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You know that stage, post break-up, where you change your hair or your clothes to make yourself feel better? Well it seems Instagram is doing just that, with new changes being disclosed every week. Just last week we saw the announcement of fake followers being removed from the platform…

When you’re running a campaign, it’s so easy to get WOWed by the longest numbers in your analytics. Reach and impressions are two of the metrics that are likely to be the largest. They’re both important in the right contexts, but there are some other metrics that you may…

A new generation, one that no-one can put their finger on to how they became so adept in technology. How they use their spare time to create profiles on social media, that now make them more money than the average degree-holder would make. How they are so influenced…

It’s been a good year for social media. Marketers are steadily shifting more of their budgets into social media marketing. In the second quarter of 2018, global advertising spend on Instagram was up 177% year-on-year and, subsequently, influencer marketing continues to grow. But, because social media…

What sins have you committed in the past week? Have you told a lie… or a couple? “That pitch you did James was fantastic! I really believe you can take the company somewhere far!” Maybe you’re greed lead you to have more on your…

Instagram has got another revenue-generating option for their Story feature in the pipeline, which should prove to be a fantastic addition for their 2 million active advertisers. The update, similar to Facebook’s ‘boost’ option, will make it easier for brands to make their Stories appear as adverts and…

2012 was a great year for comedy on the internet, we had Vine! This short-form video platform really stood out in the video market as there were a very limited number of apps that could even try to compete. Snapchat had just launched their 10-second…

Facebook have announced a variety of new features are coming that will allow users to express themselves through music. It all feels a little MySpace-esque, however, they’re hoping the additions will enhance their focus on moments, as Tamara Hrivnak, Facebook’s Head of Music Business Development says, “moments are…

As Aristotle once said: “One swallow does not a summer make.” And, if Aristotle was busy Instagramming today, he would undoubtedly post: “Instagramming a TV Advert does not a Social Media strategy make’. Ok, so he may prefer Facebook over Instagram, as, let’s face it, he’s a little outside the…

Let’s talk about the value of our client work. We’re wholly committed to doing a great job for every single one of our clients, meeting their individual needs with the aim of smashing goals and making a huge impact in the world, whether B2B, B2C or charity. The work…

Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram, Pinterest…we could even push it as far as Mumsnet. Your brand could sit on all of those platforms if you truly wanted to connect to ALL demographics. But, which one is right for you? If you want to hear it from a…

This is probably why we love social media marketing so much: everything changes continuously and evolves constantly! Not too many years ago the idea of watching a show on a mobile device would have horrified most of us… How could a tiny little screen, such as our…

Every year millions of creatives around the globe wait in anticipation for what is seen as the biggest creative conference in the world – Adobe MAX. Every year it leaves people walking away speechless and this year was no exception. From moving stills to designing…

We all know that the Facebook algorithm changes almost daily at the moment. With all the constant changes, it’s hard to know what Facebook will now choose to classify as incriminating and will choose to demote, and there’s no doubt that the platform is clamping down on content.

We’re out and about again! This time, our CEO Katy was captivated by insights at the Brandwatch Now You Know conference, learning how digging up data can open up creative opportunity for brands. Katy’s very own roundtable discussion got people from all sorts of brands fired-up, talking about…

There’s been a great deal of talk over the past few months of the future strategic moves that LinkedIn might be making. As always, LinkedIn is extremely slow at implementing radical changes. The result of this perpetual situation is that the social network of the working people has announced…

Ask any marketer, and they’ll tell you that generating engagement on social media all comes down to persuading your audience to respond to you. In order to persuade, you need to apply simple psychological strategies to trigger emotional responses from your audience, as a result of them viewing…

Can Youtube exist without its UGC base? Surely not in the form we know today, but this might not just be hypothetical speculation. YouTube users are currently leaving the platform at an alarming rate, in favour of the Google video colossus. It seems to be a mix of…

It’s been 4 years since Facebook bought the messaging app WhatsApp for a whopping $22 billion, and so far the app has remained ad-free. However, that is about to change in 2019, as WhatsApp plans to roll out targeted ads to its more than a billion users.

