Five Friday Facts #18
News
News
How Chinese users perceive their interactions with brands on social media
Chinese Internet users generally have a more positive attitude towards interacting with brands on social networks as compared to their US counterparts. 23% of Chinese users find social networks a good source of word-of-mouth information, and 22% share brand information and experiences on social networks the same way they would with their friends and families offline. However, 17% think clicking a ‘Like’ button for brands on social sites is meaningless to them, even though 22% are more likely to consider a brand which has a large number of fans. While 23% would refer to a social networking site when making a brand purchase decision, 18% would not consider the information about brands on such sites to be reliable.
Tweeting while eating
A survey by The Hartman Group discovered the extent in which social networking has infiltrated people’s meal times. 29% of respondents say they have used a social networking site while eating or drinking at home, and 19% have tweeted or updated their Facebook statuses while at a restaurant. Millenials are most likely to tweet while eating, with nearly 47% using their mobile devices to access social media during their meals. As to what they’re actually tweeting about while having a meal, 24% engage in conversations about food, 21% look out for recipes, and another 21% are hunting for coupons and deals. This is taking multitasking to another level.
Social network users around the world
eMarketer estimates that just over 1.2 billion people around the world have used social networking sites at least once a month as of December 2011, which indicates a 23.1% growth since 2010. Asia-Pacific sees the highest number of social network users at an estimated 615.9 million by the end of this year, of which China makes up almost half this figure with 307.5 million users. China may have the most number of social network users globally, but as a percentage of Internet users, Brazil has the greater social network penetration, with 87.6% of Internet users using social networking sites. Indonesia follows closely behind at 87.5%. We will most likely see more of the emerging markets increase in number of social network users through this year as growth for countries like US and UK plateaus.
The benefit of social ads
Nielsen conducted a study to determine how well ads with social messages succeed in engaging the audience. Social ads, which are those served to friends of a brand’s fans or have themselves interacted with the advertised brand, generally generated a 55% greater lift in ad recall than non-social ads, which are those served to the general Facebook population. This could indicate the type of targeted Facebook advertising your brand should use, if at all.
How mobile has changed the way people consume media
InMobi recently released its research on Mobile Media Consumption and there are plenty of interesting insights to be gleaned from it. Most mobile Internet users spend more time on their mobile devices than on other mediums. In particular, the average mobile web user spends 2 hours a day on his mobile phones, 1.6 hours on the TV, and 2.3 hours on his laptop, out of the 7.2 hours in total that he would spend consuming media daily. Users also use their mobile devices throughout the entire day, with 39% using their mobile device while watching TV, 25% while commuting, and 67% while lying in bed. The increased functionality of mobile devices, from merely performing calling and text messaging functions to the myriad of activities in the form of mobile apps, connectivity to the Internet and mobile social networks has resulted in a much different landscape and as a result, evolving behaviours that marketers need to address and identify to better engage with their audiences.
