A recent report by Forrester Research says that social media may soon drive more traffic to websites than search engines, according to a story at Entrepreneur.com.

The shift is being driven by younger Internet users, who typically use social media as their go-to source for research. According to Forrester, half of Internet users ages 18-23 and 43% of Internet users ages 24-32 used Facebook, Twitter or other social media platforms to search.

Other highlights from the report include:

Direct marketing works. In 2012, 26% of users reported typically finding websites through corporate and branded emails, an 11 point jump from the previous year.

Sponsored search results surge in popularity. Last year, 18% of Internet users said paid search results helped them find what they were looking for. That's up from 8% in 2011.

Links keep users engaged. Roughly 28% of all Internet users, regardless of age, discover new sites from links on websites they're already visiting.

The Forrester research highlights the importance of having social media as a key component of your legal marketing strategy. While a majority of consumers still use Google and other search engines to discover a product or service, more and more are turning to social media to get trusted input from the people they know.