People are more likely to share through hidden ‘dark social’ methods – such as forwarding web links or content – than via social media, new research from IPC Media has revealed.
The Digital Conversations study – which took place over a six month period with a sample size of 500 – sheds light on what gets people talking online, how these conversations take place and what impact they have on people’s behaviour.
The research, conducted with GfK and Radium One, found that consumers interested in niche topics are more likely than readers of non-premium websites to talk about those topics with people they know, resulting in social network shares, conversations and word of mouth recommendations.
77% of the users of IPC’s entertainment sites are more likely to recommend music, film and entertainment content, while 62% of IPC’s fashion and beauty site users are more likely to talk about fashion and accessories, and 49% of visitors to IPC’s websites communicate to others what they see online.
According to the research, people share content in a highly personal way and are more likely to “narrowcast” to acquaintances rather than share via social media.
Digital Conversations revealed that in a typical month, there were just over 18,900 incidents of users choosing to copy text from the Marie Claire website and share it with a friend via email, compared with just under 1,750 instances of users sharing via Facebook and Twitter.
Similarly on NME.com there were 44,850 email shares compared with just under 5,700 social media shares.
“This analysis demonstrates that consumers want to share content in a personal way with a specific audience who it is directly relevant to,” said Andrew Sanders, brand partnerships director, IPC Advertising.
“If content partnerships are done well, people can become advocates of a brand among their peers and this is incredible valuable for advertisers.
“The work we have done with GfK and Radium One shows just the tip of the influence iceberg as 16% of premium site users indicate that they share brand links every week and this kind if sharing activity is notoriously much harder for brands to track; however it should not be overlooked. After all, over 90% of conversations occur offline completely.”
