social media agency Immediate Future

social media agency

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! Carry on reading for the best articles we’ve found and just want to shout about Facebook starts testing News,…

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 in the…

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…

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 a…

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 and…

Episode 2 *spoiler alert* don’t read unless you’ve watched! Since its move to Channel 4, Bake Off has offered advertisers the opportunity to be part of this cake obsessed community for 8 weeks of autumn. After the initial move to a commercial station (which came with some negativity), advertises embraced…

Episode 1 *spoiler alert* don’t read unless you’ve watched! Even before season 10 of Bake Off started, social was alive with intense anticipation. By 7.45, according to Brandwatch data, there were over 24 thousand posts on Twitter from 7,898 authors – suggesting that enthusiasm for the show had people posting…

Whilst most of the population is settling down to our favourite end of summer programme, Great British Bake Off, community managers are poised, fingers on keyboards, ready to work the show to get their brands noticed on social. And it makes a lot of sense after all the first episode…

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 this conclusion.

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…

The UK and most of Europe is currently experiencing a heatwave – as I write, the temperature in London is set to reach 38º Celcius… scorchio! So how are you planning to deal with this? Hire some air-con? Hibernate in the Ice Bar or, to be fair, any bar that…

Fallen behind on the past week’s news? Fear not, we’re here for you with a roundup of the best updates and tips that we want to shout about. Keep on scrolling for the latest updates and tips from the industry! Twitter announces full rollout of the platform’s new desktop experience.

Are you up to date with LinkedIn? LinkedIn pages have a few new ways you can improve the visibility, content and followers – here’s a checklist you can use to make sure you’re maximising this platform – because they have over 500m users! Tagline There’s a space under your company…

All businesses are after results – but how do we make sure our social strategy lines up to deliver? While it might seem obvious, strong social needs a strong foundation. Here are the 3 tenets meaningful social content can’t live without: Know your audience Whether you’re in the B2C or…

According to the latest data, more social media users than ever are choosing to visit the ‘Explore’ section of Instagram – in fact, more than half of users do. Along with the data also showing that 80% of users follow a business* on the app, the top…

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… Instagram’s…

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.

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… Fortnite…

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…

We know what you are thinking! Why would a social media agency admit to their job being hard?! We like to think of ourselves as an honest bunch here at immediate future; we don’t just create and post content for the hell of it. We like to look at what…

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. New report shows Facebook engagement in gradual decline,…

Week in week out, all the major platforms are constantly tweaking, updating and testing in a bid to increase engagement and make users more active. These updates aren’t always ground-breaking, but they’re slowly implemented to improve usage based on how users interact, and ultimately to make the experience more streamlined.

Do you know enough about tracking users engaging with your social media activity? Without a tracking pixel implemented on a website, you cannot retarget users who land on your site, create website user lookalike audiences or exclude users who have already visited/converted within a campaign – it means that your…

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! Snapchat’s working on new music rights deals to enable users to add songs to their snaps.

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.

There were lots of announcements to take note of at the latest F8 developer conference, but which are the ones you really need to know, and what do they mean for your social media strategy? Groups and Events are the new black In an update that Zuckerberg is calling “FB5,”…

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 trending topics…

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! Vine returns as ‘Byte’ – but is it too late for a comeback?…

High performing social content is relevant to its audience. That’s why it does well. We know that. It’s a fact. The bit that is difficult, is working out what is likely to resonate. Particularly when you’re in a category that just doesn’t see quite as many trends as others. What…

Whoosh! Another year has flown by, and what a year 2018 was too. Life at immediate future is an absolute rollercoaster and we’ve got our hands in the air while screaming “Woohoooo!!” at the top of our lungs. Thank you to everyone who’s contributed to all the thrills we’ve had…

Many of us now turn to online shopping to avoid the queues, the tired feet, the unhappy children you find on a traipse up and down the high street – especially at this time of year. One of the other things we love to avoid is that annoyingly helpful retail…

How well do you know your audience and what they want? As a business, you might be in the camp which has spent countless hours in a boardroom scoping out personas and defining which segments are your best to target for purchase. Alternatively, you’re in a business where that’s either…

