X Immediate Future

Twitter hatches messenger platform

The micro-blogging site Twitter recently dropped its 140-character limit from direct messages, in what less-is-more puritan fans saw as infidelity to its one-liner ethos. Already struggling as a loss-making social media platform, with fears for its sustainability, Twitter has braved the raised eyebrows and thinks it is onto a crucial…

10 steps to avoid a Tinder style meltdown

In the unlikely event you missed Tinder’s social meltdown last week, here’s a recap of what happened: Journalist Nancy Jo Sales published an article titled Tinder and the Dawn of the ‘Dating Apocalypse’ in this months’ Vanity Fair. Tinder reacted poorly to the article, publishing a barrage…

What should your brand be tweeting?

Do you wake up in the morning and look forward to tweets from brands? Me neither. If someone decides to follow your company, it’s a massive deal. They’re allowing you to enter a news feed most likely to be populated by family, friends and colleagues. The opportunity to deliver the…

To Bae, or not to Bae. The importance of dialect in social conversation.

Back in the pre-Kardashian era of 2002, HSBC ran a campaign called ‘the importance of local knowledge’ and it’s as relevant today as it was then. More specifically the importance of local dialect in relation to social media. This week Facebook released…

6 ways you get dirty, debatable and downright dubious social data

Social data is powerful. We should know, our performance-driven campaigns are based on extracting the right demographic, geographic and psychographic data from unstructured social conversations. It delivers results. Knowing your social data works. It works because we subscribe to the 10:90 rule by Avinash Kaushik who says…

Facebook Talks Business

Facebook has recently launched a dedicated messaging site similar to their Mobile messaging app that allows users to log in with their Facebook credentials and make phone calls, video calls, or text messages. With the launch of this new site, Facebook aims to integrate its new…

Facebook fights dirty in video showdown

It’s no secret that Facebook has its eyes fixed firmly on the prize when it comes to being the internet’s biggest video platform. In April Facebook reported that it is getting 4 billion video views per day. Besides being extremely attractive for advertisers, numbers like that would…

Managing social content during Silly Season

We’re in the middle of the summer silly season – traditionally the time of year when there’s little actual news to report (unless of course, you consider air conditioning being sexist as headline news). And this is just as important for a social media strategy as planning…

Time to re-think: balancing content creation & content distribution

As serious marketers we are all well versed on the benefits of social media and content marketing. In reality as marketers, we have always produced ‘content’ anyway, albeit now the channels and types of assets have changed. We moved from print to website, brochures to PDFs & micro sites, seminars…

Should Google buy Twitter?

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, it seems that…

How sticky are your customers?

Many marketers focus on customer loyalty. However, they may be chasing an unachievable goal. Loyalty is an emotion, usually referred to in terms of personal relationships, friends and family. It is a human emotion and not something which can be passed on to a brand or product. If we were…

A step closer to a truly ‘World Wide Web’

“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…

AppleMusic – A Multichannel Narrative

The quality of today’s brand engagement is seeing owned content and publishing flourish at rates and volumes almost unseen before. Out of all the most current HD, Hi-Res, 3V, native-video, animated gif and micro-moment storytelling the most creative, responsive, quality-consistent and to-the-second content is winning. Some of the worlds hottest…

What can Cecil the Lion’s story teach us about social behaviour?

The social media storm around Cecil the Lion is undeniable – with over 800k mentions of this name online and 444k uses of the hashtag #CecilTheLion. For those that don’t know the story goes something like this: Cecil is a famous lion from Zimbabwe that has been…

How To Find Your Customers On Instagram

So, you’re using Instagram to engage with your audience and share valuable content? Whilst this is a great use of the tool, there will be many customers who have not seen your marketing efforts and are not aware of your account. How can they be found amongst the millions of…

Christmas in July

No, this isn’t another blog about Amazon’s Prime Day. Nor is it a battle-cry for us all to dress in red suits and feast on plates of Turkey during the height of summer. I’m exploring why the brands who have Christmas ‘locked down’ in July, thrive in H2. The banking…

Big “Buy Button” Bonanza

The oldest enemy of e-commerce has always been customer drop-off, losing potential customers during various points in your purchase funnel as they slip through the gaps in your carefully crafted user journey. It often left us feeling like Wile E. Coyote trying to catch Roadrunner. In-app commerce could be the…

Navigating The Chinese Social Media Landscape

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,…

Is LinkedIn’s company engagement key for growth?

