Where do you go to get information? Google or Bing? Facebook or Twitter? It seems more people are turning to social media to find content on the web. While it’s a give and take battle between search and social referrals, social seems to be getting a foothold in the battle for consumer attention.
Shareaholic recently released data from BuzzFeed which showed that in June and September of 2014, social referrals topped referrals from search engines. Social referrals saw a huge spike between May and June only to decline again in July and August. Social referrals were on the incline again in September. In June, social referrals accounted for 30.93% compared to search referrals of 29.40%. The September rebound was much closer with 29.35% coming from social and 29.14% coming from search.
So what does this mean? Since June 2013, social referrals have been consistently closing the gap with search referrals. In June 2013, search generated 40.39% of referrals compared to just 14.43% from social. One year later, Social had surged ahead of search. The 13 month average shows search at 37.17% to 23.20% from social. It stands to reason that social referrals will continue to gain momentum and rival or surpass those of search.
According to Danny Wong of Shareaholic, “The figures simply reveal that social drives a larger relative percentage of visits to sites across the web…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…”
For business owners, this means you must have a consistent social media strategy to complement your organic SEO and pay per click lead generation efforts. Qiigo can help you get a plan together so your business is top of mind to consumers. Call Qiigo today at (404) 496-6841.
