Hasta La Gadget!

In just announced Q2 earnings, Facebook rocketed past analysts’ expectations with quarterly ad revenue hitting $6.24 billion compared with $5.8 billion that was expected. Similarly, monthly active users jumped to 1.71 billion compared with the 1.69 billion expected.

What’s going on?

Facebook appears to be firing on all cylinders. From a marketing perspective, it has created a marketing platform that gives marketers what they want while engaging the eyeballs of highly targeted users that advertisers crave.

Scale and engagement

With its audience that now numbers 1.71 billion, Facebook has unprecedented scale and reach. To give you a point of comparison, the average Super Bowl audience is between 110 and 117 million. Facebook has 1.13 billion daily active users, and unlike Super Bowl watchers that are distracted by parties and food, Facebook users are highly engaged. According to ComScore Media Metri, Facebook dominates the social media landscape

Lower cost

While Super Bowl ads cost a small fortune (a 30-second spot on the 2016 Super Bowl cost $5 million), Facebook ads are far more affordable. According to in Digiday, for the same investment, you could buy 500 million Facebook video views and 1.6 billion impressions

Not only that, Facebook ads are in the news feed rather in distracting and interruptive places, and users can share their endorsement of the companies and products they like with friends and family.

Highly targeted

One of the reasons Facebook ads cost considerably less is advertisers are able to better target specific audiences they want to reach. In many other media, advertisers reach an audience that is broader than the segments they prefer to target. While this can be good too, most advertisers do not want to spend money reaching lower-probability targets. Being able to send ads to only those that are most likely to want the product is very attractive to advertisers that know their target audience.

Facebook Audience Network

Facebook has integrated aspects of its previous media platforms into its Facebook Audience Network (FAN). This enables marketers to purchase ads across the Internet using FB’s highly targeted audience data. This gives marketers the convenience of a one stop digital media buying shop while giving Facebook a piece of the ad revenue from all of the transactions.

Effective measurement tools

There are many tools readily available to measure the marketing impact of Facebook. A free tool from Facebook, called Facebook Insights, enables you to measure engagement and social return on investment. Google Analytics provides information on the business you generate from Facebook ads.

Better results

Using the measurement tools available, those that have measured the effectiveness of their promotion channels have found that Facebook provides a better return on their investment than many other alternatives. Marketing Sherpa and other sources have independent case studies that show the kind of results advertisers can achieve on Facebook.

Scratched the surface

Since Facebook has only scratched the surface on monetizing its huge, highly-engaged and targeted audience, it appears that it will continue to deliver the results that marketers want from their advertising. If it does, the company stock is likely to continue to experience healthy increases. As of this writing, Facebook’s price/earnings ratio is 75.80. While some may consider this to be high, it is well within reason for a fast growing, highly-regarded tech company. To put it in perspective, Amazon has a P/E ratio of 312.78 and Linked In’s P/E ratio is 774.89.

Win-Win

It appears that Facebook and its stock are on a growth trajectory that is likely to excite its constituents for quite some time. What does that mean for marketers? Right now, marketers can (1) reach a highly engaged audience of well-targeted prospects for less than other media and (2) buy the digital media they need using the FAN platform. This is the real basis for Facebook’s success.

Marketing information system

Even so, what is true today may not be true tomorrow. Businesses should use their marketing information system to continually monitor the return they realize from their Facebook media investment and compare it with alternatives so they can be sure to put their limited promotion budgets to good use. As long as marketers continue to win, Facebook’s upward trajectory is likely to continue.

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In a news report that could easily be the plot of a cult horror movie, an anthrax outbreak has swept the remote Yamalo-Nenets district of western Siberia, killing 1,500 reindeer since Sunday. According to NBC News, authorities think the outbreak began when some zombie anthrax thawed out of an infected reindeer corpse and woke up.

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In the wake of hacks against the Democratic National Committee and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, US officials believe the computer network used by the Clinton campaign has also been compromised, according to a new report from Reuters.

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 If you haven’t been tempted to buy a smartwatch yet, or have been disappointed by your purchase of an Apple Watch, one of Samsung’s (many) Gear wearables or others, there may yet be salvation for you. Read More

Statements that resonate, speeches that linger, are not the result of a voice, a wardrobe, a hairstyle, or a handsome face. One of the greatest speeches in human history, was delivered by a man who had none of these things. He had no speech writers, no clever wordsmiths to tell him what to say and how to say it. It was literally written near the last minute on the back of an envelope. It is now carved in stone and in our hearts. It is the Gettysburg Address.

Resonance with history is most often produced by an individual with a conviction, with beliefs lodged in the heart, with a sense of honor, integrity, and principle. The person delivering words worth remembering must have something to say and a reason for saying it.

Powerful truths are often contained in a few powerful words. When Mr. Trump loses this election, it will be because of, as much as anything, these simple words: “You have sacrificed nothing.”

Mr. Khizr Khan, his silent wife beside him, looked into Mr. Trump’s soul and found…nothing.

Mr. Khizr Khan, his silent wife beside him, looked into Mr. Trump’s soul and found…nothing.

Mr. Khan could deliver that message, so far reaching in its implications, such a devastating profile in character, because he spoke with moral conviction and authority. He and his wife had sacrificed something ultimately precious, their son, and they had sacrificed their son because they loved America, an America with liberty and justice for all.

Mr. and Mrs. Khan and their son Captain Humayun Khan are and were Muslims.

Mr. Khan said he doubted that Mr. Trump had ever read the Constitution of the United States of America and offered to share his copy with Mr. Trump. The picture of Mr. Khan holding up the Constitution should be shown to every voter and in every household in America every day of this election.

It is the purest symbol of what this election is about.

Mr. Trump should apologize to Mr. Khan for what he has said about Muslims. But he will not. He does not have the courage to do so. He has sacrificed nothing.

Mr. Trump should apologize to Mr. Khan for what he has said about Muslims. But he will not. He does not have the courage to do so.

Moral authority is achieved through sacrifice. It cannot be acquired by immense wealth. It cannot be bargained for in the marketplace. For moral authority, we must look to Tolstoy, to Gandhi, to Martin Luther King. Each of us must look into our own souls for the courage required to achieve that authority. True leadership is never mean, bitter, angry, or divisive.

If Mr. Trump wishes to achieve that authority, he might start by begging the forgiveness of Mr. and Mrs. Khan. He will not do so. Searching his soul for courage, you will find nothing.

In the end, history remembers the Abraham Lincolns, not the Joseph McCarthys. It takes no courage and no sacrifice to demean and belittle others.

Many years from now, the fading figure of Donald Trump will be remembered with these words: You sacrificed nothing. After the election he will have plenty of time to do what Mr. Khan admonished him to do: Visit the Arlington National Cemetery and learn the meaning of sacrifice.

— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.