In this, the latest instalment of our Team Spotlight series, we sit down with Born Social’s Senior Account Manager Sophie Jones to hear more about what she gets up to every day at work!

What does your role entail?

Leading & supporting Born Social’s Account Managers to ensure they are offering the best value and service to our clients, as well as working alongside the rest of the leadership team to perfect processes & our company culture. I also work closely with the Account Managers to help them develop both personally and professionally within the company.

What were you doing before this?

I was a Food Writer for an online magazine before becoming an Account Manager at Born Social and then Senior Account Manager.

What’s the best part about your job?

Helping my team develop in their careers.

What’s the hardest part about your job?

Trying to think objectively and not always subjectively!

What’s the most surprising thing about your job?

The huge amount of support I get from not just the Leadership Team but my Account Managers too.

What would you say are the key skills required for someone in your role?

Excellent communication, determination, efficiency, organisation, approachability.

A piece of advice for someone looking to pursue a career in your area?

Organisation, efficiency and proactivity is the key to helping develop a strong team of Account Managers, so start every day with a clear inbox and a well prioritised to-do list!

If you weren’t doing this job, what would you do?

Editor of a food magazine!

What are you passionate about outside of work?

Food, sharks & baking.

More:

• Get in touch: sophie@bornsocial.co.uk
• Want to work with Sophie? Check out all the roles Born Social are hiring for HERE!

Team Spotlight: Senior Account Manager was originally published in Getting Social on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

In this, the third instalment of our Team Spotlight series, we sit down with Born Social’s Paid Media Manager Tom Lambert to hear more about what he gets up to every day at work!

What does your role entail?

I manage and advise on Social Media advertising spend across all of our clients

What were you doing before this?

I worked in FMCG sales in the drinks industry for 2 years (at Coca Cola Enterprises and Birchall Tea). I was also a barista for 8 months prior to starting here.

What’s the best part about your job?

Problem solving. I love making processes as efficient as possible.

What’s the hardest part about your job?

It can be quite technical at times, but you just have to embrace the challenge and be willing to work things out.

What’s the most surprising thing about your job?

The level of responsibility is far greater than I expected. You have a direct impact on your client’s bottom line, which was daunting at first, but is very rewarding when you get things right and really help their business grow.

What would you say are the key skills required for someone in your role?

You have to be very analytical, a perfectionist and have a strong desire to learn.

A piece of advice for someone looking to pursue a career in your area?

It sounds very niche, but it won’t be for long. People with the skill to advertise effectively on social are in huge demand, so get involved and start learning ASAP.

If you weren’t doing this job, what would you do?

I would be running my own coffee shop, either in Melbourne or New York.

What are you passionate about outside of work?

Food and drink. I live for specialty coffee, craft beer and awesome restaurants.

More:

• Get in touch: tom.lambert@bornsocial.co.uk
• Want to work with Tom? Born Social are hiring a Senior Paid Media Manager and Graduate Paid Media Manager!
• Check out all the roles we’re hiring for HERE!

Team Spotlight: Paid Media Manager was originally published in Getting Social on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

In this, the second instalment of our Team Spotlight series, we sit down with Born Social’s Influencer Manager Dani to hear more about what she gets up to every day at work!

What does your role entail?

Growing our influencer offering at Born Social by building an influencer network and executing creative influencer led social campaigns for our clients.

What were you doing before this?

UK Marketing & Social Coordinator for KeepCup.

What’s the best part about your job?

Getting to meet interesting and creative people externally and working with an amazing group of inspiring people internally.

What’s the hardest part about your job?

Being a one-man band, but this is an exciting challenge that will help shape the future of my role and the development of the company.

What’s the most surprising thing about your job?

I don’t know if this is all that surprising but no day is ever the same. This industry is incredibly fast-paced, which makes my day to day job pretty exciting.

What are the key skills required for someone in your role?

Resilience and passion

What advice would you give to someone looking to pursue a career in your area?

Don’t be afraid to let your passion shine through; it’s passion that carries you when the going gets tough!

