The global sharing that is social media, churns out some statistics that if you didn’t have a calculator handy, would turn your mind to mush.

The growing connections of these networks from Facebook to Twitter are increasing the velocity and the virality of information and “global brand” discovery.

Sharing buttons are popping up on websites, blogs, ecommerce sites and even in your emails.

If you want to be with the “In Crowd”  you need to have “sharing” buttons!

Just including social sharing buttons for Facebook or Twitter can significantly increase traffic to blogs and websites.

Sharing has become a healthy virus!

So What are People Sharing?

According to data from “AddThis” the sharing platform which is on more than 11 million websites and combines data from  more than 1.2 billion users,  the most shared categories and stories are:

• Death and disasters made up 73% of the top 10 shared stories of 2011
• 28% of all shares on “AddThis” were about Osama Bin Laden’s death

The Two Top Surprises for 2011

There has been some interesting and surprising developments over the last 12 months with two revelations that most people would not have predicted.

• Tumblr sharing grew by 1299.5%
• StumbleUpon creates a 320% viral lift in sharing

Social Media Sharing Trends in 2011

Infographic by AddThis of ClearSpring

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