culture and gender in the workplace

SOCIAL MEDIA NETWORKING- WHERE IT IS HEADED

Table of Contents

Introduction to social networking and where it is headed…………………………………………….1

Social networking is the most popular online activity worldwide………………………….……...….2

Social networking around the world…………………………………………………………...……2-3

The importance of Facebook cannot be overstated………………………………………...………….4

Micro blogging has emerged as a disruptive new force in social networking………………………...5

Local social networks are making strides globally……………………………………………………6

It’s not just young people using social networking anymore – it’s everyone…………………………7

‘Digital natives’ communications are going social………………………………………………...….8

Mobile devices are fueling the social addiction ………………………………………………………9

References……………………………………………………………………………………………10 Introduction

With the widespread adoption of the Internet around the world came the rise of social networking as a global phenomenon. In March 2007, Social Networking as a category had a global audience of less than 500 million users, representing just 56 percent of the world’s online population. In those days, as Thomas Friedman put it, “‘Twitter’ was a sound, the ‘cloud’ was in the sky, ‘4G’ was the name of a parking space... and ‘Skype’ for most people was a typo.” Email reigned supreme as the king of communication channels online, and the word ‘friend’ was just beginning its changed from the rigid one-sided noun it was to the global, transformative verb it has become.
Since then, the digital landscape has changed immensely. Social networks, which provide platforms for online users to connect, share, and build relationships with others online, have forever altered the lives of individuals, communities and societies all over the world. The growth in popularity of social networking has also created and engendered new online consumer behaviors. The goal of this report is to frame the current state of social networks through the lens of how users around the world have grown to use them over time. A primer of sorts, this report addresses questions such as:
• How extensive is consumer usage of social networking and how does it vary by country?
• What is the current rate of social networking adoption in different parts of the world?
• Which sites are driving this adoption in different markets?
• How are these consumer usage dynamics changing over time?
• Where do these trends appear to be headed in the future?
In addition, a comprehensive look of the current state of social networking activity, as measured via passively observed digital consumer behavior, providing essential background research and analysis for anyone trying to get a handle on the far-reaching topic of social networking.
Social networking is the most popular online activity worldwide
Social networking sites now reach 82 percent of the world’s online population, representing 1.2 billion users around the world. The social networking adoption trend largely mirrored the global Internet adoption curve, and grew proportionately, showing that as people began to get connected, they immediately began connecting with one another. Even more telling of social networking’s emergence is the amount of time people currently engage with it. As a percentage of all the time people spend online, social networking activity has more than tripled in the last few years. In October 2011, Social Networking ranked as the most popular content category in worldwide engagement, accounting for 19 percent of all time spent online. Nearly 1 in every 5 minutes spent online is now spent on social networking sites – a stark contrast from when the category accounted for only 6 percent of time spent online in March 2007. Time spent on social networking sites gained ground during this time by taking share mainly from web-based email and instant messengers, reflecting its emergence as another primary communication channel for users. Unmistakably, it has evolved over the years to become an integral part of the global online experience, in many ways both mirroring and changing the offline social experience.
Social networking behavior both transcends and reflects regional differences around the world
The growth of social networking is a global cultural phenomenon. Despite significant differences in government, infrastructure, availability of Internet access and cultural practices around the world, social networking is growing in every single country. A look at individual markets shows the penetration of social networking sites, ranging from 53 percent in China to 98 percent in the United States, with 41 of the 43 markets individually reported by comScore seeing a market penetration of 85 percent or more.
Regardless of how open or closed a society may be, it is safe to assume that more than half of local online populations are engaging in online social networking, making the practice comparatively ubiquitous around the world. The high user engagement on social networks across global regions demonstrates its universal appeal. For each region, the total time spent by users on Social Networking grew by at least 35 percent over the past year, reflecting its growing pervasiveness across the board. In Latin America, Europe, and the Middle East-Africa – three very culturally different regions – Social Networking accounted for at least 24 percent all time spent online.
Despite such widespread acceptance, there are significant differences in social networking behavior across geographic and demographic groups. In a ranking of total time spent online, Israel emerges as the most active country, followed by Argentina and Russia. While some of this is driven by infrastructure (access to broadband, for example), it is also interesting to examine these differences of cultural norms. For instance, time spent on the Social Networking category accounted for only 11 percent of total time spent online in the Asia Pacific region compared to 28 percent in Latin America. Latin Americans also spent the most time on social networks at an average of 7.6 hours per user in October 2011. In contrast, those in the Asia Pacific region averaged slightly less than 3 hours. In our global ranking of Social Networking usage, 5 of the top 10 top most socially-engaged markets were located in Latin America, a region predisposition for social networking. Long the heaviest users of other communication channels, such as instant messaging and chat, Latin Americans have embraced the social web in a way that reflects an “over the top” social culture in the region. In contrast, those in the Asia Pacific region, particularly East Asian countries, spend the least amount of time on social networks, which could in part reflect differences in cultural norms versus other parts of the world.
In a ranking of countries based on time spent on Social Networking as a percentage of total time online, the Philippines emerges as the most socially active country, followed by Russia and Argentina. In October, social networking accounted for an astounding 43 percent of total time spent online by Filipinos, and the typical Filipino spent a significantly higher than average 8.7 hours on social networks during the month. Another interesting illustration is that consistently across all regions, women spend more time social networking than men. In North America and Europe, women spent an average of nearly two hours (30 percent) more than men on social networking sites in a month. All these variations in social behavior suggest that while social networking is indeed a significant and growing part of the global online experience, there are inherent cross-cultural and demographic differences that are important to understand
