How Good is Social Media at Driving Traffic?

Whilst many of us wax lyrical about the many merits of embracing a social media campaign (and many there are), how useful is it as a medium for directing traffic to your site?

Well according to a study by a company called Outbrain, it isn’t actually that useful in getting people to your site. According to their research, which if valid, indicates that, surprise, surprise, Google is the front runner for directing traffic. Twitter and Facebook came in all the way down at seventh and eleventh respectively.

This though would appear to contradict a formula created by Hitwise back in June.

Embracing its Strengths

However, do we use social media to direct traffic to our sites? It has been moving in this direction but the medium’s strength is its ability to raise awareness and interact with customers.

Google was followed by Yahoo and MSN, which includes Bing. This doesn’t cause any great surprise seeing as people still view the search engine as the primary source for finding a relevant site.

There is a suggestion that social media, and in particular Facebook, is aiming to move down this route but in terms of educating people about this, it seems some time away. People are still using social platforms and search engines for different things online. Sarah Stevenson, Search and Social Media Account Manager, at homejames feels, whilst this is holding social media back, it remains its strength.

“Social media continues to grow rapidly and the opportunities for businesses seem to grow constantly. However, as a search engine of sorts or a means of driving traffic to a site, it isn’t as successful as say a tool for raising awareness or interacting with customers. That being said, as it continues to grow and people become more accustomed to its possibilities, the percentage of traffic driven through these could grow.”