According to the results of a study released this week, more than seven in every 10 internet users across  24 countries have shared content of some kind on a social media site over the last month.

The researchers from Ipsos, one of the world’s largest market research groups, questioned more than 18,000 consumers as part of the study, with 71 per cent saying they had clicked the ‘share’ button on one of the main social networking platforms over the last 30 days.

Of the items shared, images were found to be most popular, with 43 per cent of the respondents saying they’ve shared at least one with friends during the month. This may be down to the surge in popularity of humorous ‘meme’ images.

Following closely behind in the list of content types were opinions, at 39 per cent; articles, at 26 per cent; and news items, which were shared by 22 per cent of users. Ipsos also counted website links (21 per cent), video clips (17 per cent) and movie recommendations (25 per cent) in the list.

In terms of demographic groups, the study found that users below the age of 35 (81 per cent) are most likely to share content on social media sites. Those between the ages of 35 and 49 came in at 69 per cent and those in the 50 to 64 category at 55 per cent. Interestingly, it was also found that women, at 73 per cent, are more likely to share than men (69 per cent).

Turkish users were most likely to share, at 93 per cent. In Mexico, 89 per cent of users have shared something in the last month, while Brazil, India and Indonesia were all close behind at 88 per cent. The UK was further down the table but a significant 58 per cent of users are still sharing content on a regular basis – something the country’s businesses will certainly want to bear in mind when devising their marketing strategies.

Graeme Parton

Graeme has experience creating content for online sources and for the radio, and at university he studied Multimedia Journalism.