social business Immediate Future

social business

In recent years the spotlight has very much turned to Mental Wellness in the workplace. In short, we need to be mindful of the importance of our mental well-being as it can have such a profound impact on both performances in the office as well your personal life.

Crunching the data and turning it into insight is what we’re all about – BUT… you’ll be failing if that’s all you focus on. Proving the value of social back to your organisation can be challenging – we’ve got some ideas about how you can best do this.

Most marketers would agree that social media can have a big impact on brands and businesses. But the first step you need to take is setting up the right goals for your campaign. A social media goal is what you want to achieve within your activity as a…

The importance of social media is difficult to overestimate- In the UK alone, social media ad spending is projected to reach £5.2 billion in 2021 and increase to £6.5b by 2025. Effective use of social media can not only increase brand awareness but can also boost conversions and…

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…

Following on from the Figma discussion a few weeks ago, where we talked about the pros of using apps like Figma in your design workflow, I wanted to take a moment to give a shout out to some other very cool apps that designers…

Here at immediate future, we are always testing new and exciting things to help us continue breaking the social boring. Recently, the design team stumbled across a design platform called Figma. A platform that enables users to work on a single document at the same time, working seamlessly…

As I am sure many of you know, Facebook suffered a major outage yesterday (Nearly 6 hours to be exact!). With chaos on the streets, many users fled to the safety of other platforms such as Twitter, Linkedin and, of course, Tiktok. Problems were reported across the world,…

In the past year there has been an increasing trend of brands using their social media platforms to support various causes. Social media has shifted from a place of ideas sharing to one that educates and inspires. Supporting a good cause on social can be one of the…

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…

Apple has recently released an update, iOS14, which is causing quite the stir with Facebook. If you’re an Apple user, then over the last few months, whenever you update or load a new app, you’ll have a popup notification asking if you are happy to share…

It may not be the new kid on the block, but please, no ageism here! The Facebook platform is still VERY important to the digital ecosystem, in fact, it’s top 3 according to Comscore. So we’re here to give you the checklist of your…

We live in a digital era and there are billions of internet users worldwide. That means there are lots of opportunities for brands to engage with their audience and achieve business growth. One of the most effective methods for spreading brand awareness and attracting new customers is…

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…

“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…

What employees say on social matters. It can sometimes break a company and often raise it up. Your insides are on view. Yes, all the wonderfulness of your company and all the hidden skeletons (and messy, frayed, edges) are now shining clearly to your customers, your investors, your…

As part of its analyst day overview, earlier this year, Twitter released a series of potential new features they hope will boost numbers and aggressively grow their user base over the next three years. Including various new subscription-based features, which will enable creators to monetize their Twitter following:…

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…

That’s right, Pinterest are out here celebrating and showcasing independent shops owned by women for International Women’s Day. “Working women were disproportionately hit by the COVID economic fallout. Last December, women accounted for 100% of U.S. jobs lost that month. There are even talks of a “Shecession””. Now,…

I was thinking about the chat I had on last week’s Serious Social Live, with David O’Hearns from Dawn Creative. We talked about building brand. Everything from the basics to the knotty problems. In particular we discussed how branding is not just about social. It is an integrated…

Social media trends are quite often fleeting. Some find ways to adapt and evolve and stay relevant. Others are gone with the click of the fingers. One thing that is here to stay is influencer marketing. In 2021 brands are well aware that connecting with the consumers is…

To save you a long read if you are not here for the why: there isn’t really a best time to post on social media, or rather, if there is one, it can change overnight, depends on a lot of factors, and ultimately, doesn’t really matter. Let’s explore.

It won’t surprise you to hear that an unprecedented number of brands adopted social media marketing in 2020. The ongoing COVID challenge forced many to do things differently and in many cases doing things they have not done before. Regular viewers of our Serious Social Live videos or regular…

Who doesn’t love a bit product tagging? Especially if you’re a business or creator. The process makes it so much easier for us, as consumers, to buy what we see in a post. The latest company to jump on this, is none other than…

Going into 2021, companies might be looking at rejigging how they approach their audience on social media. It’s a tumultuous time, with many looking to their favourite businesses for signs they are adapting and changing their way of working to meet the needs of both their customers and…

