Live, self-serve geofilters, face swap. We know it can be hard to keep up with all the practical developments in social media, and it’s been a busy one so far in 2016, so we’ve done the hard work for you. Read on for your 15 minute digest of what’s new for Facebook, Snapchat, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn YouTube and Tumblr… Facebook Live: First introduced last August but made available to everyone in January, this is Facebook’s new live streaming feature. An icon now appears under your status update – look for the upper body with a double halo. Similar to Periscope, but in your News Feed, you write a short description and start filming. It’ll tell you how many people are watching and their comments. For the minute (as ever it’s about to change), you can only film via the mobile app (i.e. your phone) so production values are lower, as are costs. More importantly Facebook are promoting it hard whilst they try and capture this new market, so all your followers/fans will get a notification (or at least those who look at their notifications during that period of time, and to a max of 3 in a day). Why is this significant? it’s the first time brands have been able to activate their page fans organically for several years. But don’t expect that to last forever… Reactions: When a Like just isn’t enough. Long-press (or hover on a computer) the familiar thumbs to get access to five additional animated emojis – “love,” “haha,” “wow,” “sad,” and “angry”. Why these? They’re the sentiments people use most often. Canvas: Facebook’s mobile ad format that’s also been called “Instant Articles for brands.” The aim is to give advertisers a more immersive way to reach people without them leaving the platform. So when you click on an ad connected to Canvas, it opens full-screen inside of Facebook, rather than loading a mobile website. Currently being use in Ted and Bernie’s political campaigns in the US elections. Twitter GIF: We LOVE a GIF (just look at our Twitter) so imagine our excitement when we saw Twitter had launched a GIF keyboard. The new feature lets you search a library of GIFs (Twitter has teamed up with Riffsy and Giphy) by keyword, reaction or category. Curated timelines: As of February Twitter introduced its algorithmic timeline, which means the tweets at the top of your timeline are now sorted based on relevancy, rather than chronology. What does ‘relevancy’ mean? In the words of Twitter: “We choose them based on accounts you interact with most, Tweets you engage with, and much more.” DM links: Twitter has been looking at how it can help brands improve its customer service through the platform. Now you can insert a deep link that a customer can click to start an immediate private conversation. Post service feedback: Linked to the above, Twitter is rolling out customer feedback with selected brands, which allows just that. After an interaction, customers can privately share their opinions on the service. More on both here. Instagram View counts: Views are now displayed below videos – previously you could only judge performance on hearts and comments. A view begins at 3 seconds and it only gets counted once regardless of the number of loops someone watches. Account switching: A relief for anyone who manages more than one account, you can now toggle between than rather than logging in and and out to switch. Extending the ad platform: The maximum length of videos has been extended to 60 seconds. Testament to the growth is commercial success, Instagram announced in February that it has 200,000 monthly active advertisers (versus a few hundred in June 2015). It has said three quarters of these are outside of the US. LinkedIn Groups: They’ve had a revamp. LinkedIn want to improve the quality of content shared (less spam/self-promotion) and overall user experience. You can only access them via a dedicated app and there are no more open groups. They’re either standard (request to join or invite-only) or unlisted (invite to join only and not findable in search). You can no longer search by name, member or keyword either. Essentially it significantly limited people using groups for prospecting and lead generation. LinkedIn Referrals: A platform introduced last year which aims to make it easier for employees to recommend their first-degree LinkedIn connections for open positions at their firms. You have your own ”LinkedIn Referrals” site and it automatically tells employees which of their first-degree connections are matches for a job. They can send matches links to the job openings via email or InMail. It costs between $10-12 a year per employee who uses the service. LinkedIn Account Targeting: Marketers can now run targeted ad campaigns to 30,000 companies at once (previously it was 100 and a very manual process). Advertisers present a list of companies they’d like to reach, which LinkedIn cross-references against the 8 million businesses in its network. Targeting can be further refined to reach profiles based on job function or seniority. YouTube Acquired BandPage: Bandpage is a startup which helps artists profile themselves and sell concert tickets and merchandise. This accelerates their shared goal of helping musicians everywhere thrive. Blurring tool: Has something awkward spoilt that otherwise perfect video? Never fear, YouTube has a custom blurring tool for that. Just draw a box around the offending item and  it will stay blurred as it moves around the video. YouTube Connect: It seems everyone is getting in on the live streaming act, and Google’s efforts are likely to be up next. Snapchat Self-serve geofilters: An additional revenue stream for Snapchat, you can create and distribute your own custom geofilters in a specific area for an allotted time. Approval takes about a day and pricing starts at $5. Nielsen ad ratings: Measurement is on the horizon. Advertisers have demanded better performance data for months and in February it announced a partnership with Nielsen so brands (who promo videos on Live Stories or Discover) will be able to view campaign performance through Nielsen Ad Ratings. Live story web embed: The Oscars marked the first time you could see snaps outside of the app. Snapchat updated its website with Live Story online, making snaps much easier to share (and the platform more accessible). It’s not clear how the web player will be used going forward but expect more. Lenses: A range of filters which you can apply to your (or someone else’s) face. The selection is updated daily, and include rainbows, dogs and the hugely popular Face Swap. You access them by taking a selfie and then tap and hold your face until a mesh appears. You’ll then see several lensesto select from. Tumblr Instant messaging (replies are back): Fan Mail has been replaced with instant messaging, a much welcomed addition to the platform. You can text messages to others, or share posts via the paper plane button. GIFs: As of the end of last year, Tumblr launched its own GIF maker, using videos or a burst of photos. Pinterest Interactive pins: Recipe and Movie pins have become much more data rich – including ingredients, cooking times and servings, and new information like rating, cast members and reviews. Image search: When using the mobile app, you can now click a particular part of a pin and Pinterest will search its archives for similar image. It will help strengthen its search function and offering to advertisers – as they’ll have more information on what people are looking at.

