social business

At first glance, the news of the Facebook Messenger assistant M being able to translate French could be a little underwhelming. French translation isn’t a feature that most users are crying out for. But what makes this announcement a little more interesting is how this translation functionality is being…
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It’s 2017 and there are many wonderful things about the way the world is today versus where it was, even as recently as a few decades ago. And if you read The Better Angels of Our Nature, you start to feel really positive about mankind’s…
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In the first few years of this decade, it seemed that social commerce would transform the way we shop online. Yet whereas buying via social channels may have gained traction among the popular Asian social platforms like WeChat and LINE, in the West the online shopping experience is still…
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Express yourselves! Say more with Twitter’s latest tweak We can all agree that saying everything we need to within the character limit on Twitter can become quite tedious and at times extremely frustrating! Yet somehow, being the super-species we are, we have adapted and now excelled at this.
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How many times have you swayed away from social content, thinking, “What pile of absolute fluff?” That’s right- you are todays customer- a well-informed, savvy and socially aware individual who has access to vast sources of data which hold the truths & certainly the untruths of a brand.
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Sometimes social gets a bad rep. This is due to the lingering hangover our industry is still suffering from the bad old days of “social rockstars”, “ninjas” and “gurus” who sold vanity metrics at a premium and contributed very little to actual business objectives.
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As we rush towards the end of the year, many marketers turn attention to budgets and planning. Planning goals, KPIs and a roadmap for the year is, as always, the essential starting point. So too is an understanding of what has changed since last year.  What are the…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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Many of you might be surprised to read that the seemingly infinite hoard of Facebook users click the iconic “like” button more than 6 billion times a day, driving the relentless social machine that is rapidly absorbing the Internet. This, however, was not enough for Facebook’s chief…
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This is an open letter to brands and agencies (and a call for support from industry associations) to stop the neglect of those working in social media. This issue came to a head for me when last week I had a conversation with a young social media professional.
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    Social media levels the playing fields to building a brand in the modern age. The ability to be able to connect with the world at the click of a button means that with the right message/product/offering anyone can build a brand. As an individual, talented musician…
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With Instagram Ads slowly rolling out to engagement-hungry marketers, and Twitter adding advanced coverage of all events as well as upping their game on Windows 10 and iPad Twitter apps – where does that leave the ever-dominant Facebook? With the…
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All too often driving attendance to events in the B2B world is an afterthought. Companies spend hundreds-of-thousands of ££’s on set-up, stands, design, product and offline marketing and organisation. Then, in the weeks running up to the event, they realise they have not placed enough focus on making…
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  The social media industry is always exciting, with new social media sites popping up all over the World Wide Web offering different concepts and uses. Two of the most notable social media platforms that have grown exponentially in recent years have not been born on an American…
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  The UK wedding industry is worth around £10 billion every year, with an average of around £36 thousand being spent on each wedding (W.I.F.E). It’s an industry which is steeped in tradition; from the importance of wearing something old, something new, something borrowed and…
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  Now, there’s a question! The issue of one of three giants buying Twitter has started gaining some serious traction over the last few weeks. Those giants are, of course, Apple, Facebook and Google. Although there is a viable case for Apple to buy the flagging social network,…
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On the 14th September 1987, the first email was sent from China to an international academic network. “Across the Great Wall,” the email proudly proclaimed, “we can reach every corner in the world.” Ironic, considering that the Chinese government has since blocked over 2,700 websites including Google, Facebook, Instagram,…
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Recently there has been a lot of talk about Twitter’s supposedly secret upcoming feature, Project Lightning, and it’s easy to see why. What we do know is that it will curate and display events-based content in rich feeds which will be visible whether the user is logged…
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Yup, you read that right. Don’t bother training your CEO, or for that matter, your leadership team, in social media. In our experience, training courses don’t make any tangible difference. Don’t get me wrong. I am not advocating that business leaders shouldn’t be active in social. In fact,…
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What is the ‘best’ performing blog? Which piece of content performs the best on my website? What should we make more of? These are all questions I am used to hearing from clients. There are a number of ways to measure ‘success’ and ‘performance’ but before doing so…
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One challenge for me day-to-day is helping clients extract the best content possible for their digital activity. When we think about B2B content, we think whitepapers, videos, case studies etc. However, more often than not, the most valuable content is not stored in the form of a document or…