LinkedIn has just made a major change to the way brands can interact on the channel. They have just enabled company pages to respond as brand (as opposed to individual company members). Why is this significant you ask? Because it’s totally out of character for LinkedIn to…

Is social customer service overtaking traditional channels?

Customer service – a bugbear of many consumers, and the source of much frustration. Social customer service has long been seen as the much-maligned poorer cousin of traditional channels (call centre and email). But has the tide started to turn? According to Dimension Data, 35% of all customer…

UK Companies not taking social media seriously enough?

This month both the London Times and Financial Times have run horror stories about social media. The FT featured its own FT/ICSA Boardroom Bellwether survey which found that just over a third of FTSE350 index companies have never discussed a social media policy, while roughly the same proportion — 37…

Trouble on the horizon for mobile advertisers

In the past, blocking ads on mobile has not been an easy task. As little as 15% of adults in Great Britain use ad-blocking software on their phone, according to a July 2015 study from the Internet Advertising Bureau UK, conducted by YouGov. This is very small when compared to…

Christmas in July? Amazon launches ‘Prime Day’

In honour of their 20th birthday, Amazon have declared today to be Amazon Prime Day and are celebrating in a big way with a 24 hour global sales extravaganza billed as having even more bargains up for grabs than Black Friday. With exclusive member-only deals…

How’s Your Facebook Relevance Score?

Facebook is as much an evolving ecosystem of data as ever before. We proactively share what we care about with people we care about at some of the most revealing levels of intimacy. It is no wonder that among such an environment of personal information, marketers can use this data…

Snap! No whitewash at the White House

While immediate future and some of its clients enjoyed the hottest day of the year beside the River Thames at the very enjoyable Henley Royal Regatta on July 1, another hot event was taking place across a wider pond over in Washington DC. Heralding a new digital dawn at the…

The Pros and Cons of 999 Going Digital

The emergency services are being called to modernise their communication strategy to fit in with the smartphone and tablet generation, as we have now become ‘Digital by Default’. The Institution of Engineering and Technology carried out a study that suggested introducing a system that uses texts and…

5 ways to measure Snapchat marketing success

With more than 100 million daily users, and 71% of those falling into the 18-34 age bracket, many brands chasing younger demographics are now looking towards Snapchat as a way to engage with and market to their customers. Other than fear of the unknown,…

How paid is cannibalising ATL advertising

If you’re not already ‘paying to play’, you should be. Get your targeting right, and your customer engagement rates can be as high as 20%. It is compelling data like this that is helping to evidence the success of paid social versus above the line (ATL) advertising. Being able to…

Facebook Changes Video Ad Charges

GOOD NEWS EVERYONE! Facebook have made a few significant changes to how video ads work on both mobile and desktop clients. Firstly the new pricing options for video ads, which will now offer advertisers the option of paying for video ads only when they are viewed for at least 10…

How going psycho with social content drives conversions

There’s endless bloomin’ rhetoric on how you make content relevant in social media and beyond. It is after all, the hottest topic in marketing. It’s proven that the greater the relevancy and context, the more content resonates with audiences. The more it resonates, the more likely the…

Telepathic Sharing, Laserbeam-Internet and Social AI – Zuckerburg Outlines FB’s Future

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.

Tinder Marketing: Intrusive or Creative?

