Facebook delivers for brands
Facebook is delivering an ‘incredible amount’ of traffic to websites, with one in every 10 visits to a typical site from a UK online user coming from Facebook – making it the second single biggest source of traffic after Google, according to Experian Hitwise UK in its Getting To Grips With Social Media report.
“If companies can harness the power of Facebook, and indeed other social networking sites, then the possibilities to increase traffic to their website are immense,” says the research outfit.
As social networks grow online and companies use them more and more as an advertising mechanism and to engage with their consumers, the company points out, the ROI incentive is that more traffic is being delivered to company websites from social networks and forums than ever before.
“Entertainment is the most dependent category on traffic from social media with 16.74% of its traffic coming from social networking sites,” says Experian Hitwise. “However, upstream traffic from social networks to transactional sites in retail, business and travel is increasing year-on-year. In the last year, online retail sites went from receiving 8.27% of their traffic from social media to 9.07%, showing a growing reliance on traffic from social networks.”
In April 2009, Research In Motion took a big leap into social media and launched its official Twitter app for its BlackBerry smartphone which allowed BB users to access Twitter – a move which saw Twitter traffic to BlackBerry.net exploding.
RIM then optimised its website for social media applications, with Facebook, Twitter and Instant Messaging dominating the BlackBerry homepage, says Experian Hitwise. RIM’s adoption of social media for its BB devices meant that a significant proportion of its traffic started coming from social networking sites.
“In the last year, BlackBerry has seen a 162% increase in traffic from social networks. 30% of all BlackBerry’s traffic now comes from social networks and forums, compared to 21% from search engines,” says the outfit.
brand-e: there’s been a huge shift away from branded websites to building brand presence on Facebook this year, with more to come
