We all knew that would happen, and at the end of 2010, Facebook overtook Google as the most visited site in the United States, receiving 8.9 percent of all U.S. web traffic compared to 7.2 percent of Google.
Does it matter? Not everyone has to run and start optimizing the pages of Facebook and the Facebook ad buy to take advantage of this? Does the SEO will come to nothing?
Let me start by saying that of course is important. Because people who market our business online, it is important to understand the changing tides of Internet traffic, because we have to get some of that traffic to sell our products and earn our income from advertising. So it’s important to begin to analyze social media to see if you should have a place in their efforts to create traffic.
Read the last sentence again: It is important to start the analysis of social media to see if you should have a place in their efforts to create traffic. social media are not the best place to advertise any product or service.
Think of it this way: Would it make sense to advertise your insurance company during a televised football game?
You might be tempted to think, “everyone needs car insurance, including people who watch football, so it would be a good place to advertise.”
Evil may manage to get one or two people who happen to be in need of auto insurance to see your ad for a few seconds – and then forget about it immediately. That’s about as far as he could. Could be good for the brand, but if you are looking for direct sales, forget it.
Why not work? Because people in a football game is not thinking of the “safe” or “responsibility”! They’re thinking about the game. The teams, scores, stocks, entertainment. It’s a bad time to try to get people to focus on making financial decisions.
You’d better advertise a food brand of beer or a snack (and very often see ads like this for football games).
My point is this: The fact that there are a lot of eyes watching the game does not mean that a football game is the best place to advertise any business.
The same is true of social media sites like Facebook. Yes, they are incredibly popular. Yes, people spend a lot of time on them. But what mood are people, while browsing through sites like Facebook? What are they thinking?
Facebook is called social media for a reason. People mostly use to connect with friends and family. There are also some established business relationships there, but they are in the minority. There are other much more established sites for business connections (such as LinkedIn.com).
When people are on Facebook that are either 1) communication with friends, 2) communication with family (and I have to add it) 3) games. Because yes, Facebook games are also very popular.
Let me give you another example. Say you’re at a family (or a preparatory meeting for that matter) and someone comes walking through the crowds of people trying to sell the same car insurance. How receptive do you think people in the crowd would be at that time?
Facebook is the family reunion. It is the high school reunion. It is the place to advertise any product or service.
On the other hand, if you are on Facebook posting pictures of your baby to share with your family and you see an ad for a custom album of your child – it’s a different story. Or if you are messaging your friends to find out where everyone wants to go to dinner this weekend and you see an ad for a great local Italian restaurant – fine.
The problem with Facebook Ads is that you can point that way. Facebook announcement is no contextual guidance. The contents of this page will not be used to determine what type of ads to display. Only you can target your ads based on location, age and interests of users registered on Facebook. That means it will take a lot more eyes than a blow to a couple who are really interested in what you are offering at that time. This can be expensive.
Google, by contrast, is where people go to all that the research they are looking to buy. If someone is looking for “Dallas, Texas, car insurance,” then you know exactly where and what they need at that time. That’s where the man selling car insurance is to find your next customer.
Is that the difference in function and purpose that Google accounts for $ 24 billion of advertising revenue in 2009 compared with Facebook $ 2 billion in 2010. While Facebook gets more traffic, has a small fraction of the advertising revenue.
Does that mean we should ignore Facebook? Not if your business has a social aspect to it. Of $ 2 billion over $ 800 billion in 2009, so clearly Facebook is growing, and there is a reason. But it is important to analyze if your business Can Benefit From This Moment. Many Facebook, and many, But Can not Be Yours One of Them.
If Facebook finally adopts an advertising model based on context then it is a real no-brainer for most people. If you can tell Facebook to display your car insurance ad when people are talking to friends and family about car insurance, then you have a winner. But after the whole Facebook privacy issue is so fond of that come into play …
I have noticed a bit of contextual targeting with Facebook, but it seems much more limited than AdWords and AdSense, and advertisers have much less control over where and when to place their ads get.
Even if Facebook is to adopt a contextual advertising model, the simple fact is that people are not on Facebook when you are thinking of buying something that most of the time. People go to search engines so that, of which Google is king. They go to Facebook to hang out, chat with friends, see what they are doing. Sorry if I’m hitting this too, but is social, not commercial use.
So until Facebook improves the ability of advertisers interested, or build a kind of search capability in it is better to stick with Google unless you have a social product focused to sell.