According to Tinder’s website the total number of user swipes is around 1.6billion, with around 26million matches being made daily. It is also one of the most popular applications on both iOS and Android devices, making it a lucrative channel for any brand that wants to try this controversial guerrilla…

Cannes Lions – big brands discuss their content strategy

Amongst the many things discussed last week at Cannes Lions was how big brands communicate to their multiple audiences online and how to promote campaigns and story-telling effectively throughout multiple platforms. Talking to multiple audiences is a common issue for many brands and makes deciding what to post, what tone…

The difference a second makes

As busy professionals, I am sure that you often feel stretched for time to complete your ever-growing to-do list. As your inbox relentlessly piles up, have you ever uttered the words ‘there simply aren’t enough hours in the day’? Or if you are super busy, perhaps there aren’t enough minutes…

What is Project Lightning?

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 into Twitter or…

Usefulness is key for brands to really connect at festivals

The festival season is here and brands globally are cashing in on sponsorship, branding, presence and product demos of all kinds; taking over stalls, stages, arenas, performers and musicians to get in front of the most dynamic audiences, be in the background of their selfies, and inevitably be part…

The emoji: a digital communication revolution

As hieroglyphics proved an effective form of communication for the ancient Egyptians, has the emoji, the digital hieroglyphic, revolutionised modern day communication in the same way? According to research conducted by TalkTalk Mobile, a phenomenal 80% of Brits are using emojis to communicate, there is even an…

Cashtags in a bit of a hash?

Anyone who uses Twitter will know there are several keystrokes that can spice up the reading experience, and most importantly, add value. Handles (@) identify individuals or their companies on the micro-blogging site, and hashtags (#) provide a topical marker or context, allowing readers to discover more content on a…

4 starter tips for effective real-time content optimisation

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…

Why you should forget about social media training for your CEO

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, I’m suggesting…

Future-proofing Twitter

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.

10 Takeaways from Social Media World Forum

If you are a regular to the immediate future blog or follow us on Twitter then you will know that we were very much behind #SMWF last week. I was there, taking selfies, storming the stage, speaking on a panel but most importantly networking and talking to industry peers about…

Measuring website content performance for success

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 you need…

It’s not a crisis, it’s an opportunity

More often than not, when customers are frustrated about a bad service or bad product experience, they will take to social to vent their experience. In doing so, this allows others to jump on the bandwagon and start chiming in with their equally awful experience. In many cases a quick,…

True Relevance – The Basics of Data Driven Twitter Targeting

As more marketers are taking innovative steps toward reaching their target audiences on digital channels, it is becoming even more important for the messages they are pushing to be as relevant as possible. The most effective way to gain relevance like this is to use the digital data at your disposal. It’s never been…

Empower your workforce and stay ahead of the social media curve

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.

Is brevity knowledge, concise e-commerce messaging or Newspeak?

With the introduction of the modern computer in the 1950s through to modern-day hand-held devices, technology has empowered us to communicate and process facts faster. It has also forced us to assimilate data and phenomena quicker. But as a result of that faster data and message transmission, we are now…

Keep a tight hold of those purse strings as Pinterest unleashes its buy button

Searching for outfit inspiration on Pinterest? Like what you see? The new ‘Buy button’ will make it yours! Pinterest has announced some very exciting news that in a few short weeks, US consumers will be able to purchase directly from the platform through its ‘buyable’ Pin, without ever having to…

Make a success of your event using social media

Industry events, trade shows, exhibitions and all the other events that companies have to attend are, in many ways, a necessary evil. They are great fun, and they show the industry that “we are still here and we mean business”. However, more often than not, they cost the earth and…

5 Tips to Help Manage Crises on Social

Before the early noughties launches of Facebook, Twitter et al, news cycles were longer and managing crises was a whole lot easier. Why? Broadly speaking, you only had to worry about the media backlash. Today (as we all know), social has added another layer of complexity. The slightest error can…

3 Top Tips to Ace Brand Storytelling in Social

“We are, as a species, addicted to story. Even when the body goes to sleep, the minds stays up all night, telling itself stories.” – Jonathan Gottschall, The Storytelling Animal American author and journalist, Ernest Hemingway once made a $10 bet with some writer friends that he…

