When business owners think about the benefits of social media marketing, they often first think about the benefits of fans, increased brand awareness, and engagement. However, there is another benefit that shouldn’t be overlooked. Social media drives a lot of traffic to websites which is good for content marketing and SEO efforts. A recent report from Shareaholic shows that social referrals sent a large amount of traffic to websites during the fourth quarter of 2014.
The report from Shareaholic found that 31 percent of website clicks in the fourth quarter of 2014 came from social media referrals. This analysis is based on data collected from over 300,000 websites with a global audience of more than 400 million unique monthly users and how they connect to the top eight social platforms (Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+, Twitter, StumbleUpon, Reddit, YouTube and Pinterest).
“Over the years (and in 2014, especially), our media consumption habits have changed dramatically,” wrote Danny Wong in a Shareaholic blog post announcing the report. “We rely less on homepages and search engines, discovering news pertinent to us through social media and direct messaging on mobile apps.”
The data supports the belief that Faceboook is extremely important for marketers. The report noted that Facebook continues to dominate the social referral market. Nearly one in four clicks to a website came from Facebook. Referrals from Facebook account for 24.63 percent of traffic. This makes Pinterest, which drives 5.06 percent of overall visits to sites around the web, a distant runner-up. Twitter, which is in third place, captures just a 0.82 percent share.
Unfortunately, the year-over-year numbers weren’t good for most of the platforms they researched. Facebook and Pinterest saw gains, but the other networks have fallen from their 2013 totals. Twitter, StumbleUpon, Reddit, Google Plus, LinkedIn, and YouTube all saw their shares dip year-over-year by more than 25 percent. YouTube lost the most. According to the Shareaholic data, YouTube saw their share drop 93 percent (0.18 percentage points) in 2014. It currently has a paltry 0.01 percent share of overall traffic.
In contrast, Facebook’s share rose 59.58 percent (9.20 percentage points) peaking at 25.06 percent in October 2014. Pinterest experienced far more modest growth, a 5.82 percent year-over-year increase (0.28 percentage points).
Pinterest has had an especially good ride over the long run. Though it has fallen a little bit from it’s all-time high that it reached in March of 2014, it’s overall growth since the platform launched has been amazing.
“Since December 2011, Pinterest’s share of traffic has skyrocketed 684.86 percent (4.41 percentage points),” Wong wrote. “Last month, Pinterest delivered 5.06 percent of total visits to sites across the web, up from 0.65 percent in 2011. In 2012, it overtook Twitter and StumbleUpon, rising to 2nd place and has dramatically increased its lead over 2013 and 2014. Pinterest’s share of traffic hit an all time high in March 2014 at 7.10 percent. But since then, its share has been in decline.”
This data reinforces the importance of social media for business owners and marketers. Social media not only gets the word out to consumers, but it can successfully bring people back to a site. Though Facebook dominates the scene, websites can boost their reach by using all social networks. Remember, even 1 percent of all traffic still represents a large amount of clicks to websites.
Another way business owners can use social media is by including social logins on their site. Read this recent article that shows the benefits of social logins for ecommerce and retail websites.
When business owners think about the benefits of social media marketing, they often first think about the benefits of fans, increased brand awareness, and engagement. However, there is another benefit that shouldn’t be overlooked. Social media drives a lot of traffic to websites which is good for content marketing and SEO efforts. A recent report from Shareaholic shows that social referrals send a large amount of traffic to websites during the fourth quarter of 2014.
The report from Shareaholic found that 31 percent of website clicks in the fourth quarter of 2014 came from social media referrals. This analysis is based on data collected from over 300,000 websites with a global audience of more than 400 million unique monthly users and how they connect to the top eight social platforms (Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+, Twitter, StumbleUpon, Reddit, YouTube and Pinterest).
“Over the years (and in 2014, especially), our media consumption habits have changed dramatically,” wrote Danny Wong in a Shareaholic blog post announcing the report. “We rely less on homepages and search engines, discovering news pertinent to us through social media and direct messaging on mobile apps.”
The data supports the belief that Faceboook is extremely important for marketers. The report noted that Facebook continues to dominate the social referral market. Nearly one in four clicks to a website came from Facebook. Referrals from Facebook account for 24.63 percent of traffic. This makes Pinterest, which drives 5.06 percent of overall visits to sites around the web, a distant runner-up. Twitter, which is in third place, captures just a 0.82 percent share.