In recent days, gamers have swarmed social media to show their disappointment in the launch of the highly anticipated video game, ‘Cyberpunk 2077’, some of which have been waiting over ten years for its release. To the dismay of many, the game released to platforms in an unplayable state, making…

Whenever a planning phase is imminent, such as the start of a new year or preparing a campaign proposal, a key element is often missed – results and data from the last campaign. If you’re on top of things and managing to review your social marketing data regularly,…

Over the years, as social media has become the be-all and end-all of where online content is consumed, the quality and style of creative imagery have continued to advance and achieve a wide range of results. As social is an ever-evolving landscape, trends and fads come and go from…

The new normal, post-Covid world, or whatever you may call it, is going to change everything. From the way we work to the way consumers behave. If we look to the future, it’s looking pretty bleak – we can’t sugar-coat that. Brexit, the continuation of covid, a potential recession…

Supporting businesses, Christmas and a few new platform announcements – it’s social snapshot time, so let’s just jump right in! Twitter offers Christmas insights Like all of 2020, Christmas is going to be different this year. So, to help marketers prepare for the unusual festivities, Twitter has shared…

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…

If you’ve been following our blog for a while, you’ll remember when we wrote this post – the overarching tone of voice was “Gah, FINALLY, LinkedIn!!!” Given that almost every real-life event in 2020 has been cancelled or moved to online (thanks for nothing, Mr C. Ovid!), we…

Entrepreneurs rightly state that employees are our biggest and most valuable resource. Yet many businesses are not unlocking the potent potential presented by social media. As business leaders start to scale the upper echelons of industry, they understand the importance of having an inside-out voice. Thought leadership or opinion…

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…

Facebook recently had a showcase event in which they provided an overview of their latest advances in VR and AR which include; Project Aria Facebook’s take on “smart glasses” – which, by the way, will be a pair of Ray Ban’s – is…

If anyone tells you otherwise, I would strongly question their credentials and motive. For years we’ve seen flash in the pan speakers pedal false philosophies portraying a vision of quickfire success by adopting a simple tactic. At times that involved people positioning social media as the great hope –…

Out of time to catch up on social media news? We’ve done the work for you with our Social Snapshot – collating the biggest news of the week: Oracle confirms Bytedance-TikTok partnership in US The big news this week is Oracle confirming it has secured a Bytedance-TikTok…

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,…

Twitter is rolling out new settings that will allow all users to control who can reply to Tweets. It’s a feature they tested earlier in the year, but now we’ll all be able to start limiting who replies to our content. So, what does this actually mean? We…

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…

Call-out or cancel culture has been around for some years now. But like many things in marketing, it’s accelerated in importance over the last few months. Brand values have moved centre stage and what you stand for matters more than ever. The impact of #cancel is seen whether…

Myths are part of historic fabric. From the existence of Nessie, the Loch Ness Monster, to the Beast of Bodmin Moor, myths or legend are folklore in Britain. Some to stories have transcended continents too – the story of Robin Hood and his Merry Men making it all the…

A new social media subscription service, maximised ad campaigns and IGTV previews – let’s jump right into this week’s Social Snapshot: Twitter’s working on a new subscription service Brief disclaimer – this is supposedly only speculation, but a new team is reportedly working with Twitter’s payments group…

LinkedIn has been historically reticent to give in-depth follower information, or it has at least limited follower-specific features. When it brought back the option to invite your connections to follow your company page late last year, it implemented a limit of 50 invites per page manager, per day.

Pride months is here, and while many people will be celebrating at home, social media is once again delivering features to users that let their voices be heard digitally. In London, the annual march that usually involves more than a million volunteers, artists and Pride-goers cannot take place.

