Archive: 2022

I want you to think about the last video you published. How many video views did it get? 10s, 100s, 1000s? Now imagine the positive impact on your brand if you could garner hundreds of thousands of views from your prime audience – and, specifically, boardroom decision-makers. There’s a…
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Following Keith Weed’s statement at Cannes Lions, we’re talking about the must-dos and the should-dos when it comes to influencer marketing. Learn how to approach it as an on-going relationship, kindling the right brand-influencer match and building a mutually-beneficial partnership. Join us for a…
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So, the latest news is that the Video Giant now caters for vertical video. More specifically, the desktop player automatically adjusts the video’s aspect ratio to suit a computer’s screen size. So, whether your video is 16:9, vertical, or 4:3, YouTube aren’t going to frame any…
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LinkedIn’s latest feature update allows the sending of recorded audio messages from one member to another. Reducing the friction of communication in an online community like with any new tool, voice messages, can be used well or poorly. By providing its users with an option…
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Have you been part of Facebook’s Watch Party testing? If not, you’ll be excited to hear the functionality has finally launched to all Groups around the world.  Watch Party allows Group members to watch a video (either recorded or Live) at the same time and interact with…
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  As marketeers it’s our job to advertise a product or a brand to the masses, but what we sometimes forget is that we also need to be engaging. One of best and easiest ways to do this is to use more lifestyle content, that could be videos, images…
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Since 2017, brands and publishers have been getting far less traffic from referrals on social platforms and the sharing of content has been in decline. Not only has this increased the pressure on content marketers, but it has exposed the dire need for quality social content that ensures…
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General opinion is that consumer businesses have all the fun, right? They’re early adopters, the first to try new social networks, willing to take risks and are usually the most recognisable for award-winning campaigns. Yes, but also no. There’s an art to B2B marketing that requires originality and dexterity, where…
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  Approximately 2 billion people use social media. Figures are expected to grow as mobile device usage and mobile social networks gain more traction. With customers using social media 24/7, and on such a variety of platforms, what was best practise last week might not work today.
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  The strenuous competition between Snapchat and Instagram/Facebook goes on. Last year we saw Snapchat’s fortune decrease following the launch of the IPO at the beginning of March. Source: Google   The profit decline can be blamed on a mix of overpromising and underdelivering in terms of customer…
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Here’s the headline – for the first-time, subscriptions to streaming services like Netflix, NOW TV and Amazon Prime have outstripped traditional pay-TV subscriptions. Not my snappiest headline! Here’s why this is important. While the difference in the number of streaming subscriptions against pay-TV is small now,…
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We knew that Augmented Reality was going to be big for Facebook in 2018, but now the platform’s started releasing AR updates it seemingly can’t stop. At the F8 Conference in May, Zuck and friends announced support for the technology in Facebook Messenger, and now they’ve gone one…
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  The key to every great relationship is listening, am I right? Whether that’s boyfriend and girlfriend, teacher and student or brand and consumer – everyone wants to be heard and listened to. Right now, on Facebook or Twitter there could be a customer or potential customer of yours…
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Over the last few weeks, we’ve been giving you some tips and hints about planning and filming your very own content for social. Now, we know that one of the most daunting parts of starting out is the equipment and knowing where the blooming heck to start. You might…
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Snapchat have been working on improving their visual identification offerings for a while now, with the view of expanding the list of features available for users. Late last year, Snapchat introduced object recognition in the form of filter and slogan suggestions that were relevant alongside different scenery/objects in…
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Twitter Ads offers a world of paid media opportunities. There’s so much to choose from, it can be difficult to know where to start. But, it’s vitally important that you clarify this before you even think about touching the platform’s Ads proposition! Twitter recently offered a few tips to…
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      Facebook is constantly developing new tools to complement the ‘time well-spent’ movement that Zuckerberg is supposedly focused on. Earlier last week, Instagram launched the ‘All Caught Up’ notification- this will appear in a user’s feed once they have seen all the new content posted by…
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You’ve probably heard us bang on about social listening. And, that’s because we love it. But if you’re not 100% sure what it is, how it can be used or what it can achieve, then this blog’s for you. For starters, social listening is the monitoring of online conversations…
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Fasten your seatbelt – there’s yet another Instagram Stories update coming your way – just as you were getting used to polls, emoji sliders and music stickers. Are you ready to ask open-ended questions to your followers and get the answers privately via DM? The new feature, currently in…
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  When you think of influencer marketing, your mind probably wanders to the Kardashians or Zoe Sugg. Any marketer knows that done in the right way, influencer marketing is a great tool for consumer brands to reach their target audience in an authentic and engaging way, and lead to…