Unfortunately, the year-over-year numbers weren’t good for most of the platforms they researched. Facebook and Pinterest saw gains, but the other networks have fallen from their 2013 totals. Twitter, StumbleUpon, Reddit, Google Plus, LinkedIn, and YouTube all saw their shares dip year-over-year by more than 25 percent. YouTube lost the most. According to the Shareaholic data, YouTube saw their share drop 93 percent (0.18 percentage points) in 2014. It currently has a paltry 0.01 percent share of overall traffic.
In contrast, Facebook’s share rose 59.58 percent (9.20 percentage points) peaking at 25.06 percent in October 2014. Pinterest experienced far more modest growth, a 5.82 percent year-over-year increase (0.28 percentage points).
Pinterest has had an especially good ride over the long run. Though it has fallen a little bit from it’s all-time high that it reached in March of 2014, it’s overall growth since the platform launched has been amazing.
“Since December 2011, Pinterest’s share of traffic has skyrocketed 684.86 percent (4.41 percentage points),” Wong wrote. “Last month, Pinterest delivered 5.06 percent of total visits to sites across the web, up from 0.65 percent in 2011. In 2012, it overtook Twitter and StumbleUpon, rising to 2nd place and has dramatically increased its lead over 2013 and 2014. Pinterest’s share of traffic hit an all time high in March 2014 at 7.10 percent. But since then, its share has been in decline.”
This data reinforces the importance of social media for business owners and marketers. Social media not only gets the word out to consumers, but it can successfully bring people back to a site. Though Facebook dominates the scene, websites can boost their reach by using all social networks. Remember, even 1 percent of all traffic still represents a large amount of clicks to websites.
Another way business owners can use social media is by including social logins on their site. Read this recent article that shows the benefits of social logins for ecommerce and retail websites.When business owners think about the benefits of social media marketing, they often first think about the benefits of fans, increased brand awareness, and engagement. However, there is another benefit that shouldn’t be overlooked. Social media drives a lot of traffic to websites which is good for content marketing and SEO efforts. A recent report from Shareaholic shows that social referrals send a large amount of traffic to websites during the fourth quarter of 2014.
The report from Shareaholic found that 31 percent of website clicks in the fourth quarter of 2014 came from social media referrals. This analysis is based on data collected from over 300,000 websites with a global audience of more than 400 million unique monthly users and how they connect to the top eight social platforms (Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+, Twitter, StumbleUpon, Reddit, YouTube and Pinterest).
“Over the years (and in 2014, especially), our media consumption habits have changed dramatically,” wrote Danny Wong in a Shareaholic blog post announcing the report. “We rely less on homepages and search engines, discovering news pertinent to us through social media and direct messaging on mobile apps.”
The data supports the belief that Faceboook is extremely important for marketers. The report noted that Facebook continues to dominate the social referral market. Nearly one in four clicks to a website came from Facebook. Referrals from Facebook account for 24.63 percent of traffic. This makes Pinterest, which drives 5.06 percent of overall visits to sites around the web, a distant runner-up. Twitter, which is in third place, captures just a 0.82 percent share.
Unfortunately, the year-over-year numbers weren’t good for most of the platforms they researched. Facebook and Pinterest saw gains, but the other networks have fallen from their 2013 totals. Twitter, StumbleUpon, Reddit, Google Plus, LinkedIn, and YouTube all saw their shares dip year-over-year by more than 25 percent. YouTube lost the most. According to the Shareaholic data, YouTube saw their share drop 93 percent (0.18 percentage points) in 2014. It currently has a paltry 0.01 percent share of overall traffic.
In contrast, Facebook’s share rose 59.58 percent (9.20 percentage points) peaking at 25.06 percent in October 2014. Pinterest experienced far more modest growth, a 5.82 percent year-over-year increase (0.28 percentage points).
Pinterest has had an especially good ride over the long run. Though it has fallen a little bit from it’s all-time high that it reached in March of 2014, it’s overall growth since the platform launched has been amazing.
“Since December 2011, Pinterest’s share of traffic has skyrocketed 684.86 percent (4.41 percentage points),” Wong wrote. “Last month, Pinterest delivered 5.06 percent of total visits to sites across the web, up from 0.65 percent in 2011. In 2012, it overtook Twitter and StumbleUpon, rising to 2nd place and has dramatically increased its lead over 2013 and 2014. Pinterest’s share of traffic hit an all time high in March 2014 at 7.10 percent. But since then, its share has been in decline.”
This data reinforces the importance of social media for business owners and marketers. Social media not only gets the word out to consumers, but it can successfully bring people back to a site. Though Facebook dominates the scene, websites can boost their reach by using all social networks. Remember, even 1 percent of all traffic still represents a large amount of clicks to websites.
Another way business owners can use social media is by including social logins on their site. Read this recent article that shows the benefits of social logins for ecommerce and retail websites.