International Guide to Social Media Global Guide International Guide to Social Media

Home , Avicii Arena, Friends Reunited, Rutube, Socialbakers, Youku

Contents

Brazil - Overview 3 USA - Overview 46 Social Networks 4 Social Networks 46 Social Gaming 6 US Hispanic Population 48 Video Sites 6 Social Influencer Brands 49 Social Influencer Brands 7 Language & Culture 52 Language & Culture 10 US Hispanic Population 53 Perspectives 12 Perspectives 54

China - Overview 13 Scandinavia - Overview 55 Social Networks 14 Social Networks 56 Weibo (microblogging) 15 Social Influencer Brands 60 Video Sites 15 Language & Culture 63 Location-Based Apps 15 Perspectives 65 Social Influencer Brands 16 Language & Culture 17 Russia - Overview 67 Language 17 Social Networks 67 Culture 17 Social Influencer Brands 71 Censorship 18 Language & Culture 73 Perspectives 19 Perspectives 75

India - Overview 20 DACH - Overview 76 Social Networks 21 Social Networks 77 Social Influencer Brands 22 Social Influencer Brands 81 Language & Culture 23 Language & Culture 83 Perspectives 24 Perspectives 85

Japan - Overview 25 Eastern Europe - Overview 86 Social Networks 26 Social Networks 87 Social Gaming 28 Social Influencer Brands 90 Blogging 29 Language & Culture 92 Social Influencer Brands 30 Perspectives 95 Language & Culture 32 Perspectives 34 Turkey - Overview 96 Social Networks 97 Mexico - Overview 35 Social Influencer Brands 99 Social Networks 35 Language & Culture 100 Social Influencer Brands 37 Perspectives 102 Language & Culture 38 Perspectives 39

South America - Overview 40 Social Networks 40 Language & Culture 42 Carnivals & Festivals 43 Football 44 Perspectives 45 International Guide to Social Media Brazil

Overview “In 2011 Brazil was the seventh According to the comScore report ‘2012 Brazil Digital Future largest Internet market in the world with over 46 million users in Focus’, Brazil is the seventh largest Internet market with aged 15 and over” a user base of over 46 million people aged 15 and over in 2011 (a figure up 16 per cent from 2010). The Brazilian government has spearheaded rapid development in internet connectivity, resulting in broadband adoption going from In this report: virtually nothing to connecting 88 per cent of the population • Social Networks in the last five years. It has also concentrated on providing • Social Gaming & Video computers to poorer areas of the country in an attempt to • Social Influencer Brands • Language & Culture bridge the technology gap between rich and poor.

53 per cent of Brazilian consumers have accessed the internet at least once in their lives. Ten to 24 year olds are most likely In this series: to have ever used the internet; eMarketer found that 69 per • United States cent of the consumers it surveyed had used social networking • Mexico sites. 48 per cent of Brazilian consumers are expected to • India • China access the internet at least once a month by 2016 (that’s • Latin America around 103 million users). By December 2011, Brazil had • Scandinavia • France about 78.5 million internet users. It’s predicted that 80 per • Germany cent of Brazilian homes will have internet access by 2014. Further reports due Q3 2012 International Guide to Social Media Brazil

Social Networks

Until very recently, the dominant social network in Brazil was Google’s Orkut. It may have failed to catch on in other markets, but its popularity exploded in Brazil when Google translated its social network into Portuguese in 2005.

Just over a year ago, Forbes reported that 90 per cent of Orkut’s page views came from Brazil, with comScore reporting that an average of 31.2 million visitors logged in from Brazil in 2010. What’s more, Orkut is still growing – very slightly (it had 5 per cent more visitors in 2011, from 2010).

However, with the increasing adoption of Facebook in Brazil, some have been complaining about Orkut’s functionality. Specifically the limit on friend numbers, photo sharing issues and problems with discussing topics. Although Facebook officially overtook Orkut as the most popular social network in Brazil as of December 2011, Orkut remains incredibly popular in the country, prompting Hootsuite to integrate with the network in April 2012.

“Facebook had a banner year in Brazil in 2011, with over 51 million users making it second only to the US in terms of users”

Until recently, logging on to Facebook from Brazil was so rare that in 2009 user numbers couldn’t even be measured. But 2011 has been a banner year for Facebook in Brazil - it had a 192 per cent increase in unique visitors between December 2010 and 2011, making Brazil the second largest user of Facebook at 51,174,300 users. (USA is in first place with 155,7070,160 users, and India in third with 49,807,020.)

Time spent on Facebook also increased from an average of 37 minutes at the end of 2010 to 4.8 hours in December 2011, making Facebook the most engaging social network in Brazil. Facebook users are mainly concentrated in two of the major cities, with over 34 per cent from São Paulo and over 12 per cent from Rio de Janeiro. The majority of users are between the ages of 15 and 24.

As a nation, Brazil’s economic power is growing, giving Brazilians more disposable income and extra leisure time to spend it – as with other slower take-up regions such as Japan, some say that the release of the film The Social Network helped boost Facebook’s popularity. (Another factor worth mentioning is the ability to see certain Facebook pages without having to first create an account. Orkut forces people to sign up before they can see it in action, Facebook lets surfers have a sneak peek first.) International Guide to Social Media Brazil

Social Networks

Despite Facebook’s astronomic assentation to the top of the social media chain in Brazil, comScore report that 87 per cent of social media users are keeping their Orkut profiles, as well as their new Facebook ones. (How long they will do this however, is another matter.)

Google may continue pushing Orkut in Brazil, but Google+ is also gaining users in the country. Google hosted Brazil’s first official Hangout in November 2011, and since then Brazil has become the nation with the third highest number of Google+ users – although at just over 5 per cent, it’s still some way behind the USA which makes up almost 31.5 per cent of Google+ users. Datadial estimates that nearly 70 per cent of Brazil’s Google+ users are those in the 18 to 24 age range.

Business networking site LinkedIn launched its Portuguese site in 2010, and opened its São Paulo office in late 2011, by which time it had around 6 million users in Brazil. Membership grew 91.6 per cent in the year after launching in Brazil’s native language.

Blogging is a very popular medium in Brazil, reaching an 80 million strong audience in Q1 2012. In fact, Brazil has the world’s largest blogging audience, according to comScore, with a 96 per cent reach amongst Brazilian internet users. Tumblr is currently very popular: user numbers increased by 206 per cent between December 2010 and 2011, and quantcast lists Brazil as the second most represented country on Tumblr, with 10,763,475 unique users. Tumblr recently launched localised options for Brazil with meet-up events in Curitiba, Rio de Janeiro, and São Paulo.

Twitter has around 33.3 million users in Brazil, which is the country with the second highest user numbers worldwide (behind the USA and ahead of Japan in third place and the UK in forth). There are still, however, more messages per account in Japan than Brazil. Again, Twitter is still growing, and increased user numbers by 40 per cent between December 2010 and 2011.

“When American singer/songwriter Nicki Minaj tweeted about a future trip to Brazil @visitbrazil told her not to bother”

Twitter is widely used by journalists to distribute news, and its popularity has been cited as a major factor in the rise of hacktivism in Brazil. There have been various Twitter scandals: the Brazilian government sued Twitter for hosting accounts that warned of speed camera traps; a law student was jailed for 17 months for tweeting that everyone in the North of the country should be killed for voting for the current President; and when American singer/songwriter Nicki Minaj tweeted about a future trip to Brazil, the tourism account @visitbrasil told her not to bother. International Guide to Social Media Brazil

Social Media

Social gaming

Social gaming is very popular in Brazil, with the market predicted to be worth $238 million by 2014, with a user base of 52.3 million people. Crucially, 95 per cent of Brazilians only play these games in Portuguese, something that foreign developers should note before designing an Orkut game without localisation. Social games have been harder to monetise in Brazil as a result of comparatively limited credit card use, but Brazilian gaming developers are starting to use micro- payments, provided by companies like Tutudo, to break this barrier.

Mentez is one of the largest social gaming companies in Latin America. As of February 2012 it published four out of the top five popular games on Orkut Brazil. Its total user base spans around 22 million active users per week.

Another social gaming company, Vostu, has around 3.5 million monthly active users, gaining 338 per cent more visitors between December 2010 and 2011. Its long running legal battle with gaming giant Zynga has put a dent in the company’s profits, but it’s still growing despite the challenge. CEO Daniel Kafie has predicted that the worldwide social gaming advertising market will reach $1.6 billion USD by the end of 2012.

“The social gaming market in Brazil is predicted to be worth $238 million by 2014, with over 52 million users”

Video Sites

In December 2011 comScore reported that Brazilians viewed in excess of 4.7 billion videos online, which was an increase of 74 per cent on the previous year. YouTube is the most popular video site, and Brazil is currently is sixth largest market. It reaches 79 per cent of the countries internet users.

In summary

• Orkut, once the most dominant social network in Brazil, has been overtaken by Facebook • Brazil is the second largest user of Facebook in the world • Brazil has the third highest number of Google+ users worldwide • Blogging is very popular, with a 96% reach. Tumblr is the preferred platform. • Over 33 million people use Twitter, making Brazil the second highest • The social gaming market is predicted to be worth $238 million by 2014 • YouTube reaches 79% of Brazil’s internet users International Guide to Social Media Brazil

Social Influencer Brands

According to Marketing Week, the average Brazilian has around 231 friends across various social networks, and judging by figures released by T-Index, their networks are likely to grow. T-Index predicts that Brazil will have the fourth largest online market share by 2015 (behind China, USA and Japan, and just ahead of Germany).

To date, Brazilian brands have been slow to use social media. Responses to a 2011 survey by Orbium revealed that 42 per cent of respondents had never invested in a social media campaign, although they were interested in doing so in the future. 10 per cent said that they didn’t have any interest in running social media campaigns. A study by Forbes and Weber Shandwick revealed that 41 per cent of Brazilian executives thought that the risks of social media outweighed the benefits.

“T-Index predicts that Brazil will have the fourth largest online market share by 2015 (behind China, USA and Japan, and just ahead of Germany)”

Brazilian consumers are ahead of brands when it comes to social media use. A 2011 study by Oh! Panel reported that over 61 per cent of Brazilians search for product information on social media channels before making a purchase. 81 per cent use social media to look for new products, and more than 75 per cent search for discounts. eMarketer has predicted that more than half of business to consumer ecommerce sales in Latin America during 2013 will be from Brazil. By 2015 ecommerce sales from Brazil are expected to reach $26.9 billion USD. Some Brazilian brands and personalities are already using social media to connect with consumers and fans. In some cases international brands are leading the way. It may be that reluctant Brazilian brands will wait to see what results the pioneers have before taking the risk themselves.

