The Benefits of Social Media on Website Traffic

[Esther Kane]

I know, I know, everyone is talking about social media, twitter this and facebook that! What's it all about? Why is everyone so interested in the minutiae of our lives? Well, I don't know the answer to that but I DO know that participating in social media is very much like participating in business and social networking groups. At first, you meet a lot of people, you shake hands, you engage in small talk and you get to know a little about each other. But after several meetings you become more engaged and more familiar and more trusting of each other. After several months, hopefully, you've gained that person's trust enough to earn business referrals from them. Or maybe even business from themselves.

These online social media programs are the same thing - at least for businesses they are. The problem is that sometimes the business folks are mixed in with the social folks. So, the "conversation" that you see on the screen ranges from "Deciding on tuna or chicken sandwich for lunch." to "Found some great ideas on small business marketing - click here." So, yes, at this point we do have to weed out what we need from what we don't need (or care about). But the reality is that the benefits are there.

Nothing tells the truth better than numbers, so here are some stats from 4 websites that we're marketing. All four websites are participating in social media programs. All four have blogs that they keep up and all four contribute regularly (at least 2 articles per month) to their blog and social media campaigns.

Website 1 - contributes an average of 20 articles per month

28.33 % came from direct traffic
28.79% came from referring sites
42.88% came from search engines

The referring sites are...
stumbleupon.com
promotionworld.com
ladieswholaunch.com
twitter.com

Website 2 - contributes an average of 5 articles per month

10.54% from direct traffic
31.05% from referring sites
58.40% from search engines

The referring sites are...
knolstuff.com
blog
linkedin.com

Website 3 - contributes an average of 2 articles per month

7.51% from direct traffic
4.93% from referring sites
87.56% from search engines

The referring sites are...
knolstuff.com
blog
ezinearticles.com
goodsearch.com
geckoe.com

Website 4 - contributes an average of 2 articles per month

28.74% from direct traffic
2.01% from referring sites
69.25% from search engines

The referring sites are...
blog
knolstuff.com
goodsearch.com

What's interesting to note is the direct traffic stats. 2 f the 4 websites above DO NOT participate in any other marketing besides Internet marketing, not even pay per click campaigns. So, the "direct traffic" visitors are probably coming from referrals from clients and/or referrals from visitors to the social media campaigns. It's hard to tell but it's interesting to note that factor.

So, you see, there's no doubt that there is traffic being brought in to websites via social media. So, is it worth it for you to take 30 minutes each day to write a short article about what you already know? And then submit that article to multiple sites? If you really don't have the time, consider using a social media marketing program like we have at Eckweb Designs. It does the work for you.