Content Sharing Growth By Channel, 2013 [CHART]

Content sharing to Pinterest increased by 58% during 2013, propelling the social network past email in Q4 to become the third-most preferred social sharing channel, according to a new report from ShareThis. Pinterest’s growth rate was matched by Facebook, which had a 57% gain of its own, an impressive result given its much larger base. Content sharing via email, by contrast, declined by 11%, the only channel of the top 5 to experience a decrease.

Content sharing to Twitter (the second-largest platform) and LinkedIn (the smallest of the 5 measured) grew by 15% and 40%, respectively.

With ShareThis having previously reported Facebook’s growth in content sharing volume through Q3 to be 32%, the latest data suggests that there was a surge in sharing to the social network in the fourth quarter of the year. Separate research also shows that Facebook was growing quickly as a social referrer of traffic during the fourth quarter. Read the rest at MarketingCharts.