Dabblers vs. diehards: How engaged are visitors from social networks?
- Tue, April 26 2011
- Filed under: Social networking and web 2.0
If you’re using social media as a key strategy to drive traffic to your site, this analysis from Outbrain (via eMarketer) is a dose of needed perspective.
Outbrain found social media referrals were “less engaged than those from search or other content sites, with fewer page views per session and a higher bounce rate.” The most active readers came from referrals from content sites or search. This makes intuitive sense to me. Links from social media drive me to interesting places, but not necessarily sites I’m actively seeking because I have a problem to solve, information to find or action to take. Interestingly, news and entertainment stories account for most sharing, accounting for nearly three-quarters of all social media referrals. eMarketer speculates this makes the media overestimate the attention that social media attracts to websites! That’s a very clever observation—suggesting those in charge of covering social media see it as huge because it’s huge for them:
The bottom line? Social media visitors to your site are often dabblers more than diehard supporters. This is not to say you shouldn’t be engaged in social media or encouraging person-to-person sharing, but it’s important to recognize the commitment and interest level of the people who find you that way. You have to do the hard work of engaging them when they find you.
Tom Fishburne sums up the dangers of losing perspective with his typical wit:
