For me, the jury is still out on where social media trends will settle - refer to our post; Working with the Social Media Juggernaut - but the numbers tend to show that we have a new channel here for the long haul...
Consider the following from our part of the world (Australia!):
-
E-Marketer recently reported that in 2007, Australians spent more time using the internet than they did watching TV
-
Nielsen supported this with a survey that showed Australians spending an average 13.7 hours per week online compared with 13.3 hours watching TV (For a discussion of what they do online refer Jennie Beattie's post)
-
55% of Australians used social networking in the last 12 months; 84% of Australians use Web 2.0 to upload and share content (Nielsen)
-
Australians take-up of Facebook has gone from 220,000 two years back to 2.6M; we are now the fifth biggest country on Facebook internationally
-
Youth may have started the movement to social networking but adults have learnt quickly; in 2008, it is expected that 69% of social networking users will be 18 and older and by 2010 it is expected to reach 81% (these are international numbers...)
-
The advertising spend on digital has grown by 42% in the last 12 months to $1.4B
-
Yet advertising spend on TV still outweighs internet spend dramatically (26% vs 11%)
-
Anecdotally, the Ad-tech conference on Social Media in March 2007 attracted 1300 registered particpants - up from 300 at the comparable event two years ago
What does all this mean?
Well, if you are a marketer, or indeed a CEO with an eye on market share - you had better keep a watching brief on a new channel...
Better still, join the conversation.
leave a comment (0 comments)
