Social media traffic - hard to convert?

[Deric Yin]

I've generally found traffic from article marketing and Squidoo to be relatively easier to convert - given the pre-selling nature of articles and Squidoo lenses (if done right).

Traffic from social bookmarking and networking sites - how's the conversion like? Anybody who has done Digg / Stumbleupon / Facebook traffic generation care to share?

[Ross Goldberg]

The simple answer is low.

It all depends on SOOOO many factors that it's really hard to gauge.

People say the click-through rate on Twitter is dismal and I'd have to agree in general. However, I got 5 sales out of 30 clicks on a recent offer.

I use Digg mostly to have a high ranking link pointing to my sites. If you use a good keyword term, it can get you decent traffic. The "Digg Effect" is a server melting mess that doesn't normally lead to good sales.

Facebook is a different animal from Stumbleupon and Digg. I use Facebook to build relationships with people and push them into my marketing funnel slowly. A rushed ad posted somewhere will not get good results there, people are there to hang out, not buy stuff.

These are my results, I'm sure others have different comments and results.

[JayXtreme]

DIGG and SU users convert very poorly.. I would not focus your efforts on this traffic...

Twitter does quite well if you are connecting with people in your area of market

Peace

Jay

[Deric Yin]

To conclude: as a general rule of thumb - social bookmarking is for building high PR backlinks and not for direct traffic.

Thanks warriors!

[Rachel Goodchild]

I used facebook today to target a very direct range of people- for a special offer
conversion rate good- about 35%
I only use it very sparingly, and only with small groups

it cna work- just not big mass market type of stuff

[Deric Yin]

Rachel, thanks. The conversion rate at 35% was not merely good...it was phenomenal!

Could you share the size of the base? 35% on 100 or 10,000 clicks tell two very different stories.

[MarcusXavier]

you have to very careful in the way you try to convert traffic from social bookmarking sites. if you try to hard-sell them, they will ignore you.

on whatever niche you are going after, make sure that the landing page you are sending this traffic to is not only relevant but of interest to them. and be sure to have an opt-in form.

i find that the best way to get max conversions on my social bookmarking traffic is to capture their contact info(of course by using a free offer or other type of bait) so that i can market to them later on.

if you try to hit them with something to buy right off the bat, you'll have a very poor conversion rate. build trust and a relationship first, then sell to them.

this will improve your conversion rates substantially.

[Dana_W]

Hey Marcus, I think I'm you're first Twitter follower!

I have never had any luck with getting stumbleupon traffic, Magnolia, Propeller, etc., to convert - I just use it for backlinks.

[Stanley Tang]

Digg sucks
Stumbleupon is a little better but still sucks
Twitter is okay but conversion rate is nowhere near the conversion rates achieved from email lists

[Deric Yin]

Hmm. One can't hel but to wonder what's behind all the Web 2.0 traffic hype out there today.

[Ross Goldberg]

Deric - Social media traffic is doable, possible, and can be better than most other sources if you do it right.

You use social media to build relationships and a loyal following.

It isn't as simple as "throw out a link and everyone buys your stuff".

It takes time and very smart marketing.

Most people honestly do it wrong, but when done right, it can build a business to amazing levels.

[Dana_W]

I get a lot of ghostwriting business from Twitter. I just find that you can't use social media to promote other people's affiliate offers or to promote an adsense site. If you are selling products or services though, I find Twitter at least to be very helpful. I don't know how I'd convert traffic from Stumbleupon or Digg though...I think it's easier with sites like Twitter which encourage you to have conversations with people. Same goes for Facebook or Linkedin.

[scene4u]

Social bookmarking traffic often brings with it a high bounce rate and very low conversion rates because people are not looking to buy products. People using these sites are generally looking for viral content that they can read or watch quickly and then move onto the next site.