2016 Immediate Future

Archive: 2022

Despite its popularity, Instagram is a bit behind other platforms when it comes to management tools. It’s like Facebook’s little sibling that has its friends and a little community but is still trying to catch up with Facebook, not fully realising its full potential just yet. Being a…

Facebook seems to be showering us with new features and updated API functionality every other day at the moment, so we collected the relevant nuggets of info and melted them down into this easy-to-digest erm…digest. Facebook are rolling out Instant Articles in Messenger, Android folk…

Avoiding online trolls is hard work for anyone. They hide in just about every corner of the internet, waiting for the perfect opportunity to harass or insult you. But its not just your average tweeter that has to deal with it… Marketers working within social media are having…

So the title of this blog was going to be way more offensive than I finally decided. I am just getting to the end of my tether with the use of ‘millennials’ as any sort of quality or useful market segmentation method. Let me break it down for…

Sigh! My biggest frustration after 12 years in social media marketing is the view that vanity metrics are the only way to place a value social. Only measuring followers, likes, engagement and fans misses the opportunity social presents to deliver into the pipeline – to ultimately drive revenues…

Snapchat’s new Memories feature is being advertised as a new way for users to share old snaps and stories – but the consumers are not the only ones that use Snapchat. So what does this new update…

Live-streaming has been around for a long time, but the ease and availability of numerous tools such as Meerkat and Periscope have made it possible for anyone to “go live” and broadcast to the world. Years ago, marketers used to spend huge budgets on TV advertising, billboards, print…

Once upon a time, there was a King and a Queen. They weren’t any ordinary King and Queen. They were special, because together, they ruled over all of Social Media land. Forgive me, I read a lot of bedtime stories to my two under three-year olds and we…

Recent data shared by Wall Street Journal indicated that nearly 70% of smartphone users are on Snapchat! There has also been a rise in over 35s on the platform by 2% in the last 3 years. Take the stats with a pinch of salt but the…

Anyone who’s seen Peanuts knows the football gag. In it, Lucy challenges Charlie Brown to kick a football which she then moves just as he’s about to punt the life out if it. The joke ran yearly from 1951 to 1983 and yet every…

Pinterest is the biggest beauty platform in the world – at least that’s what Pinterest says. But is it true? Is Pinterest really the Holy Place for beauty brands. Let’s take a closer look at this, shall we? Social Media Demographics…

Anyone who has worked on a project covering multiple languages will know the value of good translation, especially in the fast paced world of social media. Getting the right message across in the right tone of voice is near impossible for a non-fluent speaker of any language. However…

If you haven’t worked out that the current Facebook hoax is just that – a hoax – then you might wanna take down the scaremongering posts that you shared. Yes, just like the celebrity death rumours that always do the rounds on social media, that 7-year old Facebook…

Almost exactly a year ago the super-clever tech folk at Pinterest launched Buyable Pins across their mobile apps in a bid to give users a simple way to buy and sell through Pinterest. For businesses this meant going through one of…

Since Facebook launched its video broadcast feature back in August 2015 as a feature for verified Pages, it has been made publicly available for brands and the public. The Facebook feature allows users to post live broadcasts on their News Feeds, watch real time comments on…

Rather than leading your social media traffic to the home page, why not take them on a journey via your landing page and turn visitor numbers into conversions. Creating web pages with a specific purpose is a gold mine for gathering new leads, encouraging event registration and…

We presented at the B2B Summit recently, talking about paid social media. Interestingly, the question on everyone’s lips was; how much should social advertising cost? What are the benchmarks for investment and returns you can expect? Well, a Salesforce report (download) gives us some interesting…

I’m going to delve into how you can be more effective with your brainstorming and I’m specifically going to link that to how you can better define audience-first solutions. I’m doing this for two reasons: 1) the challenge of yielding business-impacting ideas has been shared by marketers globally,…

From the adorable To the daring From the weird To the wonderful There can be no doubt that the internet loves a good GIF. And that love affair is growing stronger by the day. From 2012…

Instagram is no baby anymore. It has grown so fast. How fast? 500 million users in about 6 years. Today we have 500 million reasons to celebrate, and you’re one of them. Thank you from all of us at Instagram. ♥️…