Social Video Infographic

Video killed the erm, everything star. There is no question that video is the future of content marketing and by proxy social media or that by 2017 video will account for 69% of all consumer internet traffic worldwide. As video dominates marketing strategies left right and centre it can…

Digital Transformation in the Age of Social Magpies – the Museum of London at Social Speakeasy

Antony Robbins, the Director of Communication at the Museum of London, began his address at our last Social Speakeasy by saying the following: “This evening I’m going to let you in on a little secret, I’m going to tell you an inappropriate story, if you’re good I might sing and…

How travel brands can tap into emotion to influence ROI

Holidays: the Holy Grail of the working world. The one time each year where you can kick back in an exotic locale and collect a paycheque for lying in a hammock and reading a dog-eared copy of “Zen and the art of Motorcycle Maintenance”. The importance we place on holidays…

Shining a light on mobile ad-blocking

A recent article published by the FT has announced that several mobile providers may soon be launching ad blocking software over their networks. This new service, developed by an Israeli start-up, Shine will block most types of advertising on mobile devices, including in-app advertising,…

Why brands should not ignore customer queries on social

When it comes to customer service, consumers now expect to interact with the brands on their own terms – they want to receive a prompt response, on the channel of their choice, and a quick resolution to their problem. To put this into context, if a customer phones the call…

Join the ‘Social Media Day’ Revolution

It’s no secret that social media connects millions of people worldwide and has irreversibly changed the way we interact. The abundance of social media platforms has necessitated a change in the way brands engage with customers, how we consume news, our communications with friends…

How to target B2B clients at events on social

With all kinds of summer events on the agenda and the corporate convention season already rumbling away, marketers are increasingly looking for reliable ways to bide the attention of attendees, eager to solidify connection with their target prospects and make sure they stay on their radar to develop a promising brand relationship.

Maybe Twitter did decide the UK election after all

There might have been a disjoint between Twitter and real life in terms of public opinion around the recent General Election (see last week’s blog), but Twitter offered a fascinating journal of what the politicians were thinking in the final days of the month-long campaign. It was supposed…

View performance stats for LinkedIn Publisher Posts

If you’ve used LinkedIn’s publisher platform in the past, you will now have access to detailed information on how well your content has performed, and the audience it reached. In an effort to be more than just a professional’s social network, and to place itself as a prominent…

9 realities of real-time marketing

In a world where the average consumer expects a response within the hour (42%, Edison Research), and has the attention span less than that of a goldfish (8 seconds for humans, the goldfishes’ is 9 seconds), constantly connected from wherever they are – the prospect of ‘real-time marketing’ seems like…

Does social reflect public opinion?

“What’s Twitter saying?” “What’s the hashtag?” So entwined is social to our world, that to get the latest news we often go there first – but are we right to look to Twitter and other social networks to gauge wider public opinion? A study in 2013 by Pew Research showed…

Understanding the social journey from screen to holiday selfie

The days of visiting actual travel agents and waiting on faux leather couches to be served whilst being visually accosted by A1 posters of smiling families splashing in the waves and creatively bankrupt taglines (“New Zealand! Bring Your Mum!”) are long gone. A holidaymaker’s entire journey from skiving off work…

Just how social was the #socialmarathon?

On Sunday 26 April, alongside around 38,000 other intrepid runners, I ran the 2015 Virgin Money London Marathon (I promise this will be the last time I mention it). To make it harder for myself, I decided to live tweet my way around the course. Along…

4 assessments brands must make before jumping into the multi-networking trend

As if you didn’t know already, social media is a noisy space. And the latest research from GlobalWebIndex (GWI) gives us one of the reasons why. Because on average people have 5.39 social networking accounts. Now that is a lot of chatter! But here’s the thing: for…

Social Media Automation Pros and Cons

For small business owners, automation tools can be incredibly useful things. But, like all tools, relying too heavily on social media automation will end in tears. Maintaining a brand identity and personality on social media is an important part of the relationship you want to have with your customers,…

Is Klout any good for finding influencers? And how should we measure influence?

