Corporate reputation

Success today is often measured by likes, shares, and followers—and it’s easy for brands to become fixated on primary Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). While these metrics are undeniably crucial, adopting a holistic approach demands a delicate balance. This is where Counter KPIs come into play, serving as invaluable safeguards against…
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If you’re anything like me, you’ll know of the Super Bowl, but never actually knew what it was for specifically. I may or may not have had to google what sport it was related to yesterday morning… Regardless, I’ve never watched the sporting event for the Super Bowl. But I…
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In today’s digital age, where brand reputation can either make or break a company, marketers are facing an increasingly complex challenge. The rise of social media has given consumers an unprecedented voice, and a single tweet or post can have a profound impact on a brand’s reputation. In this comprehensive…
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In the face of economic uncertainty, businesses need to adapt their marketing strategies to ensure they can stay competitive and relevant during challenging times. Social media has become an essential channel for businesses to reach and engage with their customers, especially in a recession where marketing budgets are often tightened.
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Who knew pricing something for $8 could get so completely out of hand?
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There have been some rumblings over at YouTube these past few weeks, with rumours circling that they will finally be giving the axe to the dislike button… With rumours turning out to indeed be true, this update will be rolled out site-wide within days! DUN DUN DUN Like any…
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  Designers know more about ‘trusting the process’ than anyone else. Though what we all need to understand is, there is a process to everything that we do and without trust and patience, we can falter at the first hurdle. When it comes to ‘Trusting the Process’ on social…
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Employee advocacy has moved centre stage in social marketing. It is accelerating as a program, pushing out its messaging in all new ways and putting employees at the forefront of business promotions and campaigns. What is driving this rapid increase in employee advocacy across social media, and what…
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Hello and welcome to our latest Social Snapshot News Roundup! Let’s dive right in:   Clubhouse – the uber popular social audio app – launched its Android version this month, bringing with it one million new users, and a million more are sitting on the waitlist. The app…
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Why isn’t anyone advocating storytelling reporting to your own boardroom? As we emerge from COVID-19, boardrooms are scrutinising their post-COVID recovery plans. Budgets and ROIs are being assessed to determine if they’re investing in the right areas to deliver the required business impact, at the speed needed. There…
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If you need some practical tips about community engagement on social, you’ve come to the right place! Audiences, whether in B2B or B2C are very unforgiving when it comes to how brands engage with them – more than ever, we want brands to be fast, human, clear and…
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“Change is popular when someone else is doing it, but when it comes to changing ourselves, not as many hands are raised.” Yesterday, I had the opportunity to attend DigiConf 2021 and was struck by a session from Malin Liden on cultural change during a pandemic. Who even…
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Social media is about open, unfiltered ideas being sent across the web to anyone in the world willing to listen. Platforms like Twitter are called that because they give users a literal platform to speak from, voice their opinions and engage with others. Over time, this idea has…
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Social is a very visual medium, so why are brands still doing a bad job at communication through design? Whether it’s a boring, wallpaper image, or a message which doesn’t translate from print to social (we’re looking at you, Burger King), there’s no reason brands can’t take the…
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On social, its crucial for brands and identities to sometimes stand out from the crowd, to create content that engages users and makes an impact.   Making the same content as others can appear stale and overdone, so there is a lot of pressure to create content that can…
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Many of us will be happy to see the end of 2020, but it’s still important to reflect on the happenings in social media from the last twelve months. Facebook year in review Unsurprisingly, a major theme for Facebook/Instagram this year was Covid-19. The Instagram Stay Home sticker…
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Building your brand personality on social will set you in good stead for the future – more than that, it’ll ensure your audience understand who you are and what you stand for, building up brand trust. The key to building this up is consistency – write in a…
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Can you quite believe that we are a mere few weeks from the end of 2020! For many, it can’t end quick enough, but for brand marketers, we KNOW there’s never quite enough time to plan for the year ahead. We’ve just launched our…
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You know the question – anyone working in an agency that specialises in social media has heard it before. Do you have a quick social media guide I can send through the company? Or Is there a one-sheet with all of the image sizes for each platform? You…
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Our purpose at IF is to break the social boring – what does that take? Bravery. Courage. AND preparation. The campaigns you see out in social which tackle taboos or hit a topic head-on – and then succeed – they’ve taken time to prepare, to look at what…
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Much like Vine before it, TikTok exploded onto the social media landscape – with an estimated 500 million users across the globe today. Naturally, a slice of that pie is up for grabs and Facebook jumped in with Instagram Reels in August (though some were seeing a different,…
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The B2B landscape is an interesting one. There’s a common misconception that B2B organisations are low on usable content, but it’s simply not true. The landscape is actually flush with more information and eye-catching, challenging content than perhaps a lot of businesses realise. What do I have right now? Think…
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Back in March, TechCrunch reported Instagram had seen a 40% increase in traffic due to the pandemic. With everyone at home, more time is being spent on digital platforms, and all social media platforms have been nurturing their growing platform in different ways – but…
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We’ve all likely noticed the upswing in social media traffic – but we now we have hard statistics on the massive surge happening in recent months. A look at monthly traffic, Google’s new digital skills training sessions, Facebook’s redesign and more!   Media habits are changing Across all…
