Within the US, among 44 ranking factors examined, social signals account for 7 of the 8 most highly correlated with Google search results, according to a new study from Searchmetrics. Presenting the correlations using Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient, the study determined that Google +1s (0.4) have easily the highest correlation, followed by number of backlinks, Facebook shares, and Facebook total (summary of shares, likes and comments), each at 0.34. Last year’s study, which looked at 21 factors, found social signals occupying 5 of the top 6 spots.

via Social Signals Again Seen Highest Correlating Factors With Google Rankings.

8 in 10 Say They Trust Online Customer Reviews As Much as Personal Recommendations.

New findings from online ad network Chitika confirm it’s anything but lonely at the top. According to the study, the top listing in Google’s organic search results receives 33 percent of the traffic, compared to 18 percent for the second position, and the traffic only degrades from there:

via No. 1 Position in Google Gets 33% of Search Traffic [Study] – Search Engine Watch (#SEW).

Facebook shadow profiles. You may have seen the term crop up on tech news sites this week, and it may given you the feeling it’s a nefarious privacy violation — or the first fun feature that Facebook has introduced in years.

via Facebook Shadow Profiles: What You Need to Know.

That finding may sound obvious, but for marketers the takeaway may be that your money is better spent on branding ads on Facebook than call-to-action direct-response ads that may actually produce more likes and higher click-through rates. Syncapse, the firm that pegged the average value of a Facebook fan at $174 earlier this year, worked with Hotspex to interview 2,080 consumers in the first quarter about their reasons for becoming Facebook fans. While “to support the brand I like” was the No. 1 reason for fanning, there were other reasons:

via Why People Become Facebook Fans.

Small and medium-sized businesses SMBs may not always have the same resources as their larger counterparts, but that doesn’t mean the importance of digital marketing is lost on them. And as the cost of digital marketing tools drops, SMBs are moving fast to incorporate them into the overall marketing mix, according to a poll of digital marketing decision-makers in the US conducted in March 2013 by marketing software company Vocus and Inc. Magazine.

via SMBs Most Often Use Websites, Social in Digital Marketing Efforts – eMarketer.

For more on how to get retweets, check out the infographic “The Art of Getting Retweets” below:

via The art of getting retweets | Articles | Main.

Forrester-How-Adults-Find-Websites-June2013Online adults in the US are more likely to discover websites via natural search engine results than through any other means, reports Forrester Research [download page] in a new study. Respondents were asked how they typically found websites they had visited in the prior month, with 54% pointing to search, up from 50% the prior year. Notably, social networking sites moved up a couple of notches to the second spot in the website discovery rankings, typically used by 32% in 2012, up from 25% in 2011.

via Organic Search Continues to be the Primary Way Adults Find Websites.

Adestra-B2B-Publishing-Email-Metrics-by-Subject-Line-Content-Term-Jun2013Adestra has released [download page] its latest email subject line analysis report, looking at the keywords and phrases that fare best and worst across a number of sectors. With email volumes on the rise and clutter an issue for recipients, having a strong subject line is as important as ever, particularly as consumers rate the subject line as one of their top motivators for opening an email. This article contains a summary of highlights from the Adestra report, which is based on a random sample of more than 90,000 email campaigns, each with a minimum list size of 5,000, totaling more than 2 billion emails.

via Email Subject Lines: Which Terms Work, and Which Don’t.

Almost three-quarters of marketing professionals worldwide planned to increase their spending on branded video content or video ads in the next year, according to a survey conducted by AOL Networks in April 2013. More than 50% of that group said that the added investment would come from TV and display budgets. Only 4% of respondents planned to draw back spending on digital video ads.

via For Driving Engagement, Digital Video Ads Beat TV By a Wide Margin – eMarketer.