Web users who follow links from social sites are less interested in their content
I like this article because it talks about the value of search as well as content sites, it speaks directly to the business that should be using social media. Entertainment (bars, restaurants, lifestyle, etc) business need to embrace the power of social media, business that are not entertainment related need to look at search, display, blog writing and still put effort into social media.
Person-to-person sharing has become a major way content producers hope to have their information disseminated as social media has offered the chance for content to go viral. Despite studies that suggest email is still the top way people share content, and that search is still the top way people find websites, social sharing—newer and more exciting—is in the spotlight.
According to data from Outbrain, just over 10% of external referrals are from social media sites, compared with approximately 41% from search and nearly a third from other content sites.
Referrals from social sites fall overwhelmingly into a few content categories. Social media users are eager to share—and click on—news and entertainment stories, which account for nearly three-quarters of all social media referrals. Industry watchers have posited that one reason for social sharing getting so much attention from the media is their outsize impact on media websites.