Social Media bigger than Search in the UK – Should Google be Worried?

Back in January I wrote a post suggesting that social media would soon overtake search. In March Facebook overtook Google as the most visited site in the US and now after months of waiting Social Media has finally overtaken Search in the UK.

Social media is growing quickly in popularity and shows no sign of slowing down. Facebook the biggest social property in the UK currently has 400 million users worldwide and is growing quickly.

So Social Media is big, but how do we make money from it? Search engines found a way to monetise the traffic they receive by providing targeted ads based on users queries. When users search they reveal their intent and this allows search engines to match adverts to those queries which allows them to charge for that space. The trouble with social media is that people don’t type in queries and therefore reveal intent, they just browse and interact and comment and chat. Social has yet to find an effective way of monetising all the traffic they’re getting, but could all this be about to change?

Facebook recently released its Open Graph platform which allows content publishers to easily integrate Facebooks social elements such as the Like button onto their site. There has been a lot of discussion regarding this new feature over the last few weeks. People have suggested that this could change the web, potentially challenging links as the primary way to index and rank websites the discussion of which is outside the scope of this post, but what I will talk about is all the data they are collecting.

Search managed to monetise itself by delivering highly targeted ads that people clicked on, now the data that Facebook is collecting can help them do something similar. As people move around the internet and click on all those ‘like’ buttons, facebook is building up a database of user interests, the sites they visit, where they spend their time, how often they come back and what they like. Using this information Facebook could know for example that I visit a lot of technology sites, that I have read a lot of articles on the new iphone 4, that I have posted links on my friends Facebook wall about the new iphone, visited carrier websites to check out pricing and even mobile phone recycling website to see how much I can trade in my old phone for. Using this information they can serve up ads offering me the new iphone at a discounted price, offer to buy my old phone or even tell me which of my friends are also thinking of buying the iphone 4 (adding an extra dimension to my purchase decision).

“(your friend) John just bought a new iphone 4 and traded in his old phone for cash, click here to read John’s review of the phone and get 10% a new iphone today”

Social has the potential to engage at a more emotional level than search has ever been able to. It can leverage personal relationships, psychology and add interaction to encourage clicks, something search cannot do. One of the strengths of traditional media, and something that search is not great at is branding campaigns. In search Chanel can bid on the term ‘perfume’ using sponsored ads but that ad won’t have the same emotional and brand building impact as a full page glossy ad of an attractive young couple in a sensual embrace with the perfume in the foreground.

With Social Media you can create immersive and engaging brand experiences. Imagine if a company such as Coke was to create an online experience as social and engaging as Farmville, the hugely successful Facebook game that has more players then there are twitter accounts. In such an engaging environment users would spend hours and hours, playing the game, interacting with their friends all within a world Coke created. Players could collect in game credits slowly by performing tasks, or quickly by buying bottles of coke in the real world. Collect enough points and you can win prizes. Products could be advertised and purchased right within the game. All the while users are living in coke’s world, subject to their brand message, they are building brand awareness, positive sentiment and brand loyalty, this is something than search engines cannot offer. Search is not emotional or engaging, social is and that’s what builds brands.

Social has the potential to be a much bigger market than search. It has emotion, engagement, detailed user data and friend networks. You can leverage social status among friends, encourage competition and impulse purchases. This is the space brands need to be in, it is no longer a question of if, but how.

So is Search dead? No. Search currently outperforms Social with respects to driving sales and revenue but the tide is changing and I think the next 12 months will be an interesting time in this space.