Our social media blog posts.

Instagram, our favourite photo-sharing app, has announced that it is now taking steps to remove inauthentic account activity from its platform. But what does this mean for everyday users? Well, it means that Instagram is cracking down on all the fakers - fake followers, fake likes, and fake comments. All generated from accounts that are using third-party apps to grow their popularity and social media following artificially. With almost 1 billion users worldwide, Instagram has managed to stay fairly free of fake news and spam in comparison to

Social media is dominating our lives more and more each year, with the average person spending almost two hours a day on social platforms! However, with the huge growth in the social media experience over the past few years, concerns have been growing in regards to the impact of the medium on our health.This recent health consciousness seems to be the catalyst for the latest Facebook news that’s been blowing up online over the past few days. Facebook acknowledged the impact of the platform on the health of the site’s nearly 2bn users in

For a long time now, Twitter’s founder and CEO Jack Dorsey has been toying with the idea of scrapping their famous 140-character limit in favour of something a little less restrictive. In January 2016, the hashtag #beyond140 was doing the rounds after Dorsey posted a Twitter rant about the use of screenshots to convey more text on Twitter, asking the question “what if text… was actually text?” Rumours then began spreading about the limit increasing to a whopping 10,000 characters, prompting Dorsey to snap out of his musings and reassure

Did you know that Instagram has over 700 million users? That’s a lot of people and therefore a lot of opportunity. Instagram also offers benefits that other platforms simply do not, particularly when it comes to engagement rates. The Instagram community is an active, friendly bunch and offer impressive levels of interaction with content on the platform. Say hello to some serious marketing potential.Instagram is not just about pictures of fluffy animals and poached eggs on smashed avocado. The platform harbours a lot of potential to really

Amazon have launched Amazon Spark to their US based customers, a quasi social network come e-commerce platform that looks to capitalise on the potential of social commerce and the ‘walled gardens’ that are pursued by the big social platforms. Initial reports are of an Instagram style feed with the added functionality of tagging specific products and inventory checks direct from Amazon. The theory being that users can browse Amazon Spark, comment, like and crucially buy almost directly from the feed. Amazon are tackling social commerce in th

2017 is a year of change for LinkedIn. They finally rolled out a new design for their professional network earlier in 2017 and have even released Instagram esque filters for your profile filter, albeit less extensive. This month (July 2017) saw LinkedIn jump on the video bandwagon with the ability to upload native video, which the marketing world is particularly excited about.As per usual, let’s cover off the basics.What is native video? It is when a user has the ability to upload video content directly to the platform (in this case L

If you are unaware of the immense opportunity and potential offered by Facebook advertising, in terms of both reach and conversions, then you need to listen up! Facebook gives you the ability to run hyper-targeted campaigns for a fraction of the cost of more traditional marketing streams - it’s a marketer’s dream. Plus, you can take control over the copy and visual elements, as well as access to various handy reporting metrics.As if this wasn’t useful enough, Facebook’s advertising platform also allows you to reach people who have a

In the UK (and presumably all around the world) we are taught from a young age that plagiarism is bad and should be punished. However, it has become apparent that this is not the case in the world of tech, a world supposedly so focused on innovation and growth. It turns out that if you can’t patent it, be prepared for your closest competition to unashamedly copy.Expedia, Trivago, Kayak.Hailo, Lyft, Uber.Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook.Whilst we squirm a little in our seats at the clear rip off of Snapchat’s features, it must b

Okay, confession time. Over the past year or two we have given Twitter a bit of a hard time, from commenting on their internal turmoil to their lack of innovation and slow rate of growth. Twitter’s saving grace? They still get substantial publicity through news outlets, celebrities and their users which has so far allowed them to cling on as one of the larger players in the space. As interesting as it might be to update you guys on the goings on at Twitter, that is not the purpose of this article. We want to talk Google Plus.We like Googl

We recently saw a fairly momentous event in the world of social media. Facebook launched their ‘Facebook Stories’; an unashamed copycat feature from Snapchat Stories. When we say copycat...they didn’t even change the name! Facebook had already rolled out what now appear to be test formats of Stories with Instagram and Whatsapp (both depressingly owned by the giant) but saved the coup de gras for their own roll out. Instagram and Whatsapp’s features simply copied the ability to post video/picture stories that vanished within 24 hours. Ho

In the middle of last year we wrote an article about whether marketers should really be paying attention to Snapchat and let’s be honest, the jury is still out on this one especially for smaller businesses. Well with Snapchat (or Snap Inc.) having filed for an IPO and currently pitching to investors it appears that the app is all grown up. So should social media marketers start to take the app seriously as a marketing platform? Prices can be eye watering Let’s get one thing straight here. Snapchat love to talk about large brands gaining s