In the event of Klout’s new feature to identify expertise, and the fact that I seem to be increasingly talking more and more to clients around this subject, I thought it seemed timely to discuss influencers. Firstly, what is Klout’s new feature? Well, in a nutshell, it shows you what…

Why personalisation could be turning off your customers

We are all aware of the latest marketing buzzword – personalisation – and the notion that brands now have the ability to follow users every “internet” step to ensure they get a 360 degree understanding of their customers. This, in theory, allows brands to personalise messaging, offers, new product announcements,…

Top 3 places travel consumers are hanging out on social

From asking followers for hidden-gem holiday destinations to posting the ubiquitous sunset selfie (framed by palm trees for added effect) and bragging about how amazing and life-affirming their holiday was afterward, travellers are a noisy bunch in social media. So much so that a recent study shows that social sharers,…

Facebook Topic Data – A new age of ‘Human Data’

A huge change in readily accessible data on social media is about to occur. On 10 March Facebook announced it would be closing off third party API access to its user activity data to make way for something a lot more exciting. Facebook Topic Data. What does…

Facebook’s shutdown of its Friend Data API is a big deal – here’s why.

Facebook announced the lock-down of its Graph API, to demonstrate the efforts it’s making to protect users’ privacy, and the changes will take effect by 30th April. Wondering what on earth a Facebook’s Graph API is? The Graph API is the primary way to get data in and out of Facebook’s social graph, the…

27 Free Digital Tools to get you started (on Digital Transformation)

The hot topic of the moment is Digital Transformation. As you would expect of any agency principle, I regularly attend and speak at events on this very topic. Whilst I applaud the information that is being shared to help inspire and evidence the increasing importance of digital, all too often…

Are charities and non-profits making the most of social at major events?

Last week, I saw an infographic on the charity and non-profit sectors that perform best – and worst – on social media. And whilst running (and live tweeting!) the London Marathon this year, it occurred to me that charities could be making more of the huge opportunities that are available…

3 ways to uncover the best times to post on social media

Every 6 months or so another infographic appears informing us of the best times to post on each social media platform. Well I can tell you that most of these timings are unworkable. Useless insight that is meaningless. Why? Because the best times to post depends on a number of…

Social Media Brand Workout

Here at immediate future we like to stay in shape. Whether it’s running the London Marathon or maintaining brand health, we are always on the ball. With that in mind, we put together the following Social Media Brand Workout to help you keep your…

Mobile optimisation now mandatory

From 21st April mobile optimisation became mandatory, but we’ve all been doing this anyway right? Well, it appears now, and rightly so, we don’t have a choice as the almighty Google are now favouring mobile optimised and friendly websites over those that aren’t. What does this mean…

Re-mapping your thinking – 3 ways to identify B2B prospects on social

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…

5 do’s that will help embed a data driven culture

I recently spoke on the panel at a wonderful Social Media Leadership forum event hosted by Founder Justin Hunt, on the theme of how to embed a data driven culture. Whilst by title, the focus was on social media, it was inevitable that we leaked into all…

Finding your influencers through link listening

Knowing your influencers is a key goal for most companies. However, there is no straight forward formula, or right or wrong way to identify these evangelists. Repeated engagements and metrics such as Klout will help in assessing how engaged and how influential they are in their own merit, but without…

3 Great Ways to Socially Engage in New Places

Finding yourself in a new location, town or city can be quite daunting. But being able to connect to others and discover new venues can be key to quickly getting the most out of your new whereabouts. On a…

Not-So-Private Messaging Delivers Brand

Are private messenger platforms due an overhaul? The latest trends suggest that brands are looking to leverage their customer interaction with product information, advice and sheer selling. Is private no longer private, as the messages get commercial? Private messaging has been around for yonks. In the late 1980s the arrival…

