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.

More Just Like To Watch

Social networks continue to grow at an exponential rate but quantity does not necessarily equate to quality.

Social technographics data from Forrester Research shows a growing disparity in numbers between those that join and those who actually contribute or critique content.

Forrester uses these categories in their analysis: Creators, Conversationalists, Critics, Collectors, Joiners, Spectators and Inactives.

Their report summary highlights that while social technology behaviors are at the centre of many strategy discussions around the globe, the focus should be on the changes in consumers' adoption of these behaviors. Consumers continue to sign up for and interact on social networking sites, but other social behaviours that require creating content have seen no substantial growth in adoption since 2009. In fact, some behaviors have experienced attrition. In metropolitan China, for example, Joiners saw an increase of 18%, while Creators decreased by 3%.

For example, while a third of US online users watch video on YouTube only 10% of those surveyed actually upload their own videos to the site.

Reviewing the findings, Sarah Perez of ReadWriteWeb points out that "Creators" - those who record videos, post blog entries, write reviews and post comments to articles online - are less active this year than they were in 2009, with shrinking percentages of users in the majority of markets studied.

As can be seen from the chart above, Japan showed any growth in content creation, up two percentage points from the previous year while the others did not.

This is a concern as it would appear only existing Creators are contributing and there is little if any new perspectives being added.  As Forrester's Jackie Rousseau-Anderson puts it, "A lack of growth in this area translates into a lack of fresh ideas, content and perspectives."

Critics who provide ratings and reviews are also a declining group, recording flat or diminishing growth globally.

Spectators (the audience for the creators and Critics) are in the ascendant with Australia recording a 3% increase, Europe 4% and Japan 6%.

New users of social networks ("Joiners") records the biggest growth of any segment, with 8% growth in the U.S., 11% in the E.U., 3% in Japan, 11% in Australia and a whopping 18% in metropolitan China. 

Joiners are unlikely to immediately become Creators if they follow previous patterns of use.

So what are we to make of this diminishing 'gene pool' of creative talent in the blogosphere?  It represents an strategic option  for businesses with an online presence to become top of mind.

Given the dearth of content creation, the opportunity is to become the definitive source of knowledge and opinion, driving traffic back to a product or service online.

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• Forrester: Social Networking Adoption Charges Ahead, Growth Of Other Social Behaviors Slowing (eon.businesswire.com)
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• On Social Networks, Most Still Just Like to Watch (nytimes.com)

Buzz Me Up Scotty - Earned, Paid and Owned Media

Forrester Interactive's Sean Corcoran defines earned, paid and owned media in his latest blog post.  The definition for paid media is the easy one but not many people have come to grips with the concept of "owned media".

This is arguably the most exciting, as it is where your customers become your channel.  Word of mouth maybe the most credible but it is also an approach that requires the most monitoring, as it is outside the direct control of the company or organisation

Monitoring the Buzz need to be built into any digital strategy and while there are many online tools that can assist, there needs to be an equal investment in staff resource.  Listening to the conservations is not enough;  people with the right skills need to be trained to sense opportunities as they emerge and feed these immediately to the business owners.

I would advise caution about jumping straight in to a paid media strategy.  Many of the agency promises simply don't translate into business growth and response rates are declining.

Ask yourself this question, when was the last time you clicked through on a Facebook or Google Ad.word?  I suspect the answer will reinforce the above observation.

Sean recommends treating paid media as a catalyst to drive increased engagement over a specified campaign period.  Don't hang your digital hat on it as a long term solution though.

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