MattDickman.com

The Face of Facebook Global Report - Q1 2009

Welcome to my Q1 2009 Global Trend report for Facebook. I prepare this quarterly look at Facebook to help you visualize patterns in the community and have a realistic view of the population free from marketing hyperbole.

As always, I use the data that Facebook provides directly from their advertising management system. Actual numbers may be larger, but we're marketers and these are the people who can be marketed to. Each country's data includes all age ranges. The data compares the populations at the end of Q4 2008 to the same population's numbers at the end of Q1 2009.

Key Takeaways:

• Large gains in western Europe and the Pacific Rim
• In total Facebook has 183,771,740 worldwide users as of the end of Q1 2009
• The U.S. only makes up 1/3 of the total Facebook population
• The Philippines and Indonesia has massive gains of over 160% from Q4
• The Czech Republic, Slovakia, Ecuador, Macedonia and Oman all had greater than 100% gains from Q4
• Nearly 40% of the population of Iceland is on Facebook
• 30% of the total population of Canada, Denmark and Norway are on Facebook
• The U.S. (14.4), Italy (2.91), UK (2.85), France (2.47), Turkey (2.18), Spain (1.67), Indonesia (1.46), Argentina (1.15), Colombia (1.10) and Australia (1.08) had gains of over 1 million users in Q1 2009

Top 25 Countries by total users

Top countries (in order greatest to lowest): US, UK, Canada, Turkey, France, Italy, Australia, Chile, Colombia, Spain, Argentina, Denmark, Sweden, Belgium, Hong Kong, Norway, Mexico, Germany, Switzerland, India, Greece, Finland, South Africa, Indonesia, Israel

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Top 25 countries by highest % of total population on Facebook

Top countries (in order greatest to lowest): Iceland, Norway, Denmark, Canada, UK, Chile, Australia, Hong Kong, Singapore, Sweden, Belgium, Luxembourg, Finland, USA, Switzerland, New Zealand, Bahamas, Malta, Puerto Rico, Cyprus, Turkey, Italy, Israel, France, Ireland

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*Note: This chart uses the total population of each country (not the online population)

Top 25 largest Q1 percentage gains

Top countries (in order greatest to lowest): Philippines, Indonesia, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Ecuador, Macedonia, Oman, Portugal, Romania, Brazil, Taiwan, Lithuania, Austria, Bulgaria, Paraguay, Kenya, Ghana, Hungary, Netherlands, China, Russia, Spain, Tunisia, Thailand, Vietnam

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Top 25 largest total population gains

Top countries (in order greatest to lowest): US, Italy, UK, France, Turkey, Spain, Indonesia, Argentina, Colombia, Australia, Venezuela, Germany, Mexico, Canada, Philippines, India, South Africa, Belgium, Egypt, Greece, Sweden, Norway, Malaysia, Singapore, Chile

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Raw country population data for Q1 2009