It’s no secret that beer is a popular topic on social media, with over 3.7 million mentions over the past year. The reason we chose craft beer as our August trend, though, is because it performs particularly well, with a 13% growth in mentions since summer 2015. This has been reflected by a stunning 40% growth in sales over the past 2 years, and the market’s still going strong, despite the fact that total pub beer sales are actually slowing down. As we mentioned in our previous blog post, this year there’s been a significant shift in preference to quality over quantity amongst UK beer drinkers – but how has this been reflected in how individual beers perform on social media? It would be difficult to write an article about craft beer’s social media presence without mentioning Brewdog, the fiercely independent craft-beer giant whose Facebook has garnered a significant 235,000 likes, not to mention their 115,000 Twitter followers and 175,000 Instagram followers. This month, following a new pledge to give away 20% of their profits to charity, they’ve exploded on Twitter, with over 7000 mentions this month, up 43% from this time last year. Brewdog’s branding is perfect for social media: quirky, down-to-earth, with an emphasis on personal connection and community as part of their business ethos. In fact, its founder, James Watt, regularly interacts with fans via his personal Twitter, which has 43,000 followers – more than Heineken and Budweiser’s UK Twitter followings combined. Independent craft breweries without the clout of Brewdog are still managing to punch above their weight on social media. Well-known independent breweries Fuller’s and Shepherd Neame (whose Spitfire Ale campaign on Facebook was a Shorty Award finalist a few years ago) have both seen impressive double-digit growth rates in Twitter mentions this year, as have – as have smaller breweries Cloudwater, Brew by Numbers. These breweries have built up a high level of community engagement, and a following of fans who are actively interested in any company updates or new products they may be releasing. Most middling-to-large breweries have social media followings that rival those of international names. Cloudwater, for example, has 19,600-plus Twitter followers; almost exactly the same number as Budweiser UK. Nevertheless, big beer has been investing more and more into digital marketing alongside other new marketing techniques such as experiential marketing, also designed to appeal to the young adult demographic. Lots of big brands are still lagging, though – for example, on Instagram, Tennents and Coor’s Light UK have a paltry 2.3k and 1.6k followers respectively. Brew by Numbers’ business is a fraction of the size and has over 9k. (That said, this trend is reversed on Facebook – Coor’s Light UK has over 250,000-plus likes, with Brew by Numbers not even hitting the 10,000 mark, a more accurate reflection of the mainstream UK market for beer.) Just as importantly, many larger beer companies own smaller breweries with non-negligible social media followings of their own. These subsidiary brands are more likely to perform well amongst craft ale enthusiasts, online and off. For example, Coor’s owns Sharp’s, makers of Doom Bar; Marston’s owns Hobgoblin; and Heineken owns the famously quirky Newcastle Brown Ale. Working to a similar end, Carlsberg has recently tried to get back to its ‘craft’ roots too with the launch of its ‘Expørt’ range. Unsurprisingly, this trend hasn’t gone down too well with the UK’s independent breweries, who view big brands as muscling into their territory and appropriating their marketing techniques. The Society of Independent Brewers recently mustered forces for a counter-attack by launching a seal of approval designed to give beer-lovers a better idea of just where their drink is coming from. So – what works for craft beer on social media? Brewdog performs consistently well across social media due to its strong branding, high engagement levels and the media attention it receives, both positive and negative. Newcastle Brown Ale is another strong-performing brand on social media; its humorous short videos have gone viral a number of times, and viewers don’t necessarily need to be beer fans to enjoy their wit. Shepherd Neame’s have a well-established, responsive social media presence. Their Facebook team typically reply within the hour to enquiries, and Facebook fans of their Spitfire Ale have almost doubled over the past 2 years, now totalling over 100,000 with a total reach well into the millions. Shepherd Neame have been building strongly since the end of 2014 when they saw their Facebook following increase twofold with a highly creative online marketing campaign. Meanwhile, Fuller’s London Pride have visually cohesive Facebook, Instagram and Twitter accounts, posting well-composed photos and topical content in their trademark red-and-gold colour scheme. One successful influencer photo last month triggered 3,000 engagements, while a recent Facebook post for the women’s rugby world cup garnered over 800; a good move to reach out to the female demographic, often disregarded by beer companies. As more and more of the world moves online, brewers’ battle for the public’s affections will only continue. Even straggling brands will need to begin developing their social media presence, and for now it’s likely that they will continue to look to the quirky, ‘grammable image of craft beer as a model. Just don’t expect Brewdog fans to to be happy about it. #augusttrend #beer #craftbeer #socialtrends