In June 2012 Socialbakers found that of the ten fastest growing Facebook brand pages, five were from Brazil. Of course, Facebook engagement is much more than simply getting someone to ‘Like’ a brand page – after all, they may never return to the page or engage with the brand. At the moment, Brazil’s question response rate is a low 22 per cent, so just over one in five fans reply to brand questions. This suggests that while people are currently prepared to ‘Like’ a page, they aren’t being encouraged to engage with the brand once there.

The most popular Facebook pages in Brazil belong to celebrities rather than brands. Brazilian footballer Kaká owns the most popular page by far with 17,521,444 fans. He’s followed by Brazilian lyricist and novelist Paulo Coelho (8,851,047) and Brazilian TV presenter Luciano Huck (7,016,401). International Guide to Social Media Brazil

Social Influencer Brands

The brand page with the largest fan base is Brazilian soft drink brand Guaraná Antarctica with 6,485,146 fans, followed by Skol, the most popular beer brand in Brazil (5,835,549 fans) and cosmetics brand L’Oréal Paris Brasil (4,114,791 fans).

Examples of brands using Facebook to engage and attract fans include Heineken Brazil which started a campaign in January 2012 called ‘1 Like 1 Balao’ (1 Like, 1 Balloon). Every time someone ‘Liked’ the brands Facebook page another balloon would be blown up and added to the office. Videos were made showing the state of the office as the campaign progressed. It only took a day for the brand to get thousands of new followers.

“Every time someone ‘Liked’ the brand’s Facebook page another balloon would be blown up and added to the office”

Radio station 102.1 Mix FM’s World AIDS Day awareness campaign took a different approach. The station posted two videos to Facebook: a sexy video of a man, and a steamy video of a woman. Once a Facebook user viewed this video clip, it posted itself to the viewer’s Facebook Wall. Thus the ‘virus’ spread to over 1 million Facebook accounts and achieved 6,000 views. Facebook ended up having to block the video by the day’s end.

The most followed Twitter accounts in Brazil are those of celebrities. Brazilian footballer @KAKA dominates Twitter as well as Facebook with 11,826,554 followers (as of 18/07/12). He also became the most popular athlete on Twitter in April 2012. Brazilian Axé and MPB singer and songwriter @ivetesangalo has 6,711,202 followers, and fellow Axé singer @ClaudiaLeitte has 5,611,139. (Axé music is a fusion of Afro-Caribbean and Afro-Brazilian music genera’s, while MBP is Brazilian pop music which is often associated with carnival.)

The most followed brands tend to have far fewer followers, unless they come up with a brilliant way to tap into Brazil’s heart. Brazilian telecoms brand Claro achieved this by partnering with football legend Ronaldo on Twitter. The account @ClaroRonaldo has almost 3.5 million followers. The brand decided to do this when its rival brand got selected to be a World Cup Sponsor and they did not. At one point the account was gaining 5,000 followers an hour. Brazilian airline @TAMAirlines is the second most popular brand on Twitter, but far behind Claro with almost 360,000 followers (and quite a bit of direct engagement with them). TV and Telecoms provider @Vivoemrede has just over 335,000 followers on Twitter. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the top brands are from industries that need to focus on continuous customer service. International Guide to Social Media Brazil

Social Influencer Brands

Successful campaigns tend to weave in major cultural events. Volkswagen promoted its sponsorship of the Planeta Terra Festival by launching an interactive treasure hunt for tickets using Google Maps and the hashtag #foxatplanetaterra, which started trending after two hours. Sports drink brand Powerade created a visual feed of tweets around a much hyped Brazil vs. Argentina football match, which generated 455,000 tweets.

“Like other platforms, the most popular channels on YouTube are not those of brands, but those of individual people”

YouTube is another highly popular platform in Brazil, and like other platforms, the most popular channels are not those of brands, but people. The most popular channel is that of Joe Penna, a Brazilian guitarist known on YouTube as MysteryGuitarMan. The channel has over 2 million subscribers and the 188 videos have had over 370 million views. Brazilian improvisational theatre show, Improvável is next with over 450,000 subscribers and almost 280 million video views on its 232 videos. Followed by the channel of outspoken Brazilian vlogger Felipe Neto, who has over 960,000 subscribers and in excess of 130 million video views on his 40 videos.

The most popular Brazilian brand on YouTube is Banco Itaú, a Brazilian bank which has over 51 million video views. The most popular videos tend to feature babies, children and families. (In fact, the most popular one on the channel is a dubbed version of the American father ripping up a job rejection letter and his baby having fits of giggles.) Nike Brazil (Nike Futebol) is the second most popular with over 44.5 million video views of football related content. Finally there’s Sony Music Brazil, which has over 29 million video views.

The viral video hit of 2011 was a campaign by Nissan called Pôneis Malditos which featured a man having a mechanical problem with his truck, opening the bonnet to check what was wrong and finding a lot of animated ponies. Nissan Brazil’s marketing director attributes a spike in sales and double in registrations to these YouTube ads.

In summary

• Brazilian internet users are highly social and brands need to catch-up • Ecommerce sales from Brazil are expected to reach $26.9 billion USD by 2015 • Brazilian brand Claro partnered with footballer Ronaldo to gain more Twitter followers • The most popular Twitter, Facebook and YouTube pages belong to personalities • Brazilian brands are also popular on social media International Guide to Social Media Brazil

Language & Culture

The official language of Brazil is Portuguese, which is spoken by approximately 200 million people worldwide, and is still the most popular language in the Southern Hemisphere.

Twelve per cent of all Tweets are in Portuguese, making it the third most used language on Twitter (behind English and Japanese). Brazilian’s are incredibly social, which has translated easily onto social networking platforms.

“Portuguese is the most spoken language in the Southern Hemisphere”

Brazil is a largely religious nation, with a strong Roman Catholic community. Social networks such as Orkut have been used to create and re-enforce religious networks online and in the community. It’s a very racially and culturally diverse nation, which is evident in music, cinema and literature.

Family, and social connections outside the family, are central to Brazilian culture. Both immediate and extended family have always been seen as a way to protect its members in society, but friends are also important. In the business world, nepotism is expected, as family and friends should look out for each other. The influence of friends and family should not be underestimated.

In its study, Oh! Panel found that 79 per cent of Brazilians said that they have more confidence over product posts made on social networks by friends and family, than they did in similar posts from an expert on the product.

Brazil has a strong class system. There’s a large wage gap between the classes, and women, who comprise 40 per cent of the workforce, are mainly in lower-paid jobs. The government’s policies on rolling out broadband and computers to as much of the country as possible has resulted in the internet audience in Brazil growing beyond the middle classes and expanding down the economic scale.

Evidence of the impact of this can be seen on social media. For example, YouTube is being used by children in poor parts of Rio de Janeiro to share videos of street dance battles. Known as Small Step Battle, the movement has been credited for making children healthier and keeping them out of trouble.

“The influence of friends and family should not be underestimated” International Guide to Social Media Brazil

Language & Culture

Two of the largest influences on Brazilian culture are Carnival and the nation’s passion for football (as is evident from the massive follower numbers on social channels). The Carnival is becoming more social. In 2012 the Carnival partnered with YouTube and Google+ to broadcast the events worldwide. Brazil will be the host for the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Olympic Games, and the tourism board is already launching digital campaigns to attract visitors and promote the events.

It’s clear that the Brazilian government want the nation’s digital economy to grow. Even the President used a social media campaign to win voters over during the 2010 election, but international brands that want to engage Brazilians over social media need to embrace the country’s culture and language if they want to do business.

In summary

• Brazil’s official language is Portuguese and is spoken by 200 million people worldwide • Brazil is very religious and has a strong Roman Catholic community • Family and friends are central to Brazilian culture • The nation has a class system • Aggressive internet roll-out policies have resulted in the lower classes gaining internet access • Two of the largest cultural influences are the Carnival and the countries passion for football International Guide to Social Media Brazil

Perspectives

The links below provide further information and analysis on the themes explored in this report.

Marketing Week’s detailed article for brands looking to expand into Brazil

Research and analysis of Brazil’s internet users from eMarketer

Insights into developing Social Media trends in Brazil

Ricardo Geromel at Forbes offers a detailed analysis of the Brazilian mobile and internet market

Brazil Business article on the state of social networking in Brazil

About TranslateMedia

TranslateMedia is a global language services company with offices in Europe, North America and Asia, working with clients who find themselves in various stages of the business internationalization lifecycle. This can be any stage from initial translations of landing pages and marketing collateral, through to Cultural checking of brands, Transcreation of Print and TV Advertising, Multilingual Social Media Monitoring & Community Management, and provision of native representatives.

Visit the TranslateMedia website or contact [email protected] for more information. International Guide to Social Media China

Overview “China’s famous one-child policy More than one in five internet users are Chinese. The nation’s has resulted in youngsters looking for the companionship of others 500 million internet users are just behind Japan on time their own age online” spent online per day at an average of 2.7 hours. Internet connectivity is not expected to reach the majority of the one billion strong population until 2015. In this report:

Although China blocks western social networks, domestic • China’s most popular Social Media sites • Video sites & Location-based apps social networking sites are immensely popular. Half of • Influencers in Chinese Social Media internet users are on more than one domestic social network • Chinese Language & Culture • Online Censorship and 30 per cent log on to at least one network every day.

China blocks foreign social networking sites, and censors In this series: posts on domestic social networks, yet social networking remains hugely popular amongst young urbanites. • United States • Mexico • India China’s famous one child policy has resulted in youngsters • Brazil • Latin America looking for the companionship of others their own age online. • Scandinavia This combined with the general mistrust of government- • France • Germany controlled media has resulted in social networking becoming the quickest, cheapest and most trusted way to communicate Further reports due Q3 2012 over long distances. International Guide to Social Media China

Social Networks

China has a thriving social networking scene with dozens of popular networks.

QZone is currently the most popular social networking site used in China. Populated mainly by teenagers, it has over 190 million active users (481 million registered). The popularity seems to be down to its owner Tencent’s resources rather than being the best service on the market, and users tend to move on to other social networks when they grow up. Also QZone users post under nicknames as the user base is so young, and they tend to go there to make new virtual friends, rather than talk to existing ones.

