Social Innovation Immediate Future

A New App from Facebook? Venue – an app that brings people together to experience live events in an interactive way. What does this mean? According to Facebook – “Venue aims to give fans an interactive second screen experience, curated…

Brand as Broadcasters is the concept all business running brand events need to truly deliver greater cost efficiency and standout innovation Running brand events comes at great cost. Marketers have to evidence cost efficiencies that yield tangible returns for the business. Formats have to keep being refreshed to…

Another week, another whirlwind of social media updates – stick with us as we take you through everything you need to know: Twitter allows users to choose who can rely to Tweets Twitter is testing a new feature that allows users to prohibit entire groups of people…

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…

Now is a time of rapid change – which can be scary. People are inherently resistant to change because it means disruption, even if it is beneficial. Can you remember Instagram’s old logos? The days when it looked more like a rounded-edged floppy disk? When Instagram’s logo was…

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…

As we’re all suffering lockdown fatigue, the social platforms are pushing on with new features to beat the isolation. A look at Q1 earnings, explains why there is a dash to create even more compelling reasons to stay on social. After all, there are more people spending more…

It’s a question that really puzzles me. Along with ‘why do some businesses try to mimic the market leader?’ or, ‘why do B2B companies continue to use awful stock photography of people pretending to be businesspeople?’ or, ‘why do travel companies persist with blue filters?’. At the risk…

In these times of social distancing and isolation, everyone is being affected in some way. Today, I’m exploring how coronavirus has affected artists. Many freelancers have had projects dropped…

Very few of society have faced anything like what we all front up to today. Fluid developments continue to alarm and challenge us. Businesses have been placed in a period of uncertainty whilst they seek support from the government. For now, all we can all do is follow the…

In such unprecedented and uncertain times, social media platforms have become the go-to for keeping up to date with the latest news regarding Covid-19. Earlier this week we reported that social media activity had risen 25% over the last two week period – and this percentage is…

Here we go, another “stories” mode on a different social media platform! This time, Twitter are testing the waters with something called “Fleets”, which they are assuring us is not totally like IG Stories; I know what you're thinking: “THIS SOUNDS…

It’s official, Byte has launched! What’s Byte? Well, remember Vine, the video-sharing app which specialised in a 6-second looping format? The one that Twitter bought and then shut down to cut costs because hosting video is costly? Thereby counting themselves out a tonne of cash which TikTok…

More controls for conversation on Twitter – is this a positive change to reduce trolling or the beginning of closed communities on the platform? One of the latest announcements from Twitter was made during an appearance by Suzanne Xie, Twitter’s director of product management, at CES (Consumer Electronics Show)…

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…

At IF we love all things social. So, we’re always interested in staying up to date with the latest happenings and bringing them to you in our weekly social snapshot! Read on for a roundup of the best articles we just have to shout about… Twitter’s…

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…

Starting anything new can be scary, and for some, social media marketing is no different. Whether it’s a brand new channel to you, or you’re testing new content, new paid strategies or going after a new audience, there’s an element of bravery needed. At IF, we’re always aiming…

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…

It doesn’t seem like long ago since Instagram announced it will be entering the world of eCommerce. And it definitely wasn’t long ago that users of the platform could create their very own AR filters. To maximise the usage of both features, Instagram is testing…

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…

Designers. Don’t you just hate it when you create an awesome asset to go out on social, but then you have that tedious job of having to resize it for all platforms – whilst still looking amazing!? Well, what if I told you, you may not have…

Episode 3 *spoiler alert* don’t read unless you’ve watched! The rise of second screening has seen TV become a substantial driver for social media activity. TV and social are complementary. In fact, they can now be seen to feed off each other. Never more so than GBBO on TV…

There have been some great releases recently from the social platforms which make us all into creators – but before you leap into testing them, consider why. Is it just a “be first” mentality, or have you come up with a great idea and you’re looking for the…

Instagram (or more likely, Facebook) are developing a new app called Threads – a messaging app where you can automatically share your location, speed, and battery life, as well as the usual stuff like text, photos, and videos with your ‘close friends’ list. Users will be…

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…

It’s astonishing the number of people who proclaim this without having even tried using the platform for B2B. “Facebook is more of a consumer channel. We use Twitter and LinkedIn.” Yet, when pressed, the spokesperson rarely has any supporting evidence or experience as to why they’ve landed at…

Over the months Twitter has been testing out new ways of clarifying users replies, be it highlighting replies from an original poster or identifying responses from connections etc. These features have been rolled out on their beta test app “Twttr”, this included colour coding to signify replies,…

This phrase is relatively new, but the social savvy will recognise it instantly as the hybrid of neuroscience and marketing. Whilst mixing psychology and sales isn’t something new (charm pricing, duh), for the first time social is recognising the power neurology has on marketing – explaining why books…

This is one audience tech brands want to reach. The audience where 70% are the decision makers and the rest influence the purchase. We took a look at who they are, what they talk about and what motivates them. And produced a report which digs into…

