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Welcome back to Social Digest (Issue #78), the monthly round up of all things social, straight from Ogilvy PR London. Got two songs for you this month, and they’re corkers. So crank it up and bring the noise…

For your ears: 1) “So I’ll only be here“… Flora by Beaty Heart 2) “I could stick around more, rearrange your ego”… Ential by VIMES

3 THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW

• Instagram launched Stories, an ‘in the moment’ tool. From Facebook: “Instagram is where the world captures and shares its moments, and we’ve long heard from our community of 500M users that they want an easier way to capture and share all of their daily moments, not just the highlights.” Sound familiar? Anyway, here’s our take on Stories
• Embarrassed: A slick, beautifully written piece of content about the stigma of breastfeeding in public
• Has Snapchat gone too far?

In other news…

• Apple and the gun emoji
• To figure how what attributes are needed for the ‘perfect’ team, Google devised Project Aristotle, which analysed every team across Google for over three years. Here’s what they found.
• It appears a bunch of top tier YouTubers accepted cash in exchange for giving a brand positive reviews. This shouldn’t still be happening. Be smart people, it’s 2016.
• Snapchat and the Art of Upstreaming
• Lufthansa + Airbnb = an innovative listing in a shared room with four bathrooms (Spoiler alert: it’s a plane)
• Spotify wants you to discover music from people’s out-of-office emails
• Facebook videos shorter than 30s will loop continuously. Maybe time to rethink how you’re calculating engagement rate?
• And speaking of video, you can now post videos within comment threads on Facebook (cough *Social Care* cough)
• Create Facebook custom audiences based on the amount of time spent on your website. Could be useful eh? EH?
• If you’re a retail/restaurant brand with a physical location, you should probably know about these new Facebook ad formats
• Twitter upped its file size limits. Photos can be up to 5MB, and animated GIFs can be up to 5MB on mobile, and up to 15MB on web
• LinkedIn FINALLY adds videos to the feed. But not for you. Only for them
• Another celebrity brand endorsement, another facepalm

Just for fun

• The truth about pillows
• Bet you can’t guess what happens after these divers jump off this diving board?
• You need this 1980’s version of Bieber’s What Do You Mean in your life
• Probably the best typo I’ve seen all month
• The Olympics Instagram channel is simply brilliant. Give it a whirl
• Meet the cat who’s too lazy to walk down stairs
• Flick around this Instagram page, can you spot what’s real and what’s not?
• AreMenTalkingTooMuch.com is a web tool that let’s you log who’s talking in meetings
• Having a good day? Then it’s probably time for you to be taken down a peg. This link will show you all your outgoing Facebook friend requests that got ignored. Ha, you loser

Worth a watch

One for those of you who missed this brilliant bit of newsjacking during the Euros

GIFs of the week

1. Beach prank level: Expert

2. When the manager’s better than the players

3. You had one job. ONE

Thanks for reading,
Bizhan

@biz987 || @OgilvyPRLondon

PS – Here are three facts about Emma Morano that will make your jaw hit the… uh…  flaw?

PPS – When cars drive themselves, how will they make decisions? What about when life is on the line? Some smart people at MIT are trying to work that out, and they need our help. Take this 13 question test and see how your moral compass compares with everyone else’s

PPPS – “Stop. Using. Periods. Period.” a short commentary on the changed meaning of a lowly full stop

PPPPS – Can someone try this and tell me if it works kthnxbye

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Welcome back to Social Digest (Issue #77), the fortnightly(ish) round up of all things social, straight from Ogilvy PR London. How’s life? Good? Good. Me? Oh thanks for asking. I’ve just had what was probably one of the most interesting, insightful and inspiring three-day periods of my existence. More on that in the PS’s below. But for now, let’s jump in, mainly because I’ve got some cracking tweets for you in ‘Just for fun‘. Here we go…

For your ears: “And we can dance a little more“… Josephine by Ritual

3 THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW

• Apparently 85% of Facebook video content is watched sans sound. Which means you better make sure your videos deliver the intended message through visuals/on-screen text alone. However, this article doesn’t mention autoplay, which leads me to the assumption that a chunk of the aforementioned 85% may be happening while you’re looking away from your phone to scowl at the barista who spelled your name wrong, or the tourist who stops to take a selfie on Oxford Street, or the commuter who isn’t standing on the right. (Full disclosure: I wouldn’t actually scowl at any of those people, I’m far too British for that. Polite cough all the way)
• I found this super interesting – Why white people don’t use white emoji
• Twitter makes a few notable changes (meaning starting a tweet with ‘.@’ will be a thing of the past). Get yourself clued in

In other news…

• Instagram Zero arrived
• Snapchat Zero is arriving (Related: Snapchat came in to talk to us this morning. The two most interesting points IMHO were 1. The average Snapchatter views 80 video snaps per day… WHAT?! And 2. Snapchat’s answer to the Buy Button is here, and it’s called ‘swipe up’. More news on this soon, I’m sure)
• How much should you pay influencers? How much do other brands pay influencers? Here’s a tumblr of anonymous posts from influencers on how much brands paid them. The disparity here is remarkable
• What are you asking your social audience for: participation or attention? Think carefully before you go down the wrong route, says Scott Fogel from Firstborn
• One person’s account of what it’s like when a tweet you post goes viral
• I love the idea of this, but I do wonder how much chaos and confusion it’s caused. Call a number, speak to a Swede. A random Swede
• Smart Instagram post from Jägermeister
• And this is probably the most striking emoji usage I’ve seen of late

Just for fun

• Tweet of the week 1
• Tweet of the week 2
• Tweet of the week 3
• These tweets about babies made me laugh actual laughs
• Adulthood, explained in post it notes (you should definitely follow this guy on Instagram)
• Your kids will never know the struggles we went through
• These drawings are so cute and tiny LOOK AT THEM
• Innocent made some lols for the Queen’s birthday
• Last week I was reminded of this brilliantly logical Wait But Why post I’d seen about a year ago, so I reread it. It’s called How To Pick Your Life Partner, and therefore is possibly more relevant to you than any other link you’ve found here (?)

Worth a watch

• Two weeks ago I sent this video to some friends saying it was the best video I’d seen that day. I can now say it’s the best video I’ve seen in the last two weeks (apart from Captain America: Civil War, I suppose)
• These people are better at their jobs than you are at life
• Cat + flower = major freak out

GIFs of the week

Chimp got skillz

Baby got thrillz
Thanks for reading, see you in a few weeks!
Bizhan

@biz987 || @OgilvyPRLondon

PS – I think a lot about names. I have a name. It’s often mispronounced, so I also have a nickname. Maybe you do too. I was talking to a friend (you’ll find out how I met her if you decide to read the next PS) and it transpired she’d thought a lot about it too. So she wrote about it

(Oh and for the record, the ‘zh’ is pronounced like the ‘s’ in casual. Glad we cleared that up.)

PPS – Some of you may have heard of The Marketing Academy Scholarship, a year long programme that looks to grow and develop future leaders within Marketing. After a long selection process, I was lucky enough to be given a place on this year’s Academy, and have just returned from a 3 day Boot Camp where I heard from CEOs, Creative Directors and founders of charities who shared their stories with far more candour than I was expecting. Perhaps even more remarkable though, was the experience of meeting the other 29 ‘scholars’ alongside me. Warm, wise, witty people with impressive skills from varied backgrounds. All in one cohort. For a year. I have no idea what magic we might rustle up but not gonna lie, I’m excited to find out. If you’re curious to find out more about the Academy, this chap sums it up nicely

PPPS – This may be my favourite thing in Social Digest this week… beautiful illustrated GIFs of actors (mostly) at various points in their careers

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Welcome back to Social Digest (Issue #76), the fortnightly(ish) round up of all things social, straight from Ogilvy PR London. Apols for the brief hiatus from Social Digest, I was playing hard to get.

For your ears: “I see quiet nights poured over ice and Tanqueray
But everything is shattering and it’s my mistake”… FOOLS by Troye Sivan

3 THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW

• So you think you know Snapchat? Ha, good one
• Twitter introduces its new algorithmic timeline
• Oh look, WALL-E came true

In other news…

• You heard about Facebook reactions right? Interestingly, the angry reaction counts as an engagement, just like all the others.
• Smart emoji advertising from Deadpool
• Your two favourite rival brands have taken the gloves off again – this time my vote goes to BK
• Doing any work with athletes or celebs? You should probably know about Slyce
• Have we reached ‘peak millennial’? 
• How Snapchat built a business by confusing olds
• Two bit of Instagram news this week: their vids now have a view count and they made a teensy tweak that spiked usage massively
• Twitter’s gone GIFtastic, and the people are partying (If you want to know why, I can help)
• House of Fraser’s Emojinal campaign confused everyone, but I reckon Holly put it best with this tweet
• Nikon awards a photoshopped photo, the internet responds
• Uber gets cuddly with a puppy delivery (related: their new logo seems to have been a huge flop)
• Literacy is declining in Brazil. So Pocket Reading are using WhatsApp to fight it
• LinkedIn lost 45% of its value
• YouTube Red launches, but without a view count
• Twitter opens topical Moments feed to UK advertisers
• Twitter stops growing

Just for fun

• Banksy’s latest piece has a QR code on it. Can someone let me know whether this means we should all start laughing at Banksy, or stop laughing at QR codes?
• People are trying to outboast Kanye, and they’re doing a fantastic job
• Jurassic Parkour (click around)
• If this story is true, the culprit is my new hero
• Everyone made the same joke about Matt Le Blanc as the new presenter of Top Gear
• Man skips work for 6 years; no one notices
• Plug yourself in, hit some keys, make some noise
• You should all have seen this Twitter account by now

Worth a watch

• You know that “Damn, Daniel” meme someone mentioned last week and you nodded along pretending you’d seen it? Well, now you can stop pretending
• If Donald Trump had a Cockney accent…
• Samsung’s unboxing ad (dropped at MWC) is pretty swish. See if you can spot all the transitions

GIF of the week

You’ll probably watch this GIF at least three times

Thanks for reading, see you in a few weeks!

Bizhan

@biz987 || @OgilvyPRLondon

PS If you’ve been a reader of mine for a while, you’ll know that I’m pretty intrigued by how the internet has added words to our vocabulary. This link will transport you to 4 wonderful infographics. 1. a map of all the emotions expressible with the English language. 2. Emotions from other languages that we don’t have words for, overlaid onto our map (you’ll see where the gaps are, and there are a lot of them). 3. New emotions invented by the internet. 4. A delightful plethora of untranslatable words.

PPS I saw Deadpool a couple of weeks ago and it knocked GOTG off the top spot on my list of funniest superhero movies. Go see it.