In recent weeks there has been a reoccurring question framed at us, “if social is noisy what’s the point in publishing content? Covid-19 has sent it crazy, hasn’t it?”. It’s an obvious answer, but, ‘you need to be at the races – you need to be in It,…

This won’t come as a surprise to anyone, but the big players in social media are finding new ways to monetise their platforms. The shift towards full eCommerce platforms has been particularly apparent in recent weeks, with the introduction of new storefront features. So, what’s new? And more…

When it comes to conversion, the goal you might be setting doesn’t have to be a purchase – you might wish to measure conversion on increasing followers, engagement on your posts or sign-ups to an email list. Whichever conversion you’re measuring, we’ve got some top tips on what…

Facebook has been slowly rolling out a set of features that will help small and medium sized business that have been impacted by the COVID-19 outbreak. These include a “Support Small Business” sticker for Instagram which not only allows users to share a business profile, but it…

On a call this week I said I felt as though I had developed a split personality, one that’s motivated, encouraged by great client feedback and what we can do for brands right now on social ( ) and another that’s wistful, dreamy and engaging only in the…

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…

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…

Whether it’s a new platform update, testing a feature or ways to improve social strategy, we’re always fascinated to find out what’s been happening in the world of social media and learn new things. That’s why we’ve rounded up the best articles from the past week we just have…

Could it be? The much-awaited desktop version of DMs is FINALLY here? Well, almost. Instagram talked about and tested this functionality around February of last year, however, they have now confirmed that it will be happening and are slowly rolling out direct message access via their web-based…

That’s right, it’s that time of year when we all prophesied about what the future year will hold. We usually look back and back-slap the 2019 forecasts that bore a molecule of resonance and success. Some will make simple to prove assertions like ‘live video demand will increase’.

If you’re a small business looking to grow and haven’t considered the potential benefits of using social media, you may want to keep reading. We’ve put a concise list together touching upon just some of the many reasons social media is an effective tool in helping grow your…

Let’s be honest, we sometimes overcomplicate marketing activities. Planners can be accused of planning a plan to create a plan. Creatives are claimed to create complex artwork for the sake or showcasing their talent. Strategists are believed to strategise the best approach for strategic construction of a tweet in…

This past decade saw leaps and bounds in the social space. To name a few – we saw the launch of Instagram and Pinterest, data breach scandals with Facebook and massive breakthroughs in video apps garnering nearly 1.5 billion TikTok downloads. The sector seems to be changing daily,…

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…

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…

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…

If the last week few weeks in the world of social media x politics have taught us anything, it’s that the public does “give a toss” about the cut and thrust of social – even if this politician doesn’t think so. In October 2019, Twitter…

As a consumer, you’d be forgiven for missing the change in product branding which occurred this week by Facebook. Sorry, FACEBOOK. Their announcements around the rebrand focus on their objective to be “clear” about which products belong in their wheelhouse. This effort may seem little…

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…

LinkedIn is playing catch-up again and has announced the new facility to create and manage events on the channel… finally! The functionality promises to allow us to “create private events, event update notifications, search filters to invite the right attendees”, and you can find it…

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…

Another week has passed and my, what a week it has been! We love staying up to date with the latest happenings in social, and we’re sure you do too. That’s why we’ve rounded up the best articles from the past week we just have to shout about… …

With all the rumours that surround privacy on social media platforms and the common suspicions we have about being spied on through our popular handheld devices, Facebook is clearly trying to take a step in the direction of transparency. We all get spooked after having a conversation 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.

Amongst the excitement of F8 it can be hard to stay up to date with the social news. But, fear not, we’ve rounded up the best articles from the past 2 weeks for you below ⬇️ Because, you know, we’re good like that! Snapchat releases latest update of…

If you’re a brand, you might have thought to yourself “I need a digital marketing agency. Surely it makes sense to go with one agency that does the lot?” I’m going to cut to the chase and tell you exactly why us indie, specialist agencies work so well, and…

At first glance, the news of the Facebook Messenger assistant M being able to translate French could be a little underwhelming. French translation isn’t a feature that most users are crying out for. But what makes this announcement a little more interesting is how this translation functionality is being…

It’s 2017 and there are many wonderful things about the way the world is today versus where it was, even as recently as a few decades ago. And if you read The Better Angels of Our Nature, you start to feel really positive about mankind’s…

In the first few years of this decade, it seemed that social commerce would transform the way we shop online. Yet whereas buying via social channels may have gained traction among the popular Asian social platforms like WeChat and LINE, in the West the online shopping experience is still…

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.

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.

Sometimes social gets a bad rep. This is due to the lingering hangover our industry is still suffering from the bad old days of “social rockstars”, “ninjas” and “gurus” who sold vanity metrics at a premium and contributed very little to actual business objectives.