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Mastering photography and video skills usually takes a lot of patience, practice and time. Filming something well is almost identical to taking a great photo – same principles apply. Get to know your camera, work out all the different settings and what they do. Invest in some basic filming…
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IGTV is Instagram’s new dedicated solution for long-form vertical video solution. Don’t worry, it isn’t here to replace Stories! And it isn’t stepping on YouTube’s toes – not yet anyway… In this week’s Serious Social, we’re having a natter about which platforms are doing it right when it comes…
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    Having promised the world that they would improve the visibility for all ads running, Twitter has announced the launch of their Ads Transparency Center. This feature allows anyone to view more information about the ads that are being served to them, especially the political ads, such…
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  Well, it looks like developers at Instagram’s HQ have been super busy. Last week we spoke about the launch of Instagram Lite, today we’ll be looking at the new video chat feature that lets you have a 4-way conversation while still browsing through Instagram, the…
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Last week Instagram announced that they’ve hit the 1 billion user mark and they launched IGTV. This week, they’ve released a stripped-down ‘Lite’ version of the app for Android users. Is there anything they aren’t doing at the moment to win more followers? Instagram Lite aims to target…
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As this World Cup gets underway, it’s worth reflecting on how changes in social media engagement are coinciding with the major shifts currently taking place in sports consumption. These converging trends are positioning social at the centre of sports entertainment, not just as a way of connecting with…
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Light. Camera. Action. And there you are in front of the camera, nervous as hell and trying to remember what you planned to say. Your throat works madly. You fluff your lines. Gah! Being in the limelight is not for everyone. Yet, when it comes to social video it…
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Content creators on Facebook are in for a treat with a few new updates! The platform itself has released a detailed description of all the newbie tools and updates to current features. But don’t worry, we’re rounding things up and making it simpler. Connect Facebook wants…
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Our very own Katy Howell has been out and about, chatting to all sorts of organisations from B2B to consumer. What about? Social media of course – their methods and their challenges. In this week’s Serious Social, we get chatty about where to start when it comes to structuring your social media – especially…
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After years of turmoil in the broadcast media industry, we could be seeing a wave of change that will disrupt the social media landscape. After a growing buzz, Instagram finally launched IGTV less than a week ago. It’s still early I know, but it might already be time to…
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      Every week it seems that Facebook releases an update to its ad platform, so when one of its competitors releases something truly interesting, I immediately sit up and take notice. via GIPHY   This week at Cannes, YouTube announced a…
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  Remember a few weeks ago when we said Instagram is after world domination? Well, we weren’t wrong. Yesterday Instagram CEO, Kevin Systrom, launched IGTV – a new long-form video content app. The announcement of the new app in San Francisco is a bid to lure content producers…
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We’re all aware of the potential video has for brands and marketers on social media. Audiences are consuming more and more short-form video content and there’s no doubt that it’s here to stay. However, the greater challenge is capturing the consumer’s attention for long enough so that they commit…
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Having made the strategic decision to show less news on Newsfeeds, earlier this year, we all witnessed Facebook decide to take steps that would ensure it became a space where meaningful conversations take place, between friends and family members. This move impacted publishers and over time referrals from…
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We’re bringing you the latest on platform transformations. If you wanna show your audience that you’re on it and up-to-date with the latest tech changes, make the most of these opportunities on social! So what’s going on? Facebook ships out 3D posts to innovate and change how VR content…
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Twitter has launched Twitter Media, a place for media publishers and organisations to get the most out of the platform. The new site showcases helpful resources which explain how to use Twitter’s many features and case studies to illustrate the…
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For many businesses, producing and outputting video content can be costly in terms of time, money and skills. With the meteoric rise of video across Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat, you’ve got to have the video know-how to remain relevant. Where do we come in? We’re here to debunk the…
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Of course, the best social media results come from paid social. We allocate budget to really squeeze the pips out of our audiences and to reach them directly. Social media is what we do, so we get super excited about new formats and additions to platforms, especially when it…
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  Once upon a time, a captivating picture and a smart line was all you needed to advertise your business. Now, those times are long gone. We all know that Facebook, who still leads the way in social advertising, recently came up with a feature that requires ads to…
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We all enjoy reminiscing on the good old days. Remember how much fun life was before you had to work on being an adult? Roller-skating while being pulled along by your dog, running through a meadow full of wildflowers, discovering the lost city of Atlantis with your best…
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This year, Pinterest’s growth has improved by leaps and bounds. So much so, that it’s ahead of Snap & Twitter. Should you hop over see if Pinterest advertising could be for you? In this week’s Serious Social, we’re chatting about Pinterest’s move towards eCommerce, targeting options and ad formats.
