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 [...]

Last week, we covered how the ASA’s new online regulations will affect advertisers. And the conclusion was, well, less than conclusive. But looking at this from a broader perspective, the ASA regulation changes constitute a broader trend across multiple industries. We’re seeing a whole host of regulatory modifications taking place that attempt to keep pace [...]

If you blinked, you may have missed it. The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), the UK’s “independent regulator of advertising across all media”, has tweaked its codes of practice to include companies’ marketing messages on their own website and across other non-paid-for advertising spaces. The official guidelines can be seen here. The ASA already regulates internet [...]

The Future of Social Web: Facebook’s Vision for Brands being Social Technology for Marketing and Advertising (TFMA) Earls Court, London, Wednesday 2nd of March 2011 Where to start? Facebook, the sexiest of digital brands and the social-networking trailblazer, give a keynote at TFMA 2011. This blur Group blogger managed to acquire a seat without too [...]

Last Friday’s blur Group blogs retrospective covered everything from the Super Bowl to Google Killers. Life on blur Group’s blogs was no less varied this week, with Big Society, Francis Bacon, MWC 2011 and some of Earth’s greatest innovators all getting a look-in. So if you’ve not managed to read any of our blogs this [...]

Social media is very much a double-edged sword for businesses. Whilst it can help raise profiles and generate revenue, it can also bite businesses hard where it hurts. Companies can only exercise so much control over their online exposure, and if your customers want to talk about you, there’s not much you can do to [...]

Social media is all about mass participation.  Millions of people have Twitter accounts, Facebook profiles and blogs – the trick is finding the most influential people and engaging with them. How do you measure influence?  There’s no definitive answer because ‘influence’ can mean many different things. But generally it can be broken down into three [...]

Social media has evolved. Whilst it was once a nice little thing businesses did on the side to complement their main operations, it has developed into a life form of its own. Social media lives and breathes – ignore its potency at your peril. It goes without saying that if you invest a certain amount [...]

2010 draws to a close and everyone is predicting the most obvious outcome of 2011: that social media is going to be big for business. What still seems to be brushed under the carpet is that as companies embrace the social media trend, leap on the bandwagon, go twitter-crazy or Facebook themselves up they’re still [...]

Businesses now see social media as an important channel but at blur Group it has been the only channel – for everything from staff recruitment to revenue generation. Showing the power of Social Media, Adictos Social Media, one of our first Crowd members, is now sharing this story at its event in Valencia. When blur [...]

Every now and then a ‘random’ and supposedly ‘fun’ game sweeps the status updates and news feeds of Facebook the world over. Now is one of those times. Ladies and gents, let me introduce you to….The Numbers Game! We have had spam apps such as the ‘see who’s using your profile’ scam, various cryptic games [...]

As we all know, hash tags on Twitter can be a great way of getting a subject trending and gaining exposure. It also seems they can be used just as effectively to dampen public hysteria and put the record straight in the world of news broadcasting. During Thanksgiving week in the States, stricter than usual [...]

The Mini Feeds of Facebook pages up and down the country have been awash with animated faces over the last few days. This weekend saw an NSPCC campaign urging users to change their profile pictures to one of their favourite childhood cartoon characters. The campaign has seen huge press, the Facebook group attracting almost 90,000 [...]

Blogging’s been around for just over a decade. There are something like 200 Million blogs in the ether. 43% of businesses in the US are expected to blog in 2011. It seems there’s a writer in all of us. And yet the blog hasn’t really changed that much. It’s still basically a date stamped, comment [...]