if blog | What will you learn from social? | immediate future

Social network crowdsourcing supports medical research

In recent weeks The Wall Street Journal reported that the results of a new clinical trial into the effects of lithium on Lou Gehrig’s disease demonstrate the potential for social networks to be used in the recruitment and collation of patient data. A total of 596 patients took part in the observational study by health…

May 10, 2011

Osama bin Laden is dead but traditional news isn’t

So the Royal Wedding quickly became old news. Wills and Kate’s wedding of the year was quickly overshadowed on Monday by the news that the world’s most wanted man has been killed. And while this was a significant day in history, it also became a significant day in the social media world with an average…

May 4, 2011

The content farms are out to pasture; but will brands be crying over spilt milk?

Google’s ‘Panda’ update is receiving a high level of search, SEO and even mainstream media attention, but the repercussion for brands engaging in social media is one can of worms begging to be opened. Big fat juicy worms, like will sites currently considered valuable for brands to engage with suddenly lose their influence? And has…

April 15, 2011

Social media is science fiction

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 podcast every week; I like the movie reviews and…

April 13, 2011

How to drive Facebook fan engagement

We’ve been hearing a lot recently about how Facebook fan numbers aren’t the be all and end all. Brands should concentrate on engaging with their existing fan base. Even Facebook’s own are towing the line. David Parfect, agency sales group head at Facebook recently told the audience at the Social Media World Forum in London…

April 8, 2011

Football clubs just don’t care about crises

We’ve been doing a lot of work around crisis and how crises are accelerated by social media, at immediate future recently. You might say it’s a passion for us, and it’s also a major worry for many brands who want to protect their reputation online. However, it seems that one particular industry in the UK…

April 7, 2011

Philosophy is to social media as fish is to bicycle

What do ancient philosophy and social media have in common? Well, let’s see. In a possible world in which Aristotle transcends time to come face-to-face with the social team at Facebook HQ; he stands there in his toga and sandals and asks everyone to stop rushing around and sit cross-legged on the floor for…

April 5, 2011

Where’s your +1 for the Google search party?

You may have seen news of Google’s latest attempt to introduce social recommendations to its platform. +1 (US only service at the moment) allows people to up vote any website they like; this can then be seen by their social connections on Google in much the same fashion as you might like a friend’s post…

March 31, 2011