Check out this chart was posted last month to Silicon Alley Insider: Facebook is the most popular platform for sharing content — even surpassing e-mail:
It’s perhaps no surprise, then, that sites like Google Reader have attempted to become more Facebook-like recently, adding the ability to follow friends and “like” links or posts. Delicious also recently made changes in hopes that the site will become a more interactive place for sharing links instead of a repository for storing them.
What also caught my eye was how fractured the social bookmarking sites are. There doesn’t seem to be a truly dominant service among Digg, StumbleUpon, Reddit… all hover in the 3-5 percent range.
With Facebook continuing to grow at a surprising clip, adding users and also buying up the technology and talent of FriendFeed, it’s well on its way to becoming the online content-sharing juggernaut. But while it’s slowly moving away from this direction, most of Facebook’s content sharing still happens behind the wall. It’s tough to do a detailed analysis on what people are saying about content after it’s shared on Facebook. Accessing, aggregating and interpreting that information is the real goldmine for marketers and advertisers.
The chart data comes from Add to Any, which is the toolbar I use on the blog to allow readers to share or save content. It’s one of many similar options blogs and Web sites can use to encourage content-sharing (Share This, TweetMeme, Socialize) so I’m unsure as to how the data would hold up if the study were replicated across all these services.
What are your impressions of the chart? Have you made changes to your organization’s Web site so that users can easily share your content to Facebook? Would the fractured nature of social bookmarking sites deter you from incorporating a bookmarking strategy into your campaigns?
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I always wondered why there were so many of those sites, Digg, StumbleUpon, Reddit, why don’t they all just combine as one -they would probably make more money.
Amy, great topic. My surprise factor was how close Twitter is to e-mail, which leads me to believe this sample group is pretty Bay Area-centric. Content sharing would obviously thrive in Facebook because Facebook has bridged the gap between becoming both a social and a corporate norm. Every exec I work with now has a Facebook page and maintains it willingly — which makes it a perfect content sharing platform over the social bookmarking sites. Bookmarking sites have turned into cult groups more so than mainstream platforms, something Facebook and e-mail have conquered and soon I think Twitter too.
Nicole – It would be interesting to know some more demographics behind the data. Although the chart was published in Silicon Valley Insider, the data comes from Add to Any, and I’d guess they just reported the proportion of links that were shared across each option/platform in their widget on any blog or site that has the widget installed. So I’m not sure if it would be geography-specific. I certainly agree though that Facebook has become so much more mainstream (like e-mail) and thus it would make sense that as more people sign up for the service, more links are shared that way versus older methods (like e-mail) or more niche sites (like the social bookmarking ones).
I think aside from popularity – what gives FB and Twitter 2 of the 3 largest pieces of the pie is their levels of interaction and ease of use. Anyone can really setup a Facebook or Twitter account, start connecting with folks, build conversations, and have great interaction (if done well, of course).
With the plethora of social bookmarking sites – the ease of entry is there, but the platforms are different ‘monsters’ in their own right. The user base is different but more importantly, is their thinking. Those that are on Digg or Reddit have as one of their main goals to get their content/submissions on the front page and read widely by their large communities. Though the content is shared and consumed fairly easily, the interaction is lacking. Yes, there’s tons of comments for each submission, but the nature of the comments/commenters typically provide less value/relevance than would interaction from a trusted community that you directly connect with.
So, I guess it relates back to not only interaction and ease of entry, but really – trust. We’re the ones who have a say in who we connect with on Facebook or Twitter (or email), and we trust that community for their value & knowledge, and welcome the interaction from those people.
Thanks for the comment, Sonny. Your point about difference in user base (and thus motivations of the users) is different for social bookmarking sites. While those who save links to Digg or Reddit may be doing it for the personal satisfaction of getting their content to the front page, those who are sharing via sites like Twitter and Facebook, where we’re more in control of who are connections are, may be sharing links to build trust and interaction within our self-selected communities. It’s not just about the ease of use, but the mentality of users on each platform. If more people derive value from sharing and leaving/receiving comments via Facebook than via social bookmarking sites, and if more people are clustered on a specific site (Facebook), then it makes sense that Facebook would dominate and the smaller, niche bookmarking sites would continue to remain fractured based on the differing nature and motivation of the user bases.
This is why Facebook is so powerful and here for good. 24% of content shared, 60MM+ users – WOW! Combine this with the fact that Facebook has our demographics and psychographics, you’d be a fool not to focus part of your strategy on Facebook. Some platforms may come and go, but FB won’t be one of those.
Not surprising; however, Facebook still is a walled garden. I think what’s more remarkable is how close Twitter is to e-mail. I would not have guessed it was THAT close.
In addition, people may share a lot of links on Facebook, but I wonder how the click-through rates compare. I’d imagine they’re still much, much higher in e-mail.
Lifestreaming enables me to share content in multiple places at once. I wonder what the overlap is between Twitter and Facebook using services like FriendFeed, Posterous, etc. (Miniscule, probably, but still.)
Also, I wonder how many of the shared links on Facebook are from third-party apps (e.g. Digg).