More on online behaviour

Using my own behaciour as the benchmark, I am astonished by how much users online activity has changed over the last three years.  I still remember when I needed to get information on a subject, company, or product, I would look for a web site using a search engine or search a wiki site to get the needed information.   Although I still prefer to look into a search engine, Google in most cases, I find myself checking social media sites like Facebook, Google + and others to see what they have about the subject or company.  Although, I must admit that is most likely because I am already trolling those sites to begin with, and it is quicker to enter a search term from within the page than to launch another tab.  If I need to search for something generic with a long tail keyword then I do tend to go to Google as a default.  A long tail search that comes to mind is "how old is Tom Selleck?".  Admittedly, most do not know you can query this type of search from a search engine.

I wonder how many have noticed a change in their search habits over the past three years or so?

I was also surprised yesterday when I was waiting for a video to start on YouTube I inadvertently clicked on the advertisement that preceded the video and found myself redirected to a products's Facebook page instead of the company web site.  This tells me the large brands are starting to recognize that users are less likely to visit a web site if they know it will be the same static information they viewed the last three times they visited that site.  Small Business owners need to be cognizant of those behavioural changes and adapt accordingly.  Particularly since one of the biggest challenges for a small business is a lack of marketing funds. They need to play in the same sandbox as their customers and potential prospects.

My approach is to have both a web page and a few social media pages and to monitor which gets the most traffic and adjust marketing initiatives and campaigns to that specific platform.  They will soon find the return on investment for a social media page is much more than a web site.  There are several reasons for this; A social media page is more dynamic than a web site, allowing your clients and prospects to interact with you, with each other, and with your industry.  The small business owner can immediately see what are the most pressing issues or active discussions on their page and target a marketing campaign specifically addressing that particular item.  This also gives them the opportunity to get immediate response to a customer service issue.  Be it to address an irate customer's needs or to say thank you to a loyal customer.  The downside is that social media can be time consuming and most small business owners, who have to wear several hats on a daily basis, do not have time to troll their own page.  Fortunately, there are an increasing number of savvy individuals or companies that offer this service.  They will keep an eye on your page and report anything that merits attention, be it negative or positive.  Some will even post regularly to your page on your behalf to keep your page updated.  Searching Google can help you find those companies locally.

The other challenge is to determine which social media sites to concentrate your efforts in.  The default sites are a no-brainer but there are new emerging sites that merit attention provided you know what your goal is and whether those sites can most effectively deliver the message you want to convey. There are new sites like Pinterest, Instagram, Reddit, StumbleUpon, Quora, etc... that are all gaining attention.  To be fair some of these have applications on mobile devices which we will explore in another post.

To conclude don't allow yourself to be convinced that spending thousand of dollars on a search engine marketing or search engine optimization strategy is the correct most accepted route for your company to pursue.