What are your 2018 resolutions? New Year’s resolutions tend to be vague goals intended to “get your life together” by losing weight, eating healthier food, or exercising more. Read this article written by Kevin Loria as he explains how science can help us stick with resolutions and transform our lives in 2018.

Do you get stressed-out during the holidays? It’s easy to get carried away and caught in the trap of doing everything for everyone else but yourself. Laurie Pawlik-Kienlen from Health shares 25 expert tips that will help you relax and actually enjoy the holidays.

Are you the type of person who waits until the last minute to get things done? Some of us have the energy and ability to be productive in any situation but for other’s it’s hard to get going until the deadline is in sight. In this article by Entrepreneur, James Parsons gives us 4 tricks to stop procrastinating and ways to power through to-do lists!

Twitter is a very popular app used by many but it also has the ability to monopolize a good chunk of phone space.  On Friday, the social network announced they are releasing Twitter Lite to Android’s Google Play store in 24 countries, mostly in emerging markets across Asia, Africa, Europe, the Middle East, and Latin America. This lighter version of Twitter will allow users to choose which pictures or videos to download in their stream, so they don’t waste data auto-downloading everything.

The holidays are quickly approaching which creates the perfect opportunity to appeal to customers emotional side with marketing messages. Nikki Gilliland at Econsultancy shares with us 10 thought-provoking digital marketing stats from this week.

• Half of online shoppers abandon a purchase if they don’t like the delivery options

• 89% of B2B businesses attribute growth to ecommerce

• 83% of 18 to 24 year olds have bought an item of physical media in the last year

• CMOs overhaul digital strategy amid brand safety concerns

• Singles Day results in a 61% increase in mobile traffic

• Strong performance in search correlates to retail success

• Searches for GDPR rise 215%

• Ads failing to represent diversity in Britain

• Emotion is key to Black Friday email success – not deals

• In-app purchases boosted by ‘reward’ ads 

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Wouldn’t it be nice if we could follow hashtags like we do people on Instagram? Instagram is reportedly testing a new feature that’ll let you do just that. According to The Next Web,  Twitter user Pippa Akram first spotted the unannounced Instagram feature and posted it on Twitter. As of now, Instagram only lets you follow people. It’s a system that works but doesn’t help users stay on top of trending hashtags or custom-made hashtags. Stay on top of Instagram to see if they release this new feature!

The social media rat race is exploding, and strategies to grow social platforms are constantly evolving. It’s nearly impossible to succeed unless you adapt to the latest trends to make your brand relevant in different social networks. Entrepreneur, Growth Hacker and Marketer, Syed Balkhi, has reviewed some major brands and developed a list of 7 campaigns ideas to gain users attention. Read the full article to get must-have social strategy tips for the upcoming holiday season.

Video marketing continues to be on the rise in the digital space. From producing videos to distributing and promoting them, the U.S. digital video marketing industry is expected to reach $135 billion this year, according to a new study by mobile video platform Magisto.

Forbes writer, Kathleen Chaykowski states, “The 2017 estimate — which includes the cost of video capturing, creation, hosting, distribution, analytics and staffing — is sizeable and would make video marketing nearly as large of a market as digital and television advertising combined. By contrast, advertisers are expected to spend $83 billion on digital ads and $71 billion on TV commercials (a total of $154 billion) in the U.S. this year. On average, each American businesses will spend $20,000 on video marketing this year, the study predicts. Magisto, which is based in Menlo Park, Calif. and makes a web-based video editing tool, published its study on Wednesday based on voluntary, anonymous responses from 545 marketing decision makers at small, medium and large U.S. businesses, surveyed this summer.”

Read the full article to see what platforms companies are using to spend their advertising dollars!

With over 700 million monthly active users, Instagram has become a hub for advertisers. Instagram advertising costs vary between targeting interests such as day of the week, time, gender, holidays and events, type of mobile device, and many other attributes that contribute to the price of ad cost.  Laura Forer mentions, “Ad pricing on the platform vary, depending on whom you’re targeting. For instance, the most expensive CPC (cost-per-click) ads are for female iPhone users age 18-34. The least expensive are for male Android users 65+ years old.” Learn more about Instagram advertising by checking out the infographic in this article written by Laura Forer.

Leveraging the power of content and social media marketing can help boost your audience and customer base. Getting started without any previous experience or insight could be challenging, but thankfully there are 10 Laws to remedy this issue. Read the 10 Laws of Social Media Marketing by Susan Gunelius to better understand the fundamentals of social media marketing and learn how to create the winning social media strategy for your business.