Nov 30

Will Social Networking Overtake Search?

Brian Giesen

by Brian Giesen
Category: Australia, Digital Influence, Influencers, Infographics, Research & Insights, Word of Mouth Marketing

Australia Social Network Statistics

For years and years, search has always been the number one reason people go online. Nearly 9 times out of 10 people will start out an Internet session by using Google, Yahoo! or Bing to find a new site or look for information about a product. Advertisers and marketers have spent countless dollars trying to get their attention through sponsored ads.

But, interestingly, new research released from Hitwise earlier this month suggests that in Australia and in other markets across Asia Pacific search may soon move to second most popular online activity – behind social networking. According to the Hitwise report:

Social networks and forums are set to eclipse Search Engines and become the most visited industry for the first time over the coming months, most likely during the weeks immediately before or after Christmas.

The report also shows that search is already the #2 online activity behind social networking in other APAC countries, including Hong Kong and Singapore. Other key findings from the report:

  • 11.7% of all visits to social networks originated in Australia
  • Facebook is currently the #2 Web site in Australia – and it’s projected to overtake Google
  • Search is a popular activity within social networks (MySpace = artists, Facebook = entertainment/utility)
  • 26 minutes, 13 seconds is the average time spent on Facebook per visit

These trends could have huge implications on the massive budgets that are spent very day on pay-per-click and search marketing globally. Already, consumers are spending exponentially more time on social networks (27 percent of all time spent online in Australia in the past month was spent on Facebook, according to Nielsen) than search engines.

As more and more brands become not only findable but engagable on social sites, we could start to see social networks as being not only the #1 online activity but the #1 place online where smart brands invest their marketing and advertising dollars to build community and engagement among their customers.

This entry was posted on Monday, November 30th, 2009 at 8:11 pm and is filed under Australia, Digital Influence, Influencers, Infographics, Research & Insights, Word of Mouth Marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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4 Responses to “Will Social Networking Overtake Search?”

  1. SEO Says:
    November 30th, 2009 at 8:31 pm

    Great post. There is no doubt that social media is growing at a rapid rate. At this stage SME’s are not using social media to it’s fullest potential. Many of our SME clients are reluctant to invest in SMO at this stage as the ROI is hard to gauge. The larger corporates are now very keen to enage in the social media space. At this stage I would advise to invest more strongly in search as the ROI is much easier to gauge. However, in years to come I think that moving forward that both SEO & SMO strategies will form an equal importance in an online marketing campaign.

  2. uberVU - social comments Says:
    November 30th, 2009 at 9:13 pm

    Social comments and analytics for this post…

    This post was mentioned on Twitter by andrew_bidese: RT @bdgiesen: Will social networks overtake search? AUS soc net stats from Hitwise: http://bit.ly/5TX4FM...

  3. Asia Digital Map Administrator Says:
    November 30th, 2009 at 9:50 pm

    SEO, thanks for the comment, much appreciated! I’ve always been a huge fan of search marketing (paid and organic seo) and love the methodologies that go into making it work for clients. Agree in the long term we’ll see SEO and SMO become equally important/funded. We have put together a white paper and framework around measuring ROI for social media programs (based on reach, preference and action/engagement) which may be of interest:
    http://insideraccess.ogilvypr.com/public/19/15

  4. Techdivine Says:
    December 2nd, 2009 at 11:46 am

    Hi

    Excellent post.

    With so much Sharing of data / posts going on, search results seem to be integrated already as part with apps tuned with different SNS today.

    Also, users stay online today without a need to search, but just to feel connected.

    The big catch being SNS like Facebook seem to give the user the benefit of staying connected, feeling social while being out there with the world (with free lively content /products/surveys/knowing what others are upto etc)

    Twitter seems to take a smaller share of actual chunk tweeting than just following, but it too is for the real user with no images, but who wants to communicate, reach out and get immediate responses.

    All in real time. So users are not there looking around anymore, but being a part of something that’s just more alive.

    These apps have contributed immensely towards making the consumer heard easily, express immediately and that saves the most important aspect for both the parties, “time”

    Adding a personal touch seems to be whats making users ‘click’ online (no pun intended :P )

    Keep posting

    Be Well

    Techdivine

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