I'm HUGE on what the data says is working for your marketing strategy. The data doesn't lie. So this may seem confusing, but I'm really not concerned with the headlines recently that Facebook lost $125 billion last quarter.

It's really irrelevant to your marketing strategy, especially when Facebook Ad - when done correctly - result in the lowest cost per customer acquisition and highest return on ad spend across all media channels, let alone digital media channels.

I have a ton of respect for the AdHawk Blog and Newsletter, but they got a little overboard in giving so much love to this article, which says "only" 2.23 billion of Facebook's 3 billion users are (active on the platform). Seriously?

Only 2.23 billion?

Name me another marketing channel that you can reach your target audience for $1 or less per, that has a prospective audience of 2.23 billion?

LOL. It's freaking laughable.

IGNORE THE HEADLINES. Be a practitioner. Make sure you're trying these things and coming to your own conclusions based on what's working and what's not.

Another headline in the same newsletter was on Amazon's growth off of the Cloud and Alexa.

I'm extremely excited about our abilities to build Alexa Skills and Alexa Flash Briefing Skills for our clients, and I'm super pumped about our own new Data Driven Daily Tip Flash Briefing, but I'll also be the first to tell you that if you're expecting your Alexa Skill to promote itself, you're off your rocker.

Your business actually needs other channels like Facebook, Instagram, Content Creation/Blogging/Medium, LinkedIn, etc. to tell the story consistently about your Alexa Skill's existence.

So my action item for you off of the Amazon Alexa Headline is: Get your content strategy ready. Start playing around in the voice space. Create a Flash Briefing Skill, or hire us to do. it for you. Make it part of your company's vernacular. Get in the habit of coming up with 2-4 minute snippets of value for your target audience to tune in and fall in love with your brand.

Don't punt on Facebook, and don't think Alexa will be a cure-all just yet.

The proof is in the data, always. And the data says, do BOTH Facebook Ads, AND Alexa Flash Briefing Skills.

Thanks for reading, watching and listening, and have a great day!

KEEP MARKETING!

Paul Hickey, Founder / CEO / Lead Strategist at Data Driven Design, LLC has created and grown businesses via digital strategy and internet marketing for more than 10 years. His sweet spot is using analytics to design and build websites and grow the audience and revenue of businesses via SEO/Blogging, Google Adwords, Bing Ads, Facebook and Instagram Ads, Social Media Content Marketing and Email Marketing. The part that he’s most passionate about is quantifying next marketing actions based on real data.