Social media is the place for meaningful conversations. Hashtags are a way for people to find and join particular conversations. Twitter was pretty centralised around hashtagging for conversational purposes. Facebook and Instagram jumped on the bandwagon too. LinkedIn introduced hashtags to the platform a hot minute after the rest of…

There’s that supercilious phrase, “if you ‘assume’, you make an ASS out of U and ME”. Bloomin’ awful expression, but it did pop into my head when I read this summary of research on MarketingProfs. It takes a look at how marketers get it wrong when they…

After a Google bid for Snap Inc. last year was rejected, it seems that the company has been busy creating an alternative to Snapchat Discovery. It is reported to be called Stamp. A mash up between ‘St’ and ‘AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages). Right now, all we have is leaked news.

As time spent social networking per day continues to climb (now standing at over two hours), networkers have been presented an ever-expanding choice of content to engage with. Cutting through this noise demands compelling content, and social’s ability to allow brands a way of associating themselves with…

Social and mobile go together like Instagram and food porn. They are a match made in marketing heaven. Why? Because for every waking moment, consumers seem surgically attached to their phones. And according to the latest research, when it comes to social media, 80% of folk now access social via…

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…

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. This could…

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…

Back in the days before the internet, the main stay of audience insight beyond surveys was the focus group. A gathering of relevant demographics in order to get feedback on products, adverts etc. Now we have social data and insight. A magnificent cauldron of opinions, views, trends and sometimes plain…

Anyone who’s seen Peanuts knows the football gag. In it, Lucy challenges Charlie Brown to kick a football which she then moves just as he’s about to punt the life out if it. The joke ran yearly from 1951 to 1983 and yet every time Charlie B somehow…

News out last week says that social media apps are in decline. The research by SimilarWeb looked at social app usage in android across several countries to reveal users are losing interest. Then there is the PEW (USA) analysis that shows the growth of the big four…

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…

The moment social marketers have been waiting for has finally arrived. The 20% text rule on Facebook adverts has changed. I can hear the cheers from here. Don’t pop open the bubbly just yet – let’s look into the details first. So what has Facebook actually said?…

Freelancing gave me the freedom to experiment and share knowledge without major application. It was invaluable to me as usually social media newbies often land as a junior in an agency with little in the way of being able to experiment with serious application. I feel I was lucky to be just…

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 is…

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…

I have been on Twitter and Facebook for almost 10 years now. Like most folk in social media; I am a social person. I love my social connections. I want to connect and be connected to (who doesn’t want to be liked?). The trouble is that I am now following…

Attending the NATO experts’ forum on social media for international organisations, I was struck by how much public sector organisations are committed to communicating through social. So much so that they meet challenges, obstacles and the changing comms landscape, head on. Often working with limited resources, in an environment where…

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.

Everyone has heard about the spectacular fails on social media. But this isn’t a post poking at those brands that make mistakes. This is about raising the bar on the quality of social communication. Which right now, isn’t always that great. Social media marketing is on pretty much every brand’s…

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.

Recently, I have been working with clients across a wide range of verticals in the B2B space, from pharmaceuticals to chemical engineering to sports equipment. These disparate markets have completely unique business challenges, requirements, sales processes and routes to market. However, there is one thing that many of these companies…

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…

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…

Some of the staff at Immediate Future are former journalists who have made a transition from traditional media to digital media and now to social media. Some try to forget they even used the humble manual typewriter with all that heavy industrial noise back in 1990. Seems a lifetime…

So I attended this Drum event just before Christmas which was all about how to run an agency and be a leader. Half of the session was led by Simon Hartley from Be World Class whose whole business mantra is focused on what differentiates…

There are almost 10,000 vacancies for social media manager on Indeed right now and the numbers keep on growing. In fact there are even more jobs in social media, especially when you search for social analyst, content manager, editor and the many burgeoning job titles. There are university courses and…

Back in November last year, the amazing Marketing Director at Thorpe Park, Jason Wills, joined the Social Speakeasy to tell us how he drives the success of his social activity. The insights were so valuable that I thought it was worth revisiting. And in particular highlighting…

