Chances are you’ve seen a button at the end of many blog posts (mine included) that enables a reader to share posts with contacts via sites like Facebook, MySpace, Delicious and the like. Two popular options are ShareThis and AddThis. I highly recommend either.
Interestingly, ShareThis has revealed the most popular methods of sharing sites for July.
Yes, e-mail still rules. Which, considering the high level of acceptance e-mail enjoys vs. the fragmentation and early-adopter status of the other options, isn’t all that surprising. However, it’s a bit deceptive. In aggregate, the Web 2.0 options have a much bigger piece of the pie. Granted, those who use the share option are likely savvier than the masses, so it’s not indicative of a macrotrend, but I expect it to continue.
Moreover, as a big fan of search-generated traffic, I can’t help but be impressed by the impact social networking has on generating visitors to my own sites when going head-to-head with search engines. I’ve already shared the impact Twitter has had on Cheezhead (follow me here), which is holding steady as a Top Ten source, but Facebook also made its way into the mix, landing at No. 3 last month, gaining fast on Yahoo!
The lesson: People have a wide variety of preferences as to how they interact with publishers and connect with friends. As a smart marketer, the key is to plug into users on their terms. Not yours. And did I mention the ShareThis and AddThis buttons go nicely with job postings?
August 8th, 2008 at 2:13 am
All Smuz.com job postings have the Share This link. Too early to look at data trends seriously for us but the extra free traffic to our free job posts has to be a good thing.
August 10th, 2008 at 1:15 am
I’m surprised Facebook’s percentage is so high. I agree with you on Twitter though - it has done traffic wonders for me.
September 1st, 2008 at 12:08 am
Thanks for the research, it really helped me choose which sevices to add on the buttom of my posts. I have blogged about it on my site.