The latest revelation from Facebook is that they are currently testing ‘Facebook Stories’ in Ireland. Facebook Stories - hang on, that sounds familiar. Deja vu or another unashamed attempt at plagiarising the poor chaps over at Snapchat?Following the success of Instagram stories last year, Zuckerberg and his team of tech wizards have decided to test the stories feature on the mother of social networks. Interestingly, they already tested Facebook stories back in July 2016 but decided not to roll it out. Perhaps they suspected that Insta

LinkedIn may not polarise opinions as much as Twitter but the data shows a struggle to grow their regular user base. Users tend to dip in and out of the platform depending on their personal circumstances, for example whether they are searching for a new job or not! LinkedIn’s new designs takes steps to improve the user experience and “place conversations and content at the center” which may help with increasing their regular user base. The new face is a marked improvement, making the network easier to navigate, but will this help increase

Get to the top of a super competitive feed With a myriad of businesses all vying for the top spot in the Facebook news feed, it has never been more important to pay close attention to the organic reach of your posts. Facebook is a powerful marketing tool for businesses but competition for visibility in the news feed is constantly increasing; it is all too easy for posts to get lost in the depths of the ever overpopulated news feed. Businesses must step up their game in order to give their stories the best possible chance of featuring promine

At the start of the year we honed our best crystal ball skills and shared our social media marketing predictions for 2016. Nine months later we thought it was time to see how we did. Despite many industries and markets facing a period of stagnation following various political and economic upheavals, social media is still at the forefront of growth. Accordingly, Snapchat continues to expand its user base, as do the likes of Instagram and Pinterest. Meanwhile, Twitter appears to be straggling behind as it continues to grapple against heavy compet

Last week saw the bold release of Instagram Stories. Users can now share a string of photos and videos edited with drawings and captions that last for 10 seconds and self-destruct after 24 hours. Sound familiar? Familiar may not be a strong enough word. Rather, it seems more like blatant plagiarism of Snapchat’s most popular feature, reflected in their brazen choice to even use the same name. Nevertheless, the decision to introduce this new feature in such an unabashed manner seems to be a tactical move from Instagram. They want their users

Back in 2011 when Snapchat launched, it didn’t appear to have much of a future beyond...well...'those' pictures. Now that the elephant has been banished from the room let’s look at Snapchat in 2016. Once the reserve of teenagers looking for a quick, fun and more liberal method of communication, Snapchat has since evolved into an impressive multifunctional social media platform. With a wide user base of 100 million active users, the app is ideally positioned as a potentially valuable marketing tool. However, despite the convincing statistic

We all knew it was imminent and now it has happened: Instagram has rolled out its algorithmic feed. A couple of months ago, we discussed the proposed change in this post, where we touched on the initial reactions and generally considered the update to be a positive one. Now that the change has been implemented, we are going to take a closer look at how the update will affect users and marketing efforts alike. Why the change? Previously, the abundance of images in our Instagram feeds has been arranged in reverse chronological order. However,

Last week, Instagram unveiled a controversial rebrand, complete with a revamped logo and shiny new user interface. The change marks the first logo alteration since the app launched five years ago, so this was a pretty significant step in the brand's history. Instagram has ditched the skeuomorphic camera that was so iconic to its brand identity in favour of a flatter design. The new logo features a rainbow gradient background with the white outline of a camera and lense, characterised by curved lines and simplicity. As Instagram explains in the

This year has seen a series of Twitter shake-ups. With the company struggling to compete with the likes of Facebook, CEO Jack Dorsey proposed a number of tweaks to the format of the micro-blogging site earlier this year. While some suggested changes have been welcomed with open arms, others have been thwarted by the uproar of Twitter fans. The latest revelation, according to a report by Bloomberg, is that Twitter is planning to stop counting photographs and links as part of the 140-character limit. Although the news has not yet been confirmed

Social platforms and technology continue to evolve at a lightning-fast pace. And the first few months of 2016 are no exception, with two of the world’s biggest social media services, Twitter and Instagram, having already announced and rolled out a swathe of updates that impact hundreds of millions of users and advertisers globally. If you’ve missed these, here’s Yellowball’s handy guide to what’s changed and how you can make sure your business is perfectly positioned to benefit from the changes. The big news: Instagram and Twitter ha

