Relentless Simplicity - The Bonanza Blog

Social Networking Does Not Work.

By bonanzamark
Posted on September 10, 2012 | 15 comments

Well, it doesn't seem to be working in its current form. In a recent article on EcommerceBytes, Social Networking Not Driving Sales to Online Marketplaces, Ina Steiner of Ecommercebytes writes:

Combined, the top three social networking traffic-drivers - Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter - accounted for just 1.1% of the total 100 million visitors to these marketplaces.

I could almost hear a collective sigh of relief from sellers who felt pressured to participate in social networking in order to drive sales. Comments posted to the article seem to support my intuition: "You just saved me a boat load of time. I'm done tweeting," "I gave up on the social sites eons ago," "I feel this social e-commerce is a MAJOR time suck." I also heard from several friends outside of e-commerce with similar feelings.

Let's back up

Before you give up on your social media campaign, let's look at what social networking actually is. Per Dictionary.com:

social networking
noun

1. the development of social and professional contacts; the sharing of information and services among people with a common interest.

This definition pretty much sums up how many people view social networks. Nowhere in the definition does it imply sales,... (continued)