RenRen, launched in 2005, is China’s answer to Facebook. It has about 95 million active users. Around 74 per cent of its users are under 30 and most are students or office workers. Like Facebook, users are encouraged to build up content in RenRen, which makes it harder for them to consider leaving the network.

“RenRen is China’s answer to Facebook, with about 95 million active users”

Kaixin001 is another Facebook-type site which allows users to upload images, download games and blog. Its 40 million active users are mainly under 30 (61 per cent), but it has a higher amount of users in the 30-39 demographic (33 per cent as opposed to Renren’s 18 per cent). When analysed in late 2011, traffic had dropped by 65 per cent over 18 months, which resulted in Tencent investing $100m USD – in turn gaining some access to the more white-collar Kaixin user base.

Pengyou used to be a social network for kids, but is now another network used by students and office workers. Launched in 2010, it has around 80 million active users. Pengyou is another Tencent network and a RenRen and Kaixin competitor.

Douban is another Facebook type social network founded in 2005. Its best known for book, music and movie reviews. Over 71 per cent of Douban users are under 30, and it has around 20 million active users, variously described as urban youth, or “trendy young people”.

International Guide to Social Media China

Social Networks

Weibo

Sina Weibo (Weibo literally means microblog, and occupies the same domain as Twitter in China) launched in 2008 and is generally considered to be the Chinese version of Twitter – although with more functionality. It had over 250 million registered users as of October 2011, and 25 million messages are sent via the site per day. Sina also campaigns for special causes, such as the social farming collective, which helps farmers with direct source selling.

Tencent Weibo is Sina’s main competitor and more like Twitter. It’s reported to feature a better user experience than Sina, which seems to be focusing more on monetisation. Founded in 2010, it pulls most of its 20 million active users from QQ (a Tencent owned instant messenger site).

Video

YouKu is the Chinese version of YouTube. Launched in 2006, users can upload videos of any length. It’s well known for its library of TV shows and films and features many professionally produced original videos. YouKu is also much more relaxed about copyright than YouTube.

YouKu has its own computer animated mini-series – Miss Puff – which is incredibly popular among urban 22-29 year olds and under 21s. Brands work with the producers of Miss Puff in the form of product placement. For example, you’ll get lingering shots of the back of her MacBook or a close up of her Marlboro cigarettes.

Location-based apps

Jiepang launched in 2010 and is very similar to Foursquare. It’s a location based mobile app that lets users check-in at locations, earning rewards and discounts. It has just announced a deal with Tencent, which will allow users to log in to Jiepang using their Tencent account, giving Jiepang access to 700 million Tencent users.

There are many other social networks such as 51.com, which has been popular in more rural areas, and dating social networks like Jiayuan and Zhenai.cent), but it has a higher amount of users in the 30-39 demographic (33 per cent as opposed to Renren’s 18 per cent). When analysed in late 2011, traffic had dropped by 65 per cent over 18 months, which resulted in Tencent investing $100m USD – in turn gaining some access to the more white-collar Kaixin user base. International Guide to Social Media China

Social Influencer Brands

Chinese social network users appear to have more respect for brands that use social media to reach out to them.

95 per cent of Chinese internet users say that brands that microblog can be trusted to some extent. That may not sound ground breaking, but the Chinese tend to be more sceptical of what they are told, a result perhaps of a historic relationship with government and misinformation.

Despite the uncertainty, 61 per cent of web users say that they have made a purchase because of digital advertising.

International brands are starting to reach out to Chinese consumers over domestic social networks. When RenRen asked its users what their favourite brands on the site were, the top trusted brands were both global brand names: Coca-Cola and Samsung. Other brands picked out in their own categories were Estee Lauder, CK , Nike, Audi and VW.

Sina Weibo’s top three brand accounts are all international brands: Durex, Starbucks China and adidasOriginals. Sina is also starting to become popular with western celebrities, with actors like Tom Cruise taking to the site to engage fans.

“61% of Chinese web users say that they have made a purchase because of digital advertising”

How brands are using Chinese social networks

• McDonald’s Kaixin001 campaign, Group Lunch, encouraged users to arrange to meet for lunch at a local McDonald’s. 150,000 people ended up participating.

• Chanel has benefited from group purchasing website meituan.com. 3,000 bottles were sold in less than two days, after a 60% discount on Chanel No.5.

• L’Oreal brand Biotherm opened its Sina Weibo account in 2011 and quickly acquired over 40,000 followers by engaging with fans and answering questions. International Guide to Social Media China

Language & Culture

Language

Although there are several languages and dialects spoken across China, Simplified Mandarin is the main written language used in mainland China, but Sina Weibo is developing an English language version. Older generations say that internet usage is starting to modify the way that language is written and spoken by the young, but it’s hard to know what is the impact of the internet and what is just kids just being kids, adding their own adaptations to language.

“The children of the one child policy have been defined as individualistic, spoilt, and westernised...apparently they like their luxury brands”

Culture

According to a survey by Jack Morton Worldwide, Brazilian and Chinese internet users are the most likely to engage with brands online. Word of mouth information is important in a nation where official news sources are distrusted, and brands, especially foreign ones, can be seen as more impartial.

The impact of laws such as the one child policy on modern culture shouldn’t be underestimated. The policy was introduced in 1978 in an attempt to curb the massive Chinese population growth. The children of the one child policy have been defined as individualistic, spoilt (apparently, they like their luxury brands), economical, westernised and sceptical.

Growing up without siblings has encouraged them to form friendships online, and living in a state where misinformation is rife has led them to distrust official sources of information - hence the love of microblogging. Popular and slightly anti-authority bloggers include Han Han, a high school dropout who has blogged about democracy, and Murong Xuecun. International Guide to Social Media China

Language & Culture

Censorship

The younger generation may be turning to social media to get the real story, but social networks and microblogs are still subject to censorship by the Chinese government.

One incident was sparked by a hit and run at Hebei University. The driver challenged his one surviving victim to sue him if he dared, saying: “Go ahead, sue me if you dare. My dad is Li Gang!” (the deputy police chief of a neighbouring district). This caused many Weibo users to speculate about corruption and led to the government ordering the networks to stop all “hype regarding the disturbance over traffic at Hebei University”.

“Sina Weibo has over 100 censors on the payroll and will delete messages and accounts that use certain keywords”

Sina Weibo has at least 100 censors on the payroll, and it will occasionally delete messages and accounts that use certain keywords. On 31st March 2012 six people were arrested and 16 websites shut down for – what the official news agency called – spreading false rumours on the internet. These rumours had also appeared on Sina Weibo and Tencent Weibo, and so both sites were apparently punished. As a result both sites prohibited users from posting any comments between 31st March and 3rd April.

A New York Times journalist opened an account on Sina Weibo to discover just how much censorship went on there, and after a few low key rebellious posts he sent a message out about Tiananmen Square which was deleted within twenty minutes. Once the media became aware of the account it was deleted. International Guide to Social Media China

Perspectives

The links below provide further information and analysis on the themes explored in this report.

EU Asia Centre Website Bamman, O’Connor & Smith (2012) on Censorship HPL Research Paper on China Trends McKinsey China Social Media Boom Graphic The China Observer China Daily Resonance China China Internet Watch

About TranslateMedia

Visit the TranslateMedia website or contact [email protected] for more information. International Guide to Social Media Japan

Overview In this report:

Statistics released in December 2011 reported that Japan’s • Social Networks • Mobile Games population of internet users had reached over 101 million • Blogging (around 80 per cent of total population). These users spend • Social Influencer Brands • Language & Culture an average of 2.9 hours online per day - longer online than both China (2.7 hours) and the US (2.3 hours).

In this series: “Japanese users spend longer online than both China and the US.” • United States • Mexico • India • China Unlike China, Japan doesn’t block western social networks; • Latin America • Scandinavia in fact Twitter and Facebook are the most popular micro • France blogging and social networking service in the nation. • Germany

However, there are a few domestic networks that are also Further reports due Q3 2012 incredibly popular, the most notable of which is Mixi, with more than 21 million registered users. International Guide to Social Media Japan

Social Networks

Facebook had a real struggle getting a foothold in Japan. The main barriers to adoption initially were language (the Japanese network Mixi makes it far easier to converse in Japanese), security concerns (people felt Mixi was a much more secure platform and less spammy) and market penetration issues (if all of your friends are on Mixi and not Facebook, you’re going to use Mixi). In addition, Facebook organises information in a way most Japanese social network users were unfamiliar with, which also proved a problem.

Another stumbling block was Facebook’s real name policy. Japanese internet users are very protective of their privacy and prefer to be anonymous online. Home grown sites such as Mixi, Gree and Mobage adopted elements of Facebook, such as allowing third party apps – which further reduced the drive for users to make the switch. Although users continue to find the site difficult to use, Facebook did get some elements right, for example, Facebook Japan lets users display their blood type details, as it’s considered important information to share with friends.

“Another stumbling block was Facebook’s real name policy. Japanese internet users prefer to be anonymous online.”

But after years of slow growth, Facebook’s user numbers have surged in the past year. It’s thought that the 2011 earthquake and tsunami resulted in people taking to Facebook to find friends and family in order to keep them informed of their situation. It’s also likely that the release of The Social Network contributed to Facebook’s popularity. Facebook is now set to become the most popular network in Japan, with over 10 million active monthly users currently, and this figure is growing fast. (It’s worth noting that Japan has a Gaijin (foreign) population of around 2 million, who probably account for some of this figure.)

Japan is currently the only country in which Twitter is more popular than Facebook. Unlike Facebook, tweeters can stay anonymous if they prefer, and hardly have to provide any information to establish an account. It’s also far less risky for them, as friends can’t give away too much information about them accidentally.

In October 2011 it was reported that 14 per cent of the world’s tweets were Japanese language. Twitter is so popular in Japan that the 16,197 tweets per second the nation sent during New Year 2012 celebrations crashed Twitter, and a massive 25,088 tweets per second were sent when Hayao Miyazaki’s Castle in the Sky was shown on TV on 9th December 2011. In January 2012, Japan was the third most represented nation on Twitter, behind Brazil and the US, with just under 30 million accounts. According to figures from December 2011, teenage girls spent the most time micro-blogging. International Guide to Social Media Japan

Social Networks

Again, the 2011 disaster saw people turn to Twitter for fast, free and reliable communication, and although many used Facebook during this time, the numbers relying on Twitter were greater. However, the rapid rise in the popularity of Facebook has led Twitter to be worried enough about its position as top dog to form a partnership with the Japanese answer to Facebook, Mixi.

