The internet statistics company Hitwise just released a report detailing that social networking sites are now more popular than search engines in the UK. Here’s the details:

May 2010: Social Networks (Facebook, Twitter etc.) = 11.88% of UK internet visits

May 2010 Search Engines (Google, Bing etc.)= 11.33% of UK internet visits

You can see by the graph over the last 3 years there has been remarkable growth among social network sites.

Are You Where Your Customers Are?

If you run an ecommerce site, this data should interest you and make you think about whether you are putting your products where your customers are. The following video sums up how your potential customers are using the internet to research purchases:

There is no one single way that customers are using the internet to research and make purchases. From groups and friends recommendations on Facebook to review websites or Tweets your customers are all over the internet looking for information.

Quick List of Types of Sites To Consider Marketing To

• Authoritative Blogs in Your Space
• Facebook Groups
• Review Websites
• Forums in Your Niche
• Using the Search functionality on Twitter for people talking about your brand
• Flickr Groups
• Linked In

The list could go on and on.

Are all of those good options for your business? No. Could some of those be great options for your business? Yes! We were saying it in February of 2009 and we are saying it now- there are many avenues open for your business. You don’t have to do them all. If you can do one or two really well it can have significant impact on your bottom line:

In a world that seems to be consumed by SEO, the real value of some good PR seems to be overlooked. Get your site featured on blogs, news sites, take out select ad space with news sites (often taking out advertising space will be more likely to get you featured editorially), and don’t forget about off-line promotion too. Try to build a good rapport with blogs or news sites in your marketplace as these people can be very powerful allies .

Don’t Forget the Power of Search

Search marketing (targeting potential customers who use search engines to get product information) is one of the most powerful forms of marketing in our world today.

All other advertising is based off of common interests. You sell sporting goods and you advertise in a niche magazine that talks about football. Many football fans are interested in sporting goods so there is an affinity of interest there for your product. This is good and how advertising has worked for many years. The problem is the audience you are targeting may have no need or desire for your product.

Search marketing is different because you target people at the exact time they have expressed a need. If someone takes the effort to go their computer and search for “Black Youth Lonsdale boxing gloves” they are expressing an intent to purchase and by marketing to them through the search engines, your business is effectively raising your hand and saying “Yes, I can help you with that!”

So don’t forget about search marketing, but at the same time you should realize there are lots of other possible avenues from which to draw customers as well.

Where Search Marketing is Weak

From a customer’s end, using search engines to find information is relying on a mechanical “recommendation engine” that they don’t know if they trust or not. You know the feeling. Sometimes you search for something and the first few pages are nothing but garbage with no real answers to your question. Sometimes on the other hand you strike gold and find exactly what you are looking for. But the inherent breakdown is that it is impersonal. It’s cold. It’s rigid.

Pop over to Facebook or a great forum that specializes in the area you are interested in, ask a question and get 7 answers from people you know, or are experts in the area, you ask a couple of follow up questions and then are ready to purchase. Its warm. Its relational. Its the way people have done business for years. People like doing business that way.

In fact, I recently got an email about a site that I own where the inquirer said,

“Hi, I am putting together a list of resources on {A certain city in a certain country} to give to friends who holiday in an apartment I own in that city. Do you have a presence on Facebook or Twitter that I can refer them to. You can’t trust anything you get in the search engines like Google, there is just so much noise?”

Personal connection. That is what that potential customer was looking for and looking to refer her friends to me if I offered it. But she didn’t want my phone number or email address (which she had), she wanted to connect with me on Facebook or Twitter. They are a little less personal, a little less direct, but they offer the possibility of direct connection with me in a social setting.

Action Points

Think about where your potential customers are today. What are they doing? What problems are they facing? Where are they going for information? Who is influencing them? How can you connect with the influencers today? How can you raise your hand and say “I can help” when they ask a question or express a need?

Is Google or Bing part of that mix. Probably so.

Are there other points of connection that could be profitable for you and your business? Probably so as well.