OBC’s, Sealed Records, Walled Gardens, and Traffic
So the other day when I was examining the results and metrics from an installed Google Analytics on a Facebook Fan page, I could not help but to be stuck by a certain analogy if you will.
There is No Web Traffic Outside of Facebook
I was, and still am, feeling rather frustrated because it seems, even with Google Analytics installed, that one cannot see where traffic comes from before it hits Facebook. It seems like Facebook, by whatever internal mechanism that they have, cares about nothing outside the web except Facebook and traffic, no matter where it was before one lands on a Facebook Fan page, simply did not exist until it got to Facebook.
Was it Twitter that sent one to a Facebook page? Who knows! Was it an email that said “come be our Fan on Facebook? Maybe. Did they use the Fan box that has been installed on a blog to quickly get over to the Fan page? I have no idea. Not even Google analytics can coax this information out of the great walled garden. >Poof!< traffic magically begins at Facebook’s doors! (more…)
