-based Zymplify produces sales and marketing automation software to help businesses scale fast.

Invest NI has offered the firm 182,000 towards the creation of the jobs which, when in place, will generate more than 1.5 million of additional annual salaries a year for the north coast area.

Recruitment is under way for posts in sales, customer support, marketing, technical and management roles.

Michael Carlin, chief executive of Zymplify, which besides Portstewart also has advisory hubs in Belfast, London, Boston and Manchester, said: "Our platform makes the lives of marketers easier. In one easy to understand dashboard, they can plan and analyse their digital and social marketing activities in real-time.

We announced an ambitious growth and development plan back in 2018 and over the last three years we have been working hard to grow and strengthen our business.

Invest NI's support has been integral in our success to date. The marketing automation space has proved to be very fast growing worldwide and our new staff will help us to carve out a larger piece of this market and fulfil the potential we know our business is capable of.

Alan McKeown, Invest NI's executive director of regional business, added: We have offered the company business advice and guidance, R&D support to innovate its services, skills support and financial assistance to grow its team.

Combined, this is helping Zymplify grow its reputation in the global automated software market and assisting it to meet demand for its services with new products now on board and new contracts secured in GB, RoI and Europe.

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Zymplify to expand in Portstewart with 26 jobs - The Irish News - The Irish News

Matt Navarra has been working in social media marketing for over a decade in various high-profile roles, including advising the UK Government on social strategy and managing the global social media presence of The Next Web.

These days, Matt works as an independent advisor, providing guidance to top brands to help them refine and improve their social media marketing approach.

Aside from this, Matt has also established himself as one of the leading voices in the social media space, regularly breaking news about upcoming features and updates. Hes a must-follow for social media managers, and a resource we regularly refer to in our research for SMT.

Which makes him a great candidate for our new SMT Experts' series - we recently got a chance to put a few questions to Matt about where he sees things headed, the latest platform updates,and what marketers should be planning for in future.

MN: Social shopping, and shopping on social in general, is now a significant element in the growth strategies for a lot of the big platforms, and weve seen huge steps forward on, for example, Instagram and Facebook with Shops, and features to do with live shopping, tagging of products, branded content, etc. Theres also been a range of similar developments from Pinterest, Snapchat and TikTok.

These tools will offer new potential for brands, but the challenge here is a bit like the question we had a few years back in regards to news publishers, and ceding control - or at least, going all-in - on things like Instant Articles, and then losing the ability to track and utilize data on what your users are doing when theyre not visiting your site. Youre then stuck within the world of Facebook, and reliant on the platforms tools.

But generally, for most small businesses, I think this is a great opportunity, and its a significant shift in the way that people consume and buy goods, and also the way they use social media, and what they use social apps for, which will be a large-scale change.

The other big one is AR. AR is still seen by many as the precursor to VR, and weve only recently started to see any significant utility for AR tools, through integrations with Google Maps and more advanced AR try-on tools on platforms like Snapchat.

But weve largely moved past the gimmick phase, and now its a question of how the brands and platforms leverage AR to actually become a more meaningful and useful thing, and move beyond simply adding dog ears to your selfies.

Weve seen some platforms taking a lead on this, with Snapchat, in particular, adding new tools to better facilitate shopping and try-on processes, and I think well see more platforms moving in this direction over the next few years.

A limitation, however, is that the technical expertise required to create these AR experiences is currently beyond the realm of many businesses, but thats also changing with the development of new tools that make it far easier and quicker, and cheaper, to build these experiences.

The last key trend of note here is around the evolving creator economy tools, whether in the form of subscriptions, tipping, improving collaboration tools to facilitate creator/brand partnerships, etc. The platforms have now realized how they can facilitate more opportunities on this front, which has lead to a new battle to retain the best talent, and provide the strongest incentives to keep them posting to your app, which could have a big influence on growth and development moving forward.

The question now is how much people will be willing to pay to subscribe to certain creators, and whether therell be a limit to the amount people will tip and donate in order to fund these processes - while for creators, they also need to choose which platforms they think will offer the most sustainable options over the long term. Well see, over the next 12 months I suspect, which platforms are going to win out in this race.

