• by Erik Sass , Staff Writer @eriksass1, July 24, 2013

Pinterest users share more content related to e-commerce than users for any other major social network, beating out Facebook and Twitter, according to a new study conducted by Gigya in the second quarter of this year.

The Gigya study found that Pinterest accounts for 41% of all sharing for e-commerce content, compared to 37% for Facebook and 17% for Twitter. One online retailer -- Indiegogo, a Gigya client -- saw a 78% increase in social sharing after introducing its “Pin It” button for Pinterest. However Facebook is still the leader for sharing media and publishing content, accounting for 52% of all sharing, compared to 23% for Pinterest and 18% for Pinterest.

In terms of categories, Facebook dominated sharing across the board for consumer brands, travel and hospitality, and education and non-profit, though by different margins. In consumer brands, Facebook accounted for 41% of all sharing, compared to 38% for Twitter and just 2% for Pinterest. In travel and hospitality, Facebook accounted for 58% of all sharing, compared to 19% for Pinterest and 13% for Twitter. In education and non-profits, Facebook accounted for a whopping 71% of all sharing, compared to 14% for Twitter and 8% for Pinterest.

Clearly, there is a considerable discrepancy between the volume of brand-related sharing and the volume of e-commerce sharing on these social networks, with Facebook tending to have a larger proportion of brand-related sharing and Pinterest a larger volume of e-commerce-related sharing. Although this is just speculation on my part, that seems to suggest that Pinterest -- with its narrower focus on crafts, projects, hobbies, DIY, etc. -- is indeed a better hunting ground for e-commerce platforms, at least in certain categories.