Country	Q1 2009	Q4 2008
Argentina	3,406,520	2,254,200
Australia	5,412,300	4,327,920
Austria	462,540	258,780
Bahrain	66,340	50,660
Bangladesh	284,660	198,780
Belgium	2,150,920	1,666,340
Bolivia	251,820	184,920
Bosnia	288,880	198,660
Brazil	392,840	209,100
Bulgaria	244,480	136,980
Canada	11,552,120	10,851,420
Chile	4,441,640	4,152,060
China	375,200	220,620
Colombia	4,743,920	3,636,320
Costa Rica	116,140	73,100
Croatia	598,320	491,240
Cyprus	134,260	109,420
Czech Republic	433,700	176,660
Denmark	2,060,440	1,778,440
Dominican Republic	163,060	115,680
Ecuador	201,320	130,860
Egypt	1,270,520	821,760
El Salvador	90,580	67,360
Finland	1,032,140	920,960
France	9,072,360	6,595,300
Germany	1,970,740	1,255,480
Ghana	93,160	53,880
Greece	1,348,920	1,000,320
Guatemala	127,880	93,960
Honduras	72,780	54,180
Hong Kong	1,706,780	1,456,740
Hungary	154,840	90,260
Iceland	148,380	120,520
India	1,602,860	1,072,080
Indonesia	2,358,400	898,360
Ireland	594,640	401,280
Israel	1,028,140	895,520
Italy	8,499,940	5,582,980
Jamaica	91,960	64,780
Japan	314,700	213,420
Jordan	317,800	266,700
Kenya	227,160	130,920
Kuwait	142,620	105,160
Lebanon	441,380	414,240
Lithuania	75,280	41,800
Luxembourg	94,780	87,400
Macedonia	140,000	78,180
Malaysia	1,183,860	851,240
Maldives	41,320	33,880
Malta	65,040	45,820
Mauritius	81,280	57,060
Mexico	2,141,500	1,439,580
Morocco	487,000	369,660
Netherlands	602,280	351,540
New Zealand	738,620	534,320
Nicaragua	43,920	29,560
Nigeria	331,240	212,780
Norway	1,795,040	1,455,080
Oman	35,600	24,240
Pakistan	546,360	376,800
Palestine	89,320	69,660
Panama	279,180	236,200
Paraguay	33,960	19,200
Peru	455,700	295,620
Phiilippines	1,030,340	390,700
Poland	300,880	194,960
Portugal	168,900	84,760
Puerto Rico	636,660	541,640
Qatar	98,020	67,840
Romania	108,460	56,300
Russia	203,180	122,780
Saudi Arabia	448,240	325,860
Serbia	753,720	557,480
Singapore	1,038,620	740,220
Slovakia	290,560	138,120
Slovenia	271,440	184,120
South Africa	1,406,120	920,860
South Korea	161,100	113,940
Spain	4,266,660	2,591,640
Sri Lanka	210,820	154,780
Sweden	2,043,980	1,697,100
Switzerland	1,382,540	1,122,900
Taiwan	205,060	112,840
Thailand	273,780	168,840
The Bahamas	54,300	43,900
Trinidad and Tabago	177,980	136,080
Tunisia	392,220	239,600
Turkey	10,105,380	7,924,640
UAE	593,560	485,540
UK	17,781,800	14,922,560
Ukraine	65,440	41,400
Uraguay	292,360	198,160
USA	56,462,020	42,017,280
Venezuela	2,732,860	1,872,840
Vietnam	63,360	39,120

Does anything surprise you on this? Anything else you would like to know?

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Technorati Tags: advertising, Facebook, marketing, Matt Dickman, social media, strategy, Techno//Marketer

When everything becomes social, what is "social media"?

What do you think of when I say the term "social media"? Do visions of Facebook pages, Twitter accounts, YouTube channels, blogs and wikis dance through your head? If you do, I think you're selling yourself short. VERY short.

Social media is a fad. All media will be social.

For the past year, I have included a slide in my presentation decks that says "Social media is a fad. All media will be social". We're already seeing instances of this in mainstream media. Just look at the Facebook/CNN partnership for the inauguration. It nearly crippled business networks around the world as people chatted with their Facebook friends while watching broadcast TV online.

This is an experience that has been taking place through divergent platforms for more than a decade (IM + TV), but is now becoming integrated into a single user experience. Just open Twitter during prime time TV and see what dominates the conversation. It's people talking together around a common topic enabled by whatever show is on.

Current showed us another example of the integration of TV with social technology as it flowed in real-time messages from Twitter during broadcast. This is a clunky solution for now until cable platforms integrate these services into the broadcast or they focus more on online delivery of content.

In-person events are even taking advantage of social technology to make the event even more engaging. Speakers (including myself) take questions on Twitter and engage people beyond the four walls of the room. Live streaming of video allows a global audience to participate in a local event.

Social technology is allowing radio broadcasts to expand their conversations as people engage online while listening or even while not listening. Smart stations are engaging with their audiences through multiple platforms. Each morning I listen to the BBC's Radio 1 on my drive to work. The Chris Moyles Show uses multiple platforms including Twitter, Facebook, email and SMS to engage the audience in real time. The hosts are savvy and the technology is simple and fast.

