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What’s all this chatter about a #royalwedding?

We at immediate future feel it’s only right to flag Will and Kate’s wedding engagement this week. Over the past couple of days #royalwedding has been the number one trending topic on Twitter, followed by Kate Middleton at number two and Prince William at number three. As…

immediate Insights – Converting to purchase from social media

The conversion from “like” to purchase is currently a hot topic for brands seeking to optimise social media opportunities; and recent research from YouTube, supported by the IAB, has highlighted the magnitude of this challenge. 60% of people who “like” or…

Social Media vs Simon Cowell

Love it or hate it, the X Factor has taken to our screens again and the hype around the show is even bigger than ever. From now until Christmas, the British public (willingly or forced) eat, sleep and breathe the X Factor as it not only dominates…

Social shopping, Chilean miners and how not to crowdsource – a look at October’s top social media news

Can you believe it, it’s the end of October already. Summer days are officially over and the Christmas build up is upon us. We’ve put together a summary of the top social media stories this month, for your delectation and in case you’ve been stuck down a hole for the…

Google News and Sharing – is social search the future?

Earlier this week Google added a subtle, but interesting addition to its search function. For some search terms, news results are now displaying a ‘shared by’ number alongside the link. For the searches I’ve tried so far, these ‘shares’ only relate to Twitter but I’ve seen other people…

Social media agency talking retail!

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…

To gaffe or not to gaffe. What is the real impact of a social media crisis?

I attended the interesting, informative and insightful Social Collective (see #socol for tweets from the event) last week. One of the subjects touched upon was how far negative comments/activity on social media impacted a brand’s reputation. It got me thinking about some of the brand “gaffes” that…

Is Geomium the app to take location truly mainstream?

I am always keen to research and review a new industry trend or topic, therefore, I wanted to draw your attention to a new kid on the social media block – Geomium! With over 550 million users, Facebook is undisputedly the cream of the crop, but a relatively…

Social Commerce – converting conversation into commerce

Last week I attended a pretty insightful WOMMA UK talk where Dr. Paul Marsden presented his latest thinking on The Rise of Social Commerce: Converting Conversations to Commerce. For those of you that don’t know him, Marsden is a renowned digital marketer, author and social psychologist. He…

Is social media a name-changing game?

A few weeks ago Google‘s chief executive, Eric Schmidt, suggested people may be forced to change their names in order to escape youthful misdemeanours immortalised online on social media sites, like…

Places places everywhere?

So it’s official. Facebook has moved into the location-sharing space in the UK. At the time of writing there are already 150 million Places users at this stage across Japan, UK and US. Everyone is probably familiar with what Facebook Places is, but just to recap. It’s…

Holy social media Batman

The Pope is here in the UK today, but where is he in social media land? I thought I would do a quick check on some of the big networks and see what kind of presence the Holy Father has.One quick search and we can see he…

Is Twitter Growing Up?

Mashable have just written about the facebookification of twitter. We’d been having the same conversation in our office. With the launch of the new Twitter coming out of nowhere and then building into a frenzy of energy, the introduction to the next generation of twitter has been…

I spy with my little eye…

With rumours of a Facebook “stalker button” circulating right now, once again questions are being raised on the necessity and safety of a button which effectively lets you monitor individual’s online movements without their permission. The fear of a Big Brother style entity has…

Ping me…?

Yesterday Apple launched their first social network, Ping. Less than 24 hours later this new platform has received extremely mixed reviews and users are already highlighting issues with the system. With numerous social networking sites already…

Beware, the world is watching you: what brands can learn from CatBinLady

If I said the name Mary Bale or Cat Bin Lady last week, you probably wouldn’t know what I was talking about. Before now, Mary Bale was just your normal, everyday person…until she decided to throw a cat in a bin! Unfortunately for Ms Bale, her actions were caught on…

The Foursquare gravy train

With Foursquare now topping two million users across the world, the location-based social network has launched its own online store, giving die hard fans the chance to buy Foursquare memorabilia. Products on offer include a mayor crown t-shirt, button badges and branded stickers. The new store is…

Who will follow Fast Follow?

