Many video creators regard the YouTube algorithm as a complete mystery, like some kind of higher power that governs their view counts and sits outside of their own control. This simply isn’t the case: the YouTube algorithm can be understood, and used to benefit your marketing goals.

In a research paper published in 2016, a group of Google engineers shared their plans for how videos could be filtered through YouTube’s recommendation engine for a better user experience. Today, more than 70% of YouTube views come through this very same engine.

The second decade of the twenty-first century will soon come to a close, and the e-commerce economy continues to grow in leaps and bounds.

For entrepreneurs, this period has been an exciting time as the worlds of marketing and emerging technology have merged to create an entirely new marketplace- one unprecedented in its opportunity, intrigue, and global connections.

More than just a mere “nice to have” for your website, testimonials are far more important to your brand’s bottom line than you probably realize. According to new research, testimonials have proven to increase conversions, and play a significant role in customer research and buying habits.

Indeed, some 90 percent of respondents who read positive online reviews say those reviews influenced their buying decisions. With this in mind, you should consider how to harness the marketing value of social proof via testimonials. Lucky for you, we’ve prepared a handy guide.

Digital marketing professionals would do well to put themselves into the customer’s shoes every now and then. Putting on a “customer hat” and thinking like a consumer can do wonders for boosting the effectiveness of a brand’s digital marketing strategy.

After all, it’s easy to get caught up in marketing jargon and metrics, while forgetting to bear in mind what the customer wants and needs. But it’s quite valuable to be able to see a brand’s marketing efforts from the consumer’s point of view.

Paid advertising can be a tricky business, but with careful strategizing and tracking on the go, it can surely be a reliable source of leads and sales. When done wrong, however, it can be an expensive lesson.

The more you know about your audience, the better your ads will perform. Perhaps this is why many firms prefer to advertise on Facebook: the platform offers a host of options for audience targeting.

Already a favored resource in every good journalist’s toolbox, Twitter remains highly underrated in the world of PR. Indeed, the typical use of Twitter involves just a few core activities:

●     Publicizing news, blog posts, articles, and other content, typically the firm’s own content

Public Relations in the Digital Age is an ever-shifting amalgam of tried and true communications practices and new and different methods through which you may connect with your target audience.

To maintain success, you must expand your understanding of current tools and applications, as well as which platforms and influencers are drawing your audience. And a cursory understanding of these factors is not enough. To truly make the most of your PR opportunities in the Digital Age, you need to understand both the value and the purpose of several evolving realities.

These days, it seems like social media is standing in as an assignment editor for many different media outlets. Tune in to just about any cable show and, sooner than later, you will hear or see Twitter or Facebook or Instagram mentioned. But, does that mean the rules for contacting media sources on social media have shifted? Have we entered an era in which connecting with a journalist on social media is acceptable as a best practice?

The answer to that question is “yes and no.” While, yes, it can be acceptable to communicate with a journalist on social media, there are a few guidelines that you may want to consider if you want to be more effective in your efforts.