PPS “If I die in the same hospital as I was born in the average velocity of my life would be 0″ Redditor yohan99

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Welcome back to Social Digest (Issue #75), the fortnightly(ish) round up of all things social, straight from Ogilvy PR London. We moved! Ogilvy London is settling into a new home on the South Bank, and we (myself included, of course) have been snapping the view, day and night. The inside is pretty swish too, have a gander.

For your ears: “One month til February keep on holding on”… Falling Short by Låpsley

3 THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW

• A recent press release from WhatsApp says they’re ditching the subscription fee. So how will they make any cash? Ads? No. Services? Yes.
• Spotify video just launched
• A human called Tom Whitwell made a list of 52 things he learned in 2015. They are great. Number 42 made me laugh.

In other news…

• GUYS. HUGE NEWS. Cannot believe this gem of wisdom stayed under the radar until now.
• Twitter ups the character limit which could lead to more hosted content
• Hate to be the bearer of bad news, but most of your Facebook friends couldn’t care less about you
• What counts as a video view? (Especially relevant if you’re doing anything on Facebook or Snapchat)
• How a puddle in Newcastle became a national talking point
• My favourite Guardian restaurant critic lists 12 things that restaurants must stop doing in 2016. (If you work on a restaurant brand you could probably create some FUN CONTENT around some of this stuff)
• How podcasts (i.e. Serial) are changing the way people consume ads, to the point of rewinding to hear the ad again
• The “worst” things at CES this year
• Domino’s have already enabled ordering through Twitter and emojis, so what’s next? A Snapchat story with a hidden discount code, apparently
• Coke ditches “Open Happiness” and swaps it for “Taste The Feeling” and a heavy focus on product-centric advertising
• McDonald’s, you’ve changed
• Buzzfeed comes under fire for failing to make it clear that some of its listicles are actually ads

Just for fun

• This Buzzfeed article entitled “32 of the Greatest Things That Happened On Tumblr In 2015″ is predictably filled with great things that happened on Tumblr in 2015. 32 of them in fact. You should read them
• Is this your city?
• This penguin fell over and made a noise
• Best costume ever?
• This post from Wait But Why is long but realllllly interesting. It’s called Horizontal History and basically explains why we’ve been looking at the past in entirely the wrong way this whole time. Save it to Pocket and read it on your commute. You’ll learn something
• Having a bad day? Here’s a hamster snuggled up in a blanket eating a carrot
• This GIF is brilliant, but the comments are better

Worth a watch

• These celebrity nano-impressions will make your day
• Lurpak’s latest TVC is mesmerising. High five to W+K
• Raccoon + candy floss + puddle = devastation
• New York + snow + a couple of brave souls + Frank Sinatra = 1 kick ass video
• This Norwegian drinking coffee is cooler than you drinking coffee
• Sportsmanship prevails again
• I hope Adele’s carpool karaoke is a video you’ve already seen

GIFs of the week

1. Angry motorbike goes on rampage

2. “And can you describe the thief sir?” “Umm, small build, brown hair, red jacket, four legs”

Thanks, see you in a few weeks!

Bizhan

@biz987 || @OgilvyPRLondon

PS Netflix has a bunch of secret categories. Here’s how you can see them

PPS My fave tweets of the week are this one, and this one

PPPS “Everyone can dance, if you are having fun and moving your body in any way you want to then you’re dancing. The expression of the human body through dance is amazingly beautiful.” Marissa McCann

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Welcome back to Social Digest (Issue #74), the fortnightly(ish) round up of all things social, straight from Ogilvy PR London.

Last week I made the transition back to London from New York, which means the cabs are now black, the queues are now orderly, and my accent is, once again, entirely unremarkable. Anyway, you’re either reading this from a near-empty office (I feel you), or from 2016 (what’s the future like?). I suppose the third option is that you’re already off for the break and you’re scrolling through this on your phone whilst standing on a packed train home to Waddington (or equivalent) in which case you’re my favourite kind of person.

3 THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW

• The psychology of click bait (including this remarkable gem about what happens when an outrageous headline doesn’t deliver: “What’s really interesting is what happens when you reduce the reward frequency. When it comes only 50 percent of the time, dopamine levels go through the roof. In this sense, a violated promise isn’t a deterrent for clicking behaviour, but rather an incentive”)
• If you don’t have time to read this…read it twice
• Grab your Year In Music, courtesy of Spotify (apparently I listened to 733 different artists this year, and Gauze Pop was my 2nd most listened genre, after Indietronica. Seriously, who comes up with these genre names?)

2015 in…

• … ads (via Adweek)
• … ads (via YouTube)
• … PR stunts
• … pop music (courtesy of DJ Earworm)
• … tweets
• … Tumblr
• … search
• … branding
• … music marketing
• … newsreader bloopers (oh yes)

The links you clicked most from every Social Digest this year (I had a few lols looking back over these, so thanks for that)

• The brand fail of the week (on so many levels) was this one. More at The Guardian here
• A teenager’s view on social media
• Men, this GIF may cause you physical pain
• THE DRESS
• 50 modern-day ‘Friends’ episodes, imagined by comedians
• 11 brilliant jokes written by kids

In other news…

• Snapchat has made ‘Discover’ content shareable
• Facebook introduces Live Video and Collages
• A little more news on the upcoming Facebook at Work
• Facebook Messenger tests yet another feature – this time, the ability to book Uber rides within the app
• Smart Car tells an Instagram story across two devices. Interesting idea but a) would people actually find a friend just so they can ‘experience’ this? And b) even if they do, how is the brand measuring it?
• Would you like a pair of socks that automatically pause Netflix when you fall asleep? Course you would
• And finally, some clever people have gone and written a whole paper on the sentiment of emojis. Interactive output here and more details + abstract here

Just for fun

• Van Gogh, tilt shifted, is awesome
• Check out My Day With Leo for some photo trickery that’ll make you smile
• Bill Murray is ready to laugh again
• The truth about Santa
• This canine photo series is just so great
• And finally, can you find the panda in this image?

Worth a watch

• Hero weather girl puts 12 Star Wars puns into a 40 second forecast
• Adele pretends to be Adele

GIF of the week

Firework street battle or wizarding duel?

Thanks, see you in 2016!

Bizhan

@biz987 || @OgilvyPRLondon

PS Numbers by Daughter is my song of the week. Absorb it

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Welcome back to Social Digest (Issue #73), the fortnightly(ish) round up of all things social, straight from Ogilvy PR London.

Twice a year I chuck together a collection of 50 great songs from the last six months… and you know what? I reckon they’d make the perfect soundtrack to this Social Digest. Put ’em in your ears.

3 THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW

• A thought-provoking read on how a career in advertising shapes you unlike anything else. Kind of interesting when you compare it to the “Short Lesson In Perspective” I shared with you guys a couple of years back
• When did we all become walking talking click-bait? This article on the rise and rise of phrases like “I’m literally dying” and “I can’t even” is really good. But maybe not quite as good as that time I had to plan my funeral because I had all the feels at once to the point where I tried to even but I literally couldn’t even so I died, dead.
• It’s that time of year again – dive into the YouTube Rewind (Related: Facebook’s Year In Review)

In other news…

• If you care at all about music, this is worth a read: Adele is the largest selling artist on earth. So what’s she going to do about it?
• Would you rather be invisible or be able to fly? This clever and powerful “Would you rather” quiz has a hidden agenda
• Facebook will give you the option to hide your ex from you after a breakup
• Facebook Messenger is testing self-destructing messages. Hmm that sounds a little familiar. As Matt Muir put it, ” …the only certainty we have for 2016 is that all of these platforms will do exactly the same thing but with small, maddening variations which will serve only to make the lives of digimongs like us marginally more complicated than they in fact need be. There, that’s my prediction for next year, bank it.”
• It seems young people have two lives on Instagram… their public accounts that show an improbably perfect life, and then there’s the real story, hidden behind private ‘finstagram’ accounts.
• Durex campaigns for a condom emoji
• An odd partnership: Snapchat + The Wall Street Journal. Here’s why it happened
• First the Like heart, now it seems Twitter is experimenting with more emoji options
• Twitter made a couple of small tweaks to how images are displayed in the feed
• Thinking about working with Snapchat influencers? Screenshots are key
• 50% of US classroom devices are now Chromebooks – up from 1% in 2012! (Side note – I just bought my first one, if you have any tips or must-knows, hit me up)
• Alibaba smashed sales records for China’s Singles Day, netting £9.4bn in sales in just 24 hours
• Samsung captures the Black Friday spirit with this amusing ad. (Confession: the part I found funniest was the disclaimer message at the end)

Just for fun

• TGI Friday’s unveiled Endless Appetizers – a promotion where $10 will get you unlimited starters. A Gawker writer set out to test the ‘unlimited’ part, and amusingly live-blogged the whole thing
• A masterclass in how to reply to wrong number texts with maximum hilarity
• Every so often, I come across an Instagram profile that makes my jaw drop… usually because of stunning photography. This time however, it was because of a woman who has taken to slowly pushing her face into various types of bread
• Monkey see magic trick. Monkey cannot handle
• These tilt-shifted images of space are wondrous (Tilt-shift photography = a technique that makes the subject look like a tiny version of itself)
• Warning: emotions ahead. This Tumblr collects the last messages people received from someone in their life (including break ups, friendships that drifted, and deaths)
• 12 things the new Batman v Superman trailer tells us
• Finally, try this and see what happens

Worth a watch

• Back when I wrote this particular bullet point, PSY’s new video had clocked up 22m views in 3 days, and it’s high time you watched it
• I don’t know who made this or why, but it uses CGI to mess with the human form and is just mesmerising
• Someone captured people’s reactions at the moment they’re told they’re beautiful, and the result is heart-warming. Can we all just hug and smile for a second? I’d like that
• We need to help the Instagram Husbands. We really do

Your next obsession: Hamilton

It’s very rare that I add a one-off section into Social Digest but this deserves it. Many of you will be familiar with Alexander Hamilton, one of the Founding Fathers. What you may not know, is that Lin-Manuel Miranda (actor, writer, composer) picked up Hamilton’s biography for some light beach reading (natch) and was so dumbfounded by Hamilton’s life that he decided to make a musical about it. Eight years of work later, and that musical is currently on Broadway, and is easily the greatest piece of theatre I’ve ever seen. Lin wrote the lyrics, wrote all the music, AND plays the lead – Hamilton (!) Don’t worry if you can’t get tickets (it’s sold out until mid-2016 and resale tickets are going for over $2,000 each – maybe this gives you some insight into the mass-appeal of Lin’s genius), the cast recording is on Spotify and YouTube, and is basically the entire show, so you’ll be able to follow the whole story if you listen to it in order. I implore you to give it a try. Granted, if someone had told me I should listen to the recording of a musical about the Founding Fathers, I’d be sceptical. But try the first 3-4 songs, you won’t be sorry. (Not convinced? Here’s a taste)

GIF of the week

The world’s best known logos, drawn by hand

Thanks, see you in two weeks,

Bizhan

@biz987 || @OgilvyPRLondon

PS Tweet of the week

PPS The biggest mistake people make when choosing a life partner

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Welcome back to Social Digest (Issue #72), the fortnightly(ish) round up of all things social, straight from Ogilvy PR London. There’s loads here today and I was going to cut a bunch of it but then got distracted… nevertheless, DON’T FRET, it’s all gold. And it’s all yours.