Earlier this week Twitter announced a new feature for US mobile users, ‘Fast Follow.’ Twitter’s blog gives all the details but to summarise in a nutshell, Fast Follow will allow anyone to sign up to receive Twitter alerts via mobile SMS. Clearly aimed at passive users, Fast…

Social media in a league of its own

With a new football season underway and an eagerly anticipated Premier League campaign due to start this weekend, I’ve been considering my consumption of the global game recently and how it’s changed. Not just for individuals, but for brands as well. Everyone knows football is big business…

Tumblr’ing into the top spot?

With Facebook having just announced it recently hit the half billion user mark and with Twitter declaring this week that it received its 20 billionth tweet, it’s hard to comprehend that there may be another phenomenon biting at the heels…

Social media gives sport invaluable link to fans

We are in the midst of the 2010 Tour de France and the race has come down to just two riders. Andy Schleck is just eight seconds behind “Berty the Accountant” (Alberto Contador)…

Marking a milestone with memories

Facebook is expected to reach the very impressive 500 million user milestone this week. Putting this half billion member mark in perspective, The Washington Post reports that, “the population inhabiting Facebook now equals that of the United States, Japan and Germany combined. Or, two…

Social Media Lens uncovers the truth about social media

Taking a look at the evolution of social media as a communications tool over the past year, it is clear that one thing in particular has changed, businesses now take it seriously and include in their communications strategy. Brands now automatically lose their shine with customers if they do not…

It’s good to talk!

In this day and age of social networking, many PRs are now beginning to rely too heavily on email and instant messenger to sell-in their stories to the media. Gone are the days of the telephone and the hour long lunch briefing. Now it seems, we are becoming guilty of…

How the hungry corporate caterpillar hatched into a social butterfly

Back in the day, we were taught not to mix business with pleasure. These days - with the help of Web 2.0 - the two worlds have collided to form an altogether more social way of doing business.

Should some brands be unfriended?

Facebook is a huge success, we all know that. But are major brands being blinded by the sheer volume of people using the channel? First it was Levis who started using Facebook’s latest “like” functionality to allow people to…

Everybody wants to rule the world

Once every four years the whole country goes a bit crazy for a few months. Flags get attached to cars, people with little or no interest in football suddenly get wrapped up in pub debates about who exactly should be England’s third-choice goalkeeper, and businesses the length and breadth of…

Chatroulette – a step too far?

As we all know, for some time now, media-savvy companies have been taking full advantage of YouTube, Facebook and Twitter, for a combination of brand-building, direct sales, customer service and PR. This has left us all wondering what will be the next big ‘thing’. Could it be the controversial Chatroulette?…

Has Google lost its buzz??

Times they are a changin’, or so it seems. The powerhouse of the internet that is Google has a pretender to its crown. Facebook has managed to gain a level of momentum that could well see it take over as the most…

Customer service and Twitter – friend or foe?

Having some issues with a new service we’d just subscribed to, I was frustrated to find that I’d have to wait nine hours to call a helpline based in the US. Turning to Twitter, I found @jivesupport and pinged them a tweet asking for…

Does the death of Bebo put pressure on Twitter?

Since the news broke that Bebo is in terminal decline, opinion formers have been asking: why did it fail? Some, like The Times, have pointed towards a lack of monetisation through advertising. If we hold up the Facebook smart advertising model as the best commercial blueprint, this…

A look at Easter’s digital campaigns

Another Easter over and once again too much chocolate has been consumed in my household! Along with Christmas, Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day and other seasonal celebrations, Easter is a key time for brands to invest in their marketing activities. With an increasing number of social media, mobile and other digital…

Social Media for Social Change

Recently there has been a major shift in the world of Corporate Social Responsibility. Climate change and the current economic climate have pushed companies to adopt a more pro-active approach to CSR. The bottom line is now centred around people, planet and profit. As businesses aim to build more sustainable…

Twitter Spam

Twitter‘s habit of falling foul to phishing attacks may have come to an end this week as the company announced that it’s stepping up its efforts to eliminate malicious attacks with some new features, described as being able…

Social networks getting Blippy?

