Google or Facebook? You May Need Both.
July 7, 2009 by Becky Scott
Filed under Marketing
There’s an interesting trend on Facebook. People use their real names and talk about real life events. While many of these same people want to be anonymous on most of the internet, they let those barriers down on Facebook. And it may be, in part, due to the fact that much of Facebook’s information is not available to search engines. Users can restrict their profiles to be seen by friends only. And that makes them more comfortable with sharing personal information.
On the other hand, there’s Google. You need SEO, page rank, and search results with Google. People only find you when they’re searching for you – or more likely searching for your product. If you want the walk-in customers, you still need Google. But if you want referral traffic, you’re increasingly going to need Facebook.
As more people use Facebook, it becomes a place to find product and service recommendations. Do you want to choose a random business from a generic search, or would it work better if you got reviews from friends? Most people are going to prefer help from a trusted source. As people post links to videos, news articles, or cool new things they found, others are seeing those links and clicking them.
Your marketing plan is going to need to accommodate both sites. If you want people to find your site through searches, you’ll need to continue optimizing your site for Google traffic. But as more people get their information from Facebook, you need to make sure you’re providing the content that people want, and make it easy for them to share it with friends.
image: morgueFile
