By David Howell - January 28th, 2015
Social media marketing needs to move onto a global stage and take into consideration the cultural differences that exist to ensure each message reaches its full potential.
The latest global survey of social media usage has recently been published by We Are social. The study covers over 240 countries profiling all of the major economies to give a snapshot of how social and mobile are being used today.
This massive report has several highlights including:
- Worldwide social media users exceeded two billion back in August.
- Worldwide penetration of mobile phones passed 50% in September.
- The number of global Internet users passed three billion in early November.
- The number of active mobile connections surpassed the total world population just last month.
We Are social commented: “Social media continues to grow apace around the world too, with active user accounts now equating to roughly 29% of the world’s population. Monthly active user (MAU) figures for the most active social network in each country add up to almost 2.08 billion – a 12% increase since January 2014.
“Facebook continues to dominate the global social media landscape, claiming 1.366 billion active users in January 2015. Crucially, 1.133 billion of the platform’s global users – 83% of the total – now access the service through mobile devices.
“Meanwhile, Tencent extended its dominance of Chinese-language social networks, with Qzone’s 629 million active accounts leading the pack. However, our analysis indicates that a number of the platform’s users have more than one account, meaning this figure may not be reliable as a basis for the calculation of social media penetration.
“VKontakte retains the top social media spot in Russia and a handful of its neighbours, although reliable monthly active user figures are more difficult to come by. The latest data suggest the platform has around 100 million monthly active users, of which roughly two-thirds are in Russia.”
What this research shows in abundance is that social media marketers need to think about the campaigns they are developing with a global perspective. Corporations are realising that all social media users are not made equal, with mobile social network users clearly showing a propensity to group into selective channels that change by geographical location.
This research is strong call to action that social media messages can reach beyond cultural boundaries. Corporations need to take this into consideration across 2015, as social networks continue to expand their commercial influence.
[Image Source: freedigitalphotos.net]
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