WHO IN THE WORLD IS USING SOCIAL MEDIA?

Power to the People Social Media Tracker Wave 3, the third study by Universal McCann, is the result of a survey of 17,000 Internet users in 29 countries. It is surprisingly current—completed in March 2008. Here are some of the more interesting results (to me, at least).

Social media is a global phenomenon happening in all markets regardless of wider economic, social, and cultural development. If you are online you are using social media.

Asian markets are leading in terms of participation, creating more content than any other region.

Video Clips are the quickest growing platform.

57 percent [of those surveyed] have joined a Social Network; 23 percent of users have uploaded photos; 22 percent have uploaded videos

Blogs are a mainstream media world-wide; 73 percent have read a blog; now 184 million bloggers world-wide; the number one thing to blog about is personal life and family; China has the largest blogging community in the world with 42 million bloggers, more than the US and Western Europe combined;

Other interesting stats:
83 percent have ever watched video clips online; 55 percent left a comment on a blog; 45 percent downloaded a podcast; 40 percent started their own blog, and 34 percent , subscribed to an RSS feed.

How many active Internet users are there worldwide? 475 million. Of those, 100 million are in the USA, 61 million in China, 30 million in Japan, 19 million in Germany, 18 million in India, 18 million in the UK, 14 million in South Korea, 14 million in Brazil, 12 million in France, 11 million in Spain, 10 million in Italy. (Australia has about 5 million.)

But what about percentages? The countries rank a bit differently when we look at percentage of all adults online. Number 1 is the Netherlands at 88 percent, followed by Australia (73 percent); USA (71 percent); South Korea, Hong Kong, Switzerland, Denmark, Japan, Taiwan, the UK, Canada, Germany (all 60-70 percent). Brazil has 44 percent, China 12 percent, and India only 5 percent.

The study’s “Final Word” says, “the key technologies that underpin the social media revolution continue their ascent. Social media is established everywhere there is an Internet connection…” They suggest creating content to establish an experience with your customers, “develop widgets applications, services and platforms that create a genuine consumer benefit and drive engagement. Be inventive in connecting with consumers. Integrate it with offline communications and use social media as link or as a story to communicate.” I like this statement: “Consumers are doing it well; well resources brands [libraries] have no excuse.”

URL: http://www.universalmccann.com/Assets/wave_3_20080403093750.pdf