Hillary Clinton turns to social to announce “I’m running for president”

Clinton passed on an ostentatious announcement, and opted for online social conversations to kick-start her campaign for the White House. And the buzz which followed was far greater than fellow candidates from the opposing Republican Party. After announcing her presidential bid, last Sunday via YouTube, Clinton has managed to score…

Twitter Pushes Revenues Growth from Big Data Analytics

On Friday night, Twitter announced it is ditching third-party agreements for reselling firehose data. To date, businesses have used Twitter firehose APIs to stream real-time tweets and all related metadata. Friday’s announcement won’t have come as a shock to some, having seen how swiftly Twitter moved to help its streaming…

Three reasons to stop throwing [content] mud at social media walls

Oh no! Yet another bloomin’ blog post about content marketing. Well not quite. I won’t be suggesting you produce more. Please, let’s create less. According to the Content Marketing Institute, 92% of B2B companies say social media is a key content marketing tactic. And weirdly, slightly less,…

Making the marathon social – #socialmarathon

On 26 April, I’ll be running the Virgin Money London Marathon for the very first time. My IF colleagues all think I’m completely bonkers, and after 5 months of (barely) training, I’m starting to agree with them. Why is this blogworthy, you may ask. Well, despite it…

UK Election: Twitter wot won it for…?

Past UK elections were won by a mix of political manifesto pledges and party leader personalities. But the common platform used to communicate those since the 1950s was television or tabloid newspapers. The Sun newspaper bullishly proclaimed after the 1992 election that “It’s The Sun wot won it”. What the…

eSports – a new way to reach the 18-24 male audience?

It is often assumed that football is the key to targeting the 18-24 year male audience, but data speaks for itself – only 9.9% of the average audience for a Premier League game is in fact aged between the ages of 16 to 24 and male. However,…

Social Business challenge: how much time do we waste on email?

Something that has been hot on my radar at the moment for a number of reasons is the efficiency of communication and how inefficient email can be! The amount of wasting man hours we lose to checking emails, most of which we don’t even really need to read is phenomenal.

Reiterating Social Media ROI – how can you realistically calculate value?

Working at a social media agency in 2015, you would be surprised at how many people in the industry still only track social media by size of community. And yep you guessed it, this really does mean nothing. Forbes published a timely and pertinent article late last year around the…

notonthehighstreet shuns facades, likes Facebook, and sees five-fold sales increase via social – Social Speakeasy

It is one of the UK’s fastest-growing retailers and its name and mission have shunned the city centre for nine years. But notonthehighstreet.com, which recently underscored its aversion to the high street by opening its new Surrey headquarters overlooking the Richmond roundabout, has ambitions to – wait…

Social media giving beauty brands the facelift treatment

The beauty industry has gone through a significant revolution over the past 10 years, with rise of the visual social platforms such as YouTube, Pinterest, and Instagram, we are quickly learning that beauty brands need more than just a pretty face for social media. Consumers have become more and more…

Writing “opinions are my own” won’t save your job: 2 social regulations you must know

Yesterday I spent the day with one of our global clients getting into the nitty-gritty of social compliance. As a business operating globally, they sensibly wanted to understand the latest social regulations, ensuring their social media policy was updated – sage advice indeed, I would urge any business to…

3 social insights that move the needle on ROI for travel

There is a lot of social noise when it comes to travel. From flights and holidays to hotels and destinations; brands and consumers alike are chatting, posting and broadcasting on social media. In all that noise though, there is insight that can change the game for travel brands. Get it…

When does social become anti-social?

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…

Top tips for writing blogs

So you’re writing a blog, but where do you start? At Immediate Future we blog professionally for clients and ourselves, but sometimes even we as “experts” get writer’s block. A good place to start is with the audience – what do you think they want to read? It’s simple marketing…

Let your interests speak for yourself

When it comes to customer segmentation, customers tend to be pushed into pre-fabricated segments driven by criteria such as demographic, age, and income. And as we become more sophisticated, transaction details, online usage and CRMs have allowed for more specific segments. Focus groups and surveys provide even more data. However,…

5 vital tips for social (and by the way, some marketing directors are idiots!)

