FreshNetworks Blog

In Brazil 86% of internet users regularly use social networks and other social media sites. This places them top of the league of social media users globally, with Italy in second place (with 78% of internet users regularly using social media) and Spain in third place (77%). This data comes from the Nielsen’s study of the reach and usage of these social media sites by country which looks at the reach of social media sites in individual countries and the amount of time users spend on them.

Reach of social media in Brazil

The popularity and reach of social media in Brazil is due, in no small part, to the use of Orkut, a social network operated by Google that is incredibly popular in Brazil. In April, almost half of all users of Orkut came from Brazil and its popularity continues to grow in the country. This shows the rise of social networks beyond Facebook – which has a reach of just 26% in Brazil – and the importance for global brands of developing a social media strategy that takes into account these regional differences and the importance of different social media tools and patterns in different countries.

Social network and blog site reach by country – Top 10 (April 2010)

Source: The Nielsen Company

Social media accounts for 22% of time online

This data reveals not just the countries with the greatest reach of these social media sites, but also how long the typical user will spend on them. Overall, time on social networks and blog sites has reached 22% of all time spent on the internet. The same as one minute for every four and a half minutes spent online. Australia leads the pack here – with over seven hours per month spent on social media sites. And Japan is well below average at just less than three hours.

Time spent on sites is an interesting measure and one that needs further investigation to fully understand it. For example, in Japan people are very likely to be accessing sites on mobile devices and so are less likely to spend time browsing sites and more likely to achieve particular tasks that they are looking to do. And of course, spending a long time on a site may be an indicator of slow connections or poor design.

But even with these caveats, we are spending much more time on social networks and social media sites and the reach of these sites continues to grow. All over the world.

Last week we looked a ranking of the top ten brands on Facebook globally, based on the number of people who ‘like’ them. There were no real surprises – Starbucks came top and the rest of the top ten was filled with well-known consumer and fashion brands. When considering brands on Twitter this story is sometimes different and it is not always the obvious brands that are most followed.

The same dataset, from Famecount, can be used to look at brands on Twitter and, unlike with Facebook, it throws up some unexpected findings. For example the most followed brand in the UK isn’t a consumer or fashion brand, an airline or a bank. It’s a museum: @Tate.

The top five brands on Twitter (UK)

*Note: figures from Famecount and updated where relevant to be correct as of June 13 2010

Why is a museum the top UK brand on Twitter?

We have been discussing recently why people follow brands on Twitter. With Twitter there is not necessarily a need for people to follow the brand in order to interact with it. You typically follow the brand if you are interested in their tweets and message being part of your feed. If you want to know what is happening, what they say and what they think. The data above shows that people are more interested in following a museum than they are fashion retailers, a financial services firm or a travel agency. But why?

There are some structural reasons why the Tate will attract followers. Twitter is great for events and experiences and a museum has lots of these. So if they are using Twitter well any museum should attract people interested in the events that are going on there. People also want to be updated about what’s on and when it’s on and Twitter is a great way for museums to do this.

However the success and popularity of the Tate is about much more than this. It’s thanks to the way they use Twitter. There are three simple characteristics of the way the Tate uses Twitter that all brands can learn from, and that contribute to their success:

1. Informing – Twitter is great for information. Simple and straightforward information and the Tate is great for that. It uses Twitter to provide a one-stop-shop to find out what’s on, when and where at the Tate. Telling people about what is coming up and what is currently on. (See this typical informing Tweet)
2. Responding – The Tate uses Twitter to respond to people who have been to their galleries. They ask people what they thought of their experience and respond to the feedback that they give. They also go out of their way to help people who have queries or problems and the manner in which they do this shows clearly that there are real people updating Twitter and interacting with people on it. (See how they have helped @gorgeousuk)
3. Having fun – The Tate has a clear personality on Twitter and has fun that is relevant to the museum, its galleries and the interests of its followers. From fun photos inside the galleries to fun tweets they show that they are real people and that they really connect with their followers. I particularly like when they compare the weather on a day to pieces in their collection. (See this Tweet comparing this weekend’s weather to a John Samuel Raven study)

There is nothing particularly revolutionary about how the Tate is using Twitter, but that is the beauty of it. They have identified their target market and are using Twitter to inform, engage and entertain them. And they are doing it rather well.

Starbucks is the most popular brand on Facebook when ranked by the number of people who ‘Like’ a brand (‘Fans’ as they used to be called). Over 7.5 million people like the coffee chain on Facebook, almost 2 million more than like the second most popular brand, Coca-Cola.

