Blogging Immediate Future

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Search engine optimisation (SEO) is a critical tool for any business as it can ensure you stand out in a very crowded online environment. But did you know that social media also has a part to play in your SEO plans? How? By tying into what Google looks for –…

Social media marketing benefits businesses in many ways, not least as it facilitates a unique, direct relationship with your customers. However, many businesses, despite having and managing a social media presence, are failing to recognise one of the key benefits of this media – social listening. What exactly is social…

Marketing teams are busy. Task lists swell daily. I’m not sure any marketer manages to achieve everything they set out to annually. Evolving sales collateral, event planning, commissioning reports, briefing the spring, summer and Christmas Ads, launching NPD, or improving demand generation. There is much to achieve as a team.

Creating and finding content to share on your social channels never ends, it is a lifelong commitment. And it is true that timely content is crucial to engage your following. But you don’t need to pressure yourself on just creating newsworthy posts; evergreen content can be posted in ‘quiet times’…

Included in Facebook’s latest Graph and Marketing API update, the social media platform has announced that in 2020 they will limit the number of ads a page can run at one time. Your initial reaction might be that this update could limit capabilities for your business. However, according to…

We recently saw the amazing Kipchoge run the marathon in under two hours. Kipchoge and his team achieved this after their dedication and focus over many, many months. So, you are asking yourself, what has this got to do with social? Here’s why! The big ‘C’ – commitment Like a…

Coming up with an idea for a blog can be difficult. It can be easy to fall into the trap of rewriting the same content, over and over again, just in a different way. Or simply not using language that will drive consumers to engage with your content. Regardless, by…

Well, the nights are drawing in and it’s getting colder and darker. But it’s never a dull day in the world of social media! We are always warmed up by the new developments and news stories that appear in our feeds which we bring to you in this easy, informative…

If you’re reading this, you’re probably already familiar with the Business Manager on Facebook, and perhaps using it to great advantage in your paid social strategy. For some, the next step is considering markets outside the UK… nope, I’m not going to mention the ‘B’ word! Having attended Facebook’s recent…

And so it continues… Facebook is following in the footsteps of Instagram and going ahead with testing the hiding of like counts. Starting in Australia, users will still be able to see their own like count, but this will be hidden from everyone else. Instead, followers will only be able…

Sometimes people reply to your Tweets about things you don’t want to see. And sometimes you just don’t want any replies to be seen at all. So, to help, Twitter has been testing out a new feature that lets you do just that. After launching an initial test for users…

If you’re a B2B marketer, there’s no doubt that you’ve had to sit through countless meetings, presentations and lesson modules that follow the same three-pronged strategy: 1. What’s the buyers’ problem, 2. How does my technology fix it? and 3. How can I prove that my product is the right…

The future of Instagram looks fun, funky and a whole lot more filtered! That’s because they’ve recently opened up the Spark AR filter creation platform for all users, allowing anyone to create augmented reality filters and publish them on Instagram stories! This will open a whole host of new options…

Ahhh Tumblr – what once was a buzzing hive of indie creators, a place to share your work and interact with others and its booming creative community, has slowly been meeting its demise over the past few years when they decided to ban adult content from the platform, and flag/ban…

As the popularity of Instagram stories rises, the demand for new features and ways to engage increases. Currently, Instagram stories are up to a staggering 500 million active users and are becoming the primary sharing option for many users. With figures soaring, it’s no surprise that Instagram is looking to…

Every company, be it B2B or B2C, will always be searching for new ways to spruce up their social media strategy; whether there’s a new format or a fun, innovative creative concept to try – we all want to break the social boring. But, are you experimenting with your paid…

Sometimes it’s hard to keep up with the fast-moving world of social media, but this is where we step in. Keep on scrolling for the latest updates and tips from the industry! Facebook brings back reach estimates for Custom Audiences. https://po.st/svu5UB Marketeers rejoice! Facebook has brought back…

Another week has passed, and my, what a week it has been! We’ve rounded up the best articles and updates, just for you. So, carry on reading, and we’ll get you up to speed with the latest happenings in social in no time. Sorry, ads are coming to TikTok.

