Oh Goodness! Social Share Buttons are Useless and Unused [Report]

March 22, 2019

Moovweb, a mobile experience optimization firm, went ahead and studied 61 million mobile secessions and discovered that 99.8% of mobile users never engage with social share buttons.

MoobwebShareButtonsMobileChart

Social share buttons have always been common place in design since the rise of social media platforms. Every design you find for desktop will naturally have them located at least once or twice on a page. This practice of using social share buttons have rolled over into mobile design but unfortunately it doesn’t have the same impact (and it’s taking away very limited screen real estate).

Take this into consideration:

  • Mobile accounts for 64% of referred traffic to Pinterest
  • Half a billion people visit Facebook solely through mobile
  • 61% of the time consumers spend on social media is on mobile

So why does the social share button not “work” with mobile?

The decline can already be seen with the drop in desktop clicks to these buttons; Moovweb found that 35% of the people were less likely to tap on a sharing button when access via mobile vs desktop.

Screen-Shot-2015-05-04-at-7.34.47-PM

The real issue that has been proposed is not the share buttons but how we develop and use apps.

The heart of the sharing problem is that users must be logged in in order to share. If you’re not logged in, sharing can be kind of a nightmare.

For starters you have to thumb type your username and password. If you’ve been saving your password in-app or in-browser, you might have forgotten it. Resetting a lost password is a huge hassle on mobile.

So it’s not surprising that mobile users are nearly 12 times more likely to click on an advertisement then they are on a social sharing button.

What’s the verdict on this issue? Do social share buttons need to be removed from within apps or should mobile design replicate the ease of using an app to keep them in? All we know, for now, is that they aren’t worth the trouble (and that screen real estate could go to something better… even an ad).

Image by Edar

More Articles

How to Maximize Ecommerce Success Using TikTok Analytics
Digital Marketing
 •
E-Commerce Marketing
 •
TikTok Advertising
April 24, 2024
How to Maximize Ecommerce Success Using TikTok Analytics
With 102 million users in the United States, TikTok's unprecedented engagement potential offers ecommerce brands a new opportunity to connect with a vast and diverse audience. But effectively leveraging TikTok's potential requires more than engaging videos; it demands the strategic use of TikTok Analytics.  TikTok Analytics provides a deep dive into critical metrics such as engagement rates, video views, follower growth, demographic information, and more.
Unlocking Customer Growth by Targeting Competitor Weaknesses
E-Commerce Marketing
 •
Google
April 23, 2024
Unlocking Customer Growth by Targeting Competitor Weaknesses
Understanding and leveraging your competitors' weaknesses through competitor analysis, particularly in terms of their advertising and marketing strategies, is an extremely powerful tool for ecommerce brands. More than just keeping an eye on the competition, competitor analysis empowers brands to identify and exploit gaps and opportunities that they may have otherwise overlooked.
The Art of Meta Ads: Creative Techniques for Impactful Campaigns
Digital Marketing
 •
E-Commerce Marketing
 •
Paid Media
April 19, 2024
The Art of Meta Ads: Creative Techniques for Impactful Campaigns
With the average user scrolling away from content in less than 2 seconds, creating Meta ads that not only grab attention but convert that attention into meaningful engagement has never been more challenging—or more important.  Given the brief interaction time, each creative decision in your Meta ads—from the imagery and headlines to the ad text itself—must be meticulously crafted to resonate with the intended audience.