Over the last couple of years we’ve seen social fever sweep the world. Business, keen to jump aboard, are hiring ‘Tweeters’ as well as social networking consultants to formulate and execute increasingly complex social strategies. It’s hardly surprising. We can see in the chart below that visits to the Experian Hitwise Social Networking & Blogs category has grown inexorably over the past 3 years, and accounted for 19.02% of all internet visits in New Zealand in April 2012.

In the madness however, we may be failing to answer some crucial questions with sufficient clarity. Does Social drive traffic? Does it drive customer acquisition? Does this vary from industry to industry? What potential does Social have for my business right now?

The first wake-up call is this: Despite getting 59% more visits than the Experian Hitwise Search Engine’s category for the month of April, the Social Networking & Blogs category still drove 13% less clicks to other websites than did Search Engines.

This is even more extreme when we look at commercial industry categories, as a lot of social traffic goes from one social website to another. As the table below shows, Search Engines sent 43% more clicks to Shopping and Classifieds websites, than Social Networks & Blogs did in April 2012.

In industries where price is a greater factor in the decision making, where ‘brand love’ is diminished in the hierarchy of purchase considerations, this is even more extreme. For instance, Search Engines drove more than three times as many clicks to Travel Agencies, and 3.5 times as much to the Insurance category.

Worth pondering.

When sitting down to plan your marketing strategy with your partners and agencies, you need to take stock of your overarching objectives and make them the focus. Understand what benefit each of the online sales channels offers and devise a strategy that plays each to its greatest strength.

Social platforms offer profound access to your existing customers, and interested prospects. Display advertising whether on a social platform, or news website is still display. It’s great for sparking an idea, communicating values, and stimulating market interest. Search still represents the most direct online sales and marketing channel, and should be used to drive sales by siphoning active buyers into your store.

As I mentioned at Digital Day Out a few weeks ago, Paid Search in particular still represents the biggest untapped opportunity here in New Zealand across the board. We are a considerable way behind other developed nations in this regard. It is agonisingly simple to do, and connects you directly with customers that are trying to find you or your products at that very moment. It’s effortless to track, and there are millions and millions of clicks to be had.

What could be better?