A colleague of mine sent over a short study on social sharing from BrightEdge, and highlighted Twitter data. A few key pieces of data:
- Almost half of the largest 10,000 sites on the Web still don’t display any kind of social sharing links or buttons
- 53.6% of the largest 10,000 sites on the Web display some social links or buttons on their front pages, up from 52.8 percent in late July
- Facebook plugins (e.g. the Like button and links to fan pages) are seen on homepages of more than 50 percent of the world’s largest sites
- Buttons and links for Twitter are seen on 42.5 percent of the top 10,000 sites
- Tweet buttons drive 7 times more link mentions for websites than if they didn’t have a button
- Google plus continues to grow, but is still only used on about 8.5 percent of the largest 10,000 sites
This data is directly related to reach - once readers beging to share your content, you’re exposed to their networks as well. Making it as easy as possible for them to share that content will logically increase that reach.
Final thoughts? This is a big - and easy - opportunity to drive more sharing of your content, and thus give your brand more visibility. Brands that aren’t adopting this are missing this opportunity, and it’s one I would consider low hanging fruit at best (there are so many sharing options available that are easy as pie to install).
My advice? Get a share button up on your site ASAP, no excuses.
