Church Tools

May 9 2022

Cloned Accounts and Hacked Facebook Accounts On The Rise

Grand Rising Good People,

Over the weekend there has been reports of an unprecedented amount of hacked and cloned accounts. Hacked accounts is when someone takes possession of your account due to a security breach, weak password, or other nonconsensual means.

We recommend changing your password(s) ASAP if you see any signs of someone being logged into your account. Never click any links in emails or on Facebook to secure your account. Open your web browser and type in the network you would like to change your password on.

If you can’t access your account follow the proper steps for recovery and Facebook and Instagram will usually work with you to recover your account.

What are Cloned Accounts?

Cloned accounts are a little different, this is when someone takes your picture and your name and they set up a new account pretending to be you so that they can trick your friends and or followers into thinking they are speaking with you.

Most of the time you friends will alert you to this behavior by asking if you have created a new page because they may have received a new friend request where you know you already are friends.

This is dangerous because they usually access your messenger account through Facebook and start conversations with people usually ending in requesting money or other personal information.

Be careful. Take important conversations offline, delete messages that have personal information saved in them (copies of your ID, SSN, etc) and try to video chat when in doubt. They can’t pretend to look like you so they won’t pick up block the user immediately and alert your friends.

You can always post a PSA stating that you only have one page and have been notified that someone may be using your picture and name to scam people.

Sharing is caring.

Facebook and Instagram will work with you if you report them to get those fake accounts shut down. It is a very slow and tedious process, you almost have to have a lot of people reporting one account for them to act on it quickly but don’t give up it’s best to just be diligent about reporting accounts that have suspicious activity or that don’t match the person that you know them to be. I hope this helps.

Portia

Inauguration day for President Joe Biden in Washington D.C.

January 20 2021

Inauguration Day Social Media Ideas for Influencers

Please Note: We never recommend mixing politics with business publicly. Endorsing political parties publicly may backfire negatively & leave your followers confused about what you actually stand for. Inauguration Day Social Media Ideas can be used in place of large endorsements.

Strategic ideas to cover the 2021 inauguration include:

Joe Biden’s age:
Born: November 20, 1942 (age 78 years
PITCH: Never Give Up! Its not too late for you to be what God has called you to be.

To everything there is a season. God has not forgotten about you. God doesn’t need TIME nor is He confined to it.

Kamala’s gender & ethnicity
PITCH: There’s a first time for everything. Take the limits off yourself. So what??? if its never been done before. Do it first! Create it first! Build it first!

We can agree to disagree.
Never allow a difference of opinion and or belief system make you act out of character. Two wrongs never create a right. We must learn how to unify as a body of believers. Pray for one another and pray for our leaders.

August 7 2018

App: Bible Lens from YouVersion

Download Bible Lens from the Apple App Store

Introducing the next all-new app from YouVersion, Bible Lens. Bible Lens lets you see your favorite pictures through the lens of God’s Word. Go to www.BibleLens.com to download! #BibleLens

See your life through a different lens.

When you take a picture with Bible Lens, it identifies objects, expressions, and more… searches the Bible for a verse to match, and overlays it as beautiful, high-quality art. Bible Lens overlays its first suggestion in a stylized font and color, shaping the text around important focal points (such as faces or objects).

OKLAHOMA CITY (Aug. 6, 2018)—This week, the creators of the YouVersion Bible App are celebrating the release of their newest app called Bible Lens. The free app matches relevant Bible verses with a person’s photos and automatically creates visually appealing, sharable artwork. Bible Lens launched Saturday, Aug. 4. Within the first weekend, the app reached more than 265,000 installs, earning it the number one ranking in the App Store’s Lifestyle category and number two of all free apps.

“As technologies emerge and create new possibilities, it’s important to us that the Bible be at the forefront of innovation,” said Bobby Gruenewald, Life.Church Pastor, Innovation Leader and YouVersion Founder. “We believe Bible Lens will make it easier for people to see connections between the Bible and their everyday lives, and we’re encouraged by the number of people who have shown an interest in engaging with the Bible in this way.”