If you weren’t doing this job, what would you do?

I would be an influencer ha!

What are you passionate about outside of work?

Yoga, travel and photography

More:

• Check out Dani’s latest piece ‘Why Davids should focus on micro-influencers’
• Get in touch: dani@bornsocial.co.uk
• Want to work with Dani? Check out the roles Born Social are hiring for here!

Team Spotlight: Influencer Manager was originally published in Getting Social on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

As part of a new Team Spotlight series, we sat down with Born Social’s Client Services Director Abbey to hear more about what she gets up to every day at work!

What does your role entail?

Ensuring all the people that we work with are as happy as they can be! I ask for feedback on our account teams and product to be able to work with teams here internally to ensure we’re delivering the best possible work, and with our Directors to ensure our product is evolving into something that understands its clients and their needs. Internally I’m a little more removed from the day to day ensuring I can offer an objective point of view!

What were you doing before this?

I was an Account Manager then Senior Account Manager here at Born Social.

What’s the best part about your job?

Being able to step back from the day to day, evaluate where we want to go as a business and see that come into fruition.

What’s the hardest part about your job?

Clients being unhappy is tough — we want everyone to have a really good experience of working with Born Social and if this hasn’t happened it’s a challenge not to take that personally. I always try and think about putting solutions in place rather than dwelling on the current problem.

What’s the most surprising thing about your job?

How much conflicting advice or insight into social media there is… There’s a lot published about it but limited reliable resources.

What are the key skills required for someone in your role?

Communication, problem solving, objectivity and ambition.

What advice would you give to someone looking to pursue a career in your area?

Talk to people in a range of agencies; the role will massively differ between companies so finding the right one for you is so important. Think about how you communicate and listen more, there are so many ways to develop these skills and a lot of thought leadership on it!

If you weren’t doing this job, what would you do?

I’m obsessed with documentaries, so have always wanted to get involved with their production in some way!

What are you passionate about outside of work?

Good food and great documentaries!

More:

• Get in touch: abbey@bornsocial.co.uk
• Want to work with Abbey? Check out the roles Born Social are hiring for here!

Team Spotlight: Client Services Director was originally published in Getting Social on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

What to expect on your feeds in 2016.

by RKZ, Creative at BORN SOCIAL.

We’re already halfway through January. That’s 1/24th of the year over and done with. 440-odd hours of our lives. Gone. Never to be experienced again. How time flies! With the explosion of Snapchat to the Internet constantly breaking in 2015, we decided to delve into what 2016 may have in store for us.

As Creatives working in a monumentally fast-paced social media agency, we tend to gravitate towards visuals — aesthetically pleasing ones at that. When tasked with figuring out what 2016 may hold for us in regards to social media, we all — completely unintentionally — focused on Instagram. Considering it fate, we decided to discuss just that: a singular platform; a celestial being! The big cheese! Et cetera.

Last year was undoubtedly Instagram’s to lose. So what did we see on the platform specifically?

“2015 was the year of storytelling,” says our newest creative, Maxi. “This included witty captions and continuous themes throughout feeds created through colour schemes, palettes and specific styles of photography.” It was clear to see that people began considering Instagram as more than just a platform for singular images. This was catalysed by Instagram changing the grid on desktop to mirror how you’d see it on your phone. “Instagram became a halfway house between Tumblr and Twitter for power users and influencers to build on their following,” says Shaun. “Using the caption to share large copy and build on the images; hashtags increasingly being resigned to the first comment so they serve the purpose, without cluttering the caption.”

Senior Creative Paddy shared thoughts on the bigger changes and how brands were leveraging themselves in 2015, “Instagram had sizeable hurdles to jump in the form of monetisation through advertising and tore a couple of pages out of the rule book with looping videos and ditching the notorious square image upload. For me, it really matured as a platform in 2015, transitioning from a host of sporadic life updates into a genuine source of inspiration. We’ve seen the blogging approach to copy, proving that audiences will engage with more than 140 characters.” Sorry Twitter. “We’ve seen accounts like Symmetry Breakfast stay true to—and owning—a core visual style, and countless brands and accounts using tricks like the rule of threes, knolling and strict colour palettes.

