Search & Social Converts
SEARCH & SOCIAL BOOSTS CLICK-THROUGH BY 94%
GroupM
LISTEN To The Daily Numbers podcast [MP3].
48% of those consumers who end up purchasing use both search and social media during their purchase process.
51% use search alone.
Only 1% use only social alone.
THOUGHT: When consumers were exposed to both search and social media influenced by a brand that overall search click-through rate went up by 94 percent.
“Influenced by a brand” means, I presume, owned media such as a brand’s own website or social media channels.
These data argue strongly for a search marketing/optimization strategy that incorporates both traditional SEO of website content as well as optimization of a brand’s social media content. But knowing how to optimize what content is as important as optimizing content generally.
The study says that 58% start with search while only 18% start their purchase research at social channels.
Search is used as a pricing tool, for product research, to find a purchase location, and, if they’re using generic search terms, I’d imagine as a product discovery tool.
Conversely, social is used as a supplemental or reinforcing medium to gain more knowledge of products and to raise any red flags about their likely purchase or reinforce their decision through user reviews (30% look at them), surveying their social networks (17%), watching video about their products on a video sharing site like YouTube (14%) and only 9% consult Twitter.
Considering the role social plays in purchase decisions, the ubiquity of search in the buying process, and the fact that social content from your own network is now being included in search results, it is important to optimize all your content for search but it is as important to optimize it for sharing.
And that means not only providing social media sharing tools but creating content people want to share.
THROWBACK THURSDAY: This is awesome. My family had a Polaroid Swingers camera when I was a kid: [WATCH an unboxing of a Polaroid Swinger Camera.]
Thank you for Franz Kafka.
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