Have you considered making Facebook Groups part of your Facebook marketing strategy? Recent research from Facebook has shown that Groups are seeing more engagement than pages. Groups allow you to start conversations in a way that feels more private, and everyone that joins the Group is likely…

It’s easy to think that strategy is a siloed task best undertaken by a planning team, but that’s far from the case. The best strategies are delivered by a multi-disciplined team with differing levels of experience. And never more so than when it comes to social media – there…

I’ve spent most of this week doing interviews. I’m combing for the next batch of talent to join immediate future. It’s something that I thoroughly enjoy, particularly when a vacant role is entry level. There is an unbridled enthusiasm and honesty that you only experience from people looking…

Ads have existed on Instagram Stories for a while now and are earning the platform a fortune, with a daily userbase of 400 million. Recently, having reached 300 million daily users, Facebook has followed in its footsteps with an identical ad proposition. The first brands to test the format…

Once upon a time, Kevin and Mike loved playing with pictures. They created the Instagram app in 2010 to share their passion for photography and image composition, in particular the famous square format. The app, though, grew much bigger and more powerful than the two dads ever…

Once overlooked, Pinterest has been going from strength to strength in the social stratosphere. For travel, beauty, and fashion brands, it offers the perfect opportunity to showcase products or experiences, and now they’re looking to improve their influencer offering. Pinterest have realised influencers are becoming more and more…

It’s our travel edition! On this week’s Serious Social, we spoke to the CEO of Sagittarius, Paul Stephen, about his experience working in digital marketing for travel clients. The travel industry is so commoditised, it’s important for brands to stand out on social. To do…

Sure, sure… high street economy is a bit on the low side with big franchises announcing closures of big flagship stores, but not everything is lost. The economy, though, is not sinking worldwide. Markets are just shifting towards the easier (at least for the consumer) e-commerce.

In digital marketing, we’re utterly brilliant at creating confusing titles and acronyms. Given the volume, you’d be forgiven for thinking industry had employed a Head of Wanky Titles. I only wish our Head honcho had created these abbreviations with the wit and humour of the late great Robin Williams…

Of course, copywriters and designers need a creative flair. However, when it comes to social media, the art of social creativity is elevated. It becomes a marriage between art and science. With so much audience data from behaviours and interests, to real-time and ‘moments’, there’s an opportunity to create…

I must confess that lately I find myself spending less and less time on Facebook and quite a bit more on Instagram. Maybe it’s because I prefer pictures over words but a lot of it is to do with Stories. Generally speaking, my Instagram feed…

Investing money in advertising can feel like a bit commitment, however deploying paid on social doesn’t need to be scary. As long as you have a plan in place before you start, social is a great way to test campaigns and creatives easily, with real-time feedback. Here’s how to…

Facebook Watch, the video-on-demand service, is launching globally after previously only being available in the US. The video destination proved to be somewhat of a success in the US. According to the head of video at Facebook, Fidji Simo, the time spent watching videos has increased by 14…

Earlier this month, Facebook acknowledged the growing number of game developers who advertise and make money on the platform. The platform rolled out a couple new additions to its offering for game advertisers and, most notably, playable ads. It’s a genius solution for social media gamers…

Time poor, but feeling creative? Fret no more. A couple of weeks ago Facebook announced its Creative Shop, a simple way for brands and marketers to easily convert static images into video. You may be lucky enough to have a wonderful design team who can whip up…

Add a Pixel to your Group Since GDPR, Facebook has stopped collecting or using data for behavioural targeting and removed thousands of targeting options. According to Marketing Land, Facebook removed a further 5,000 ad targeting filters to fight discrimination against religious and ethnic groups. So now, in…

We all know that the trend of taking photos of your food and sharing them on Instagram is nothing new. However, now it seems we’re not only taking photos of our food to document what we ate, but to help others decide where to eat too. More so…

If you said LinkedIn Groups to me, I’d break out in a cold sweat thinking of all the spammy emails I used to get on a daily basis trying to persuade me I wanted to pop over to the platform to participate, so I was really interested…

Mobile usage has increased over time, but did you know that 66% of the global population now has access to information online? That’s 5 billion and 16 million human beings! And the fact that the time spent on mobile devices continues to increase year on year…

Earlier this year, Instagram launched IGTV, which lets users upload videos up to an hour in length. Until then, video content on Instagram was limited to 60-seconds in feed and 15 seconds for each Stories frame. It’s no secret that vertical video is quickly…

Snapchat’s Q2 report was a bit of a surprise in the industry. It has lost 3 million users compared to the previous quarter. There are various reasons why we saw this coming and we’d put the controversial redesign down as the main reason. A whopping…