No matter how major or minuscule the update, here at immediate future, we just love to hear about them! And, we love to figure out how we can use the new features to develop our and our clients’ social strategies too. June certainly didn’t disappoint, Twitter especially, with announcements flying…

Another week has passed, which means one thing… time for another Social Snapshot! This week we’re bringing you a variety of content; channel reports, platform updates and ways to help you improve your social strategy. We’re always here to help! Facebook’s working on a new ‘preview’ option for page posts.

Let’s get back to basics, folks: brands need stories to resonate with their audience, and social media is a storytelling platform. It’s not rocket science that brands that use strategic social media to develop their brand equity see obvious benefit: where traditional marketing meant that the journey from brand salience…

Social media is often criticised for the damage it can do our mental well-being, especially with regards to depression and feelings of inadequacy in teenagers and adults alike increasing. But what about the positive impact that social can bring to our lives, where we truly feel that social is a…

Week on week we are drawn into the news, finding out which latest updates our favourite social media platforms are testing or launching. But sometimes it feels a bit like déjà vu, right?! Just a few months back at SXSW festival, Instagram co-founders Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger admitted to…

The media landscape has changed forever. Shock horror. No new news there. However, the majority of businesses are yet to evolve their buying behaviour. Too many are still caught in the ‘this is how we’ve always spent our budget’ camp. Happy to continue investing significantly in Out of Home and TV. In…

When the updates are non-stop it can be hard to stay in the know. But, fear not, we’ve rounded up the best articles for you below ⬇️ Because, you know, we’re good like that! Instagram looks set to ramp up its efforts against apps selling likes and followers.

At IF, it’s been slowly and now concretely drummed into us: Christmas is coming. If your clients aren’t ready yet, then you need to be. Internally, it means designing our Christmas card, sorting the festivities and most importantly, making sure we are effortlessly ready to deliver everything before 2017 magically…

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. In 2006,…

It’s safe to say that the use of visual content is going to stick and there is a wealth of data that can be used to support the benefits of this type of content. On average, visuals perform 4.4 x better than text-based content and as social media marketers, we…

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 content,…

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 on the…

For many of you, tomorrow is the long awaited day. That’s right – there is only one more sleep until the theatrical release of the highly anticipated 7th Star Wars film – The Force Awakens! Unless you have been living under a rock, you will have noticed that (much to…

On 22nd of October, we welcomed back Rachel Kneen, O2’s social media manager, to our monthly Speakeasy to speak about the importance of content. Rachel has been working in social since 2009 – to put that into context, at that time, people spent more time on average on Myspace…

Whether you are a budding blogger, a professional journalist, or just trying to ramp up your brand’s content portfolio, Facebook’s latest content offering could prove a useful app with which to familiarise yourself. For years, tabloid newspapers and radio stations have been citing celebrity comments prised from verified Twitter handles.

When people think of paid advertising in social media they usually think of platforms like Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn. Nothing wrong with that. They have hundreds of millions of users. But how about blog sites? Already blog sites offer thought-provoking and…

The social media storm around Cecil the Lion is undeniable – with over 800k mentions of this name online and 444k uses of the hashtag #CecilTheLion. For those that don’t know the story goes something like this: Cecil is a famous lion from Zimbabwe that has been…

Anyone who uses Twitter will know there are several keystrokes that can spice up the reading experience, and most importantly, add value. Handles (@) identify individuals or their companies on the micro-blogging site, and hashtags (#) provide a topical marker or context, allowing readers to discover more content on a…

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 you need…

Social Media is an incredibly fast paced and exciting industry in which new platforms, aps and blogs rapidly spring into the digital landscape. With social media facilitating innovative approaches to real time marketing, it has never been more important for marketers to keep their finger on the pulse of these continuous developments.

