February 2013 Immediate Future

Archive: Sep 2022

Social media networks, in particular Twitter, have been under the limelight in the past week due to an outbreak of pictures claiming to identify the two killers of James Bulger, who was murdered 20 years ago. UK police have ordered social network users to stop outing the…

In part one of this series we discussed that issues shouldn’t be viewed purely through a social lens. Just because a company is affected by an incident doesn’t necessarily mean it becomes embroiled in a crisis. However, that does not mean crises don’t exist. And when a true…

“Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country” Kennedy’s inauguration speech was as relevant to the American people in 1961 as it is to the content marketer in 2013. Why? Substitute the word ‘country’ with ‘audience’…

Listening to the recent Webinar: How to effectively manage a social media crisis it struck me how readily the term “crisis” is applied to just about anything that can negatively impact a brand on social media. From Twitter hackings to disgruntled employees hijacking a company Twitter, everything…

There are currently an estimated 30 million Facebook accounts that belong to people who have passed away, raising the unnerving question: what happens to those abandoned profiles after death? For many people, grieving through social media can be a very comforting experience – allowing them to connect with friends and…

Social media is becoming an ever growing part of culture, because it’s an instant way of viewing news and public opinion. Data miners are constantly looking at ways to use this information to turn social networks into digital crystal balls. So can trends predict things such as awards for example…

The battle of the soap operas in social This week, we took a look at how the battle of the soap operas can be witnessed online in the social space, with many of us now ‘Tweeting’ and ‘Facebooking’ whilst snuggled up on the sofa watching our…

Despite being 156 years old, Burberry is proving to be a very progressive brand with its use of innovative social media platforms. It is currently the leading British fashion brand on Pinterest, the image-sharing social network that has gained huge traction around the world since it launched in 2010. Pinterest,…

Whether you’ll admit it or not, many of us enjoy snuggling up on the sofa at the end of the day for a daily dose of our favourite soap opera. Nowadays, thanks to the ‘two screening’ phenomenon, this delight is now reflected online, with many of us engaging on social…

Slideshare is a great and often overlooked platform. Claiming 60 million monthly visitors, it allows users to upload visual presentations and easily share them. Over time Slideshare has evolved into a thriving social media site in itself. Users are keen to ‘like’, download and share presentations and, similarly to YouTube,…

After reading an interesting article from The Real Time Report last week I was inspired to share some of the metrics I know most companies won’t be tracking in the B2B space… The report above, which looked purely at website analytics as a way of determining referral traffic and…

From Findus lasagnes, Tesco burgers and Asda bolognese to Whitbread, it seems that the horsemeat scandal gets worse every day, as the saga gets even darker and more twisted and new brands become embroiled in the scandal. The questions of exactly what are we eating continue to persist and it’s…

Search for your old tweets on Twitter This week Twitter has made some important changes to its search options. Users are now able to search for old tweets via hashtag or keyword. Previously, search results could only be seen from one week ago, so this news will…

Are you one of the 200 million people around the world who maintain a LinkedIn profile with at least 50 connections? If you are, you’re probably among the “elite” who received a message of congratulations this week! The congratulatory messages vary slightly in terms of content from person to person…

The most romantic week of the year is upon us once again. The cards are stocked, the roses reduced and the restaurants ready for their annual influx of covers. But what can the world of social tell us about Valentine’s Day in 2013. Is this a year of carefree romance…

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I recently read a blog post that ranked universities in the US on how well they were engaging with social media. I thought it might be interesting to look at how our UK establishments were shaping up alongside them. Traditionally speaking, social media is not something…

Have you ever tweeted about wanting a new bag, or the latest bit of gadgetry, or pined over a pretty bit of jewellery? Well now if you tweet about it you may very well be able to own it with Twitter’s new partnership with American Express. Twitter has made a…

According to our research on social media law, 81% of UK businesses have a social media policy in place. In my experience though, it isn’t enough to just have a policy. You need to lift the details off…

For most digital marketers nowadays, running and managing social media campaigns is an everyday task. In general, there’s less nervousness around kicking off social media promotions, simply because we’re used to it. Nonchalance, however, is a dangerous state to fall into when it comes to social. This is why I…

Social media crises are not as rare as you think. And, as with HMV and Tesco, it’s often the biggest brands that struggle to mitigate the risk. Mistakes are easy to make: you only have to look at Tesco during the middle of the horse burger scandal…

Busy week? No stress. Here’s a short, sweet digest so you can round-off the week feeling up to speed. 5 things you need to know from the last week: Instagram launches online profiles Instagram have made some changes, announcing that users can now view their full…

A recent study shows that Google Plus is now the second largest social network in the world. According to GWI, there are now 343m people using the platform, and it is hardly surprising. Google is integrating the existing user base of Gmail into G+ and continues to…

Legal cases involving social media are on the rise. Companies need to be prepared more than ever. Today we launch our benchmark study on social media and the law. Looking at how prepared UK companies are for social media litigation. You can use the data to evaluate your own knowledge…

For those of you who don’t care for American Football you would be forgiven for thinking “what is all of the fuss about?”. Simple answer – Social TV and advertising, it is certainly worth taking note! Real-time conversations are shaping brands all of the time in social, some brands are…

With the news last week that Facebook has more mobile users than PC, mobile has been thrust into the forefront of the social giants’ strategy. That’s why Facebook is developing a new smartphone application that will track the location of users. In a bid to capitalise on their 680 million…

A new Wall Street Journal Online survey sheds light on the challenges facing small and medium-sized businesses (SMB) with social media. I say that with two hats on. As an MD of an SMD, I can relate to these business challenges. On the other hand our clients are global brands,…

Socialbakers recently released its Q4 results for the best and worst performing brands on social media, defined by a brand’s level of attentiveness to its community. I was immediately struck by giffgaff’s position at number four in the worst offenders list. This is a…

Yesterday saw an excellent example of when a brand’s social media goes very, very wrong. An HMV employee, who had access to the company Twitter account, began to Tweet about the mass sackings that were going on that day in wake of HMVs bankruptcy: HMV clearly had not thought…