• About
    • History of Dallas SEO
    • SEO Expert Witness Services
  • Contact
  • Topics
    • Bing
    • Blogging
    • Branding
    • Domain Names
    • Google
    • Internet Marketing
    • Link Building
    • Local Search
    • Marketing
    • Public Relations
    • Reputation Management
    • Search Engine Marketing
    • Search Engine Optimization
    • Search Engines
    • Social Media
    • Tech
  • Advertise
  • Email Newsletter

Bill Hartzer

Bill Hartzer on Search, Marketing, Tech, and Domains.

SEMrush

Home » Social Media » Report: Social Media Responsible For Only 3 Percent of Web Site Visits

Report: Social Media Responsible For Only 3 Percent of Web Site Visits

Posted on February 4, 2011 Written by Bill Hartzer

There is a new report from ForeSee Results that details research that they performed showing that social media is responsible for only three percent of web site visits to retail web sites. Certainly if this is the case, and social media web sites like Twitter and Facebook are only bringing 3 percent overall traffic to a web site, then clearly web sites owners need to take a look again at their overall ROI from there web site’s referring traffic.

social media cost

Apparently, according to a report that I wrote about recently, social media spending is going up. But is this really a good decision?

Here is what ForeSee Results is reporting in their report about social media:

Familiarity with the site, company or brand is the most common influencer of a website visit (46% of site visitors).This highly influential group of visitors are also the most satisfied (75 on a 100-point scale), most likely to purchase (75) and most likely to recommend (76).

– The least satisfied customers (64) are those who have visited a retailer’s site after receiving a message directly from the company on a social network.

– In terms of how respondents wanted to hear from retailers, nearly one-fifth said that they didn’t want to hear from retailers at all; the other 80 percent had definite opinions on what channel they liked best:

– The most preferred method for communication was promotional emails with 62 percent

– Social media scored just two percent of the vote

– In last place was radio outreach and mobile communications with one percent each.

– Of the two percent who preferred communicating through social media, 33 percent said Facebook was the first-choice platform.

So, is it time that web site owners and companies take a long, hard look at their investment in Social Media? Perhaps. I would like to see companies make a more concerted effort to enhance their back-end reporting and looking at web analytics more. I don’t think companies are making enough decisions based on their web analytics. It might be better to put more time into building content on your web site rather than putting all of that content on a social media web site like Facebook: over the years, we have seen social media web sites (even MySpace) come and go. A better long-term strategy is to invest in your own web site’s content.

Here is what Foresee Results has to say about social media investment. In their report, they ask the question and then answer it:

Recently I heard the following question posed at a trade show: if you had to choose (with the proverbial gun to your head), would you put money into a Facebook e-commerce site or a traditional e-commerce site?

It’s a bit of a false dichotomy; most of us can do both. Anyway, the answer depends on a lot of factors, including product line, company size, existing Facebook presence and more. Still the question is getting at something we’re all dealing with. Despite the exponential, widespread, and breathlessly documented rise in social media activity and usage, many of us don’t have a great way to quantify the value of social media marketing to bottom-line business results.

I personally have a feeling that social media is responsible for a lot more than just 3 percent of web site traffic. Social media web sites like Twitter and Facebook are, in fact, more responsible for more web site traffic: it’s just not being recorded and is not trackable: so we assume that since this traffic does not show as referring traffic (it shows as a direct type-in type of traffic in a web site’s web analytics), then we are not getting traffic from social media. In many cases, I believe that there may be an interaction by a potential customer–or a repeat customer, and that referral traffic from social media is not being recorded–because of the visit might view the company’s Facebook page and then go directly to the company’s web site by typing the domain name in or even by clicking on a bookmark or by searching for the company’s name in their favorite search engine, such as Google.

Filed Under: Social Media

SEMrush

About Bill Hartzer

Bill Hartzer is CEO of Hartzer Consulting, LLC, an SEO Consulting firm that includes services such as search engine optimization, technical SEO audits, domain name consulting, and online reputation management.

Recent Posts

  • dotDB is Not Shutting Down February 1, 2023
  • Someone Stole My Domain Name: Here’s What You Do January 4, 2023
  • Web Hosting Services Market to Grow to $254.86 Billion by 2029 December 13, 2022
  • This SEO Blog Post Was Written by ChatGPT December 8, 2022
  • Facebook Rolling Out Facebook Articles December 7, 2022
  • Doing SEO is Better Than… December 6, 2022
  • Tucows and GoDaddy Report Q3 2022 Results November 6, 2022
  • How to Measure App Events Sourced by Organic Search and SEO September 20, 2022
  • Google Allegedly Eavesdrops and Monitors the Brain 24 hours a Day to Control Humanity September 14, 2022
  • Why You Shouldn’t Hire SEOs Based on An Email September 13, 2022
  • Global SEO Market to Reach $122.11 Billion by 2028 September 9, 2022
  • Bluehost Launches New Commerce Solutions for WordPress September 8, 2022
  • Which CMS? How to Choose the Best CMS for Your Purposes August 29, 2022
  • Accidental SEO Manager: Interview with Ash Nallawalla August 15, 2022
  • Sometimes Google Isn’t Family Friendly August 1, 2022
  • Something’s Seriously Wrong with Facebook Notifications July 12, 2022
  • Facebook Internet Tracking Settlement June 24, 2022
  • RankSense Acquired by SEOClarity June 1, 2022
  • LinkedIn Links, Digital Marketing News, and SEO Questions Answered May 9, 2022
  • GoDaddy Ending Forwarding of Existing Shortened Links May 5, 2022

US Agency Awards Judge

DFWSEM logo

Bill Hartzer is a Brand Ambassador for:



Industry Friends

I Love SEO
WTFSEO
SEO By the Sea
Jeff Lenney
Jeff Gabriel
Phil Drinkwater
Dixon Jones
Brian Hartzer
Navah Hopkins

Connect With Bill Hartzer

Bill Hartzer on Twitter
Bill Hartzer on Instagram
Hartzer Consulting on Facebook
Bill Hartzer on Facebook
Bill Hartzer on YouTube

Categories

  • Advertising (19)
  • Bing Search Engine (6)
  • Blogging (42)
  • Branding (12)
  • Domain Names (210)
  • Google (236)
  • Internet Marketing (25)
  • Internet Usage (85)
  • Link Building (53)
  • Local Search (39)
  • Marketing (180)
  • Marketing Foo (30)
  • Pay Per Click (3)
  • Podcast (18)
  • Public Relations (8)
  • Reputation Management (9)
  • Search Engine Marketing (44)
  • Search Engine Marketing Events (48)
  • Search Engine Marketing Firms (19)
  • Search Engine Marketing Jobs (33)
  • Search Engine Optimization (164)
  • Search Engines (204)
  • Social Media (192)
  • Tech (7)
  • Web Analytics (17)
  • Webinars (1)

Note: All product names, logos, and brands are property of their respective owners. All company, product and service names used in this website are for identification purposes only, and are mentioned only to help my readers. All other trademarks cited herein are the property of their respective owners. Use of these names, logos, and brands does not imply endorsement.




Hartzer Consulting



Website, Content, and Marketing by Hartzer Consulting, LLC.

Copyright © 2023 ·