The beauty industry has gone through a significant revolution over the past 10 years, with rise of the visual social platforms such as YouTube, Pinterest, and Instagram, we are quickly learning that beauty brands need more than just a pretty face for social media. Consumers have become more and more…

Being in the business of social media, we like to believe that it helps bring people together, incites communication and debate amongst large groups of people, and simplifies access to that communication. These remain true, and can be backed up with a plethora of hair-raising facts and figures like…

So you’re writing a blog, but where do you start? At Immediate Future we blog professionally for clients and ourselves, but sometimes even we as “experts” get writer’s block. A good place to start is with the audience – what do you think they want to read? It’s simple marketing…

By adjusting your approach to social media during your businesses peak period, you could turn a stressful and potentially fearful time into a victorious experience delivering spadefuls of ROI. We’ve heard it before: “social can be your best friend or your worst enemy”. This is never truer than during your…

The world’s most popular mobile messaging service, WhatsApp which launched back in 2009 and has now reached over 700 million active monthly users across the globe. WhatsApp’s co-founder Jan Koum made the announcement on his Facebook page. The company was acquired by Facebook for $19…

As digital content marketers we are in the throes of two concurrent data revolutions. That of Big Data and secondly, the contextualization of big data. You won’t win customers with Data solely – but when you use…

If you’re like me you probably have an attention span that can only be measured in nano-seconds. To grab your attention online, especially on social media, things need to explode and cartwheel about just to stop you scrolling for 5 seconds. That being the case I…

Social media has changed the way we communicate and engage with politics, igniting grassroots activism, clearly demonstrated in the lead up to last night’s no vote, in the Scottish Independence Referendum. With so many taking to social media to share their 2 cents, it became an open forum for the…

There are now countless blogging platforms on the web that specialise in a multitude of great features but which of these features do we actually need? Some of the most innovative new blog platforms strip away the list of add-ons and focus on the basics. Now, more than ever before,…

Fashion House Temperley London is helping raise funds for the Somerset flood victims. The fashion house has created a dedicated web page to educate people around the terrible flooding in Somerset and the West Country, helping raise awareness of the crisis which is close to…

To be an excellent recruiter, you must be an excellent marketer. Although the stereotypes in personal attributes to these two careers seem poles apart, the link between them is getting stronger. It is no longer about job boards or who you know (although that does play a part). It is…

The ever dividing gap of age generation is now so evident within the digital sphere of social media. With statistics evident of teens turning from Facebook or Twitter it’s safe to ask what the social media platforms are they turning to have or don’t have. The inevitable…

What better way to network than virtually, especially when job searching? LinkedIn, you can call out to your connections to let them know you are job searching. You can be introduced to their connections, for maximum networking opportunities. As LinkedIn is a professional networking site, you can also…

Any business, alert and looking to drive natural search is already running Google+ and Facebook accounts at the moment. Facebook because people are using it and Google+ because it is this persistent beast, which is ignoring popularity and instead providing fantastic ingredients for functionality and the ability to…

We all know visual content works best in social – in fact a social media post with a picture is worth 120% more engagement than a post without. But where on earth do you find these pictures? Take them yourself? Pay? Nicking them off Google is no…

New research has shown that whilst Facebook and YouTube are still important for many teens their popularity has been falling steadily amongst this demographic over the last year. So are teens being driven away by Facebook’s new updates or are they leaving in favour of other, newer,…

We love this recent infographic from the guys Our Social Times. With more than 57% of consumers searching online to solve customer service issues, it’s an area that just can’t be ignored. If you would like to find out more about the way social media…

Engagement is of paramount importance when it comes to getting it right in social media. Your contributions on social networks form the outward representation of your brand or company online and define how you are viewed by others. Which is why effective and compelling engagement requires scrupulous planning and calls…

1. Take it personally Responding in the heat of the moment may be a very human thing to do. But, when acting as the public persona of a brand or a client of such a response is a sure fire way to get your arse handed to you by the…

Netflix have learnt the hard way that social media can’t be a last minute consideration when it comes to a rebrand. Marketing has to be fully integrated with social media planning. On demand video service Netflix struck upon the name Qwikster for its DVD side of the business, you can…

