Our partner, ShareThis released a survey recently about how content is shared in different channels.  Email remains the tool of choice for sharing content; accounting for 46% of content-sharing activity compared to 33% for Facebook, 14.5% via other channels and... More

Our partner, ShareThis released a survey recently about how content is shared in different channels.  Email remains the tool of choice for sharing content; accounting for 46% of content-sharing activity compared to 33% for Facebook, 14.5% via other channels and just 6% for Twitter. According to new research from Share This, Twitter and Facebook may be all the rage, but ordinary email is still king when it comes to sharing content online.

People who receive links through ShareThis also tend to spend time with the content, at an average 2.95 page views per click, followed by Facebook (2.76), with Twitter trailing at 1.66. This information definitely supports the notion that information being sent to you by friends is more highly regarded and trusted over the vast amount of content pushed directly to online audiences by businesses and organizations.

The company's "ShareThis" button has become ubiquitous at the end of articles and blog posts, linking to a widget that lets users share material via email, instant messenger and social networking tools including Facebook, Twitter, StumbleUpon and Yahoo Buzz. With user data from 200 million monthly visitors across 130,000 sites, the service has amassed a wealth of data about how people share and engage with content.

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A little humor from our VP of Professional Services, Tanya Hyde:How many email marketers do you need to change a light bulb?Nobody ever removes the bulb - unless it's been inactive for more than six monthsNone - The light bulb... More

A little humor from our VP of Professional Services, Tanya Hyde:

How many email marketers do you need to change a light bulb?

Nobody ever removes the bulb - unless it's been inactive for more than six months

None - The light bulb can change itself using a preference center

Two - one to change the bulb and one to point out the excellent ROI compared to other ways of lighting the room

Two - one to change it and one to get the appropriate permission from the owner of the socket

Two - one to fit the new bulb and one to design it so it works as intended in whatever socket it goes into

Three - one to change it, one to design it to work in all sockets, and one to complain that the light bulb still doesn't work in rooms built by Microsoft

Five - one to change it, two to work out the best day and time of day to make the change, one to ensure the new bulb will meet user expectations, and one to monitor how many people subsequently flick the light switch

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There has been a lot of talk in marketing circles regarding the appropriate amount of email to send to a consumer. Should you send once per month, once per week, multiple times per week, whenever you want, etc... And often over-looked part of this discussion is who ultimately is responsible. Is it the marketer or is it the consumer? Often, I think as marketers, we tend to answer this question not as a marketer, but instead as a consumer. Just like every consumer in the marketplace we are inundated with email messages from work, home, other marketers, transactional messages, etc... The last thing anyone needs is another email message. As such, I think we tend to error on the side of "send less". That being said is it really the marketer's responsibility to be 'sensitive' to how many emails a consumer is receiving in mass? Or is it really more of the consumer's responsibility - they did at the end of the day sign up to receive them? More

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