I often find myself telling colleagues, friends, interviewees, clients (family even) that what I love about working in digital marketing is that you get the chance to work across so many different disciplines. And whilst that leaves you open to accusations of being a jack-of-all-trades and master of none it’s so fascinating to be talking about brands and concepts one moment, mobile media planning the next, information architecture, web design, tech platforms, PR, social media, site optimisation, search marketing and content strategies in the next. [Read more →]

By Duncan Parry

 Building an agency from scratch means reviewing piles of CVs and spending a lot of hours interviewing – especially in an industry where competition for staff is fierce at all levels. I’ve been in a few really good interviews where I’ve wanted to hire the person there and then, many mediocre ones – and a few so terrible I’d rather forget. Here are my tips (and some of my frustrations laid bare).

[Read more →]

From Sarah McClutchy, STEAK New York

On Wednesday, Facebook made significant announcements regarding how brands can engage with their user audience.  These changes, part of Facebook’s on-going effort to improve  advertising revenue, will have a major effect on the way brands are viewed across the platform, and present new opportunities for marketers to reach consumers. The folks here at STEAK are still digging into the details of the various programs, but here’s a quick summary of the announcements:

New Product: Offers

‘Offers’ allow businesses to share discounts and promotions with their fans directly on their Facebook Page or as a Sponsored Story on the News Feed.  Users can redeem Offers via email or from a mobile device.  Offers are a free service for the brand, making this an appealing element for many businesses that are looking for ways to measure the ROI that comes from social media.

[Read more →]

By Peter Wood

Facebook have a habit of springing unpleasant surprises on people. Timeline rolled out recently for personal profiles and a mad dash ensued to ensure all past shame was removed as quickly as possible. Yesterday, it rolled out the time line for brand pages.

From a social marketing perspective there are a lot of great additions, but all the good is generally underpinned by a pretty major flaw in the whole update. [Read more →]

By Doug Sheard

Pinterest is generating a massive media buzz as it breaks into the UK social market. Early reviews are that it’s fun and easy to use and, with marketers working on ways to optimise it for their brands, I’ve even heard the term Pinfluence bandied around recently!

So why is the Head of Affiliates talking about this newbie to the social scene? The interesting (and yes, I’m leaving the “Pinteresting” behind here…) aspect is how an affiliate helped to monetise the site as it grew in the U.S. The affiliate in question is Skimlinks, who worked with Pinterest until recently. [Read more →]

By Peter Wood, The Wall

So I’ve had this inkling for a while. It goes a little something like this…

What your friends like does not have a massive impact on your purchasing decisions

I know, I know… it’s a hugely outspoken thing to say. After all, Facebook have dictated to everyone in the marketing world that people are hugely influenced by what their friends eat, wear, listen to and watch. Sponsored stories; the advertising function Facebook advertisers use to tell people what their friends have liked, is supposed to be hugely powerful to anyone who wants to believe it.

[Read more →]

By Peter Wood

The STEAK Social team was invited to speak at the Enterprise Ireland Retailer Solutions CEO Forum at East Point in Dublin. Enterprise Ireland help promote the export of Irish business globally. STEAK have been charged with helping to establish Enterprise Ireland clients in the social space over the past 18 months.   

[Read more →]

By Adrian Goodsell

I attended the first IAB Social Media Debate of 2012 yesterday afternoon. It was also the first since STEAK joined the IAB’s Social Media Council. The motion was as follows:

‘The online marketing industry is too easily distracted by the latest ‘shiny technical object’, reducing its effectiveness and ability to achieve results’  

[Read more →]

By Adrian Goodsell, The Wall, 30th January 2012

Looking for a huge numbers of fans? Can’t wait a second longer? Then read on, this blog post is for you…

1. Buy your fans
This is definitely the easiest way to guarantee a following fast; decide how many ‘fans’ you want then simply go to any dodgy-looking site (probably via a Facebook ad) take your wallet out (remember to stick your head in the sand) et voila, success! But wait a second; by definition once you directly pay for a relationship what does that relationship become? What does it really mean? There’s a very obvious analogy here, one that doesn’t involve any love at all…

  [Read more →]

Our CEO, Ollie, is currently out in Tokyo, visiting the marvellous Dentsu HQ. Yesterday he spoke at the seminar on the importance of Social Media within a marketing strategy, with fellow agencies of the network – 360i, IgnitionOne, mcgarrybowen, AdJug and firstborn.