Month: November 2016

Fusion Nominated for 3 UK Search Awards

Posted on by Joshua Carter

Uk Search Shortlist

We’re delighted to share that Fusion Unlimited has been shortlisted for three awards at this November’s UK Search Awards, for our work across PPC, content marketing, and proprietary software development.

Our creation of a bespoke, hyper-local PPC campaign for Your Move and Reeds Rains has been shortlisted in the Best Local Campaign category. In the Best Use of Content Marketing category, we’ve been nominated for our execution of “The Ultimate UK Camping Guide” campaign alongside Halfords. Last but by no means least, our fresh from the lab Feed Catalyst tool is in contention for the title of Best Search Software Tool.

Now in its 6th year, the UK Search Awards is one of the most renowned celebrations of PPC, SEO, and Content Marketing work in the UK, spanning 28 categories and attracting hundreds of entries each year.

We’re proud to have been recognised for our hard work and innovation, and look forward to seeing if we can bring the awards home on the evening!

 

 

Social Media Roundup: November

Posted on by Helen Hargreave

November has been yet another intriguing month in the fast-moving social media sphere, with countless developments across multiple channels. We’re going to take a look through those which will likely have the greatest impact.

Firstly, it has emerged that Facebook has stopped insurer Admiral from using social media data to set policy prices. Admiral had planned to use data concerning the way people write statuses and the number of likes they receive as a method of perceiving which users will be safer drivers and adjusting prices accordingly. However, after a number of objections raised by prominent privacy-protection agencies, Facebook blocked Admiral’s plan at the last minute, claiming that the scheme would have contravened its privacy guidelines. As noble as this may seem, it is worth noting that if users begin to distrust Facebook with their personal data, their targeting systems for ads will become less effective, which implies that this decision could originate from a more self-serving perspective.

Furthermore, Facebook have announced a swathe of changes to their metrics, the most notable of which concerning organic reach. According to Facebook, summary figures over 7-day and 28-day periods on the ‘Page Insights’ dashboard had previously been miscalculated due to repeat visitors being treated as multiple unique users, and will now be on average 33% and 55% lower respectively. These errors have challenged faith in Facebook’s metrics once again, with many led to believe that non-paid posts had reached more people than they had. Facebook have claimed to be introducing greater third-party verification in their metrics in an attempt to dissuade the growing negative sentiment.

Over to Twitter now who have announced that they will be rolling out customer services bots into their direct messaging feature in an attempt to entice more brands to use it as a customer service platform. These automated responses can range from simple welcome messages responding to a DM, to helping with a range of common queries (for instance, allowing customers to get more information about the tracking of an order). This is encouraging news for businesses, as these features present a new range of customer service options, and may encourage users to direct complaints to a private channel, rather than airing their grievances over the public timeline. Although this is a step forward for Twitter, in reality this just playing catch-up with Facebook who launched a comparable service on their Messenger app back in April.

A series of interesting developments for businesses on Instagram have been announced this month. Firstly, Stories are getting more dynamic – the Boomerang app has now been attached to this feature, which will facilitate the creation of simple yet engaging video content, and the addition of Mentions to Instagram Stories provides the opportunity for businesses to engage with consumers in a new way. For instance, brands could tag users in their story as a more personalised way of interacting with customers in their premises or at their events, without having it remain on their feed permanently. Secondly, Instagram is introducing e-commerce features, designed to make the transition between finding inspiration and purchasing items easier. Although currently a US only trial, businesses will soon be able to tag products in their photos, provide information about them, and link through to their website with “Shop Now” buttons. This is extremely interesting news for retail businesses as it provides a key opportunity to mould an engagement channel into a sales channel. Lastly, following on from Facebook and Twitter’s further forays into live video last month, it should come as no surprise that Instagram are also planning on getting in on the act. As we mentioned in last month’s roundup, live video presents a world of opportunities for businesses, so this should be one to watch.

Finally, after last month’s mourning of Vine, it seems that its resurrection is already on the cards. According to multiple sources, Twitter has already received a number of bids from companies vying to purchase Vine. A new owner may mean new developments for the app, so we’ll be keeping an eye on how this one turns out…

Social Media Roundup: December

Posted on by Helen Hargreave

We’re into a new year, with undoubtedly many social media stories to come, however there are a few stories from the end of last year which have caught our eye… Here’s a roundup of those developments which will play an important role this coming year.

The biggest news dominating social media during December has concerned Facebook’s crackdown on ‘fake news’. After an outcry that hoax stories influenced the outcome of the US presidential election, updates have been made allowing users to flag news as fake, and Facebook has partnered with independent fact checking websites to help demonstrate where sources may be disputed. Although there aren’t necessarily any direct implications for businesses from this story, it is important that Facebook reacts strongly to this in order to reinvigorate confidence in the accuracy of its service, and with misinformation sweeping the site, it has to ensure users and businesses don’t begin to mistrust the network.

We hope you’re not getting tired of live video developments, because social media definitely isn’t. Twitter has now introduced the possibility to live stream directly from the app without the need for a Periscope account, facilitating the process of live-streaming even further. To go one better, Facebook launched 360 degree live video soon after, although Twitter has just introduced its own version as well. With live video becoming increasingly prevalent on social media, yet with such a variety of ways to use it, the opportunities for businesses to go live and engage directly with users (as previously mentioned in this article) are rapidly expanding.

Finally, Instagram has launched a few more features that provide interesting opportunities for businesses. Firstly, users now have the ability to save posts in order to revisit them later. By providing engaging content like a memorable ad, or showing a product in a way that resonates with users and making them save it, businesses have the opportunity to create a long-lasting impression on users. Elsewhere, Instagram Stories has had yet another new development, with addition of stickers & text allowing these Stories to be customised even further, the value of which to businesses we looked at last month. Instagram has celebrated reaching 600 million users this month, with 100 million of those joining in the last 6 months. This, coupled with the fact that Instagram is increasingly catering for businesses, has demonstrated the rising opportunity having a strong presence on Instagram can have.
We can expect 2017 to be as full of cutting-edge social media developments as this past year, so we’ll be continuing to watch closely as we enter the new year…