SocialChain

As Black Friday draws closer, our midweight creator Gabriella M. asks: in 2024, has the so-called "busiest shopping day of the year" lost its spending power? ?? "Cyber Monday was initially created to boost online sales, but now it’s often more anticipated than Black Friday itself, as many believe they can get the best deals here," says Gabriella. "The focus has shifted further away from Black Friday as the primary shopping moment.” ??? Read the full article with Gabriella's thoughts in Creativepool: https://lnkd.in/ee3KcwxD

WE'RE UP FOR SOCIAL MEDIA AGENCY OF THE YEAR AT THE NORTHERN DIGITAL AWARDS ?? How about that for Friday news? ?? Together with Brave Bison, we're buzzing to be seven-time nominees at this year's Northern Digital Awards, including: ?? Two nominations for Best Use of Social Media with SocialChain clients LinkedIn UK and Holland & Barrett ?? Three nominations with Brave Bison clients New Balance, Markel and Furniture Village ??? Plus our agency podcast SocialMinds is up for Best Podcast... And SocialChain has secured a nom for the legendary Social Media Agency of the Year award too! ?? Thanks to Don't Panic Events and of course everyone in our teams and our client partners who worked hard to make these nominations happen. What a way to round off a phenomenal year. Here's to a win (or seven...) ?? #NorthernDigitalAwards

ICYMI, last week we sent our senior creator Callum Woodbridge to?run a content creation workshop with Factory International x adidas Originals, and he SMASHED IT ???? ? Callum led four teams of creators from the creative industry’s underrepresented communities to create a TikTok in response to a dummy brief from one of our major global clients. And they had only 40 minutes to do it. ?? A huge ask – but one that the creators absolutely delivered on, creating?truly social-first results?amid a fast-paced agency-like environment. Callum said it best: “Racial, social class and gender imbalances in our industry lead to less insightful work. Creating work that speaks to everyone requires input from everyone, it's not a box ticking exercise or grandstanding.” Thanks Callum, Beth Blance and Jake Thompson for making it happen! ??

For some brands, the idea of baring all on social is enough to make them run a mile. ?? But SURREAL and KFC UK & Ireland prove that audiences being able to see right through your brand is no bad thing.?? Hot off the press, our midweight creator Georgia Hill covers why it's better to be transparent than authentic in her latest piece for MediaCat, plus her three key pointers for transforming your approach to transparency on social. ?? Read now: https://lnkd.in/g6WFna3J

It’s time for Social in Six, and our associate creator director Emma Lyskava is back!??? ? Emma and our content marketer Melissa Harvey are breaking down the top social media headlines, including the news that Instagram lowers the quality of less popular videos – which users had a lot to say about. ???? ? Plus, LinkedIn’s published a best practice guide to video and TikTok’s working on an integration with affiliate platform LTK.?????? ? ?? We’re covering these updates and more wherever you get your podcasts: https://pod.fo/e/283a75

How can brands balance our appetite for in-depth storytelling with the need to make content short and snappy? ??? ? TikTok’s head of lifestyle, retail and ecommerce Dave Morrissey tells you everything you need to know. ? Dave dropped by our SocialMinds LIVE vox pop station after his panel with Reddit, Inc. and Meta?to throw a few predictions in the ring. ??? ? Watch the full recording of Dave’s panel Forecasting the Future Feed now and get ahead of the latest trends, features and insights before they happen: https://lnkd.in/e2HnPrbQ ?

Have you downloaded our Top Takeaways Report from SocialMinds LIVE yet? ???? Trust us when we say it's a NEED for any brand looking to make a start on their 2025 planning. (Yeah, we know it's not even Christmas yet, but can't hurt to be ahead of the game). In case you missed it, at SocialMinds LIVE our group strategy director Ric Hayes broke down his personal top takeaways from a day spent prepping marketers for the future of social. And here they are ?? ?? Grab your FREE copy of our report now and get insights from our speakers ITV Studios, SURREAL, Lick, Reddit, Inc., Meta and loads more: https://lnkd.in/eNJD6gXf

Some advice from our strategist Chelsea Noronha: don’t be wedded to your strategy.? ? “A lot of the strategy we propose evolves with time as and when we look at real-time audience responses. We’re able to shift our focus accordingly if there’s a different direction we need to take, we can do it quickly.” ???? ? ?? Definitely a sentiment echoed across more of our brilliant sessions at SocialMinds LIVE. Which, by the way, you can watch back on our site now. ???? ? Hear more from Chelsea in her panel How AI Actually Solves Problems for Marketers with Brave Bison’s director of AI and creative Matt Garbutt and our group strategy director Ric Hayes: https://lnkd.in/e2iEPwiF ?

this week was a big ONE!!!! Back in May, I had my first conversation about an exciting new product SharkNinja were launching, Jane Macfarlane and I had the ambitious idea of engaging 56 creators in a single day because the product takes 56 days to show it's full glowing effects. This week after months of hard work—the launch content finally went live ?????????? An a wild attempt to flood your feeds we had creators to go live every 15 minutes from 8AM to 9PM, and to my absolute surprise not one creator was late! This seamless execution is a testament to my incred team and the strong relationships Rachel Lea & Liv Motley have built with both the talent and their agents, as well as months of meticulous preparation that included infinite fallback plans, which thankfully we didn't have to use. Leading this project has been a true honour, a huge thank you to Eva Bojtos for trusting us with Sharks first NPD launch outside of the USA, and to my incredible team for their unwavering dedication over the past six months. In just 4 hours, TikTok had picked up the content and was displaying it prominently in their search engine and the organic results speak for themselves, hitting well over half our total campaign impressions target in just 32 hours which is gorgeous news for a campaign running over four weeks!!!! STARS OF THE SHOW <3 Sophie Sharpe Katie Burton Alex Hamilton Kate Evans Jake Thompson Barney Ware Mark Stanley Russell Amelia Wollaston Monique Bondswell Georgia Roberts Alex Ighalo Stacey Bannister Michelle Lemon Charlotte Bailey and every single agent & creator who worked with us to make this dream a reality #GenerationGlow

At SocialMinds LIVE Jonathan Trimble, founder of And Rising and host of our Brand Panel with SURREAL, Monzo Bank, Lick and ITV Studios, gave us his key learning for brands...? ? The reason social became the powerhouse it is today is because it enables community: people connecting based on shared interests. ??? ? Make people your focus, not ads or chasing algorithms, and the rest will follow.? ? ?? Get the recording of The Brand Panel in full: https://lnkd.in/eTUfddH6 ??