Keeping up with the Joneses. And with your customers.

Do all your customers act the same? And do they look for you the same way everywhere they look?

According to a recent eye-tracking study by OneUpWeb, the answer is “no.” Customer behavior on social media sites differs from that on search engines in terms of how people engage with brands and those brands’ ads. No surprise there, really. As we pointed out at the other day, we’re still in the cave-painting days of online marketing. Pretty sophisticated cave-paintings. But still.

There is no “one size fits all” method to Internet marketing. No “magic beans.” No “silver bullet.” Would that there were. But don’t let that discourage you. In fact, you should find it exciting. Blogs, RSS feeds, social media, paid search, natural search and all the rest provide you new ways to test what works with your customers. Daunting? I suppose. But your competitors wrestle with the same challenge. Let them wrestle. Focus on what works and explore a few things you haven’t tried before to separate yourself from the scrum. The point is, your customers are continually finding new ways to interact with you and your brand. They’re learning, growing, developing. Are you keeping up?

Are you getting enough value out of your small business website? Want to make sure your business makes the most of the local, mobile, social web? thinks helps you understand how to grow your business via the web, every day. Get more than just news. Get understanding. Add thinks to your feed reader today.

Or subscribe via email.

And while you’re at it, don’t forget to follow Tim on Twitter.