Why Your Business Should Be Blogging [Infographic]

Of course you’ve heard of content marketing – the practice has seen a boom in recent years, as more and more brand catch onto the fact that content can provide a range of discovery and connection benefits.

But if the various reports haven’t been enough to kick-start you on your own content journey, maybe these data points will help. Compiled by the team at Gate 39 Media, the listing underlines the benefits of content, most notably for discovery via search.

There’s some pretty compelling data in here, as well as some notes on how to create better posts – check out the full infographic below.

Amazon finally reveals how many Prime users it has

Finally, Amazon is spilling the beans on Prime membership.

The online retailer has been famously opaque about how many of its users pay for Prime, its annual subscription service. Now, in a letter to shareholders, CEO Jeff Bezos has revealed that Amazon has more than 100 million paid Prime members. Not too shabby, Jeff.

For the past 13 years, Amazon customers willing to pay $99 annually have received free two-day shipping, access to its Prime streaming library of film and TV, and other “deals and discounts,” according to Amazon. Bezos also emphasized that Prime is a global service.

“In 2017 Amazon shipped more than five billion items with Prime worldwide, and more new members joined Prime than in any previous year – both worldwide and in the U.S. Members in the U.S. now receive unlimited free two-day shipping on over 100 million different items,” Bezos wrote.

Bezos shared other milestones about Marketplace, Alexa, devices, music streaming, and more — often relying on his favorite numerical stat, “tens of millions.” (Which, let’s be clear, could mean anything from 10 million to… 99 million).

According to the letter, 2017 was Amazon’s best year for hardware sales ever.

“Customers bought tens of millions of Echo devices, and Echo Dot and Fire TV Stick with Alexa were the best-selling products across all of Amazon – across all categories and all manufacturers,” Bezos wrote.

Bezos also shared details (sort of) about Amazon Music.

“Amazon Music continues to grow fast and now has tens of millions of paid customers,” Bezos wrote. “Amazon Music Unlimited, our on-demand, ad-free offering, expanded to more than 30 new countries in 2017, and membership has more than doubled over the past six months.”

At least we now know that tens of millions subscribe to Prime!

Understanding The Difference Between ‘Micro-Influencers’ and ‘Mega-Influencers’

Have you ever read a post by your favorite blogger, or seen a product recommendation from them, and snapped it up right away?

This is influencer marketing in action.

By utilizing the voice of well-connected people in your niche, you can reach an audience that’s relevant, and already engaged, in order to increase sales.

And given that research shows that some 75% of consumers are more likely to buy something based on a reference on social media, it’s easy to see why influencer marketing is heating up.

Read full article here. 

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How much would you pay for Facebook without ads?

Back in 2010, a young Mark Zuckerberg told lawmakers that Facebook would always be free. Eight years later, a more grown-up Zuckerberg updated his stance to Congress, saying “There will always be a version of Facebook that is free.”

That statement leaves open the possibility that Facebook will someday offer a paid version — perhaps one without ads and the ensuing data scandal that has Zuckerberg testifying in front of lawmakers right now.

But would people actually pay for an ads-free version?

According to a new online survey by Recode and market research company Toluna, most Americans wouldn’t pay, despite how little they trust Facebook with their personal information. 77 percent would stick to the regular ads version, while 23 percent said they’d pay not to have ads.

Facebook makes its money by leveraging user data in order to serve users ads it thinks are pertinent. Facebook generates about $9 a month per user in the U.S. by targeting you with ads. Theoretically, it would want about the same to offer the service ad-free.

So for those who would be willing to pay for Facebook, how much would they be willing to pay?

Nearly 42 percent said they’d spend between $1 and $5 a month for Facebook. About 25 percent said they’d pay between $6 and $10 — or what Facebook is already making per user.

The survey was conducted online on April 11 among 750 U.S. adults.