You may have heard about the new US start-up that’s been making the headlines recently. Of course, it’s yet another social network. But this is a social network with a very different twist. Backed by a Twitter…

The libraries of the future

The British Library has recently launched the UK Web Archive, offering access to a huge range of web content that otherwise might have disappeared into a ‘digital black hole.’ Despite being plagued by legal issues currently hindering them from recording much more than 1% of the 8…

Social Media – a reliable source for journalists?

This week the Guardian online posted a blog on the rise of social media as a relevant source of information for journalists, as revealed by a recent US survey which claimed that 56% of reporters view it as an important tool for producing stories. The research carried…

Too many social media cooks?

The new Buzz module will allow all 176 million users of Google’s Gmail service to see their friends’ live status updates, and share photos and videos. Sound familiar? Been there, done that, got the Facebook/Twitter account already? With social media success stories like Facebook claiming 400 million…

Is your online PR strategy ready for real-time search?

You might have heard a lot of chatter about real-time search recently, with Facebook buying Friendfeed (a microblogging service with some strong real-time search technology) and Google unveiling Caffeine, a more real-time focused version of its own search technology. Although real-time search is currently…

Is PR welcome in social media?

Let’s be honest about this, on the whole the PR industry is not welcome in social media. People consider their blogs, Facebook pages and Twitter streams to be their personal space, and they don’t want us oily spin-merchants barging in and shoving our brand messages up in…

PR practitioners considered ‘incapable’ of online PR

A survey by Webitpr and noted on E-consultancy.com reveals that traditional PRs think that fellow practitioners are incapable of performing comprehensive online PR campaigns.Having spoken to many hard working, imaginative, and successful PRs over the years, it is clear that the PR…

Conversations on Disney and Nintendo are the most positive in social network groups

Positive and negative comments in groups on social network sites, such as [tag]Facebook[/tag], [tag]Flickr [/tag]and [tag]MySpace[/tag] reveal [tag]Disney[/tag], [tag]Nintendo[/tag] and [tag]Google[/tag] are the most popular brands. This comes from our latest research, [tag]Brands in Social Media[/tag]. [tag]Social networking[/tag] groups are proving very popular in the UK. They are a very…

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What’s all this chatter about a #royalwedding?

immediate Insights – Converting to purchase from social media

Social Media vs Simon Cowell

Social shopping, Chilean miners and how not to crowdsource – a look at October’s top social media news

Google News and Sharing – is social search the future?

Social media agency talking retail!

To gaffe or not to gaffe. What is the real impact of a social media crisis?

Is Geomium the app to take location truly mainstream?

Social Commerce – converting conversation into commerce

Is social media a name-changing game?

Places places everywhere?

Holy social media Batman

Is Twitter Growing Up?

I spy with my little eye…

Ping me…?

Beware, the world is watching you: what brands can learn from CatBinLady

The Foursquare gravy train

Who will follow Fast Follow?

Social media in a league of its own

Tumblr’ing into the top spot?

Social media gives sport invaluable link to fans

Marking a milestone with memories

Social Media Lens uncovers the truth about social media

It’s good to talk!

How the hungry corporate caterpillar hatched into a social butterfly

Should some brands be unfriended?

Everybody wants to rule the world

Chatroulette – a step too far?

Has Google lost its buzz??

Customer service and Twitter – friend or foe?

Does the death of Bebo put pressure on Twitter?

A look at Easter’s digital campaigns

Social Media for Social Change

Twitter Spam

Social networks getting Blippy?

The libraries of the future

Social Media – a reliable source for journalists?

Too many social media cooks?

Is your online PR strategy ready for real-time search?

Is PR welcome in social media?

PR practitioners considered ‘incapable’ of online PR

Conversations on Disney and Nintendo are the most positive in social network groups