Mixi is Japan’s answer to Facebook, and it currently remains the most popular social network with over 15 million active monthly users. Like Facebook, users are allowed to post photos and share links and comments. Mixi users talk on forums dedicated to specific themes.

It’s worth keeping in mind that Mixi, like other Japanese networks, is very popular on mobile platforms which can result in differences in quoted user numbers – for example, ComScore has said that Mixi has 13.4 million users, but track the mobile users and that figure goes up to around 23 million.

Founded in 2004, Mixi has over 21.6 million registered users, accounting for roughly 80 per cent of the social network market in Japan. It was heavily influenced by Friendster, and remained the most popular social networking site or micro-blog until 2010 when Twitter overtook it. It tried to fight back against Twitter by allowing users to send tweet like messages of 150 characters from 2009, but this change didn’t stop people flocking to Twitter, and while both Facebook and Twitter user numbers are still growing, Mixi’s numbers are remaining rather static.

One of the big attractions of Mixi over Facebook was the ability it gave users to fine tune their privacy controls to dictate who could see specific posts and uploads. Users could even see who had viewed their profiles. However, Mixi removed this feature in mid-2011, and users were not pleased with the change.

“Mixi has over 21.6 million registered users, accounting for roughly 80 percent of the social network market.”

Other western networks, like Google+ and LinkedIn, are still trying to make in-roads. Google+, which has 40 million accounts worldwide, has only 2 million users in Japan. Google gave Google+ localised features at launch, such as Japanese language user menus, which made it easy to use the site, but it stumbled on the same real name problem that had irked users of Facebook. Japanese users, keen to use their online identities on Google+, decided to change their usernames over – which resulted in finding themselves locked out of their own email accounts. International Guide to Social Media Japan

Social Networks

LinkedIn has been late to the party, launching in Japan during October 2011. Like Google+ it launched with localised language support. By April 2012 it had over 400 thousand Japanese users, and in the same month it launched a How-To site to introduce new users to the service.

Mobile games/social gaming

Mobiles, especially mobile gaming and social networking, are big business in Japan. The country has 122 million mobile subscribers, and 65 per cent of mobiles shipped in 2011 were smartphones. The 2011 earthquake caused a spike in demand for smartphones, as supplies were temporarily cut and people began to realise that they wanted a phone with increased functionality. One in five mobile users access social networks or blogs from their mobile phones, and over 55 per cent access apps (only 45 per cent text).

Mobile gaming is incredibly popular in Japan, and many use in game social features to keep up with friends. Japanese mobile social gaming publisher Gree has around 190 million subscribers (mostly via recently acquired platform Open Feint) and around 29 million actual users – almost twice the number of Mixi. Gree operates a gaming platform where users can play free games using manga style avatars to interact with each other. The games are monetised via special in- game items such as weaponry and clothing.

“Gree has a greater revenue than rival western gaming giant Zynga.”

Gree is now in worldwide Beta, and currently has a greater revenue than rival western gaming giant Zynga. It’s even tempted long time Facebook social game producers to leave Facebook for its specialist network. It’s recently made a number of regional acquisitions, in an attempt to extend its reach. Gree is one of the social gaming providers that has promised to work with the Japanese government to create industry guidelines in the wake of recent in game gambling scandals.

Mobage is Gree’s main rival with around 21.7 million users. Mobage rebranded from Mobage-town and designed an English language logo in 2011 as the company wanted to take its social gaming platform to western markets. Described as a mixture of Facebook and Zynga, Mobage also lets its users earn virtual money by clicking on advertising. International Guide to Social Media Japan

Social Networks

Blogging

Japanese blogging platforms are hugely popular, with 80 per cent of Japan’s online population visiting a blog in June 2011. Japan also leads the way in time spent reading and engaging with blogs, with people spending an average of over 60 minutes in the same month. Platforms such as Ameblo go beyond simple blogging and allow you to create an avatar which you can dress and use to engage with other Ameblo users. The most popular blogging platform, FC2, has now launched in multiple languages and localities.

Blogging is so popular in Japan that 2011 statistics place FC2 as the most popular social media channel, reaching 50.5 per cent of the online population, and two other blogging platforms are also in the top five social channels - Ameblo (38.2 per cent reach), and Seesaa (29.2 per cent).

Other networks

YouTube is currently the social media channel with the second highest reach (46.9 per cent), just ahead of Wikipedia at 46.3 per cent. This may change soon, as new copyright restrictions could mean the government places restrictions on YouTube, or, according to some reports, block it completely.

In summary

• After a rocky start, Facebook is on its way to becoming the most popular network in Japan with over 10 million active monthly users • Twitter is still ahead of Facebook in Japan, with 30 million accounts. 14% of the worlds tweets are in Japanese • Mixi, Japan’s answer to Facebook, is still the most popular social network with 15 million active monthly users • 2 million of Google+’s 40 million accounts are Japan based and LinkedIn has around 400,000 users in Japan • Social gaming is massive in Japan. Gree has around 190 million subscribers and Mobage 21.7 million users • Blogging is hugely popular, 80% of Japans online population visited a blog in June 2011 • YouTube has a reach of almost 47% in Japan International Guide to Social Media Japan

Social Influencer Brands

Japanese brands, which are of course best placed to know their own market, use Twitter (96%), YouTube (82%) and blogs (54%) for most of their social communication; with Mixi (34%), Gree (30%), Facebook (24%) and Mobage (16%) as less popular alternatives.

It may seem odd that brands are not making greater strides with Facebook engagement, seeing as that’s one of the first choices for western brands, but the reluctance of Japanese web users to embrace Facebook has played a big part in that. Research into the top 100 Japanese brands found that the majority of them were not on Facebook at all, and that those which were didn’t try to engage fans. Many didn’t permit users to post to the brands wall or provide many updates themselves. Compared to western brands, they didn’t provide many methods of contacting the brand.

“Research into the top 100 Japanese brands found that the majority of them were not on Facebook at all”

Of the three most popular Facebook pages in Japan, the most popular is Facebook, the second is a golfing magazine and the third a Japanese fashion label. Many brands prefer to use an anime avatar as the official voice of the brand, as they know that Japanese web users also prefer to use them. A few brands are starting to tailor their Facebook offering by providing exclusive content and running campaigns to generate likes and engagement in exchange for free flights, virtual currencies, or collector’s items.

Facebook’s user numbers continue to rise. As well as the Facebook movie, and the network acting as a way to keep in touch during the crisis, celebrities and other high-profile users have been repeatedly pushing their Facebook pages in interviews and on the news, giving it more publicity and encouraging people to take the leap.

Now that Facebook is becoming more popular in Japan, brands looking to use it to engage fans may wish to consider the cultural differences when encouraging interactions. Japanese fans are more likely to engage with other users, by offering advice for example, than they are to respond to the brand itself. One study which looked at the APAC region found that they were the nation least likely to give praise. Brands need to remember this, as well as the cultural norms that fans adhere to, when they communicate over social networks. Otherwise they risk being seen as intrusive and impolite.

60 per cent of Japan’s top 100 brands are on Twitter, but do not engage fans. The cultural sticking points that craft user responses also shape those of the people behind the brand. If Japanese social network users find it intrusive to talk about themselves too much – even on their own Facebook wall – just imagine what that same person would do when asked to International Guide to Social Media Japan

Social Influencer Brands

market their brand on Twitter! 40 per cent of Japan’s largest brands are so stumped on what to do with Twitter that they don’t even have an account.

Social Pages, like brand pages, were introduced on Mixi in September 2011 and brands have used them to host similar campaigns to Facebook, asking participants to become friends or install apps in exchange for the chance to win prizes.

The major mobile social gaming companies, Gree and Mobage involve brands not only through advertising, but through branded social games (such as Disney on Gree’s platform) and tie-ups with major gaming franchises like Final Fantasy on Mobage.

“McDonald’s makes good use of Google Hangouts to launch new products straight to bloggers”

In an attempt to increase its user base, Google+ partnered with the Japanese pop phenomenon AKB48 (a pop act of 64 girls in their teens and early 20s). The group comprises four sub-groups and has a team of trainees who aspire to be included in the act. 2011 record sales were a massive $200 million. The line-up for a particular single is determined via two annual events, one in which members of the public vote for their favourite star, and the other where the 64 girls play rock-paper-scissors to determine who will be singing. AKB48 has a total of 90 individual accounts on Google+ and make up most of the top 100 most popular Google+ Japan pages.

McDonald’s Japan has gone from being in 10,000 circles in February 2012, to over 50,000 in July 2012. The brand makes good use of Google Hangouts to launch new products straight to bloggers – which shows just how well the McDonald’s knows its local audience.

In summary

• 96% of Japanese brands use Twitter, but 60% of the top 100 brands don’t engage followers • The majority of the top 100 Japanese brands are not on Facebook • Mixi introduced social pages (like brand pages) in September 2011 • Google+ has partnered with Japanese pop sensation AKB48 – the group has 90 accounts on the service International Guide to Social Media Japan

Language & Culture

The official language of Japan is standard Japanese, which has a grammar system designed to re-enforce politeness (Honorific speech). Japanese is the second most used language on Twitter.

The Japanese have been reluctant to embrace social media. There are fewer people visiting social networking sites, and they spend less time on them than other nations. Forrester reported that 13 per cent of online Japanese adults visit Facebook on a monthly basis, with more preferring to visit sites such as Twitter or Mixi because of the anonymity allowed on these sites.

“Japanese is the second most used language on Twitter.”

As mentioned, Facebook clashed with specific cultural traits which made adoption problematic at best. Traits such as:

Risk Avoidance - Japanese users see a huge potential for embarrassment on Facebook. Users would be deeply embarrassed if they noticed that they made a spelling mistake or factual error on their wall. This could be one of the reasons that Facebook has recently allowed users to edit old status updates. Additionally, the idea that a friend could upload a picture of you, tag you, and that complete strangers to you could be seeing your picture and name is highly undesirable to the majority. One survey result showed that 89 per cent of respondents did not wish to disclose their real names online. Unlike some western nations, Japanese social network users would rather keep their virtual friend list to close friends only, rather than casual acquaintances.

Deference – is so ingrained in Japanese culture that a reluctance to question authority has been cited as being at the heart of the Fukushima disaster. On a social networking level, if anyone you regarded as higher status than you tried to add you as a friend or contact you would feel obliged to accept – which in turn would make you more concerned about what you shared. You would not want to be viewed poorly by a superior.

