With seven in ten brands saying they plan to increase their presence across social media in 2012 (according to a recent survey by Awareness) we thought it would be a good idea to take a regular look at the current social media landscape. So here’s a quick run down of  what we think has been hot [...]

Image via Wikipedia According to research from a team at Carnegie Mellon University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Georgia Institute of Technology, we think that 25% of tweets are not worth reading. The study found that, when asked to rate tweets by people they follow, only 36% of tweets were marked favourably, 25% [...]

Over the past few months, activity on the social network Pinterest has exploded. Pinterest is focused on the lifestyles of its members and encourages them to create different virtual pinboards onto which they can ‘pin’ things they like. From September to December 2011, unique visitors to pinterest.com increased by a staggering 429% and over 3.3.million [...]

A simple social graph The social graph is not a new thing. The concept has been spoken about since at least the 1960s and is simply a way of representing (drawing) all the connections between people. Imagine a small island community of three people with no links to the outside world; you could represent this [...]

The financial services industry feels like it’s not ready for social media. You may think that this is due to regulatory restrictions, but there is more to it than that – and there are opportunities for the brands that overcome these misconceptions: 1. Financial services companies are worried about the risk of brand damage if [...]

Insights from Edelman’s full Marketing to the Modern Family study. The essence of parenting hasn’t changed – but the definition of who qualifies as a parent, and the day-to-day role of a parent, is rapidly evolving. More than ever, parents are taking to blogs and online communities to voice opinions, seek counsel, and share experiences [...]

Monumental shifts in the reputation landscape today are transforming how and what companies communicate. Radical changes caused by the Internet, globalization, NGOs/third parties, diminishing returns on traditional media, a more demanding general public and increasing social activism have created a new dynamic where the company behind the brand is becoming as or more important than individual brands themselves. Weber Shandwick [...]

Excerpts from the original post on bynd.com Today’s social consumer is one that can either be categorised as a high or low sharer, who utilises various digital channels differently depending on whether he or she is researching and interacting with high or low involvement products. High sharers prove to be the most valuable to brands [...]

Excerpts from Bazaarvoice’s Conversation Index, Q3 2011. Today, social gives consumers a direct link to brands. And brands recognize the huge responsibility that comes with this always-on, first-person input. As consumers convey exactly what they need and want, brands that take action will catapult beyond loyalty to real advocacy. Social provides a window into your [...]

Janrain today released findings from their second Social Identity study conducted by Blue Research, showing that consumer frustration at being asked to register on a website continues to grow and almost eight in ten people want social login to be offered as an alternative. Janrain commissioned Blue Research for the study, which was conducted among [...]