According to TechCrunch, the test feature has a “Highlight” option next to “Like” and “Comment”. Once highlight is clicked, a range of options pop up to make a post more visible, from free to $2, which is paid through credit card or PayPal.

Only 12% of friends see average status updates, so this would ensure that more friends would see important posts. The highlighted posts might be higher in the news feed and be seen longer and shown to more friends, but they are not colored differently to stand out.

Facebook’s official statement on the new highlight feature is, “We’re constantly testing new features across the site. This particular test is simply to gauge people’s interest in their method of sharing with their friends.”

How Highlight Feature May Affect Facebook Users

This is similar to Facebook’s Sponsored Stories for brands or Twitter’s Promoted Tweets, which let businesses or Twitter users pay for extra exposure. But with the highlight feature, only the average Facebook user is permitted to use it, and not Pages or businesses.

But small business owners might be interested in using this social media feature through creating a personal page, instead of using Pages and traditional ads, since the highlight feature is cheaper than ads and will definitely show up in news feeds.

Facebook has always been free, and this new service has some worried that the pay to promote feature could turn off users who can’t afford to pay to be popular.

Facebook recently shared with investors that its ad business is in jeopardy since more users use Facebook mobile where not as many ads show up. Also, during the last six months their rapid growth has slowed, so perhaps that is why they are experimenting with a paid feature that will encourage its investors.

If Facebook gets every user in the U.S., Canada and Europe to highlight one post a year for $2, it could bring in about $858 million in extra revenue.

What are your thoughts on this feature? What kind of posts would you pay Facebook to promote?

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Google Drive is a service which allows users to store files online and share those files with others using the service. For example, we use it at Fahrenheit Marketing to share documents with each other containing site content, blog ideas, SEO data, etc. We save documents into the Drive folder so others connected to the documents have access on their computers.

In another example, if I was going on a trip and wouldn’t be able to bring my laptop, I could upload a bunch of files to my Google Drive account and then access those files from a different computer in a hotel lobby or a library.

But Google Drive is just one of many file-sharing solutions out there. Two of Google’s biggest competitors are Dropbox and Microsoft’s SkyDrive. Deciding which of these services to use depends on what you plan on sharing in your online folder.

When you sign up for a Dropbox account, you get 2 GB of free storage automatically. Moreover, if you refer your friends to Dropbox you can keep adding free space in your folder up to 16 GB. If you need more space than that, you’ll need to purchase a pro package at $99 (50 GB) to $199 (100 GB) per year. Dropbox is great for sharing photos and just about anything else… as long as you have enough space.

SkyDrive offers the most free storage initially. When you sign up you get 7 GB and more storage can be purchased for annual rates of $10 (20 GB), $25 (50 GB), and $50 (100 GB). Like Dropbox, SkyDrive can handle photos, music, videos, etc.

Google Drive offers 5 GB of storage when you sign up and more can be purchased for $30/year (25 GB) and $60 (100 GB). Clearly, SkyDrive has Google beat when it comes to pricing and free storage. Moreover, Google Drive doesn’t actually have photo sharing capabilities. Photos are still done through Picasa and Google+. Basically, it’s a fancy repackaging of Google Docs. So if you’re already a Google Docs fanatic (as I am) the service might be useful. Otherwise, it doesn’t actually have as many features as SkyDrive or Dropbox.

In many cases, I think Google does it right. With Drive, however, I’m not sold yet. Maybe I’ll become a Drive convert in the future, but for now I’ll probably just stick to the Dropbox that has served me well in the past.

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As we said last week, content curation is a great way to gather information on a topic. For SEO writers, this information can be a source for generating original content. Websites and blogs need to be updated often to maintain viewer interest. Sometimes, however, good writing topics are difficult to come by.

For example, if we are keeping up a blog for a company that manufactures window panes, there might be a week or two during which we simply cannot find an intriguing window or glass-related topic to blog about. If we have been curating content on windows and glass, however, we don’t need to rely on Google searches to supply a topic. Rather, we use our curation tools to find something interesting.

Perhaps we subscribed to a stained glass company’s Twitter feed a few months ago. They might have a really interesting post about artist Marc Chagall’s stained glass windows at the Fraumunster cathedral in Zurich.We could either reblog their post on our site or credit them as a source while adding our own spin to Chagall’s art. Suddenly we are not scrambling for a window topic, we have the entire Fraumunster to work with.

Another reason to curate content is the possibility of building relationships with other people interested in your topic. As your site gains a reputation as a good source of content, more and more people will be willing to let you submit guest posts (and links) on their sites. Moreover, if your site gains enough credibility, sites may even begin referencing your posts and giving you free links.

One of the great things about curating content is the ability to publish that content instantly. A number of sites offer content curation and publishing services. Scoop.it, for instance, allows users to grab content from anywhere on the internet and repackage that content into an online magazine format.