If you’ve had your head stuck in the sand, especially during lockdown, TikTok is a thing. And what’s even more perfect is the BOOM of reality star sounds. We are talking about the current day – Hey all you cool cats and kittens, it’s Carole Baskin – back to the days of the BEST celeb BB ever and the GC (Gemma Collins). Becki is going to tell you what you need to know. What is a sound? That’s the song/track you make your TikTok too (we’ve made a super handy guide for how to make your first TikTok here) and whilst we started with songs to make funny, beautiful or, dare we say, it “sexy” dances too, as with all things beautiful it’s evolved to include the sounds of people voices. And why do reality stars make this so perfect? Because we’ve all heard of those famous TV moments when a wannabe celeb makes comedy gold. Nikki Graham, we’re looking at you. Those moments you just rewatch over and over again (David’s Dead – Tiffany – Celeb BB 2016) and TikTok is the perfect place to use those one-liners. No other platform offers you a simple way to do this like our beloved TikTok. Which celebs are making the grade? The one and only GC – this sound has 18.5k videos using it. @rylanArguing with the voices in my head ##fyp ##rylan ##foryoupage ##gemmacollins♬ original sound – gc.best.moments Love Island’s Amber – this sound has 20.2k videos using it. @anastasiakingsnorthWhen your boyfriend who isn’t your boyfriend likes another girls photo tehe ♬ Follow evie fensome – jade22__ Big Brother’s, Chloe Ferry – this sound has 13.7k videos using it. @laurenjayneofficial##geordieshore ##foryou ##foryoupage ##featureme ##fyp ##uk♬ KATIE LUNN MADE THIS SOUND – flippingfannyflutters Tiger King – this sound has 24.1k videos using it. @bmwalkerrmy brain plays this on loop someone send help ##foryoupage ##fyp ##fypage ##lesbian ##gay ##earthday♬ Dont say it Carol Baskin – charlottekevern Are celebs making themselves famous? Interestingly, celebs don’t seem to be using or creating their own sounds – other users are, and making themselves better known on TikTok this way. Take @gemtollerfield (165.3k followers). She made the famous Megan McKenna I need to eat food sound – it’s been used in 28.6k videos. So why aren’t celebs making themselves more famous with their own sounds? Well, first up, the majority of these sounds are mocking (mostly in a fair/friendly way) the celeb in question, so it doesn’t work for them to use it. Secondly, a fair few of our famous sound celebs aren’t actually on TikTok (the GC included, a travesty) so they quite simply can’t create them. That doesn’t stop other celebs using them. A real star with this is Kady McDermott, who uses sounds to boost her own presence. Like using GC sounds here, here and Kim K here and of course, Tiger King here. Why are only certain celeb sounds being used? As we’ve said before, the almost pantomime-like use of celeb sounds is a major factor in why they’re used so much. A sound of Gwyneth Paltrow banging on about Goop again (FYI Gwyneth doesn’t have any sounds at the moment) just isn’t going to cut the mustard here. It’s over the top, can’t believe they said that celebs, that make the grade, not the idolised ones. The Kardashians are very popular for this. Obviously. How are brands using this? The likes of Love Island and Big brother, use their own sounds, with their own copyright, across TikTok. In the main, these are coupled with the original clip, which whilst funny, is no different to what you can do on YouTube or Twitter. Where these sounds come into their own is when they are coupled with funny or relatable videos, and taken in a new context that the audience can connect with. It allows an extension of the audience for reality shows – catching those people who might not watch a whole series but who will engage in the big moments. Take for example, the GC (again, there’s a theme here) and her famous – “I’m claustrophobic Darren” from Big Brother – this sound was almost made for lockdown and became perfectly relatable when used in videos such as this one. Users can’t recreate this on any other platform and so this is where TikTok comes into its own. @thebowensMe after a week of self isolation. (Don’t worry guys I’m not going anywhere, just to sulk in the garden) ##gemmacollins ##foryoupage ##foryou.♬ original sound – 16kyro There aren’t an overwhelming amount of brands using celeb sounds and this could simply be a copyright issue. Music is intrinsically built into TikTok, and brands don’t shy away from using those, but only a few seem to have ventured into celeb sounds. However, Pretty Little Thing, have just recently chosen to use a sound from Amber on Love Island and it works perfectly for their audience. @prettylittlethingI’m bothered @chloeroseofcl 😜 We are following 3 people back who like and comment on this post 👀✨ GO! 🦄##loveisland ##humour ##fashion♬ Follow evie fensome – jade22__ So where does this leave us? It leaves us basking in the nostalgia of Big Brother 2016, Love Island (series 2 for the win) and other glorious moments of true pantomime that only reality tv can bring and waiting to see which brands can truly bring sounds to life. Looking to bring your brand to life on TikTok? Let’s grab a virtual coffee. #tiktok

As August draws to a close, it seems like a good time to reflect on the trend we lived this month: craft beer. Aside from an introduction to craft beer’s social media presence, blind beer tasting and an analysis of the beer’s highly gendered marketing, we’ve also done a round-up of the top specialist beer apps. Beer apps have seen a marked increase in social media mentions in 2017, with an increase of almost 20% from this time last year. How have these beer apps tapped (no pun intended) into the existing craft beer trend to maximise their success? Firstly, these apps have capitalised on the fact that craft beer culture naturally lends itself to social media. It’s more than just a commodity; most people’s beer-drinking habits have a strong social element. This couldn’t be indicated more clearly than by the fact that the average Twitter mentions of ‘beer’ and related topics increase from 637 to 1066 per day – that’s almost 70% – during weekends over one month, as well as a spike at Christmas (up 240%), New Year’s (224%) and St Patrick’s Day (175%). Craft beer is also a hobby for many people, which provides a growing market for more information-based, less social beer apps. UnTappd is the biggest player on the beer app scene, functioning as a beer-centric social network through which users can see what their friends are drinking and share their own favourite brews. With 7 million-plus users, UnTappd is a network to be reckoned with, and its social media impressions give us some telling data on the demographics of beer app users. Almost 90% of its 4,000-plus Facebook page ‘Likes’ come from men, suggesting that while a growing number of women are proud beer-drinkers, they are less likely to use it as a medium for socialising than men. 85% of those interested in UnTappd on Facebook are also interested in breweries – that’s compared to 60% which are interested in mainstream pubs – suggesting a user preference for craft beer over cheaper mass-produced brands. Not all beer apps put socialising front and centre, though. On the more information-based end of the spectrum are apps such as TapHunter (with about half a million downloads) and Next Glass (over 50,000 downloads). TapHunter uses location data to tell you where your next pint is coming from, while Next Glass help users find beers they may like based on their existing tastes. Meanwhile, Any Beer ABV tells you how much alcohol content is in your beer; BJCP Styles offers a beer-tasting education, and iBrewMaster helps you get started brewing your own beer. If all those sound a bit too serious for you, you might want to consider Beer?!, an app that lets you invite your friends out for beer with a single tap, or Pivo, which teaches you to order a beer in over 50 languages. Without a doubt, the beer app market has grown and diversified over the past year, with an app for everyone from the casual drinker to the craft ale connoisseur. Although the rise of craft beer has been partially driven by health and financial concerns, at the end of the day, beer-drinking is still a primarily social pastime for most. And with the diversifying craft beer market opening up to more and more demographics, it’s unsurprising that these apps’ popularity has continued to rise.

Seeing as I work in social media AND have a psychology degree it only seemed right that I should do a blog post on useful psychology theories and studies that apply to social media. Here are my top three: 1. Different personalities and social media uses – A study conducted at the University of Texas found that different personality traits is a predicting factor in how much someone uses social media and engages in online content. Their study revealed that in both men and women extraversion (being outgoing) and openness to experiences were positively related to increased social media use. Males high in emotional instability are also linked to increased social media usage (but not females). Learning: Producing content that appeals to very outgoing individuals will produce the best engagement rates. People high in extraversion are very positive and love excitement and variety. Content that produces intellectual curiosity and imagination will appeal to individuals high in openness to experiences. 2. Why people share things online: The social identity theory states that everyone has an intrinsic drive to become part of a group, as this boosts the individual’s self image. Researchers from the University of Queensland examined an active group of Facebook users to examine this principle in relation to social media. They found that sharing online content created positive feedback from peers which produced social validation and a greater sense of connectedness for the individual sharing the content. Learning: When individuals post anything online they are seeking comments, shares, likes. Being actively engaged with people you want to target will enhance their sense of belonging to your brand, and boost their self esteem. 3. How to promote online deals effectively: The anchoring effect is a cognitive bias that describes an individual’s tendency to rely too heavily on the first piece of information offered. This can affect how people perceive a ‘good’ deal. For example if the initial  price of a car is then negotiated down the car will seem more reasonable even if the price is still higher than the car is worth. Learning: When trying to promote a deal online through Twitter and Facebook it is important to emphasise the initial price of the product. It is also worth considering the sequence of the posts – promoting the offer after posts containing the full priced item. #onlinesharing #psychology #socialmedia

Influencer marketing. Influencer relations. Social influencers. Influencers (minus any modifiers). These words are used increasingly often in marketing circles. And for good reason: a shift to social distribution models for content and increased visibility (note, not necessarily trust) of peer recommendation has led to a renewed focus for the ‘benefit’ of brands. McKinsey reports that social recommendations drive, on average, 26% of purchases across all product categories. This can be somewhat puzzling for those who innocently ask questions such as “why is person X being labelled as an influencer?”, or “Is Influence a fixed commodity, then?”, or “How do you quantify influence?”