Streaming platform Twitch has grown exponentially since the start of 2021, jumping from 17 million daily users to 27 million, as it continues to add more nongaming content focused on everything from cooking and music to sports and fashion. In this interview, Chief Marketing Officer Doug Scott discusses the launch of performance marketing campaigns, why more brands are attracted to the platform and its growing pool of marketing tools such as the Bounty Board and multiplayer ads.

This infographic from LinkedIn displays how to implement five business-to-business customer engagement strategies recommended by LinkedIn's Tusar Barik and Edelman's Joe Kingsbury. The visual covers long-term brand positioning, understanding your customer's customers, aligning marketing and sales, centering efforts around the customer journey, and fostering trust through thought leadership.

To create deeper connections with customers, Business Editor Oliver Rist recommends a strategy that ties your CRM tools to your social media activity. Invest in the right software to properly integrate CRM and social, focus your efforts on the platforms that tie to your needs and seek to build relationships with those customers who are most active in social media are among his nine recommendations.

YouTube is testing linked video tags that let viewers find out more about products and make purchases. Similar features are under development at Pinterest, and would link items in Lens displays to similar products as well as giving brands more Pins options.

L'Oreal's Garnier brand has boosted its social efforts to engage with consumers via influencer activations, live Q&A sessions, its Hair Color Hotline livestream, Instagram consultation services and color tools powered by artificial intelligence. "We want to continue to be a resource and provide info wherever someone may be searching for it," said Greg Hui, Garnier USA's senior vice president of marketing.

Major sports organizations rewrote their marketing playbooks amid the pandemic, upended schedules and shifted to digital consumer engagement, such as the WNBA's virtual draft with augmented reality activations. The NHL launched all-access programming and content across various platforms, while the WWE used a variety of technologies to turn Orlando's Amway Center into a virtual "Thunderdome."

Twitter has launched a 108-page strategic guide to help marketers plan their 2021 tweets. The document includes advice on getting the most out of crucial tools, as well as monthly planning worksheets, tweet prompts and templates.

Lexus partnered with Twitch star Fuslie on a two-hour Twitch livestream that invited almost 23,000 viewers to participate in a poll to vote on a customized version of its 2021 IS sedan. A second Twitch livestream on Feb. 17 hosted by Fuslie will reveal the finished custom design, and the effort is part of the automaker's "All In" campaign, which includes TV ads, social content, a documentary-type video and influencer collaborations.

In observance of Martin Luther King Jr. Day in the US, SmartBrief will not publish Monday. Publication will resume Tuesday.