Really, it was about looking at the big picture (no pun intended). Yes, every post needs to be true to your brand but people are now regularly treating accounts as a whole portfolio.”

So, who really did well in 2015?

@sirjoancornella (Maxi’s Pick). A combination of art and design with humour. He combines both worlds on his account with short, witty comics in consistent colour schemes. A visually pleasing and culturally insightful feed.

@dirtylemon (Paddy’s Pick). Dirty Lemon combine a smart aesthetic with flawless image sourcing, punchy personality and smart branding. It makes it hard to spot a product plug. They know their brand, their audience and their platform which has made for a really classy brand experience. They’re not doing the ‘in-house intern’ approach, but rather properly designing a brand presence on social.

@rhymesanddines (Sam’s Pick). A favourite account of mine. Matching stunning plates of food from acclaimed chefs with — often unknown — alternative music. It works beautifully and simplistically.

@vuhlandes (Shaun’s Pick). His fashion and model photography embraces the hard and dangerous edge of native Detroit, blurring the lines between documentary, street fashion and societal culture. He probably has most of my likes on any account this year.

Now we’ve seen some of last year’s MVPs, let’s talk Instagram’s much-anticipated future. Creative by Creative…

“In 2016, I think we’ll see other genres of bitesize entertainment reaching across. Snaps of amazingly executed videos, timelapsing of puddles forming and evaporating, etc. My account to follow: @andrewhector. His sense of space and composition is magical and he’s growing pretty quick.” — Jason

“I think Instagram will continue to loosen its grip on their users in 2016. Including links in copy has to be around the corner and it’s only a matter of time until they introduce third-party scheduling tools, particularly as advertising contributes more and more to their revenue. Will this allow users to be more active or ultimately water down what has made Instagram so great? I don’t know, but we’ll find out.

My account to watch in 2016? Surprise surprise, it’s an illustrator. But not just any illustrator, he’s an absolute game changer. Most people broke the Internet last year; @jean_jullien won it. He is the artist behind — arguably — the most successful image of the year:

His work encompasses genuine humour and naive stylisation that isn’t visually intimidating. The focus is on relatable subjects that allow him to transcend the niche world of illustrators and penetrate social on a ‘viral’ scale. He’s reactive, resourceful and recognisable. Keep an eye out for his charming characters popping up in social streams and ATL campaigns throughout 2016. And when they do, drop his name and walk away.” — Paddy

“Advertising is going to make or break the platform. Instagram needs to find the balance between making money and keeping users happy otherwise they could start making users look elsewhere to share their photos. My account to watch: @gettyimages. They are a renowned source for journalistic photography and — as other outlets like AP and Reuters — have made excellent use of Twitter to share text-based news, too. As Instagram starts to drift from a platform exclusively for lifestyle and fashion accounts like Getty bring some much needed — high quality — diversity.” — Shaun

“For me, 2016 will be the year of curation. One to watch in 2016 would be @stellaspoils: a curated daily newsletter for the cool kids.” — Maxi

Last but (hopefully) not least, are my thoughts on it all: “We’re past the point of multi-grid images and really elaborate looking profiles. There’s going to be a lot more product placement as a user, and a smarter Search section. Managing multiple accounts is an absolute necessity for Instagram this year, and now more than ever you’ll see powerhouse influencers and one-person brands explode. For example, I’m excited to see what @1924us does in 2016. A beautifully personable and creative storyteller; fantastic copy and photography. His account is most definitely a sight for sore eyes. Ironically, those eyes are probably from constant scrolling.”

So there you have it, folks. Creatives talking shop, curation and what they think we’ll be seeing on Instagram this year. In case you were curious, you can scope our Instagram feed here, as well as the creatives: Maxi, RKZ, Sam, Shaun, Paddy, and Jason!