Harmony – is central to Japanese culture. People are more likely to use the most popular social network, the one that most of their friends are on. Note how Facebook had a hard time attracting users until people were forced to use it during a crisis and it became a cultural force (with the movie and high-profile endorsements). One on Facebook, most would not feel able to reject or ignore friend requests, even if they wanted to because it would be considered rude. Manners and politeness are very important to the Japanese, and most users would rather posts very few updates than risk looking

“The influence of friends and family should not be underestimated” International Guide to Social Media Japan

Language & Culture self-important by cluttering up people’s newsfeeds on Facebook, or appearing critical of others (especially someone considered superior to them) or brands.

Escapism - Japanese web users place a high value on anonymity online, as many choose to use their online activities as a form of escapism. Privacy is a core value for the Japanese web user.

In summary

• The official language is Japanese • Japanese users had problems taking to Facebook due to certain cultural traits which prevented them from sharing the networks ethos, including the need to use real names International Guide to Social Media Japan

Perspectives

A detailed analysis of the problems Facebook had in Japan

A look at how some brands are using Facebook successfully

Great article from Tokyo based blog skeptikai on social networks in Japan

The New York Times looks at why Facebook failed to take off in Japan

Japan Times asks if Google+ will prove a hit in Japan

About TranslateMedia

Visit the TranslateMedia website or contact [email protected] for more information. International Guide to Social Media India

Overview In this report:

Around 121 million of India’s 1.2 billion people are online. • Social Networks • Social Influencer Brands It seems a relatively small number (proportionately, at • Language & Culture least), but according to reports, 2012 will see an explosion in internet growth, driven by the take up of mobile phones. Fixed-line broadband internet penetration is still only at around 10 per cent, while India has a reported 700 million In this series: mobile subscribers, a large proportion of whom live in rural • United States areas, with around 200,000 being added each day. • Mexico • India “According to reports, 2012 will see an • China explosion in internet growth, driven by the • Latin America • Scandinavia take up of mobile phones.” • France • Germany In areas where infrastructure and fixed telecom lines are Further reports due Q3 2012 patchy, and many people would have to walk miles to access the internet, it makes sense that internet use will be driven by the availability of affordable mobile phones and tablets (the Akaash II tablet, which will retail for 2263 Indian Rupees - about £26 – was announced in June). As a result, brands targeting Indian consumers need to think mobile for their campaigns, websites and social network pages to be effective. International Guide to Social Media India

Social Networks

Nielsen research shows that there are 50+ million active social media users in India, and they spend more time on social media than anywhere else. According to The Next Web, Facebook is the dominant social network in India (and is tipped to become the largest Facebook market in the world by 2015), followed by LinkedIn and then the Google-owned Orkut (with around 18 million users). Statistics from the GlobalWeb Index show that 49 per cent of Indian social network users now have a Google+ account, so it’s possible that Orkut users may start migrating over, or chose to keep both profiles active.

The Indian Economic Times reports that Facebook in India has around 38 million users (around 40 per cent of whom access the site via a mobile phone); although SocialBakers puts this figure at nearer 50 million. Analyst Rajesh Prabankhar (who also puts the Facebook user base a little higher, at 46 million users) says that social network users in India are mostly urban, male, and under 34 years old. According to Wat Consult, a social media consulting firm, Mumbai has the highest number of Facebook users at 3.7 million, followed by Chennai at 1.2 million users.

LinkedIn is also growing in India, just behind the UK in terms of user numbers (10.6 million). In an interview with The Indian Economic Times, Hari Krishnan, LinkedIn’s business head in India, says that mobile use changes a LinkedIn user’s behaviour, focusing on “four key areas: user profiles, status updates, groups and the inbox.”

Video consumption is also on the rise. Prasant Naidu, writing for Startup Asia, predicts that video will boom in India in 2012, driven in part by the viral nature of Bollywood, and in part by an increase in social TV. YouTube’s popularity can be demonstrated by the music video “Why This Kolaveri Di” which was a viral hit at the close of 2011. The song was a combination of Tamil and English and got around 40 million views on YouTube by the end of January 2012 – as well as trending on Twitter.

In summary

• India has over 50 million active social media users • Facebook is the biggest social network in India, with around 38 million users • Orkut has 18 million users and LinkedIn around 10.6 million International Guide to Social Media India

Social Influencer Brands

What do Indian consumers want from brands on social media? Neilsen’s research indicates that is isn’t terribly different from the rest of the world, with 53 per cent wanting to hear about sales and discounts, 50 per cent looking for information on industry trends, and 48 per cent needing advice on using and maintaining products and services.

Brands would do well to take note as Forrester Research has discovered that Indian social media users are some of the most engaged users in the world: 83 per cent were found to be critics; 80 per cent content creators; and 79 per cent conversationalists. 57 per cent of online consumers are willing to receive brand information.

India’s most innovative social media campaign? Hippo’s Indian Food League.

The biggest brands on Facebook in India (and bearing in mind Facebook is the biggest network in India, it would be fair to say these are the biggest brands online in the country) are, according to Socialbakers: Indian telecommunications company Tata Docomo (over 8.3 million fans) and Indian sunglasses brand Fastrack (over 4.1 million fans).

But search online for the most innovative social campaigns in India, and one name crops up again and again: the Indian Food League campaign by Hippo. It’s a simple campaign which pits regional dishes against each other, and encourages users to comment on a virtual chalk board showing the day’s menu. It all ties into the cricket season; the idea being that friends and families eat together as they watch the cricket together. It has a very specific regional appeal, and uses Twitter and Facebook as well as the hub of the campaign, a microsite for user generated content.

Another interesting social campaign for 2012 is MTV’s ‘Nano Drive’ – a social streaming reality show which shows four teams driving across the country for three weeks. The contestants compete for social engagement, by blogging, taking photos and videos that are shared on social platforms, and tweeting; the winner is the team who gets the highest engagement (likes, retweets etc). The winning team will each win a Tata Nano.

In summary

• People use social media primarily to get details on sales and discounts • International brand Dove is the most popular on Facebook, followed by domestic telecoms company Tata Dacomo • MTV’s Nano Drive is just one example of brands using social to engage fans International Guide to Social Media India

Language & Culture

The Economist estimates that 438 official ‘mother tongue’ languages are spoken in India (the unofficial number varies hugely). The most widely spoken is Hindi; Google launched its Translator in Hindi in 2007, and its Hindi portal in 2009. In September 2011, Twitter launched its Twitter portal in Hindi. Hindi blogging is also on the up, with IndiBlogger hosting 1500 blogs in Hindi.

The big social networks are starting to roll out their offerings in other Indian languages: Google now offers search in eight other Indian languages including Punjabi and Bengali; and Facebook is also available in eight languages on mobile.

“Analysts at Gartner are not sure that social media growth in India will be as strong as other nations anyway, primarily due to the desire for privacy.”

Traditional Indian cultural values, such as gender specific roles, the caste system and strong family ties, still exist, but are coming under pressure. Some say that this is the result of a globalised economy and the exposure to the west which the youth have gained while working in call centre environments. It’s easy to see how increasing use of global social media sites would increase this western influence and therefore weaken these traditional influences further. But, analysts at Gartner are not sure that social media growth in India will be as strong as other nations anyway, primarily due to the desire for privacy.

Additionally, the Indian government is beginning to censor the Internet. The Information Technology act compels search engines and internet service providers to delete disparaging or blasphemous posts within 48 hours of a complaint. It has also banned Pastebin and Vimeo for allegedly posting copyrighted material.

In summary

• The most widely spoken language is Hindi, but there are over 438 official languages in India • Some are concerned that traditional values are being eroded by exposure to western cultures • The Indian government is starting to censor various aspects of the internet in accordance with cultural norms, such as the demand that people do not blaspheme. International Guide to Social Media India

Perspectives

The links below provide further information and analysis on the themes explored in this report.

A very useful site for Indian social media news

Good blog post from Bikram K Singh on iMediaConnection, about the future of social media in India comScore statistics for Twitter in India

This blog from the Wall Street Journal looks at the trend of young urban Indians abandoning social media

Interesting blog post on the westernisation of Indian culture

About TranslateMedia

Visit the TranslateMedia website or contact [email protected] for more information. International Guide to Social Media Mexico

Overview

In this report: Mexico currently has approximately 40.6 million internet users (a 15 per cent increase from 2011). Internet users are • Social Networks • Social Influencer Brands spending an average of over 4 hours online in 2012, and • Language & Culture increase of nearly an hour from 2011.

Social Networks In this series: • United States • Mexico eMarketer predicts that social network use in Mexico will • India • China increase by almost 28 per cent in 2012, and that 65 per • Latin America cent of Mexican internet users will use social networks. By • Scandinavia • France 2014, this figure is expected to reach 71 per cent of Mexican • Germany internet users. Mexico is currently the fifth largest market in Further reports due Q3 2012 the world for Facebook, with SocialBakers reporting over 36 million users and over 32 per cent penetration. Eighty per cent of users are 34 years old and under. Forty-eight per cent of Facebook users say that they use the site on a daily basis, and the network was predicted to reach 25.6 million users in Mexico by the end of 2012, so it’s gaining users at a much greater rate than some analysts expected. International Guide to Social Media Mexico

Social Networks

Semiocast analysis revealed that of the 383 million Twitter profiles created before January 1st 2012, 11 million accounts were created in Mexico – making it the seventh biggest market for Twitter. Twenty-six per cent of the nation’s Twitter accounts are active (just below the 27 per cent global average).

Mexico is the eighth largest market for Google+ in the world, with 1.6 million profiles originating in the country (as of 27/07/12). It’s just behind Germany (which has 1.7 million users) and it is tied with Spain and Italy. Around 72 per cent of Mexican Google+ accounts were created by men, and almost 68 per cent of users are aged 18 to 24.

Around 3.6 per cent of global YouTube traffic is from Mexico, with four per cent of users visiting the site more than once a day. According to a December 2012 comScore report, 86 per cent of online video viewers in Mexico viewed their videos on YouTube, while 39 per cent used Facebook.

In January 2012, it was reported that Mexico was home to 2.1 million of the 147 million LinkedIn users – which is a growth rate of nearly 76 per cent since January 2011. Meanwhile, Mexico is reported to be the second largest market in Latin America for Pinterest, with just over 16 per cent of Latin American Pinterest users.

