Popular British high street and online fasion retailer got five per cent of its visitors directly from its MySpace profile page last year, making it the number two source of traffic, according to a report at BizReport.
That’s up five times on the previous year, and double the traffic received from MSN and Yahoo searches combined.
Interestingly, their profile page describes them as a 24-year-old female, though they’re not hiding the fact that they’re a commercial business:
“This is the ONLY topshop myspace and it is run by topshop staff. It is for shoppers, staff, bands, and dedicated followers of fashion! Come on here to read the latest gossip and see some fab new looks!”
It certainly seems to be working for the company, which has well over 3,000 ‘friends’ on MySpace.
“It is not solely a result of demographics,” writes Hitwise’s Heather Hopkins in her Hitwise blog. “Miss Selfridge and New Look attract a similar demographic profile of young women, but do not enjoy the same volume of traffic from MySpace. The success seems a result of participation in the community and targeted offers. Topshop has a profile on MySpace with a blog that includes special offers and discounts.”
You’d expect a fairly trendy company to be involved in social networking in some way. Perhaps Top Shop’s growing success in driving traffic to its web site will encourage others to get on board.
It’s worth noting, though, that some other companies with MySpace profiles aren’t doing nearly as well. Getting the balance and content right, without appearing overly corporate or contrived, can be tricky.
