Adding useful content to your Facebook page just got easier. The latest release of Optify helps you build a Facebook tab in minutes, adding even more power to your social media marketing. The new release also includes other landing page enhancements and a new way to share them.

Landing page power

Facebook Content is a new template in the Landing Pages application that combines the ease of Optify’s customizable forms with the power of social networking to reach more people than ever.
With just a few clicks of the mouse and keyboard, you can create an attractive tab and find complete instructions for adding it to your existing Facebook page. Visitors are encouraged to “like” your page and can submit their contact info with an optional form or single click of the Facebook Connect button.

Document downloads

Free downloads provide a great incentive for users to submit forms, giving you access to more leads. Beginning with this release, Optify lets you upload files in a variety of document, data, presentation, and image formats that your users can download each time they submit a form. Just upload your content and use or reuse it on any landing page. We’ll store up to 1,000 documents for you, with each one having a maximum file size of 20 MB.

Hidden fields for Salesforce

If you use Optify landing pages to send leads to Salesforce, you can now add hidden fields to send custom information to Salesforce each time a visitor submits a form. For example, you may want the form submission to include the name of the related ad campaign or the version of your landing page the visitor used.

New way to share

The last Optify release rolled out a social sharing tool for promoting any web page to your social networks on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. Now we’ve gone that feature one better by adding email to the mix. Just type in the addresses of friends and contacts you’d like to notify about your landing page or other web page, add a short message, and you’re suddenly sharing. You can send emails to up to 10 people at a time and send up to 100 emails in one 24-hour period. Naturally, we save your email addresses so it’s that much easier for you to send out another notice in the future.

Stay tuned for even more sharing and landing page improvements in future releases.

What’s new: Optify Pages for Facebook Leads List of Latest Enhancements is a post from: B2B Marketing and Lead Generation | Optify

As part of our ongoing research and analysis on Optify’s database and given recent changes to Google and Bing’s search engine results pages (SERPs), we designated an ambitious goal for ourselves – come up with a new Click-Through-Rate (CTR) curve.

For our research, we used a small sample set of our database, constructed from organic keyword visits (Google US) from a variety of B2B and B2C websites.

The three main questions we intended to answer were:

1. Given the recent changes to SERPs, what is the new CTR curve for organic results?
2. Is there a correlation between organic click through rate and CPC value for the same keyword?
3. What is the effect of search volume on click through rates?

We’ve compiled and highlighted the top 15 stats and facts from the 10-page report.

Want to read more? Download the complete pdf.

1. Ranking in first position for organic search gets an Avg CTR of 36.4%. Tweet this!
2. 60% of the clicks go to the top three organic search results. Tweet this!
3. If you double your investment to move from 2nd position to 1st, you could triple your visits for that keyword. Tweet this!
4. Avg CTR on page one is 8.9%, Avg for the second page is 1.5% CTR. Tweet this!



5. Cheap CPC terms will likely see over 30% CTR on position one. Tweet this!
6. Expensive CPC terms will see less than 20% CTR on position one. Tweet this!
7. Expensive CPC terms see a lower organic CTR than cheap CPC terms. Tweet this!



8. Head terms yield higher CTR for position one (32% for head terms versus 25% for long tail) Tweet this!
9. Long tail terms show better overall CTR on pg 1 (4.6% avg CTR for head terms vs 9% avg CTR for long tail) Tweet this!
10. There is a negative correlation between CTR on organic results and CPC value of sponsored results. Tweet this!
11. If you’re optimizing for SEO head terms, you wont see huge benefits until you get to the top positions. Tweet this!
12. First page rank for a head term will yield more visitors than first position for long tail term. Tweet this!
13. Invest in getting more terms to page 1 first, then worry about advancing terms to the first position. Tweet this!
14. Ranking below page two is good only for tracking and looking at trends, but has almost no business value. Tweet this!
15. This is the new Click Through Rate by Organic Search Position [Graph] Tweet this!

About Optify Research and Optify Labs: Optify Labs is an experimental playground where we test and try new ideas before integrating them into the Optify product. Optify Labs also tests insights provided by our research and helps us learn how to make search and social optimization easier, faster and more profitable.

15 Facts: Organic Search Click Through Rate is a post from: B2B Marketing and Lead Generation | Optify

In our blogosphere recap we examine four blog posts from last week that discussed the increase in QR codes in magazines, Black Friday tweets, Facebook shrinks six degrees of separation to four, and Google axes four more products. Below are some of the highlights from these articles:

• According to a survey of the top 100 magazines in the U.S. by circulation, the number of “mobile action codes” rose from 88 in January issues to 507 in September issues.
• To gauge where shoppers plan to spend their money on Black Friday more than 270,000 tweets were monitored between Sept. 26, 2011 and Nov. 17, 2011.
• Facebook reduces the six degrees of separation to only four, meaning the world’s largest social network had made the world even smaller.
• Google has decided to discontinue Wave, Knol, Search Timeline and Google Gears.

