Okay. Since this is a digital marketing blog, you know that I’m not talking about those lovely biscuits that you buy from Mrs. Fields. What I am talking about are the annoying little things that websites attach to your web browser after you interact with certain elements of web pages. The big question is, are they ethical??

Cookies are now often used by marketers as a method of doing targeted digital marketing based on what you view in the past.

For example, a couple weeks back, I spent a good part of a couple days searching for a new camera. I returned to a specific photography website several times during those couple days, and soon after, on every social media site and Google search I conducted, the sidebars would be blanketed by the latest camera deals from different websites. These would follow me everywhere I went, until I cleaned out my cookies on my browser.

Its quite creepy what digital marketing can do nowadays, and even when we are leisurely browsing different places, we are often still bombarded with marketing. I believe that it would be alright for marketers to do so, but options for consumers to opt out of the marketing should be made more prominent. Though most consumers today are tech savvy, its definitely complicated to educate people on how to get rid of cookies. So as marketers, lets all tone it down a notch, so we don’t ruin the word “cookies” for future generations eh?

I personally like sharing moments that I’m proud of being a part of. Photography is one of my passions, and there is nothing more satisfying than taking a beautiful image that moves people, and captures emotions. Here are some key points on how, what and when to share.

1. Keep your posts impactful – you should be mindful of what you post, and each post should be unique, and intriguing. Even when its on the same subject

2. Less is more – in my opinion, less words that get to the point is better than paragraphs upon paragraphs of content. No one will read it. It goes well with number one too. If there is nothing of note to post about, don’t feel obliged to post

3. Wit is your best friend – I love witty captions. They really help you get your point across in a playful, yet sophisticated manner, and gets people thinking… and laughing. Who doesn’t like laughter?

So there you have it. Social media advice based on my experiences. Take it with a grain of salt. But trust me. They work.

Twitter was born as a seemingly revolutionary platform for individuals and brands to communicate. Based on the concept of “less is more”, the micro blogging site took the world by storm in 2008, becoming a new medium for self expression, and for marketing.

In recent years however, Twitter has begun to lose popularity amongst it’s consumers. It’s user base has been steadily dropping over the last couple years, and preferences have been shifting towards newer platforms such as Instagram or snapchat.

Here’s my personal take on why:

Although Twitter is an amazing tool for branding, and for brands to communicate with its customers and vice versa, it has also become extremely noisy. There are too many brands and marketers online trying to push content onto consumers, and that is causing consumers to shy away from the platform.

With such an overload of social platforms, consumers are now instead shying away from publicly sharing their important moments. Instead, consumers are opting for more private sharing systems. Because of this fact, word of mouth marketing and brand advocacy will be more important than ever for brands that are trying to reach their consumers in a mor impactful way.

To make this service even more enticing, YouTube is offering exclusive content from popular YouTubers such as PewDiePie and the Fine Brothers. YouTube Red users will also be gaining access to YouTube’s music streaming service, when it comes out.

My perspective is, this is definitely an interesting move by Google to add this subscription based offer. YouTube has always been a free service, with millions and millions of individuals going on the site for free entertainment. It is difficult to understand I’m interested to see what percentage of users will end up signing up for the service, and if the price tag will actually be justifiable for ad free viewing, and offline downloads of videos.

It seems that Google is trying to catch the wave of subscription based streaming services. Consumers are now watching less traditional TV, and moving onwards to streaming services such as Netflix, Pandora, Spotify, iTunes Music, and even Adobe Cloud.

In the context of YouTube, digital marketers will now have to be aware that Youtube ads may not be an option in the future!

With consumers spending increasing amounts of time on social media, marketers are thinking of different ways to get people to buy stuff.

Last month, several big social media players, including Facebook, Pinterest and Youtube, announced that they will be testing ways to make it easier for users to shop, but adding a “buy button” to social media content.

As a person that often buy things online, I think that this new addition will definitely benefit today’s increasingly time constrained consumers. The main reason individuals would use e-commerce would be for two reasons: either to find the best deals online, or increase convenience. Often, online businesses, who do not have to deal with a brick and mortar storefront, are able to provide items at a discount. Because of that, many consumers are now looking online to find ways to save money. Second of all, convenience is a major factor. If a business is able to efficiently offer goods to customers that would save them time, for a reasonable price, they would be willing to pay a little extra, since it save them time, which they can direct to other initiatives in life.

It will be interesting to see how e-commerce grows in the next couple years. Giants like Alibaba are already emerging, and I really think that in a matter of time, brick and mortar stores will be overshadowed by e-commerce sales.