The owner of a typical brick and mortar
storefront depends a lot on foot traffic to insure that their business is a
success. That's why location is so vital when picking out a place of business.
For an e-commerce company, getting high visibility on search engines or access
to a large source of traffic is just as equally important. Getting that traffic
directly to a company's website is the goal of any online marketing campaign.
The prevailing wisdom has been that search
engines will do the trick provided you can increase your ranking on those
pages. However, it appears that social media networks are giving the search
engines a run for their money in terms of providing them with organic traffic.
You only have to look at the numbers to appreciate where most internet users
are spending their time.
Where
Are The Users?
A recently published report put out by
Forrester Research has found that 50% of 18 to 23 year olds and 43% of 24 to 32
year olds list social networks as their go-to internet-discovery resource. In
that arena, Facebook and Twitter are holding sway as the number one and two
forms of discovery for nearly a third of all American users alone. That
represents an 18% increase for "discovery-use" on those sites since
2010.
The good news for search engine sites is
that 54% of American users regularly depend on those search results to find
what they are looking for. The bad news is that number is dropping. It was 61%
in 2010.
More
Fun Social Media Facts
The vast majority of Fortune 500 Companies
have a Facebook page and/or Twitter account, but that doesn't necessarily mean
they are using those resources effectively. For a business start-up looking to
get a foothold in customer traffic, social media could be a productive resource to
invest in.
Here are some more of the findings from the research report:
·
26% of internet users
discovered company websites through branded emails. That's an 11-point increase
from 2012.
·
18% of internet users
proclaimed that paid search results got them to where they wanted to go. These
would be all those click through ads on Facebook.
·
28% of all internet users find
new websites by clicking through to links on sites they are visiting.
How can you make that work for your company? A
simple quid pro quo will do. If you
link to a business ask them to link to you. Obviously, you're not going to find
much traffic with a competitor, but landing an affiliate site would be ideal.
Write a lot of guest posts and have the articles placed on industry websites.
Does all of this mean you should give up on search
engine optimization all together? Absolutely not.
However, it is clear you
should be dividing your online marketing strategy equally between SEO and
social media.
You'll probably find that they work hand in hand.
