Social media tools such as Pinterest and Facebook may be all the rage, but email remains the top social network and is also the bedrock of B2B interactions, including customer communications, transactional messages and lead generation, two studies independently found. Yes email—that channel that most people really don’t consider a social network at all—happens to be the most-used method of sharing content among friends and colleagues.

Why does a one-on-one email ‘share’ matter for content marketers? Because it demonstrates that ultimately if you want content to “go viral,” the content itself must resonate enough to get people talking among their smaller, more intimate groups of colleagues, friends and family. Trying to gain traction by having thousands of followers click on one link simply isn’t a realistic expectation, or the norm.