A big part of the Facebook experience is how
friends and family share Web links to interesting news stories, photos,
videos and Internet sites.
This "friend-casting" of information has helped propel Facebook into a major force in directing traffic around the Web.
According to Web measurement firm Compete Inc., Facebook has passed
search-engine giant Google to become the top source for traffic to
major portals like Yahoo and MSN, and is among the leaders for other
types of sites.
This trend is shifting the way Web site operators approach online
marketing, even as Google takes steps to move into the social-media
world.
Some experts say social media could become the Internet's next search engine.
"People are spending less time navigating the Internet on their own
and are now navigating the Internet based on their friends'
recommendations or their friends' activities," said Dave Yovanno, chief
executive of Gigya Inc., a Palo Alto firm that offers social-media
services. "That's one of the big trends we started picking up on
probably four or five months ago."
For years, Web content creators had to worry whether they had the
proper level of search-engine optimization to make sure search engines
listed them among the top results. Now, they have to consider what
companies like Gigya offer - social-media optimization.
"Marketers must focus on social marketing in addition to traditional
search, as customers have a multi-pronged way of finding information,"
said Jeremiah Owyang, a Web strategist for the Altimeter Group, a San
Mateo consulting firm with clients like Gigya. "The clear-cut channels
of yesteryear are now an intricate set of connections."
Using a snapshot of Web traffic from December, Compete's director of
online media and search, Jessica Ong, found that 15 percent of traffic
to major Web portals like Yahoo, MSN and AOL came from Facebook and
MySpace. The lion's share of that traffic, 13 percent came from
Facebook.
Google, which has profited handsomely from directing Web surfers to
their destinations during the past decade, was third with 7 percent,
just behind e-commerce site eBay, which had 7.61 percent. MySpace was
fourth with just under 2 percent.
Surprise gain
The numbers proved eye-opening because Google used to dominate most
Web-referral categories. "I was surprised to see Facebook has become
No. 1," Ong said.
In other categories, Compete's data showed Mountain View's Google
still on top, but Palo Alto's Facebook was not far behind. For example,
Google accounted for 21.3 percent of referrals to sites catering to
movie fans, but Facebook was second with 12.4 percent. And in a video
category, Google - which owns YouTube - was first with 22.9 percent,
but Facebook was next at 12.7 percent.
Facebook's meteoric growth as a Web destination was a factor.
Facebook says it has 400 million active members, including about 225
million added in just the past 12 months. Its size now rivals that of
major Web portals and its demographics mirror those of the Internet in
general, Ong said.
"Putting all this information together, we can say that Facebook has
become an integral part of the consumer Web experience, similar to how
portals like Yahoo and MSN are part of most consumers' online
sessions," Ong said. "So the message for the advertising industry is
that more serious attention needs to be paid to social-networking sites
like Facebook, and advertisers need to figure out how to leverage this
traffic."
TurboTax gamble
One of Gigya's clients is financial software maker Intuit Inc. Seth
Greenberg, Intuit's director of national media and digital marketing,
said the company is betting on social media to draw customers to its
TurboTax Web site this year. The tax preparation program generates
about $1 billion in revenue in the 10 t0 15 weeks leading to April 15.
Half of TurboTax's 20 million users are on Facebook and each has an
average of 150 friends. Intuit is using social media to generate more
buzz about the program through the sharing of product reviews and
answers to tax preparation questions.
Greenberg coined the phrase "friend-casting" to describe how Intuit is using social media.
"We actually want our customers to be our best sales force, not us,"
Greenberg said. "Enabling our 20 million-customer base to be a
word-of-mouth army for us is much more interesting."
Strong influence
Although methods such as paid search, Web display ads and TV
commercials still reach a larger audience, the "influence" tapped in
social media "is a heck of a lot stronger than it is with traditional
advertising," he said.
David Berkowitz, director of emerging media and client strategy for
the digital marketing firm 360i of New York, said the importance of
search engines isn't going away.
"But there's always been one downside to search," he said.
"Consumers only spend about 5 percent of their time online searching
and the other 95 percent of the time at the destination. Social media
is quickly accounting for a large percentage of that 95 percent.
Google's biggest acquisitions, DoubleClick and YouTube, have been all
about playing a big role in the rest of consumers' Web usage."
He noted that last week Google purchased San Francisco's Aardvark, a
social-media search engine for questions and answers, and then unveiled
Google Buzz, which allows Gmail users to post updates, videos, photos
and links, Facebook-style.
"Mobile will be another new source for search, and some of that will be incremental rather than cannibalistic," he said.
"But social media's just finding its feet and the business models are just starting to emerge. And they're evolving quickly."
[via SFGate]
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