Feb 25, 2015 | 2 minute read It’s no secret that today’s consumers are frequently turning to social media for information about companies and products, as well as for general research purposes. Whether you turn to Google or Facebook, Bing or Twitter, where you find links to information matters to marketers. Times are changing as social referrals are competing with search referrals.
THE STATISTICS
Shareaholic recently reported that in June of 2014, for the first time ever, social media referrals surpassed search. Social referrals came in at 30.93% compared to search referrals at 29.40%. The competition between search and social seems to be a back and forth battle with both vying for the top spot. While social had the top spot in June, search came back in July and August. September showed search and social in a virtual tie with social at 29.35% and search at 29.14%.
What is perhaps more interesting is the trend since June 2013. In June of 2013, search had a commanding lead of 40.39% to social’s 14.43%. Social continued to gain throughout the 12 month period until social exceeded search for the first time in June of 2014.
THE ANALYSIS
According to Danny Wong of Shareaholic, the study results show that “social drives a larger relative percentage of visits to sites across the web.” He also points out that web and mobile users’ behaviors have changed significantly over the past year in regard to how users come to various sites on the internet. Wong has noted that, “Over the past 15 months, there have been a number of changes in web (and mobile) users’ behaviors, with respect to how they discover content and arrive at different sites across the web. The most interesting finding IMO is how quickly and dramatically the numbers have shifted to favor social…”
THE RESULT
With numbers like these, it’s not hard to see the importance of a business’ social media presence. Consumers rely on and trust social media more than ever and look to their favorite brands to leave a strong social impression. Combining social media efforts with more traditional SEO and Pay Per Click efforts can be beneficial to your business.