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75% of users never go beyond page 1 of a Google search query. To reach your audience effectively, the key is to know what their interests are, and what questions they have. To achieve that balance, you need experience and a few choice tools that can make all…
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If you, like us, find yourself suddenly working from home, figuring out new technology and ways of staying connected and bonded to your team on one hand, as well as navigating the current landscape in marketing on the other, we’re here for you. Rapid change and uncertainly can…
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  Youtube announced in September that new measures will be put in place to better protect children by removing data targeting features on videos identified as being aimed at kids.   “Starting in about four months, we will treat data from anyone watching children’s content on YouTube as…
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We love a good B2B brainstorm – it’s one of our (many) nerdy fascinations. So, when given the opportunity to attend the B2B Marketing Ignite 2019 conference, we simply couldn’t resist. Not to mention, our dear friends and clients at Fujitsu would be speaking on…
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The very strong chance exists that you enjoy a BBQ! After all BBQ & at-home eating & entertaining is now the UK’s No1 summer home leisure activity, with three out of four households now owning some type of BBQ grill. So you probably aren’t missing out in hosting,…
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The expertise, guidance and knowledge that CEO’s have to offer is invaluable! Tap into your CEO’s brain by putting them forward as ‘thought leaders’ on social media. Raising awareness for your business, attracting new potential customers and creating a community is the start of a long list of…
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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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A goldrush of sorts is happening in the tech world amidst rumours that Twitter could be up for sale and the list of potential suitors for the channel is growing by the day. It’s hard to tell at this point who the serious contenders are. However, this hasn’t…
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Influencer marketing is this year’s craze. Not just because marketers are increasingly wanting to use it, but because there is much debate on whether there is any value in doing it at all. Blogs and networks are lit up with the discussion. At immediate future we started out in…
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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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  On the first day of Christmas, whilst the rest of us were getting excited about opening the first door of our advent calendars, powerhouse couple Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan, announced the birth of their first child, Max. And if this wasn’t enough excitement for two of…
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  Social Media may well be a key element in your company’s marketing mix but have you considered alternative uses for Social Media in the work place? It is entirely possible for Social Media to run much deeper than simply being another channel for your marketing communications. For…
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  Here at Immediate Future, it goes without saying that we an incredibly social bunch, but it recently struck me that we are a rather charitable lot of individuals too. This got me thinking – perhaps there is a correlation between these two qualities… Earlier in the year,…
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  The sixth annual Social Good Summit took place last month at 92nd Street Y, a world-class cultural centre in New York. The star-studded summit coincided with the UN General Assembly and the Sustainable Development Summit, in which world leaders adopted 17 new Global Goals.
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We call it ‘the power of a connected network’; uniting your workforce to harness the potential influence available on social. “Well that’s just social media tosh”, you might say. I assure you it is not. And here’s why: The most overlooked use of social is internal communications and…
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Governments, not always naturals for open government and publicity, are hoovering up opportunities to develop their cyber presence via social media. Perhaps in defiance of what we recently discussed in this blog on a retreat among UK investor relations professionals, both private sector boardrooms and governments are starting…
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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…
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Before the early noughties launches of Facebook, Twitter et al, news cycles were longer and managing crises was a whole lot easier. Why? Broadly speaking, you only had to worry about the media backlash. Today (as we all know), social has added another layer of complexity. The…
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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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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…
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Research and software released this week suggests that computers can predict our personality traits with a higher accuracy rate than our friends, family or spouse. Should we be scared or excited by the prospect of computers using the data we share online to make informed…
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At the back end of last year myself and a colleague delivered a social media training session to a customer service team – slightly different audience to the marketing bods that we are used to. And what was the purpose of the session? It’s actually something that we as…
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The debate that has erupted after Sony’s David Boies’ “cease and desist” letter to media outlets was published invokes the paradoxical nature of trying to control and predict the media a la; have you ever walked into a crowded bar and demanded everyone…
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Nearly one in two people in the UK will get cancer. But, as we learned from Amanda Neylon, Macmillan Cancer Support’s Head of Digital at the Social Speakeasy, 38% will not die from the disease. Macmillan exist to improve the lives of everyone living with cancer. Engaging and inspiring others…
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Focussing on the elements that influence and shape user preferences online, The Social Consumer Study explores how connected consumers are in today’s ‘always on’ environment. What is clear is that buyers are far more likely to invest time, money and trust in an emotional brand – something…
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Despite the ubiquitous nature of social media and its increasing impact in digital marketing, the majority of marketers fail to maximise the channel’s full potential. We are seeing it time and time again. What many seem to have forgotten is that social is sold on relationships. In an…
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Paraphrasing some recent advice at our Social Speakeasy from Jerry Daykin of Mondelez International, “If you want to become a real-time engagement focused business then you need to break some of the traditional marketing practices”. Advice that is mirrored in our brand survey results on real-time social engagement. Where brands…
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You have built your empire with blood, sweat and tears. You have a small, dedicated team who stand by you. They love working for you, they love the culture, the hours, pay, flexibility offered and the general working environment. So who wouldn’t want to work for you? Well it seems…
