How E-Mail Recipients Use Social Sharing Links - ClickZ
Social media "share" links generate clicks in e-mail campaigns for an average of 6.8 days, according to a study by Silverpop to be released on Wednesday.
The report found the links sometimes produce clicks for over 40 days after the original send. However, as with "traditional e-mail," the majority of clicks for e-mail messages shared via social networks occurred in the first two days. Eighteen percent of messages evaluated had viral activity for more than 2 weeks.
Dubbed "E-mails Gone Viral: Measuring 'Share-to-Social' Performance," Silverpop's report uses stats pulled from commercial messages incorporating "share" buttons for Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Digg, etc. The Atlanta-based e-mail marketing services provider reviewed 562 campaigns. The messages were sent from 98 business-to-consumer companies and 16 business-to-business firms, totaling more than 54 million recipients.
More interesting data from this report:
- Bebo, Delicious, LinkedIn and Reddit had higher rates of "share" clickthroughs
- LinkedIn ranked fifth overall, but within the business-to-business category, 83% of the campaigns involved a click-through to LinkedIn
- 83% of the emails sent as put the click-through button at the bottom of the email, but placement above or below the fold didn't much matter.
- The emails that got shared the most included a brand name or a specific product in the subject line (instead of an offer, such as a discount)
