Most Users Still Share Content Via Email

A while back, I received an email from the news sharing service, ShareThis, that is integrated in so many blogs today (including this one). The email revealed how ShareThis users are using the service to share content from around the web. I remember being surprised at how many people still share via email (35%!). Facebook at 10% surprised me as well. However, now that I think about it, these are the two most mainstream of all the options. There are, after all, still a lot of people on the Web who don’t use social news sharing sites like Digg, Delicious, Reddit and Stumbleupon. For most, simple email is still the easiest and most reliable way to ensure the article you found will be read by your friends.

Here are the sharing statistics released by ShareThis:

It will be interesting to see how this chart develops in the future. Missing from the chart is Twitter. In fact, Twitter is not even listed as an option for sharing in the ShareThis plugin. I am increasingly seeing Twitter being used to share content from around the web. The highly-accessible microblogging format is the optimal medium to share a quick URL with a short description. And like email and Facebook, it is a great way to share content with people you actually know. I bet it won’t take before Twitter goes mainstream and overtakes all of these services.

Any one care to make a bet?