The State of Instagram was originally published in Getting Social on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Once a week here at BORN SOCIAL HQ we gather the whole team together for half an hour to talk through bigger topics relevant to either us as people or as an industry. As 2015 draws to a close what could be bigger than the prospect of 2016 and the excitement that it brings?

We decided to use the time this week to put our collective brains together and discuss what we see leading the way in social media for 2016. What would Facebook bring out next? Is A.I. going to take over the world? Will we be living in a Virtual Reality world? Here’s just a few of the things we discussed:

1. Video Content… (Again)

Before you roll your eyes, hear us out. Video has been among everyone’s predictions for at least the past five years and to be fair they haven’t been wrong. Each year video content has evolved; from long form YouTube videos to a six-second Vine. In 2016 expect that evolution to continue with the introduction of 360-degree video and VR technologies. On a smaller scale, with consumers getting closer and closer to their favourite brands, it is only natural that they don’t want to only see the polished finished product, but also want to experience the behind-the-scenes. With the introduction of live streaming apps such as Periscope in 2015 and the ongoing evolution of Snapchat Stories, this has become a very real possibility. We’ve already seen pioneering brands such as Burberry stream their runway shows live to the everyday consumer and in 2016 we’re preparing for this to go mainstream. Expect more raw video content giving communities an uncensored look into the inner workings of their beloved brands.

2. Tool For Change

From the ice bucket challenge to change.org, we’ve already seen the seeds of activism being sewn, but often this has had few real-world implications. However, recent activities from trans activists: such as protesting Germain Greer’s appearance at Cardiff university, and voicing mass disappointment with films like Stonewall and Zoolander 3, have had impactful and magnified results on influencing discussion and even behaviour. Is 2016 the year that democracy started to truly move online? Will we see social media movements begin to shape political policies? It is becoming increasingly difficult to ignore the voice of the masses with individuals becoming more invested in protecting their online reputation. Perhaps this will lead to online conversation becoming synonymous with real world action.… The question is, how will this impact the perception and positioning of brands?

3. Facebook Fever

Facebook will continue to evolve from a ‘social network’ to something a lot bigger… their ecosystem of apps will continue to grow, with the goal being that everything you do through your mobile is done through a Facebook app. M (Facebook’s new virtual assistant) will be baked into Messenger, Instant Articles will encourage brands to publish directly to Facebook, Instagram will continue to dominate the photo space, and e-commerce integration will become slicker. 2016 will be about continuing this shift.

4. Influencers

Over the past year there has definitely been a lot of activity in the world of Influencers. Brands have begun widely utilising them to reach and engage new audiences while platforms have been defining their stance on the matter, i.e Youtube introducing terms and conditions to brand sponsored videos. The question in 2016 is how will this develope? Some say the world of influencers is going to become oversaturated. With more options for brands will influencers find working with brands becoming less lucrative? Or will influencers continue to rise in popularity among brands but risk losing their authenticity and therefore, popularity with their own communities?

Only one thing is for certain, if you thought 2015 was fast paced, then you better buckle up for 2016. Watch this space.

Social Media Trends 2016 was originally published in Getting Social on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

1) Video is evolving

Last year during SMWLDN we wrote about the rise of video as a major theme throughout the week. This year, a surge in live or near-live video apps such as Snapchat and Periscope is prompting an evolution (or, perhaps in some ways, a ‘devolution’) in the quality and format of video on social media. This is demonstrated in two key ways:

Vertical video — which had practically reached joke status amongst content creators as a hangover from the earliest days of mobile filming — is making a comeback. Optimized for the way that consumers actually use their phones to both film and view media, it feels natural that we would have returned to this. Interestingly, this extends wider to other apps such as Facebook and Twitter as we begin to realise users just don’t like to rotate their phones.

Raw footage — captured through live streaming apps or simply quickly uploaded, makes up for what it lacks in finesse with its ability to relay information in real time. As video becomes a more disposable medium, it’s less about taking the time to upload high-quality content to platforms such as YouTube and rather about efficiency of information. This is becoming even more popular with the creation of apps such as Beme.

