After surveying more than 9000 consumers in 35 countries, Insites Consulting have released their Social Media Around the World 2011 report. Coming in at a whopping 167 pages, the data and information is bound to find its way into many a pitch between now and the end of the year.
The results overall, tend to reinforce what we already know – and what we are, ourselves, experiencing:
- Big social networks are winning and new entrants will find it hard to gain traction with consumers
- Offline brand experiences are the main conversation starters online
- There is significant interest in co-creation of products and advertising
- Social network usage is set to grow even more
- People connect with people, not brands
Some of the more interesting items include:
- Twitter use does not impact Facebook (ie they are not mutually exclusive)
- Twitter users are early adopters and tend to engage in multiple social networks
- Consumers tend to react to brand content rather than initiating conversations
- 33% of European businesses restrict access to social networks – yet employees remain the strongest brand ambassadors of all
- Smartphone owners have strong social media profiles and levels of adoption – but location based services have a way to go
Social media around the world 2011
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While there is an obvious European skew in the data, the data seems to also bear out for other markets. And interestingly, for all the hype around social media, it appears that corporations have a way to go before they catch the socially-savvy consumer.
With data like this it’s hard for anyone to maintain that social media is “just a fad”. It’s here to stay and if businesses haven’t gotten on board yet, they need to get started now or they will continue to miss out on opportunities to build their brand and expand their reach online.