Social You

We are Social You, a strategic digital marketing agency based in Andover, UK. We make your digital platforms work harder to result in happy users and increased profitability.

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Men In Black: International Partnership Campaign

The latest partnership marketing campaign with Mail Boxes Etc. and Sony.

From superheroes to agents of the galaxy, this summer we're working on another partnership marketing campaign with the team at Mail Boxes Etc.

To celebrate the release of Men in Black™: International, only at cinemas, Mail Boxes Etc. are giving one lucky space voyager a chance to WIN an ‘out of this universe’ trip to the exotic Marrakesh!

MBE harnesses the impact of the universe-saving Men in Black agents to emphasise the services its franchisees offer to help save busy professionals time and ensure they always make a good impression.

We're supporting the digital aspects of this campaign with their social media activity both organic and paid. This covers the on-going campaign, emphasising the smarter print and universal parcel delivery services on offer. There are weekly prize giveaways on the Mail Boxes Etc. Facebook Page, along with promotion of the larger competition.

The campaign runs until mid-July 2019.

TM & © 2019 Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Mail Boxes Etc. Stores are owned and operated by licensed franchisees of Mail Boxes Etc. (UK) Limited in the UK and Ireland

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Andover Business Networking Group Celebrates 1st Birthday

A business networking group set up to help Andover businesses share knowledge, services and expertise has celebrated its first birthday and a year full of success.

Andover Business Networking Group, run by Emily Wilkinson, Director of Andover-based digital agency Social You, began in August 2018 with just six members attending at a local coffee shop. 

Since its beginning, the group has now grown to over 250 members on its Facebook group and the latest networking event, held at the Bombay Sapphire distillery in Whitchurch, saw over 90 local businesses in attendance.

Speaking about the group’s success, Emily said: “I had struggled to find networking events in and around Andover that provided an informal and casual way to meet other business owners. I wanted to move away from the formal approach to business networking and give people a chance to chat in a comfortable environment where they can not only show off what they do, but help other businesses by sharing and collaborating.

It’s been so rewarding to see it grow so quickly and to see how much businesses are gaining from the group. Andover is full of talent and industry, so we don’t put restrictions on the sizes of businesses that can attend – from micro businesses to large organisations, everyone can learn something and we welcome businesses of all shapes and sizes.”

The monthly networking events are free to attend, with plans for them to remain free thanks to the generosity of the Andover business community in providing venues and refreshments. 

If you are interested in joining the group or attending an event, please contact Emily Wilkinson or join the group on Facebook 

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Ocean Sailing for All

Social You have been appointed by Fearless Projects to develop a new website for their latest business - Kraken, an ex Volvo 70 Ocean Racing yacht.

Owner of Fearless Projects, Lance Shepherd, said: "It's our dream to help as many people as possible to experience life on the water, away from the stress of life. We love watching the transformation of a non-sailor, who has little or no sailing experience in finding their voice and becoming a valuable member of the race team."

Dan Eastley, Technical Director of Social You, recently joined the Kraken crew in a weekend sail to Falmouth to join in with the celebrations of Sir Robin Knox-Johnston’s 50-year anniversary of winning the Golden Globe Race.

"Heading out on the water is an amazing experience. Not only does it allow you to get hands-on and learn new skills but it develops you as both an individual and team member" said Dan Eastley.

Fearless Projects are running a series of events this year, including one of the world’s most famous offshore races, the Fastnet Race. “We can’t wait to launch our new website this Summer, it is going to be a key tool for us to grow our company” said Lance Shepherd.

The website is due to go live this Summer. 

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New Client: The Army Flying Museum

Social You are thrilled to be working with a new client, The Army Flying Museum.

The Army Flying Museum is a Military Aviation Museum in Hampshire, telling the story of British Army Flying. Following a refurb, Social You are supporting the museum with a website audit and paid advertising campaigns to promote the re-opening.

Be sure to pay them a visit this Easter. 

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New eCommerce website for Award Winning UK Holiday Park

We're delighted to announce the launch of a new eCommerce website for Shorefield Holidays. 

Offering the best in family holidays across Dorset and the New Forest, Shorefield Holidays required a modern, fresh website with a robust technology infrastructure.

Working together over the last 18 months, Social You have delivered the entire life-cycle of this project. From initial scoping and requirements through to interactive wireframes, design, build and testing.

"We're big believers in ensuring that a website is highly usable for end users, whilst achieving the business goals it was set out to do." Said Social You’s Technical Director, Dan Eastley. 

"It was exciting to work on this project and have the ability to really show off the capabilities of CraftCMS. Seamless and concurrent integration with payment gateways, third-party booking platforms and CRM systems is no easy feat; scoping and testing was a large part of our process for this build."

The website allows users to book holidays at one of Shorefield’s seven parks, along with acting as a lead generation engine for their Holiday Home Ownership.

