How Facebook overtook Google in the US – and why your business needs to act

Businesses must take notice of recent figures showing Facebook overtook Google to become the most popular site in the US during the last week and establish marketing campaigns on the social networking giant, a social media expert has suggested.

The most recent figures from Hitwise show Facebook secured 7.07% of hits in the United States during the week ending March 13. While it has previously become the most popular site on certain days, such as Christmas Eve, it is the first instance in which Facebook has overtaken Google for an entire week.

The internet search giant, comparatively, has fallen to second place in the rankings for the week with a market share of just 7.03%.

The social network recorded an increase in hits of 185% year-on-year, compared to Google’s rise of just 9%. However, the statistics did not include hits from Google’s other sites including YouTube, Google Maps or Gmail.

Matt Tatham from Hitwise told news network CNN the milestone was “definitely a big moment for Facebook, even though they beat by a small margin”. He also added that “people want information from friends they trust, versus the anonymity of a search engine”.

The announcement from Hitwise has caused some analysts to encourage businesses onto Facebook, saying it is a thriving marketing platform and more companies need to get on board. It comes as more and more SMEs are utilising Facebook as a campaign driver, information network or even shopfront.

Con Frantzeskos, digital strategist at DDB, also says he encourages businesses to use social networks such as Facebook but says they must think carefully about their plans before making a move.

“Businesses must have a reason for being online, and we would define that across three areas: education, engaging or entertaining, or a mixture of the above. Just ask yourself the questions, are you using your website as a hub? Would you use Facebook as an alternative website?”

“You also have to ask yourself what type of content you’re putting up there. Is it specific? Why or why not? How will you create the content that goes on there? Think about every single thing you put on the Facebook page and how it relates to the overall business. Don’t think of the website and Facebook as separate, think of them as different channels to market that are connected.”

Frantzeskos says Facebook fan pages are incredibly powerful tools for marketing, providing analytics breakdowns as powerful as rival sites. But he also says there are certain things a business must consider in order for their page to really take off.

“It’s different for every business, but for a Facebook fan page you need to think about whether you are reflecting the original website or making something different. Think about whether you want specific content like video, or whether you’ll refer back to the original website. Be careful about the content that’s going up there.”

“Additionally, keep in mind that fan pages have a long, long lifespan. If you’re running a campaign about something, and the campaign changes, it’s impossible to change the fan page name and it would be hard to let people know that it is obsolete. Assume everything you are building on Facebook is for the long-term.”

Several companies including computer manufacturer Dell have managed to establish Facebook fan pages as another revenue source. Frantzeskos says this is a viable path, but businesses need to ensure buying products on Facebook is as easy as possible.

“My strong advice would be that you make it as easy as possible for people to buy. If they are on the site and can’t interact with anything, it’s extremely difficult. Remove the barriers to people interacting or buying, and if you can’t do that, at least link back to the original site or ecommerce platform.”