On this week’s Serious Social, Annabelle and Katy discuss the findings from our latest insights report – Devouring the GBBO Social Opportunity. Bake Off is responsible for a huge level of conversation, with almost 1M mentions on Twitter alone last year. You don’t have to be a baking…

Facebook recently announced a new requirement for managers of large pages to go through an authorisation process to ensure their accounts are legitimate. The process follows Facebook’s widely available two-factor authentication offering, meaning that it will be less likely that Page Manager accounts will be…

This week on Serious Social we discussed our philosophy of why you wouldn’t buy a one player football team…so why should your social media team be any different? Despite all the platforms and tools available, you still need a social media team in place to ensure you have the…

Video content is kind of a big deal when it comes to social media marketing, or any marketing come to think of it, but you probably already knew that, didn’t you? So how do you make the most of your killer video on social? Here are a few…

Mark Zuckerberg once said that Facebook’s main purpose is “bringing the world closer together.” When I moved away from home to go to uni, I eventually gave in and created a Facebook account for one reason – to keep in touch with friends I was no longer around anymore.

After Facebook introduced the WhatsApp Business app in September last year, it’s looking like it’s set to be their next moneymaker. In contrast to the standard app that revolves around conversation between family and friends, the Business app is designed for businesses to interact with their customers by…

I want you to think about the last video you published. How many video views did it get? 10s, 100s, 1000s? Now imagine the positive impact on your brand if you could garner hundreds of thousands of views from your prime audience – and, specifically, boardroom decision-makers. There’s a…

Following Keith Weed’s statement at Cannes Lions, we’re talking about the must-dos and the should-dos when it comes to influencer marketing. Learn how to approach it as an on-going relationship, kindling the right brand-influencer match and building a mutually-beneficial partnership. Join us for a…

So, the latest news is that the Video Giant now caters for vertical video. More specifically, the desktop player automatically adjusts the video’s aspect ratio to suit a computer’s screen size. So, whether your video is 16:9, vertical, or 4:3, YouTube aren’t going to frame any…

Have you been part of Facebook’s Watch Party testing? If not, you’ll be excited to hear the functionality has finally launched to all Groups around the world. Watch Party allows Group members to watch a video (either recorded or Live) at the same time and interact with…

Since 2017, brands and publishers have been getting far less traffic from referrals on social platforms and the sharing of content has been in decline. Not only has this increased the pressure on content marketers, but it has exposed the dire need for quality social content that ensures…

The strenuous competition between Snapchat and Instagram/Facebook goes on. Last year we saw Snapchat’s fortune decrease following the launch of the IPO at the beginning of March. Source: Google The profit decline can be blamed on a mix of overpromising and underdelivering in terms of customer…

Here’s the headline – for the first-time, subscriptions to streaming services like Netflix, NOW TV and Amazon Prime have outstripped traditional pay-TV subscriptions. Not my snappiest headline! Here’s why this is important. While the difference in the number of streaming subscriptions against pay-TV is small now,…

Over the last few weeks, we’ve been giving you some tips and hints about planning and filming your very own content for social. Now, we know that one of the most daunting parts of starting out is the equipment and knowing where the blooming heck to start. You might…

Snapchat have been working on improving their visual identification offerings for a while now, with the view of expanding the list of features available for users. Late last year, Snapchat introduced object recognition in the form of filter and slogan suggestions that were relevant alongside different scenery/objects in…

Twitter Ads offers a world of paid media opportunities. There’s so much to choose from, it can be difficult to know where to start. But, it’s vitally important that you clarify this before you even think about touching the platform’s Ads proposition! Twitter recently offered a few tips to…

Facebook is constantly developing new tools to complement the ‘time well-spent’ movement that Zuckerberg is supposedly focused on. Earlier last week, Instagram launched the ‘All Caught Up’ notification- this will appear in a user’s feed once they have seen all the new content posted by…

You’ve probably heard us bang on about social listening. And, that’s because we love it. But if you’re not 100% sure what it is, how it can be used or what it can achieve, then this blog’s for you. For starters, social listening is the monitoring of online conversations…

Fasten your seatbelt – there’s yet another Instagram Stories update coming your way – just as you were getting used to polls, emoji sliders and music stickers. Are you ready to ask open-ended questions to your followers and get the answers privately via DM? The new feature, currently in…

