US Olympic athletes' TikTok videos highlighting the apparel provided by Ralph Lauren, Nike and other brand sponsors are providing free marketing for the retailers and giving them a viral boost with associated hashtags that are garnering billions of views, writes Danny Parisi. Randy Mercer, 1WorldSync's vice president of global product development, said the videos represent "a universal digital marketing truth: We live in an omnichannel world and marketers must embrace not just the platforms they control … but the platforms driven by their target consumers and influencers, as well."

Individuals charged with blog content can turn their social media communications channels into a revenue generator by converting readers into subscribers, and then clients, offering paid services and tools such as a mini forum to address individual questions or a mini-site where other related individuals can sell their goods and expertise, suggests blogger Enstine Muki. "Begin with a small idea and then take it to a higher level."

PAN Communications highlights steps in this infographic to establish an employee advocacy program that includes eliciting staff buy-in, establishing a structured approach to social sharing and demonstrating the benefits for the business and the individual. A robust internal culture with marketing and human resources collaborating to advance the employee program can broaden the customer base, boost revenues, shorten sales cycles and yield lower acquisition costs, according to PAN Communications.

Amazon generated nearly $8 billion in ad sales, along with sales of other services, during the second quarter, marking 87% year-over-year growth. Amazon Chief Financial Officer Brian Olsavsky attributed the increase to its "over 40 new features and self-service capabilities," such as regional sponsored product campaigns and expanding services in Europe, Australia, India, Japan and Saudi Arabia.

Mobile website readers are often more distracted, read more slowly and recall and act on less information than desktop users, writes Ann Wylie, a communications expert who helps communicators better connect with their readers. To boost engagement with mobile users, "[g]et to the point faster, organize better, make it easier to read and more skimmable," suggests Wylie.

Simply deciding to set audacious stretch goals is an important step for companies and individuals, provided the goals are clear and accountable, writes Nick McLean of Four Pillars Investors. "Shooting for the stars requires stretch goals that might feel uncomfortable to some, yet clear goals and achievable growth metrics make it possible," McLean writes.

The Audience Solutions feature of Google Ad Manager will soon feature new analytic tools to help publishers and brands with media networks manage first-party data. Audience Explorer shows audiences by factors such as browsers or platforms, Scorecard Table offers audience segment profiles and Segment Overlap and Comparison identify differences and points of commonality.

Ramarketing founder Raman Sehgal outlines five classic mistakes made by business-to-business marketers and offers advice on how to fix them. Among the five are not prioritizing brand positioning, imitating others instead of forging a new creative path and focusing on the company, not the customer.

High-quality content is the most critical element of a successful email newsletter, and business-to-business marketers should focus on long-term strategy rather than tactics such as clickbait headlines that give quick wins but destroy trust, writes 1440 Media's Pierre Lipton. Lipton explains how to scale email newsletters and use them as a foundation for other content marketing, such as podcasts and YouTube videos.

Snapchat has enhanced its Snap Ads Manager with a Campaign Lab tool. Brands can use the tool to conduct split tests, view results to determine which works best and receive recommendations based on past tests for actionable steps.