As Scoop.it and other content curation platforms continue to grow in popularity, a well curated page can become a means of driving traffic to your site. If you’ve established yourself as a strong source of information more and more content curators will follow your posts, link to your Scoop.it and maybe even visit your actual site.

Content curation is not an easy task. It requires lots of time and lots of patience as you gather your favorite sources. In the end, however, it may pay out big as a great way to create your own content and become a respected name in your industry.

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First, it’s probably important to establish just what the term “content curation” means. As anyone who has surfed the internet knows, most of the web is a vast sea of worthless, boring, spammy and misinformed junk. Finding good and fresh content can sometimes be a daunting task.

Content curation is a means of collecting the web’s useful information on a particular topic into one place. Say for instance, we were looking for great content related to former president Lyndon B. Johnson and did a Google search. Naturally, some of the sites that the search would turn up would be legitimate sources of information. However, quite a few of the hits would be akin to About.com articles.

Benefits of Content Curation

Now say that instead of searching for LBJ on Google, we found a content curated site devoted to the president. If the curator has performed his function well, this site would contain only quality sources of information on LBJ and we wouldn’t have to look around the site very long to find exactly what we were looking for.

Moreover, we can be assured that all the sources were reviewed by a human eye and not just the Google algorithm. The site curator (most likely a LBJ enthusiast) would dictate which information is the most relevant to LBJ and bring his or her expertise to bear on the subject.

Consider another example too. Perhaps, I am a wild French film enthusiast and simply can’t get enough of the Cannes Film Festival. If I found a curated site on French film I could subscribe to that curator’s RSS feed and perhaps follow him or her on Twitter.

That way, I could get constant updates on French film from a source that I know and trust. In the weeks leading up to the Cannes Film Festival, I wouldn’t have to scan the web for film reviews, director interviews and actor gossip, I could simply watch the information pass by in my Twitter feed.

And if I particularly liked one of the sites that I found through the curator, I could begin following that site’s Twitter feed as well. Over time, as I discovered more and more sites, I would be able to build a little network of film enthusiasts.

Look for more on Content Curation next week including: How Content Curation Applies to SEO.

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Austin PHP

On the second Thursday of each month developers of all skill levels meet, network with others and listen to different speakers share on PHP topics. Some recent topics include Zend, building APIs, Behavior Driven Development, etc.

Austin JavaScript

This group focuses on JavaScript and how to create different web apps. Recent topics they have discussed include Agility JS, Facebook JavaScript SDKs, and In-Browser Databases with JavaScript. After the meeting, the group meets over drinks to discuss what they heard, share any other JavaScript-related questions and discover new JavaScript tricks from one another.

Refresh Austin

This is a community-run group that was founded in February 2006 by Austin web professionals. On the second Tuesday of every month, Refresh Austin meets to listen to a speaker or a panel discussion focused on all things web. There are also informal gatherings throughout the month, and its website has a discussion board where participants network, post jobs and continue any web developer conversations that began at the meetup.

Austin on Rails

This meetup is the perfect place for developers to learn more about Ruby on Rails and share insights on the different complex options that Ruby on Rails offers.

AWPUG

Austin Web Python User Group is focused on making web development with Python fun. Recent topics include Django, pycon 2012, Heroku, etc. Developers learn new Python-based web frameworks, hang out with other developers, and enjoy free food.

Austin WordPress

At this meetup other WordPress fans and pros discuss how to get the most out of WordPress and all its functions. Popular topics have been Extending Our Content, WordPress and Git, and How to Cultivate Community with Your WordPress site.

Contact Fahrenheit Marketing to learn more about how our skilled, knowledgeable web developers can help you with your web applications and mobile apps.

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Basecamp might fit other companies’ needs well, but for Fahrenheit Marketing, which has a strong emphasis on web development, we discovered activeCollab is a great match for us.

Here are our reasons why we chose activeCollab to better manage our clients’ projects:

• activeCollab is written in PHP 5 so it’s easier for our developers to modify and build plugins for. Basecamp has a strong heritage in the Ruby language.
• We host it ourselves, so all the content is on our servers, and still in our control instead of on a far-off server like Basecamp’s. Hosting software yourself is better for companies that have security concerns because of HIPPA or PCI compliance.
• Price is very reasonable—just pay $500 once and you then pay $99 upgrade fee after the first year. Basecamp is $1200 or more a year.
• Ticketing features is a must have option when it comes to development. Ticketing with activeCollab is not as strong as other software, but it is vastly improved over Basecamp. 
• Time tracking is easy. Developers can show they spent 5 hours working on an area of a client’s development project, so the client can see what exact steps the developers took, which also helps manage the cost of projects.
• With activeCollab, you are limited in disk space by your hosting provider not by your project management software.
• activeCollab is a nice integrated package instead of a hodgepodge of different features.