Mastering photography and video skills usually takes a lot of patience, practice and time. Filming something well is almost identical to taking a great photo – same principles apply. Get to know your camera, work out all the different settings and what they do. Invest in some basic filming…

IGTV is Instagram’s new dedicated solution for long-form vertical video solution. Don’t worry, it isn’t here to replace Stories! And it isn’t stepping on YouTube’s toes – not yet anyway… In this week’s Serious Social, we’re having a natter about which platforms are doing it right when it comes…

Having promised the world that they would improve the visibility for all ads running, Twitter has announced the launch of their Ads Transparency Center. This feature allows anyone to view more information about the ads that are being served to them, especially the political ads, such…

Well, it looks like developers at Instagram’s HQ have been super busy. Last week we spoke about the launch of Instagram Lite, today we’ll be looking at the new video chat feature that lets you have a 4-way conversation while still browsing through Instagram, the…

Last week Instagram announced that they’ve hit the 1 billion user mark and they launched IGTV. This week, they’ve released a stripped-down ‘Lite’ version of the app for Android users. Is there anything they aren’t doing at the moment to win more followers? Instagram Lite aims to target…

As this World Cup gets underway, it’s worth reflecting on how changes in social media engagement are coinciding with the major shifts currently taking place in sports consumption. These converging trends are positioning social at the centre of sports entertainment, not just as a way of connecting with…

Light. Camera. Action. And there you are in front of the camera, nervous as hell and trying to remember what you planned to say. Your throat works madly. You fluff your lines. Gah! Being in the limelight is not for everyone. Yet, when it comes to social video it…

Content creators on Facebook are in for a treat with a few new updates! The platform itself has released a detailed description of all the newbie tools and updates to current features. But don’t worry, we’re rounding things up and making it simpler. Connect Facebook wants…

Our very own Katy Howell has been out and about, chatting to all sorts of organisations from B2B to consumer. What about? Social media of course – their methods and their challenges. In this week’s Serious Social, we get chatty about where to start when it comes to structuring your social media – especially…

After years of turmoil in the broadcast media industry, we could be seeing a wave of change that will disrupt the social media landscape. After a growing buzz, Instagram finally launched IGTV less than a week ago. It’s still early I know, but it might already be time to…

Every week it seems that Facebook releases an update to its ad platform, so when one of its competitors releases something truly interesting, I immediately sit up and take notice. via GIPHY This week at Cannes, YouTube announced a…

We’re all aware of the potential video has for brands and marketers on social media. Audiences are consuming more and more short-form video content and there’s no doubt that it’s here to stay. However, the greater challenge is capturing the consumer’s attention for long enough so that they commit…

Having made the strategic decision to show less news on Newsfeeds, earlier this year, we all witnessed Facebook decide to take steps that would ensure it became a space where meaningful conversations take place, between friends and family members. This move impacted publishers and over time referrals from…

We’re bringing you the latest on platform transformations. If you wanna show your audience that you’re on it and up-to-date with the latest tech changes, make the most of these opportunities on social! So what’s going on? Facebook ships out 3D posts to innovate and change how VR content…

For many businesses, producing and outputting video content can be costly in terms of time, money and skills. With the meteoric rise of video across Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat, you’ve got to have the video know-how to remain relevant. Where do we come in? We’re here to debunk the…

Of course, the best social media results come from paid social. We allocate budget to really squeeze the pips out of our audiences and to reach them directly. Social media is what we do, so we get super excited about new formats and additions to platforms, especially when it…

Once upon a time, a captivating picture and a smart line was all you needed to advertise your business. Now, those times are long gone. We all know that Facebook, who still leads the way in social advertising, recently came up with a feature that requires ads to…

This year, Pinterest’s growth has improved by leaps and bounds. So much so, that it’s ahead of Snap & Twitter. Should you hop over see if Pinterest advertising could be for you? In this week’s Serious Social, we’re chatting about Pinterest’s move towards eCommerce, targeting options and ad formats.