2) Don’t be a bad first date

Imagine that you’re sitting across the table from someone on a first date and all they’re talking about is themselves. What they do, where they go and how amazing they are. Let’s be honest, there probably wouldn’t be a date number two. So why should it be any different when speaking as a brand? Treat every interaction as if you’re on a first date with your community; listen to what they have to say and don’t be afraid to ask them questions. Engage with them around relevant and meaningful topics of conversation related to their interests, and then, once they’re engaged, you can introduce your interests and explore how they align. Only if you’re sure it’s welcome should you ever bring the conversation back to yourself (this can be a real mood-killer if it’s done out of line!).

3) Insights aren’t set in stone

Whilst research can provide good guidance in terms of social media best practice, i.e ideal times to post or the best types of content to publish, every community is unique and should be treated as such. The most valuable research you could ever gain for your social media marketing are the ones you gather on your community yourself. You can spend a lot of time studying many an infographic online but there is no guarantee that this information will transfer directly to your own audience. There are plenty of useful analytics tools out there and no one will know how your users respond better than you do. Don’t be afraid to trial things with your community and establish your own formula for success.

4) Look for opportunities to display information in interesting ways

Not everything you share on social media needs to be completely original. Often the best route to take is a middle road between curation and creation — repurposing content that you know will be enjoyed by your audience, whilst putting your own unique spin on it. Think about how you can display information that is already out there — can data be combined or visualised in some other manner? Are there inconsistencies or tropes that other people may not have noticed yet, but would enjoy? Sometimes adding your opinion to an existing idea is just as valuable, and engaging, as creating something new.

5) Jack-of-all-trades, master of none

It might seem counterintuitive, but there really is no room for an all-rounder account in the social media space. With so much information out there, committing to truly adding value in one area will cut through the noise, attracting an engaged audience who genuinely want to connect. So find a niche, become an expert and make it your own.

6) Millennials are mere mortals too

Millennials (also known as the Generation Y) are the demographic cohort following Generation X. There are no precise dates when the generation starts and ends. Most researchers and commentators use birth years ranging from the early 1980s to the early 2000s.

Contrary to modern folklore, millennials are still using Facebook — they just use it in a very different way to older generations. For them, it has predominantly become an organisational tool for managing large numbers of friends, with the key functions being groups, messenger and Events. Most creative or expressive engagement takes place on Instagram. Here are five points to remember when targeting millennials:

1. The key platforms for millennials are YouTube, Facebook, Snapchat and Instagram. (Note the absence of Twitter.)
2. If you run a campaign on Snapchat, don’t make it polished and overproduced. The best campaigns are very informal, offering a behind-the-scenes feel. (See point 1).
3. All content should be visual and short.
4. You should always represent the brand faithfully — don’t feel that you should appropriate.
5. Don’t patronise.

7) Influencers are people, not marketing tools

Social media influencers are the modern day movie A-lister. They get offered product on a weekly, if not daily, basis. If you are a brand and are looking for an influencer to promote your product, as every brand is most likely doing right now, how can you get your product across in such a competitive market? One top tip is to ‘make your approach count’. Engage with influencers by tweeting them and becoming an active member of their community. Treat them as you would your most loyal fan and don’t look to them as a one-stop marketing machine. Focus more on building a long-lasting business and personal relationships.

If you took something else from Social Media Week then we’d love to hear what it was — leave us a note, or tweet us.

7 Things We Learnt At Social Media Week 2015 was originally published in Getting Social on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

They say time flies when you’re having fun, and if we’re being honest that’s exactly what happened to us in the month of July. At the risk of making things too thrilling too quickly, shall we just launch right into it with the most important news of the month then? Well, Snapchat have updated their interface so you can now watch snaps with a single tap.

One. Single. Tap.

We know what you’re thinking.

