There's Proof. Promotion on social networking sites is working

Earlier today, I came across a marketing website called eMarketer (http://www.emarketer.com). eMarketer directed me toward an article (http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?1004185) about the link between social networking and social shopping. Apparently, marketers now have proof that promotion of social shopping sites on social networking sites has been successful.

Hitwise (http://www.hitwise.com) is a website that tracks online marketing trends. Recently, Hitwise has reported that Google (16.94%), Yahoo (5.40%), and MSN (2.8%) are the top three search engines used before visiting social shopping websites. Hitwise also found that Myspace generated much activity to social shopping sites with 2.53%, almost as much as search engine MSN. If ranked in the list of search engines, Myspace would have ranked fourth, above Ask, AOL, Dogpile, and all of the others. Myspace has helped bring large amounts of traffic to websites such as Craigslist, eBay, Amazon, and Gateway.

The Myspace percentage being comparable to those of the top search engines shows that promotion of shopping sites on social networking sites has been successful. People pay attention to ads on Myspace as much as they do on MSN. Online retailers are now being encouraged to advertise themselves on social networking sites for additional flows of traffic.

What do you think? Are you surprised that ads on social networking sites are as effective as on search engines? Have you ever been led to an online retailer site from a social networking community? Leave your opinions in a comment!