A December article by eMarketer cites two recent studies to show the continuing dominance of email (as opposed to Twitter, Facebook, etc.) as the most popular method used by individuals to share information via the web.

The following study findings are of particular interest:

1) email (as opposed to Twitter, Facebook, etc.) is still the most popular method used by individuals to share content with friends.

2) content shared via email leads to more page views than any other method

3) most significantly, content shared via email is far more likely to lead to a purchase, subscription, etc. – 36.8%, as opposed to just 3.2% for Facebook and 0.4% for Twitter.

There are positives for social media as a means for sharing content – links shared through Twitter, for example, have the highest click-through rate of any sharing method.

That said, it is clear that direct marketers should be aware that the the overwhelming majority of the actual business generated by social sharing of content comes not from the new wave of social media vehicles, but rather from our old friend, email.

Source: “Users still sharing by email”