A report from eMarketer today rolled up research from Synovate and Universal McCann basically clues us in that more than half of adults across the world don’t know what a social network is, 58% to be exact.
Based on surveys with 13,000 people in 17 countries, the study investigated online behavior and attitudes towards social media and networks. The good news, methodologies aside, was that at least 70% of Americans know what a social network is, which is much higher than the overall average. Canada however has a higher percentage of adoption. Overall membership in the Synovate survey stood at 26% of all adults with variance between countries with high membership rates that seems to pattern in a way that would be consistent with the network effect - more friends online means more adoption.
More interesting to me was the size of the dissatisfaction in the market that was expressed as the % of respondents who were losing interest in social media. Not only was it somewhat surprising that since this is still a relatively new phenomenon and therefore seeming to wane in interest very fast (one would call this a fad), but more importantly that the intent of those who were aware to join a social network was less than the percentage of users who were losing interest.
What is your take on this study?
Not everyone is pokable, that's for sure. And, I know that this will impact attitudes towards it.
* Countries in the study: Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Japan, Netherlands, Poland, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, South Africa, Taiwan, UAE, USA
Saturday, September 06, 2008
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2 comments:
I believe that the figure of 58% not knowing about social networking is probably a low figure. Although there are currently two hot trends..."going green" and "social networking" I believe they will both be around for the long haul. So jump on in and get your feet wet.
I have been pushing for my JV partner to use social networking for over two years now. All to no avail. It is hard to teach an old dog new tricks.
In trying to keep up with the social networking trends I find it hard to try and live in the "real world" too. There is only so many hours in a day to do everything you need to do. I am finding it difficult to live in both worlds.
Will we eventually have to choose the cyber or real world? We will become so internet/forum/blog/profile reliant that we forget how important real human contact is to the human psyche?
I am both amused and perplexed with social networking.
blessings,
Wendy Merritt
I can't read the whole thing right now, but I'd say that if I brought up the words "social media" or "social network" in my friend circle, they would whack me in the head. Then, they would tell me to start watching more reality tv.
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