Seven Places Where Facebook Isn't Number One

Clearly Japan is still more enamoured with Twitter than they are with Facebook but the latter is catching up fast. A year from now it is quite possible that Facebook will supplant Twitter as the social media platform of choice.

According to comScore who conducted the research in 40 markets, Facebook reached 55% of the world's online audience in October 2011.  It also accounted for three of every four minutes spent networking on social media platforms, and one of every seven minutes on the entire web.

There are six other countries where Facebook is yet to rule.

• In Brazil, Orkut still reigns (232 average minutes per visitor) but Facebook (205 average minutes per visitor) is catching up fast. 298.5% growth in Facebook usage over the past 12 months.
• In Poland the indigenous Nasza-Klasa.pl is about to lose its ranks as #1 to Facebook
• In Russia Facebook does not get a look-in. 

• Naver.com Cafe and Cyworld are vying for top spot in South Korea
• Facebook is not number one in Vietnam although it should be noted that comScore does not collect data from that country
• It doesn't have a presence in China

And here is how Facebook has risen in recent years, overtaking locally-grown platforms

Facebook growth remains highest in countries that are often termed "developing markets" e.g. Indonesia, India, Brazil and the Philippines.

The only country in the world where Facebook's presence over 12 months has actually decreased is Canada, which a -1% growth over 2011.

And lest we forget, the global audience for Facebook currently stands at 797,952,700.

Can Social Media Pick The Outcome Of This Year's Presidential Election?

There are those who think so and clearly all candidates across the political spectrum have learnt the lessons of the immediate past.

All have strong social media campaigns running alongside the more traditional 'pressing the flesh' variety.

Socialbakers has built a dedicated elections monitoring site and its day to day social media results are revealing.

Visit the site

As I write this, the results of the Republican Iowa vote have just been tabulated showing a surge of support for a previously thought of long-shot, Rick Santorum.  The growth of his Facebook Fan base clearly pointed to this potential result in advance of the vote.

But is the growth of fans a good enough measure to predict an outcome? The answer is no.  Having the largest number of Fans is no guarantee of success.  It is the interaction/engagement factor that is critical and who is talking about you that will count for each candidate.

How many people are actually talking about their Facebook page? Interestingly, Viral Reach mirrors the Facebook's Insights measurement 'Talking About This'.

Insights Example - Talking About & Reach

If the presidential hopefuls are measured in this fashion then Ron Paul is the clear front-runner to lead the Republican challenge.

Twitter influence measured through a new tool, KRED, shows that Barack Obama has a high level of influence (998 out of 1000) and Outreach (9 out of 10).

Rick Santorum also has a a high influence score but his total Outreach score is considerably less than the President's at this stage of the race.

Compared to Ron Paul, Rick Santorum has greater Outreach but less Influence.

But Republican contender Mitt Romney has greater influence than both of his challengers but less Outreach than Rick Santorum.

As candidates drop out of the race and their supporters shift allegiance these statistics will change.  It is also very early days in the candidate selection process.  That said, monitoring social media this year will give a pretty good indication of a likely outcome on November 6th.

Related articles

• On Facebook, Obama reigns but Santorum, Romney making big gains (digitallife.today.msnbc.msn.com)
• Iowa Caucus Results: Mitt Romney Wins By Eight Votes Over Rick Santorum! (thehollywoodgossip.com)

Top Tech Trends of 2011

This Week's Cartoon

Courtesy - XKCD.com

Share and Share Alike - 2011 Trends

The dominance of Facebook and the rise of Google's Chrome browser are two points of note in this infographic from AddThis.

The use of Google+ for sharing seems to have lost momentum since the initial enthusiasm of its roll out.

Sharing by mobile continues to grow and this trend will continue but Twitter is still the dominant sharing tool in Japan.  Twitter had a stellar year with a 600% rise in sharing.

Related articles

• AddThis sharing trends: infographic (econsultancy.com)
• How Did Firefox Fare in 2011? (Infographic) (readwriteweb.com)