If that title doesn’t make sense to you then you’ve never heard the fashion statement “Navy is the New Black”. My apologies if you’re confused.
The point is that where marketers once spent all their reseach hours using the search tools over at Google, surfing the competition at Google, and learning how to get top ranks in Google, the tide has turned and as a result your training and research must change!
I’m not about to suggest that you shouldn’t mind Google anymore, but you might like to consider giving it second place in your heart…
Why?
Well I wrote about it in early October 2007 on StampedeSecret.com (a Web 2.0 traffic blog), but I’ve excerpted the highlights for you below.
Surfers Spending More Hours on Web 2.0 – Less on Search
Before you run off creating multiple accounts on multiple Web 2.0 properties and posting your proprietary content there in an attempt to dominate the top 10 results in google, consider the research – excerpted from Strategic Social Marketing, (2007) below.
Question: Is your target market, in fact, still using the search engines?
The Online Publishers Association Internet Activity Index (2007), classifies and documents web surfer activity. At the time of writing, here is the average time surfers gave to each of these four activities:
1. Searching for information 5%
2. Commerce (shopping) 16.1%
3. Content (news, information, and entertainment) 45.5%
4. Communications (engaging in communication) 33.7%
Don’t miss the way OPAI describes these activities or you’ll find yourself thinking that your one way content delivery is still a viable way to attract and hold eyeballs on your website…
Content – Sites that provide news, information and entertainment (given the entertainment qualification of this category and based on comScore’s research above, most of this percentage could in fact be Web 2.0).
Communications – Sites that facilitate the exchange of thoughts, messages, or information directly between individuals or groups of individuals. (definitely web 2.0)
Commerce – Sites that are designed for shopping online. (some of both)
Search – Sites that provide prioritized results based on user-generated requests.
Get the point? Search (i.e. Google, Yahoo, etc.) is a very small part of the traffic pie.
People, your target market, are spending their time on Web 2.0 properties and searching, clicking away from, those sites. There is nothing wrong with being listed on, findable within, and in the way of, your target market.
So why not get to it? Don’t rush off just yet though…you’ll want to learn some strategy, which sites are best for your content, how to do it quickly, how to post without turning people off, and so on. Finish the rest of my SocialMarketingStrategy beginner course (and upgrade/register for membership to learn more advanced strategies) and make your social marketing profitable!
Beginner google, targeted traffic, web 2.0