. How have we got to this point, where the term ‘influencer’ is so revered, and yet the definition, identification and activation of, is so muddy? Well, first, the issue shares some similarities with that of “viral” (read past thoughts on what is a viral?). Secondly, it is best to start with a definition (my school Economics teachers would be delighted by this lifelong slavish adherence to essay structure): “ Capacity to have an effect on the character, development, or behaviour of someone or something, or the effect itself.” In practice, however, it is increasingly being used as a cover-all for “person with high public profile or claim to fame”. Yet this is only one type of influence (and in some cases, not even be influence, based on the definition above). Typically, in a social network sense, influence will be broken into the ability to elicit action (shares, clicks etc), the ability to shape message adoption, the ability to reach large numbers who passively endorse (likes etc), the ability to connect disparate groups thus driving diffusion of information, or the ability to access other key influencers (second degree of influence). The one thing which doesn’t meet that influence definition is reach (commonly follower counts) – the raw ability to put a message in front of lots of people. That’s not to say it isn’t important: clearly given two people who can generate action at the same rate, one would pick the person who gets to more eyeballs. But influence of any of the types above also has to be set in context of those you are seeking to reach – is the ‘influencer’ influential with that group? My personal twitter account has 3000+ followers, of whom the vast majority are engaged with me around marketing. Yet I frequently tweet about Oxford United. I am undoubtedly not influential at selling tickets for Oxford United, given (by my estimate) approximately four of my followers live in the Oxford area (even we season ticket holders struggle to envisage one travelling too far to enjoy League Two’s finest action). So, why has the term been so widely adopted as a shorthand for something which it doesn’t really cover? It’s difficult to quantifiably identify. One explanation is the merging (and subsequent confusion) of old and new. There’s been a shift to digital and social distribution models (e.g. Uber, Buzzfeed), which has created businesses of different types with fundamentally different methods to those which have gone before. The adoption of terminology from the new world to relabel elements of an older marketing and communications model, helps those struggling to either understand, or demonstrate their relevance to it. It may also be a blending of disciplinary backgrounds and terminology, as marketers converge. Those from more traditional publicity or brand backgrounds have used influencers in the role of tastemaker, or celebrity – the more traditional equivalents they traded in. But that ignores that the fundamental model has changed – in very, very few cases will “buying” one influencer do what is needed, unless one has a) a niche product with certain dominant influencers or b) a handful of celebs on a scale which makes them effective (e.g. Kim K). Otherwise one needs to use multiple (true) influencers, and utilise a network effect (albeit not as many as one might think – if you consider this case study around the popularity illusion study, which says the changes in the property of a network allows some ideas to spread but not others, rather than content). So, can we, Canute like, turn back the tides of imprecise linguistic adoption? No. But we can always reject the idea there is any such thing as a general, all-purpose influencer, predicated solely on having a lot of online reach. #instagrammers #bloggers #Influencermarketing #socialinfluencers #influencers #influence #youtubers

Becky, who joined over the summer as a Principal Consultant, shares why she’s become an Architect of Next. Yes, there are a lot of words there. But each one has vital importance. It encapsulates the incredible work the team at OneFifty do and what I’m hoping to bring to continue the extraordinary growth the business is seeing. Let’s break it down. User-centric: all great digital experiences put the end user first. Some would say it’s a hygiene factor - if you’re not addressing a need, motivation or desire, it fails. It’s pointless. Data-led: this is what sets us apart. We combine digital data analysis and insights with human behaviours (actually how people act on social) to really know our audiences, really know the platforms, to recommend strategies which work. (And we can prove they will work). Digital brand experiences: We believe in the power of brand to create differentiated experiences. To create conversation, to create meaningful and memorable moments that are unique to the brand and user connection. Experiences no one else can own. Rooted in the brand strategy, expressed via the brand visual and verbal identity. Creating: we make the stuff you see on the internet. We actually do. We concept, plan, design, craft and produce. Our Studio means we not only come up with great ideas, we execute them as well. Exceptional: because everything we create (and I mean everything) is exceptional. We set our bar high, because if we don’t, we fill the internet with more of the same, and who wants to hire a consultancy to do that? We understand what’s going to work, we make it to the highest standards and we connect our brands to their end users. And that’s why I’m excited to join the team. I’ve come from a large agency background where you never see the change, you never really get under the skin of your audience, and very very rarely do you get to touch real world execution. Every day at OneFifty we are producing fresh content that lives and breathes across digital channels. We are actively making those connections, designing those experiences, and having conversations with our end users. Pushing the boundaries of the expected, to cut through to our audiences. Expect to hear (and see!) a lot more from me!