Using a form of artificial intelligence known as machine vision, Bible Lens analyzes content in a photo like objects, backgrounds, colors, and more to identify themes. Then the app searches the YouVersion database for the most relevant Bible verse to suggest to the user. With software that balances design elements like font choice and white space, the app automatically and artistically renders the verse on top of the image, creating beautiful artwork for sharing.

“If I take a picture of my left hand, Bible Lens would identify my wedding band and likely create an image that highlights marriage. If the app identified a source of light in my photo, it might suggest a Bible verse about how Jesus is the light of the world,” said Gruenewald. “It’s incredible technology that affords us the unique opportunity to help people see their world with a different perspective.” Read More

July 11 2018

REVIEW: Church Minutes Done Right! (Get Minute)

Get Minute offers you a completely new way to hold meetings: digitally and on-line, in real-time cooperation. In the iPad / iPhone app or web app, you draw up the agenda together, add digital documents and make notes and agreements together. The result is more efficient meetings that do not require the use of paper as everything is stored and shared in the cloud.

Before the meeting

Create meetings or import a meeting from your Google or Office 365 Calendar
Set a recurrence for the meeting
Invite others to a meeting
Set user permissions (‘can read’ or ‘can edit’)
Create (sub) agenda items, including duration per agenda item
Save your agenda template for future meetings
Import documents from your local drive, Google drive, Evernote, Microsoft Office 365 or Dropbox
Link documents to agenda items

During the meeting

Annotate documents
Add notes to the meeting (real-time)
Add private notes
Add and assign tasks including due date
Assigned tasks automatically synced to your favorite tools through Zapier
Add decisions to the meeting

After the meeting
Export the meeting summary to Evernote, Dropbox, Microsoft Office 365, Google drive or per email to the participants
Create a follow up meeting
Close the meeting

Facebook Introduces Watch a New Platform for watching Shows

August 10 2017

Facebook Launches Watch a New Platform for watching Shows

Facebook Launches Watch. It’s Like Netflix for Facebook.

Facebook just announced its latest platform, called “Watch” Already renamed by bloggers as “Facebook TV” it’s social media platform for watching television shows online with friends. Watch is a platform for all creators and publishers to find an audience, build a community of passionate fans, and earn money for their work. We think a wide variety of Facebook shows can be successful, particularly:

Shows that engage fans and community.
Live shows that connect directly with fans.
Shows that follow a narrative arc or have a consistent theme.
Live events that bring communities together.

Introducing Watch

We’re introducing Watch, a new platform for shows on Facebook. Watch will be available on mobile, on desktop and laptop, and in our TV apps. Shows are made up of episodes — live or recorded — and follow a theme or storyline. To help you keep up with the shows you follow, Watch has a Watchlist so you never miss out on the latest episodes.

Watch is personalized to help you discover new shows, organized around what your friends and communities are watching. For example, you’ll find sections like “Most Talked About,” which highlights shows that spark conversation, “What’s Making People Laugh,” which includes shows where many people have used the “Haha” reaction, and “What Friends Are Watching,” which helps you connect with friends about shows they too are following.

We’ve learned from Facebook Live that people’s comments and reactions to a video are often as much a part of the experience as the video itself. So when you watch a show, you can see comments and connect with friends and other viewers while watching, or participate in a dedicated Facebook Group for the show[themify_button block=”true” link=”https://newsroom.fb.com/news/2017/08/introducing-watch-a-new-platform-for-shows-on-facebook/”]LEARN MORE[/themify_button]

September 4 2016

Mevo – The Live Event Camera Hits the Appstore

Mevo – The Live Event Camera by Livestream Inc. has made it way to the AppStore. The app is virtually useless without the camera, so save your money for the camera first. keep searching internet https://appsto.re/us/5XCfdb.i

https://appsto.re/us/5XCfdb.i

July 28 2016

Tracking for U.S. Mevo Camera Pre-Orders to be emailed Saturday

Could LiveStream’s Standalone Wifi Camera actually be in consumers hands as early as next week? That’s what LiveStream’s Company email announced today, Thursday July 28, 2016 as they seem to be coming awfully close to missing another launch deadline. Messages posted on Social Media outlets suggest agitation from delays and from receiving little to no updates on the product they were initially told would be delivered in April. LiveStream Customers/Early Adopters were originally promised this product back in April of 2016 but were told just days before the launch that they would be waiting until late July due to some hardware issues.

