I’ve always been a fan of frameworks such as Forester’s Groundswell that help you think through marketing options for emerging media. Having a structured way to sort out the (wonderful) chaos of social media helps you figure out ways to achieve your objectives.
Recently, I was looking for some information on International Social Media use and I was introduced to The Global Web Index. They claim to be the world’s largest and most detailed market research on multi-platform internet usage. They conduct 130,000 interviews globally over 36 international markets, with 3 waves each year so I think they come pretty close.
I’ve found their insights to be crisp and exciting. Given my recent work in the area of PR, there was one finding that particularly grabbed my attention – a Renaissance for Professional Media. The thinking goes like this:
The first generation of the Internet focused on the new ways that everyone could create and publish content. As the Internet has evolved, Internet users have moved more to the consumption and retransmission of content rather than producing it themselves. What is dominating Facebook and Twitter activity is ‘snacking’ on content and then quickly retransmitting it to your followers and friends.
So, where does content come from? A growing trend, accelerated by the use of social channels by traditional news sources, is the trend for users to get their news from a traditional source but then to follow up via social channels in an attempt to get the most up-to-date information possible. (Click to enlarge these slides, use the back button to return.)
Traditional sources still drive mass knowledge – but now from their online platforms for online users. Even for highly engaged social media users traditional news sources are still the main channel through which they get breaking news.
The excellent work by The Global Web Index highlights the opportunity presented by strong content and curation strategies in your area of expertise. Their full report is available on Shareshare and is the source of these two slides.
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