2013 Immediate Future

Archive: 2022

When Facebook changed all brand pages over to the new timeline design last March, it heralded a new era for companies on the site. Cover photos, milestones and featured images were in, allowing brands to showcase what they do in a creative way that never previously existed on Facebook. Fast-forward…

Surprising correlation between LinkedIn endorsements and recommendations It has been half a year since LinkedIn introduced their endorsement feature, allowing users to endorse their colleagues and business partners for their skills and expertise with great ease. A couple of weeks ago LinkedIn announced that since last September…

With the ink barely dried on Facebook’s latest announcement, you could be forgiven for thinking that the social network was feeling marginally threatened by the likes of visual counterparts such as Pinterest. Facebook’s latest redesign places a clear emphasis on visual content, sending the message to brands that text-only content…

Channel 4 is no stranger to social TV. The broadcaster regularly integrates their TV programmes with twitter hashtags to promote second screen viewing. Moreover, they have 4seven, a TV channel dedicated to showing the most popular TV programmes, where the content is largely dictated by how much buzz and traction…

Since its launch back in 2004, young teenagers have been some of Facebook’s biggest fans. However, as Facebook develops is it losing its attraction to many young teens, forcing them to discover new social platforms? For example rather recently, Facebook announced plans to improve the layout of its home page…

Facebook is considering introducing the hashtag functionality to their social media site. This latest update will allow users to index conversations around a particular topic. Facebook have not yet set a release date, however it has been speculated that they are working on this new update as…

It has been half a year since LinkedIn introduced their Endorsement feature. It allows users to endorse their colleagues and business partners for their skills and expertise with great ease. No longer do you need to spend a long time carefully structuring your recommendation into a nice paragraph that describes …

Shetland Pony ad goes viral Over the last few weeks we have seen Three’s simple, but innovative, advert of a dancing pony hit our screens and go viral on social media. The mobile provider currently has over 5,000,000 YouTube hits! In a short space of time…

If you have anything to do with a branded social media profile, then this blog is guaranteed to make your life easier. When I stumbled across this absolute delight of an infographic, courtesy of LunaMetrics, I immediately saved it down on the system. Do it now… The infographic contains all…

Sick, twisted, immoral – just some of the words to describe people who post derogatory and sometimes disgusting comments about sensitive topics online. The rise of social media has given these people, or “trolls” as they are known, a platform to write hateful comments towards celebrities, families who have suffered…

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 platforms, such…

If you work in marketing and your path has crossed with social media, there’s a fair chance you will have come across the Condescending Corporate Brand Page. The self-styled pastiche of social media marketing scours branded Facebook pages for the ill-timed, the awkward, the irrelevant and the faintly embarrassing, repurposing…

Three’s relatively simple but innovative advert of a dancing pony, which hit our screens just over a week ago has rapidly gone viral on social media. The mobile provider has certainly succeeded in producing a viral marketing campaign with current YouTube hits reaching an incredible total of 4,734,872. In…

4 detailed insights from a social media mock employment tribunal Last week we teamed up with the legal firm Colman Coyle and presented the first social media mock employment tribunal. The fictional Tribunal was a great opportunity to gain an insight into how the law views social media.

We regularly hear about how sharing information online can make us vulnerable to online identity theft among other crimes. With an estimated one-seventh of the world’s population on Facebook, we are continuously sharing our personal details online and making ourselves more susceptible to criminals. According to this article by Jane Susskind in…

In my last post I looked at key characteristics that make Slideshare presentations go viral. They included providing in-depth insight, designing eye-catching experience and, most importantly, telling a great story. (Full article here.) And yet someone may ask, “What’s the point? Why bother with Slideshare?” The answer…

Missing out on new opportunities or opting for more effective channels? There are two ways to read into the latest data collated by eCircle looking at the adoption of sophisticated targeted email communications. Stand out statistics read that: 21% of the top 50 retailers…

In Part One of this series we saw that every social media incident does not make a crisis; whilst in Part Two we explored how a true crisis causes trust, reputational and financial issues. However, can a social media incident actually lead to positive…

Last week we joined forces with legal firm Colman Coyle with a first social media mock employment tribunal. Held at the Law Society with real barristers, we even had a fabulous and very personable Judge. It is not often that you really get the chance to see the detailed…

It seems like everyone is at it nowadays – Facebook advertising is more or less a standard element of many brands’ social media activity. But how often are marketers taking a step back to ponder WHY exactly they are running advertising campaigns? What do they hope to achieve? Over the…

I was quite surprised by our recent social media and the law report that showed 19% of companies didn’t have a social media policy. I did think that wasn’t too bad. But last week, we conducted a Mock…

Facebook after death An article was released this week, regarding the heartbreaking wish to allow parents access to their deceased children’s Facebook accounts. Should we allow family members access without knowing the account users wishes? Or something that shouldn’t even be questioned? It’s difficult to say,…

For companies using social media, Facebook is no longer the “in” platform. LinkedIn has stolen Facebook’s crown and run away with it. According to research from the University of Massachusetts, more than 8 in 10 companies have a presence on LinkedIn (up from 73% in 2011). The…