MN: Well for me, its Twitter. I live and breathe Twitter, its a news platform, and Im very much interested in the latest breaking news. The access that it gives me to information and individuals, and brands, all around the world, at speed, is still a buzz for me, and there are a lot more features now that Twitter has added in the last 12 months that have really started to transform the platform for the first time in a long while.

For a long time, it had been fairly static, but now, were seeing a sudden rush of new product features, which is really exciting to see, as a heavy Twitter user. I dont ever see Twitter being a 2 billion user platform, or seeing some huge amount of usage growth, but I do think that these new features do offer new opportunities for greater expansion moving forward.

Im also interested to see how its new monetization features for creators develop, and what the conversion rate might be for people using new features like Super Follow. Its a somewhat risky strategy, but it will have a fundamental impact on what Twitter is for many users, and I suspect itll be a successful addition.

MN: I think it will be a thing in a year from now, and several years from now - though Im not as bullish or convinced that Clubhouse will be the champion of social audio in a way that TikTok is the champion of short video.

Part of the concern here is that Clubhouse has so many issues that are mounting up, including content moderation problems, limitations with discovery, lack of network capacity for growth, and a whole host of other concerns. That places some big barriers before it, which could restrict its growth, while other platforms like Twitter and Facebook seemingly have more scope for success in this respect, given their existing networks and their experience and tech capabilities.

For the format more generally, it largely comes down to the day-to-day use case for social audio, with things like virtual events, news discussion, TV program discussions, etc., all set to see at least some enhanced value through the option. For marketers, Im not exactly sure how social audio will best be leveraged by brands. There are various options that you could consider, but whether brands will be able to create content thats as compelling as that from news publishers, celebrities or even individual creators is another consideration.

But yes, I do think that audio social will be around for some time, and much like Stories, for some platforms, it will fit and make sense, and for others, it wont.

MN: Yes and no. I think in some areas of social that Facebook and TikTok compete in, definitely, but Facebook is such a bigger beast in terms of what it can do for you as a user, that TikTok, by comparison, is very narrow in its toolset.

In terms of what TikTok does, which is short-form video, its definitely the leader over alternative options like Instagram Reels, and I suspect it will continue to dominate that space for some time, and its newer experiments like live shopping and eCommerce fit into this.

Whether TikTok can expand beyond this is central to the question as to whether it can become a true challenger for Facebook, and Im not sure it will look to branch out, but already, in terms of time spent and engagement, TikTok is a competitor in what it does, and it still has a lot of scope to grow and become a bigger player in the space.

MN:The obvious one here would be TikTok, which may seem odd to note, but I think that if youre talking about a platform thats earlier in its life cycle and growth curve, and a platform thats got real potential to take something from zero to a million miles an hour, really quickly, then TikTok has a lot of potential, and the fact that its less understood by the average social media manager or brand means that people are using it less because theyre not quite sure how best to exploit it.

TikTok is also still developing its ad tools and options, which will open up even more opportunity, while it also benefits, in some ways, from being not Facebook, given the reduced sentiment around the Facebook brand in some respects.

I also think that LinkedIn and Pinterest provide great opportunities that are also underrated. The value of Pinterests shopping tools is huge, and its lesser-used because marketers are often less familiar with it, while LinkedIn offers a different type of audience reach, with new developments within its company pages and events tools also expanding on its potential.

MN: Im loving it, because my main platform for what I do is geared around Twitter, and up till now, Twitter hasnt provided any real opportunity for people like me who are content creators or doing things that could be monetized, so to see these new tools arrive is great news for people in my position.

In terms of Twitter Blue, and the platforms own subscription model for add-on features, I think that for heavy platform users and certain other Twitter user types, including journalists and creators, Twitter Blue is a nice little extra.

For me personally, I think the initial Twitter Blue offering is not particularly enticing or exciting it doesnt really add enough useful utility for the money youre paying. I suspect that theyll add to the subscription feature set at some point, but till then, I think itll only be taken up by that hardcore user base. But do I think the pricing is about right, and some people will find value in it.

For Twitter, its also good to have alternative revenue sources, and it could give them the ability to fund, or at least feel more confident in experimenting with other elements. I think theres a lot of scope for the platform to generate revenue from other aspects too, like, for example, improvements to TweetDeck, but it makes sense for Twitter to start moving into these types of features, and Twitter Blue is a good first step.