Following on from my time spent driving the social media programme for the IBM Smarter Commerce Global Summit held in Monaco this June, I’ve been pondering the importance and real value of using social media effectively for events. This week, I stumbled across an infographic, titled ‘4…

Following on from Adam’s blog ‘From Monaco With Love’, and whilst I’m still buzzing from the excitement of managing the social media conversations around the IBM #SmarterCommerce Global Summit last week, I’d like to share some of the key learnings and insights the team garnered…

The most romantic week of the year is upon us once again. The cards are stocked, the roses reduced and the restaurants ready for their annual influx of covers. But what can the world of social tell us about Valentine’s Day in 2013. Is this a year of carefree romance…

I’ve been doing a lot of recruiting over the last nine months. For those of you in the same boat, you will know it’s a time consuming and challenging task. Finding people with deep digital experience rather than just a veneer is tough. I spend a lot of time writing…

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…

An experimental scientist? A mathematician, an historian, an IT geek, a money making economist or socially savvy psychologist? Last week we conducted a Twtpoll to discover who you would rather employ as a social media consultant for your business. The results were eye opening. To our…

Before hastily setting up a Google+ page for your business, you need to step back and consider whether there is any value in joining the early adopters. We pulled together 4 points to help you evaluate whether it is worth your company embracing Google+: 1. Objective…

If you’re in the industry, you’d be lying if you didn’t shudder when a choice nugget of social media consultancy newspeak pops out of your mouth, or a colleague’s. It’s like an involuntary spasm, and you feel like you need a shower after it’s come out. Is…

Social media marketing is not new. We’re all familiar with the basics and brands are actively engaging with their consumers on a daily basis. So, why are people still doing it incorrectly? Here, we share what to do and, more importantly, what not to do when it comes to the…

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…

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…

Facebook pages give brands an opportunity to build close relationships with consumers; however, they also present new challenges for online community managers. Unlike forum based communities, brands have little real ownership over the platform: posting is instant, 24 / 7, and pre-moderating is restricted. This means that the risks are…

The institute of direct marketing (IDM) has just uploaded a lovely video of Adam as the course tutor of a very practical workshop on social media. The social media training course demonstrates how to: identify where social media…

On revisiting the video interview from SES it strikes me that social search is a complex issue that goes beyond the technology. It is much more than key words, phrases. Much more than Google +1; Bing and Facebook integration; or even trying to work around the new Panda algorithms.

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…

As this is the immediate future blog, rather than my own, I obviously steer away from anything too personal (apart from my various press trips of course). But if you’ll indulge me, I’d like to share a little anecdote with you. I listen to the @wittertainment…

What does a consumer see when they type your brand into a search engine? And where else are people searching for your brand? As the net becomes more attuned to social conversations, the line between social and search is becoming increasingly blurred. Conversations on social media platforms are informing search…

It’s always a busy start to the year at IF Towers with our client presence at CES and related activity (if you read Mark’s CES post you’ll know!). None more so this year as exciting projects begin with another client, Ubisoft. We started working with Ubisoft just before…

Recently, Econsultancy published a piece on ten great e-commerce product pages. Following our research into the social shopping explosion we wanted to find out exactly how ‘social’ some of these retailers are. All of which will be popular destinations for consumers this Christmas. We’ve…

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…

As brands adopt and implement more social media marketing in house, so the demand for enhancing social skills and capabilities is growing. But building social capabilities takes more than a one day training course. Perfecting your social media…

There is much debate about whether social media can generate a return on investment. It is certainly a hot topic given the increasing investment in social media activity. As a social media agency we work with…

You may have noticed that we’ve been had a very retail focused week here! As a leading social media agency we’re particularly interested in how social is changing the way we shop. Given this focus, here’s…

Developing brand loyalty and encouraging repeat sales is a challenge for online retailers, particularly in an increasingly competitive and crowded marketplace. With the ability to move between retailers at the click of a mouse and with a multitude of comparison sites for the savvy shopper, encouraging brand loyalty can…

Today we are launching our report on social shopping and its impact on consumer behaviour. Online retail has traditionally been characterised by price-driven sales and purchase-driven consumers. The focus, for retailers, has been on engaging the…