The last year has seen a pretty radical change in how web sites are getting traffic. Social media is changing the face of web traffic, and a business that is social media savvy is going to do a lot more, and better, business that companies that rely on Google searches.
Not that Google is dead - far from it - but social media marketing is all about connecting with and engaging your customers and clients. Marketing departments have always paid lip service to this, but real SMM forces them to do it in a real way that ends up having real payoff. Afraid to talk with, not to, your customers? Maybe social media marketing isn’t for you. But if you want to create a genuine dialogue with people, you cannot avoid social media.
Social Media Marketing uses tools like:
- blogging. Keeping a regular online journal about the things going on in your company and industry. Blogging allows you to:
- keep people informed about things going on in your company - news, job postings, etc.
- show your expertise; give people tips and tricks about your business or industry, discuss trends, etc.
- inform your customers of sales, promotions, contests, etc. - helps drive sales
- get feedback about your products or services
- social bookmarking. Said something interesting? Allow people to bookmark infomration to share with others on sites like Reddit, Digg, del.icio.us and StumbleUpon. Ask what “The Digg Effect” is…
- social networking. Connnect with your customers on sites like Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn. Some sites have strict rules against corporate spamming, but smart marketers can engage people voluntarily in ways that don’t break site rules or people’s goodwill.
- shared media. How can you use Flickr, YouTube, SlideShare and others to show your expertise?
The biggest difference between search traffic and social media traffic is the level of engagement from users arriving at your site.
Search engines usually drive traffic based on keyword searches. For example, someone might arrive at the Future Shop web site because of a search for LCD TV. Future Shop still needs to immediately convince the visitor to engage with the site right on the home page, and every other page of the site, since users may not come in the “front door”. It is a very difficult and expensive job to create trust, engagement, etc. quickly, and many companies fail this job completely.
However, if you can create this trust level elsewhere and people come to your site because you have established you cred elsewhere, most of the battle has been won long before people come to your site. For example, if Future Shop posts a “What you need to know about LCD TV” on YouTube (how-to videos is one of the biggest categories on YouTube), they have established trust and expertise through non-”markety” media, and the visitor arrives ready to engage. And they have arrived outside of the Google channel.
Google and search engine traffic isn’t dead, dying, on life support or even in need of medication. But there are better ways to bring qualified traffic to your web site.
October 14th, 2007 at 8:59 am
Dave,
Informative post. Adding to the idea of creating trust, I reckon it is also possible to create a platform for building trust between the brand and customers by encouraging transparent interaction. Like the way Dell did with IdeaStorm.
An example is if its a software firm, she can host a series of software video demos on its blog and engage users to talk about it. The author should of course reply to the comments and encourage the discussion. If the software is what it claims then it should create value to the brand which leads to sales.
October 14th, 2007 at 9:06 am
Good article. Makes me wonder whether one of the search ginats like Google will make a move for something like Facebook or even StumbleUpon; for Google, that kind of tie-up could be very interesting indeed.
Yes, unless you’re Steve Balmer. Didn’t he say that FaceBook would be nothing more than a fad?
November 11th, 2007 at 4:32 pm
SEO is dead, long live SEO 2.0!
Nice to read it in different words by someone from the outside.
November 12th, 2007 at 10:05 am
[…] Is SEO dead? Search traffic vs. social media traffic by Dave Walker The last year has seen a pretty radical change in how web sites are getting traffic. Social media is changing the face of web traffic, and a business that is social media savvy is going to do a lot more, and better, business that companies that rely on Google searches. […]
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