[Note: Aside from blogging about the impact of social media in society, I also want to popularise the concept of Social Business. I’ve decided to post regularly about a series of topics related to ‘Social Business’, which will be a combination of curated information and reflections about my own experiences as a freelance Social Business Analyst / Strategist. I hope to explore the different aspects of Social Business and help you gain a better understanding on how to optimise social and network productivity in an organisation. In this post, I’d like to give an overview on social media behaviours and underscore the importance of knowing your target audience.]
Social business as a concept and framework is, first and foremost, an acknowledgement of the profound impact of social technologies on our culture, the way we communicate and the way we work. Secondly, it’s a recognition of the potential of social media and networks for consumer engagement, workforce engagement and change / operations management. Last, but not the least, it is a framework for effecting genuine and holistic transformations in organisations.
Know thy customer
The holy grail of social media is – surprise, surprise – not media but social. By social I mean people and the networks they participate in. Before an organisation should even attempt to create a social media campaign or set up account profiles across social web, it should first be clear about its audience and their socialgraphics. This means having an in-depth knowledge of what people do online, where they converge, what they talk about, who they talk to and trust, and how they connect with each other. These are fertile grounds for consumer/user insights, which are fundamental in any online business. If there’s anything that best practices in online and social business have taught us, it’s this: don’t cut corners in project activities aimed at attaining a real understanding of the local market.
But since digital and social technologies are helping us live in increasingly proximity with each other, we must also complement local knowledge with a global perspective on how consumers use social technologies.
To get you started thinking about Social Business, above are two very relevant infographics on global use and adoption of the social web. The first is a 2011 global snapshot of social media activities in Europe, Latin America and Asia-Pacific (using the GlobalWebIndex, Comscore and Nielsen). I got this from Michael Brito‘s brilliant blog for his book, “Smart Business, Social Business”. (More details in the later part of this post.) The second is from GlobalWebIndex that visualises the global state of social networking in 2011.
While you would naturally have to conduct more local and group-specific research on your target customer’s social and online behaviour, global statistics always come in handy for comparative analysis or as a springboard for deeper investigation. Always be on the look-out for information that shows interesting trends in social network growth, adoption, and engagement that can reveal insights on customers’ relationships and their ever-evolving user behaviour.
Some insights on the GlobalWebIndex study
What struck me the most from the GlobalWebIndex study is the contrast between the focus of social media activities between established and developing markets. In the US and most of Europe, the focus is on messaging and less on content sharing. Contrast this with Asia, like Indonesia, China and the Philippines where the focus is on content-sharing and groups (joiners and creators). The Philippines also topped global social network penetration despite the still limited Internet access by majority of the population. On a side note, I personally think that the Filipinos’ quick adoption to social and mobile technologies are driven largely by sociocultural motivations such as strong familial ties and the need to connect and reunite with family and friends abroad especially in this age of diaspora.
What do these numbers tell? Let’s take the developing markets again. For one, even though content sharing or group joining in these countries come more naturally, that will not translate into success for your business or campaign if you don’t do your homework right. If majority of potential customers is into sharing content, how would you plan your content strategy to ensure you provide regular, relevant and unique social objects amidst an ocean of content? What kind of engagement strategy must you develop for sharers, and how can you attract them to engage more deeply with your brand? Are there any gaps that can be filled in the messaging domain where perhaps you can discover niche groups?
Breakdown: global social media activities
In general, playing games and video uploading and watching within ones social network are the most popular activities across the different regions. Video uploading and viewing are also popular activities outside social networks. This only proves just how sticky video content is and why it’s becoming one the most engaging content for consumers and businesses alike.
Other interesting findings: microblogging is on the rise, but blogging (within and outside social networks) hasn’t lost its touch especially in the Asia-Pacific countries. Uploading photos are still hugely popular, but I wonder why there’s no mention of photo uploads within social networks. I would’ve expected that to be another major activity within social networks.
Social Media in Europe
Within social networks:
27% install applications within their social network
41% played a game within their social network
20% sent a digital/virtual gift to their friends
23% uploaded a video to their social network profile
52% watched a video shared by a friend
18% wrote a blogOutside of their social networks, European users are equally as busy and engaged in social media usage:
31% left a comment on web site or blog
27% posted a comment within a forum or message boar
20% uploaded a video online
39% uploaded a photo online
9% use a micro-blogging service like Twitter
63% watched a video
13% actively write blogsIn 2010, ComScore reported that Twitter growth in Europe soared 106 percent from the previous year to 22.5 million total visitors accessing Twitter.com.
Social Media in Latin America
Within social networks:
47% install applications within their social network
47% played a game within their social network
30% sent a digital/virtual gift to their friends
38% uploaded a video to their social network profile
68% watched a video shared by a friend
26% wrote a blogOutside of their social networks, Latin America users are equally as busy engaged in social media usage:
49% left a comment on web site or blog
35% posted a comment within a forum or message board
41% uploaded a video online
56% uploaded a photo online
25% use a micro-blogging service like Twitter
74% watched a video
27% actively write blogsLastly, a study by ComScore calculated that 15 million Internet users in Latin America went to Twitter.com from work or home computers in June 2010, and grew 305 percent from the previous year. This number excludes the millions of users who access Twitter through third-party mobile and desktop client applications such as Tweetdeck, Hootsuite and Seesmic.
Social Media in Asia-Pacific
Within social networks:
43% install applications within their social network
55% played a game within their social network
30% sent a digital/virtual gift to their friends
35% uploaded a video to their social network profile
52% watched a video shared by a friend
53% wrote a blogOutside of their social networks, users in Asia-Pacific are equally as busy engaged in social media usage:
42% left a comment on web site or blog
43% posted a comment within a forum or message boar
29% uploaded a video online
50% uploaded a photo online
26% use a micro-blogging service like Twitter
65% watched a video
37% actively write blogsA 2010 study by ComScore reported that Facebook is the leader for many of the individual markets in Asia Pacific while India, Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan have their own local social networking sites that are dominating market share. A similar ComScore study in 2010 study revealed that Twitter grew 243 percent to 25.1 million visitors. The Middle-East Africa jumped 142 percent to 5 million visitors.
Side note : It’s interesting to note that in the ComScore study, the Philippines topped the ranks of “highest penetration of social networking usage with more than 90 percent of its entire Web population visiting a social networking site during the month”. It also showed that “Filipino social networkers have the highest level of engagement on social networking sites averaging 5.5 hours per visitor in February, with visitors frequenting the social networking category an average of 26 times during the month.”
One obvious recommendation culled from this data is that if you’re doing business with Filipinos and they’re part of your target market, then it would certainly be worth investigating what kinds of business cases can be developed focusing on the use of social channels for your branding, communications, marketing, sales and HR requirements.
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