Our web development team performs all the work here in Austin, TX, and doesn’t outsource our work to India, to make sure we give you the highest-quality web application development possible. If you are need of Web-based application software, content management systems, custom plug-ins, or more, contact Fahrenheit Marketing today.

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Fiverr offers a large amount of services starting at $5. These services range from technical work, product reviews, graphic design, and funny or creepy videos. These types of services would be great for small businesses to outsource some of their work for quick one-time jobs.

For us, we just use it to get hilarious birthday songs for our employees. Take a look at the video below, and if you think it’s funny please share it with your friends.

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Not surprisingly, search has remained one of the most popular internet activities, topped only by emailing. Google is far and away the most popular search engine, with 83% of respondents reporting that they use Google search the most often. In second place was Yahoo with only 6%.

On the whole, adult searchers are pleased with their search engine experience, with 66% reporting that their search results are fair and unbiased. 86% said that they have learned something new or important using a search engine and only 34% reported that really critical information was missing from search results. According to the study, the most frequent searchers are young, educated and affluent adults. Younger adults also tend to have more confidence in their abilities to conduct a good internet search.

The most interesting finding of the survey, however, was user perception of personalized search. 65% of users reported that search engines using past searches to personalize future results was a “BAD thing.” Only 29% thought that search personalization was a positive development. 71% thought that personalized search was an invasion of privacy and 68% viewed targeted advertising negatively.  Just 38% of adults searchers knew how to keep a search engine from collecting their information, and most of those did so by simply deleting their web history.

Though personalized search may not be popular, search engines are obviously here to stay and will continue to be an important component of internet user experience. This is why a good mix of SEO and personalized search tactics will be important for businesses.

Question: Do you want to see personalized results when you search?

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Before making a purchase, users typically navigate several channels including organic search, paid advertising, referrals and direct visits. To determine the value of each channel in the purchasing process, the study gave equal weight to the various steps that lead to a conversion as explained by Slingshot SEO:

Organic Search ($20) > Referral ($20) > Social Network ($20) > Email ($20) > Direct ($20) = $100 conversion. In this case, each channel receives the conversion value divided by the number of interactions in the chain.

Companies typically give the direct visit to a website the most credit for the purchase, as it is often the last interaction before a conversion. However, the results of Slingshot’s study show that direct visits get far too much credit.

It seems logical for these companies to assign the most value to a direct visit—after all you have to go to a site to purchase the site’s product or service. But the numbers are quite striking across all industries. Organic searches don’t get nearly enough attention considering the value they bring into the conversion process.

This study paid special attention to the steps and channels through which customers found their purchasing destination and these results cannot be ignored. Organic search is the most undervalued avenue, by about 77.25%.

It should be noted that this study was conducted by a SEO marketing firm who tend to favor these undervalued avenues. However, given the wide reach of the study and that consumer research studies in the past have used this same model, these results demand attention. Compared to traditional marketing streams, internet marketing is practically in its infancy, having been around a mere 18 years. But given the rapidly changing landscape of online advertising, studies like this one conducted by Slingshot SEO should be given the utmost consideration. It is apparent that companies are not investing enough in search engine optimization.

Forward thinking organizations are always trying to stay ahead of the curve, but doing this requires effort and research. Fortunately Slingshot has provided its results, now it’s up to companies to adapt. If you want to know more about improving organic search, email a Fahrenheit team member through our contact form.

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Here are some tips from Fahrenheit Marketing’s social media specialist about how to use Pinterest to drive more traffic to your company.

1. Use images that appeal to customers: Make sure your images are high-quality and enticing, so users will want to pin them to their boards. Some ways to quickly and easily add extra style to your pictures is by using services like Instagram or picplz.

2. Create boards around your products and services: This allows you to highlight your company’s goods in easy to visualize categories. For example, if you have a restaurant, your boards could show your specials, drinks, appetizers, entrees, etc. This helps users to quickly find what specific services they need.

3. Be sure to link your images back to your website: Once someone shares your image, you want to ensure whoever clicks on it will be referred back to your company. It is easy to link your images: just click on the image, go to edit, and add your website next to “link”.

4. Create fun boards to engage your followers: Try to create a board that will get the attention of followers. Such as, Fahrenheit Marketing has a board called, “Can You Write Ad Copy?” where users can interact by adding their own copy to posted images. This gets the users involved and connecting more with your company’s page.

5. Link to Twitter and post to your Facebook page: This helps you share your content with your existing communities who are already interested in your company. These social media followers will most likely want to pin your images since they are already your fans.

Contact Fahrenheit Marketing today to learn more about how we can help your company receive more referral traffic through social media sites such as Pinterest. Also follow us on Pinterest!

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