“What’s the point in reading on after that kind of bombshell?”
“If a fork were made of gold, would it still be considered silverware?”
“How do they expect to top news like that in the rest of this piece?”

Truth is, maybe we can’t. But there’s really only one way to find out for sure, isn’t there…

After 11 years in business and with 1.49 billion monthly active users, one would assume that Facebook is doing pretty well for itself. And if their latest Q2 results are anything to go by, that’s exactly the case. This quarter saw the network well and truly make up for any losses they reported on in Q1, all of which is outlined in this great article from TechCrunch (should you desire details.)

Surprisingly*, Facebook also made changes to their News Feed algorithm. The latest instalment of changes is to do with video content, and takes into account a wider range of users interactions with videos to determine what sits where within the feed.

(*Not actually a surprise.)

Speaking of Q2, Twitter also released their results last month. The network saw ad revenue jump 63% year-on-year, with revenue reaching $502 million. Despite this they expressed “deep dissatisfaction with the pace of [their] growth”, and are consequently planning user experience improvements and marketing blitz’s in the months to come. There’s more to be said about that, and you can find it in this part of the internet.

For a long time now, Instagram’s web interface has lacked the technical capabilities of its flagship app. Last month saw the platform introduce long awaited updates that allow users to search for hashtags, locations, and profiles from the peace and quiet of your desktop.

In lesser Snapchat news, last month saw the network’s Discover feature move to a place on the app where users can actually see it. The update makes the content far more conspicuous — word on the street says the redesign had lead to significantly more traffic, with one anonymous advertiser stating that their views have doubled.

And last but not least, Google officially ended the forced Google+ and YouTube integration. In the coming weeks, YouTube comments will no longer require Google+ and as of last week comments made on YouTube won’t appear on Google+ profiles .

On one hand, if any of the above hasn’t made sense (or you just don’t feel like thinking about it,) then feel free to get in touch with us. On the other hand, if you totally understand everything we just said it would mean a lot if you hit the ‘recommend’ button below! And on the other hand, WHERE DID THIS HAND COME FROM?! GET IT OFF! GET IT OFF!

Getting Social in July was originally published in Getting Social on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Well there goes the first half of the year! We’ve survived the first heatwave of the season, our trusty ol’ coats are having quality time in the wardrobe and we’re all doing our best to spend as much time as we can by the sea (on the weekend, of course.) Summer is here once again and we’re well and truly excited by the adventures that follow in its wake. Speaking of exciting things… Facebook Messenger now allows those without a Facebook account to use the service, Twitter’s CEO stepped down from his position (don’t worry — Snoop Dogg quickly stepped up offering to take the reigns at Twitter HQ) and the one and only Reddit celebrated its 10th birthday. There’s more to be said about all that, so here we go.

Facebook introduced animated GIFs to the platform…
Yep, you heard correctly. Autoplaying GIFs have finally made their way to the wonderful world of Facebook. Sadly, as we speak the functionality is not available on brand pages, but we’re hopeful that it’s only a matter of time until the feature is rolled out universally. (Watch this space.)

…and is making (more) changes to the News Feed.
Previously posts appearing in your news feed were deemed ‘important’ based on the engagement it received from your friends/fans, however with Facebook’s latest update, their algorithm now factors in the amount of time one spends looking at a particular piece of content. Considering the platform’s ultimate goal is to show you the content that matters to you, this latest update seems to be a step in the right direction.

Twitter removed the Direct Message character limit…
In what seems to be a bid to compete with all the other messaging services out there, Twitter have lifted their 140 character limit for DM thus allowing communication on the platform to be far less restricted.

…launched Audience Insights…
Last month saw Twitter launch their new analytics tool, Audience Insights. The tool provides information surrounding audience demographics, lifestyle and interests — offering marketers a deeper understanding of those who interact with them and therefore how to best shape communication efforts.