(Oh and if you happen to be reading this on your phone in a public place, just know that you look like this)

The latest Hood Internet mixtape is pretty good and would be a suitable soundtrack for this week’s Social Digest, just sayin’

3 THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW

• Twitter changes the ‘favourite’ stars to ‘like’ hearts. Here’s how the internet reacted. (That was two weeks ago. Twitter is now thinking “In your FACE world!” as the like heart gets 6% more engagement than the favourite star)
• YouTube Music is here
• The ever-intriguing question, “What will Shia LeBoeuf do next?” has a new answer… he spent 72 hours sat in a cinema in NYC and invited the public to join him as he watched all his films, back to back. Oh and of course, he livestreamed himself (yep his face, not the films) the whole time. This crazed idea led to headlines like “Has Shia LaBeouf Reached the End of the Line?”, “Is Shia LaBeouf Losing It Or Are We?” and “UPDATE: SHIA LABEOUF FALLS ASLEEP DURING ‘TRANSFORMERS: DARK OF THE MOON’ “. Personally, I found it strangely therapeutic watching his little beardy face for a few minutes on Thursday, and am actually kinda excited to see what he does next

In other news…

• Finland’s new national emoji include naked people and a Nokia 3310. In summary, Finland rocks
• Taco Bell did this thing with emojis on Twitter that must have taken LITERALLY AGES. A for Effort
• Twitter introduced itself to TV viewers for the first time, with an ad. It’s been called confusing, crazy, and straight up bad. But to be honest, I quite liked it
• John Lewis is making everyone cry again with their Christmas ad. (As is customary, here’s a parody for you)
• POTUS is on Facebook
• Immersive Facebook ads are coming
• Snapchat adds a bunch of special effect options like rewind and slow motion
• “All your Snaps belong to us” Snapchat, 2015
• Snoopy pops up in the first ever sponsored Snapchat lens
• Gmail wants to write your emails for you
• Google created this little infographic to celebrate AdWords’ 15th birthday
• Twitter adds Brand Hub to their analytics suite
• Pinterest launches visual search
• Canon set photographers a challenge, with a twist (Think Dove Sketches but for photography… kinda)
• And finally, this tool apparently auto-crops your image to social platform dimensions… sounds useful, probably worth bookmarking eh?

Just for fun

• That time when Buzzfeed nailed it
• The truths of adult life
• Photographer uses his own nude body to create surreal worlds… these are really quite beautiful
• Well that’s just cruel
• Last edition we saw the wedding photographer of the year… I reckon this dude takes top spot for engagement photobomber of the year
• Someone has invented an emoji keyboard… I don’t know whether to laugh, cry, or buy one
• What happens when you pair quotes from’ Humans of New York’ with Instagram photos of plastic bags. PLASTIC BAGS OF NEW YORK that’s what. Yes, the name is fairly derivative, but still worth a click
• In the 10 mins of my day that I dedicated to this, I found 26 films. And all I have to show for it is a sense of empty disappointment, because I’m pretty sure you will all do better
• Adele’s new single ‘Hello’ hit 100m views on YouTube in just five days (only one man got there quicker… I’m sure I don’t need to tell you who) and the parodies have started
• This is making my head hurt
• The title of this article in my News Feed had me giggling for a fill 20 seconds
• And finally, was this the most confusing Halloween costume of all time?

Worth a watch

• Alanis Morissette and James Corden give ‘Ironic’ a modern day rework… sadly it isn’t actually any more ironic than the original
• Americans trying to pronounce Irish names is pure brilliance
• This is probably the best “confirm unsubscribe” page I’ve ever seen. Play the video and you’ll see what I mean. Well done HubSpot
• How Deadpool spent Halloween
• This is so surreal. A guy filmed himself when he was 18, asking a bunch of questions, directed at his older self. He’s now 56, and is filming himself answering those questions in a project called “Later That Same Life”. The preview on his Kickstarter page (which is way past its fundraising target) is fantastic

GIF of the week

So much GIFness for you today, here we go…

• If you laugh at this you’re just a horrible human
• I know  it’s only November but this is just great
• Breakdancing + stripping = this guy
• A beautiful cinemagraph for you (more here)
• Magnets are cool
• The future?
• And finally, I couldn’t resist one more

Thanks, see you in two weeks,

Bizhan

@biz987 || @OgilvyPRLondon

PS Wikipedia makes me happy

PPS Tweet of the week

PPPS  Since the last time I wrote to you, I binge-watched a show that I found more relatable than any other piece of television or film that I’ve seen in my life. Ever. With top notch writing and lols aplenty, you need Master Of None in your face.

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Welcome back to Social Digest (Issue #71), the fortnightly(ish) round up of all things social, straight from Ogilvy PR London. This edition covers recent changes to your favourite platforms, a couple of innovative Twitter accounts, and (thankfully) only one mention of #BTTF.

Jump in

3 THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW

• YouTube’s paid subscription service (read: Netflix rival) is about to drop, and it’s called Red
• Instagram unveils Boomerang, the app that stitches photos together to make pseudo-GIFs
• GIFs land on Facebook, for everyone

In other news…

• CRM/Customer Care folks, this one’s for you… Twitter lets brands link up customers’ Twitter profiles with other data (phone numbers, etc), for more joined-up customer service
• Mobile search on Google has now surpassed desktop search
• The new version of Chrome will let you mute individual tabs which is a GODSEND for those awkward moments when you’re presenting in the company meeting and unmute your laptop show a video case study then suddenly “We-EEE are never, ever, ever getting back together” starts blaring out from a mischievous tab nestled somewhere amongst fifty others and you panic and swear that you don’t even like Taylor. Honestly I really don’t. Just drop it okay guys?
• CNN unveils Millennial-targeted video site Great Big Story
• Another week, another “This new social platform could rival Facebook” article. However, this one is actually pretty interesting
• Toyota reunites Marty and Doc for ‘Back to the Future’ day
• Bet you didn’t know you could do this with Snapchat?
• Buzzfeed may withdraw from SXSW 2016 unless organisers reverse their decision to cancel two panels that would discuss gaming and online harassment
• Facebook starts testing a video-only feed
• Facebook update the search functionality to include every public post ever published. Users are being advised to check their privacy settings
• Instagram sets up a new account to showcase examples of brands killing it on the platform (so far it seems to just be a few brands using their products to visualise the Instagram logo but here’s hoping there’s more to come)

Just for fun

• These are truly beautiful and will bring a smile to your face
•  You know when you see something that makes you facepalm for all humanity? That
• My favourite Twitter account of late is called Rate My Toast – it critically, profanely, and hilariously judges photos of toast that people tweet to it. I’d planned to link it here but the account seems to have been deleted. Which is a real shame, and almost renders my inclusion of this bullet point utterly futile. (I say ‘almost’ because it’s given me a reason to show you this GIF)
• Now on to a Twitter account that is still very much alive and clucking, this poultry company has a live chicken tweeting for it
• Wedding photographer of the year
• 36 tweets guaranteed to make Brits laugh… As a Brit, I’ll vouch for this
• These portraits were created by combining photos of celebrities, and they’re… like… whoa
• Amusing tweet of the week #1
• Amusing tweet of the week #2
• (Break the) routine
• This Twitter account brilliantly flips laughable advice given to women and instead applies it to men
• And finally, these men are not holding hands

Worth a watch

• I’ve long been a fan of PBS Ideal Channel on YouTube, which asks a new question every few days that relates to media/tech/TV/Film/Pop culture/Internet culture, and then spends an entertaining few minutes exploring both sides of the argument (with a more concentrated use of GIFs than I’ve seen anywhere ever). Their latest question looks at what a brand actually is, and asks “Have brands become mythological?” So there.
• Watch as Chris Pratt is amusingly paraded around in front of New Yorkers who genuinely have no idea who he is
• Red Bull created a cool video that combines skateboarding with hints of chess

GIF of the week

This dog is cooler than your dog

Thanks, see you in two weeks,

Bizhan

@biz987 || @OgilvyPRLondon

PS The Wildlife Photographer of the year exhibition is now open at the Natural History Museum. If you’re in London between now and April, do yourself a favour and go see it. Here’s a taste

PPS If you’re a fan of dark comedy, then see Hand To God on Broadway (it moves to London in January). Possibly the best play I’ve ever seen

PPPS A perspective on our smartphone-addicted society, interestingly written by someone who doesn’t own one. “You are encouraging the worst kind of narcissism and you are pretending that it is progress.”

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Welcome back to Social Digest (Issue #70), the fortnightly(ish) round up of all things social, straight from Ogilvy PR London. Well, I say “London” but this edition is coming to you from my new home for the next few months… New York City. All very exciting, but I fear there might be a more American flavor to my writing but if you realize that I start to use American English then I’d be honored if you’d correct me. Oh no  IT’S HAPPENING ALREADY.

(If you’re interested in following my adventures, most of which will be edible, I’m @biz99 on Instagram)

Things have been pretty crazy here… The Pope’s been cruising around, the moon’s been up to some crazy tricks, and I met someone who’s seen Book Of Mormon over 100 times. Fo realz. (That last one probably isn’t of much interest to you but I thought it was pretty impressive.)

