Facebook now reaches 2 billion monthly users..Youtube next with 1.5 billion for June 2017

A comparison of monthly users for each social media app/site

Two billion makes Facebook the largest social app in terms of logged-in users, above YouTube’s 1.5 billion, WeChat’s 889 million, Twitter’s 328 million and Snapchat’s estimated 255 million (extrapolated from its December 2015 ratio when it had 110 million daily and 170 million monthly users). Beyond YouTube, only Facebook’s other apps have more than 1 billion, including WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger, with 1.2 billion each. Instagram might soon join that club as it recently rocketed past 700 million. @techcrunch

2016 Analytics tools available for Digital Analyst

Here's a couple analytics and data insight tools I like to use for different platforms:

1. Omniture - website optimization and user behaviors on your own website
• Pro: robust
• Con: expensive, sharp learning curve
2. Google Analytics -
• Pro: Free and everyone uses this
• Con: Discrepancies between reporting on SEM conversion and GA conversion
3. Facebook Audience Insight tool
• Pro: have info on lifestyle, interest, relationship status, job title, page liked by categories, location, frequency of activities of your audience
• Con: TBA
4. HootSuite - all your Social Media platforms can plug in here

3 timelines and steps to successful Holidays Digital Advertising - to drive sales & demand/lead generation

Planning for the holiday season (Christmas, Thanksgiving, Halloween, Valentines, Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Green Monday) or Marketing calendar is key to successful digital marketing.  Goals are to sales, demand generation and awareness.

PLAN:

1. (August–September) Before the Holidays:
• take advantage of the less-promotional summer months to build momentum, 
• get your brand presence on point, 
• grow your customer base, 
• and capture intent data from your website or mobile app using 
• (Facebook) Website Custom Audiences or 
• (Twitter) Tailored Audiences.
• ACTIONS: 
• Leverage insights tools (such as Facebook’s Audience Insights) to understand your audience better: interests, demographics, etc. A good first step is to run an analysis on specific, high-intent audiences, such as fans of your page, Website Custom Audience of all visitors of your website, CRM list of recent purchasers, etc
• Targeting: Segment your audiences based on demographic, geographic, and behavioral targeting such as digital buyers, mobile early adopters, etc.
• Ad formats: Video is the most engaging form of brand communication, making it an obvious choice for this objective (especially on mobile). Publishers offer a wide variety of options, including Facebook Carousel Video Ads. Other highly visual formats such as Facebook Canvas Ads offer an immersive experience around your brand.
• Creative: Needless to say, using visually compelling creatives is in order. Regarding video, think about typical usage – many users will view your content on-the-go on their mobile with the sound off. As a result, make sure any video has great storytelling, grabs the attention within the first 10 seconds, and makes use of captions (either uploaded via Facebook or as text overlays).
• Optimization: Use specific campaign types to focus on the objective that matters. Facebook offers reach and frequency buying to secure ad inventory at a predetermined CPM cost for Facebook and Instagram ad formats, including video