"When approaching a new website build it is important to have a strong understanding of the audience and any previous website data that is available. Too often people jump into the design of a website, but if your users can't access the information easily then a pretty design won't convert them into sales." commented Dan Eastley.

To view the new website head to www.shorefield.co.uk.

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Emily Wilkinson appointed as interim Chair

Social You’s Managing Director, Emily Wilkinson, has been appointed as joint interim chair of the Andover local Business Strategy Group. 

The local group is part of the larger Hampshire Chamber of Commerce organisation and aims to support local businesses in and around Andover, Hampshire.

Teaming up with Liana Brien of Natwest, their focus will be on the younger generation of business people in the area.  

“The Andover Business Strategy Group represent a cross-section of local industry and it is important to ensure that the younger generation of employees, business owners and entrepreneurs are being included in these conversations.” said Emily Wilkinson. 

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Andover firm spins social media campaign for UK retail chain

Andover-based digital agency, Social You, supports national retail post, parcel and print specialist Mail Boxes Etc. (MBE) with social media marketing across the UK.  

This autumn, Social You helped deliver a partnership marketing campaign that saw Mail Boxes Etc. partner with Sony to promote the eagerly anticipated film, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, which opened in cinemas on 12 December 2018.

To celebrate the launch, MBE offered customers the chance to enter a free prize draw to win a family trip to New York City, where the film’s action is set.  Social You handled the digital aspects of the marketing activity through creation of social media content and paid advertising to drive users to the campaign website.  This included weekly competitions to drive interest.

MBE’s marketing manager, James Simmons, said: ”This exciting campaign set us apart because it’s unusual for a post, parcel and print franchise to work alongside a film to promote its services.  

“MBE has more than 150 high street stores in the UK and Ireland, and a healthy footfall that was ripe for displaying the Spider-Man promotional material to customers and passers-by.  The campaign showcased MBE’s print expertise as well as highlighting our parcel, post and mailbox services by promoting franchisees as everyday superheroes.”

Social You managing director Emily Wilkinson commented:  “It’s crucial to engage consumers on a number of levels with any marketing activity, and the digital element is key – particularly with a younger demographic.  We were delighted to be part of this highly successful campaign.”

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Agency trends for 2019

We picked up on an article by Marketing Week that really resonated with us. “Trends for 2019: Agencies under attack from all sides” highlights how the traditional agency model really needs to make some changes.

When we started Social You almost five years ago, we wanted to move away from the traditional agency model. Having decades of experience working within traditional agencies, we felt the model didn’t work. It is unhealthy for both the client and the agency.

Starting a company based on a new model has its challenges, but it has allowed us to be more flexible and really listen to what companies and brands wanted from their agency relationships. 

Rather than it being a one-way dictatorship, it has been a two-way relationship where both sides can bring out the best in one another. 

We’ve been delighted to meet companies and forward-thinkers along the way who have been more than happy to support us and work together.

As we are coming up to our fifth year of business, we’re always looking at ways to keep improving these relationships and services. This year is no exception - we’ve made a few tweaks with our setup and as a result are heading into 2019 with lots of positive conversations and opportunities. 

Honesty, clarity and a non-bullshit approach is at the soul of our agency. As a result we’ve worked on some amazing projects, met some brilliant people and have helped brands to grow and deliver their goals. 

It is great to work with agencies and consultants where you can, they can bring lots of inspiration, advice and experience to projects. Just make sure you’re in it to build a professional relationship where both parties make the most out of the team and their experience. 

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Christmas Opening Hours

As the year comes to a close, we want to send out a big THANK YOU to all our customers and freelancers for your support this year. 

We’ll be taking a break over the Christmas period; please find our opening hours below:

Fri 21st Dec: 9:00 - 12:00

Mon 24th Dec: Closed

Tue 25th Dec: Closed

Wed 26th Dec: Closed

Thu 27th Dec: Closed

Fri 28th Dec: Closed

Mon 31st Dec: Closed

Tue 1st Jan: Closed

Wed 2nd Jan: Closed

Thu 3rd Jan: 9:00 - 17:30

Have a wonderful Christmas, enjoy some downtime and we look forward to working with you all again in 2019. 

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Spider-man: Into the Spider-Verse Campaign

We're proud to be part of the team to support the partnership with Mail Boxes Etc. and Sony to promote Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse.

The run up to Christmas has been a busy period developing and supporting the Mail Boxes Etc.  partnership marketing campaign with Sony. The campaign is running across their 150+ stores in the UK and Ireland and online.

We're supporting the campaign develop, social media and paid activity to get this amazing competition and spot-prizes in front of fans.

Don't forget to enter the Mail Boxes Etc. Spider-Man prize draw for a chance to win a family trip to New York City - at: www.mbe.co.uk/Spider-Man

Photo credit: James Simmons

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Tall Ships Trust Team Building

We had a fantastic day out with Hampshire Chamber of Commerce and Tall Ships Youth Trust. 

