Email is still the main way consumers share

A survey recently conducted by Nielsen Online, which analysed more than 10,000 social media messages to see how consumers share content online, has found that 93% of internet users turn to email to share content. 89% of those surveyed use social networks and 82% use blogs to share content.

Web users, however, use different platforms to share online content with different groups of people. The April 2011 'Content is the Fuel of Social Web' report found that social networks are the top method for sharing content with friends, with 92% of users doing so, while email is the most popular way to share with family (86%) and colleagues (26%). In sharing online content with the general public, consumers prefer to use message boards or blogs, at 51% and 41% respectively.

At The One Club’s Creative unConference in May 2011, Paul Adams, global brand experience manager at Facebook, said that the average person has four different friend or influence groups. Each has an average of 10 people and they are based around life stages, experiences or hobbies.

“We are highly influenced by people who are up to three degrees away from us,” he said, which presents a tremendous word-of-mouth marketing opportunity via social sharing.

For more information about using social media marketing to reach your consumers and encourage word-of-mouth, speak to one of the marketing consultants at TA Fastrack today. We can also assist with facebook marketing, social media online reputation management and more.