Content Sharing Trends, April 2013 [TABLE]

The types of content that people share may be driven more by ego than anything else, finds 33Across in a newly released study. Examining 450 of its largest publishers across 24 content categories, 33Across found that topics with high share rates often have low clickback (link clicks/shares) rates, meaning that a significant proportion of readers share these links, but few people read them. The researchers found that these content types generally were “esoteric,” suggesting that the intent of sharing revolves more around “personal branding” (ego?) than practicality.

In other words, people want to seem knowledgeable and learned, so share articles that are of interest to only a small, educated niche. That would explain why sharing rates are lowest for topics such as Men’s Media (1%) and shopping (<1%), and highest for science articles (12%). But clickback rates for science articles are low (at 9%, compared to the average of 24%), and much higher for categories such as celebrity content (at 40%). Needless to say, entertainment and celebrity content isn’t high on the “personal branding” agenda, with sharing rates for those content types at 2.1% and 1.7%, respectively. Read the rest at MarketingCharts.