Snapchat has finally launched its advertising API, giving brands the ability to push third party video ads directly into users feeds without having to deal with Snapchat directly. The new ad portal is called Snapchat Partners and it’s really the first major push to monetise snapchat…

Well I have to confess I did not see this one coming. Given LinkedIn’s history of building, developing and buying their own range of ‘add-on’ products, I was certain that they would release their own CRM/listening tool. The lack of API for LinkedIn has always been an issue…

It’s true. Reacting to real-time moments with speed and relevancy all begins weeks, if not months ahead of time. No, we don’t employ Mystic Meg, Uri Gellar or the Octupus who famously forecast FIFA World Cup results. What we do employ are smart people who layer creativity and…

News out last week says that social media apps are in decline. The research by SimilarWeb looked at social app usage in android across several countries to reveal users are losing interest. Then there is the PEW (USA) analysis that shows the growth of…

There have been massive changes in the Twittersphere this month with the arrival of Twitter’s new block feature wiping out unwanted users and the character count updates. We all thought removing photos and usernames from the Twitter character count was the cherry on top, but recently Twitter announced…

Irrespective of your audience focus – consumers or businesses, the need to adopt audience-first marketing exists. Channels are increasingly cluttered with conversations and similar content, so the need to standout is greater than ever. Without disclosing specific intellectual property, I’ve recently been looking at an industry who…

It’s infographic time boys and girls! Hold on to your Snapchat Stat hats. It’s not all dog filters and rainbow lenses. Snapchat is the only channel offering something different in the world of mostly-broadcast, feed-centric social media; intimacy at scale. Here’s how it is reaching it’s audience plus all the…

Snapchat means business. Literally. We have written several blog posts about how businesses can benefit from investing into a solid Snapchat strategy. However, despite the benefits Snapchat can bring to brands in terms of audience acquisition, engagement and UGC. not many brands have tapped into the world of…

Sharing your thoughts and expertise can go along way with driving conversation and proving you’re a valuable Twitter contact. Twitter chats may seem like the last thing on your to do list but it’s worth the time and tweets. Answering industry leading conversations and networking with like-minded professionals…

Influencer marketing is this year’s craze. Not just because marketers are increasingly wanting to use it, but because there is much debate on whether there is any value in doing it at all. Blogs and networks are lit up with the discussion. At immediate future we started out in…

It’s official – Instagram has shaved, traded its fixie for an Audi A8, suited up and launched Business Tools. Considering the platform has over 200,000 advertisers and upwards of 400 million users, many would say this move was inevitable. Credit Suisse estimates that Instagram’s ad business brought in…

My mind tends to wander at its best when on public transport, usually heading out of the city or a long underground trip. I thought about why this might be, and didn’t take me long to realise it was because I was out of signal, 3G or WiFi.

Great B2B social media content has many facets. We often hear about high-quality visual social content that can double – or even triple – engagement, the principle of ‘shattering’ larger assets or cutting video to work better in-channel on social. However, the unsung hero is often the copy,…

Over the years I’ve sat in many meetings hearing statements like: “We need an idea for social!” or “take the ad campaign and ‘socialise it’.” Then there’s this little belter: “We need a viral video!” Or my personal favourite: “that’s a nice idea, let’s shove it on social…

Continuing its foray to crush its competitors in the live video market, Facebook has made another enhancement to its Live Video feature. The platform recently rolled out a visual and interactive map that allows users to snoop-in on and discover live video content, from around the world. Before the…

This is not going to be the ‘exercise daily’, ‘read a book’ kind of thing you can read in business magazine. Although these things are definitely helpful and it’s important to find ways how to relax, this list is a bit different. It includes various daily tips that I’ve…

We are coming to the end of the first 3 months of Facebook Reactions, and data is rolling in on all sides. Initially the majority of people were delighted that their ability to express their emotional range had suddenly become slightly more than that of the house hold…

Many digital marketers that I’ve spoken to recently are not active on Snapchat. Most have given it a go, but either their family and friends weren’t using the app, or their friends and family weren’t sharing the most engaging of content. Both are understandable reasons for not enjoying the…

Like anyone finishing university it is always hard finding your first job and many, including myself, jump at the first job that comes their way. As a result, a lot of creative, intelligent people end up in the wrong job – in my case it was recruitment. No matter…