3 THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW

• A bunch of Facebook updates for you: 360 degree videos arrive, a whole host of new features to profiles, including the ability to set microvideos as profile pictures, temporary profile photos, and featured photos that are always pinned to the top of your Timeline, AND on top of all that, Facebook didn’t introduce a dislike button… they did this instead
• Twitter’s new Moments feature just arrived for US users, with everyone else to follow. TL;DR It’s a bit like Snapchat Stories (Related: Is Twitter about to go long-form?)
• Adblockalypse, explained (Sadly I can’t take credit for that wonderful word, but isn’t it just perfect? Bravo, whoever you are)

In other news…

• Coke becomes the first brand to buy an emoji on Twitter
• 21% of Buzzfeed traffic lives on Snapchat
• Vertical video is paying off for Snapchat, with engagement rates 9x higher than landscape view
• Apple Watch users get RickRoll’d… by Apple
• The Pope gets his emoji on
• Twitter and YouTube introduce widely available Buy buttons
• You’re more negative and egotistical when you tweet from your phone, study says
• Instagram hits 400m users
• Pinterest hits 100m users
• Burberry’s new collection hits up Snapchat a full day before it hit the catwalk
• James Whatley gives his solid perspective on this year’s Social Media Week in London. In short, we’re growing up
• 67% of millennials agree that they can find a YouTube video on anything they want to learn
• Slack’s $2.8 billion dollar secret sauce

Just for fun

• Dripping light
• Cats… Cute? Yes. Fluffy? Sure. Logical? Nope.
• Some of these are pretty entertaining, but the ones that aren’t make me angry at how stupidly lame they are. So I don’t really know if it’s worth you clicking on this or not
• Selfies have caused more deaths than sharks in 2015 (no, seriously)
• Famous characters, unmasked
• I quite like this… Nameless paints in Japan that try and change the way kids learn about colours
• “Let’s sell some sh*t to these Millennials” made me laugh, and cringe
• Did anyone sign up to The Letter Project last week? Well, this week, I came across something kinda similar. Entangled is an app that doesn’t exist yet, but will apparently connect every Android Watch to one other random watch, somewhere on the planet, in an attempt to “solve the problem of loneliness”. Not sure about that last part, but I do love the concept.

Worth a watch

• How have I only just seen this AMAZING magical artsy funny “Fresh Guacamole” stop motion video from 2013? Anyway I came across it because Honda worked with its creator to produce this. Which is also pretty cool
• Did you enjoy my dancing security guard from last week? Here’s the full video, and here’s a related dancing mascot giving Beyonce a run for her money
• A rat on the New York subway achieves internet fame

GIF of the week

This is literally my life

Thanks, see you in two weeks,

Bizhan

@biz987 || @OgilvyPRLondon

PS Thanks Wikipedia, you’re always there for me

PPS An American visited the UK, and his description of British life received 150k likes on Facebook

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Welcome back to Social Digest (Issue #69), the fortnightly(ish) round up of all things social, straight from Ogilvy PR London. Missed me? It’s been a while hasn’t it? By way of apology, and because I know you guys like GIFs, I’ve chucked in an extra GIF of the week, but no peeking ahead, let’s do this in order.

To start us off, I haven’t been able to get a song out of my head since I first heard it. Nor do I want to. Headphones in, click this, then scroll on

3 THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW

• Burger King took out full page print ads with an open letter to McDonald’s, suggesting a one off collaboration in honour of Peace One Day. I thought McDonald’s response was pretty damn good, but it seems Burger King aren’t backing down. (Regardless of what happens, you should check out mcwhopper.com – the site BK created. It’s slick… damn slick.)
• Snapchat just added a couple of new features: Pay for Replay and Lenses. Here’s why brands should care.
• Reading Holly Brockwell’s review of the Apple event has made me hope she writes one every year. Do yourself a favour and read it. The “Hey Siri” part  in particular had me chuckling. (Related: You saw the Apple Pencil right? But did you see how IKEA reacted to it?)

In other news…

• Spotify have introduced a tool called Found Them First that basically exists to inflate people’s egos. Did that stop me eagerly authenticating it with my Spotify account to find out how many artists I’ve ‘discovered’ before the masses? Hellsnah. I found out that I was listening to artists like Hozier, Bastille, Years & Years, Banks and Kodaline before they were “big”. I guess this means I’m ahead of the curve? MUM LOOK Spotify says I’m one of the cool kids! Sigh.
  (PS It then gives you the option to get a playlist of people to discover next. Problem is half of mine was artists I already listen to regularly. Bummer.)
• Imagine a photo, any photo…. Now imagine what it would look like if instead of pixels, it was made up of EMOJIS. This tool lets you convert an image into countless emojis, but please oh please don’t set it as your new profile photo. The one you have now is just fine. In fact you look great in it. Winning smile right there, everyone thinks so.
• Oh boyyyyy, the middle finger emoji is coming
• Hilary Clinton probably didn’t expect responses like this when she asked people to tweet their views on student debt in three emojis. (But I think we can all agree she probably should have)
• Do you use Instagram? It seems there’s a high chance that all your photos have publicly visible geotags on them. This is not okay. Click through to find out why this happens, and how you can disable it.
• GIFs on Facebook Pages? Whaaaaaaaaat!
• Speaking of Facebook, their rumoured Dislike button is apparently coming soon
• Still speaking of Facebook, it’s now letting community managers set what is basically an out of office so all the loyal (read: complaining) fans know if they won’t get a response for a while.
• How Facebook’s new AI-powered personal assistant, M, works
• A Facebook milestone – for the first time, a billion people used the platform in a single day (which is one in seven for you maths fans). Oh look, you just found that stat you needed for your next presentation.
• If that wasn’t enough for you then here’s another stat: WhatsApp now has 900 million monthly active users
• Are you in London, New York, or San Francisco? Do you eat food? Then this will be of interest
• .sucks domain names are now available and brands are snapping them up to avoid detractors registering things like BobsOrganicLemonade.sucks (Disclaimer: I made that company name up, any similarity to an existing company is purely coincidental. Bob, if you’re out there, I’m sure your lemonade is delicious)
• Why Twitter’s goal of being the “global town square” may not be within reach
• Giphy Cam makes it easier to shoot and share your own GIFs (Meanwhile, Twitter lets Taylor Swift test its new GIF creator tool)
• The AirBnB summer report: 17m visitors in 2015 (that’s more people than the population of
  Greece, or Sweden, or Switzerland)
• Google’s new logo evolution, with some lovely animations of the design elements

Just for fun

• A couple of days ago I signed up to The Letter Project, which means I’ll get a piece of real life mail (not the electronic kind) from a stranger in about a month. It’s a beautiful idea, so sign up fast, the deadline is 20th Sept. Fans of Postcrossing and The Listserve will like this.
• Got ten thousand spare iPhones lying around? No? These guys did…
• Take a peek at Quentin Tarantino’s original cast list for Pulp Fiction
• These smart McDonald’s ads remind you of their food without actually showing it
• Pokemon in the real world (Related: JME’s only gone and produced a song about Pokemon cards)
• Hypnotic GIFs that show how everyday items are made, from pasta to crayons to apple slices. Magical.
• And finally, this is a dog you all need to see

Worth a watch

• A couple of great ads from Hotels.com that take advantage of the fact that a) ads autoplay on Facebook, and b) they autoplay WITHOUT sound. Here’s one , here’s another, and, for no reason, here’s a GIF of Spock trying to win a teddy bear
• Apparently this is a thing now… people pretending to faint in front of their dogs just to see what they do
• And THIS GUY 

GIFs of the week

1. Figure 8 racing….. HOW CAN THIS BE ALLOWED TO HAPPEN?

2. Security man says no to dancing, then changes his mind

Thanks, see you in two weeks,

Bizhan

@biz987 || @OgilvyPRLondon

PS I read this article ages ago, but was recently reminded of it. Have a gander: There’s one key difference between kids who excel at math and those who don’t

Did some kind soul share this with you? Hit Subscribe, quick while nobody’s looking, or send it to a friend/colleague and put a little party in their inbox.

Welcome back to Social Digest (Issue #68), the fortnightly(ish) round up of all things social, straight from Ogilvy PR London.

3 THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW

• A Facebook study on how people laugh online… Do you know your ‘haha’s from your’ lol’s?
• Here’s a question for anyone outside China… Have you heard about WeChat? Probably. Do you really understand how it works? Maybe not. So have a read of this. “Ultimately, WeChat should matter to all of us because it shows what’s possible when an entire country — which currently has a smartphone penetration of 62% (that’s almost 1/3 of its population) — “leapfrogs” over the PC era directly to mobile. WeChat was not a product that started as a website and then was adapted for mobile, it was (to paraphrase a certain movie) born into it, molded by it.”
• Will all our video soon be vertical?

In other news…

• Keen readers will have noticed I’ve been sharing more and more emoji content in Social Digest lately. It’s a topic that fascinates me. I’ve watched as they’ve become more prevalent in conversation here in the UK, and as brands have subsequently tried to ride the wave (some successfully, others less so). So in a moment of bravery I submitted an application to speak about those little yellow faces at SXSW 2016. If you feel like donating a small portion of your most valuable commodity (time) to helping me get there, then I’d appreciate a vote. Clicking on this magical link will let you vote, find out why I’m captivated by emojis, and watch an incredibly cringe-worthy video of me impersonating my favourite emoji. (Voting requires a sign up process that’s quicker than this guy.) Thanks pals.
• Tinder came under fire from a Vanity Fair writer and responded with a barrage of tweets that made everyone think their community manager was having a full on meltdown
• Twitter cracks down on joke-stealers (Related: I’ve recently discovered some GREAT Twitter profiles that pump out (hopefully original) one liners. Here are some of my favourites: Summer Ray, Keet, and John F Brennan)
• McDonald’s emoji-fies everyone in a new French ad
• Facebook opens up its Periscope rival to more than just celebs
• How is the Apple Watch doing?
• Google announce Alphabet, the start of a new company structure
• Android experiments
• Periscope shares some numbers
• Green 3D printer prints living designs from organic “ink”
• And finally, living like you don’t have a mobile connection

Just for fun

• This is the funniest thing I read all week
• 50 Twitter jokes that you’ll just love
• Agency or porn? (a little NSFW but see if you can guess whether these are names of agencies or adult movies. I’ll be honest, I struggled with ‘Squeeze, ‘Playground‘, and ‘Impact‘)
• Being a human. Courtesy of Buzzfeed. (Number 13 though amarite?)
• Online gamers, this one’s for you. Remember to turn your mic off before you start singing along to Coldplay
• Audiophiles: are they hearing something we’re not?
• Is toilet wall graffiti the purest art form?

Worth a watch

• If there are no pics, did it happen?’ The latest instalment from the brilliant Idea Channel looks at why we feel we have to photograph a moment, rather than just enjoying it… “Pics are a principal currency of social truth. Where there is any doubt, photographic is the popular evidence par excellence of something’s actual ‘having happened’-ness” The first 4 minutes of this are worth a watch.

GIF of the week

Only ONE MAN can save you

[Can’t see this GIF?]

Thanks, see you in two weeks,

Bizhan

@biz987 || @OgilvyPRLondon

PS Here’s a chilled out summer song for your ears

PPS here’s a pumped up summer song for your ears

PPPS Did I mention it’s summer? I’m off on hols now, see you later! If anyone has tips for Toronto, hit me up

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Welcome back to Social Digest (Issue #67), the fortnightly(ish) round up of all things social, straight from Ogilvy PR London.