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…

There is very little doubt that social media is increasingly becoming more prominent in our lives. Whether it’s following a brand or communicating with friends and family, our lives are progressively being displayed on screen more. However with so much of our personal content being shared on-line it is becoming…

I’m sure you’ve probably heard murmurings about Vine, Twitter’s new video-sharing app, which arrived on the social media scene at the end of last week. There has already been lots of excitement around the new app, which is being dubbed the Instagram of video. Twitter’s 500 milllion…

The recent demise of even more well known High Street retailers such as HMV, Jessops and Blockbuster should serve as a strong reminder that the world has changed! 80% of shoppers were reported to have researched online before making a purchase this past Christmas and the average shopper…

It is January, and London has gone through its yearly season of snow. Unlike countries where snow stays around for a couple of months, here it was gone within a matter of days. And unlike places where it really disrupts the day to day living, in London…

Facebook unveiled Graph Search last week amid a flurry of hype: offering the possibility to discover new information, people, and places that relate to your interests. Many saw Facebook’s move into social search as an attempt to steal some of Google’s thunder and attempt to…

An app says a lot about a branded Facebook page. It can tell us whether a brand has a data and/or member acquisition strategy, while providing insight into the consistency of branding and coherency of content strategy. It can reveal the true extent of on-page geo-targeting, amalgamating localised campaigns and…

What can social media tell us about the sad demise of high street retailers such as Woolworth’s, Comet, Blockbusters and Jessops? Some quick and dirty research shows these high-street failures were also social media fails. There could be many reasons for their failure, not least the products they sell, their…

In the past, for many organisations, the struggle to successfully incorporate social media was due to a lack of understanding and often a downright fear from higher management. A report by Weber and Shandwick in 2010 highlighted this by revealing that 64% of CEOs from the largest companies did not…

Last week after much anticipation, the new and improved version of Myspace was rolled out to the general public. The launch coincided with the release of singer (and major Myspace investor) Justin Timberlake’s new single. Although the launch may have been overshadowed by Facebook’s announcement of graph search, the site…

As the space of social media continues to grow, so does the general confusion regarding the best ways to proceed with appropriate content marketing strategy. Where do you start? PCMag have published an infographic that provides a useful overview of popular social media platforms. The figures are thought-provoking and help…

Up to 65% of customers claim to like/ follow/ connect with brands through social media for games, contests and promotions. Social media may have opened doors to a creating bigger, more interactive competitions and reaching a far wider audience. However, it is still a new area and, as a consequence,…

The big announcement from Facebook has dropped and it is all about DISCOVERY. The new graph search tool enables users to discover people and content based on their association with others in their ‘social graph’. This latest development is undoubtedly a play to steal some of Google’s search thunder and create…

Content marketing is on the lips of most Marketing Managers as we head into 2013. The growth of platforms such as Pinterest and Instagram are proof of the way that people are consuming content – shifting to rich engaging visual content. Our own client analysis shows that 4x more engagement…

Last year Instagram was the new up-and-comer on the social media landscape, exploding onto the scene and earning a $1 billion pay check from Facebook. With 58 photos being uploaded per second and well over a billion photos uploaded to the site as of May 2012, Instagram was clearly the…

I won’t be the first social media marketer whose eyes made a bee-line for ‘Return on Involvement’ in Mashable’s 2013 buzzword bible. Return on involvement – A brand that “gets involved with their community will garner better return on their investment by getting involved hosting fundraisers, partnering with schools and…

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Accumulating connections on Google+ isn’t a problem for some brands – take Cadbury UK with nearly 3 million! But for others, growing the size of the community remains a big challenge when using Google+ Business. The art (and little bit of science) of growing the follower and fan-base for business…

LinkedIn have reached a milestone 200 million users this week. An impressive stat for any social media site. Perhaps not quite in the same league as Facebook who have 1 billion active monthly users, but definitely catching up with Twitter who have around 500 million registered…

The New Year comes with new resolutions that the vast majority of us fail to keep. As the infographic below shows, losing weight is at the top of the list of the goals for 2013. Unsurprisingly only 8% of us actually manage to keep up our resolutions successfully. People are…

I love to talk about social customer service. I think it’s fascinating and incredibly pertinent in our digital world. It also still amazes me how brands and retailers are still missing a trick! I’ve experienced this slow uptake for myself recently; waiting nearly 2 months for a replacement washing machine…

Facebook has become the ultimate B2C social media marketing platform. It enables businesses to target their audience and create a community of brand ambassadors. But exactly how should brands go about marketing on Facebook? Jon Loomer has come up with a useful checklist for Facebook marketing in 2013. Here’s…

As I watched David Attenborough’s amazing show Africa last night on BBC, I found myself typically “two-screening” – following the conversation on Twitter (with intermittent flicking to Facebook) whilst the other half of my attention was glued to the box. Whilst some might say that this is ridiculous behaviour, and…

For brands using social media, engagement is what it’s all about. Great engagement not only ensures that your content is being seen by your fans and followers, it creates a dedicated community that will lead to more brand advocates who are happy to tell everyone how great you…

With a brand new year stretching ahead of us now is the time to take all those bad digital habits of 2012 out in a big black sack along with the wilted tinsel and scrunched wrapping paper. And User Experience or UX is the perfect place to start. In 2012…