Social Media Strategy | Online PR | Proactive Report | Sally Falkow

The Proactive Reports is a blog about social media strategy, shifts in media consumption and online PR trends

Sally Falkow - Social Media Strategist

Social Media Marketing

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How online behavior affects your bottom line.

WebProNews has a discussion on the go about Social Media, PR and marketing.  Jason Miller makes the point that in the real world we turn to colleagues and friends for information and advice, not sales  people.  And it should give you a clue as to what is occurring online and why social media is so effective.

It’s the power of voice.  Now we are able to talk to others online and get their opinions.  For hundreds of years we lived in a world that was not connected and was out of communication.  We relied on mass media to tell us the news.

 "The way people bounce from home to work to lunch with friends to dinner with family and on to the mall is a behavior replicated online. Jointly, an entire system of relationships is a system of influence that directly impacts consumer behavior.

The power the online social network yields, then, is staggering. Expect the next generation of Internet users to embrace social networks the way the present one has embraced search."

Why does this matter?  Too many marketers seem to miss  the power of social content to drive traffic and sales.

There is a pattern developing that shows web users go from search and social networks to trusted blogs that direct them on to products, ideas or services.

According to the HitWise study, over six percent of UK surfers leaving blogs head off to shopping and classified sites. The cycle gets a ‘rinse and repeat’ as they circle back to search and social networks or go to other blogs, their email accounts, or news and media sites.

In the US, the percentage is much higher: online communities and chat drive nearly 60 percent of blog traffic, followed by search engines at 9.5 percent, and email with 8.4 percent. And where do they go after the blogs?

  • Social networks (17%) 
  • Entertainment sites (15%)
  • Email (11%) 
  • Lifestyle sites (9.8%)
  • Search engines (6.2%)
  • News sites (6.1%)
  • Blogs (5.9%)
  • Photography sites (5.2%)
  • Portals (4.5%)
  • Shopping sites (4%)

How does this affect your marketing and PR?

There are many touchpoints along this online path – learn to take advantage of them.  It’s about the flow of traffic, where products are being considered and where the money is being spent., says Miller.

As the online world evolves and moves closer to real world social behavior it’s changing the way people communicate and behave online. 

And it is affecting your bottom line…

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