3 THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW

• Instagram now open for (advertising) business
• McDonald’s emoji billboard gets a small addition… (that they really should have seen coming)
• First it was Choose Your Own Adventure on Twitter, and now Instagram’s got the bug. Two have popped up in the last couple of weeks – an exploration game to promote Rick And Morty and hot on its heels, Old Spice created one too (which is worth following to the end, for a facepalm lol)

In other news…

• This is what happens when you decide to give the internet your Facebook password
• Clever road crossing ads from M&C Saatchi and Transport for London
• Instagram web version gets a search engine (This seems like a nice time to share a mini idea I’ve been playing with called #JustOneHuman. Get involved)
• Instagram has 14m active users in the UK, but…
• Instagram takes on growing role in the art market
• Theft, lies, and Facebook video (worth a read for anyone who cares about channel strategy, i.e. you)
• Facebook introduces a new set of video tools, including secret videos
• M&C Saatchi has created ads that use AI to evolve over time
• Logos: does size matter?
• If you haven’t seen the Hoverboard video from Lexus, you really need to
• Windows 10 arrives with minimal fanfare, but looks promising

Just for fun

• How to speak Australian
• I’ve definitely done most of these at some point…
• This GIF’ll bend your brain
• You ain’t seen seagulls like this before
• There’s a sloth emoji that’s been hiding under our noses this entire time
• A Disney animator pays tribute to Cecil the lion
• Someone taped this poem to the wall of a bar in North London
• The coolest bookends I’ve seen in ages
• If a link is called “16 perfectly timed photos that turn dogs into giants“, then let’s be honest… ima click it
• This guy figured out that instead of renting in London, it’s cheaper for him to commute to London from Barcelona. So he did it
• Love love love these
• And finally, all the cheeses, one chart 

Worth a watch

• Is this the most boring viral video ever, or the most useful? Watch to the end to find out
• Making basketballs fly… with SCIENCE
• Save The Bros
• What happens when you give Apple fanboys an iPhone running Android, and tell them it’s iOS 9?
• Kevin Bacon demands more male movie nudity

GIF of the week

[Can’t see this GIF?]

Thanks, see you in two weeks,

Bizhan

@biz987 || @OgilvyPRLondon

PS My song of the week, if you’re interested

PPS Narcos is coming… and it looks GREAT

PPPS Is this tweet our future?

PPPPS Or maybe it’s this

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Welcome back to Social Digest (Issue #66), the fortnightly(ish) round up of all things social, straight from Ogilvy PR London.

3 THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW

• Enter: Apple Music
• Facebook announced a new way for users to personalise the branded content that appears in their News Feed
• The (not so) secret social media diary of a teenage girl. (If you liked this, then you might like to revisit the more in-depth (and IMHO, more interesting) teen’s eye view of social media that I shared with you back in January)

In other news…

• This is a good GIF: Tech transformations that happened in your lifetime
• Get your mitts on some research from Ogilvy on cross-platform video strategies
• Apple Pay is about to drop in the UK
• Instagram photos are bigger and better
• Facebook tests floating videos, so you can scroll and watch at the same time. Because we all love a video playing over the stuff we’re actually trying to look at
• Linkmoji lets you turn any text URL into an emoji URL (related: How I built linkmoji in an hour)
• “Never doubt that a few caring scientists can change the world”
• The first ever fake shopping day Amazon Prime Day is nearly here, and could signal big changes in online retail
• And finally, four in a row

Just for fun

• The awkward lives of animals… A lovely little illustration series
• Wasn’t really sure which section to put this link in, but it’s definitely not fun, so naturally I’ve put it in ‘Just for fun’. Brace yourself for this wonderfully written and immensely depressing explanation of Why You’re Not Leaving London
• Oh NOW I GET IT
• Passive-aggressive graffiti
• Get the lead out
• How to create a digital strategy for the internet. Funny.
• Dogs of the Marvel Universe
• Have a play with this delightful little image tool. Move your mouse around and watch as a perfectly aligned image appears. Oddly soothing
• Well, that’s one way to stop the questions
• JK Rowling shuts down a Serena Williams hater with one tweet
• If the moon were only 1 pixel…
• And finally, a first date as live-tweeted from a Toronto coffee shop

Worth a watch

• “In the course of raising a child there comes a series of strange moments in when you discover your child is obtaining skills and perfecting their abilities that surpass what you yourself are capable of. It’s a humbling and awesome thing to witness.” (Whatever skill you’re imagining, you’re wrong. Just click the link)
• A turtle’s POV of a reef. I love how he nearly makes a friend at 3.02. There’s a pun in here somewhere but good greef I turtley can’t find it.
• Another morsel of aquatic linkage for you… Do not attempt these jumps. Just don’t. Like seriously though, don’t.

GIF of the week

They’ll never catch me

[Can’t see this GIF?]

Thanks, see you in two weeks,

Bizhan

@biz987 || @OgilvyPRLondon

PS A colleague told me that there’s a professional sport in Southeast Asia that’s basically volleyball played with feet. I didn’t believe him. He sent me this link. I was speechless. (For the record, when I say “volleyball played with feet”, I don’t mean they use a severed foot instead of a ball. That would be weird. Why did you even think of that? Gosh you’re such a weirdo sometimes. Stop that.)

PPS Does anyone actually read these PS’s? Yes or No? (Click one, ONLY ONE,  and I’ll have my answer)

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Welcome back to Social Digest (Issue #65), the fortnightly(ish) round up of all things social, straight from Ogilvy PR London.

Cannes 2015

• Say hello to Truffle Pig, a content agency launched by WPP, Daily Mail and Snapchat
• Ogilvy surpasses a record-breaking 2014 with 111 Lions
• It all boils down to mind control
• 1 in 5 Tinder users are swiping right on branded content
• Ogilvy falls victim to CannesYouPleaseShutUp.tumblr.com, just like everyone else
• Yep, that’s just the Cannes red carpet… nothing out of the ordinary… Wait WHAT

3 THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW

• Instant Articles comes to Facebook, and it looks pretty damn good
• Google Trends now shows stories in real time
• Facebook are trialling Lead Ads, a way to get users to subscribe to newsletters/fill out forms directly within Facebook

In other news…

• Facebook will favour posts in News Feed based on time friends spend looking at them. “For times when you forget to Like”. I guess your ‘Spot the Difference’ posts will do pretty well eh?
• Facebook launches another questionable private photo sharing app called Moments, probably because Slingshot did so well.
• Instagram introduces trending places, people and more
• An insight into Twitter’s top-secret Project Lightning. It looks pretty cool but boy do I wish I could have been a fly on the wall when they came up with that name.
• Twitter intros autoplay video
• Pictures of Chinese people scanning QR Codes
• CEO Dick Costolo leaves Twitter
• Snapchat turns Geofilters into an ad unit
• Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel explains to parents what Snapchat actually is
• Heading to Dubai? Using the middle finger emoji could land you in jail
• Look out, Twitch! YouTube Gaming is coming this summer
• The state of Chinese social media in 2015
• Is less choice the future of design?

Just for fun

• I have found my new favourite thing on Instagram. These are just BEAUTIFUL
• I dare you to look at these photos of the saddest cat on the internet and not go “awwhhhh”
• I dare you to look at these GIFs of babies eating lemons and monkeys eating lemons without a) laughing and b) salivating involuntarily
• Why is this a thing? This should not be a thing
• Office troll of the day
• Frisbee: you’re doing it wrong
• Giphy Tabs Chrome plugin – because every fresh tab deserves a GIF
• You know those social platforms we keep talking about? Well this is apparently how people use them now
• instagram.com/micahnotfound
• The day grandma gave up ping pong

Worth a watch

• Next? WORLD DOMINATION
• Arnold Schwarzepranker
• Ha loserrrrr
• James Franco’s Shia LeBoeuf parody

GIF of the week

Sorry, WHAT?

[Can’t see this GIF?]

Thanks, see you in two weeks,

Bizhan

@biz987 || @OgilvyPRLondon

PS Ever thought about what superpower you’d want? I found this just after I hit send on the last Social Digest, but it was the most entertaining thing I’d read that week. Here you go. It’s a long read but a good one, so save it to Pocket and read it on your commute home. (It’s basically an amusing short story someone’s written that shows how picking any of the 8 most ‘common’ superpowers will eventually cause lives to unfold in unhappiness and misery)

PPS 14 wonderful French words/phrases that we should have in English. They all have a certain… I don’t know what. Ah well, such is life 😉

Welcome back to Social Digest (Issue #64), the fortnightly(ish) round up of all things social, straight from Ogilvy PR London.

What’s that? You quite like reading this Social Digest thing but think it’s lacking on the audio front? OH GO ON THEN. Here’s what I’ve been listening to this year, if you’re bothered:  2015 (Jan-Jun) in 50 tracks. Who knows, you might find some gems.

3 THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW

• GIFs have FINALLY arrived on Facebook but not for brand pages
• Instagram as an old school publishing platform? 1) They opened the floodgates to all advertisers, and launched a new API and ad formats, 2) RPA’s ECD is to release his new book on Instagram, one page at a time, and 3) Ballantine’s whisky Insta-zine (which really needs to be experienced on mobile, so head to @ballantines_official and check it out. If you can’t, my lovely colleague Gemma shot a quick video for you to watch with your eyes)
• Key insights from Mary Meeker’s 2015 internet trends report

In other news…

• Some stuff and things etc from Apple’s WWDC Keynote
• Order from Domino’s by simply tweeting an emoji
• How fast did Barack Obama pick up Twitter followers? Also, here are some of his best tweets (I wish)
• This new GE ad turns everything upside down, and it comes with a kick ass tweet to boot
• Did you notice this?
• How do you stop viral videos? These guys figured it out
• Instagram gets a new desktop design
• Layout from Instagram comes to Android
• Instagram’s advice on making great carousel ads
• Businesses could pay to be allowed to send users WhatsApp messages
• Twitter to remove the character limit on DMs
• Twitter in talks to buy Flipboard
• YouTube TrueView means you can purchase products directly within videos
• Gmail now has 900m users
• Google now includes tweets in mobile search results
• Pinterest debuts the long awaited ‘buyable pins‘ to become more of a shopping hub
• Pinterest to roll out a new take on video ads: when you stop, the image stops
• Tidal launches desktop apps, a new UI, and a link up with Ticketmaster
• And finally, can you guess the UK’s fastest growing language?