Those looking to ensure staff are equipped to represent their brand across social media platforms could do worse than learn from some of history’s most famous and infamous historical figures. So what can your social media training learn from the past? “To be ignorant of what occurred before you…

Way back in 2005 Arianna Huffington set up a small left wing blog on a ‘shoestring’ budget while AOL was part of the world’s fourth largest corporation, AOL Time Warner. Arianna’s blog quickly became on online sensation with a high ranking and growing unique visitors. While things…

We’re very pleased to let you know that at last night’s Reputation Online awards immediate future and Sony Europe picked up the ‘Best use of online media/blogger relations’ gong for 2009’s Twilight Football campaign. It’s a just reward for the team…

I was casting my eye over the Facebook Places logo this morning, yes I know I have no life, and noticed something a little odd. Under the pink marker there is definitely a number 4 inside a square. Go on have a look yourself.

So I probably should have got round to writing this last week, but seeing as I’m STILL mentioning Social Media Influence in about 90% of my conversations, I’ve decided it does warrant a post. Social Media Influence 2010 was held at London’s Marriott Hotel…

This ash cloud has been quite a strain, my wife and baby are still stuck in Dubai five days after they were due to fly home. The good thing is that they are staying with friends and have a great support network. What it has shown me is how great…

Everyone knows what press trips are about right? A chance to jet off to some sun-kissed location, get drunk with your journalist mates and generally avoid doing work for a few days. It’s all a big laugh. Well, no actually. Not always, anyway. Especially not when the trip has eco-conscious…

This week I enjoyed ‘An Evening with Rufus Wainwright’ at Sadlers Wells in London. Watching the very unusual first half of the performance, I was mulling over the power of the performer, the generosity of the audience, the nature of being an expert and…

The latest volcanic eruption in Iceland has had a dramatic effect on many more millions of people than could have been imagined. As one person commented on Twitter this morning, interesting to see the hand of God can still command such control over us mere humans – or something like…

Recently there has been a major shift in the world of Corporate Social Responsibility. Climate change and the current economic climate have pushed companies to adopt a more pro-active approach to CSR. The bottom line is now centred around people, planet and profit. As businesses aim to build more sustainable…

As I far as I was concerned, SXSW (South by Southwest, for those of you not familiar with the acronym) was a music event, a chance for A&Rs, managers and sundry other music industry…

With Obama’s ‘masterful use of social media’ and the tweets of his 3 million Twitter fans sealing the election of the Democrats’ golden ticket, can our politicians and parties emulate this success and seduce the online masses and turn them into advocates? There’ll be…

There seems to be a lot of confusion about the purpose of online PR these days. Too many people think that the sole job of online PR is improve the client’s search engine optimisation and help drive traffic to their website. Granted, SEO and online PR do go hand in…

Flog Definition: When a marketing bod pretends to be a 12-year-old computer nerd and leaves made-up reviews of his own products all over the blogosphere – it’s known as a fake blog or flog. Like fake hair, fake nails and fake tans – fake…

Whilst reading the econsultancy.com online PR benchmarking report, it struck me that PRs and brand marketers were still talking a different language. Clients wanting increased brand mentions online are met with agencies delivering blogger relations. Those asking for brand reach are offered optimised…

Sadly I missed being on Ian's NMK panel for 'Clients in the Wild' as I just had over 200 staples taken out after an op. But it seems the discussion and subsequent blog by Will McInnes has created a stir - causing several blogging PRs some deeper introspection. Antony Mayfield summarises the issues up rather eloquently. Like Antony , I too am an optimist. I also lived through the similar, if not so public, growing pains of the digital ad agency industry. Back in the 90s these start-ups and specialists departments were dismissed by the powerful TV ad world. And we all know how that has changed now. We now have a very different marketing landscape with digital taking the lead and the more handsome budgets.

