Twitter user growth has dropped in North America so far this year, according to data gathered in April by Insider Intelligence/eMarketer.

Internet users who accessed their Twitter account at least once per month dropped by 0.5% in North America and 7% in Central and Eastern Europe.

Twitter users gained traction in Western Europe by 3.8%, the Middle East and Africa by 3.2%, the Asia-Pacific by 3%, and Latin America by 1%.

The question is how Twitter can reboot and increase growth in North America.

Separately, Twitter recently announced that it is testing a feature called “Notes,” which allows for publishing longer content.

TikTok was the most downloaded app of 2021 and now has over 1 billion users, taking in almost $4 billion last year, reported Bloomberg. Facebook has 2.9 billion monthly active users, and Instagram has 2 billion.

TikTok is projected to increase its revenue to $12 billion this year, according to eMarketer, which would make it larger than Twitter and Snap combined.

TikTok is the most addictive social app in 2022, when the average time per US Android user in the first quarter reached 28.7 hours. Facebook comes in second at 15.5 hours, then Instagram at 7.8 and Snapchat at 6.1.

According to documents reviewed by Bloomberg News, TikTok now charges as much as $2.6 million for one day at the top of the feed – the first thing that pops up on the feed of users – which is four times what was charged last year.

By 2024, TikTok is expected to match YouTube’s ad revenue.

Now TikTok is partnering with Shopify to allow merchants to embed their stores into their videos.

Online consumer spending in the United States was flat in the first quarter of 2022 compared to the previous year, according to a Cardlytics report in May.

Post-Covid, the shopping trend is decreasing online and slowly growing in physical stores. In-store spending growth was only 3% in Q1 compared to the previous year.

According to a report by Insider Intelligence/eMarketer, retail sales dropped last quarter while spending on restaurants, gas, and groceries rose. Travel and entertainment also are growing.

“With gas prices approaching or exceeding $5 per gallon in every state, travel and entertainment may be next on the chopping block,” said the report.

Online spending spiked during the coronavirus pandemic, as seen in the graph, with US consumer spending growing by 44% in Q1 2019, dropping to 31% in 2020, and then falling flat in 2021.

Why is your email marketing strategy not converting as it should?

Here are 7 email marketing mistakes, according to an infographic by ReachMail.

1. The first mistake is not creating an integrated strategy that optimizes the email campaign for mobile. According to ReachMail, 75% of mobile users in the United States use their phones for email, and 40.1% of all email marketing campaigns are opened on mobile phones.

In addition, 4 in 5 mobile users will leave a website that is not optimized for mobile.

2. Not making sure that the text and images are the correct sizes causes 70% of people to quickly delete an email that does not appear correctly on mobile.

3. Not making sure you send your email campaigns at the right time. The highest mobile engagement time is between 10 AM and 12 noon and from 4PM to 6PM.

4. Not segmenting audiences by demographics. The infographic notes that 80% of millennials have a cell phone and are thus more likely to read email on mobile.

5. Not optimizing for all devices, both iPhone and Android.

6. Hiding your call to action where the user has to scroll to find it. The user will quickly leave a website on mobile if they don’t quickly see what they are seeking.

7. If you make buying too difficult and have it take too many clicks, then you will lose conversions. Seven out of 10 consumers are likelier to buy from a mobile-friendly site.

The top reason consumers worldwide would use loyalty programs more is if the rewards were automatically applied, according to Salesforce, “Fifth Edition State of the Connected Customers,” published on May 13.

Another 55% would use them if the rewards were applied across various brands or if the rewards were personalized.

Ease of tracking would cause 51% of consumers to use loyalty programs. And 44% said simpler terms and conditions would lead to more use.

According to a report by Insider Intelligence/eMarketer, inflation, higher prices, and less brand loyalty make discounts even more important for brands.

“Around the world, 56% of consumers said they’re more likely to buy from a brand with a loyalty program, but 64% of loyalty program members don’t redeem rewards more than a few times a year,” said the report.

Buyers are looking for discounts, but mostly if it is easy to take advantage of them.

YouTube creators effectively influence viewers to purchase products they promote.

According to a report by Insider Intelligence/eMarketer, 43% of US consumers surveyed by Hub Research in December 2021 say that they watch YouTube influencer videos at least once a week. With users aged 13 to 34, the number increases to 52%.

“More than two-thirds of US teens and adults could recall the names of specific brands highlighted in YouTube influencer videos,” according to the study. Furthermore, 86% said they bought or considered buying a product endorsed by an influencer, of those that could remember a brand.

YouTube is pushing influencers by offering more incentives. For example, in April, YouTube enabled creators to receive tips from viewers and for Super Chat, which are paid messages in chats.

YouTube is also promoting its successful Shorts creators.

App downloads continued strong growth in the second quarter this year, with total consumer spending up 21% since Q2 2020.

According to data.ai, which analyzes the mobile market, consumers are predicted to spend $33 billion on apps in Q2.

IOS users increased spending by 4% to $22 billion compared to the previous quarter, while Android users’ spending remained stable at $11 billion quarter-over-quarter.

The top downloaded app worldwide in Q2 was Instagram, followed by Facebook, TikTok, WhatsApp Messenger, and Snapchat.

“The data appears to show that app users are maintaining the mobile ‘lifestyles’ they adopted during the pandemic, and are happy to pay for premium in-app experiences and services,” stated data.ai.

Rising prices in the United States are causing adult consumers to lower their costs and cut back on spending, according to CivicScience in May.

The categories where most US consumers are cutting back are dining out (51%), clothing, toys, hobbies, gifts, and travel (all at 47%).

They are followed by entertainment (46%) and food delivery (37%).

According to Insider Intelligence/eMarketer, however, the high prices are not stopping young adult consumers. A Verasight and Bloomberg survey last month found that 27% of adult Gen Zers and millennials are making more credit card payments than the previous year.

There is a trend of web users utilizing TikTok as a search engine.

According to an article in the Search Engine Journal on Friday, some people prefer searching on TikTok to Google.

This is attributed to short attention spans, unsatisfactory Google results, and preferred results in video format compared to text. YouTube is already used as a search engine.

However, according to the report, the argument against using TikTok as a search engine is that the information can be inaccurate and is less trusted than Google.

For digital marketing, TikTok threatens Google and Facebook as it is rapidly growing and was the most popular domain at the end of 2021.

Brent Csutoras, a Managing Partner at Search Engine Journal, said: “Any place where users begin searching for content through search on a regular basis is a place where marketers should be paying attention to and participating within, so long as they have a meaningful story to tell that audience.”

Shop Pay allows customers to pay in 4 interest-free payments while the store gets all the money upfront.

Shopify says that allowing the function can increase average order value by up to 50%. Customers can use the service for orders up to $17,500.

Giving your store’s potential customers options on the payment method could ease the checkout process and reduce abandoned carts.

There are two options with Shop Pay. The customer pays in 4 payments every 2 weeks or monthly installments for up to 12 months.

In both options, the store gets paid in total upfront, and there are no hidden or late fees for customers nor impact on their credit scores to apply.

Using the 4 payment option, customers can split purchases for orders between $50 and $999.99. Using the monthly payment option, customers can split purchases between $150 and $17,500.