Just for fun

• Poor Kevin
• Probably the best GIF I’ve seen in a long time
• Six word stories, on Reddit
• You know who’s cooler than you? This dog, that’s who
• That time when JK Rowling couldn’t hold her tongue
• 30 Facebook statuses that are simply brilliant
• Love this Tumblr: 2 kinds of people

Worth a watch

• Anyone in the mood for a pun? Course you are. You know who wasn’t? Emily.
• Shia LaBoeuf did a thing, people made their own versions and now there’s even a Chrome extension
• If Mario got the gig instead of Tom Hardy…
• Why Daredevil should really be called Batman

GIF of the week

What could go wrong?

[Can’t see this GIF?]

Thanks, see you in two weeks,

Bizhan

@biz987  ||  @OgilvyPRLondon

PS Scientists at MIT have created a tiny origami robot that can do things you wouldn’t believe

PPS Chvrches’ cover of Cry Me A River is actually good

Welcome back to Issue #63 of Social Digest, the fortnightly(ish) round up of all things social, straight from Ogilvy PR London.

3 THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW

• Remember when GIFs started appearing EVERYWAH and we all thought the resurgence would surely come to an end soon? Well the good news is, those pesky GIFs (or JIFs, if you prefer) are sticking around. Head to ‘In other news’ for more deets
• Instagram. Such updates. Many filter. Hashtaggable emojis. Wow
• Facebook launches Instant Articles, a way for publishers’ content to be shown within Facebook. Inline. Dans le News Feed. #Native and all that. As TechCrunch interestingly comment, “Many think Facebook’s dedicated news reader Paper was a failure because it wasn’t a hit with tens of millions of users. But like Camera, Slingshot, and Facebook’s other standalone apps, it was designed to provide Facebook with insights about user behavior that it could bring back to its main app. This is how Facebook figured out photo filters and stickers, and now Paper has taught it about the stylized reading experience publishers want to provide.”

In other news…

• Channel 4 have launched 4NewsWall, which aims to target the millennial/teen audience by illustrating news stories with an endless GIF wall, and short summaries of each news story
• Google sends reporter a GIF instead of a ‘No Comment’. WIN
• House Judiciary Committee sends a press release in GIF format
• These GIFs from Milan Fashion Week will make your head hurt
• A mini case study on that controversial Beach Body ad I shared with you last time. “The increased exposure from the ad apparently made around £1 million in four days after being unintentionally boosted by the enormous backlash.”
• A collection of the defaced Beach Body tube ads
• These slides from a Buzzfeed 2008 investor pitch deck prove that they knew what they were doing all along
• Facebook Messenger now lets you video call your grandmother
• Snapchat is launching a news division
• Snapchat makes QR codes cool again
• Flickr’s latest redesign has been two years in the making
• Getty Images offers grants to Instagram users
• R.I.P. Grooveshark
• The creator of ‘Ryan Gosling won’t eat his cereal’ sadly died last week. Mr Gosling himself paid a fitting tribute
• I like this idea… Sendish is an app that sends a photo you take to another random user, somewhere in the world. If they like it, your photo goes to the next random user. If they don’t, the chain stops
• Social@Ogilvy wins EMEA Digital Agency of the Year (Holmes Report)

Just for fun

• Here in the UK everyone’s been talking about the General Election… Paxman said it’s been the dullest election season for years, but he clearly missed all this
• Possibly the best hashtag of the election
• Americans on Tumblr are trying to find out what a “Cheeky Nando’s” is … but they’re struggling
• You need to see the shots this self-taught Finnish photographer has captured
• Stand… right… THERE!
• Help yourself to this pack of advertising emojis… from Cannes Lions to Van Damme’s splits. Ugh
• Fly away
• YesThatsTheJoke.tumblr.com will make you sigh. Repeatedly
• And finally, somebody give that guy a high five

Worth a watch

• Blink and you’ll miss it
• Gifted… Truly gifted
• Yep, dead on

GIF of the week

Sonic the (real-life) hedgehog

[Can’t see this GIF?]

Thanks, see you in two weeks,

Bizhan

@biz987  ||  @OgilvyPRLondon

PS – These are beaut’

PPS – Onion rings are basically vegetable donuts

Welcome back to Issue #62 of Social Digest, the fortnightly(ish) round up of all things social, straight from Ogilvy PR London.

3 THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW

• Apple Watch: An honest review from the Verge. Give it a read
• The brand fail of the week (on so many levels) was this one. More at The Guardian here
• The truth about Tidal

In other news…

• That moment when the internet changed the English language forever. (This link probably belongs in the “Just for Fun” section but I’m putting it here because I think it’s DAYMNNN interesting and anyway I write this thing which means I can pretty much put stuff where I like, so there. If you find it interesting too then why not have a reread of this article that I shared with you folks back in November 2013.)
• Honda’s endless ad
• Age UK responds to Facebook’s ‘Friends’ campaign
• Carlsberg have created a billboard that dispenses beer
• Tidal has boosted Spotify’s sales
• Instagram turns viewers into shoppers
• Instagram adds post notifications and a couple of other features
• All the Instagram tools you need in your life (I may have shared this with you before but who’s counting eh?)
• Google has released a way for you to download your ENTIRE search history. Can we all just agree that this is a horrifying thought and none of us should ever do this ever k thanks bye
• Google overhauls search rankings for mobiles (basically make your site mobile friendly otherwise Google will get upset)
• Europe vs Google
• Google is looking into launching a mobile network
• Snapchat adds emojis
• Facebook likes will have a reduced weighting in the News Feed
• Twitter cuts off third party data tools to build out its own Big Data business
• Twitter rolls out the new quote tweet functionality to more devices
• Meerkat beta comes to Android

Just for fun

• At least you’d save money on shaving foam…
• You thought buildings made of sky was good? Check this out
• 32 of the most beautiful words in the English language. Pick three and use them today.
• Can you solve the maths question for Singapore schoolkids that went viral? (Apologies for using the v word)
• Say hi to the cat who stands on two legs and looks really really annoyed about it
• I literally can’t even
• In the mood for a bunch of quite odd animated neon animals? Gotcha covered
• General Relativity, explained through scrolling
• Your brain on poker
• Harry Potter And The Methods of Rationality. Don’t know much about this… but apparently it’s “HP fan fiction written by one of the foremost minds in artificial intelligence. Harry is raised by a biochemist to be the ultimate rationalist scientist, and sets out to figure out magic, with fascinating results.” Ok I’m sold
• And finally, how well do you know Autocomplete?

Worth a watch

• This GIF is long, but stick with it
• Daredevil. If you haven’t started it yet then do so tonight. Intense scenes, great writing, and no Ben Affleck! “They say the past is etched in stone, but it isn’t. It’s smoke trapped in a closed room, swirling, changing. Buffeted by the passing of years and wishful thinking. But even though our perception of it changes, one thing remains constant. The past can never be completely erased. It lingers. Like the scent of burning wood.” CANNOT HANDLE.

GIF of the week

Ethan Hunt wannabee

[Can’t see this GIF?]

Thanks, see you in two weeks,

Bizhan

@biz987  ||  @OgilvyPRLondon

PS – Can’t get enough of the latest [insert overplayed popstar here] track? Replace the “youtube” on any YouTube URL with “listenonrepeat” and see what happens. Actually, you’ve probably already figured it out. 

PPS – Did you know the name Wendy was made up for the book Peter Pan?

PPPS – This has been doing the rounds… consent and tea. Worth a read.

PPPPS – Swimming is basically liquid flying

PPPPPS – Sorry about all the PSs this week.

Welcome back to Social Digest (Issue 61), the fortnightly round up of all things social, straight from Ogilvy PR London.

3 THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW

• Periscope
• Facebook explains why it needs Instagram, WhatsApp, AND Messenger
• The best of April Fools’ Day 2015: Google, Amazon, and a live blog from The Guardian that had me laughing for about three hours yesterday

In other news…

• Oreo took over The Sun to mark the eclipse
• Watch Clean Bandit’s career die before your eyes in the new Windows Phone Cortana advert
• Advertising needs more laughs, say Jimmy Carr and Rory Sutherland
• For mobile services, the message is the medium
• Brief case studies on UK Instagram advertising, from John Lewis, Cadbury and Channel 4
• A fairly solid summary of the key trends at SXSW this year
• Twitter starts testing autoplay video ads
• Playstation lets users swap game music for Spotify playlists
• Meet Layout, Instagram’s new app
• The Facebook changes coming your way
• Facebook launches On This Day (Anyone heard of Timehop?)
• WhatsApp voice calls now work on Android
• Delhi cops use WhatsApp to nail a murderer
• And finally, TheUserIsDrunk.com

Just for fun

• How to appear smart in meetings, courtesy of The Poke
• You need these words in your life
• One Direction fans can’t even RN
• Google Maps now lets you play Pac Man wherever you want
• When you come across an article called ,”I followed my stolen iPhone across the world, became a celebrity in China, and found a friend for life”,  you read it
• Regulate by Warren G, translated
• The Isles of Scilly are an archipelago off the southwestern tip of the Cornish peninsula of Great Britain. It’s such a quiet place that their Police Department don’t really have much to do, so of course their Facebook Page is hilarious
• Don’t you love it when things just FIT?
• And finally, 12 celebrities that share the same face with fictional characters

Worth a watch

• “Cradled”
• Cassette Boy strikes again
• Ummm…. WHAT

GIF of the week

Nom Nom Nom

[Can’t see this GIF?]

Thanks, see you in two weeks,

Bizhan

@biz987  ||  @OgilvyPRLondon

PS I was lucky enough to attend an Instagram event in London this week, and had the pleasure of hearing Sir Paul Smith rap a Tinie Tempah lyric. If you care about such things, I’ve written a few words here

PPS That Amazon Dash button from the top is not in fact a hoax. It’s actually “Phase One”

PPPS James Corden’s comedy drama series The Wrong Mans was added to Netflix UK last night. I highly recommend it

Welcome back to Social Digest (Issue 60), the fortnightly round up of all things social, straight from Ogilvy PR London.

3 THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW

• YouTube now lets you upload and watch 360 degree videos
• Report: Brands Are Now Posting More to Instagram Than Facebook
• The end of Google+?

