Data Driving » Social Networking

Sharing Statistics from ShareThis, Revisited

Nick — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 13:11:02 +0000

ShareThis once again released new sharing statistics for its ubiquitous plugin and I thought I would continue my tradition of offering some comments about the latest trends.

The numbers this time are not as detailed as earlier but there are some interesting insights from this data. Compared to last year, Email sharing is down by more than 10% while Facebook sharing is up by 12%. Twitter, which barely made the list last year, is the #3 sharing platform with nearly 6%. Last year I made the (not so bold) prediction that Twitter would increase and Email sharing would fall. The continuing rise of Facebook sharing shows just how powerful Facebook has become as a medium for distributing content. I also believed that StumbleUpon would become more important, but these figures are regrettably not available. Nevertheless, it is apparent that Twitter and Facebook are establishing themselves as the leaders of the pack.

So what does this mean for content publishers? It is very tempting to offer readers a large number of options to share content but in the end, perhaps less is more. From a usability and conversion perspective, it is usually better to limit the choices in order to drive traffic toward a conversion goal. With Twitter, Facebook and Email sharing (based on these statistics), a content publisher has over 85% of the sharing mediums covered. Does it make any sense to bother with the remaining 15%?

The rest of the blog post over at Sharethis.com is equally interesting. I encourage you to read it as it reveals some interesting data about how users engage with the content once it is shared. User engagement (measured as pages/visit) of visitors coming to a site via a shared url on Twitter, for example, significantly underperforms Facebook and Email in this important metric. As the post correctly points out, this makes a lot of sense because articles or other links shared by your close friends are more likely to be clicked and appreciated than the “drive-by” nature of the links on micro-blogging sites such as Twitter.

New Sharing Statistics from ShareThis

Nick — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 13:01:21 +0000

Late last year I reported some web content sharing statistics (from August 2008) from ShareThis, the news sharing service. At the time, I was surprised by the large percentage of email and Facebook sharing and the absence of Twitter. Now, ShareThis has produced updated share percentages for January.

ShareThis Share Percentages Jan 2009

Unfortunately the variance since August reported in the following chart does not make much sense if you compare the share percentages in January and in August. Therefore it risky to make too many interpretations from this data. At the same time, its not for nothing that Gregg Easterbrook once said, “Torture numbers, and they will confess anything”. So here goes:

The rise in Facebook is no longer a surprise to me. I find myself using the service more and more to share content from around the web. I am glad to see Twitter on the list, but am still surprised the percentage is so low. AIM is also a surprise, mainly because I haven’t used the instant messaging service in about 10 years. And the percentage drops in Email and Digg (again, take the figures with a grain of salt) seem to support the idea that new social networks are beginning to take hold.

Is it even possible to make predictions for the next results? I would say no, not really, but I will give it a shot anyway. I predict Digg, Email and Technorati to decrease further, Facebook to stay the same, and increases from Twitter, Stumbleupon and FriendFeed.

UPDATE

Apparently some of the figures in the above chart are incorrect. The adjusted figures just released by ShareThis show a more plausible AIM statistic of 0.1% which seems to be more in line with reality.

ShareThis Updated Share Percentages Jan 2009

How to make Twitter even more useful

Nick — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 15:32:43 +0000

These days, I find myself using Twitter more and more to stay informed. By following a handful of thought leaders, tech luminaries, celebrities and friends, I get a steady stream of news, links to content around the web, opinions and even conversations. But as Twitter grows in popularity, it is becoming increasingly difficult to filter out some of the noise.

Tweetdeck is a step in the right direction for removing the clutter unavoidable in this microblogging platform. It allows you to create groups and set up search notifications on any given topic. Each filter can be viewed in a separate column. Yet it does not nothing to eliminate noise – that is, tweets that don’t interest me.

So here is my idea. Why not add a social networking component to Twitter, like Digg or Reddit do for content? Tweets could be voted up or down and tagged as uninformative if they do not contribute to the conversation. An application like Tweetdeck could offer filters for only the highest ranked tweets from all my followers. Or I could run a search for only quality tweets (as decided by the Twitterati) from a particular topic.

I realize that the beauty of Twitter is in its simplicity, but the success of Tweetdeck clearly demonstrates that there is a market for more granular control. What do you think?

Connecting with your Customers

Nick — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 10:55:39 +0000

It has never been more important than now to maintain a personal connection with as many of your customers as possible.

Getsatisfaction.com is one way to maintain a close connection to the customer. This service enables companies to get direct feedback from customers in an honest and transparent manner. It provides a two-way communication platform between companies and their customers by allowing both sides to ask and answer questions. By creating these transparent conversations, customers can get help from company representatives or from the community, taking advantage of some of the company’s most knowledgeable and loyal customers.

From the site:

Get Satisfaction is a direct connection between people and companies that fosters problem-solving, promotes sharing, and builds up relationships. Thousands of companies use this neutral space to support customers, exchange ideas, and get feedback about their products and services. Get Satisfaction is open, transparent, and free. You’re free to ask, free to answer, and free to start a new conversation. Everyone is invited and encouraged to participate: companies, employees, customers — anyone with an opinion, an answer, or something to say.

The feedback widget is a great feature to integrate on your company site. It allows visitors to leave instantaneous feedback – an idea, a problem, a question or praise. Feedback is then tracked on your company profile page. This widget is an easy, unobtrusive way to get feedback from customers. Moreover, it personalizes the browsing experience by giving all visitors the ability to share their voices.

Getsatisfaction is especially compelling given the open and transparent nature of the Web. Hiding mistakes or handling decisions poorly can quickly turn into a PR disaster. Gary Vaynerchuk of Wine Library TV recently mentioned the importance of reacting quickly, transparently and honestly to PR problems in a video blog post after his site, Corkd was hacked. Getsatisfaction.com is an excellent tool to make sure such unpleasant situations are handled properly and ensuring customers are satisfied.

Most Users Still Share Content Via Email

Nick — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 17:41:54 +0000

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?