Thought you all might find this ad that appeared on Facebook today of interest.

They may well have been there all the time but this is the first one that I saw. Looks too much like regular Facebook content which is why I read it. Very annoying. Ho hum, back to work.

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Hitwise just published a report about how traffic patterns to retail sites are changing. Chief among the findings are that traffic from social media sites like MySpace and Facebook has doubled over the same time last year. According to the article, Social Networking Sites Fuel E-Commerce Traffic, on MediaPost:

“Social sites are driving more than 6% of retail traffic, up from 2.9% in 2005. MySpace alone accounted for about one-third of that traffic.

The increase in retail traffic reflects social sites increasingly becoming a starting point for Web users. “What we’re seeing is a trend among social networking sites, particularly MySpace, becoming a home base for Internet users,” said Bill Tancer, general manager of global research at Hitwise. That trend in turn generates more traffic from social sites to online retailers.”

As a reference point, Google is responsible for driving 16% of all traffic to retail sites. I think the interesting trend to follow here will be evaluating this traffic to see how their shopping behavior differs from that of let’s say, a Google searcher. Given that e-tailers live, breathe, and sleep the intricacies of their audience, I think we’ll start seeing comparisons of social media site traffic to that of general web search traffic, or referrer sites. For example, someone using tech blog Engadget to read a review of the latest Sony laptop and the subsequent action/s of that user as they head over to sonystyle.com. The analogy of “not all traffic is good traffic” is apt but of course, we don’t know that much yet about how social media site users as a group are shopping.

And what is the impact of social media traffic referrers to employer web sites or corporate home pages after someone writes or Podcasts on Facebook about their great new job that they just started? What will this endorsement mean to their peers that are part of their social network? What will the impact on the employer brand be?

Technorati Tags: MySpace, Facebook, Social Media

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AOL SEACHERS CONVERT AT A 62% HIGHER RATE THAN GOOGLE – I wonder if recruitment or job searches result in similar conversion rates?

Searches on AOL resultes in higher conversion rates at e-commerce sites last month than did searches on MSN, Yahoo, or Google, according to new research by WebSideStory. AOL Search generated a conversion rate of 6.17 percent, compared to 6.03 at MSN, 4.07 at Yahoo, and 3.83 at Google. 

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WHY YOU STILL NEED A COMPREHENSIVE MARKETING STRATEGY TO REACH JOB SEEKERS: Despite the proliferation of online job boards, three out of four job-seekers still use newspapers to look for employment, according to a report released by The Conference Board, the global research and business membership organization. Just over 75 percent of those looking for jobs said they used help-wanted advertisements in newspapers (print ads) in their search. More than 66 percent said they looked on the Internet. Just under 60 percent reported using some other method such as friends, professional organizations, search agency, etc. Nearly 60 percent combined newspaper searches with the Internet or another search vehicle such as a search agency. Of those who reported using only one search method, just under half chose newspapers. (Recruiting Industry Newswire)

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WB NETWORK’S PR GUY SUMS UP IMPACT OF VIDEO TECHNOLOGY ON T.V. RATHER WELL: …Speaking at the NATPE convention in Las Vegas, Keith Marder, publicity man for the WB Network was quoted as saying:

“Technology continues to change our industry. Thanks to innovations, you can now watch television on your iPod, your PC, and your cell phone. Good luck. We can’t even get people to watch television on television sets.”

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GOOGLE BUYS INTO LOCAL RADIO: …and we can expect more reverse publishing for local Google advertisers because of this purchase. Read the full story here on MediaPost.

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CHINA’S “GOVERNMENT-IS-GREAT, REALLY” MARKETING:  After Julian posted his comments on “hoof-in-mouth” marketing, I came across this article from earlier in the year CHINA: China Hires Net Squad to Sway Opinion. The Chinese newspaper Southern Weekend reported May 19, 2005 that China has formed a taskforce of undercover online commentators to sway public opinion on controversial issues over the Internet.

According to the report, a force of online commentators has already been in operation in Suqian since April, defending the government when negative comments appear on blogs, bulletin boards and chat rooms as ‘ordinary netizens’. Suqian city’s propaganda department recruited the commentators from among government officials, as they must be versed in politics and be politically reliable. The Communist Party’s top disciplinary and supervision body trained 127 officials for such jobs last year to “strengthen Internet propaganda on its anti-corruption undertaking”, the weekly said.

Beijing has created a special Internet police force believed responsible for shutting down domestic sites posting politically unacceptable content, blocking some foreign news sites and jailing several people for their online postings. The country has nearly 100 million Internet users, according to official figures, and the figure is rising.

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After reading our post on word-of-mouth marketing may I suggest we lighten it up a little by reading The Onion’s story on stealth marketing.

http://www.theonion.com/content/node/43456

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