In other news…

• This is how we date now.  A really interesting look at how fleeting relationships can be in the world of Tinder. Worth a read
• Tinder users at SXSW are falling for this woman, but she’s not what she appears
• Why creative people say no
• Make videos or die, says one creative
• This awesome Honda ad pushes your brain to its limits… can you keep up?
• The Salvation Arm weigh in on #Dressgate with a brilliantly clever ad
• How two kissing skeletons are challenging the world’s perceptions on bias (more here)
• Penguin Books asks fans to tweet #YourMum… you can guess what happened next
• Why realising that people don’t care about your brand can be vital for brand growth (don’t be put off by the number of slides, you’ll fly through them)
• Ogilvy’s James Whatley on 5 lessons business leaders can learn from the escaped llamas
• Meerkat vs Stre.am  the livestream showdown
• Instagram reveals a new ad format: Carousel
• Twitter experiments with TV timelines
• In the last Social Digest I shared some data from SocialBakers which said photo posts on Facebook get the worst organic reach of all content types. Since then, Ogilvy’s Matt Cairnduff has told us why that might in fact be a half-baked claim. (Pardon the pun, I know it wasn’t great. It was either that or something around ‘baking up the wrong tree’, but I think we can all agree that’s worse)
• Run a Facebook Page? Here’s why your Like count may take a hit in the coming weeks
• Facebook’s new gender options let you choose anything you want
• Spotify: new look, new identity
• Farewell, Gigaom
• 10 things you need to know about last week’s Apple event

Just for fun

• Yep
• Bend your brain round these images
• Blue Steel at Paris Fashion Week (Related)
• Damn you, past me!
• This guy guesses the plot of famous films from just their titles
• How a weasel and a woodpecker achieved social media stardom
• I love love love these
• And finally, steel bolts that make you FEEL

Worth a watch

• Unskippable ads from Geico
• Uptown Funk, like you’ve never heard it before

GIF of the week

Asphyxia: where dance meets motion capture (more here)

[Can’t see this GIF?]

“Aaannnd we’re back”

[Can’t see this GIF?]

Thanks, see you in two weeks,

Bizhan

@biz987  ||  @OgilvyPRLondon

PS The best GIFs of 2014 were announced this week. Have your fill

Welcome back to Social Digest (Issue 59), the fortnightly round up of all things social, straight from Ogilvy PR London. To make up for being a little late with this edition, I’ve added in a super awesome extra special section on the Oscars just for YOU. Yaes you, reading these words on that screen. Your hair looks great today by the way.

3 THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW

• Beacons start to move out of the pilot phase. Here’s the low down
• New SocialBakers data seems to suggest that photos reach fewer fans (organically) than links, text or video posts. No mention of Engagement Rate though
• Overnight, people have started losing their minds over the colour of this dress. It’s blue and black right? RIGHT?

Bonus section: The Oscars

• The Oscars hit home on Facebook, with Twitter trailing behind
• Dove and Twitter partnered up to address hateful tweets about beauty on Oscar night
• If Oscar winners were chosen based on tweets
• Google’s real-time ad campaign during the Oscars gave each winner their 15 minutes… literally
• Travolta was really awkward, and memes were made
• McDonald’s compares food to films in its Oscars ad

In other news…

• Cannes Lions wants you to send your worst employees to the festival
• How the LADBible got more Facebook fans than Buzzfeed
• Unilever is using iBeacons to glean offline shopper data for mobile ad targeting
• Barclays brings banking and social media closer with Twitter payments
• Adidas used Twitter’s new Group DM tool to let insignificant people like you and I chat to celebrities. Yay.
• How TripAdvisor is gaming the email marketing system
• Pebble’s new smartwatch has raised $11m on Kickstarter in 3 days
• So Instagram videos now loop. Granted, not the most exciting link in this Social Digest, but what is interesting is what The Gap are planning to do with it
• Did you like the teens-eye-view of social platforms that I shared a few weeks back? Then hear from 24 millennials on why they’re obsessed with Snapchat
• Why it’s cheesy being green… in the eyes of iPhone users at least
• Cinemagraphs as ads on Facebook?
• Facebook announces Legacy, a way for you to choose a person who can manage your profile after you pop your clogs
• Did Facebook just patent influencer marketing?
• Facebook lets brands add a call to action button at the top of their Page
• Amazon’s new tool means anyone can host an online giveaway
• What do you get if you cross Uber with Tinder?
• Google and Twitter have buddied up, which means the big G now has access to Twitter’s firehose, and tweets will appear in search results.  Hashtagrealtimehashtagwin
• YouTube to train a new breed of video content creators
• YouTube for kids arrives
• You can now download your Snapchat Story into one seamless video. Rejoice.
• Infographic: Video viewing around the home (incl. 68% of people watch more TV/video in bed than anywhere else in the house)

Just for fun

• Last week on Twitter (warning: contains lols)
• When the DJ drops your jam (This may be one of the best things I’ve seen all week)
• Glastonbury’s line-up was announced, but something doesn’t seem right…
• Perhaps inspired by Robert Mugabe, Madonna donned a massive cape and fell over at the Brit awards, sending Twitter crazy. As one of my colleagues brilliantly put it – just blame it on the material, girl
• In case you were ever wondering…
• Unlikely best friends
• Gervais on the difference between American and British humour
• “No, you won’t have the last laugh”
• And finally, this will separate the men from the boys… I got 15 out of 17

Worth a watch

• If Spidey gatecrashed
• If Jesus had a marketing team
• If House of Cards was filmed by the Sesame Street gang

GIF of the week

View post on imgur.com

[Can’t see this GIF?]

Thanks, see you in two weeks,

Bizhan

@biz987  ||  @OgilvyPRLondon

P.S. It seems people are divided on whether seeing your favourite artist/band live beats hearing a recording. This interests me. Is the live version of a song the “true” one? Often it’s not, because the version you’ve come to know and love was a studio recording. Which will never sound the same performed live.  So does that make it less “real”? If all this interests you too, you might like this. And maybe this too. I’d love to know your opinions… you know where to find me.

Welcome back to Social Digest (Issue 58), the fortnightly round up of all things social, straight from Ogilvy PR London. Enjoy!

3 THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW

• Twitter’s native video feature lands along with Group DMs
• Snapchat launches the ad-supported Discover feature, which will serve up editorial content
• Everything you need to know about the Super Bowl on social media, including conversation levels by platform, and the top ads

In other news…

• Check out this wonderful Twitter-powered vending machine magic from Walkers. What I want to know is how they managed to fit Gary in there.
• WhatsApp is now available on desktop
• Vine launches a kid-friendly version of the app, with appropriate content only. This means, as The Guardian puts it, no twerking
• Google makes it easier to buy tickets for live events, straight from search results and Maps
• Google rolls out a GMail payment service that allows you to attach money to an email
• Twitter plans to target users who aren’t logged in
• The psychology of Facebook
• BBC launches Taster – a space to develop its latest ideas for digital content and emerging technology (for example – the new Your Story tool lets you dive into the news stories that surfaced during your time on the planet)
• GoPro’s partnership with the NHL will give fans a unique view of the action. More evidence of GoPro’s move into the TV broadcasting world
• 10 great ad campaigns on WeChat
• And finally, someone created a ‘Choose your own adventure’ game on Twitter

Just for fun

• Kids these days
• It could have gone so wrong
• These job interview tips had me chuckling
• GIFs from space – taking street art to new heights
• Gotcha!
• Experimenting with 3D calligraphy
• NASA just released the largest picture ever taken and it will shake up your universe
• And finally, check out We Never Met – a lovely little Instagram project from a couple of Ogilvy London creatives

Worth a Watch

• For anyone who thought Joaquin Phoenix’s rotated forehead was one of the funniest things on the Internet, then you NEED to see this beautiful yet truly terrifying rendition of Ed Sheeran’s Thinking Out Loud by someone’s chin
• He thought nobody was watching. (This becomes a new level of awesome at around 2min 30)
• Another Bad Lip Reading of the NFL (the best so far, IMHO)

GIF of the Fortnight

Safety first

[Can’t see this GIF?]

Thanks, see you in two weeks, Bizhan
@biz987  ||  @OgilvyPRLondon

P.S. I  saw Whiplash last week and I reckon it’s up there in my top films of the last few months, alongside GOTG and Gone Girl. See it(/them).

Welcome back to Social Digest, the fortnightly round up of all things social, straight from Social@Ogilvy London. Enjoy!

3 THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW

• Facebook to show users fewer promotional Page posts in the News Feed

• Facebook video views are slowly catching up to YouTube

• How technology is changing media. Dive into this treasure trove of juicy stats and insights from Buzzfeed on social, search, mobile, video, and ad spend.

In other news…

• The sound of Prague. Very cool real-time city overlay with social activity from Heineken

• Tesco tries to reduce the Christmas gift panic buying with Secret Scan-ta

• Google launches YouTube music streaming service: Music Key

• Facebook is testing ‘Facebook At Work‘

• Facebook lets users say thanks to each other, with a cheesy but quite slick video tool

• The accidental tweet from Twitter’s CFO reveals the company’s biggest problem

• Twitter in 2015

• Instagram improves discovery and adds a caption editing feature

• Vine adds a favourite feature with push notifications

• Pinfluencers

• Sony to launch an e-paper watch… maybe

• Netflix accounts for a third of internet traffic in North America

• 2014′s most beautiful information

Just for fun

• Awww yeahh

• Two wheels on light

• Seals attempt to have sex with penguins. So of course an artist imagines what the offspring would look like

• 11 suggestions we all wish Netflix would make

• Essential reading for any Hunger Games fan

• Break up text of the week

• First that monkey photographer and now this

• A pronunciation master-class that could rival the hilarious YouTube channel: PronounciationManual

• Pucker up

• Flipbooks like you’ve never seen them before

• And finally, beautiful GIFs to make you dizzy

 Worth a Watch

Cheers, see you in two weeks,

Cheers, see you in two weeks,

Welcome back to Social Digest, the fortnightly round up of all things social, straight from Social@Ogilvy London.

Guess what? This week actually marks 2 years since I started Social Digest. I’m SUPER chuffed that it’s read by so many of you fabulous people around the world, so as a thank you, here’s a little video to let you ‘behind the curtain’ of Social Digest. If you’re interested, give it a watch. If not, scroll on for your usual dose of social media goodness. Enjoy!

