Key performance indicators (KPIs) help you to determine whether or not you are on the right track toward reaching your marketing goals. If you haven’t already, develop your SMART goals today. You must define success in order to attain it. Depending on your goals, there are a number of ways to monitor and track your [...]

Twitter announced in December of last year their intention to introduce pages for brands on their social networking platform. Founders Jack Dorsey and Dick Costolo announced during their “Come See What We’re Building” press conference some key changes to the platform, including Company Profile pages, of which the first are now rolling out in the [...]

Twitter announced this week amid a media storm that it has given itself the right to censor and withhold tweets and content in certain countries, in a blog post on Thursday 26th January.   The post, entitled “Tweets must still flow” harks back to a post a year ago, “Tweets must Flow”, in which the [...]

Maybe you have Facebook fatigue. Maybe the constant updates from Twitter and Foursqure make you feel swamped by ‘lifecasting’.  Perhaps Instagr.am is a bit too lomo for your tastes. Enter Path, the social network that has been described as “anti-social”.   Path launched in 2010, the brainchild of ex-Facebook excutive Dave Morin, who saw a gap in [...]

For some time the technorati and blogosphere have been wildly speculating on where Google + would go next.  Since launching last year it is the fastest growing social media site, beating Twitter, Linked In and Facebook for user growth over time. However, it is still mainly the realm for the early adopters, and a hub [...]

Like Marmite, Pinterest fans will either love or hate this week’s news; Facebook announced on Wednesday evening the addition of 60 new apps to combine functionality  with Facebook, including the pinboard social site Pinterest.    Launched in March 2010, Pinterest is a user generated site allowing members to create theme-based image boards. Users populate their boards with online media and [...]

Instagram was massive in 2011. In its first year of launching, the mobile app had 10 million users, all addicted to documenting life in retro and lomo inspired snapshots.   2012 is set to see the trend for aesthetic social sharing gaining momentum even further; The Trend think tank Trendwatching predicts that “In 2012, ‘life’ will take place [...]

It’s the holy grail of digital, the aim of everyone from global brands to the slapstick You Tube amateur. From sneezing pandas to giant soft drink corporations, going viral is a marketer’s dream, the pot of gold at the rainbow’s end.   Myriad “how to’s” exist online to offer expert hints and tips to create [...]

During 2011 blog page views across blur Group’s network more than doubled. We know that they’re a sought-out information source for those working in the creative industries, those using them and people looking for that different perspective on new startups, the latest art, marketing must-haves, design desires and a view on the latest trends. At the [...]

  We’ve already shared with you blur Group’s review of 2011 and our vision for creative services in 2012. But as it’s that time of year when we dust off the crystal balls, run riot with our runes, draw lines between planets, here’s our thoughts on what different areas of the business might see in [...]

At blur Group, social media is the sea in which we swim. We recruit creatives, engage with potential customers, promote our blogs, share interesting content and we’ve found that Twitter is the most effective platform to do all that, and more. Here’re the tools, initiatives and people impacting Twitter today. Users were outraged by the introduction [...]

For many businesses November is seen as the last full ‘sales’ month of the calendar (and sometimes fiscal) year. Recognizing that buyers move into holiday mode as soon as the first baubles are spotted, activity levels become frantic.  Marketing rushes to deliver campaigns, the sales teams hit the phones, customers see special promotions arrive in [...]

A new study suggests that widely accepted Twitter strategies may be misguided. The report, Measuring User Influence in Twitter: The Million Follower Fallacy, rejects what it calls the “modern view” flows according to interpersonal connections among ordinary users, and the general marketing willingness of a community to accept an innovation. Rather, it seems that information cascades down [...]

In the beginning, social media connected friends with pictures, threads, newsfeeds and likes. The best social networks – like Facebook – make it easy to share content. Soon enough, those pesky marketers caught on and started connecting businesses with consumers. And most recently, businesses see that social media can foster collaboration between employees just as [...]

Before the paint has dried on the sign saying ‘social media agency’ it seems that this new business has been acquired. The large agency networks, still frantically buying up digital shops, are now realising that they also need social in their portfolio to be truly competitive. Just recently we have seen M&C Saatchi buying Human [...]

Within the ‘best practice’ advice that is available for businesses adopting social media, there is a fair amount of  ’don’ts’. Most of these are obvious in terms of misrepresentation of the brand. Classic cases like handing over your entire social strategy to someone who popped in for a couple of weeks work experience and shared [...]

A digital economy demands new ways of doing business, and consultants to steer existing business practices into the online sphere.  A recent study by blur Group found that “digital natives” are spearheading the ‘knowledge-as-a-service’ movement, developing new businesses and helping ‘older’ models adapt. Entrepreneurs are rapidly adopting sourcing as a method to jump-start their projects, according to [...]

We love to see businesses employing social marketing effectively. For us the proof that your social strategies are working is that you don’t just have customers but you have a community. Whether it’s through Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, Quora or any of the platforms that underpin your engagement , the ultimate goal is to transform your [...]

As we continue to progress our social-led approach at blur Group, it’s easy to forget what happens when organisations display reluctance to engage in use of social media. With 83% of the Fortune 500 companies using one of the social media platforms it may seem that it’s only a small minority now that hasn’t embraced [...]

A quick google search on “Think global, act local”  shows it to be one of the most used adages. Regardless of the geographic location of a business, regardless of its size, the line is used with an aspirational tone by many businesses far removed from the original environmental use. This is the company’s goal: no [...]

This week we’ve opened nominations for the ‘blurries‘ – an online recognition of companies that are excelling in their field and disrupting the world into the process. The business world has no shortage of awards: from showcases of great advertising to a plethora of start-up contests. From the early days of Red Herring through to more [...]

We’ve explained what the Creative Services Exchange (CSX) is. We have even explained why the CSX model is the main contender to replace the tired old Madison Avenue model. But you can’t beat a good old-fashioned flesh-and-bones case study of the CSX in action. The CSX has been used by many brands – large and [...]

Championing independent journalism: such a noble cause. And one that Frontline has been fighting for since 2006, ironically the very same year as Twitter was founded. Why is this ironic, you ask? Well, sitting in the audience at Frontline’s Face the future: tools for a modern age event last night, it was clear there is [...]

Well, well, well…it seems we caused a bit of a stir with our April Fool’s hoax this week. We ‘fessed up yesterday that Forbes’ nominating blur Group as the world’s third most disruptive company was a massive stitch-up, just as many parts of the world were already waking up to their very own regional pranks. [...]

Well, the cat’s out the bag, the skeleton’s out the closet, the beans have been spilled…and all other truth-revealing metaphors you care to think of. We wrote earlier today that blur Group is disrupting the status quo. That part, at least, is true. But Father, we have sinned. We did a naughty and told a [...]