I’m a firm believer in not doing things simply for the sake of doing them. This couldn’t be more apt for social media where the temptation is often to “roll out a blog” before deciding exactly what added value it will bring to the client.
With this in mind I read a great post yesterday from Heather Hopkins at Hitwise that gives a great insight into how brands and consumers are using social networks.
According to Hitwise stats, last week twice as many people visited the UK fashion retailer Topshop’s website via MySpace than MSN search and Yahoo! put together.
As the Hitwise graph below shows, this trend has been developing over the past 12 months
Likewise similar 12 monthly figures emerge for the online fashion retailer ASOS.com.
On one hand this appears self-evident. Young people buy fashionable clothes; young people have MySpace accounts and are more familiar with them than search engines.
However, Heather adds real value to the above stats by demonstrating that these trends are NOT simply specific to demographics.
By comparing the figures above with those of fashion retailers New Look and Miss Selfridge it apepars that neither store enjoys similar traffic from MySpace despite both stores being aimed at a similar markets.
As Heather puts it:
“The success seems a result of participation in the community and targeted offers. TopShop has a profile on MySpace with a blog that includes special offers and discounts. ASOS and TopShop are mentioned on several profile pages.”
It may also have something to do with the fact that both Topshop and Asos.com are slightly closer to the cutting-edge fashion-wise (er… so I’m told by my fiancee) and want to be seen as ‘cool’ by having a MySpace profile.
As if that wasn’t enough, Heather also looks at the effect Bebo has on web traffic to the sites. It’s no-where near as much as MySpace, but even this gives an insight into the way young people use the different tools:
“Our data can’t bear this out, but from what I hear from people in the industry (and what I hear from my younger cousins), Bebo replaces email and the phone. MySpace can be dipped in and out of. But socialising after school happens on Bebo.”
Technorati tags: Topshop; Asos.com; MySpace; Bebo; Heather Hopkins; Hitwise; analytics
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