 

3 THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW

• For about a week, all I heard was “Do you know anyone who can get me an invite for Ello?” Here’s everything you need to know about the new(ish) social network, here’s why it might take off, and here’s Facebook’s apology about the whole ‘real name’ thing. It seems fewer people are talking about Ello now. Funny that

• Tumblr has started selling its full stop

• Omnicom advises marketers to move 10% to 25% of TV ad dollars to online video

 

In other news…

• Thousands of private Snapchat images (including naughty selfies) have been leaked online in what’s being dubbed The Snappening

• If you’re doing anything on Twitter (duuh of course you are) this will be useful

• How Nike & Google pulled off the Phenomenal Shot campaign

• Is this the best worst ad of 2014? (Regardless of what you think, you’ll marvel at the fact that somehow it achieved a 110% increase in bookings)

• Fancy some tips on how to increase engagement on Instagram? Ah here you go then

• How to get millenials to like you

• Biz Stone will follow up Jelly with Super, the app that puts your words in upper case then plasters an image behind them, so you don’t have to

• A handful of nice Starbucks ads about why meeting up beats texting

• Snapchat hired a former Google communications exec to run it’s PR operations

• Where Is The Drama? New web app from Spotify that finds the most dramatic part of any song

• Leaked: secrets about the new iPad

• And finally, I never thought that a lack of information about an app would make me download it. But that’s what happened with Ping: iamping.com

 

Just for fun

• One of the best cease and desist exchanges you’ll see

• It’s making my neck hurt

• Your twitter typos, illustrated

• Wonder FM – basically tells you what’s new and popular on Soundcloud

• What your favourite TV shows are made of (including Breaking Bad, GoT, Dexter, and more)

• KimKierkegaardashian

• Entries from the National Geographic Photo Contest… why WOULDN’T you want to see these? They’re magical

• Nah, you don’t need a smaller iPhone, just bigger pockets

• See you if you can spot the most excited shell on the planet

• And finally, here’s 25 years of the Simpsons in 1 minute

 

Worth a Watch

God Only Knows

Vine of the Fortnight

Game on

GIF of the Fortnight

2 displays of awesomeness for you this week:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Can’t see this GIF?]

 

[Can’t see this GIF?]

See you soon!

Welcome back to Social Digest, the fortnightly round up of all things social, straight from Social@Ogilvy London. This week dive into the iPhone chatter, some brand experimentation, and a few pretty scary GIFs. Take the plunge…

3 THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW

• Facebook will factor trending topics and news into its “served to” formula for content. In summary, this will give lower priority to user content, and higher priority to breaking news stories that are receiving high engagement – a step in the direction of the Twitter world.

• Spotify to bring takeover video ads into the mix (see what I did there?)

• Views for the top 100 YouTube channels have grown 80% in a year

The Big Apple

• The iPhone 6: now with extra clumsiness

• Apple sells 10m devices on opening weekend (Click through the image gallery for sufficiently cringe-worthy images of elated fanboys leaving Apple stores)

• #Bendgate:The internet reacts

• The iPhone 6 vs the Samsung Galaxy S5, from the Onion

• All the ways in which Apple is late to the party (Includes gems like ”If you need help with your new iPhone’s features, just ask an Android user. We’ve had this stuff for years”)

• Mashable’s Todd Wasserman on why he won’t be buying an Apple Watch

• Snapchat for your wrist

• Twitter on iOS gets a revamp

In other news…

• Facebook’s now averaging 1bn video views per day, and 2/3 of those are on mobile

• Brands experimenting with Hyperlapse

• Big brands jump on Flipboard’s video ads, which will appear in users’ streams. No autoplay (for now)

• How Nissan sped forward with a royal baby tweet in just seven minutes

• A study finds 6 of the top 10 brand posts on Facebook (from 2014) are about sports. The numbers are based on total likes, comments and shares, but of course doesn’t account for paid support. So does this ranking mean that sport content was truly better, or simply that pockets were deeper?

• Samsung’s gone round the bend

• Blackberry’s upcoming Passport smartphone now has a price tag. I’d imagine anyone with oddly-shaped pockets will now be on the edge of their seats

• Has Google Glass met its match?

• Harrods launches Stiletto Wars – basically Candy Crush for shoes

• Before you decide which smartwatch to buy…

• Forget what you think you know about Millenials

• Random, and not really social-related, but in the age of smartwatches, “real-time” and OH NOESSSS IT’S 11.02 AND I WAS MEANT TO BE ON A CALL AT 11.00, I really love the concept of the watch that tries to get you to stop counting the minutes. This is Slow
  

Just for fun

• Customer complaint of the day

• Bad fan art. My favourite was Nick Cage, until I saw David Schwimmer and was instantly reminded of this.

• Last time it was pears looking like babies, now it’s peaches wearing panties

• These GIFs freaked me out

• This ACTUALLY happened

• How social media is changing your brain… literally (for example, there are similarities in the brains of heavy social media users and those with drug dependencies)

• Coffee naps are better than coffee or naps alone

• And finally, this squirrel just became the king of the photobomb

Worth a Watch

Infographic of the Fortnight

The life of Steve Jobs

À bientôt

P.S. To finish, here’s a long-ish read for you… but one that’s worthy of Social Digest’s title: email is exciting, and it’s definitely, definitely, definitely not dead

Welcome back to Social Digest, the fortnightly round up of all things social, straight from Social@Ogilvy London. This week, treat yourself to some social media wins and fails, plus the usual goodies from the likes of Snapchat, Instagram and Vine. Nom nom nom…

 

3 THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW

• Ads on Snapchat – because, well, it was only a matter of time. (But perhaps the more important thing to consider is whether Snapchat’s right for your brand). In related news, Snapchat achieved a $10bn valuation despite virtually no revenue

• Twitter opens up analytics to everyone. So go ahead and check the number of impressions on your latte art photo (mine only got 56 so clearly I need to up my game)

• What’s all the Hype about? (Related: Instagram announces analytics)

 

In other news…

• Vine “grows up” with a new suite of video editing tools, including the ability to import video. Am I the only one who thinks this is actually a real shame for the platform, and Vine may lose some of what made it so interesting to start with (i.e. that it forced us to be creative without editing tools)?

• Amazon bought Twitch for a cool billion

• Here’s why Uber could be more valuable than Facebook someday

• If you saw a TechCrunch article titled “This is the worst app in the world”, you’d probably give it a cheeky click right?

• Was “Genie, you’re free” bad for the brand?

• Have Volkswagen figured out how to get you to dream about their new car?

• Everyone’s worrying about iCloud

• Another one of those “how to go viral” pieces, this time from YouTube’s head of culture and trends

• Greggs (UK bakery chain) handled a social media crisis like pros. Take note guys and gals

• Ever checked for parody accounts of your brands? This is what happens when you don’t

• Is Snapchat about to be stripped of its invaluable ‘tap and hold for video‘ patent?

• Really nice: Marriott’s new tables match up guests with LinkedIn interests, encouraging business travellers to look up from their devices and engage with humans (with help from MIT’s Mobile Experience Lab)

• Matt Damon uses the Ice Bucket Challenge to tackle a different issue

• Mixcloud enters the world of music subscription services

• Spotify launches in Canada. “Aboot time”

• GIFYouTube… exactly what it says on the tin

• It seems Google’s driverless cars have been designed to exceed the speed limit

 

Just for fun

• China are growing pears that look like babies (I know this is random, but seriously, you need to see these pears)

• Just donate the money: people whose ALS Ice Bucket challenge went a little wrong (number 5 made me giggle for about 10 mins. Then I saw number 6 and fell off my chair)

• Oh the irony (number 18 is my favourite)

• If Christopher Nolan directed the Incredibles

• Meet the browser extension that tells you the WiFi speed at hotels before you book

• You’ve missed these two haven’t you? Well, they’re back together again

• Minimalist posters of some of the most incredible humans ever to walk the Earth. See if you can guess who they all are

• Africa’s bigger than you think it is

• Eye Of The Tiger played on a dot matrix printer… Oh yeah

• And finally, I think you’ve got something on your face

 

Worth a Watch

• Parkour on two wheels

• Parkour on two wheels in 15 seconds

• Careful when you’re taking that selfie… you never know who might be watching (<– this isn’t what you think by the way)

• Humans need not apply

 

Infographic of the Fortnight

Everything you wanted to know about naps

 

Vine of the Fortnight

The nine month Vine

 

GIF of the Fortnight

[Can’t see this GIF?]

 

Bonus link: Can you guess what type of content gets the most interaction on social?

See you in two weeks

Cheers, see you in a couple of weeks,

The internet’s a pretty big place, with lots going on. How can you hope to keep up with it all? Maybe you want to stay up to date with the latest changes to Facebook, but you’re too busy writing that strategy doc. Or you want to find out about the latest and greatest Snapchat campaigns but that content calendar’s taking longer than you thought. OR you really feel like looking for GIFs of Jesse saying “Yeah Science!”  but you’re too busy giggling at GIFs of Gretchen yelling “YOU CAN’T SIT WITH US”.

Whatever it is, I’m here to help. Every 2 weeks, I create Social Digest, a round up of developments to social platforms, great campaigns or ads, emerging networks, viral vids, the latest memes, and of course, GIFs.

So grab a coffee, hang on tight, and stay close, as we attempt to navigate the treacherous and sometimes murky waters of that little thing we call the internet.

(Oh and if you like what you see here, you can find me at @biz987. I’d love to have a chat.)

3 THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW

• The Brazil-Germany game was the most-discussed single sporting event ever on Twitter, and drove more conversation than Miley’s VMA’s twerk (click the link for a nice visualisation of Twitter activity during the match)

• Twitter’s ‘Buy Now’ buttons have been spotted in the wild

• Augmented reality startup Blippar acquired Layar, making it one of the largest AR players globally

In other news…

• Google Analytics is now available as a mobile app

• Dear Mark…

• This is sharp. In some parts of the world, minutes and data allowance on mobile are precious. Clicking an ad in, say, your News Feed, would cost you money. So Facebook have come up with a clever workaround, which they’re testing in India before rolling out to more countries. Clicking an ad places a missed call to the brand, who call you back with branded content, without costing the user any airtime or data

• Snapchat introduced Geofilters

• Vine introduces a ‘loop count’, which shows how many times a Vine has been viewed

• Facebook are testing Page rankings – so admins can see how they compare to competitors

• Another week, another backfired Twitter campaign

• Twitter reactions to Brazil vs Germany (This was my favourite though)

• How long before we all have one of these in our pockets? (Keep exploring once you’ve clicked the link, I won’t spoil the surprise)

Just for fun

• 22 people having a worse day than you

• How many of these jokes do you genuinely understand? And be honest guys, otherwise you’re only cheating yourself

• Perfectly timed photo of the day

• That moment when the linesman realises he’s on the big screen

• The coolest piece of art you’ll see today

• The 2nd coolest piece of art you’ll see today

• Whether you’re into art history or not, you need to check out these Snapchat captions

• Buildings made of sky

• Dude seriously, calm down. It’s just an egg

Worth a Watch

• 29 impressions in one song. And most of them are spot on. Here’s how they did it

• We’ve still not seen the end of Blurred Lines parody videos. Thankfully, this one’s brilliant

Vine of the Fortnight

Spl……ashhhhh

GIF of the Fortnight

[Can’t see this GIF?]

See you in two weeks for the next edition of Social Digest!