Social media key to online sales
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SINGAPORE(May 30 2012) - With more people owning smartphones, designing Web pages with them in mind will be critical for small business owners, said Loren I Shuster, country director for Singapore & Emerging Markets (SEA) at Google.
The pervasiveness of social media will also be a key metric in measuring consumer behaviour and in driving traffic to websites, he said.
Mr Shuster said it is imperative that business customers have the know-how to convert digital engagements into online sales.
He stressed the importance that Google has placed on improving its platform to define consumer behaviour using mobile and tablets.
In Singapore, where data indicate 70 per cent of Internet and smart phone penetration, the user pattern for smartphones and tablets will likely drive innovation, especially for data analytics.
A Nielsen report last November predicts nine in 10 Singaporean digital customers will have a smartphone by the middle of this year.
In its inaugural South-east Asia Digital Consumer Report, the firm said Singaporeans spend the most time online, averaging 25 hours per week, with 77 per cent maintaining active Facebook profiles.
In the first half of last year, spending on digital advertising reached S$60.31 million, according to the Interactive Advertising Bureau South-east Asia released in March.
That translates to a growth rate of 7 per cent, compared to Hong Kong's 6 per cent. The bureau expects online ad revenue to hit S$100 million for the full year.
"If you are going to invest in building a website and that's your brand or your company's presence online, then you need to have the analytical support to optimise that Web presence," Mr Shuster said.
Tools like Google Analytics can show where the site traffic is coming from, the number of page views, how much time users spend on the site and which pages result in sales conversion.
It can track which social media is generating traffic for a site as well as a user's last click, and the online activity before it reached that point.
Millet Enriquez
admin