If you didn’t know already, we’re serious about social. We believe that at the heart of every good social media campaign or strategy is a good understanding of customer behaviours. For that understanding we use data and turn it into insights that inform our content and the way…

Instagram may launch long-form, professional videos: Heard the rumours? Instagram want an even bigger portion of Snapchat’s market share. They are even trying to compete with the video giant we all love: YouTube. Why not? A report from the Wall Street…

According to Pinterest, the platform has seen a 180% uplift in video views in the last year. That figure tallies with what the other social media giants are saying about video, which cements the idea that brands, and social offerings, have to be on the front…

The photo-sharing powerhouse is set to undergo another algorithm change in the near future, and this time the focus is on users only seeing content that is relevant to them. This comes as a result of Instagram wanting to understand its community better, both where users and…

When Facebook was founded 14 years ago, it was designed to bring communities together – initially based around Harvard, then other Boston colleges, and eventually opening up to other universities. Two years after launching within educational institutions, anyone was able to sign up to Facebook, and, whilst…

Earlier this month, Facebook spoke of some very exciting planned updates for Instagram to be rolled out throughout 2018. Given the platform’s Stories feature now has 300M active daily users alone, viewing organic and brand-based content, it makes absolute sense for substantial investment. It…

Facebook is building a Branded Content Marketing search engine to allow brands to find the best influencer partnerships for their marketing, particularly where Facebook ad campaigns are concerned. Brands can search based on certain parameters like location, interests, gender and education. You can save selected creators in a…

Instagram want businesses on their platform, so new, useful features are the right way to go about it. A few additions have been made to Insta’s business profile offering. Action Buttons can be added to profiles, and the Direct Message feature has been cleaned up! Ahh, much better. It’s…

Conversations between a brand and a consumer are no longer a one-way street. Today’s consumers are empowered and connected like never before, and they’re producing content like it’s going out of style. It’s our job as marketers to produce lots of great content that will engage the consumer. This…

Snapchat redesign V2.0 Snapchat recently revealed an all-new layout which quite frankly was unpopular amongst most of its users. Here is a list of some of the dreadful changes that were made: The addition of more navigation buttons The removal of Creators from the Stories list…

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…

Facebook’s F8 Developer conference has been full of announcements, and we’re excited about two in testing that’ll improve customers’ relationships with brands. First up, using AR for your brand yet? Thought not… Facebook’s still trying to change all that with the launch…

In this week’s Serious Social, we’re bringing you a roundup of Twitter’s Q1 results, released on the 25th of April. It was a successful quarter for Twitter and results were better than expected. They were pleased with their revenue growth acceleration, profitability and audience growth, but what contributed to…

Let’s talk about the video giant, YouTube. YouTube viewership is increasing on TV. Its apps for smart TV and gaming consoles are growing and growing among viewers who prefer to watch on the big-screen, instead of the little screen in their pockets. In the past, YouTube…

This week Instagram have announced two new updates that will streamline the functionality of the platform, both for personal and business use. The first is a multiple photo upload feature, meaning you can add up to ten photos or videos to your Story at one time. You can…

In this week’s Serious Social, we’re chatting about the new Facebook Premieres feature! It’s Facebook’s solution to keeping pre-recorded live videos within the platform, and will make it easier for publishers to post videos without the expensive external software! It’s a solution that will certainly encourage more video content,…

Facebook reveals an increased use of pre-roll ads and more… We’ve all heard of Watch – Facebook’s platform for shows. Having released this to a small US-based audience in August 2017, Facebook shared episodes — live and recorded — that followed a storyline or theme.

Users love new, inspiring features on social media – that’s no secret! Remember earlier this year, when Snap debuted an in-app AR ecommerce experience for Nike’s Jordans? Well, it clearly wowed customers, because Snap has released a new feature that it’s calling “Shoppable AR”. What does it…

Just when you thought Facebook couldn’t better its video proposition, it’s done it again – the platform is using a select group of creators and broadcasters to test a new format called Premieres. To the average Facebook user, the videos will look a lot like Lives – viewers will…

Facebook’s new Loyalty Prediction ad tool We’re all familiar with Facebook’s targeting. Together with detailed demographics, user preferences and past actions, we’re able to deliver relevant messages to refined audiences through the platform. A confidential document, examined by The Intercept suggests that…

Facebook Stories haven’t exactly taken off, particularly in comparison to Instagram, however the platform isn’t giving up, and have recently added two new features that could take Facebook Stories from mediocre to masterful. Facebook have access to AR driven digital object detection and spatial recognition tools, and they’re making…

As marketers, we’re always looking for the best way to interact with our customers and to create meaningful and engaging interactions with them. We do this through email marketing, TV and print advertising, social media, and now some brands are doing it with virtual and augmented reality. As we’ve…