In summary

• Social networking use is growing, with 71 per cent of internet users expected to use social networks tin 2012 • Mexico is the fifth largest market in the world for Facebook, and the seventh largest for Twitter International Guide to Social Media Mexico

Social Influencer Brands

The most popular Facebook pages in Mexico are: band Mana (over 5.7 million fans); professional wrestler Rey Mysterio Jr (over 5.3 million fans); and band La Arrolladora Banda El Limón (over 4.5 million fans). Once more, the top brand pages are less popular. Blackberry Mexico has almost two million fans, Starbucks Mexico had over 1.7 million, and movie theatre chain Cinemax has more than 1.4 million fans.

Professional wrestler Rey Mysterio Jr has 3.4 million more fans on Facebook than Starbucks Mexico.

On YouTube, the most popular channels are: vlogger Gabriel Montiel’s channel Werevertumorro (just over 67 million channel and almost 592 million video views); animated video channel vetealaversha (over 11.3 million channel and approaching 270.5 million video views); and vlogger channel hectorlealvlogs (over 6.4 million channel and 53.5 million video views). While the most popular brand channels are: drinks brand Canal Oficial de Gladiator Mexico (over 613,000 channel and 387,000 video views); and HSBC Mexico (nearing 58,000 channel views and 19,000 video views). People are just starting to engage with brands on Google+ . Canon Latin America is the most popular brand, with 1080 followers, and Chevrolet Mexico is another popular company with 454 followers.

In summary

• Brands are starting to use social channels to engage users in Mexico • The most popular social media presences in Mexico tend to belong to personalities rather than entertainment corporations International Guide to Social Media Mexico

Language & Culture

Mexico has 68 recognised national languages and approaching 100 native Amerindian languages spoken (Nahuatl being the first language of over one million Mexicans). Spanish is the dominant language in the country. Ethnically, 60 per cent of Mexicans are classed as Mestizo (a mixture of Amerindian and Spanish), 30 per cent Amerindian or mainly Amerindian, nine per cent white and one per cent ‘other’.

Like many Central and South American nations, Mexican culture values strong families and close-knit communities. There is great suspicion of official corruption, which strong local and family ties help to protect against. It is also a very hierarchical society, both at home and in the workplace.

The editor-in-chief of the Primera Hora newspaper was beheaded for reporting gang incidents via social media.

Mexico also has a very strong traditional culture of masculinity (or Machismo), which is starting to diminish as women as beginning to take on traditional male roles. However, Mexico now has a female presidential candidate, but some are still questioning if a woman can do the job.

Social media has been used to protest poor social and economic conditions, with the Mexican public stating the “I am 132” campaign which aims to show the world the real problems that people are experiencing in the country. Individual journalists and bloggers have tried to work to help bring down drug gangs by reporting incidents via social media – with the editor-in-chief of the Primera Hora newspaper being beheaded for doing so.

In summary

• Mexico is mostly Spanish speaking, though has 68 recognised languages • Families and close-knit communities are an important feature of Mexican society • Social media has been used to highlight social problems and campaigns International Guide to Social Media Mexico

Perspectives

LinkedIn statistics for January 2011 to 2012

Excellent article on social networking and engagement in Mexico

About TranslateMedia

Visit the TranslateMedia website or contact [email protected] for more information. International Guide to Social Media South America

Overview In this report: The Central and South America regions comprise 18 independent nations. While these countries may share • Social Networks • Social Influencer Brands borders, each has a unique history and culture. • Language & Culture

As of December 2011 there were 50.1 million internet users in Central America and 173.1 million internet users in South America. We Are Social reports that internet penetration in the Central and South America region is 36 per cent, In this series: demonstrating the massive growth potential in the region. • United States • Mexico However, it should be noted that in some countries internet • India connectivity is still patchy. For example, a blogger from an • China • Latin America indigenous community in Bolivia may have to travel three • Scandinavia and a half hours by bus to reach the nearest city and upload • France • Germany his blog posts. Further reports due Q3 2012 Social Networks

When comScore analysed which 20 countries spent the most time on social networks in the month of April 2011, five of them were from South America. International Guide to Social Media South America

Social Networks

Argentina came in at number three on the list at 8.4 hours, followed by Venezuela (6th) and Colombia (8th) at seven hours; Chile (9th) 6.7 hours and Peru (18th) 4.9 hours. Brazil, with 4.4 hours didn’t make the list.

Facebook is popular in the region, especially in South America, with over 53 million users in Brazil (26.38% penetration), 19.3 million users in Argentina (46.68% penetration) and almost 20 million users in Colombia (38.25% penetration). South America is one of the fastest growing regions for Facebook, adding over 20 million users in the past 16 months. The most Facebook-friendly Central American nations are Guatemala, with just over two million users (15.31% penetration), El Salvador at nearly 1.5 million users (23.45% penetration) and Honduras at just over one million users (14.49% penetration).

Google+ is used by many in the region, especially Argentina, where more than 825,000 people have an account.

“In Costa Rica, blogging is used as a way to lift the lid on corrupt practices.”

In Costa Rica, blogging is used as a way to lift the lid on corrupt practices. One of the most popular blogs, El Infierno en Costa Rica, is published under the pseudonym El Chamuko. It uses popular Costa Rican blogging platform TicoBlogger, which allows bloggers to distribute content over social media channels.

Twitter is popular in South America, with three South American nations making the top 10 Twitter penetration list in for the month of March 2011 – Brazil (no.3 / 23.7%), Venezuela (no.5 / 21%) and Argentina (no.7 / 18%).

In summary

• 5 out of the top 20 nations spending the most time on social networks are in South America • South America is one of the fastest growing regions for Facebook • Brazil has over 53 million Facebook users, Guatemala has over two million • Over 825,000 Argentinians are on Google+ • Brazil, Venezuela and Argentina were in the top 10 Twitter penetration list for March 2011 International Guide to Social Media South America

Social Influencer Brands

People in Peru, Brazil, Colombia and Chile are more open to being contacted by brands on social media channels than they are resistant, which isn’t surprising as around 46 per cent of the Central and South American market talk about brands over the internet (Argentina lead the way, with 25 per cent of the population discussing brands online).

Brands viewing the area as a single region should think again – the top brands in social media in each country are different. McDonald’s Costa Rica is nearing 152,000 Facebook fans, whereas Pizza Hut El Salvador has over 197,000 fans. Claro, a TV and phone line provider popular on Twitter in Brazil (the result of a partnership with Ronaldo), is the most popular Facebook brand page in Guatemala (almost 442,000) and Honduras (just over 246,000). Fashion brand Loveable is the most popular brand page in Nicaragua (nearing 130,000) and beer producer Quilmes Cerveza is the most loved page in Argentina (at 1.9 million fans and counting). Cinema chain Cineplanet is the most popular brand page in Peru with around 1.2 million fans.

In 2010 South American retailer Homecentre Sodimac ran a successful social media campaign called ‘The man who gave everything away’. A Colombian man woke up one morning and deciding to give all of his possessions away. He set up a Facebook page and uploaded videos to YouTube detailing his plans. The Facebook page gained an average of two fans every six minutes, and the page was viewed almost 350,000 times. On the day itself, people lined-up outside the man’s house and took away all of its contents. Once his house was empty he revealed he’d done it because ‘the Homecenter House Season is the best excuse to renovate your home at the lowest prices.’

In summary

• 46% of the Central and South American market talk about brands online • Brands are connecting with the Central and South America on a national level • Regional brands are using social media channels to engage with local markets • Businesses are using social media to engage audiences in the products backstory • Global brands are turning their social presences into an interactive experience International Guide to Social Media South America

Language & Culture

The languages and cultures of South and Central America are incredibly diverse, and have been shaped by colonisation and, in many cases, immigrant settlers intermarrying with native tribes over the centuries. The result is a richly diverse ethnic and religious mixture.

Eleven Central and South American countries have Spanish as the official language: Costa Rica, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Uruguay and Venezuela (although there are over 40 indigenous dialects spoken in Venezuela that are also classed as official languages).

“A richly diverse ethnic and religious mixture.”

Argentina is another country with Spanish as its official language, but English, Italian, German and French are also spoken.

Bolivia has three official languages: Spanish, Quechua and Aymara. Guatemala has two, with 60 per cent of the population Spanish speaking and 40 per cent Amerindian.

The people of Paraguay have both Spanish and Guarani as dominant languages. Spanish and Quechua are the main languages in Peru, whereas Portuguese is the official language of Brazil.

Belize has English as the official language and Spanish, as well as native tongues like Mayan, Garifuna and Creole, as less dominant languages.

Suriname, has Dutch as its main language (over 60 per cent of the nation speak it) and Sranan Tongo, Hindi, Javanese, Maroon and other indigenous languages spoken.

Culture is again, very diverse. Due to varying colonial influences mixing with different local indigenous populations, each nation has its own vibrant and unique culture. There are a few cultural traits and activities that are common to many countries in the region. International Guide to Social Media South America

Language & Culture

Carnivals and festivals

These are held in many Central and South American nations. The word Carnival is rooted in Catholic tradition and refers to the days leading up to Lent, which has historically been a time of feasting before abstaining during the 40 days of Lent.

However, this period of feasting is also seen in non-Christian tradition as a celebration of seasonal bounty. For this reason, many of the largely Catholic Central and South American nations have pre-Lent carnivals.

El Salvador holds many festivals throughout the year, but its main carnival is the Carnival of San Miguel – a seven day event held in November that celebrates the patron of the population, Our Lady of Peace. Guatemala holds an annual eight day Carnival in Mazatenango, which is seen as a way to get all of the excess partying and feasting done before Lent begins. Panama’s “los Carnavales” celebrations are the largest festival celebrations in the country, starting four days before Ash Wednesday. The Carnival of La Ceiba in Honduras is the largest Carnival in Central America. It’s held in May, and honours the patron saint of La Ceiba, Saint Isidore the Laborer. Arguably the most famous carnival in the world is Brazil’s Rio Carnival held for four days in the run up to Easter. The Rio Carnival attracts approximately 500,000 foreign visitors a year, and attracts worldwide coverage. Colombia’s Barranquilla Carnival is another one that lasts for four days before Lent. The event has been declared a World Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO. The Venezuela carnival lasts for two days before Lent and is regarded in the same way as Christmas, with people choosing to celebrate with family.

Carnivals are also held at other times of the year for different reasons. Belize holds its main carnival on September 10th to celebrate the 1798 victory of the Battle of St.George’s Caye – when the British settlers prevented a Spanish invasion of Belize from Mexico.