QR Mania: Mobile Codes in Magazines Rise 228%

Media Post | Steve Smith | 11-21-11

According to a survey of the top 100 magazines in the U.S. by circulation, the number of “mobile action codes” rose from 88 in January issues to 507 in September issues. The share of codes being leveraged for advertising purposes is rising sharply, even as editorial uses of the codes has remained relatively static this year. As any mobile code user will attest, this medium is still struggling to give the consumer a rewarding experience. Marketers apparently consider video the most important payoff, so 47% of the codes in Q3 led to a streaming media experience.

Key Takeaways:

• Magazines like Allure have discovered that sweepstakes entries and easy subscription opt-ins are among the most effective ways to engage users; they account for 34% of campaigns.
• Only 16% of codes are prompting people to buy something via their phones.
• Fewer than 12% of QR codes are offering coupons.

Who’s Tweeting about Black Friday? [INFOGRAPHIC]

Mashable | Christine Erickson | 11-22-11

Last year, according to the National Retail Federation, 212 million individuals spent an estimated $45 billion total on Black Friday. This year, social media has played a big role in Black Friday marketing, and buzz about when and where consumers are shopping is stronger than ever. Social media analysts at Mashwork monitored more than 270,000 tweets between Sept. 26, 2011 and Nov. 17, 2011 and found out where shoppers will be spending their money this upcoming Black Friday (whether it’s online or in line), and what products they’re going after. What’s interesting is that according to the study, more people will be buying for themselves during Black Friday this year than for others.

Key Takeaways:

• In 2010 212 million individuals spent an estimated $45 billion total on Black Friday.
• California, Texas, New York, Illinois and Florida are the most engaged states in Black Friday conversations on Twitter.
• 46% of people plan to buy for themselves, while 36% of people plan to buy for others and 18% people will buy for both.

Facebook Makes the World Smaller, Shrinks 6 Degrees of Separation to 4 [STUDY]

Mashable | Stan Schroeder | 11-22-11

A theory stemming from an experiment by social psychologist Stanley Milgram in the 1960s claims every living person is connected to any other through only six friends. According to a recent study, Facebook reduces the six degrees of separation to only four, meaning the world’s largest social network makes the world even smaller (figuratively). Facebook’s research shows that if you limit the analysis to a single country, the “four degrees of separation” theory shrinks even further, with most pairs of people being only separated by 3 degrees.

Key Takeaways:

• 99.6% of all pairs of users are connected by paths with 5 degrees.
• 92% of all pairs of users are connected by only four degrees, with the average “distance” between users getting smaller over time.
• The average Facebook user has 190 Facebook friends.

Google to Wave, Knol, and Gears: Get off my lawn

VentureBeat | Meghan Kelly | 11-22-11

Google has decided to discontinue Wave, Knol, Search Timeline and Google Gears, along with a slew of other features in order to build up fewer products with more integrated features. These products did not take off for Google as originally anticipated, so the company is axing them, leaving room for more important projects such as Google+, which is starting ...

When it comes to search, there are basically two types of people: spearfishers and netcasters.

Spearfishers are searchers who know exactly what they are looking for. They go directly to a search entry box, type in what they’re looking for and evaluate the resulting list of relevant search results. Spearfishers behave like long tail keyword searchers. They know what they want, for example a “Beyblade Metal Fusion Super Vortex Battle Set,” and are ready to review a specific set of results. Spearfishers rarely get distracted by sidebars, end caps and cul-de-sacs. Instead, they are savvy searchers who are already well informed about the product or service they are looking for – they just need help locating it.

Netcasters, on the other hand, are discoverers. They browse through information sources, as if window shopping for the perfect gift. They don’t always know exactly what they are looking for, but will know it when they see it. Netcasters are more open and impressionable and want to be informed along the way. Perhaps they are aware of a topic and looking to learn more. Netcasters cast a broader query than the surgical strike of a spearfisher, with the use of what I call a ‘search-based’ browse approach. Netcasters may start with “beyblade,” and perhaps then advance to “beyblade battle,” or continue to “beyblade set” or “beyblade battle set” if the initial results of their previous queries don’t return satisfactory results.