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I have recently returned from a blissful week in the Mexican sunshine, lazing on white sandy beaches, drinking margaritas and of course, eating out lots *feeling smug*. Of course, like most holidaymakers, we logged onto trusty TripAdvisor to do our detective work into where we should go for the…
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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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It feels like a while since I last blogged about social customer care, despite it being one of the areas of social media management and strategy that fascinates me the most. In my time spent working in social media, I’ve observed brands and businesses evolve their clunky social care processes,…
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Corporate communication is undergoing rapid change. As a rule of thumb, the challenge for large businesses is to maintain a genuinely personal approach to the customer, despite the sheer volume of enquiries, whilst keeping in line with the overall marketing strategy. Web solutions, intertwined with thought-through social elements provide a…
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Social media continues to revolutionise corporate culture. It opens up new avenues of communication, breaks down barriers between employers, employees and the public, and provides new opportunities for brands to put a human face to their image. CEOs are no exception to this quiet revolution. Customers want to see that…
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Since the introduction of social media, resolving disputes through face to face interaction seems to have become a thing of the past. There appears to be a popular trend in taking to various social platforms to vent frustration towards the situations or people we encounter in everyday life.  From that…
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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…
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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…
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Launching into the realm of social customer service may seem like a daunting prospect, however, failing to take the leap may actually lead to even more frightening consequences. A shocking statistic from a recent consumer survey commissioned by Conversocial, revealed that: “If confronted with unanswered customer complaints on…
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  You may notice that the internet is slightly quieter than you are used to tomorrow.  This is due to numerous internet giants protesting the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and Protect IP Act (PIPA). Opponents to the bills state that if passed into…
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So in the first blog in this series, we established that Reddit is significant online social movement, but what exactly can it offer a brand or business? Monitoring: Businesses can utilise the platform as a go-to for cutting edge news and content. Monitoring the platform for relevant…
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We love purple as much as the next company, but it appears Cadbury have decided to take it to the next level in a recent trademark dispute settled yesterday with Nestlé. Cadbury wanted to trademark the tint and made the case…
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 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…
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Threee things we can learn from the world’s leading social businesses about how to avoid a social media crisis.
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In the last post we looked at figures from the twentieth century and the lessons that could be learned from their experiences when implementing brand social media training. In this post we’ll investigate some historical recommendations crowdsourced on Twitter over the…
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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…
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Hot on the heels of being included in Econsultancy’s top ten recommended social media agencies, we have made it into the Reputation Online listing. And more importantly into the top 5 ‘most respected agencies’ and ‘ones to watch’.   Thanks…
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Online crisis phase 1 So, in case you’re not aware of it, the international fashion retailer is facing a bit of a brand crisis. In short, it has been accused by Stevie K of tru.che of copying a line of her jewellery.  In the industry it appears that…
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Search is a hot topic at the moment. With innovations in mobile and local search and the impact of real time mentions and social media, the competition for the much sought over front page position is hotting up. For some, the temptation may be to take advantage of…
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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…
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Ikea vs. Apple via Fixr We like this visual representation of how the Swedish and US companies stack up (no flat pack puns intended.)…
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You may have heard that Google has changed its search algorithm and with that change, instilled the word Abuserank forever into the minds of SEO experts. According to Google they were spurred into action by the story of Clarabelle Rodriguez and the shocking (and by shocking I…
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On Wednesday, we blogged about the new ASA regulations and some of the questions that it raised in relation to communications in the online space. It caused a bit of a stir. Whilst marketing, PR and social media professionals all seem to concur that ensuring vulnerable…
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The extension of the ASA’s CAP code to cover digital marketing communications – both on brand’s own websites, but also through social media, has been driven by a need to close the gap related to companies’ claims online, in particular to regulate marketing to children. There is…
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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.
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Is it just me or is everyone talking about crowdsourcing at the moment? Every meeting or event I go to, it comes up. Crowdsourcing advertising (see T-Mobile, Berocca, Hyundai etc.) has been around for a while, providing ad agencies and brands with a new…
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Having declared last week that it was not illegal to jailbreak iPhones the U.S. government effectively gave consumers the right to fiddle with their proprietary software, allowing them access to other providers or to use apps and music from sources other than…
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Taking a look at the evolution of social media as a communications tool over the past year, it is clear that one thing in particular has changed, businesses now take it seriously and include in their communications strategy. Brands now automatically lose their shine with customers if they do not…
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Surely it can’t just be about the products. There are many other consumer electronics companies with great design and rich features. So what makes hundreds of people – probably take a day holiday from work – stand in a queue for hours just for a new phone? I…
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