Sharers are Buyers

Consumers who share a brand’s content are 9x more likely to make a purchase, according to research by RadiumOne.

The study also highlights how brands can tap into consumer sharing activities and signals to identify and predict new customers.

Consumers share online content with their friends, family and work colleagues via channels that most brands and website publishers haven’t tracked – until now. “The Power of Sharing” report is based on 1.5 billion viewed events and over 10.5 million shares and clicks across 30 days.

Consumers that share content with themselves are 1.7x more likely to buy. Examples of how users self-share include, texting oneself a link to a review they want to purchase later or emailing a video to themselves as a reminder to watch it later. Sharing activity is far less likely to lead to fraudulent traffic because “bots don’t share”.

Dark social accounts for 75% of consumer sharing online. In most instances, websites, pictures and other information is shared with selected individuals for a reason, rather than an entire community via public social networks. This is a missed opportunity for marketers when not tracking this behaviour.

Sharing data is unique and differentiated from third party interest and intent data.

“Taking advantage of consumer sharing behaviours has thus far been a widely untapped resource by marketers,” said Bill Lonergan, CEO at RadiumOne.

“By analysing and acting upon consumer sharing signals, marketers get a real-time view into what consumers are interested in and where they are on their journey.”