Read LiveStream’s Email Update for The Mevo Camera

It’s this the end but were told the day of July and – even though it’s a squeaker – Mevo has started to ship!mTwo years ago we could only dream of the day when you would use your camera with your own audience. We’re looking forward to seeing what you create with your Mevo.
Tracking numbers for U.S. Mevo camera pre-orders will be emailed Saturday. These camera orders will begin arriving Tuesday, depending on your selected shipping method.
Unfortunately, Boost and international orders will be affected by a minor delay. We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience this may cause.

Boost will ship in August. The Mevo Boost accessory is awaiting FCC and CE certification. If you ordered the Mevo Pro Bundle prior to July 14th and have a U.S. delivery address, you will receive a tracking number for your camera and stand this weekend. We will ship Mevo Boost to you later, in a few weeks.
International orders are scheduled to ship in August. Some of the international certification paperwork required to ship Mevo and Mevo Boost is still pending approval. As a result we are prohibited from shipping orders outside of the United States at this time.
If you have any questions regarding your order, visit the newly updated Mevo help center at getmevo.com/support and our Customer Care team will be happy to assist.

Thanks again, and enjoy your Mevo!
Livestream Team
Mevo is created by Livestream,

May 11 2016

Instagram Gets A Facelift

Instagram just announced a major change in the platform’s look & feel. They’ve totally revamped what many have come to know and love as Instagram. They did away with the iconic brown camera icon and replaced their original color pallete with a colorful gradient of bright colors framed by a thin white camera icon.

To be honest, the icon kind of looks like an entirely different social network until you open the app, where right away you know it’s still just Instagram.

So what prompted this change? Read what Instagram just released on their official blog here.

“We’ve made improvements to how the Instagram app looks on the inside as well. The simpler design puts more focus on your photos and videos without changing how you navigate the app.

The Instagram community has evolved over the past five years from a place to share filtered photos to so much more — a global community of interests sharing more than 80 million photos and videos every day. Our updated look reflects how vibrant and diverse your storytelling has become.”

I actually love the video translation of how they came up with the final concept the best, it was creative and reflective of how much thought, care, & creativity goes into building a brand that people will enjoy, embrace, and engage on. What are your thoughts, do you like Instagram’s new look?

April 20 2016

Katch.Me Is Closing Down

Most people know, I typically become emotional about Start Ups that don’t make it. I’m not sure why I tend to take the news so personal but I do. I’ve started many businesses in my life that weren’t super successful, but I’ve never started anything where my investment cost me my dream. Many readers may not be familiar with the web application Katch so I’ll introduce you and divorce you in the same sentence. Katch.me is/was a video harvesting site for live Periscopes. Periscope only allows replays to your followers 24 hours after you have created your scope. 24 hours really isn’t enough time to maximize curation on high quality scopes. This is where Katch stepped in. Users would sign up for a Katch account, using their Twitter account and grant permissions to your Periscipe account. Once you scoped and copy of that session would be caught by Katch and tweeted out so your followers would be able to Katch the replay at a time more appealing to their personal preference. In a brief letter on Katch’s homepage they announced their final plans for closing and offered loyal supports gratitude for assisting with their massaivs growth in just under a year.

April 12 2016

LiveStream’s Live Event Camera, Movi now Called Mevo Delayed Until Late July 2016

In a short email released today, April 12, 2016 at around 2:20PM CST Jesse Hertzberg, CEO of Livestream told thousands of customers who preordered their Live Event Camera, Movi now called Mevo that their camera expected to be shipped this month would not be delivered for another three months in late July. They did not give a specific date just another estimate that in my opinion seems a little unreliable coming from the self proclaimed leaders in live video. Somehow the email seemed less apologetic and more a matter of fact. Customers were given the option for a no questions asked refund but when clicking the link to process a refund you were only redirected to an email address routed to their customer service department or what not.