So far, we’ve used social data to identify (and live) veganism , cycling , gin , health reset and gardening as consumer trends. This month marble is having its moment. There is a lot of marbling going on, and not just the stone material itself. From chopping boards to legging print, from nails to phone cases – bloggers are all over a little marble accessorising to chic-up their channels. This month, we’re going to investigate why marble became so popular on social… From looking through a few design bloggers (like  Hannah in the house ), we learned that marble kick-started among interior designers a few years back. But it didn’t take long until this stone took over a broader social audience. Marble has 2.4M hashtags on Instagram worldwide (96k UK est.), which is 5.5 times bigger than 'granite' and 1.3 times bigger than 'copper' (another material trend in past years). But it’s not just about a building material: let’s have a look at a few examples: The Glow Edit promoting Garnier’s Ultimate Blends in a marble bathroom vs Lolitamas promoting the same product with a bedding background. Amelia Freer’s lunch post on a marble table vs Gastroglam using a placemat . Brighton Keller travelling with her marble suitcase vs a black one . Brands also know about the aesthetically visual marble-effect: Adidas recently launched marble-styled gym wear. To promote this special product range, they worked with various influencers: our very own  Natalie Glaze , Twice The Health or Tally Rye , for example. Now the question arises: why are (especially) Instagrammer so keen on having marble in their images? The most popular marble used is the white marble. It works well for food items , beauty products or accessories , where the background raises the emotional value (e.g. designlife used in combination with 'marble'). This is probably one of the reasons why marble grew beyond interior designers and became popular among lifestyle blogging . A second and more prominent usage of marble on Instagram is its pattern (we estimate ¾ of Instagram posts tagged as such to be products with a marble design, not background). Home decor & furniture, nails and laptop/phone cases are the top products using a marble look ('marblenails' has 152,629 mentions, 'marblecase' has 145,981; home decor & furniture don’t have a specific hashtag, but can be found under the general marble hashtag). Among home decor & furniture, the marble kitchen, bathroom and tables are most noticeable. Those categories are mainly associated with luxury home or an elegant, aspirational lifestyle (e.g. #dreamhome , #parisianstyle ). As the recent adidas influencer campaign shows, marble is pushed by some big brands.  One of the latest makeup trends arising on Instagram are marble lipsticks . So, this month, we’re going to show you the most trendy marble accessoires on social, analyse the visual interest marble creates for your audience and speak to a few bloggers to learn what it means to marble-ize your images. #consumertrend #data #socialtrend

This month we have the hard task of participating in a new social trend…Gin! To kick start our gin month we took a trip to the Beefeater distillery in Kennington. We arrived at the typically English 1950s factory. The building oozed with the history of gin and formed a perfect setting for the gin tour. We first entered a mini museum detailing the history of gin in Britain. It took us on a journey starting from the birth of the gin craze in the 18th Century, to the current day. We were then greeted by our lovely tour guide Rosie. She introduced us to the nine different botanicals that go into Beefeater gin: juniper, angelica root, angelica seeds, coriander seeds, liquorice, almonds, orris root, seville oranges, and lemon peel. You get the opportunity to touch and smell each one. My biggest surprise was the addition of fruits and nuts (practically one of your 5 a day!). Rosie then went onto explain the origins of Beefeaters and its name. Beefeaters can be traced back to James Burrough who started the distillery in the 1960s in Chelsea. The Beefeater birth cost a grand total of £400! The Beefeater brand gained its name from the Tower of London guards. To this day, they still send them a bottle every year. Rosie then led us to the gin production site. As we entered the distillery it was striking how quiet it was. Where were all the workers? Rosie went on to  explain that only 4 people made the 10,000 litres a day of Beefeater Gin, with only 4 stills. There gin is distilled for 24 hours with the 9 botanicals. This is where it gets a bit tricky, as each of the botanicals release their flavour at different times. As they can’t have their employees drinking 80% proof throughout the day, the only way they can tell when the botanicals are ready is to smell the gin. This is done by the 4 employees, with the head smeller Desmond (a.k.a the ‘Nose’). The ability to smell the different botanicals takes years to develop. Their sense of smell is also tested every 6 months: so becoming a gin smeller seems to be a little harder than I first thought! With the additional drawback of not getting to taste the gin… Working within social media, we couldn’t pass up the opportunity to have a little look at what Beefeater is doing here. Globally, over the past year, Beefeater gin has over 9.7K mentions with the US and UK leading the way in terms of volumes. This generates a total of 33.7 million impressions. The conversation is led by using the gin in combination with fruity cocktails, and of course a G&T. The boys seem to be dominating the conversation. There is a popular use of the hashtag 'spoton' – and now I can see why! Of course no Gin tour would be complete without a gin and tonic. The gin tasted all the better knowing the process and hard work behind it. All in all it was a great trip full of history and gin. The gin craze which first swept 18th century London is re-emerging and I can see why. The complexity in flavour combined with the expertise of master smellers creates the perfect evening drink… or even lunchtime! #socialtrend #Socialdata #gin #trends