MN: I dont think that he will - and if he is, it will be some time.

Twitter has been very clear with its stance that Trump is totally banned, and theyre not backing down, so I dont see that changing. Facebook has left itself some wiggle room, but my suspicion would be that well get to the date when hes potentially allowed to return, and theyll find another thing to justify his continued suspension.

I think that Trump will always remain a controversial figure, and youll never be able to trust his ability to be moderate or tempered, or rational and reasonable, at least in the way that the platforms would expect from the average user. Theres also a level of legacy and history behind Trumps behavior online now, and I just dont think that controversy will ever disappear. So I dont expect to see him allowed back.

MN: Virtual reality. Im always interested in the most-geeky, ultra-tech end of social, and this is really a very early stage development were seeing in virtual reality, and Facebook and Oculus are seemingly leading the charge, with potentially Snapchat snapping at their heels on AR, and Apple also doing things, while Google may also jump into the race. So I think its fun because of the competitive nature of it, given the dominance of one platform is still not established, so its largely still up for grabs, which always makes things more interesting in terms of innovation.

Itll also be interesting to see how social media engagement trends translate to VR, and what the new considerations will be in a whole new environment. Its quite a dramatic shift, and itll take some time to evolve, especially if you subscribe to the idea that the smartphone has a limited shelf-life before we move to the next generation of a core device that sits at the center of our connected life.

So for me, VR is the most exciting and interesting prospect over the next few years of development.

You can subscribe to Matts Social Media Geekout newsletter for a weekly rundown of all thats going on in the social media world (which regularly includes many Social Media Today links), while you can also follow Matt on Twitter, join his social media marketing Facebook group and check out his website for further contact info and insight.

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SMT Expert Series: Matt Navarra Discusses the Latest Trends, and Where Things are Headed - Social Media Today

SEATTLE, July 30, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- PRR, a women- and employee-owned integrated communications agency, announced today that Greg Eppich will serve as the new senior director of creative and marketing for the company.

Eppich has more than 20 years of creative and marketing communications experience helping clients and organizations reinvigorate, transform, and grow their marketing and creative work. His keen instincts and insights have inspired big, award-winning ideas that connected with consumers across multiple channels, from public relations and social/digital media to influencer marketing and events. His work in both private and public sectors also includes consumer lifestyle marketing, brand strategy, content development, DEI, and community engagement.

"Greg is a champion of creative ideas," said Diana Steeble, managing principal at PRR. "I've had the pleasure of working with Greg since 1999, and I can attest to how Greg has led hundreds of award-winning creative, insight-driven PR and marketing activations. And as an inspirational leader and a true champion of staff, he has demonstrated the ability to build inclusive and high-performing team cultures where careers are nurtured, and employees thrive in an environment of curiosity, collaboration, and communication."

As part of PRR's senior leadership team, Eppich will lead a team of social marketing, creative, digital marketing, and behavior change specialists across a portfolio of public and private sector clients including King County, Sound Transit, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Washington State Department of Health, Washington State Department of Transportation, and the Virginia Department of Rail and Transportation. His leadership comes at a time when PRR is preparing to celebrate 40 years of providing clients and communities with meaningful communications solutions that drive diversity, equity, and inclusion by meeting people where they are. Eppich will continue to position PRR for creative and marketing opportunities across the company's three main sectors of transportation, environment, and healthcare.

Prior to joining PRR, Eppich was a senior vice president at MSL, a global marketing communications firm, where he led a team of integrated marketing and public relations specialists for several leading consumer brands in a variety of categories, including food and beverage, premium spirits, coffee, confections, luxury goods and services, hospitality, and pet care.

Established in 1981, PRR is a mission-driven agency dedicated to creating real and lasting change in the world. A certified women-owned business, PRR brings multi-disciplinary expertise in communications and outreach for environment, healthcare, and transportation industries, prioritizing diversity, equity, and inclusion in all work the agency does. To learn more about PRR, visit prrbiz.com.

