Social Media and Retail-Crosstown Traffic

Jordan Mccollum at Marketing Pilgrim has a piece on the Hitwise December numbers and I thought they were interesting, as well as potentially helpful to agencies with a retail focus. Per the graph below, downstream traffic from social networks to retail sites is up 37%.

As Jordan asks:

So is it more because users are recommending deals to their friends, or is it because of retailers’ presence on social networks?

Good question. Seems inevitable with these numbers consistently trending upward that big brands will continue to focus more dollars on social. As ever, the comments after the piece were also interesting. Take for example these two extremes:

Great statistics. I think that social media will grow enormously in next 12 months. Because people have this feeling that social media sites like Facebook or MySpace represent more personal information, then you can ever put into the About me page or the blog or website.

And then the other example:

I just cannot see how/why Social advertising works…most are teenagers wasting time. I focus on search.

Showing yet again, just how much social media is still the Wild West.

Read Jordan's piece, Social Network Traffic to Retail Grows here.