When it comes to operating a successful online business these days the key
is traffic to your website. In order to generate traffic there are a number
of sources one can tackle. The first and most obvious is an increase in your
search rankings over at Google. But what about all those social media
websites floating around out there - are they worth your attention?
According to a release at Nielsen Online (PDF), social media is eating up
more and more user time online and is truly becoming one of, if not the
biggest online activity. According to Nielson, "In the U.S. alone, total
minutes spent on social networking sites has increased 83 percent
year-over-year". In the past 12 months Facebook has seen the total time
spent in minutes on its social networking platform grow by nearly 700%
compared to April 2008, pushing it far above second place's MySpace.
In April of 2008 MySpace saw usage around the 7.2 billion minute mark with
Facebook trailing at 1.7 billion minutes. In April 2009, MySpace dropped by
31% down to 4.9 billion minutes with Facebook growing incredibly to 13.8
billion.
When it comes to Social Media there is no denying that Facebook is occupying
more and more users time. Relative newcomer Twitter came in at around 300
million minutes for April 2009, up nearly 3700% from 2008's meager 7
million.
So how do these numbers impact the average site owner? Well, with this high
injection of internet users flocking over to social media platforms, you
have to ask yourself - why aren't you there? Top search rankings at Google
still dominate when it comes to search and traffic delivery overall,
however, with so many millions of potential customers loitering around these
social sites, you need to get your site into the action.
By becoming an active member in networks like Facebook, Twitter, and the
others, you can drastically increase your online exposure resulting not only
in more traffic to your site and possibly increased sales, but also
increasing the chances of people linking to you - which in turn, will result
in higher search rankings and even more traffic.
There are a number of things I recommend to just about anyone with a
website. First, get a good grasp of what your competition is doing, and do
the same, but better. Often I will recommend to a client that they create a
blog, and I will get the response "but my competitors aren't doing it". That
right there should give you the incentive to be the first in your industry.
If you competitors aren't doing something, and it's a known contributor to
rankings and a healthy website, then you need to do it to put yourself one
step above them.
The same goes for Social Networking. Blogs have become a mainstream way for
companies to provide information to their users and Social Networking is
starting to take this over. The beauty of these social media websites is not
only the speed in which you can communicate with your customers, but also
the interactivity and relationship you can start to develop. It's much like
going to a mixer through your chamber of commerce, but at a much larger
scale.
It's not too late to jump on this social media bandwagon. While the user
base on these platforms is growing considerably, the number of businesses
taking part is still relatively small, at least in comparison to how many
business based websites are out there. So if you haven't already, go out
there and open that Twitter and Facebook account, and if you have a stagnant
account already existing, start increasing your activity. You'll be
surprised at the positive impact your efforts will have.
If you have any questions or comments please contact me.
Regards Gerald
Website: http://www.webcraft.ws
E-mail: gerald@webcraft.ws
Twitter: WebcraftGuru
Facebook: Webcraft Guru
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