This is was slightly different networking for the Chamber as it was based on water! We were split between two yachts and had the chance to try our hands at sailing and learn about the wonderful work the trust undertakes.

It was a fantastic day for it and a brilliant way to network, without the usual pressure of a formal event. 

Photographs from MH Photography.

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Snap Camera from Snapchat

Snapchat have announced a new, free application designed for desktop that allows anyone to experience the fun of Lenses.

From thousands of Lenses, including classics made by Snapchat as well as new designs created daily by the Lens Creator community through Lens Studio. 

To get started, download the Snap Camera app on your desktop device.

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Introducing Portal

Facebook have released their first physical product - Portal. A new video calling device. 

Portal from Facebook improves video calling and lets you enjoy quality time with family and friends — hands and distraction free. 

The product website is simple, but they have put an emphasis on the privacy aspect. Ensuring your privacy is the key focus. 

You can find out more about this new product from Facebook on their website.

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The problem with Google Maps

Do you use Google Maps on your website? Have you noticed that things are going a little squiffy?

Recently, Google rolled out a pay-as-you-go approach to using their APIs. This includes Google Maps.

You can add a Google Map to your page using the embed API or add it to a page using the Javascript API. Whilst the embed API remains free, the Javascript API is now chargeable.

Google Maps - Javascript API

The Javascript API is chargeable per call (approx 0.007 cents per call), which means each time a user hits your site, this counts as a call.

Google give you a free $200 credit per month, which equates to $6-7 dollars per day - or around 1000 API calls.

Whilst this is fine for most smaller sites, if you have a moderate amount of traffic you might start to see a warning that Google Maps isn't loading properly and is effectively broken.

What can I do?

Take a look at your analytics, if you have a substantial amount of traffic hitting your site then it is time to get your account updated.

You will need to generate an API key and add billing information to your account. All projects will have to have an official API key that is linked to a credit card. 

As soon as you exceed the number of free API requests, you will start to get charged. From your account you can set up a rate limit on your account to prevent being overcharged.

Why don't I just use the free embed version?

The differences between the embed approach and the javascript approach is that the JS approach gives much more flexibility - colours, custom markers, multiple markets etc.. 

The embed approach only allows the display of a single location or place.

This new pricing went into effect in July, for more information on transitioning to this new update head over to the user guide.

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Craft 3

Starting back in 2015, Craft 3 has been has taken a while to get here but it is now available.

Craft 3 is significantly faster and more scalable, and it’s a modern, forward-facing platform that we’ll be able to build on for years to come.

There are hundreds of new features and improvements in the latest release, but here are a key few that people are shouting about.

Multi-Site. Craft’s localisation features are all grown up.

Image Editor. Crop, rotate, flip, and set focal points on your images.

Asset Preview. Quickly view your assets everywhere by pressing Shift + Spacebar.

Debug Toolbar. Learn everything there is to know about how your requests are being processed.

Element Queries. Fetch the exact content you need.

PostgreSQL. Like MySQL, but way better in every way.

Plugin Store. Discover, try, and buy Craft plugins right in the Control Panel.

Craft 3 requires PHP 7 and takes advantage of all the performance and language-level features that come with that. It’s built on Yii 2 and adheres to Yii conventions.  

Want to upgrade to Craft 3? Speak to us today.

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Brave sailor returns

Our Technical Director, Dan Eastley, is now back on dry land after finishing his Clipper Round the World adventure. Check out this article from the Andover Advertiser about his experience on board.

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LinkedIn Groups Become More Integrated

News from LinkedIn today is that Groups will now become more integrated into the LinkedIn feed. Accessible from the homepage, you will now get notifications of updates and the ability to use video within your groups.

This will be taking place over the coming weeks, so keep an eye out for the changes. In the meantime, the official news from LinkedIn can be found below.

Update from LinkedIn

Groups is at the heart of what makes LinkedIn a trusted place for professionals to help and support one another, and the changes we're planning will make Groups a bigger part of the main LinkedIn experience. Our focus on re-integrating Groups back into the core LinkedIn experience means that we will no longer be able to support a standalone iOS app for Groups; that app will stop working as of February 15, 2018. But please know that your existing group memberships and contributions will not be affected as part of that change. As a preview, here are some of the improvements you can look forward to when we roll them out to the main LinkedIn Groups web and mobile experiences: 

Discover and access Groups more easily

You'll be able to access your Groups right from the homepage, and you'll see the latest content from your Groups in notifications and the homepage feed. 

Be a part of richer conversations

You'll be able to post videos into your groups, @mention the members you want to weigh in, and keep the conversation going by replying to comments. 

Ultimately, our goal is to create an even better Groups experience within the primary LinkedIn applications, so we are putting our focus there over the coming weeks and months.