Social Sharing on the Web Driven by Facebook at 44%

Social networks such as Facebook and Twitter are increasing in importance for many web sites as social traffic has begun to rival and, in some cases, overtake organic search traffic as the single biggest traffic source. This influx of traffic is generated by shared links, photos, and videos. Consider this – 5 billion pieces of content are shared on Facebook every week!

Techcrunch  asked Gigya for some stats. Gigya powers article, photo or vide content sharing widgets on more than 5,000 content sites, including ABC.com. NBA.com, PGA.com, and others. Over the past 30 days alone, folks have shared almost a million items over the Gigya network. Facebook and Twitter dominate this syndication with about three quarters of all shared items. Here is how the services break down:

Distribution of shared items

• Facebook: 44%
• Twitter: 29%
• Yahoo:18%
• MySpace:9%

Facebook Chat is also the clear leader in content shared via chat, making up more than half of all live event chats measured by Gigya.

Live Event Chat:

• Facebook: 56%
• Twitter: 28%
• Yahoo: 9%
• MySpace: 7%

A broader view of sharing on the Web comes from a Gigya competitor AddThis which includes measurements for e-mail and printing out content. AddThis has its sharing buttons on more than 600,000 Websites. AddThis also shows Facebook on top when it comes to sharing content on the Web, but with a smaller 33 percent share while Twitter is at 9 percent. Even with these broader numbers, however, more than 40 percent of sharing is through Facebook and Twitter combined.

Top 10 Services, Overall via AddThis

• Facebook: 33%
• Email: 13%
• Print:9%
• Twitter: 9%
• Favorites: 8%
• Google: 6%
• MySpace: 6%
• Digg: 3%
• Live: 3%
• Delicious: 3%

Related posts:

1. Breaking News: Facebook & Myspace in Content Sharing Talks Welcome to the inaugural post of Only Facebook! It seems...
2. YouTube Getting Social With Facebook Integration Google has been rolling out new products and features...
3. Social Media Is Tool Behind Betty White Success Many people have heard that Betty White was recently on...