SocialTwist is the creator of the popular social media sharing widget Tell-a-Friend. SocialTwist takes the sharing experience to a whole new level and turns a simple sharing button into a powerful referral marketing tool. SocialTwist helps marketers position their products and services correctly in all visitor communication (shares).

Ever since its launch in September 2008, Tell-a-Friend has emerged as a popular referral marketing and social media sharing tool for big brands like Intel, Bertelsmann Media, P&G etc. Today, SocialTwist enjoys a user base of 50,000+ websites and blogs using Tell-a-Friend.

SocialTwist’s Social Media Sharing Trends 2009 Report is based on the social media sharing behavioral analysis of recent 10 million referral messages sent using the Tell-a-Friend widget.

The report provides details of the most preferred medium of social media sharing, the popular and emerging channels, and the social media trends to look out for in 2010.

Major Findings

• The top channels of sharing include, email, instant messenger, social networking sites
• Despite the social media revolution – traditional forms of networking like email and instant messaging continue to be the most popular mediums of sharing content across the Internet. Nearly 60 percent of overall sharing happens over emails.
• Since it opened itself to all age groups in September 2006, Facebook has displaced MySpace as the most popular social networking site especially when it comes to sharing content online.
• It is clear that Twitter is perceived to be a news broadcast platform and not a "sharing" platform. It enjoys only 5% of "shared information" traffic among popular social platforms.
• Bookmarks are rapidly losing their significance in the social media space. Only 2% of shares happen over Bookmarking sites.
• When it comes to email services, Yahoo Mail is still the most preferred, followed by MSN. Gmail is way behind.
• Google's services like Google Bookmarking, Google Talk, Gmail, and Blogger have failed to replicate the brand's search engine success online, especially when it comes to 'shared information.'
• LinkedIn, as a networking site, ranks the lowest when it comes to social media sharing.

Email is the most popular channel for sharing information

Most Used Social Media Channels

Analysis shows that the most popular channel for sharing content is email. Nearly 60 per cent use email to share content. However, fewer people like to manually type in email addresses. Just about 10 per cent of email shares had people typing email addresses.

Instant Messaging with 25% of total sharing was the next preferred medium followed by Social Networks with 14 percent.

Top 10 channels represent 97% of the total share.Twitter shares have risen 23X in the past one year.

Most Popular Email channels for sharing

Of all the email services used, Yahoo Mail with 44 percent is the most used for sharing followed by MSN Mail with 25 percent. Gmail enjoys only third place with 19 percent.

Yahoo mail is the most popular service followed by MSN email.

Most Popular IM channels for sharing

Yahoo Messenger is the most popular IM service among all others when it comes to sharing - it enjoys 49 percent of the total number of shares. MSN Messenger follows with 34 percent of shares. Here too Google comes at the third position with 15 percent of shares.

IM is the second most shared channelYahoo and MSN lead the pack

Most Popular Social Networking channels for sharing

When it comes to social networking sites Facebook is the clear winner with a whopping 79 percent people using it to share with their family, friends and acquaintances. MySpace follows with 15 percent of shares. Twitter enjoys a meager 5 percent of shares.

Facebook is the most popular amongst all social media channels.

Most Popular Social bookmarking sites for sharing

Bookmarking sites seem to be losing out as a preferred channel for sharing when compared with other social media channels. In this space, Digg stands out as the most popular bookmarking site followed by Google Bookmarks and Delicious with 11 percent and 12 percent respectively.

2% of the total shares happen over bookmarks with Digg as the clear leader

Most Popular Blog channels for sharing

When it comes to blogging services, Wordpress with 45 percent and Blogger with 42 percent are the most popular platforms for social media content sharing. The surprise element in this space is Typepad, which is never used.

Wordpress and Blogger are the most popular blog channels