Understanding the importance of Facebook
To fully comprehend the state of social networking today, one must understand how Facebook – the largest player by virtually any measurement – drives the behavior of the category as a whole. Consider that Facebook is the third largest web property in the world, trailing only Google Sites and Microsoft Sites. In October, Facebook reached more than half of the world’s global audience (55 percent) and accounted for approximately 3 in every 4 minutes spent on social networking sites and 1 in every 7 minutes spent online around the world.
While Facebook is the leading social networking site in the vast majority of countries, it is not the leader everywhere –yet. In the beginning of 2010, Facebook was the category leader in 30 of the 43 markets that comScore reports on at the individual level. Since then, it has taken the lead in 6 additional markets, spanning Asia, Latin America and Europe. Today, there are only 7 markets where Facebook does not have the largest audience in the category – Brazil, China, Japan, Poland, Russia, South Korea and Vietnam. Putting China aside, which currently blocks Facebook, the trend in audience growth suggests that Facebook will soon be the market leader in Brazil and potentially Poland; In Japan, it is second to Twitter, but is on the same growth trajectory. In a few of these countries, it even leads the category in engagement. In South Korea and Poland, for example, Facebook trails regional social networks in audience size but shows highest average engagement, as measured by time spent. While Orkut still leads in Brazil in terms of both audience and engagement, Facebook is quickly closing in according to both metrics. By and large, Facebook has proven to be a dominant global force in social networking that shows no immediate signs of slowing down.
Microblogging a new force in social networking
Microblogging, a style of communicating through short-form content, has taken hold as a wildly popular social networking platform in recent years, due in large part to the emergence of Twitter – which saw its audience begin to erupt in the spring of 2009. To date, Twitter reaches 1 in 10 Internet users worldwide to rank among the top social networks, and posted an impressive growth rate of 59 percent over the past year.
Interestingly, the use of Twitter around the world has not been limited to interpersonal communication among friends. In 2011, Twitter was used as a central means of communication during events of worldwide and national significance, ranging from political uprisings in the Middle East to disasters, such as the earthquake and tsunami in Japan. Among the most tweeted moments in 2011 according to Twitter were political events such as the death of Osama bin Laden, celebratory moments such as New Year, and news about Steve Jobs’ resignation from Apple and consequent passing.
The announcement of the singer Beyoncé’s pregnancy at the Video Music Awards broke Twitter records as users generated 8,868 tweets per second around the event.
Additionally, other microblogging services beginning to gain significant traction are Tumblr and Sina Weibo (Sina Microblogging). Sina Weibo, is the leading Chinese microblogging site which ranks as the tenth largest social network globally, has posted an increase of 181 percent in the past year. Tumblr, ranking twelfth globally, followed suit with a similarly strong growth rate of 172 percent. Notably, Sina Weibo and Tumblr have posted the highest growth rates of the Top 20 global social networks. With both sites on the rise in addition to Twitter, it is likely we will see microblogging emerge even further in the near future.
Local social networks are going global
As global social networking usage continues to expand, there is another trend worth noting, which is a shift in geographic footprint of some of the major sites. The top tier (i.e. Top 20) global social networks have been traditionally dominated by U.S.-based sites, but the markets where these networks have the greatest reach today are no longer limited to the U.S., or in some cases, even to English-speaking countries. LinkedIn, which overtook Myspace in 2011 to become the fourth largest global network, is an example of a top U.S.- based social network attracting legions of users outside of its local base. Similar to Facebook and Twitter, the majority of LinkedIn’s audience now resides outside the U.S. While LinkedIn continues to generate the most traffic from the U.S., it shows its highest market penetration in the Netherlands, where it reached more than a quarter (27 percent) of the Dutch online population in October 2011. Western European countries also comprise five of the top ten markets for LinkedIn, showing promise for further expansion for the professional social network in Europe.
It’s not just young people using social networking – it’s everyone
Anyone with children might be under the impression that social networking is a “kids’ activity.” Several years ago, there was some truth to that. However, in the last 18 to 24 months, that has changed completely. Social networking reach in older segments has all but caught up, to the point where it’s now quite similar across age groups. In fact, users 55 and older represent the fastest growing segment in social networking usage. Even more striking, in regions such as North America and Latin America, Social Networking reached at least 93 percent of online users age 55 and older. Another group showing significant gains are males. Although males still lag in terms of reach and engagement with social networking, they exhibited a nearly 10-percentage point increase in reach from July 2010. As social networking is integrated into other online behaviors such as online video viewing, the slight differences we see today may completely evaporate.
Digital Natives
Today’s generation of teenagers and young adults age 15-24 represent a new breed of Internet users, often called “digital natives”* for growing up alongside computers, the Internet and digital media. Looking at the future through the lens of a digital native, social networking is the norm. Analysis of the communication habits of these users offers a clue as to what the future might look like in terms of how we communicate. From July 2010 to October 2011, 15-24 year olds saw the largest decline in their use of Instant Messengers and Email, outpacing overall declines in average time spent on these categories across other age groups. Simultaneously, 15-24 year olds also saw the biggest increase in average time spent on Social Networking. To date, this demographic shows the highest average engagement with Social Networking worldwide. These data collectively suggest that much of the communication going on between 15-24 year olds happens via social networks. As this generation matures, carrying these highly social behaviors into the future, it is possible that social networking, or its natural successor, could become the most important communication channel across all age groups.