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  We’ve all been there – you know you want to do something different with your next Facebook post or ad, but you don’t know where to start. Here are three resources that I turn to again and again:   Facebook Inspiration Gallery and Creative Hub Your first port…
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  If you didn’t know already, we’re serious about social. We believe that at the heart of every good social media campaign or strategy is a good understanding of customer behaviours. For that understanding we use data and turn it into insights that inform our content and the way…
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  Instagram may launch long-form, professional videos:   Heard the rumours? Instagram want an even bigger portion of Snapchat’s market share. They are even trying to compete with the video giant we all love: YouTube. Why not?   A report from the Wall Street…
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According to Pinterest, the platform has seen a 180% uplift in video views in the last year. That figure tallies with what the other social media giants are saying about video, which cements the idea that brands, and social offerings, have to be on the front…
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  As the fake news saga continues, Facebook announced on Friday that it’s removing the Trending section from its site. The tool for discovering trending news stories first launched four years ago and, since then, has grown gradually unpopular and was often criticised for jeopardising the legitimacy of the…
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  The photo-sharing powerhouse is set to undergo another algorithm change in the near future, and this time the focus is on users only seeing content that is relevant to them. This comes as a result of Instagram wanting to understand its community better, both where users and…
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At immediate future, we love data. And, we know that data is at the heart of effective social media strategy and relevant content. This week, there have been a couple of announcements on the Insights that Facebook have on offer. With GDPR looming over the digital world, Facebook retracted…
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It seems this month every marketer is either talking GDPR or about creating ‘relevant content’. It’s not a surprise as the two are interlinked. With brands needing customers to engage enough to sign-up for consent programmes, content has to be meaningful, to resonate and capture attention. The trouble is the…
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When Facebook was founded 14 years ago, it was designed to bring communities together – initially based around Harvard, then other Boston colleges, and eventually opening up to other universities. Two years after launching within educational institutions, anyone was able to sign up to Facebook, and, whilst…
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  We’re no strangers to the growth of Facebook and of course Instagram, and in the words of Chandler Bing, “Could there beeee anymore updates from Instagram this month?’ But, the less discussed of these growing apps is WhatsApp, which has quietly been growing its user base. According to…
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Social platforms are giving away more knowledge than they previously let on! In this week’s Serious Social, we’re chatting about Instagram’s guide to Stories for businesses, which gives you advice on its prevalent feature. So, what else is out there? Well, they’ve sure kept it on the down-low, but…
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  Earlier this month, Facebook spoke of some very exciting planned updates for Instagram to be rolled out throughout 2018. Given the platform’s Stories feature now has 300M active daily users alone, viewing organic and brand-based content, it makes absolute sense for substantial investment.   It…
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Today’s connected world means that brands are positioned front and centre of their audiences and competitors alike. With so many platforms and channels at their disposal, it’s often difficult to know which one to leverage in order to garner customer loyalty and engender trust. Here’s where social media can help.
