When not to Fish where the Fish are

Monday, March 15, 2010

Subtitle:  “Give me back that Filet O’ Fish, give me that fish.”

There’s a common piece of advice to “fish where the fish are.”  While no doubt this is a great short term strategy, but eventually the resource will dry up.  Why?  Because, soon enough everyone will start fishing in the same spot!

There’s some recent data released by HitWise that shows Facebook touting 50% of web visits and Twitter only showing 1% which may cause people to run to Facebook in crowds.  (Look at my other post from today for technical reasons why this data is not reliable.)

1.

Facebook

 50.15%
2.

YouTube

 15.21%
3.

MySpace

 15.08%
4.

Tagged

 1.16%
5.

Twitter

 1.14%

So, you look at the above chart and see the heavy usage of Facebook, and you run off to establish your presence.  What’s wrong with that, you may ask…you reason: most of the traffic is there, so I want to go where I will have more return.

Personally, I don’t believe in chasing traffic.  I believe in making traffic, come to me.  Chasing traffic will drive you nuts (traffic is the web currency equivalent of money).  Rather, identify your strengths, develop what makes you unique, create value and as a side effect traffic will follow.

Promoting and networking are fine, but without taking a self inventory and honing your assets you’ll never break away from the crowd.  You may reap the rewards of hard work, but you’ll won’t make YOUR mark or unique contribution.

If you must go or do what others are doing, then it’s okay to do so for a time.  However, identify the time to breakaway and make your own inroads, plans, conclusions, methods, philosophy…make your own rules.  You’ll never have to worry about it being too crowded, because no one can ever do what you do best – and that’s being you!

Being your true self, is the key to generating traffic.

What do you think?  Am I wrong…half wrong – half right?  How do you generate lasting traffic?

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  • http://www.frankieis.me Frankie De Soto

    Hi Louis, I agree in the idea of developing traffic. I think it’s also a good idea to observe other traffics and trends before you start on your own. There are alot of analytics tools out there that’ll show the amount of traffics that are going to certain markets and keywords. I think the big mistake that companies make in social media is diving into a platform without preparation.

    The main question is how do you want social media work for you as an engagement medium. You have a Facebook Fan page, but how would you like it used for your brand and service? or maybe Facebook isn’t the platform that’s best for you but Twitter and Youtube are. This isn’t like traditional media, where it is one way communication, social media takes time and good strategy or else risking negative feedbacks.

  • http://louispagan.com Louis Pagan

    thanks Frank…thus, ROI – return on influence.

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