Mobile device experiences will become increasingly more social. You're seeing the start of this now with applications like Loopt and FourSquare, but you will see social interactions around news content via iPhone apps or any other platform that brings people together.

Does news become more relevant when discussed with my peer group? Absolutely. Once of the main problems with most social content is that the group of people commenting/creating are not relevant to my interests (see YouTube comments for example). If I can select who I have conversations with on certain topics, it's very valuable to me. I'm not saying we should censor people, but the technology allows for added relevance that we should be taking advantage of.

Even outdoor ads have started to become vaguely social. Mini Cooper took the lead on this a few years ago by using RFID technology to display custom messages to their customers as they drove by.

So, instead of taking a narrow, short-term view of "social media", we need to step back, look at all media and see what the social technology potential is and look at how to take advantage of that to deliver more relevant experiences.

How does this notion that all media will become social change your view of media? Is TV/radio dying? What about magazines? Do these have to be digital to be social?

Let's hear what you have to say!

Note: If you're interested in having me speak to your group or organization, check out my speaking page to get in touch with me.

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Technorati Tags: advertising, Community, conversations, marketing, Matt Dickman, social media, social networks, strategy, Techno//Marketer, trends

The age of Facebook vs. MySpace: February/March edition

So sorry for the delay in this report. MySpace seems to only update their ad targeting stats every other month (Facebook is done in real time). This is the latest edition of my look at social networks and their populations from a marketing perspective.

All numbers in this post are US-only and are collected using each site's advertising management systems so they are up to date and accurate from a marketer's perspective. (Who wants to talk about populations that can't be reached by marketing? Not me.)

What you need to know right now:

• For the first time, over half of the population of Facebook is over 25 (60% MySpace is still under 25)
• Overall Facebook is up 22% while MySpace is down .5%
• Facebook has now surpassed MySpace in 31-50 age ranges
• Facebook's 50+ group is the fastest growing followed closely by the 41-45 group
• MySpace's largest losses are ages 35 and under
• Facebook growth under age 25 is still slow (this group is maxing out)

MySpace down overall; Facebook over 50 booming; Facebook overtakes MySpace in the 31-50 populations

Total US populations of MySpace and Facebook:

Looking at Women on both sites:

Looking at Men on both sites:

Here are the actual Feb/March numbers:

AGE RANGE	Facebook	Δ last period	MySpace	Δ last period
13-17	6,051,940	+7.58%	17,072,104	-0.18%
18-21	11,572,420	+6.65%	19,840,744	-0.81%
22-25	8,715,060	+11.61%	12,346,236	-1.46%
26-30	7,703,320	+22.55%	10,949,876	-1.86%
31-35	5,859,840	+29.63%	5,778,080	-0.44%
36-40	4,941,180	+38.16%	3,744,776	+1.27%
41-45	3,000,860	+47.33%	2,226,476	+1.80%
46-50	1,950,220	+50.57%	1,510,488	+3.39%
51-65+	2,945,680	+51.90%	7,692,972	+0.91%

Other key takeaways:

• These numbers represent all total users who can be reached through each site's advertising systems (not all worldwide active users)
  
• MySpace's reporting system is not real time like Facebook's. Keep this in mind if you're planning a campaign.
  
• MySpace skews younger than Facebook, engaging more of the highschool population
  
• Facebook engages much more of the college population (inverse to MySpace)
  
• Women make up well over half of the Facebook population across all age ranges
  
• MySpace's 50+ population is over 70% female, Facebook is over 63% female
  

What do you think? What other networks are you investigating? The demographics and targeting options on both sites let you reach your audience in targeted/tailored ways and minimize waste. Knowing where your customers are is key.

Data sources: If you're curious, here is where the data comes from on both sites.

• Facebook - Go here http://www.facebook.com/ads/create and edit the audience settings as you wish. No need to even create an ad.
  
• MySpace - Go here https://advertise.myspace.com and then click "Click here to get started". Enter a test ad. Then you can filter by age/gender/geo/etc.
  