Search and Discovery – spear fishing versus casting a wide net

In the past year at Optify, we’ve tracked the near continuous evolution and convergence of search and social media. Optify has conducted research to track and study user’s behavior in response to search engine results. We’ve noticed a shift in the past year about how search engines process and present information to users on the search engine results pages (SERPS), and how it impacts user behavior.

I uncovered a key finding in the data. The fundamental difference between searchers and discoverers is the goal and psychological state of the user; with search, the user knows what he or she is looking for, while discovery is exploratory in nature and the user has only a general direction in mind. Search has become more accommodating of discovery, moving from targeting and helping spearfishers, as search engines have historically been providing for the past 15 years, to providing more features for netcasters.

Recent developments in search engines and real-time search have introduced more discovery methods that present users with features like universal search results, and improve the relevancy of search results and the user experience. These include features like, Google Instant, which provides search-based-like browsing, and real time results in SERPs, Twitter and Facebook results, which allows for serendipitous discovery of content the user would not have discovered prior to this integration. We’ve written about how the major search engines are introducing an increasing number of new features that are catered more toward the netcaster than the spearfisher.

From StumbleUpon (an extreme version of a product targeting netcasters) to the changes in the way search engines like Google, Bing and Yahoo! render their SERPS, to the changes that Twitter, Facebook and even iTunes are making to their search features and UI, it is evident that web browsing is now shifting to meet the needs of netcasters.

Today’s market is shifting toward a new kind of search: a combination of search and discovery.

Google and Bing have both realized the key role social can play in delivering relevant, targeted discovery-based results to users. A search result or ad related to a user’s search might not persuade the user to click through, but if their friend’s name and picture appears next to a result, the search engines are betting (and research shows) that users are more likely to click a result when this social context is present.

This post was written by Michelle Calvagno, Marketing Manager, Playwire.

7  Reasons You Need Video On Your Site

Video is becoming increasingly popular among internet users.  It is more interactive than reading an entire article and viewers relate better to video.  Video is social, mobile, interactive, profitable, trackable, brandable and the list goes on.  Did you know that in September 2011 US internet users engaged in over 39.8 BILLION video views? If you have not incorporated video on your site it is time to seriously start considering it.  Below are a few tips of why having a video strategy on your website is so important.

1. It’s All About the Experience. When a user is on your website – it’s all about the experience, what keeps them coming back for more.  The psychology behind website “usability” deals with the entire user experience from the moment they hit your site to the second they leave.  Video is both social and mobile – two things users can’t get enough of these days and video provides a richer, more entertaining and interactive experience for your users.

2. Video Can Get a Little Sticky. Actually video is extremely sticky meaning it keeps users on your site longer.  On average users stay 5 times longer on your website when there is video content versus just text. It may seem a bit uncouth, but internet users are getting lazy.  They don’t want to work for the content anymore and they are much more likely to leave the page if they see paragraphs of text as opposed to a branded video player connected to social media outlets with an attention-grabbing title.  Most video players and platforms offer features to enhance stickiness even more such as playlists or related video streams.  The goal is to keep users on your site not your competitors.

3. Increase Your Sales by 85%? – Yes Please. Having a product video available allows users to become one step closer to purchasing your product.  A study by Internet Retailer show that online consumers are 144% more likely to add a product to their shopping cart after viewing a product video and 85% more likely to actually purchase the product.  Want to increase your sales by 85%? Just add a product video – it’s that simple.

4. Earn More Revenue. – Video ads are the new banner ads in online advertising.  Even if you don’t have video content, you can still utilize video ads before page loads and other types of content.  Advertisers are investing more in online advertising, especially video.  As technology advances video is becoming more targeted and highly interactive. Viewers are actually more willing to sit through online video ads since the content behind it is something they know they want to see.

5. Learn More about Your Audience. Video analytics offer powerful insights into the likes and dislikes of your audience.  Tracking video performance in terms of most viewed or popular videos provides you with the exact types of videos your viewers engage with the most.  This is something you can’t gauge with text. You can use analytics to your advantage and take performance statistics into account when planning your entire video strategy and make changes based on the course of performance.

6. Drive Traffic. When you perform a search on Google did you ever notice that videos show up higher on the first page?  Search engines love video and if you implement video SEO correctly and submit video sitemaps to search engines you will most likely rank higher in search engines with your video content then regular text content.  This is because there is still less video content out there and not many people correctly implementing SEO for their video content.

7. Bring Your Brand to Life. Video allows you to create a face for your brand and bring it to life.  You can even build an entire brand just around your video content.  Videos can be shared rapidly across the internet and go viral in seconds, when viewers share your branded content on social media sites you’re increasing brand awareness to millions of eyeballs that may not have come across your site.

Video is taking over the internet ...