Daryl Wilcox has launched video on his site DWpub.com in series called ‘Experts in Communication’ . The whole thing kicks off with a two part video interview with Antony Mayfield explaining why he took his…

Just gave this presentation at the Online Marketing Show. Not sure it makes a lot of sense without the banter over the top, but I thought I would share. The slides really fall into four categories: How brands are performing in social media The changing landscape online How you can trigger…

Our latest research looking at brand conversation in social media shows that techie companies, [tag]Google[/tag], [tag]Apple[/tag], [tag]Yahoo! [/tag]and [tag]Microsoft[/tag], take the lead in terms of brand mentions in blogs, social networks and photo and video sharing sites.The study, launched at the Online Marketing Show examines the [tag]Interbrand Top 100 global…

Positive and negative comments in groups on social network sites, such as [tag]Facebook[/tag], [tag]Flickr [/tag]and [tag]MySpace[/tag] reveal [tag]Disney[/tag], [tag]Nintendo[/tag] and [tag]Google[/tag] are the most popular brands. This comes from our latest research, [tag]Brands in Social Media[/tag]. [tag]Social networking[/tag] groups are proving very popular in the UK. They are a very…

We are launching research exclusively at the Online Marketing show this week. The study looks at the Interbrand top 100 global brands, to reveal which brands have the largest share of voice and the most positive conversations. The report measures brand mentions across…

Trevor Cook and Lee Hopkins at the Corporate Engagement blog have just published their free (second edition) Social Media white paper. Updates on Second Life, Twitter and wikis and some new case study examples of Australian brands experimenting with social media.Great snapshot of the…

I am speaking with the fantastic Ruth Speakman from [tag]Sony Europe[/tag] (declare: client) at the [tag]IAB conference[/tag] on the 26th July. Together we are going to take a look at how Sony BRAVIA fuelled the conversation online by engaging with influencers. Often when I speak with marketers and PRs, they…

We’re exhibiting at the [tag]Online Marketing Show[/tag] this week. The event will be good. We went last year and found ourselves constantly in the throng of online marketers – discussing Online PR till we were hoarse. Last year, visitors wanted to know what online…

The Telegraph has launched a little bundle of blogs aimed at Entrepreneurs. By far the most interesting is launchpad, which allows businesses less than three months old to promote their company and include a web address. As Richard Tyler says, “And don’t…

Launching with four new categories, AOP publishing awards opens its doors for this year’s entrants. The new categories acknowledge that social media, is making a significant impact on the media business model. They include, use of video, best podcast,…

I am speaking this week at the IAB’s seminar, demystifying online PR. It is interesting that in their blurb on the seminar they say… Demystifying [tag]Online PR[/tag] – Online PR has changed the roles of creative and PR agencies in a client’s communication strategies.

6.58pm – Broadcasting now on the goggle box is the BBC’s money programme – all about second life. But wait, if you are at a computer, you can see it in second life and if you miss that, you can see it again in second…

A rather clever idea by our friends over at Picture Production Company has just launched: a [tag]wiki[/tag] for Fox’s Fantastic Four film release. The idea is simple, viewers can change, edit and submit to the website in…

A new corporate communications service has just launched, charging companies £300 a pop to respond to comment appearing online. By providing a ready, [tag]SEO[/tag]-friendly platform, [tag]newscounter[/tag] is hoping brands under fire will turn to them to get their message across. Unfortunately, I think it misses the point…

[tag]Digital marketing[/tag] agencies are increasingly looking to tap into the conversation on [tag]social media[/tag]. Those that have expanded beyond the marketing push are reaping the rewards and finding that [tag]buzz [/tag]around online campaigns can dramatically shift perceptions, drive visitors and enhance objectives. I am on a panel at the next…

A roundtable from e-consultancy (declare: they are a partner) reveals that future thinking of some of the digital industry’s forward thinking players. What strikes me is that throughout…

There are a profuse number of [tag]PR blogs[/tag]. Checking out Technorati there are 13,431 PR blogs. I guess us PRs like to communicate. No surprises there then. So you can imagine my fear in starting this blog. Awkward and self-conscious to say the least. I tried like…