Brafton recently reported that recommended content results in higher consumer engagement than content discovered through other methods, and marketers should be thinking accordingly about the best platforms to distribute their content to consumers. A new study from SocialTwist indicates that email and social media are the channels that offer the best sharing results.
According Social Media Sharing Trends 2010, email remains the top channel used to share content. SocialTwist says 55 percent of content sharing happens via email. Officials report that the 2010 data demonstrate a slight shift toward social networks (representing 24 percent of shares made), but emails maintain a strong lead.
A recent CNN POWNAR study also attests to the viability of email sharing, indicating that 30 percent of news sharing happens via email. Yet the POWNAR study suggests content sharing is dominated by social channels (43 percent).
SocialTwist also acknowledges that social media campaigns are critical to getting content shared. While email is the top channel for sharing, the firm reports that social networking sites account for 60 percent of clicks generated by shared content. Meanwhile, emails were responsible for just 31 percent of click-throughs. Facebook, MySpace and Twitter were the top sharing sites, according to the study.
Marketers should take this as an indication that both email and social media are necessary channels to deliver content to consumers. When developing content strategies, businesses should consider that 78 percent of Americans turn to the internet to find news information, according to the Annenberg Digital Future Study. Plus, the online analytics firm Chitika says that news content drives the majority of traffic to Facebook and Twitter.
