Google – no longer the King of the Internet?
by Mike Saunders on 23/03/10 at 5:00 am
1 comment
Two weeks ago Facebook received more traffic than Google in the US.
Although this is a statistic about American traffic there is cause to believe that this is a sign of the future of the internet. Americans in general use the internet more than the rest of the world and have become the internet trend setters in many ways.
The blogging example
As Americans started blogging the world slowly followed suit and thus South Africans began to blog. In South Africa we are already starting to see a higher respect towards bloggers and blogging as a marketing exercise. So the trend in South African blogging can be linked to the trend that was set by the US. In general – look at what succeeds on the internet in the US and you will start to see those trends start to pick up in South Africa.
What on earth do I do with this new information?
So what does this mean and how can we derive some direction for the future of marketing on the internet? I would suggest that the following trends may appear in the future on South African internet marketing:
Social networks for B2B Marketing
As the business world is starting to become more saturated with Generation X we will see more and more opportunities to extend our business networks inside social media realms.
The Friendship 2.0 study revealed: “The results, out now, bust the myth that only youngsters do social networking. On average, adult social networkers in South Africa are in their 30s, employed full-time and describe themselves as sociable and outgoing.”
Consumer demand will force social media marketing
The demand for social media services by internet consumers will mean that any organisation that does not market themselves in social media will lose a foothold in the market place.
Mobile will become the new road to social media
Mobile media is taking off at an incredible rate in South Africa. We have already seen how people have adopted to Mobile Facebook and MXit as the primary means of social communication. Even the simplest of cellphones can access networks like Facebook without an PC. This access could see rapid growth in internet usage from the current 9.4%. This could mean that sometime in the future we may be able to run marketing campaigns to lower LSM markets.
Does this mean that SEO is not enough to gain majority market share
Traffic to Google and Facebook is on the increase the difference is that Facebook traffic is increasing at a higher rate. SEO has always been the primary approach to gain majority market share on the internet. The question that is not quite answered yet is “Will Facebook grow to be the new King of the Internet and will this become the new primary method to gain the majority internet market share?”
If so, maybe we need to put more effort into understanding this medium.
Would love to here you thoughts!!
Mike is the CEO of DigitLab, a digital marketing and social media agency, as well as Keynote Speaker and Social Media Coach at TomorrowToday. Google+ View more articles by Mike Saunders.
Tags: facebook, facebook marketing, Google, Mike, mike saunders, new media, online, online advertising, Online social networking, social media environment
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