At the beginning of 2016 the Twittersphere erupted with cries of anguish and concern. Twitter’s founder and CEO Jack Dorsey has added rocket fuel to rumours of an increased character limit (in a series of tweets of course) a message addressing the problem of users taking screenshots of text and then tweeting these screenshots. Dorsey asked the question: “what if that text…..was actually text? Text that could be searched. Text that could be highlighted. That’s more utility and power.”Within the same mini Tweet storm he also mentio

As we begin our intrepid journey into 2016 we can expect big things in the world of digital marketing and more specifically, social media marketing. Last year saw social media continue to consolidate itself in our everyday lives and some big changes occurred. Instagram crushed Twitter in their ability to attract new users, Facebook video became the most engaging content on the platform and a war broke out in the background as social networks looked to introduce social commerce. So what can we expect from social media in 2016 and what effect wil

So we have had serious nerd levels of excitement over the past week or so. If you haven’t seen some of the examples of 360 degree videos on Youtube and those that are making their way through Facebook feeds across the world, well, you are missing out.On 23rd September 2015 Facebook announced compatibility for 360 degree Facebook videos. Youtube had already beaten them to the chase announcing their ability to host 360 videos (which they call spherical videos) well over 6 months ago, but until last week there had been only a small amount o

It's so hot right now. In a previous blog post we mentioned that Facebook’s daily view count for video had reached 4 billion in April 2015. At the time this seemed like an exponential increase from their 1 billion at the end of Q3 in 2015. Not to disappoint, they have just released a report for Q3 of 2015 and that number has spiked once again. It is now a claimed 8 billion video views per day, coming from only a third of their 1.55 billion users. It seems then that video content on Facebook is rather popular! This is amid Facebook testing a

The humble emoticon has evolved, mutated and multiplied to include everything from a shocked ghost face to a pot of honey. No longer are we confined to using variations of open or closed brackets and colons or semi colons. With hundreds of options on our phones for both Millennials and Generation Z emojis have quickly superceded punctuation as a method of conveying a message. In the wake of Facebook recently unveiling 6 emojis (known as Reactions) to accompany their like button, we wanted to have a look at how emojis have become an integral par

Facebook’s newest update was apparently worthy of a mention on all radio stations this morning on my way to work, alongside Russia’s involvement in Syria….Regardless of whether the update was truly news worthy, it is a major update to how you can portray digitally through your profile. Facebook is rolling out the ability to have a video playing on loop every seven seconds as your profile picture. They have also centred profile pictures/videos and allow you to provide more detail with accompanying photos to your About section in an att

In April 2012 Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg agreed to buy an 18 month old app with 13 employees, 30 million users and not a penny made from advertising - for $1 Billion. Not an insignificant sum. At the time everyone was waxing lyrical about the fact that Facebook had paid more than twice the valuation for the app and that it was signs of a new .com bubble. Furthermore, most viewed it as a sign that Facebook was terrified of this new app. Of course they were, that app was and is Instagram and this week they have announced record growth to 400 mi

Social networks have been a revolution in the digital space over the past generation. Combined with smart phones they seize an almost embarrassing amount of our daily routine. We are prisoners to the news feed, forever searching for that amusing video of a cat, a birthday event invitation or holiday snaps of that hot ‘friend’ you never talk to. The power that social media has over people is an accepted fact of life in 2015, but the implications of this predicament to have a monetary value assigned to them!The various social networks are

Social networks are no longer the new kids on the block. Social interactions are now entrenched in our daily lives which in turn has created platforms upon which global powerhouses can be built. Fiercely competitive, take Facebook as an example. Facebook has moved from an innocent social network serving IVY League university students to offering telecommunications services through messenger calling, becoming a VC of sorts investing in the newest hippest tech like the fantastically named Oculus Rift (acquired for a meagre fee of around $2billion

On Monday (27th July 2015), Google appeared to officially end their slightly awkward 4 year relationship with the flailing social network Google +. In an official Google blog post, Bradley Horowitz (Google’s Vice President of streams, photos and sharing) admitted that Google + had not lived up to the original aim of helping people “discover, share and connect across Google like they do in real life” and that they are “going to make some important changes” over the coming months.This has been hailed by many in the press as a move b

The announcement that Dick Costolo, Twitter’s CEO for the past five years, will be leaving the company next month has fuelled the fire of discussion surrounding Twitter’s future. The social network is one of the largest players in the market, but speculation has been growing in regards to Twitter’s ability to keep up with other platforms with higher user acquisition rates and growth. Costolo's standing down does not initially appear to be a captain abandoning his sinking ship, more of a gentle nudge off the metaphorical gang plank by a di