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Facebook is building a Branded Content Marketing search engine to allow brands to find the best influencer partnerships for their marketing, particularly where Facebook ad campaigns are concerned. Brands can search based on certain parameters like location, interests, gender and education. You can save selected creators in a…
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It’s a story that’s all too familiar to us all. Businesses led by leadership teams who have not immersed themselves within, or spent enough time understanding social media. But, despite knowing they should have a presence on social media, and probably be advertising on social too, they try to execute in…
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71% of businesses advertise on social media. And even more businesses plan to start. Work and social media can go hand-in-hand if you take the right approach. In our most recent Serious Social, we spoke about how social media stands on legs of communication and…
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Facebook never really had an issue with advertisers. While mainstream media highlighted how some have opted to pull spend, by and large, Facebook remains the juggernaut it is because of the truck loads of money pumped into the business by marketers. Additionally, Facebook never really had an issue with…
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Still keen on using Snapchat for your brand? The platform’s new ad format might be the best way to test your return on investment. Launching this week, the new six-second unskippable video ad format puts Snapchat firmly in the same ring as Facebook and YouTube,…
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Instagram want businesses on their platform, so new, useful features are the right way to go about it. A few additions have been made to Insta’s business profile offering. Action Buttons can be added to profiles, and the Direct Message feature has been cleaned up! Ahh, much better. It’s…
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Conversations between a brand and a consumer are no longer a one-way street. Today’s consumers are empowered and connected like never before, and they’re producing content like it’s going out of style. It’s our job as marketers to produce lots of great content that will engage the consumer. This…
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  Snapchat redesign V2.0 Snapchat recently revealed an all-new layout which quite frankly was unpopular amongst most of its users. Here is a list of some of the dreadful changes that were made:   The addition of more navigation buttons The removal of Creators from the Stories list…
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According to a recent article, almost 50% of Instagram users research products on social media and over a third of the platform’s users have purchased a product online with their mobiles. That makes this segment 70% more likely to convert to the purchase phase than non-users. It…
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  It looks like Facebook-owned Instagram has a new little trick up its sleeve! As reported by TechCrunch, a bit of snooping inside Instagram’s Android app has revealed a string of code that mentions “music stickers”. Although one can only speculate (Facebook refused to comment on…
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  We’ve heard plenty about the Facebook platform this year. The F8 Conference was Facebook’s chance to bring it back and tell users, (and the world) what the future has in store. In light of recent news, data privacy and GDPR plays an enormous part! What will Facebook offer…
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We’re serious about social media. That’s why data analytics and insights get us excited! For a while now, we’ve been drumming into everyone that Facebook and video content are harmonious. So, as we’re all using video, we bet you’re itching to know what Facebook have done with its…
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While there was truckload of new features announced at the Facebook F8 developer conference, one of the things that hasn’t had a great deal of coverage, might be very interesting for marketers. Groups have existed on Facebook for a good length of time and while the option hasn’t…
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Facebook’s F8 Developer conference has been full of announcements, and we’re excited about two in testing that’ll improve customers’ relationships with brands. First up, using AR for your brand yet? Thought not… Facebook’s still trying to change all that with the launch…
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In this week’s Serious Social, we’re bringing you a roundup of Twitter’s Q1 results, released on the 25th of April. It was a successful quarter for Twitter and results were better than expected. They were pleased with their revenue growth acceleration, profitability and audience growth, but what contributed to…
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Last week Snapchat released its Spectacles 2, and while Snap was frantically trying to tell the world that these glasses were definitely improved and not a joke, Instagram had been testing new features that could seriously ruin Snapchat. With a whole array of features being tested it won’t…
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Let’s talk about the video giant, YouTube. YouTube viewership is increasing on TV. Its apps for smart TV and gaming consoles are growing and growing among viewers who prefer to watch on the big-screen, instead of the little screen in their pockets. In the past, YouTube…
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Did you know that the first social media site was called “Six Degrees” and was founded in 1997? Many believe that it’s Facebook that has largely reshaped the way we connect and stay in touch with each other; however, this type of networking can be traced back…
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Snap has just released a second generation of its Spectacles. Yes, you read that right. Spectacles, the “wearable” camera in the form of sunglasses, were what most of us thought would be the first and last attempt Snap had at creating a hardware product. With only 150,000 pairs sold…
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  This week Instagram have announced two new updates that will streamline the functionality of the platform, both for personal and business use. The first is a multiple photo upload feature, meaning you can add up to ten photos or videos to your Story at one time. You can…
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In this week’s Serious Social, we’re chatting about the new Facebook Premieres feature! It’s Facebook’s solution to keeping pre-recorded live videos within the platform, and will make it easier for publishers to post videos without the expensive external software! It’s a solution that will certainly encourage more video content,…
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    Facebook reveals an increased use of pre-roll ads and more…   We’ve all heard of Watch – Facebook’s platform for shows. Having released this to a small US-based audience in August 2017, Facebook shared episodes — live and recorded — that followed a storyline or theme.
