Social media is a beautiful invention. Of course, it comes with some societal snags like fewer face-to-face interactions and oversharing of personal experiences, but it also closes the knowledge gap between brands and their customers. To this end, social media users are increasingly sharing online content with their personal networks, and most are using mobile devices to distribute media that resonates.
According to a June 2013 study from ShareThis, consumers are nearly twice as likely to clickthrough and share web content via mobile devices compared to desktops. The research delved into the most popular networks to better understand how technology may influence engagement on specific sites. Facebook serves approximately 56 percent of all desktop and 60 percent of mobile shares. Beyond Facebook distribution across mobile and desktop shows a wildly different story.
The remainder of sharing on desktops was comparable across all sites or networks, with 9.6 percent via email, 6 percent on Twitter and 5 percent on Pinterest. When it comes to mobile, Twitter and Pinterest outperform every other channel, with 13.6 percent and 18.9 percent, respectively.
The ShareThis study did not evaluate or call out Google+ activity, despite recent reports suggesting the search engine-owned network features a high volume of social shares. Brafton recently reported that social shares on Google+ will outshine Facebook by 2016. This is another example of how conflicting opinions of Google+ can mislead social media marketing departments. A report will come out one day touting the major achievements of the social network, and the next round of data will show it’s still the most inactive or inconsistent site around.
Either way, companies looking to launch smarter social media strategies must factor in mobile technology, whether campaigns thrive on Facebook or Google+.