This smells a little fishy considering, your email address should be linked to your order number and processing a refund should be just as easy as ordering the same product that wouldn’t be delivered for another 3 months, now 6 months if it’s actually delivered in late July.

[themify_button style=”large red rect” link=”http://wp.me/a6bdaj-1oO” target=”_blank” ]see full email[/themify_button]

The email tried to buffer this disappointing news, with Facebook’s announcement to open its Facebook Live Video integration to the new and improved Mevo Camera “for free” as opposed to the subscription service originally introduced through LiveStream- but in all fairness you can now use just about any wireless camera with Facebook Live so that is more exciting than camera/platform specific streaming.

With Mevo’s Facebook Live integration, Livestream is providing Facebook’s 1.6 billion users with the most compelling way to leverage the power of the social platform’s new live video service. From concerts to conferences, sports to school plays, personal vlogs to web shows, and business events large and small, the possibilities for engaging live video storytelling is endless. Streaming from Mevo to Facebook Live will be free of charge.

Mevo Camera

Included in the email was a link to a You Tube Video that was created using the new and improved Mevo Live Event Camera on the Facebook Platform. Many commenters noticed the fish eye effect in the uploaded footage that wasn’t apart of the demo footage on the original sales pages. That doesn’t bother me as much as a major company not delivering on their word and offering no real accommodations for customers who were willing to invest in a product three months before it would be delivered that are now being asked to wait another three months.

April 7 2016

Facebook Live Introduces New Ways to Create Share & Discover Live Video

Facebook Live Video feature now allows users the ability to go live inside of your Facebook Groups and Facebook Events. You will also be able to access interactive features including live reactions, and replaying comments. You still have the ability to invite friends to watch a live Facebook Stream with you.

If you have a church event and would like to host some promotional live chats or behind the scene clips this feature is a great way to share with an audience who has expressed interest in your events. It’s also a great way to stay in contact with your attendees after your event to sell DVD’s, CD’s and other event materials.

I’m a huge fan of speaking directly to your target market as opposed to a one size fits all fans approach. Going live within a Facebook Group allows for a more intimate conversation with specific followers.

Here’s a snippet of what Facebook Newsroom published on their website.

“Live for Groups and Events

“Going live” on Facebook feels special because you are going live with the people you care about. Today we’re rolling out the ability to go live in Facebook Groups and Facebook Events. Live in Groups allows you to broadcast to just the people in the Facebook Group – so you can go live in your family group, or share a workout plan in a fitness group.

Live in Events means you can go live from a birthday party to allow those that can’t make it to join the fun, and a performer can go live backstage to the people who’ve RSVP-ed to the event to give them a sneak peak. You can even use Events to schedule a live Q&A session. We hope this new ability to both broadcast and watch live video within Groups and Events enables people to connect more deeply with their closest friends, family and the communities of people who share their interests.

March 31 2016

Longer Video Coming to Instagram

Instagram just announced on their official blog that users will now be able to share up to 60 seconds of video content on their pages. That is a whopping 45 extra seconds to create, record, and share your favorite clips from concerts, events, and or other special moments. This change may prove huge for churches, non profits, and pastors who have struggled in the past to trim down their sermon points into ten seconds video clips that lost the original meaning of the sermon/message. Other changes Instagram introduced included an update on their IOS platform that would allow users to record multiple clips that can be merged together to create one 60 second video clip. This isn’t new technology, the feature was actually removed by Instagram but it seems they have decided to bring it back for their users! Here’s a quote directly from the Official Instagram Blog:

the last six months, the time people spent watching video increased by more than 40 percent. And longer videos mean more diverse stories from the accounts you love, whether it’s Selena Gomez (@selenagomez) hanging out with friends or beauty star Bretman Rock’s (@bretmanrock) latest makeup tutorial.

For iOS, we’re also bringing back the ability to make videos out of multiple clips from your camera roll. To learn more about multi-clip video on iOS, check out the Instagram Help Center.

Longer video on Instagram begins rolling out today and will be available for everyone in the coming months. Multi-clip video is available this week as part of Instagram for iOS version 7.19 in Apple’s App Store.