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We've been writing a lot recently about how social media is not living up to expectations when it comes to driving traffic and sales for brands. L2 Think Tank, which studies such things, elaborates on that theme this week with a look at how Twitter, specifically, is sucking. Per a post on their blog:
Though expertly effective at driving traffic to news and media sites, Twitter accounts for, on average, between 0.09% and 0.19% of upstream traffic to brand sites—less than Facebook, YouTube and even Pinterest.
Additionally, they report that bigger isn't always better when it comes to the number of followers a brand has. "In essence, the bigger a brand's audience becomes on Twitter, the quieter and more diluted its conversations become," they write.
So, what's a brand to do with hundreds of thousands of accumulated followers? Prestige brands—which include nearly all your fashion and beauty brands—are present on an average of seven platforms: Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Google+, and YouTube, among the most popular. As costs for maintaing a presence on these platforms increase, L2 predicts are going to scale back their social media presence and focus on fewer platforms.
· Brands on Twitter: If Not for Sales, Then Why? [L2]
· Social Media Is the 'Least Effective' Path to Traffic [Racked]
· As Brands Put More Resources Into Social Media, You Can Expect a Harder Sell [Racked]