Social media in Asia: understanding the numbers
The Asia edition of our Internet Statistics Compendium saw significant expansion through 2011. With rapid mobile and e-commerce growth in the region, more data has emerged than ever before.
When it comes to social media, Asia continues to be of significant interest to marketers, brands and anyone with an interest in social trends around the globe.
Here are a few highlights from our latest stats update...
Beauty companies embrace social, but love traditional channels too
Is the future of marketing social? Few today would argue that social media marketing is going away any time soon, and the most bullish suggest that social is going to increasingly displace traditional marketing spend.
But are the bulls right? If a new study is any indication, not exactly.
Analysing the social media industry
I recently contributed a chapter to a book on social media, in which I wrote about the development of the social media industry and how I believe it will develop (available in all good bookstores at some point, apparently).
Once I'd finished writing this chapter, being the mildly obsessive type of guy I am, I continued to read into industry analysis and management theories, which eventually led to digging out my copy of Michael Porter's Competitive Advantage.
Then, during a particularly dull train journey, I decided to look at how you could apply Porter's Five Forces to the social media industry and agencies within the industry (I've been intentionally generic as I think the application fits with the industry as a whole, rather than any individual organisation).
When will the "death of email" die?
Email is dying, again. If you didn't know this, you must have been waiting for the email.
According to comScore, usage of web-based email plummeted again last year, and that means that the "email is dying" crowd is out in full force, once again promoting the notion that the mobile phone and social media are making email irrelevant.
Firms are overcoming their fear of social media: report
More and more firms are using social media to improve their relationships with customers, with adoption of social networks for customer support up by 15% (to 51%) since last year.
Findings from Econsultancy's 2011 Customer Engagement Report, produced in association with cScape, suggest that, with greater adoption of social channels for customer service and product development, companies are losing their fear of social media.
Companies are also increasingly using social technology internally to improve communication and business performance, with a third of companies (32%) using internal social networking for employee communication.
Q&A: Simon Guild of Bigpoint on the social gaming revolution
Thanks to the popularity of social networks and online communities, the social gaming industry is booming. It's no longer a niche sector, and online games are now popular with people of all ages and demographics.
In fact, contrary to long-standing stereotypes, a survey published earlier this year revealed that the average social gamer is a 43-year-old woman.
Social gaming is a fast-moving landscape, and becoming increasingly significant as consumers are spending a greater proportion of their time playing online games. As evidence of this, London hosted the first European Social Gaming Summit at Chelsea Football Club recently, which explored the evolution of this rapidly emerging sector.
At the Summit. I caught up with Simon Guild, Chairman of the Board at Bigpoint Games, to discuss the latest trends in online and browser-based social games and the future direction of the industry.
Lessons from Apple’s social networking #fail with Ping
There are many things digital marketers can learn about customer
engagement from Apple. How to launch and sustain your own social network
is not one of them. Two months after the launch of Ping, Apple’s music
social network is failing to resonate with users. (It's dead in the water, if
you ask Fast Company).
What can smaller brands take away from the experience?
Social Media: conspicuous without the consumption
It's no coincidence that the rise of social media has coincided with the abrupt end of America's thirty year consumer binge.
Which social networks are right for your business?
The internet is a big place, and marketers need to choose the correct channels to generate awareness and love for their products. It has never been more important to do this. Traditional marketing channels are an economy of limited resources, but move online and you’re suddenly faced with an ecology of limitless possibilities.
A quick search for ‘Social Media’ will return hundreds, if not thousands of results and communities. Facebook, YouTube and Twitter may be the big names, but are they right for you and your business? If not, what are the alternatives?
Half of US web users visited Facebook this month