Looks like the social media heavens have finally heard our prayers. Twitter is making a major shift in how it counts characters in tweets, giving us more freedom to post longer messages. Posting a photo and shortened link leaves you with 93 characters to play with. The combination…

Like many tech start up’s, Snapchat joined the ever-expanding queue back in 2011, hoping to be the next Facebook and Twitter. In the expeditiously evolving world of social media, it seems that Snapchat is here to stay and is attracting advertisers, all of which are desperate to reach…

So last week immediate future turned 12 years old. That’s 12 years we’ve been working with brands in social media – it doesn’t seem possible does it? Surely social media didn’t exist back then? OK, it wasn’t called ‘social media’ in 2004. It was working with…

We’ve said it before, but nurturing a social media account is a lot like having a baby. They require constant attention in order to thrive and achieve greatness. Take your eyes off the prize and you run the risk of your precious campaign tugging the tablecloth…

First of all, I am not quite sure what is compelling me to right 90s hip hop inspired blog articles at the moment, so don’t ask… After recently presenting at a LinkedIn event, I found one of my favourite slides that optimises my thoughts on content and the…

We are suckers for B2B marketing… it’s part of our DNA here at IF and we like to keep our finger well and truly on the pulse. We are working with some absolutely cracking names in B2B right now and we figured that it was only right with…

Following in the footsteps of Facebook, LinkedIn is now working on its own version of Instant Articles, a feature that makes it possible for publishers to host fast loading, immersive mobile content, accessible instantly within LinkedIn, rather than linking users back to their own site. According to…

In a blow to those championing using simple competitions to grow audiences on social, I’m going to explain why this mechanic is actually far from simple. It’s a common sight: “follow @brandx and RT to #Win, or, “LIKE our page and tag a friend to enter”. We’ve all…

“Let’s gamify this!” A sentence that can mean many great things and also nothing. After the rapid raise of Gamification a few years ago, it became a wide-used buzzword that some professionals dump into their proposals to make them sound more interesting. Very often, they mean ‘running…

In the past it was not uncommon for businesses to block access to social media sites from work machines in an attempt to curb frivolous use during office hours. Even in recent times social has been seen as a drain on employee productivity instead of the incredibly useful…

I think I may be the only person getting excited about this, but in case you hadn’t heard, Periscope is now allowing users to doodle over their live streams. Officially it’s called “sketching” and is available to iOS users, after a pilot was launched just a month ago. The…

2016 has seen some big changes in the world of social advertising and it seems it’s all about video ‘ads’ this year. Nielsen claims 64% of marketers expect video to dominate their strategies in the near future. It’s not difficult to see why, with advertisers being spoilt…

It’s that time of year again that we have all (well most of us) been waiting for…You will probably have seen the billboards, the ads on TV, it’s the new, sixth season of Games of Thrones! But how is it that we are all so excited and…

We speak to brands “on the reg” with a similar set of circumstances: social media has grown organically over time within the organisation, there is lots of activity (some of it really rather good) but no one really knows why they are doing it! They set out on a…

What! Yup. If you have just one social strategy then you may as well consign it to the dustbin. Social is now too sophisticated for one strategy with a social channel (platform) agnostic approach. Every social network now has different audiences, varying behaviours and whole swathes of content formats…

Given my recent news that I am going to be a father my life has become a flurry of two things: work and baby stuff. This got me to thinking – aren’t they the same thing!? Well… no… not at all, that is ridiculous. However, I did manage…

Over the last few years, an overwhelming number of beauty consumers have focused their attention to the advice of beauty vloggers in order to judge cosmetic products, how to wear them, and if certain products are worth purchasing. Precisely why it makes sense that almost…

At IF, we pride ourselves on evolving. Curiosity is one of our brand values, championed daily by our fabulous staff. Our event format has been well received for many years but it was time to evolve. After a few months of planning and tinkering,…

Social listening is all the rage when it comes to analysing consumer behavior, determining people’s views of a brand, service or product and comparing a company’s public reputation to its competitors. One of the challenges social listening faces however is the vast majority of social users the internet classifies…

While “Facebook and the Potential for Social Engineering” sounds like the worst Harry Potter book ever, it is actually a fairly frightening possibility. The potential abuse of something as powerful as a social media network is a reality we have explored before, Facebook in particular have gone as far…