This week we see the start of the annual Chelsea Flower Show. The most prestigious gardening show of the year in the UK and the premier event in the gardeners’ calendar. We’ve looked at who, how and what people are talking and sharing when it comes to social media. Last year there was 126,000 tweets about the show in May, generating 432 million impressions. To put this in context Royal Ascot had 160,000 mentions and 570 million impressions – 23% smaller.  The conversation around Chelsea is driven by a domestic audience, with 81% of all tweets coming from the UK. The US was the second largest (9%) followed by Australia (2.7%). On the gender split, it was slightly female skewed with 58% – 42% bias. It’s a similar story on Instagram hashtags affiliated with Royal Ascot are 25% higher than hashtags affiliated with The Chelsea Flower Show. So what are people talking about? At a whopping 67%, the majority of the posts on Twitter were retweets. It does show the wide appeal of Chelsea in terms of sharing content beyond the, relatively, small number who get tickets to go. The most popular garden talked about on twitter last year was not a medal winner instead it was the striking 5000 poppies garden by Phillip Johnson. This garden was featured in 8% of tweets about the show last year. This garden had a strong emotional message and combined it with striking visual imagery it is no wonder this did so well on social media Instagram shows that the flowers and gardens speak for themselves on social – just 20% of the content features people in the shot. What we tend to see at big occasional events like this one is a high volume of selfies as people want to be ‘seen’ at the event on social. The Royals are a major pull factor for the event with 10% of tweets last year mentioning The Royal Family in some way and three of the top nine posts on instagram featured Kate Middleton. When it comes to who is actually talking about The Chelsea Flower Show, though, TV stars featured heavily. Rosie Fortesque, Fearne Cotton and Mark Francis all made the top most influential accounts talking about the show. Gardening celebrities were surprisingly absent from our list, with only Ben Fogle featuring. The fact that “new” media stars such as Lily Pebbles and Amelia Liana were talking about the Chelsea Flower show highlights the breadth of the audience that is interested in this event. The Chelsea Flower Show has a great combination of British heritage and engaging source material that mean that this event will continue to be popular on social media for the foreseeable future. Content around the show is created and shared most prolifically when it combines the visual aspect (of flowers in this case), with an emotional response for the consumer. And that’s what gets people sharing on social, it’s not rational… #gardener #rhs #gardening #chelsea #trends

As part of this month’s gardening trend, which we see thriving on social, I had the delightful job to look more closely into which ‘flowers’ are driving interest. So here’s our ranking of the Top 10 Flowers discussed on social. To kick off the research, and narrow down the flowers we are going to analyse, we used a variety of sources to establish long lists of the most popular flowers in retail and cultural terms. To account for marketing biases, we validated this list with plants that The Gardener’s World featured in 2016/17, and additionally added Dahlias and Daffodils. We also adjusted (excluded) for key events that would skew the analysis, like Valentine’s or Mother’s Day – in othr words, when flowers are used as gifts (rather than in their natural environment). The gardening aspect (i.e. explicitly discussing the growing by consumers) is rather small in absolute terms, by volume – however there’s an implicit behaviour to note. The interest in horticulture is at its full bloom when it comes to the beauty and perfection of flowers. People post a picture (of flowers) and say “look how lovely this place looks”, but what they actually demonstrate is their view “oh these flowers look nice”. That being said, Roses are clearly winning our Top 10 Social Flower Ranking (this ranking is based on relative mention volumes across Twitter and Instagram. We suspect YouTube to be a big deal when it comes to Gardening DIY, however due to platform API limitations, it’s not included in this analysis): The obvious point in this table is the importance of a flower’s visual aspect: Roses, Lilies and Hydrangea, for instance. Their classic, exotic and expensive look and feel resonate particularly well with an Instagram audience. We also need to take into account that some flowers have a longer flowering seasoning, which affects posting volumes. Whereas roses flower 9 months a year, daffodils have only 4 weeks. Unwinding the variety of flowers on social, we dug further into each flower’s related content. The results show some distinct opportunities to branch out (forgive all the puns). Among all the different flowers we looked at, Lavender features the least amount of specific gardening content compared to it’s overall conversation on social (est. 0.5%). Beauty products and gifting are dominating, instead. Similar is Fuchsia. People talk about the pink colour in combination with beauty and clothing products, but relatively speak less about horticulture. And last, but not least Daffodils – The feel good flower. Happiness emerges across all flowers, but a positive tone of voice really lives up in the Daffodil conversation, e.g. “Iced coffee in the sun yeah 'daffodils' 'sunnymood'" (we estimate Daffodils to be 9 times more often used in a happy/ sunshine context than Hydrangea or 1.4 times more often than Tulips for example). When it comes to emoji flowers, however, within the flower conversation, the Sunflower emoji is more popular – just slightly ahead by 2 percentage points across the overall Twitter conversation, but 3 times more prominent than the Tulip emoji (not every flower we looked at has a specific emoji, however still surprising and a good indicator of the power of positivity we can find on social). Lastly we looked at the demographics – and it’s relatively evenly distributed, with 55% female, 45% male conversation. Next up in our analysis? Chelsea Garden Show… #gardening #consumertrends #socialtrends #flowers #trends

