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Why Facebook doesn’t send traffic to your website

Http://LeonardSipes.Com

It’s really easy to go to your share button at the end of your website article and place your new creation on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and other social media sites. You even take time to create customized Twitter and Facebook pages. You do all this “but” you get little traffic from these sources to your website. Why?

A new report from the Pew Internet and American Life Project on “Why Americans use Social Media” provides some insight. In essence, people use social media sites to connect with friends and family. Everything else (including your website) just gets in the way.

Summary of the report:

“Two-thirds of online adults (66%) use social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, MySpace or LinkedIn. These internet users say that connections with family members and friends (both new and old) are a primary consideration in their adoption of social media tools. Roughly two-thirds of social media users say that staying in touch with current friends and family members is a major reason they use these sites, while half say that connecting with old friends they’ve lost touch with is a major reason behind their use of these technologies.

Other factors play a much smaller role—14% of users say that connecting around a shared hobby or interest is a major reason they use social media, and 9% say that making new friends is equally important. Reading comments by public figures and finding potential romantic partners are cited as major factors by just 5% and 3% of social media users, respectively.”

Social media sites do send some traffic:

Social media sites do send traffic to your website according to some who have a tight-knit group of like-minded professional friends and the results are  undoubtedly different for the famous and major corporations or big government agencies.

But for most of us with thousands of Facebook and Twitter followers, we just don’t see the results in our statistics. Yep, there are times when you get considerable traffic from StumbleUpon and other sources but the focus needs to be on appeasing Google and Bing with posting on social media sites a secondary priority.

Best, Len.

Source: http://pewinternet.org/Reports/2011/Why-Americans-Use-Social-Media/Main-report.aspx

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