How much money can these sites really generate when their users aren’t there looking for products or services? They are there to socialize. Compare them to sites like Google, Amazon, or Yahoo. When those sites get used people are often looking for products or services.
3 Comments
3 Comments
Comments
Bill, it’s more than just that the users leave the site. It’s really more about the frame of mind the user is in. On Google, a lot of users are in a "shopping" frame of mind (whether retail, fin services, travel, etc.). On social media (Digg, YouTube, etc.) they are in a time-wasting frame of mind. That’s what creates the differential in value.
The value is the brand property, relationships with the brand, and many things that are in the works - future worth, and likely an ability for better targeting (and less random CPM type serves). For example, YouTube will have much more contextual advertising that will target better. With all the traffic and the mindless surfing, I’m sure users could be led into a more emotionally driven state of mind to buy something... once funnels are in place. Good article, good post. It’ll be interesting.
Mr. Hartzer, why would I care if SE’s are making money off Social Media? I concur with the writer that SMM is just branding, you can call it link baiting, link whorin’, SMO. It’s still only very expensive branding or in it’s lowest cheapest form, spamming! It is costly to do right and the inherent risk associated with Digg, and for that matter any Internet crowd bigger than 3 people, is significant and worth a long look before proceeding. These "communities" are quick to turn on you and vicious when they do! I also agree that buyers in buying mode are the audience we should be looking to attract. This is definitely not an attribute of the audience you attract from Social media sites. There was a day when SEO’s said they "rove traffic"to sites, of course they were the same guys who were driving traffic using keyword stuffing and other irrelevant terms to drive people to sites with banner advertising as the magnetization model. What does that say about the guys promoting SMM under the guise of "driving traffic"? I thought the industry had grown beyond that mindset but....