Tech consultant for Olympia, Lacey, And Tumwater

Are Search Engines A Dying Service?

Socia lMedia

So this last week I was looking at my search analytics and saw something interesting. Facebook had sent me about 300 unique visits over the past week. Google had sent me about 100 unique visits. Are people no longer finding things through the traditional search engine? Or is that more of a difference between things being tossed up in front of you by people you connect to on social networks as opposed to having a specific item you are searching for? Let’s face it, most people only add a “friend” on Facebook if they have the same interests. So if they follow me there is a really good chance that the content I post on my Facebook is going to be something they will be interested in.

Many people in social media discount Stumble Upon, but many times they send my site way more traffic than even Facebook does. Facebook sends my site traffic on a more dependable basis, but when Stumble Upon kicks in I get a pretty good day long spike. So why do so many in social media dismiss it? Maybe the experts are full of crap? Maybe we should try everything and see what connects with our target audience the best and damn what works for everyone else?

So maybe this is a question of “Which Is Better For Driving Traffic” instead of “Are Search Engines Dying”? One is clearly better for driving traffic than the other, but is this a true threat to search engines? I know it used to be that if you didn’t exist on Google that your site pretty much didn’t exist. Now it seems that if you work hard enough on Social Networking it could mean 10 times more traffic than a search engine will ever bring you.

So what does this mean for SEO? Why should you care about your search engine optimization if search engines are only bringing in ten percent of your traffic? Or maybe this is just my experience? I want to know what other people are experiencing. What brings you in the most traffic? Is it networking, search engines, or just your regular readers coming back? Facebook was around 300, but all of my networking brought me in about 1,000 unique visitors within the past week. Is this an anomaly or is this a pattern?

Consider this post more about asking questions. I want to know if others have experienced the same thing. Where does your traffic come from?

One of the most important things to remember when using social marketing is target audience. In other words, why follow people that have nothing to do with music? There are tons of SEO, Internet marketers, and bloggers out there that are no better than the spammers that fill your email inbox with phishing scams trying to get your bank info. Not saying all of them are that way, but social networks seem to attract the worst of them like flies on crap.

The best way to find the music people you want is to first find just one legit music type. Then go through their friend list and grab the ones that look like they might be able to help get the word out on your band. As I have pointed out before, you want to follow back every legit person that follows you. It’s just good Internet etiquette. However, you should be careful about not following back the low life scum. These people will follow several thousand people in hopes they get followed back. They prey on your guilty conscience. You are better off without them in your circle because they are not your target audience. The band that has 100,000 followers on Twitter can get way less reaction than the band with 100 quality followers because if you have thousands of followers most of them really don’t care about your music. In fact it may be less than 1%. It’s like spending a few thousand dollars on a specific metal ad network like Fixion Media or spending thousands advertising on the Today show. Just as middle age housewives won’t care about your band, neither will SEO spammers. It’s all about target audience!

Now we’ve talked about reaching music industry people like the music specific bloggers, booking agents, record labels, and other music industry people your band should network with, but what about actual fans? Well you need to make sure and use the embeddable widgets on every website the band is part of. Both MySpace and Facebook have ways to do this. Put it on your main official website as well. Put it everywhere you can. This way your fans can follow you on all these social networks. Then they will bring in their friends and your fan base can grow. This is better because it gets you your target audience. Plus because of this you will end up with way more followers than people you are following. This makes you look more legit. Remember that a social networking profile that has way less followers than people they are following shouldn’t be trusted.

Of course a good start to finding that target audience is to follow me on both Twitter & Plurk. If always plug the music profiles I think deserve more followers.

So what might we be doing wrong with HeavyAsHell? I hear people talk up a storm about how important niche is to social networking and news. I also hear how you don’t need a big budget to be successful. So is rock related social news just a bad idea? I have a really hard time believing that one. Does our current contest suck? I am pretty sure it doesn’t. I have done everything I can to get the word out on this contest, but was shocked when the site showed no activity at all this morning. No one wants a Guitar Hero World Tour Band Kit package?

Now maybe everyone in social media already has the game? So I am asking for some help. Now of course I mention my online friend Robert Scoble because he seems like the kind of guy that gets excited helping others. However, anyone with some ideas is welcome to comment. Most of the time I despise advice because it comes from people who obviously know nothing about either the problem or the situation. It’s like calling tech support and they always ask if you have tried re-booting the computer. Did they even listen to the question? So please take a look at the site before giving advice. Also, yes I have sent the message through my Twitter account, plurk account, Facebook, MySpace, Friend Feed (several rooms), a few music related bulletin boards, and a lan party I ended up at this weekend. So don’t bother giving that advice. I was also allowed to go on the two biggest social media podcasts. The Drill Down & Social Blend.

So Robert Scoble or anyone else, please tell me what I am doing wrong. Can this not be done with zero budget? I don’t have a ton of money, so I have to have it grow organically if I am to do it at all. Is rock related social media just a bad idea? Does social media always have to be SEO telling other SEO how to SEO? Is Guitar Hero a bad contest prize? Let me know. This morning I felt like giving up to be honest. Thanks in advance.