No Revolution

This is Viral! 9 out of 10 eMail Readers Pass it Along

A study by Sharpe Partners revealed that 89 % of adult Internet users in America share content with others via email. The recently released study on viral marketing also found that 63 % of the respondents share content at least once a week and as many as 75% of the respondents forward this content to up to six other recipients.

Frequency US Internet Users Share Content	(% of respondents)
Daily or most days	25%
Several times a week	23
Once a week	15
Several times a month	11
Several times a year	15
Never	11
Source: Sharpe Partners, Inc, January 2006

Kathy Sharpe, CEO of Sharpe Partners, said("We knew a lot of people were sharing content, but even we didn't expect it to be so pervasive... the real challenge for interactive marketing firms...is developing content that these people will want to consistently share with a wide, yet focused circle of acquaintances."

In addition to highlighting the rampant frequency of content sharing, the study generated some interesting results regarding the type of content that is sent. The most popular content is humorous material, with 88 % forwarding jokes or cartoons.

Content Shared by US Internet Users (%of respondents)
Content	% Sharing
Humorous/jokes/cartoons	88%
News item/article	56
Health care/medical	32
Religious/spiritual	30
Games	25
Sports/hobbies	24
Business/personal finance	24
Sexually provocative content	12
Source: Sharpe Partners, Inc, January 2006

For companies looking to employ a viral marketing program, the study found that adding overt brand messages only slightly reduces the likelihood that the content will be shared.

• 56% of the respondents are less or slightly less likely to forward such content
• 43% said they are more or slightly more likely to send marketing-related messages
• 5% refuse to share content that contains a clear brand message

Impact of Brand Sponsorship on Sharing	(% of respondents)
Positive	19%
None	74
Negative	7
Source: Sharpe Partners, Inc, January 2006

The study identified several demographics of sharers useful to marketers:

Most likely sharer is a woman in her late 30's/early 40's who resides in the South or Midwest.

• 64% percent of the female respondents share content at least once a week versus 58% of the males
• Residents of the South (68%) and Midwest (66%) are likely to be more frequent forwarders than their counterparts in the West (58%) and East (55%).
• 63% of African-Americans and Caucasians share content at least once a week
• 56% of Hispanic/Latin-American and 46% of Asian-Americans share at least once a week
• 64% of those without a college degree share weekly versus 61% with a college degree.

Finally, 41% of the respondents share with 1-3 people, 34% with 4-6, 13% with 7-9, 9% with 10-20, and 3% share with more than 20 people.