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Users love new, inspiring features on social media – that’s no secret! Remember earlier this year, when Snap debuted an in-app AR ecommerce experience for Nike’s Jordans? Well, it clearly wowed customers, because Snap has released a new feature that it’s calling “Shoppable AR”. What does it…
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Just when you thought Facebook couldn’t better its video proposition, it’s done it again – the platform is using a select group of creators and broadcasters to test a new format called Premieres. To the average Facebook user, the videos will look a lot like Lives – viewers will…
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On the 15th of April, Instagram, in conjunction with Dezeen at Milan Fashion Week, launched an initiative in the form of a specialised profile called @design. The premise behind the move is to showcase the work of Instagram’s design team, as well as that…
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  Facebook’s new Loyalty Prediction ad tool   We’re all familiar with Facebook’s targeting. Together with detailed demographics, user preferences and past actions, we’re able to deliver relevant messages to refined audiences through the platform.   A confidential document, examined by The Intercept suggests that…
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JD Wetherspoons has announced its exit from social media. You’re bound to have plenty of questions. Why come off social media? Will it hurt the brand? How about the long-term? Should other brands follow suit? We’re giving you the answers in this Serious Social. As a single-brand operator, the…
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  Many of its 44,000 Twitter followers were shocked at yesterday’s announcement that JD Wetherspoon will be closing all of its accounts across all social media platforms. The reasoning behind this bold decision however, remains relatively vague. Wetherspoon’s CEO, Tim Martin, listed a few reasons why he’s calling it…
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Facebook Stories haven’t exactly taken off, particularly in comparison to Instagram, however the platform isn’t giving up, and have recently added two new features that could take Facebook Stories from mediocre to masterful. Facebook have access to AR driven digital object detection and spatial recognition tools, and they’re making…
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Video, and particularly live sports, has fast become the new battleground for social media companies to compete on. Twitter has its live-stream contract with Major League Baseball and Facebook has long been rumoured to be interested in Premier League rights. It should be…
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Instagram Stories have been going strong for a year and a half, gaining success and slowly reeling in the Snapchat Stories users. In this time, brands have been experimenting with the feature and use it in many different ways. A few companies are doing it differently – Bustle being…
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Facebook’s Paid Media proposition is changing. After the data breach, and with GDPR coming up, it’s clear why they’re doing it. But, if you use Facebook for advertising, you’ll want to know what’s changing and how. As a Facebook partner, we’ve got all the finer details. In this week’s…
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As marketers, we’re always looking for the best way to interact with our customers and to create meaningful and engaging interactions with them. We do this through email marketing, TV and print advertising, social media, and now some brands are doing it with virtual and augmented reality. As we’ve…
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Following recent news that partner data will be removed from Facebook Ad targeting options on 25th May, the platform has also announced new GDPR compliance for Custom Audiences. Since 2012 we’ve had the ability to produce Custom Audiences for ads…
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YouTube have had some great updates recently, from their new YouTube Studio with improved metrics, to their new dashboard. It seems they’re currently pulling out all the stops. To add to the new Studio interface, this week they’ve announced the option to buy shorter, skippable ads through their…
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In this week’s Serious Social, we’re updating you on the Instagram changes and the latest on Facebook’s fallout! Shoppable posts. What can they do for you? Online retailers won’t want to miss this – you can tag and link products in your Instagram photos! This is really streamlining the…
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  LinkedIn has been criticised for its lack of sponsored video support for quite some time now and most of us have almost given up on the idea that it will ever ACTUALLY happen. However, last October it began beta-testing video for sponsored content with more than 700 participating…
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It’s been a tough couple of weeks for Facebook. Understandably, many are disappointed by the delayed reaction and slow apology for the Cambridge Analytica data breach. With GDPR on the horizon, EU citizens have more rights than ever before with regards to who holds their data and why. Users…
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Earlier this year, Facebook announced a change to the platform’s algorithms, whereby local U.S. news and smaller publications would be given a boost as part of their broader effort to increase community engagement. Now, it has announced that it is expanding the News Feed change…
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  You’ll wanna jump back onto Twitter when you hear this. Twitter has dramatically changed its ad proposition in the last 18 months and it’s been a great success. For their platform, for our agency, and it can be a success for you too! In this week’s Serious Social…
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UK-based e-retailers! You’ll step up your social when you hear this… Instagram are giving UK online retailers the chance to publish shoppable posts. Shoppable Instagram posts have been on the horizon for a while. The feature was available to American businesses last year, so it was…
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Do you want to build brand loyalty and stand out from the crowd in a busy marketplace? Well, you need to first answer the question “why?”. “Why does your brand exist?” And no, you’re not allowed to say profit! So, go on, have a little think… Do you…
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It’s taken Instagram a long time to respond, but for the past year, users have been complaining about their feed and the way in which the app displays posts based on relevancy. Initially, Instagram used a chronological ranking system and users saw the latest posts when they opened the…
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With the jump in Twitter’s share prices earlier this year, it seems that the social giant is going from strength to strength. Considering the playground of pundits and the cerebrally astute, how do brands cut through the rants and opinions and make the most of this…
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  Over the last week, we’ve heard a lot about the data breach between Facebook and Cambridge Analytica. 300,000 users shared their data and, as a result, 50 million users had their data taken without their express consent. Mark Zuckerberg has finally made his statement. You can see it …
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