And now autoplays videos and GIFs.
Autoplaying media on social is by no means a new thing, so it makes sense for Twitter to get in on the fun. As of last month videos and GIFs uploaded to the network will play without any clicks necessary, unless you’d like sound with your videos — in which case a simple tap/click will do the trick. That said if the idea of your entire feed jumping about on the screen is less than appealing, users can choose to opt-out. In other great news Twitter’s senior product manager has said that “if a video is not 100% in view, [advertisers won’t] be charged,” a certain comfort for brands utilising the platform for their video marketing endeavours.

Instagram has overhauled it’s search and discover feature.
Last month saw the photo sharing platform launch a new way to explore and search, now allowing users to search via specific categories, real-time events and locations.

And last but certainly not least, Snapchat tested branded Geofilters...
It was always only going to be a matter of time, but last month saw Snapchat extend its custom geofilters to marketers as part of their monetisation strategy. Geofilters paid for by companies are set to be highlighted with a small ‘sponsored’ stamp, but will otherwise appear exactly the same as pre-existing filters.

…and spent 1 minute 29 seconds being kind of boring.
A zero-fun (and somewhat cringeworthy) infomercial explaining the benefits of Snapchat advertising to advertisers themselves? It’s probably best that we let the video talk for itself. That said, they are onto something with this 3V stuff, so not for the first time… watch this space.

If any of the above hasn’t made sense, or you simply don’t feel like thinking about it, then get in touch with us. It’s kind of what we’re good at.

If you totally understand everything we just said it would mean a lot if you hit the ‘Recommend’ button below! (True story.)

Getting Social in June was originally published in Getting Social on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

In what feels like the blink of an eye, here we are half way through 2015. As May drew to its close the music lovers in our midst readied their wellies for the onset of festival season, one guy in the office briefly declared it “short weather” and we’ve spotted the first bouts of sunburn on the tube. On top of all that last month saw a fair few things happen on the internet — Kimye announced that baby number 2 is on its way, the President of the United States took to Twitter, and Shia LaBeouf did this. No words. Believe it or not that barely scratches the surface, so read on…

Facebook introduced a call button…
When running a Facebook campaign, advertisers now have the option to add an ‘instant call’ button to their page promotion, opening more direct-response opportunities for businesses. So with just the tap of a button, users now have the ability to call businesses directly from an ad on the Facebook app.

…and began testing an Ebay-esque functionality.
As we speak, Facebook is testing a new news feed option that allows users a unified view of items for sale across their personal groups, as well as the ability to search public groups. The feature indicates a step in the direction of companies like Craigslist, Gumtree and Ebay, minus the fees associated with third party sites. The feature is in its final stages of testing and is expected to launch worldwide over the coming weeks.

Snapchat announced a different kind of video ad.
Last month, the platform announced it would unveil 10-second ads that cost 2 cents per view, creating a new way for publishers on Snapchat Discover to generate revenue. Details of said announcement are still somewhat hazy, but never fear — when more information is available we’ll be sure to let you know.

Twitter updated its search results interface.
Are you a logged in user of Twitter? Have you ever searched for something? Well then, this news is for you, because last month the platform updated its search interface design. With a greater emphasis on images and enhanced search filtering options, the update now highlights important tweets, images and accounts that relate to whatever you’re searching for.

Speaking of searching and Twitter…
Google has added tweets to its search results on mobile as an attempt to improve the ‘real-time’ information available via the search engine — not to mention the larger audience the partnership provides Twitter and its users. Said update is available via the official Android and iOS Google apps, as well as on mobile browsers.

And while we’re on the topic of Google…
Last month saw the online giant introduce Google Photos, a “complete cloud photo management and back up solution” available on all Android and iOS devices as well as the web. Whilst the functionality is markedly similar to Apple Photos, its differs in its image recognition abilities and costings. To explain, a search for 'my dog in the park' will automatically return photos that match that subject matter. Awesome.

If any of the above hasn’t made sense, or you don’t have the time/energy to think about it, then get in touch with us. It’s kind of what we’re good at.

If you totally understand everything we just said it would mean a lot if you hit the ‘Recommend’ button below! True story.

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