Social media strategy essential as Brits network online more than ever

The news that social networks have overtaken entertainment sites, including BBC’s iPlayer, as Brits’ preferred online activity marks a milestone in social media’s history.

While its results come as little surprise to us, Experian Hitwise’s report is yet another reminder that a smart social media strategy is no longer a luxury – it is a necessity.

The study, entitled Carpe Diem: Seizing the Moment in Social Media, finds that social networks including Facebook and Twitter have toppled entertainment sites into second place, with social media use accounting for 12.4% of all UK internet visits during January.

It is not only frequency of visits driving this sea change, but the way in which people are engaging with social media. Firstly, once logged in to sites like Facebook, users tend to spend an average of 22 minutes there. The second trend is connectivity – one in eight visitors to social networks are likely to visit another one straight after leaving their first destination.

According to Robin Goad, research director at Hitwise, this phenomenon is “encouraged by the connections that exist between the networks.

Facebook, for example, is a key source of traffic for many smaller social networks; while almost a fifth of people leaving Twitter go on to visit another social network”.

It’s worth noting that while social networks account for 13% of traffic sent to other sites, search engines still act as the primary source of traffic to transactional sites selling goods or services, such as travel or insurance.

“Successful transactional websites will be those that learn to harness the power of social networks, driving traffic through to their own websites,” Goad added.