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With all kinds of summer events on the agenda and the corporate convention season already rumbling away, marketers are increasingly looking for reliable ways to bide the attention of attendees, eager to solidify connection with their target prospects and make sure they stay on their radar to develop a promising brand…
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  For small business owners, automation tools can be incredibly useful things. But, like all tools, relying too heavily on social media automation will end in tears. Maintaining a brand identity and personality on social media is an important part of the relationship you want to have…
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[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]With Pepsi Max’s new “Genius” campaign officially kicking off this week, the timing of Aman Matharu, Digital Marketing Manager at PepsiCo’s, address at our most recent Social Speakeasy couldn’t have been better. Aman addressed an eager crowd of Social Speakeasy attendees on a balmy spring evening to share the…
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Here at immediate future we like to stay in shape. Whether it’s running the London Marathon or maintaining brand health, we are always on the ball. With that in mind, we put together the following Social Media Brand Workout to help you keep your…
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Recently, I have been working with clients across a wide range of verticals in the B2B space, from pharmaceuticals to chemical engineering to sports equipment. These disparate markets have completely unique business challenges, requirements, sales processes and routes to market. However, there is one thing that many of…
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Something that has been hot on my radar at the moment for a number of reasons is the efficiency of communication and how inefficient email can be! The amount of wasting man hours we lose to checking emails, most of which we don’t even really need to read is…
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Getting your employees to share content can be a struggle, but when they do it can pay off in ways that company posts cannot. Generating positive employee shared content is easy when you know how. These are five types of content that employees should willingly share that will boost…
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Yes that’s right. There are (unfortunately) far too many senior marketing professionals, even boardroom directors, who are to blame for consumer brands failing on social. Simply put, whoever signs off their approval for junior marketers running social are idiots; whoever hasn’t bothered to understand the critical role social plays…
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Yeah that’s right – especially to those of you working at one of hundreds of social media marketing tools and platforms – I forgot technology! Firstly, it isn’t a ‘p’ so then I would have had to change the title of my blog post. Secondly, I left it out…
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When news broke earlier this month that a former news executive on whose watch Britain’s phone hacking scandal occurred was joining the ranks of the social media universe, it raised a few eyebrows but also thrust attention on a nascent, high-risk but intriguing area: social media dictating the news.
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According to InsideView, the majority (90%) of CEOs will not respond to cold calls or emails. This is of course a hard segment to reach as they deal with high-level challenges on a day-to-day basis leaving them little time to…
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Some of the staff at Immediate Future are former journalists who have made a transition from traditional media to digital media and now to social media. Some try to forget they even used the humble manual typewriter with all that heavy industrial noise back in 1990. Seems a lifetime…
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As we move through social media maturity, with some organizations already focusing on optimizing activity and performance based models, the question is – when does social media just become part of everything else? And what is the future of the social media department or even team?…
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From success to scandal, Uber are never far from the headlines. Having announced today the latest $1.2 billion dollar cash injection they have received, you can’t help but ask…How have they created a $40 billion company in 5 years? From stereotypical Silicon Valley beginnings, Uber…
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Last week Katy Howell and Tom Ball shared their insight and experiences in b2b lead generation through social. Get up to date on key takeaways from their live discussion here, and discover the difference that creating and distributing valuable, relevant and consistent content can make to attract your target audience…
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Last week Twitter announced objective based ads. A new way for those using promoted tweets service or Twitter ads’ to set up new campaigns. The new feature allows marketers to create tweets based on their key function and only pay when that function occurs. So if you were trying to…
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Best of Branded Content Marketing: 10th Anniversary Edition from Justin Kirby I know everyone is talking about content. But I urge you to take time to read the eBook, Branded Content Marketing. For a start…
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Sounds like common sense? You’d be surprised! With 66% of companies using Facebook to recruit, should you really be posting profanities on your Facebook page? NO is the answer. As a candidate, either looking for your first step into the professional world, or as an experienced professional, your social media…
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G+ yesterday launched another new platform development allowing organisations and employees to create private communities. This is a very ‘social business’ move, with G+ following in the footsteps of LinkedIn’s open and closed groups. The hope is that organisations and its employees flock to the platform to connect through discussion threads…