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…

Twitter versus a competitive Meerkat

“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…

The topsy turvy relationship between news and social media

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…

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Twitter hatches messenger platform

10 steps to avoid a Tinder style meltdown

What should your brand be tweeting?

To Bae, or not to Bae. The importance of dialect in social conversation.

6 ways you get dirty, debatable and downright dubious social data

Facebook Talks Business

Facebook fights dirty in video showdown

Managing social content during Silly Season

Time to re-think: balancing content creation & content distribution

Should Google buy Twitter?

How sticky are your customers?

A step closer to a truly ‘World Wide Web’

AppleMusic – A Multichannel Narrative

What can Cecil the Lion’s story teach us about social behaviour?

How To Find Your Customers On Instagram

Christmas in July

Big “Buy Button” Bonanza

Navigating The Chinese Social Media Landscape

Is LinkedIn’s company engagement key for growth?

Is social customer service overtaking traditional channels?

UK Companies not taking social media seriously enough?

Trouble on the horizon for mobile advertisers

Christmas in July? Amazon launches ‘Prime Day’

How’s Your Facebook Relevance Score?

Snap! No whitewash at the White House

The Pros and Cons of 999 Going Digital

5 ways to measure Snapchat marketing success

How paid is cannibalising ATL advertising

Facebook Changes Video Ad Charges

How going psycho with social content drives conversions

Telepathic Sharing, Laserbeam-Internet and Social AI – Zuckerburg Outlines FB’s Future

Tinder Marketing: Intrusive or Creative?

Cannes Lions – big brands discuss their content strategy

The difference a second makes

What is Project Lightning?

Usefulness is key for brands to really connect at festivals

The emoji: a digital communication revolution

Cashtags in a bit of a hash?

4 starter tips for effective real-time content optimisation

Why you should forget about social media training for your CEO

Future-proofing Twitter

10 Takeaways from Social Media World Forum

Measuring website content performance for success

It’s not a crisis, it’s an opportunity

True Relevance – The Basics of Data Driven Twitter Targeting

Empower your workforce and stay ahead of the social media curve

Is brevity knowledge, concise e-commerce messaging or Newspeak?

Keep a tight hold of those purse strings as Pinterest unleashes its buy button

Make a success of your event using social media

5 Tips to Help Manage Crises on Social

3 Top Tips to Ace Brand Storytelling in Social

Social Video Infographic

Digital Transformation in the Age of Social Magpies – the Museum of London at Social Speakeasy

How travel brands can tap into emotion to influence ROI

Shining a light on mobile ad-blocking

Why brands should not ignore customer queries on social

Join the ‘Social Media Day’ Revolution

How to target B2B clients at events on social

Maybe Twitter did decide the UK election after all

View performance stats for LinkedIn Publisher Posts

9 realities of real-time marketing

Does social reflect public opinion?

Understanding the social journey from screen to holiday selfie

Just how social was the #socialmarathon?

4 assessments brands must make before jumping into the multi-networking trend

Social Media Automation Pros and Cons

Is Klout any good for finding influencers? And how should we measure influence?

Why personalisation could be turning off your customers

Top 3 places travel consumers are hanging out on social

Facebook Topic Data – A new age of ‘Human Data’

Facebook’s shutdown of its Friend Data API is a big deal – here’s why.

27 Free Digital Tools to get you started (on Digital Transformation)

Are charities and non-profits making the most of social at major events?

3 ways to uncover the best times to post on social media

Social Media Brand Workout

Mobile optimisation now mandatory

Re-mapping your thinking – 3 ways to identify B2B prospects on social

5 do’s that will help embed a data driven culture

Finding your influencers through link listening