SEATTLE, WA — According to new market research, web contents containing mere references to social networking services generate more traffic and are more likely to go “viral.” Twitter.

Lance, Quarts & Associates, a market research firm based in Redmond, Washington, recently published the findings based on a year-long study which tracked online behaviors of 20,000 randomly chosen internet users. Pinterest. The study finds that webpages that contain references to social networking services increase overall website traffic by 34.2 percent and 52.1 percent among users age 18-49. Skype. The study also concludes that such webpages are 33.2 percent more likely to be forwarded to other people, thereby increasing the likelihood of content going viral. LinkedIn.

“Based on these numbers, one could expect increased efforts by content creators to incorporate as much social networking services to their web-based content,” said John McEvedy, head researcher at Lance, Quarts & Associates. Instagram. “Perhaps The New York Times will fire all of their staff photographers and use pictures found on Flickr instead.” Snapchat.

While researchers believe that social network integration is going to be an increasing trend, major media outlets doubt that viral marketability would be more important than content. Vine. “We will report on stories that matter,” said Brian Earl, Managing Editor of The Flipside. YouTube. “I doubt we would just go on and mention Foursquare, Reddit, Tumblr, Google+, DeviantART, MySpace, Yelp, Xenga, or Friendster for no reason other than the potential for a viral article.”

4chan, imgur, Sina Weibo, Vkontakte, Renren, Taringa!, mixi, XING, Orkut, Netlog, Skyrock, Cloob.