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  © Kenichi Nobusue ”My social networks” Photo. Attribution 2.0 Generic  There is no simple answer to running a successful business but those who do often rely on business instinct. It could be a sixth sense that leads you to success, but sometimes it’s best…
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  On Wednesday evening, I attended a Social Media Week session, ‘The Good, The Bad and The Ugly’. Check out the snap of immediate future‘s Pete looking pretty and enjoying a beverage out of his #SMWLDN cup! As much as I enjoyed the case studies that the panel critiqued…
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As social media carries on evolving at lightning speed, the knowledge and skill set divide continues to widen.  To be able to fully unlock the power of social media for your business, you need to think beyond the team who manages your branded social media presence and look at…
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Social Media has become an increasingly important part of a B2B strategy, although many businesses are still finding it difficult to grasp a hold of the power in social media. Pioneering campaigns have shown that the medium plays an essential  part of many organisations that want to engage with other businesses and…
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We read many articles advising us on how to use social media for business, but this is normally on an external level, to help with customer service, brand awareness and web traffic. However, have you thought about how social media can help your business internally? As we know, social media…
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Social media marketing is increasingly ubiquitous for most brands, and if not, it is on the radar. We are on our way to mass adoption among businesses. Early adopter brands are now focused on social business. I am certainly talking to a lot of companies about how they can…
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There have been many questions raised as to the benefits of using Pinterest for business. The visual content hub is increasingly being used as a way of linking back to other, often text based content. Brands can post images on Pinterest to lead users to content on other…
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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…
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                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…
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 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…
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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,…
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The new UK Twitter brand pages have finally hit our shores for those companies that can afford it. Let’s put this out there, brands on Twitter still don’t have the flexibility the Facebook API allows. Twitter will keep a tight rein on what users can and can’t…
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 New research shows consumers who engage with companies using social media spend up to 30% more than consumers that don’t. The same research from Bain & Company, suggests they are also more loyal and emotionally connected than customers who are not socially engaged.
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If so, you are not alone. New research from econsultancy shows a whopping 85% of brands believe increased social media marketing by competitors will have a significant impact on their social media plans in 2012. With all innovation, there is an adoption curve (see…
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  Whether you’re planning your tactical social media campaign or reengineering your business for the social consumer, social media research is invaluable in setting benchmarks.  They help you manage expectations, isolate priorities and best of all, define KPIs that set the evaluation bar. But there is…
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There is a perception in the industry that B2B “doesn’t do social”. I have often been asked if B2Bs “should use Social Media?” as part of their marketing mix and if “B2Bs can utilise Facebook?”…
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Twitter has launched new brand pages with a new look and some useful functionality. For those companies already on Twitter, this news is worth your attention.  Twitter’s new brand pages will better promote your brand in 4 ways: A large header image gives greater prominence to your logo and/or tagline. …
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An experimental scientist? A mathematician, an historian, an IT geek, a money making  economist or socially savvy psychologist? Last week we conducted a Twtpoll to discover who you would rather employ as a social media consultant for your business. The results were eye opening. To our…
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Before hastily setting up a Google+ page for your business, you need to step back and consider whether there is any value in joining the early adopters. We pulled together 4 points to help you evaluate whether it is worth your company embracing Google+:  1.  Objective…
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Social media knows no boundaries. Understanding what customers are saying in the social web has value for multiple parts of a business – not just marketing. Breaking down internal silos and sharing social insight is still a challenge for many. A recent piece of research from Dell/Forrester…
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What does it take to become a true social business? We analyse the findings of a report from the Harvard Business Review that identifies four types of social media strategy. We pin-point the what you need to be the ultimate social business - the 'social media transformer'.
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As a social media consultancy, we find a lot of people ask us: what is social business? Here are our top 3 infographics to help you get your head into the idea of a social business. It should provide inspiration for your social media strategy!
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