PRR provides integrated communications solutions that help people make informed decisions and build stronger, more inclusive communities. Staff are experts in the transportation, healthcare, and environmental sectors where we offer research, community engagement, social marketing, and human-centered design services anchored in our philosophy toMake It Meaningful.That means we prioritize diversity, equity, and inclusion in everything we do. Our body of work includes public-private partnerships, social determinants of health, road construction, stormwater and water treatment infrastructure, energy efficiency, health care and coverage, road usage charge, commercial development, transit planning, substance use and misuse, and current crises including emergency and disaster preparedness.Established in 1981,PRR is a bicoastal agency with a team of national experts located inSeattle, Washington D.C., Norfolk, Va., and Baltimore.

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PRR Announces New Senior Director of Creative and Marketing - Daily Record-News

If you know where to look, youll find that the digital space is chock-full of free resources and tools you can use to up your social media marketing game. Here are a few.

New to the industry? Get started with everything you need to know about the early decisions thatll shape your career, including choosing a brokerage, learning your market, creating an online presence, budgeting, getting leads, marketing listings and so much more. If youre a team leader or broker-owner, New Agent Month will be jam-packed with resources to help your new hires navigate.

Whether youre a newbie or a seasoned professional, every agent can benefit from tapping into what social media has to offer.The good news is that when it comes to social media marketing you dont have to always pay a lot of money to access some great tools.

In a recent session for Inman Connect Now, I shared a few of my favorite tools for zero-cost marketing. So, if you want to get organized, whip up some great content and increase your social presence, here are my go-to resources.

Getting organized and just as importantly, staying organized is the name of the game. Asana and Trello are two great task management tools that are especially helpful when you are organizing who does what for content.

For example, if you are going to shoot a video once a week, you need a place to organize topic, timing, who will edit it, what your distribution plan is and more. Also, Dropbox and Google Drive are excellent for holding big files for social media, like video and graphic files, and its easy to transfer those files from your computer to your mobile devices.

Video content is still one of the best types of content you can create for Facebook, YouTube or IGTV. Two of my favorite free video-editing mobile apps are Videoshop and Videorama. Theyre both easy to use, and easy to edit and brand your videos as needed.

As the adage goes, a picture is worth a thousand words and that couldnt be more true when it comes to social media.

There are three great stock photo resources I love and use consistently: Unsplash, Pixabay and Pexels. These platforms are free and offer a wide assortment of stock photos (and stock video footage, too) to use for any of your social media posts.

These are three of the biggest social platforms, and they each have a number of free resources for real estate agents and brokers. With LinkedIn, make sure you optimize your profile, add your expertise, and utilize the free blog and recommendation section.

With Facebook, content is key, so using a free tool like a content grid can help get you organized. Instagram has so many more options now than ever before, but I love using tools like LinkTre.ee to add multiple links in your bio, and Wordswag and Canva to create graphics quickly and easily.

As with any social media platforms, being more interested in others is key to help build and foster those relationships. This doesnt cost you anything (except time!)

Hashtags on Instagram and Twitter can be a great way to increase your reach and expand your sphere. Some of my favorite resources are: hashtagify.me, all-hashtags.org and hashtags.org. Search to see which hashtags are most relevant to your market area.

Lastly, one thing all agents and brokers can do that doesnt cost anything is to repurpose your content and your stories. When creating a piece of content, think about how that piece of content could get repurposed, and sliced and diced.

For example, a Facebook Live could be downloaded and uploaded to YouTube, it could be transcribed into a blog post, it could be edited to pull out a few short clips for Instagram and more.

Strategize with Katie Lance in person at Inman Connect Las Vegas, Oct, 26-28! Shell be moderating the Agent Marketing track along with two other experts, Marki Lemons-Ryhal and Chelsea Peitz, to dive deep into creating, sharing and repurposing content on social media. Seats are limited.Learn more and reserve your spot today.

Katie Lance is the author of#GetSocialSmartand founder and CEO ofKatie Lance Consulting, a social media strategy firm and founder of the #GetSocialSmart Academy. Shes been recognized by Inman News as one of the 100 most influential people in real estate and is a featured keynote speaker at many industry events. Katie is also is the author of the best-selling book, #GetSocialSmart.

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5 nifty (and thrifty) social media marketing ideas - Inman