Last night I saw this on my blog and other pages where I have Google Analytics installed to be let down by the amount of visitors that come from links seeded in Twitter feeds. The graphics above represent the amount of visits sent to my blog during the last 12 months from Facebook.com and Twitter.com.
What’s surprising is that I consider myself a Twitter addict (15,647 updates, 1500+ followers) and I hardly post updates on Facebook, however I’m getting 12 times more visits a year from Facebook. This has me thinking about how I should market my products and services on the social web.
Today, a reaffirming headline comes from the folks at Mashable “Facebook Now Commands 41% of Social Media Traffic”. Their numbers make sense against mine, Twitter only commands 8% of the Social Media Traffic.
I’m a heavy twitter user, I’m not spamming everyone, I try to tweet to be re-tweeted when it comes to links. I will only mention my products or services when I’m really proud of something or when I think something truly deserves to be shared because it’s cool.
However I think what’s obviously happenning when you look at Twitter vs Facebook is the following: In Twitter Nobody Is Listening, Everybody is Talking. In Facebook (at least someone like me) I have a circle of people that I actually know in real life, and they do care about what I say. I’ve a real life reputation and life track record in front of my peers, family and friends, and If I say something, they know I’m not spamming them, so they’re more likely to click, and recommend what I say.
The other thing that’s happening I think is that Twitter is still a small niche compared to Facebook. That 40% of the Social Media traffic means your mom and dad are on Facebook, and if they’re on Twitter they probably signed up and never used it again, they care more about their Facebook daily Gossip Dose or FarmVille addiction, which will eventually lead them to your wall, and to your links.
However, Twitter does prove to have a lot of mention to my products and services everyday (search.twitter.com), sometimes many times a day your brand could be mentioned, the question is, is anybody listening? is this bringing direct traffic that can’t be tracked? I’d like to pick your brains on the subject, I invite you to run the same reports on your Google Analytics, tell us what you find.