Mobile Phones fueling the social addiction
From a technology standpoint, mobile devices represent the future of social networking as they provide the means for users to connect on-the-go, facilitating real-time interaction. In October 2011, nearly one-third (32 percent) of the total U.S. mobile population age 13 and older reported accessing social networking sites on their phone at least once in the past month. Across five leading European markets (France, Germany, Italy, Spain, United Kingdom), nearly a quarter (24 percent) of the total mobile population reported engaging with their social networks on their mobile devices. Smartphones drive mobile social networking use. The growth in mobile social networking use can be attributed largely to the growth in popularity of smartphones 64 percent of smartphone users reported accessing social networking sites once in the previous month and nearly 40 percent reported doing so almost every day. 22 percent of smartphone users also reported using location-based check-in services, such as Foursquare and Facebook Places. The prevalence of these behaviors on smartphones can be attributed to the influence of smartphone apps, as social networks have invested in the development of mobile apps to provide a better user experience and extend the reach of their brands. A greater percentage of U.S. smartphone owners reported using apps to access social networking sites compared to browsers. In conclusion, the growth of social networking is a global cultural phenomenon. In addition, mobile devices represent the future of social networking as they provide the means for users to connect on-the-go, facilitating real-time interaction the total audience of worldwide mobile usage. With mobile technology fueling continued growth and the need for societal exploitation and curiosity, Technology will continue to fuel the disruption of face to face communication. The impact of social media networking has enhanced buying decisions, brand awareness, political involvement, and has contributed to the overall shift in communication habits globally. The total social networking online population will continue to rise and grow as Digital Natives continue to mature and start a new breed – a generation that will continue to fuel the digital gap and adopt “cloud-like” connectivity and will build relationships with others online and forever alter the landscape of true “face to face” social networking.

Bibliography
COMSCORE GSMA MOBILE MEDIA METRICS (MMM) 2012 report
* “Thomas Friedman on ‘How America Fell Behind’”. NPR.org.
Retrieved 7 December 2011. http://www.npr.org/2011/09/06/140214150/ thomas-friedman-on-how-america-fell-behind The census data collected from the operators is described with demographic data collected from a permission-based sample of mobile users.
COMSCORE MEDIA METRIX
The comScore Media Metrix suite of syndicated products sets the standard for digital audience measurement and media planning. Powered by Unified Digital Measurement™, the revolutionary measurement approach that bridges panel-based and website server-based metrics to account for 100 percent of a site’s audience, Media Metrix delivers the most accurate and comprehensive suite of audience metrics, providing valuable demographic measures, such as age, gender, household income and household size. Media
Metrix reports on more than 70,000 entities, with audience measurement for 43 individual countries and 6 global regions, as well as worldwide totals. COMSCORE AD METRIX comScore Ad Metrix provides competitive intelligence for tracking display advertising, reporting on key person-based metrics and uncovering unique contextual insights. Using patented proprietary technology, Ad Metrix is able to track all ads delivered to panelists, offering visibility into category, company and brand level advertisements. Ad Metrix also provides details on creative messages used in specific campaigns and reports on the full range of advertising metrics, such as expenditures, share of voice, ad clutter, exposed unique visitors, frequency, reach, GRPs and publisher-level demographics. YP Holdings LLC - MobiLens provides market-wide insight into mobile digital media consumption, brand-level audience metrics, and details of device ownership and technology penetration.
Using proprietary data collection methods, we survey nationally representative samples of mobile subscribers
13+ in the U.S., UK, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Canada, and Japan. The MobiLens’ sampling and survey methods undergo extensive analysis and market validation including comparisons to known network operator market shares, leading handset model shares, downloading activity, and other usage metrics. For 2011, the estimated monthly survey completes utilized for this report are 10,000 mobile phone owners in the U.S. For the following analysis, the three-month average figures amount to a sample of 30,000 mobile users.