Which social network sends the most traffic to your website or blog? There are four big contenders for this title. Facebook, Twitter, Linked In and the new kid on the block, Google+. When we compare these one must remember that their target audience profiles can be quite different. Where Facebook, for instance is more useful in targeting the ‘normal’ consumers, LinkedIn is better suitable in reaching business people.
The data presented in this chart is from a case study by Larry Kim where he compiled analytics data for the WordStream Blog for seven day in July 2011. Total traffic for this period was about half a million referred clicks. The purpose of the study was to see which social media network drove the most traffic to the blog. Even though this study is very limited it still gives us a valid indication of the effectiveness of the four main Social Networks as traffic sources. Unfortunately the study did not include Stumble Upon, which is often regarded as one of the biggest traffic senders to websites and blogs.
As you can see from the infographic Facebook is the clear winner. It created almost half of the total traffic. Twitter came in a good second.
1. Facebook 47.3% of total referred traffic
2. Twitter 27.5%
3. Google+ 15.4%
4. LinkedIn 9.8%
If Stumble Upon would have been included in the study my guess is that it would have rivalled Facebook for the top spot. Google+ did amazingly well considering that it is only about a month old social tool and still in testing mode. No wonder Facebook and Twitter are worried!One of the easiest ways of utilizing these social websites in your marketing is to use social sharing buttons on your website or blog.
This allows your audience spread your commercial (or non-commercial) message to their networks whether it’s Facebook, Twitter or something else. This blog for instance uses a customised Word Press plugin called 1 Click Retweet/Share/Like -plugin. You can see it at the top end of the posts. Give it a go if you’d like to share this article for instance.
Let me know what are your favorite Social Platforms and how you are using them in your online marketing .
WordStream is a high traffic Internet Marketing website with a Google Page Rank 6 and Alexa ranking of 2.779 in US. See original post here.
Kris Olin, MSc (Econ.) * Editor in Chief at Social Media Revolver * Web Designer * SEO Specialist * Author of the Facebook Advertising Guide. Follow Kris on Twitter and LinkedIn. See his photos at Flickr.
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