I like mashable.com, but their post this week Sharing on Facebook Now More Popular than Sharing by Email is simply sensationism based on bad data. Clearly, we are fans of sharing through social networks as evidenced by our recent release of Social Forward and partnership with ShareThis!
The data referenced in the report comes from AddToAny, makers of a widget that allows people to share content through social networks and email and competitor with ShareThis! Based on their data 24 percent of content is shared through Facebook compared to only 11% that is shared through email.
Any study of this type is subject to the quality of the data it is evaluating. One need look no farther than comments posted on mashable.com to see the holes in this research.
Wei Zhu wrote, "As much as I like to see Facebook being listed as the most popular way for sharing, I suspect the method used by AddToAny grossly under counted sharing through email. Most people who share stories through email probably just copy the url and paste into their email directly, without using any widgets on the web page."
Correct. We definitely see more people sharing through Social Forward than we see sharing through email forward-to-a-friend. If people are going to share through email, they don't typically use forms, widgets, etc. They copy, paste, and send.
zackatoustra wrote, "The only thing we can conclude from that figures is that what is shared through AddToAny is mainly shared on Facebook. Nothing more."
Exactly, AddToAny's user base is not a representative sample of internet users. This data is specific to AddToAny's user base and not applicable to the general online population.
Finally, sensational data lends itself to sensational headlines and interpretations. Jason said it best, "Why didn't you give this the headline Digg Now Bigger Than Google? Would that have been any worse than the current headline?"
The data referenced in the report comes from AddToAny, makers of a widget that allows people to share content through social networks and email and competitor with ShareThis! Based on their data 24 percent of content is shared through Facebook compared to only 11% that is shared through email.
Any study of this type is subject to the quality of the data it is evaluating. One need look no farther than comments posted on mashable.com to see the holes in this research.
Wei Zhu wrote, "As much as I like to see Facebook being listed as the most popular way for sharing, I suspect the method used by AddToAny grossly under counted sharing through email. Most people who share stories through email probably just copy the url and paste into their email directly, without using any widgets on the web page."
Correct. We definitely see more people sharing through Social Forward than we see sharing through email forward-to-a-friend. If people are going to share through email, they don't typically use forms, widgets, etc. They copy, paste, and send.
zackatoustra wrote, "The only thing we can conclude from that figures is that what is shared through AddToAny is mainly shared on Facebook. Nothing more."
Exactly, AddToAny's user base is not a representative sample of internet users. This data is specific to AddToAny's user base and not applicable to the general online population.
Finally, sensational data lends itself to sensational headlines and interpretations. Jason said it best, "Why didn't you give this the headline Digg Now Bigger Than Google? Would that have been any worse than the current headline?"
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