Costa Rica has festivals and carnivals throughout the year, most notably the Puntarenas Carnival, which is a vibrant celebration of Costa Rican culture lasting 10 days in February. Argentina’s main carnival takes place in Gualeguaychú and is now known as ‘The Carnival of the Country’. The Punta Arenas Winter Carnival, which was only established in 1997, has become a national event for Chile (and visiting Argentines). Paraguay’s Encarnación Carnival is the highlight of the country’s festival season. The Cajamarca Carnival is Peru’s month long cultural celebration, which features mass water fights and traditional gift giving. Uruguay has the longest Carnival season in the world, lasting all summer. International Guide to Social Media South America

Language & Culture

Nicaragua’s longest Carnival is held in the city of Bluefields and lasts for the entire month of May (although the major events are at the end of the month). The carnival, Palo de Mayo, is celebrated as a tribute to an African goddess of fertility. The Carnaval de Oruro is Bolivia’s largest carnival and celebrates Pachamama (Mother Earth) and Tio Supay (God of the mountains). It’s a traditional Uru celebration. Ecuador’s festival traditions pre-date the arrival of Christianity, the largest is La Fiesta de la Fruta y las Flores (Festival of Fruit and Flowers), held in Ambato. The nation’s children also engage in vigorous water fights during the festivals.

Football

Football is tremendously popular across Central and South America; in fact there are only three nations where another sport (baseball) is more popular, they are Nicaragua, Panama and Venezuela.

Football even lit the fuse that caused a brief war between El Salvador and Honduras. The four day conflict, known as the Football War, took place in 1969 and the resulting land disputes are still unresolved. The war was caused by overpopulation in a land poor El Salvador and disputes with its more sparsely populated neighbour Honduras. It was in this environment that the two nations faced each other on the football field, twice. Both matches resulted in fights breaking out amongst the fans in attendance, and violence away from the arena. After El Salvador won the second match the country dissolved all ties with Honduras, accused it of genocide and demanded reparations. National press fed the bad feeling and two weeks after the last match El Salvador invaded Honduras.

Several Central and South American nations are using social media to tackle social problems and boost the economy. NGO, the organisation for youth empowerment, is using social channels and blogging to highlight its work in Honduras. The three most popular Facebook pages in Belize are all local hotels and Nicaragua is using Facebook to promote tourism. However, social media cannot reach all areas. In December 2011 the Colombian army sent messages to rebel FARC solders to demobilise and return to their families for Christmas. It did this by putting the messages into Christmas ornaments and letting them float down river into occupied jungle.

In summary

• Central and South America has no unified culture, each nation is unique and diverse • Official languages include Spanish, Portuguese and Dutch, and various local languages in each nation Cultural events and traits common to many nations include: a passion for football; strong family ties and Carnivals International Guide to Social Media South America

Perspectives

The links below provide further information and analysis on the themes explored in this report.

Detailed report on the Top 50 most valuable Latin American Brands 2012

Valuable insights into the Brazilian, Latin American and US Hispanic markets

About TranslateMedia

Visit the TranslateMedia website or contact [email protected] for more information. International Guide to Social Media USA

Overview

In this report: The United States has an online population of around 190.7 million people aged 15 and over (which represents five per • Social Networks • Hispanic population cent growth from Q1 2011). According to comScore’s analysis • Social Influencer Brands of worldwide internet usage in Q1 2012, the average U.S. • Language & Culture internet user spends 38.8 hours online per month (behind Canada at 44.3 hours, and ahead of the UK at 35.1 hours). There are roughly 32.2 million Hispanics online in the U.S. A In this series: and this figure expected to reach 42 million by 2014. • United States • Mexico • India • China Social Networks • Latin America • Scandinavia • France • Germany The United States is Facebook’s primary market, with

155,551,340 users and a 50.14 per cent penetration. 55 per Further reports due Q3 2012 cent of Facebook users are aged 34 and under, and slightly more women than men use the social network. The site gets around 167 million unique visitors per month from the U.S., with an average monthly use of over six and a half hours. Although it’s still gaining users, at 4 per cent growth between May 2011 and 2012, its growth is slowing compared to other social platforms. International Guide to Social Media USA

Social Networks

Semiocast analysis has shown that of the 383 million Twitter profiles created before January 1st 2012, 107.7 million were created by users in the U.S., making it the biggest user of Twitter in the world. It’s the fourth most active country on Twitter. Around 39 million unique users visit the site from the U.S. each month, with an average monthly use per visitor of 39 minutes. Twitter experienced a 58 per cent growth in U.S. users between May 2011 and 2012.

Unsurprisingly, the U.S. also has the highest number of users on Google+, with 29 million profiles created in the U.S. Google+ gets around 18 million unique visitors a month from the U.S., and they spend an average of six minutes on the site. Over 45 per cent of Google+ users are aged 18 to 24, and the majority of U.S. users are male (60.37 per cent).

“Pinterest experienced a staggering 4377 per cent growth between May 2011 and 2012.”

Online video is very popular in the U.S. In June 2012, comScore reported that the top three video sites were: Google video sites (mainly YouTube) which had 154,507 total unique views and averaged 1,238.1 minutes of viewing time per viewer; Yahoo! sites at 51,453 unique views and 75.5 minutes per viewer; and Facebook, which had 49,003 views and 20.3 minutes per viewer. In March 2012, U.S. internet users viewed 187 million minutes of video. Hours of viewing have increased from 14.7 per user in March 2011 to 21.4 in March 2012. Almost 23 per cent of YouTube’s traffic is from the United States.

Without doubt, the fastest growing social media site in the United States at the moment is Pinterest, which experienced a staggering 4377 per cent growth between May 2011 and 2012. It has 12 million unique visitors per month from the U.S. and the average monthly use per visitor is one hour and 17 minutes. Blogging platform Tumblr is also growing quickly, its U.S. user base grew 168 per cent between May 2011 and 2012. It has 17 million unique monthly users, who spend an average of one hour 38 minutes each on the site.

LinkedIn has seen a growth in U.S. users of 67 per cent between May 2011 and 2012. As of January 2012, it had 147 million members worldwide, 58.5 million of them in the United States. LinkedIn has 33 million unique visitors a month from the U.S., who spend an average of 17 minutes per month on the site. MySpace may not be the force that it used to be, but it still has 19 million unique visitors a month from the U.S., who spend an average of 12 minutes each on the site. International Guide to Social Media USA

Social Networks

United States: Hispanic population Social media use by U.S. Hispanics has grown by 38 per cent in the last year (compared to a growth of 16 per cent in the U.S. as a whole). Social media is the second most popular online activity after email, with 77 per cent of those online using social channels. Nielsen reported that the three most used social platforms amongst U.S. Hispanics were Facebook (16.7 million users), Twitter (3.4 million users) and LinkedIn (1.8 million users).

Blogging is also very popular, with 5.6 million people using Blogger, 2.5 million Wordpress and 2.3 million Tumblr (in fact, of all the top social networks in the U.S., Tumblr has the highest concentration of Hispanic users). Hispanics were the fastest growing ethnic group on Facebook and Wordpress in 2011.

In summary

• The USA is the biggest market for most globally successful social media channels • Pinterest is the social channel experiencing the highest growth at 4377 per cent • The US Hispanic population was the fastest growing ethnic group on Facebook and Wordpress in 2011 • Facebook adoption is growing at a faster than expected rate • The majority of online video viewers use YouTube International Guide to Social Media USA

Social Influencer Brands

In 2011, exacttarget reported that 65 per cent on U.S. online consumers were active on Facebook, with 42 per cent of them having ‘liked’ at least one company. The top 10 most popular pages on Facebook in the U.S are all entertainers or TV shows. The three most popular pages belong to: rapper Eminem (over 60 million fans); popular cartoon series The Simpsons (nearing 59 million fans); and pop singer Lady Gaga (just over 53 million fans).

The three most ‘Liked’ brands in the U.S. are: retailer Walmart (over 18 million fans); retailer Target (over 16 million followers); and fast-food brand Subway (over 15 million fans). Some brands have launched innovative campaigns on Facebook, often linking up with other social media channels. However, on occasion these campaigns have pushed the limits of Facebook’s policies. In 2009 Burger King launched a successful Facebook campaign called Whopper Sacrifice, which offered fans a free burger if they de-friended 10 Facebook friends. The campaign took off, with 234,000 people being virtually dumped for the sake of a free burger. However, Burger King stopped the campaign when Facebook asked it to make changes. The app sent the de-friended person an email telling them they’d been dumped for a free hamburger, and Facebook doesn’t notify people when they’ve been ‘de-friended’.

“Burger King launched a successful Facebook campaign called Whopper Sacrifice, which offered fans a free burger if they de-friended 10 Facebook friends.”

ExactTarget reported that 17 per cent on U.S. online consumers have created a Twitter account at some point, and nine per cent of them are currently active Twitter users. Five per cent have followed at least one company. (It’s worth noting that the same report highlighted that 41 per cent of worldwide Twitter followers have followed a brand, only to unfollow the account at a later date, and that when asked why they unfollowed, over half listed the reason as the account’s tweets became too dull and repetitive.)

The top 10 Twitter accounts in the U.S. are all entertainers, apart from the @BarackObama account, which comes in at fourth most followed, with over 18 million followers. The top three accounts are: @ladygaga (approaching 28 million followers); @katyperry (just over 24 million followers); and @britneyspears (over 19 million followers). It’s no surprise that the most followed brands have a fraction of the followers of these big names accounts.

Food retailer Whole Foods is the most followed brand, with over 2.8 million followers. It uses its main Twitter account @wholefoods, in addition to specialist interest, and many local store accounts to engage with individual customers. Coffee chain Starbucks is next with over 2.7 million followers: it uses social media campaigns (such as the recent International Guide to Social Media USA

Social Influencer Brands

#INDIVISIBLE campaign which asked people to highlight individuals making a difference in their local communities) to engage people about interests outside of its core product. Another popular brand is the Samsung Mobiles US account, which has over 2.4 million followers and is primarily a news feed (the brand has a separate customer support account @SamsungSupport which had just over 39,000 followers).