It’s always interesting to find out what’s happening in the world of social media, but we understand that sometimes it’s hard to keep up. That’s why we’ve rounded up a range of articles that we just want to shout about! Keep on reading to find out what’s been happening……

Tech brands are a social bunch. Socially savvy and active, you’ll see messages posted on social networks everywhere. But look closer at the content and it appears that very little of it is targeted at senior buyers who make or influence the purchase decisions. And that’s a HUGE…

We LOVE social media at immediate future (you would certainly be surprised if we didn’t) but even we know that there is more to marketing than just being social. And even if you deliver terrifically engaging and converting campaigns, you still need more than just a social presence. Which…

It’s a fact! Studies show that most consumers expect a sharp response from brands on social media, and with an increasingly large number of users turning to social to complain and review, it’s crucial brands get their customer service bang on the money! On Twitter, the average user won’t…

Music and audio experiences are huge parts of consumers’ lives. Just consider the spectacular rise of podcasts. 6 million adults now tune in to a podcast each week. Ofcom reported that the number of weekly podcast listeners almost doubled in the past five years — from…

It’s always interesting to find out what’s happening in the world of social media, but we understand that sometimes it’s hard to keep up. That’s why we’ve rounded up a range of articles that we just want to shout about! Keep on reading to find out what’s been…

We all love a good story, don’t we? Whether we’re sharing or watching, stories continue to have a huge influence on the way we share, market and influence on social media. It’s a deep-rooted feature that all major platforms have at least experimented with, and with Instagram paving the…

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…

Instagram is on a roll right now, announcing update after update. And just yesterday they released a new ‘check out’ in-app shopping feature. Yep, your online shopping days has just got a whole lot easier. Development on the platforms shopping tags means users will now be offered to…

Tinder is probably the first and most famous example of what we all know as ‘the swipe’. Mobile navigation today is all about the swipe, and now even YouTube is joining in. Their latest update will give users a way to navigate between videos.

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…

At IF, we’re all about creating a meaningful connection between the Ad products of Social platforms and the marketing strategies of our clients. Ever since Snapchat went public, it’s been really interesting to see a delay in waiting for them to launch a decent, competitive Ad…

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.

Digital marketing is all the rage this year with branding testing new and innovative ways to communicate with your targeted audience. Social media channels have released major updates to accommodate the way we interact, communicate and digest information. Let’s guide our potential customers on the yellow brick road…

I think about the future of social media often. I wonder where it’s all going. The pace of technological change is beginning to outstrip our capacity to make sense of the world around us and it’s only going to accelerate further. Tech begets tech. The devices we create…

“Don’t blog about Snapchat” was the recurring mantra / running joke in the IF office over the course of 2016. It was easier said than done because, of the Big 5 social channels, Snapchat dominated the news last year and likewise, the IF blog.

From the swampy depths of the primordial app soup, what was previously a deceptively simple single-cell organism has mutated into an entirely new beast and is now slouching toward social to be born. That’s right folks, PRISMA is going social. The hugely popular app, which uses neural network technology…

Many would argue that YouTube has been a social network of sorts from the get-go. Users have the ability to subscribe to certain channels (ie. follow), like, unlike or comment on certain videos (ie. engage) and share those videos with a wider audience.

From the adorable To the daring From the weird To the wonderful There can be no doubt that the internet loves a good GIF. And that love affair is growing stronger by the day. From 2012…

There have been massive changes in the Twittersphere this month with the arrival of Twitter’s new block feature wiping out unwanted users and the character count updates. We all thought removing photos and usernames from the Twitter character count was the cherry on top, but recently Twitter announced…

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…

Many digital marketers that I’ve spoken to recently are not active on Snapchat. Most have given it a go, but either their family and friends weren’t using the app, or their friends and family weren’t sharing the most engaging of content. Both are understandable reasons for not enjoying the…

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…

At IF, we pride ourselves on evolving. Curiosity is one of our brand values, championed daily by our fabulous staff. Our event format has been well received for many years but it was time to evolve. After a few months of planning and tinkering,…

Social listening is all the rage when it comes to analysing consumer behavior, determining people’s views of a brand, service or product and comparing a company’s public reputation to its competitors. One of the challenges social listening faces however is the vast majority of social users the internet classifies…

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…

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 product officer Chris…

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 Silicon Valley’s highest…

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.

Welcome to part two of our Q & A with two of the industry’s leading digital marketers: Alex Ayling, Head of BBC Worldwide Digital Studios and Nick Moxham, Head of Digital, Universal Music TV. In case you missed part one which focussed on Alex, you can view that here:…

In recent weeks there have been a few big stories surrounding Emoji that represent the turning of the tide as more and more social platforms adopt them as the future. Firstly Twitter have sold the first of their new offering “Admoji” or custom Emoji, to Coca-Cola to promote their…

August is gone with the wind. With it go Notting Hill Festival, Reading 2015, V Fest, National Burger Day and summer. Relive the glory days of balmy summer evenings, sizzling barbeques and 30+ degree weather (sort of) by having a read through our top five IF blogs for August.

