Infographic: When & How Are We Doing the Most Sharing Online?By Kadley Gosselin November 2, 2011
Recently, we completed research for the New York Times on the “Psychology of Sharing” online information, uncovering why—not just how—people share, with insights to help marketers align their content-sharing strategies with people’s motivations for sharing on the Web.
We were interested to come across the infographic below, which focuses on how, when, and where people share digital content. It was created by online bookmarking and sharing platform AddThis, using 5 years of data. AddThis processes 70TB of shared content a week – more than the Hubble Space Telescope collected in its first 20 years — and that’s nothing considering that simple sharing (e.g., copying and pasting links into emails, IM windows, and social media) accounts for up to 10x more sharing than do tools specifically designed for sharing, like AddThis.
The Journey of Shared Content
Ever wonder when your users are most likely to share? Online sharing is at its peak mid-morning (9:30-10:30am) EST, according to AddThis—moreover, 75% of clicks occur on the first day a piece of content is shared, with most users clicking within 2 minutes of the share time.
Get Your Content Shared
Looking at the growth in shares across social media platforms demonstrates the importance of a social media presence. Content creators and marketers should work to speak to this and engage users on the platforms they’re already using (Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Google+, etc), perhaps with a little extra attention given to Facebook and new entrant Google+. Releasing content during peak sharing time and making it easy to share (providing a shortened URL, adding “Share” buttons) will enable users to promote content more easily.
Image credit: Joshua Blount.