For many companies, blogging is a key part of their social media strategy. It’s an opportunity to build an audience, prove credibility, help customers and gain leads. Now, there are countless different types of posts that can be produced and published. If you’re looking for inspiration and planning future…

Social media usage is constantly changing. Due to an ever more conscious audience, activity is predominately happening behind closed doors in private groups and over messaging apps. This can already be seen through the huge growth in platforms such as WhatsApp and Snapchat. Change in social behaviour is…

As I sat here on a Sunday evening, you can imagine my surprise when I realised that Made in Chelsea season 11 had started last Monday and I actually missed the first episode! How could this be?! I mean, I knew it was due to…

The world of social media is faster than your colleagues when you bring over some cookies for the office. New updates, news, and innovations flood the internet on daily basis so it’s very easy to miss crucial information that could transform you next campaign into a success. So,…

Chances are your social timeline is featuring a lot of commentary around new Facebook features. Some being available immediately others with defined development roadmap. But why the sudden flurry of comms. Well, for the unaware, Facebook has just closed their annual developer conference – F8. The annual…

Firstly, it’s a bit of a stupid phrase really isn’t it – curiosity killed the cat. I’m sure some stupid cats have died but if we were curious enough to confront a moving car on a busy road then I am sure we would too… If you…

Times have changed, that’s a fact – and you can take that to the bank! I remember a time, a simpler time – when Facebook was all fields, 3-way calls reigned supreme and if you wanted to reach an audience with an advertising message all you had to…

In part one of our “Pro Tips for Powerful B2B Content” series, we looked at three ways to help you create B2B content that inspires action, outstrips the competition and wins business. In this, the final part of the series (for now), we will dive into…

Getting your message across can be difficult in the digital age. People have very short attention spans and there is a lot of competition. Twitter allows 140 characters to get the job done, but data shows that tweets shorter than 100 characters get a 17% higher engagement…

With infinite streams of visual content dominating the majority of social platforms, we are all more than aware of the highly visual nature of online communications. However, this can often leave the visually impaired marginalised from the online experience. Facebook wants to change this. In an effort to…

Private messaging has been on the rise for a while. With the continuous growth and success of apps like Snapchat or WhatsApp (that recently added end-to-end encryption), it’s no surprise others have been trying to play catch-up. One of the platforms that is trying to…

The moment social marketers have been waiting for has finally arrived. The 20% text rule on Facebook adverts has changed. I can hear the cheers from here. Don’t pop open the bubbly just yet – let’s look into the details first. So what has Facebook actually…

Last month (March) was the month of updates we saw Facebook announce massive changes to their paid advertising platform, Twitter actually change their paid platform and Instagram make massive changes to their algorithm. Snapchat was no exception and has released one of the…

This week has seen Twitter get all Facebook-y (yes that is a word) whilst making some nice strides with their paid advertising engine. There are three significant changes that have all gone live this week; Universal code, new custom audiences and an ‘objective-based’ interface – making the platform…

A few days ago, Periscope passed its first birthday! And what a year of fireworks it has been for the live streaming mobile platform. Twitter recently announced that in a single year, the app has streamed 200 million broadcasts, and 50% of which were created…

It’s 7pm and you’re still at the office. A posting plan for your company’s social channels stares mournfully back at you. You’ve read phone books that are more exciting. It’s okay, you reason, we’re a B2B brand. Our audience is time-strapped. Professional. They want facts, not fluff. “Out…

The Social Media industry is constantly evolving, and March 2016 has been no exception. It’s been a busy month for all the top social media sites but no more so than Facebook. Here’s a breakdown of the latest news, updates and gossip around Facebook. Video Metrics Update: New…

In the last decade or so, social media has evolved into a data mining, user generated information goldmine, which is drawing ever more attention from those who can interpret the data and put it to good use. This is…

Welcome to part two of the Getty Images 2016 Visual Trends highlights! We covered the first top three visual trends here, and we have just three more to go! But before we get to it, let’s answer one of the top questions we got on the…

Freelancing gave me the freedom to experiment and share knowledge without major application. It was invaluable to me as usually social media newbies often land as a junior in an agency with little in the way of being able to experiment with serious application. I feel I was lucky to…

