At AIN we are regularly asked about our “social” strategy. Our answer in the last few years has been the same: we are slowly increasing our investment in these mediums. At AIN, we create useful and engaging content on our websites every day. So whether or not we strongly promote this content, it is being talked about constantly on social media.
To what extent does that conversation result in readers at AINonline.com? From May 2015 to April 2016, social sources produced 6.9% of our total traffic. A year later, from May 2016 to April 2017, the same sources grew to account for 7.4% of total traffic, a small but growing portion of our overall traffic.
More interesting, readers who come to our site from social media spend 50% less time on our pages than do those who arrive via search engines and 70% less than those who come to us directly. So as we move into a world less focused on clicks and more on engagement, this piques our interest.
Here’s a breakdown of the sources of our social traffic:
May 2015–April 2016 May 2016–April 2017
Facebook: 56.8% 48.5%
LinkedIn: 20.7% 26.4%
Twitter: 16.2% 21.6%
Other: 6.3% 3.5%
Year over year we saw a 15% decrease in traffic from Facebook and a 27% and 33% increase from LinkedIn and Twitter, respectively.
Let us know if you are seeing similar trends or reach out to share your social-media success stories or frustrations. For now, we plan to continue with our slow and steady approach.