As we rush towards the end of the year, many marketers turn attention to budgets and planning. Planning goals, KPIs and a roadmap for the year is, as always, the essential starting point. So too is an understanding of what has changed since last year. What are the…

It’s official – Instagram has shaved, traded its fixie for an Audi A8, suited up and launched Business Tools. Considering the platform has over 200,000 advertisers and upwards of 400 million users, many would say this move was inevitable. Credit Suisse estimates that Instagram’s ad business brought in…

So last week immediate future turned 12 years old. That’s 12 years we’ve been working with brands in social media – it doesn’t seem possible does it? Surely social media didn’t exist back then? OK, it wasn’t called ‘social media’ in 2004. It was working with…

We’ve said it before, but nurturing a social media account is a lot like having a baby. They require constant attention in order to thrive and achieve greatness. Take your eyes off the prize and you run the risk of your precious campaign tugging the tablecloth…

In the past it was not uncommon for businesses to block access to social media sites from work machines in an attempt to curb frivolous use during office hours. Even in recent times social has been seen as a drain on employee productivity instead of the incredibly useful…

Chances are your social timeline is featuring a lot of commentary around new Facebook features. Some being available immediately others with defined development roadmap. But why the sudden flurry of comms. Well, for the unaware, Facebook has just closed their annual developer conference – F8. The annual…

In part one of our “Pro Tips for Powerful B2B Content” series, we looked at three ways to help you create B2B content that inspires action, outstrips the competition and wins business. In this, the final part of the series (for now), we will dive into…

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…

E-volution Working in an ever developing industry that requires a balanced knowledge of data management, strategy and creative flare is a never ending challenge. A wonderfully colourful challenge that demands any given media agent (of any typical agency that works with technology) to submit to a never ending practice of constant…

It struck me this week that social media is not really a new thing anymore. I know it sounds obvious. We have been doing it for 12 years. But this year it feels like social media got serious. Serious enough that it…

Many of you might be surprised to read that the seemingly infinite hoard of Facebook users click the iconic “like” button more than 6 billion times a day, driving the relentless social machine that is rapidly absorbing the Internet. This, however, was not enough for Facebook’s chief…

This is an open letter to brands and agencies (and a call for support from industry associations) to stop the neglect of those working in social media. This issue came to a head for me when last week I had a conversation with a young social media professional.

Social media levels the playing fields to building a brand in the modern age. The ability to be able to connect with the world at the click of a button means that with the right message/product/offering anyone can build a brand. As an individual, talented musician…

With Instagram Ads slowly rolling out to engagement-hungry marketers, and Twitter adding advanced coverage of all events as well as upping their game on Windows 10 and iPad Twitter apps – where does that leave the ever-dominant Facebook? With the…

All too often driving attendance to events in the B2B world is an afterthought. Companies spend hundreds-of-thousands of ££’s on set-up, stands, design, product and offline marketing and organisation. Then, in the weeks running up to the event, they realise they have not placed enough focus on making…

The social media industry is always exciting, with new social media sites popping up all over the World Wide Web offering different concepts and uses. Two of the most notable social media platforms that have grown exponentially in recent years have not been born on an American…

The UK wedding industry is worth around £10 billion every year, with an average of around £36 thousand being spent on each wedding (W.I.F.E). It’s an industry which is steeped in tradition; from the importance of wearing something old, something new, something borrowed and…

Now, there’s a question! The issue of one of three giants buying Twitter has started gaining some serious traction over the last few weeks. Those giants are, of course, Apple, Facebook and Google. Although there is a viable case for Apple to buy the flagging social network,…

On the 14th September 1987, the first email was sent from China to an international academic network. “Across the Great Wall,” the email proudly proclaimed, “we can reach every corner in the world.” Ironic, considering that the Chinese government has since blocked over 2,700 websites including Google, Facebook, Instagram,…

Recently there has been a lot of talk about Twitter’s supposedly secret upcoming feature, Project Lightning, and it’s easy to see why. What we do know is that it will curate and display events-based content in rich feeds which will be visible whether the user is logged…

Yup, you read that right. Don’t bother training your CEO, or for that matter, your leadership team, in social media. In our experience, training courses don’t make any tangible difference. Don’t get me wrong. I am not advocating that business leaders shouldn’t be active in social. In fact,…

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…