The world and Social Media

Shane Richmond points towards Universal McCann’s latest report on how the world is using social media. This is the third such report, covering 17000 people in 29 countries. It’s a pretty comprehensive report on what people are doing on the web – lots of numbery goodness. So what does it mean to marketers? I’ve tried to pull out highlights.

• The web and social media is global, in all markets. Usage is growing, especially in video. Do you put video on the web – that’s more than your ads?
• Widgets, installed in users own pages, are used by 23% of SN users nad 18% of bloggers. That’s a big enough audience for you to think about creating your own.
• 73% have read a blog, although the biggest source of content is personal life and family. But 34% post opinions on products and brands and 36% have a higher regard of a brand that has a blog.
• 27% of readers look for opinions on products and brands, with a high level of trust of those opinions.
• Blogs are as big as traditional media. But anyone blog may not have the reach required, so networks are the way forward to reach a mass audience via advertising.
• Widgets are becoming common; branded widgets are a huge opportunity.
• The sample size on blogs is large enough to be an accurate representation of customer opinion – so what are you measuring.
• Social Networks are growing rapidly, with MySpace still the largest globally. But different markets have very different favourites (and different behaviours) so what works on one may not work elsewhere. They’re grabbing more and more internet time, as they provide easy tools for people to share stuff with their friends. As a brand, you have to DO something on these sites, not just have a presence.
• The web is being used to consume video and other content – so branded content that fits the customer requirements is an opportunity.
• Mccann see the role of advertising moving away from interruption to other formats such as pre-roll, sponsorship and branded content. Basically not getting in the way and helping customers to access new stuff and do things in a better way for themselves.

People are using the web to share, to connect with friends, to express opinions. Whilst advertising, marketing and brands are a fact of today’s life and people are not surprised to see them in the social spaces, if the presence is not handled well, then the can be worse than if a brand was not there at all. As a brand, you’re in the customer’s place – respect them and they will respect you.