This data comes from Famecount which ranks brands (and people) based on the number of people who follow, like or friend them in social networks. It shows that food and drink brands are in each of the top five places, with fashion brands making up most of the remaining places in the top ten. Consumers are interested in what these brands are doing, or at least want to flag their interest in the brand or product on their own Facebook profile.

The top ten brands on Facebook (Global)

*Note: figures updated where relevant to be correct as of June 10 2010

Do the number of Facebook Likes matter?

Data like this is great for understanding user behaviour in Facebook. Showing us for which brands, and for which type of brands, users are more likely to click to say that they ‘Like’ it. However, for the brand, does the number of people who like you on Facebook matter? Not always.

The number of people who like you on Facebook is not the most important measure on Facebook. A more powerful measure is the number who engage with the brand. Liking a brand is an easy step and people do it for many reasons. At one end of the engagement spectrum because they want to hear from and exchange ideas with the brand. At the other end of the spectrum because they just want this ‘Like’ recorded as a badge on their Facebook profile. They may have no intention (or indeed desire) to engage at all with the brand.

And it is this engagement number that is of more use for brands. They want people who talk to them, like their posts and images, share their content and are active advocates of the brand. This means more than just ‘Liking’ the brand but doing something with it and engaging more deeply with it in Facebook. For any brand it is typically better for it to have 1 million fans, of which 5% engage with you on a regular basis, than to have 2 million fans with less than 1% engaging.

This number also shows the value of your presence in social media. It can be relatively easy for brands to build large numbers of ‘Likes’. It is less easy to get them to actually do something and to engage with you. But it is when they do that brands get real value.

So Facebook ‘Likes’ are important for brands, but actual engagement is even more important.

According to a recent report by emarketer, business-to-business (B2B) spending on social media is set to increase dramatically over the next few years.

Outsell, a company who provides business intelligence for publishers and information providers, estimates that B2B marketing on social networks will grow by 43.3% in 2010.

Perhaps even more interesting is Forrester Research’s prediction that B2B firms will spend $4.8 billion on social media marketing by 2014 – an increase of $2.3 billion in comparison to 2009 spend.

Emarketer’s Evelyn Jung, author of  a new report called “B2B Social Media Marketing Heats Up“, believes that B2B marketers will realise they can use social media to generate quality leads and to position themselves as thought leaders in their industries.

Currently B2B marketers tend to spend their money on customer communities, podcasts and blogs. Paid advertising on social networks—banners, text ads and search advertising, as well as the more targeted advertising on Facebook and MySpace— accounts for just a small proportion of B2B marketers’ social spending.

The expectation is that when companies budget for social media marketing in 2010 and beyond, a substantial portion of their money will go on social initiatives like creating and maintaining a branded profile page or online community, managing promotions or public relations outreach and using social media monitoring to check the impact of social media on a brand or business as a whole.

The Hay Festival has been looking for the ‘most beautiful tweet ever written’. For the last ten days, the literary festival has been seeking nominations and then creating a shortlist of tweets. Today the winner was judged by Stephen Fry.

The winning tweet was from Marc MacKenzie:

“I believe we can build a better world! Of course, it’ll take a whole lot of rock, water & dirt. Also, not sure where to put it.”

This is a concise but informative tweet and perhaps is a great example of how people are using this new medium.

What makes a tweet beautiful?

As the Hay Festival’s founder and director, Peter Florence remarks:

The definition of most beautiful tweet could fall into a number of different categories: it could prove the most eloquent; the most impassioned; the best demonstration of a clever pun or metaphor; the most evocative description of a place or emotion, or perhaps prove that brevity is conducive to levity, and be the wittiest tweet ever committed to the Twittersphere

The beauty in Twitter, and in the tweets people send, is that they convey emotion, opinion, information and expression in a relatively short period, and they, broadly speaking, do so in public. Unlike other conversational forms, Twitter, even when you direct a tweet at a specific person, has a broader audience and often an audience you don’t know. And of course you only have 14o characters with which to express yourself. Marc MacKenzie’s tweet is a good example of this new medium – the audience is unclear and the tweet manages to convey information, opinion, belief and also humour. All in 140 characters.

How you use this medium to convey information is where the beauty lies. It is a different type of communication that is developing its own style of writing, using new elements, such as hashtags, and mixing in media. It is a type of communication where we can all benefit from practicing and trying new things.

So was the tweet the most beautiful ever? Well different people will probably have different opinions and we’d love to hear your’s below. What is clear is that this is a great example of how Twitter is being used in new and different ways to convey information. Perhaps of more importance, though, is the fact that this competition happened in the first place. Through it, Stephen Fry and the Hay Festival are showing the importance of Twitter and the innovative nature of this new medium for communication.

What are your thoughts on this tweet and the beauty of Twitter? Leave your thoughts in the comments below