The term “social media” seems to be popping up everywhere these days when it comes to advertising to consumers, and there is no doubt the buzz will continue to grow in 2011. Businesses both large and small are quickly moving to get into the social media space as a means for attracting more loyal customers and expanding upon their overall customer base. But is social media the best way to drive traffic to your existing business or website today? Not so fast.
The folks at Outbrain (you may have seen their widget platform on places like Newsweek.com and USAToday.com) recently published a study from Q1 in 2011 that shows social media has yet to match the numbers search engines produce when it comes to driving external traffic to content sites. How much is social media lagging behind, you ask? Outbrain took a look at web traffic over 100 million sessions from January 1st to March 31st, 2011 and found that search engines drove a lion’s share 41% of external traffic. Social media platforms resulted in only 11% of total external traffic driven to content sites.
Why is this important? While building a Facebook page or Twitter feed for your local business may seem like the hip, new thing to do in order to attract more loyal customers (everyone’s doing it!), the most efficient way to build brand recognition online is through local search marketing at this stage in the game. Social media platforms should be approached as supplements to a well-rounded, integrated digital strategy that has a solid foundation based on effective search marketing. While we may agree that you have the sweetest new website available to mankind, if nobody can find you does it really matter? To read up on all of the details Outbrain uncovered during their recent study, simply CLICK HERE (we think you’ll “Like” it).