Lunchtime. 21st March 2006. Jack Dorsey sends the first ever tweet: “just setting up my twttr” And now the company claims to have reached 320m monthly active users include celebrities, politicians and quite a number of trolls too. Twitter Monthly Active Users…

So it’s happening. It was only a matter of time. Instagram is planning on using algorithms to organise content within timelines, as announced on their company blog this week. Following in the footsteps of their owners Facebook, who started to move away from a chronological display…

In the age of moment-driven marketing and with brands creating more content than ever before, you need a plan. Borrowing from the “original” publisher world, we have adopted the use of content calendars as the lifeblood and centre piece of our marketing planning. But on the whole,…

Whether you run your own business, work in an agency or in-house time is money. Creating and sourcing content to distribute through your channels is time-consuming and after all that you have the task of scheduling it all. It is important that you are getting the best return…

Everywhere you go right now the digital marketing world is talking about ‘moments’… Google have their ‘micro-moments’ story, brands are high-jacking moments everywhere to meet their marketing objectives and reach relevant audiences, heck, Twitter even added a new section to the platform called moments – and let’s…

From 12th April, Facebook gears up to expand its Instant Articles offering to all publishers in the world, no matter how small or large. To simplify the process, the social networking giant unveils a WordPress plugin, that’s free for all to use. Even more, advanced coding skills aren’t…

After Christmas, in a bid to get fit, I (like many thousands of others) bought the Joe Wicks book ‘Lean in 15’ and have been avidly testing out his healthy 15 minute recipes ever since! (I’ve even done the odd work out or two). But what interests me…

It’s true! Social doesn’t increase your volume stack. Businesses who are yet to embrace social are still being complained to. The consumer picks up the phone and gifts you their feedback. They may also share an email with senior management AND then, they will go onto social to…

E-volution Working in an ever developing industry that requires a balanced knowledge of data management, strategy and creative flare is a never ending challenge. A wonderfully colourful challenge that demands any given media agent (of any typical agency that works with technology) to submit to a never ending practice of constant…

Our team had the pleasure of going to a seminar by Getty Images talking about the visual trends for 2016. The event took place at their new exhibition offices in London, and it was organized by the lovely folks at The…

On February 25th Facebook launched what they are calling Canvas, a full-screen ad experience. Originally announced at Cannes Lions way back in June 2015, Facebook’s chief product officer Chris Cox demonstrated mock-ups of a new mobile format that takes over the mobile screen after a user clicks…

How should we humanise our social presence? How should we show the people behind our brand? How should we display the softer side of our company? These are common questions from organisations who (quite rightly) invest much of their social media resource into gaining hard, tangible results. After the…

It struck me this week that social media is not really a new thing anymore. I know it sounds obvious. We have been doing it for 12 years. But this year it feels like social media got serious. Serious enough that it…

For some (not us) managing multiple social media channels can be a daunting and stressful task. Curating content is only half the battle. Having to come up with attention-grabbing, witty and imaginative copy is the other. That being all before you have even given the slightest thought about…

With over 100 million daily active users on the platform and well reputed penetration into the ‘millennial’ audience, Snapchat is on the rise… However, once platforms are well established as “cool” they have to make some moves that will render themselves seriously uncool to their user base,…

Everywhere that you look right now there is video. Everyone is talking about video, every platform is competing to own video, new video formats are being created and developed for social channels and brands are all trying to use video in new and innovative ways. Basically, if video…

Snapchat keeps growing and attracting more and more interest amongst brands. It has steadily grown its offering to advertisers via sponsored filters and Snapchat Discover. But the millennial-favourite, little ghost has unveiled yet another new revenue stream that’s open not just to businesses but to the public too! For…

Last Spring, in a bid to increase the number of users, Facebook announced its plans to start letting brands and businesses use its Messenger app to handle customer service issues. Then, having reached over 700 million monthly active users last summer, they went public…

As the minefields of social advertising get ever more complex and essentially a very far cry from simple tweet or post boosting we must move toward to putting audience first, defining your objectives and monitoring closely to optimising your targeting as you go. All very good practice,…

A reoccurring question we’re asked is: what should go into my content calendar? Followed by: is there advice you can share with us? Or: what rules do you work to? So here it is. 15 steps that will help you to ace your content calendar: For…