The consumer trend we’re living this month – identified by social data – is gardening and as part of it we’re interviewing some prominent people in the gardening community. First up was the man behind the RHS’ social media channels, Ian Reynolds, now we’ve sat down with Mr Plant Geek, otherwise known as Michael Perry. As the “ultimate plant geek”, he’s made numerous TV appearances, is a speaker for the RHS but more notably has thousands of social media fans following his work and asking advice. As he says, if you love plants, you’ll love him. So, read on… What got you into gardening? Spending time with my grandparents when I was young – from five! At that point, they’re a lot more interesting than your parents and I wanted to do what they did. I had a natural interest in nature and gardening but what really kicked it off was their love of growing plants and flowers, and being at exhibitions. From that point, I used every opportunity to do something related to gardening and expanding my knowledge. I was selling plants via mail order via my own herb nursery when I was just 12. It was there that I went on to learn a lot about marketing and how to talk to people about plants in a way that they understood, got excited about and ultimately bought. Have you ever thought of doing something else? I haven’t, I’m not sure what else I’d be good at! I think you should do what comes naturally to you, gardening is that for me. I am very lucky to have been able to turn it into a career – that’s not always the case. What is the importance of non-traditional gardening faces? Having a variety of knowledgeable people who are prominent in the gardening community is important to inspire different people. I’ve been considered quite different in my approach – typically younger and more forward-thinking – which has made me get noticed more. Although   as gardening has grown and become more ‘trendy’, I’ve probably become a more acceptable face! I fit in more – although I’ve never tried to do things differently, I just do what I do! I would add, that it’s not just about being of the moment, you do need experience to back it up. I’m horticulturally trained which ensures I’ve got the substance! Have you seen it grow? Yes definitely. Predominantly around indoor plants – it’s the natural place to start and lots of people don’t have gardens. Something I try and champion more is window boxes, anyone can do it and it’s your ticket to outdoor gardening. The problem is people don’t think about it in the first place and there’s no handy universal window box that just fits. Looking at gardening more generally, it has become less complicated and stuffy, which has helped grow its popularity. It was very hierarchical, but less so now – you don’t have to know how to prune 20 different shrubs to be recognised! People are more likely to have a go – and I’d really encourage them to do so. It’s important we protect the history and knowledge of horticulture but without compromising on its appeal. I do think the bubble might burst with house plants though. We tend to get obsessed on one thing for a couple of years and then hate it because it becomes ‘uncool’. But we’ll see. You’re well followed on social, how has that played a role in building your personal brand? I don’t think I’ve really thought about it in that way, I just do what I do. That said, my social following is used as a proxy for credibility. The reason I use it is because it gives me direct contact with the customer – that’s the real benefit. I can give them advice but also get that advice back – I ask them what flower shows I should be going to that I don’t already know, for example. It keeps me much better connected to the industry and it connects you to amazing and interesting people all the time. My channels all serve a slightly different purpose, Instagram is great for being visual and showing off different plants. Twitter is where I can showcase my work and jump into conversations with all sorts of people – although it’s getting a lot more cluttered, making that harder to do. Facebook is great for showing my work in more depth and getting discussions going with followers. It’s taken me awhile to decide what role my website has, but what I’m aiming at is the ‘Buzzfeed of plants’ – it’s almost there! I want to draw people in and really enjoy their time there. Are Gardening YouTubers underrepresented? I think they are. I’d love to focus on this but I have to think about what I spend my time on. Gardening is under-represented. It’s hugely seasonal so that makes it difficult to sustain content throughout the year. To build a credible social following with great content requires a lot of investment. What’s your favourite gardening account on social? Noughticulture by Alice Vincent, who also writes for The Telegraph. Gently hipster, but the way she delivers content and information is very accessible and every day. She has made some lovely how to videos about basic things that come across beautifully. I also love Dale Dixon who works at the Botanical garden in Sydney. He gets a lot of everyday interest on social, which is amazing for a botanical garden. It shows how connected the world is now – you can learn about gardening from anyone in the world. What are your favourite brands in gardening? There’s a new compost called Black Magic, from Scotts, which I love – I’m doing some work with them now. It appeals to a more hipster audience without alienating the traditional gardener. Seed Ball are doing some great stuff – particularly engaging people on social. I would say on asking for gardening advice, do ask the right people. And don’t go for the first answer on Google – it can be completely wrong and do more harm than good. What are your top tips for those new to gardening Keep it small, keep it basic. Don’t get overwhelmed and have fun! And remember, plants won’t (and don’t need to) last forever. We tend to have an odd opinion in the UK that plants shouldn’t die. Why can’t we use them in a more relaxed and disposable way? I’ve been doing quite a bit of lecturing in Japan to students. They cram amazing things into a container designed to least 2-3 weeks – and they have fun! You don’t want to waste money on plants but don’t get too focused on the value either. Also, realise that gardening means many different things – it doesn’t have to be digging all day. It can be, but often isn’t. Just have a go! #gardener #gardening #garden #plantgeek #socialtrends