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Technorati Tags: advertising, Facebook, LinkedIn, marketing, Matt Dickman, social media, strategy, Techno//Marketer, Twitter

Launched: Skittles.com

Launched is a series that I am renewing to highlight practitioners who are using social media in consumer and B2B campaigns. The goal here is to cut out the theory and rhetoric and focus on real world examples of social media in action.

** Let's cut the BS on this one. I've seen a lot of people pontificate on if this launch is good or bad. Honestly, that is up to Skittles and their agency who are the keepers of the campaign objectives and analytics.

Now, on with the post. There has been a lot of buzz around the new launch of the Skittles.com website. Long story short, Skittles launched a site that uses third-party social media outlets as the base for their content. That means load up the site, you see a small Skittles widget on top of either Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Flickr or Wikipedia. Take a look at the video to see what I mean.

[Feed readers click through to the post to see the video.]

It has certainly created a lot of initial buzz, but that seems to be quickly tailing off.

Twitter Buzz:

Blog Buzz:

What I have not seen, and this may be more telling about their overall approach, is engagement from the brand. No outreach, commentary or other follow up. That is a huge loss for the brand in extending the conversation to an even broader audience.

As I mentioned in the video, the age verification "restrics access" to the content (even though it is wide open if you go directly) if you are under 13. Via Quantcast (not 100% accurate, but picks up trends) around 16-26% of their total visitors are under 13. Doesn't make a lot of sense to me.

Pros:

• Very open and transparent
  
• Bold move for a consumer brand (I wonder what legal said)
  
• Provides easy access for customers to engage on their own platforms
  
• Created buzz online (was it all echo chamber rhetoric?)
  

Cons:

• Not what you would expect at Skittles.com (games, Flash video, etc.)
  
• There are some usability challenges that detract from the concept
  
• It has been done before (although not at the brand level)
  
• Social media is susceptible to attack/fraud/defamation and, while transparent, could be of concern for a lot of companies
  

Key Takeaways:

• We need to know the goals of the campaign to judge this fairly
  
• Buzz has definitely picked up, I wonder if they'll be as open with their sales trend data to show results
  
• Good embrace of social media (especially with a younger audience)
  
• The total lack of any control is a little scary, why not pull in all of this content into a branded site? Does this form factor add or detract?
  
• You need a VERY open legal team to let something like this through, with Skittles they are young, open and it may not concern them at all
  

What say you? Take the following poll and let me know. Is this smart, dumb or are you waiting to see?

For my complete library of my videos for marketers, click here.

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Technorati Tags: conversations, marketing, Matt Dickman, reputation management, social media, transparency, web2.0, Skittles

Inside//Out: Radian6

If you are at all involved in social media, either on the client side or the agency side, you have heard of Radian6. This Canadian-based company has used its own tools to grow their influence and broaden their customer base. Post nearly anything about the company or its employees and you will have someone stop by your site to leave a comment or lend a hand. (Disclosure: Radian6 is a partner of Fleishman-Hillard, my employer.)

Just this past weekend, Radian6 released an updated version with a new set of features. If you remember in my post 'Executing a listening plan' there are three layers to doing this well. Radian6 handles the social media/forum/micromedia data very well and helps coordinate the people layer. It does not include print news, TV or radio.

Radian's new release adds more team monitoring elements to enable multiple people to coordinate. The new release also tracks comments by integrating BackType into the system.

I think it's time to give you a tour of the product, show what it is capable of and discuss how it may fit into your listening plan (current or future).

[Feed readers please click through to the post for the video.]

I am going to do more of these videos on other measurement tools to show you what the landscape looks like. If you have a suggestion or recommendation for a future video here on Techno//Marketer, drop me an email!

For my complete library of my videos for marketers, click here.

---

To help you stay on top of what is happening in digital marketing and social media subscribe to the Techno//Marketer podcast on iTunes. Stay informed and get access to new videos first.

 If you use another podcatcher you can grab my podcast RSS feed here.

---

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Technorati Tags: listening, marketing, Matt Dickman, sentiment, social media, Techno//Marketer, video, Radian6