Social sharing is one of the exponentially rising trends amongst web users across the globe. People prefer engaging with their friends, share interesting news, talk about common topics of interest and engage with their favorite brands on various social media networks like Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ:FB), Twitter Inc. (NYSE:TWTR), LinkedIn Corp. (NYSE:LNKD), Pinterest And Google Plus. Although, Facebook continues to dominate the social sharing scenario around in different sectors, its growth rate is experiencing a downward-slide due to the tough competition from other social media networks.
A Facebook Preferred Marketing Developer Gigya, had conducted a survey in Q3 between July-September, on the social sharing behavior across various social media networks in various industry sectors and geographic regions. A few interesting facts and findings from the survey are highlighted below:
- The landscape of social sharing in Q3,2013 seems to be escalating for a majority of social media networks except Facebook. Although, the social media titan owns the king’s share of 41%, it dropped by about 9% compared to the previous quarter.
- Micro-blogging site Twitter was next in line with 30% of users opting the platform for social sharing, marking an increase of 6% and Pinterest saw an increase of 4% which rested at 20%. Japan’s Mixi and Russia’s Vkontakte emerged as networks gaining traction when it came to sharing destinations.
- Pinterest dominated the e-commerce sector accounting for 44% of social sharing, followed by Facebook with 37%, Twitter with 12% and Google Plus with 3%.
- Facebook due to its revamped news feed feature amassed a major share of 40% in the social sharing of news related to media and publishing firms. Twitter, which is known for its virality factor, was the second most used site for sharing media news with a 30% share.
- In the consumer brand sector, Facebook with an increase of 5% compared to the Q2 figure accounted for 46% of social sharing, Twitter was next in line with 38% as most of the users preferred Twitter for any queries or complaints.
- Pinterest also recorded an epic 9% increase in social sharing for consumer brands. Consumers feel a strong and emotional connect on Pinterest and Facebook when they are sharing content due to their unique and attractive brand engagement features.
- Education and non-profit organizations widely used Facebook accounting for 65% of overall social sharing in the sector, mainly due to its massive user base and better visibility to a wider audience.
Country Specific Social Sharing Behavior
- If we analyze social sharing behaviors across different countries, Facebook accounted for 36% of social sharing amongst North Americans, Pinterest was next in line with 29% and Twitter with 24%. Facebook has nearly dried out in terms of active usage in developed states due to its privacy issues.
- In developing countries of Africa and Asia-Pacific, Facebook was dominant, as the social media usage timeline in these countries lagged behind the developed states of the west. 60% of Asia pacific social media users preferred Facebook, followed by Twitter with 33% share.
- Nearly 45% of African folks used Facebook for social sharing, followed by 32% on Twitter and 11% on LinkedIn.
- Facebook was the leading social sharing network for 60% of South American social media users, Twitter was opted by 28% and LinkedIn by 2%.