Apple’s recent announcement that it was going to be embracing ad blocking software has sparked some serious social debate and birth of the hashtag #adpocalypse. The move by Apple has brought into spotlight the morals and ethics behind the media industry and am sure will bring about another shift because…

Facebook’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg took to the stage yesterday for the latest Facebook Townhall Q&A. He spent the better part of an hour fielding a mix of serious and silly questions about everything from virtual reality and artificial intelligence to why he doesn’t wear a different coloured shirt (he does,…

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 their customers…

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 it’s staggering.

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…

“Imagine for the first time in history, humanity firing on all cylinders, everyone, everywhere, new voices, new dreams and new inspirations” (Internet.org). With Facebook’s latest technological advancement in aerospace, we are now a step closer to achieving Mark Zuckerberg’s global vision. Specifically, a worldwide web that really…

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, Twitter,…

The recent Facebook “townhall Q&A” session with CEO Mark Zuckerburg has left the internet buzzing about what the future holds for the world’s biggest social media network. The hour-long session saw Zuckerburg fielding questions from everyday Facebook users and famous personalities such as Stephen Hawking and Arnold Schwarzenegger.

We all know the old cliché that content is king, and it is hard to argue. However, kings have a long and often bloody history of being toppled, so always need to be on their toes. They should be seen to be learning from and listening to their peers and…

Twitter has been getting a lot of column inches recently for all the wrong reasons. For starters, though it launched officially in 2006, the company has yet to turn a profit. In 2014 it reported a pre-tax loss of £372m, despite raking in £908m worth of revenue.

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.

Getting your employees to share content can be a struggle, but when they do it can pay off in ways that company posts cannot. Generating positive employee shared content is easy when you know how. These are five types of content that employees should willingly share that will boost…

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…

Yes that’s right. There are (unfortunately) far too many senior marketing professionals, even boardroom directors, who are to blame for consumer brands failing on social. Simply put, whoever signs off their approval for junior marketers running social are idiots; whoever hasn’t bothered to understand the critical role social plays for…

“Exciting times for live video streaming” isn’t a term we expected to say this side of 2015 but the rate of new apps being introduced that are able to bridge the functionality gap, (Pan Pan, Nutshell, Hopper, Tworlds) has seen a big increase in the last few months. A gap that certain mainstream social channels…

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. Rebekah…

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…

Last week Facebook and LinkedIn announced their intention to focus on social enterprise. Facebook at work launched with small scale trials by invitation. It functions like Facebook, but allows for a separate login and the opportunity to keep work and personal separate. LinkedIn, already considered the de…

Following a mutually evolving development towards an increasingly more convenient and on-demand service, one focusing on music the other on cabs, it was surely inevitable that the music streaming platform Spotify would partner with taxi-cab booking app Uber for a service that would culturally tie the brands…

Spreading campaign messages via Twitter with the use of hashtags or recruiting dedicated supporters has always been a labour of gaining organic strength. Relying on the persistence and influence of others to spread the message. Now we see the emergence of new apps that access supporters’ social…

Curating your social media feed can be a tricky business. You may be overrun with photos of your friend’s babies or hourly updates on wedding planning from that random girl from one of your university classes… The content bugs you, but not enough to delete that friend…

As pressure increases on Twitter to monetize their platform through developing an already powerful targeted tweets and promoted post service. The platform, having recently undergone a major design re-haul, has now stepped up a further development to attract retailers to promote their products and retail campaigns directly…

Print media is widely seen as a dying medium with the lack of targeting and personalisation seen in comparison to digital advertising. US print media has seen a spend dip from $35.8bn in 2011 to a projected $32.2bn in 2014, whereas…

Coding has always been that skill that was either honed by those of a more technical nature or of those that are forced into having to use code to develop something that simply wasn’t there before, or even adapt current code to fit another bit of code – phew. If,…

What is Netflix? Netflix is the world’s leading internet TV Network with more than 37 million members in 40 countries watching more than one billion hours of TV programmes and films per month. Since Netflix launched in the UK it has received a mixed response. It has challenged the…

The saying goes: “good artists borrow, great artists steal”, and this seems to be the case with social media platforms and Facebook. Every other day reports come in that the platform has updated its user experience with elements taken from other social media platforms. It seems that the social media…

I am delighted to publish a guest blog from one of the most brilliant data geeks I know, Jacqui Taylor Founder and CEO at FlyingBinary. For those that have yet to meet Jacqui, she is a super clever lady: a web scientist in fact. After implementing a…

Having established that adoption of social innovation leads to new and fruitful revenues, I said in my last post that mostly start-ups are reaping the rewards. So I investigated which brands were truly innovating for social. I didn’t consider those that had…

Social media marketing is increasingly ubiquitous for most brands, and if not, it is on the radar. We are on our way to mass adoption among businesses. Early adopter brands are now focused on social business. I am certainly talking to a lot of companies about how they can bring…