In December 2010, Mercedes-Benz asked its Facebook fans to volunteer as drivers in a ‘Tweet Race’. Once the drivers and teams were selected, the brand used social channels to build online buzz about the February 2011 race. The Mercedes-Benz Tweet Race saw each team driving a specially kitted out Mercedes-Benz in a race against each other. Each team had to generate enough support on Twitter to progress, and eventually win, the race (get four tweets, drive one mile). The campaign ended up having nearly 30,000 participants, and gained the brand 77,000 Twitter followers, 72,000 Facebook fans and around two million video views.

“Mercedes-Benz Tweet Race saw each team driving a specially kitted out Mercedes-Benz in a race against each other.”

As for YouTube, the three most popular channels are: entertainment brand, Universal Music Group which is approaching 43 million channel and 7 billion video views (it only has 34 video uploads, but most of the views come from its playlist page which features music videos by genre); gaming entertainment network Machinima (approaching 150 million channel and 3 billion video views - it uses the playlist tab to list videos by gaming title and has an events tab for live online gaming streams); and how-to channel Expert Village(over 32.6 million channel and 2.5 billion video views).

The three most popular branded YouTube channels in the U.S. are: animation giants Disney Pixar (over 3.2 million channel views and nearing 179 million video views); drinks brand Red Bull (over 1.1 million channel views and 94.4 million video views); and gaming brand EA Sports (over 10.3 million channel views and almost 84 million video views).

One of the most popular recent YouTube campaigns was from Old Spice. The aftershave brand crafted campaigns around the characters Old Spice Guy and later Old Spice Guy vs Fabio. Although the first campaign was seen as more successful, the second run helped Old Spice gain 22 million YouTube views in a week, and the channel became the most viewed of the month. In another example of brands using multiple social channels, Old Spice also gained 68,000 new Facebook fans. International Guide to Social Media USA

Social Influencer Brands

Pinterest is proving to be a brilliant channel for many American brands, with comScore research reporting that U.S. Pinterest users follow more brands than Twitter or Facebook users. In February 2012, Mashable listed the top brands at the time as being: wedding blog Perfect Palette (at the time it had over 244,000 followers and 6925 pins, that had risen to over 265,000 followers and 8415 pins in August 2012); hints and tips magazine Real Simple (in February almost 35,000 followers and 1795 pins, increasing to over 145,000 followers and 3780 pins in August); and hair and make-up site The Beauty Department (which had almost 30,000 followers and 255 pins in February and almost 230,000 followers and 476 pins in August).

According to comScore, Pinterest buyers spend more money and buy more often than LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and Tumblr users. With this in mind, brands have started making Pinterest part of their social media campaigns. Fashion brand Uniqlo’s Dry Mesh campaign created a moving image on Pinterest by creating and pinning from over 100 accounts. Honda has used Pinterest to offer top pinners a “Pintermission” – giving them $500 to take the day off pinning and get out and see some of the places or things they have been pinning.

Again, the top pages on Google+ are those of celebrities. Britney Spears still has the page with the most followers (nearly four million), meanwhile rapper Snoop Dog and Google CEO Larry Page are both approaching 3.5 million followers. The most popular brand pages are: Volkswagen USA (over 942,000 followers); Chevrolet (over 855,000 followers); and Samsung USA (nearly 772,000 followers). Google doesn’t allow contests, sweepstakes, special offers or coupons on Google+, so businesses looking to engage fans on the network need to be creative. Popular comic brand Marvel Entertainment uses its Google+ page to link to coupons and offers listed on other websites, which is allowed under Google’s terms of service.

In summary

• U.S. brands are running social media campaigns that involve multiple social channels • U.S. brands are coming up with innovative campaigns which are tailored to the habits of specific social channels • The U.S. Hispanic population are more likely to follow brands than the average internet user International Guide to Social Media USA

Language & Culture

The U.S. has no official language – although there is an on-going debate about making English the national language. It’s estimated that over 80 per cent of the population has English as their primary language. Twelve per cent of the U.S. population speak Spanish. In 2010 the U.S. Census Bureau reported that there were 325 languages spoken in the United States. According to a December 2011 report 372,095 people in North America spoke a Native American language (the most popular being Navajo at 169,471).

“U.S. culture is strongly influenced by cultural values such as individualism and liberty.”

U.S. culture is strongly influenced by cultural values such as individualism and liberty. Americans tend to have a more individualistic world view, believing that government should allow people the freedom to achieve their goals. This philosophy leaves those who cannot or will not seek to improve their own situations without the aid of the state, because state interference in the private lives of individuals would be seen as encroaching on personal freedoms. (Interestingly, research by Pew records the opposite attitude in the United Kingdom, where most would prefer more limited freedom so that those less fortunate could be supported by a stronger state.)

American culture is celebrated for being meritocratic. For example, the American Dream ideal is that anyone can grow up to be President of the United States if they work hard enough. Some argue that the inherent inequality of meritocratic societies effectively prevents this, as talented children from working class areas tend to grow away from their community rather than use their talent, intelligence, wealth and opportunity to benefit those they leave behind.

Privacy is taken extremely seriously in the United States, with the Bill of Rights detailing what the government needs to do before it’s allowed to investigate an individual’s body, houses, papers and personal effects. Some forms of modern communication are protected under the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (1986), but there have been calls to include more modern forms of communication.

The most popular sport in the U.S. is American Football, which is so popular that television networks CBS, Fox and NBC have said they will start paying $3 billion a year in total for the rights to screen it from 2014. The Super Bowl is probably the most popular event of the year, with the 2012 match being watched by 111.3 million viewers.

“15 per cent of the U.S. population is Hispanic.” International Guide to Social Media USA

Language & Culture

The ethnic composition of the United States is around 80 per cent white, 13 per cent black, 4.5 per cent Asian, 0.97 per cent Amerindian and Alaskan native, 0.18 per cent Hawaiian and Pacific Islander, and 1.61 per cent of people are classified as being two of more races.

United States: Hispanic population

The term Hispanic refers to someone of Spanish, Hispanic or Latino origin and covers people from Central and South America as well as Mexico, Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic and even Spain, but the U.S. Census Bureau does estimate that around 15 per cent of the U.S. population is Hispanic. Seventy-two per cent of Hispanic digital influences use English online, where many come together in communities to discuss their shared cultural heritage and interests.

In summary

• The U.S. is mostly English-speaking with a strong culture of individual freedom, though has no official language • Fifteen per cent of the U.S. population is Hispanic and tend to use English converse online International Guide to Social Media USA

Perspectives

comScore analysis of online January – March 2012

LinkedIn statistics for January 2011 to 2012

Interesting social media statistics from February 2012

Detailed report on brands on social media and consumer engagement.

About TranslateMedia

Visit the TranslateMedia website or contact [email protected] for more information. International Guide to Social Media Scandinavia

Overview

In this report: The Scandinavian countries (Denmark, Norway and Sweden) share a common cultural heritage, which can be seen in • Social Networks • Hispanic population the way people and businesses approach social media. It’s • Social Influencer Brands also one of the most connected regions in the world. Over • Language & Culture 97 per cent of the population of Norway are connected to the internet, making it second only to Iceland in global connectivity. Sweden follows on its heels with a connectivity In this series: rate of over 92 per cent, and Denmark was the ninth most • United States • Mexico connected nation, with 89 per cent of the country having • India access. When you consider that the December 2011 report • China • Latin America lists UK internet penetration as fourteenth and US as twenty- • Scandinavia seventh in the world, it’s clear that the region is well prepared • France • Germany for digital business.

Further reports due Q3 2012 When comScore analysed traffic in May 2012, it recorded Sweden as being the most active online of the Scandinavian nations. 6,305,000 Swedes were online during the month, spending over 24 hours on the internet. During the same month, 3,719,000 Danes were using the Internet, spending an average of 22 hours online in May, and in Norway 3,310,000 people were online, spending an average of 29 hours online. International Guide to Social Media Scandinavia

Social Networks

Facebook

According to Alexa, Facebook is the second most popular site in Denmark (behind Google.dk and ahead of Google.com). SocialBakers* ranks Denmark forty-ninth in the world for Facebook penetration, with 53 per cent of Danish people on Facebook. Fifty-four per cent of users are 18 to 44, and the largest age group is the 25 to 34 year olds with 612,305 users. The top three Facebook pages in Denmark belong to Volbeat (a band, with 962,666 likes), tennis star Caroline Wozniacki (478,851 fans) and transport and freight company Maersk Group, which has 467,724 fans.

“It’s one of the most connected regions in the world.”

Facebook is the most popular website in Norway (with Google.no and Google.com as second and third). SocialBakers* ranks Norway fifty-fifth in the world for Facebook penetration and just over 61 per cent of internet users have an account. Sixty per cent of users are between 18 and 44, with the most by July dominant age group aged 25 to 34 (568,340 users).The three most popular Facebook pages in Norway are beauty brand Lancôme with 2,994,689 fans, band Dimmu Borgir (854,765 fans) and fashion brand OnePiece with 734,722 fans.)

Facebook is the second most popular website in Sweden (Google.se is the most popular, with Google.com in third place). SocialBakers* ranks Sweden 36th in the world for Facebook penetration. Just over 57 per cent of internet users have a Facebook account. Sixty-one per cent of Facebook users are aged 18 to 44, with the most represented group being 25 to 34 year olds, with 958,024 users. The most popular Facebook pages in Sweden belong to the band Maher Zain (4,867,462 fans), footballer Zlatan Ibrahimovic (3,688,664 fans), and band Avicii (2,561,355 fans). Even the Swedish royal family are on Facebook (nearing 84,000 likes). In early 2012 they posted the first picture of the new born crown princess Victoria to their Facebook account. It’s had over 30,000 likes and more than 3,600 shares since then.

Twitter

Figures released in December 2011 revealed that there had been a 100 per cent increase in Twitter users in Denmark in 2011 (from 28,000 to 55,000 users). At the time 625 of the most active Danish users were creating half the tweets originating from Denmark, and 22,000 tweets were being sent every day. Tennis player Caroline Wozniacki was the most followed user with 247,000 followers, with NATO secretary general Anders Fogh Rasmussen a distant second with just over 27,000 followers. (By September 2012 Wozniacki’s follower count had risen to 405,320,while Fogh Rasmussen’s International Guide to Social Media Scandinavia

Social Networks followers now number 111,285). By March 2012 the number of Twitter accounts in Denmark had risen to 70,000, possibly partly due to Twitter launching a Danish language version in December 2011. Twitter is currently the eighteenth most visited site in Denmark, ahead of wordpress.com (twenty-fifth) and just behind blogspot.dk (seventeenth).

Twitter also launched in Norwegian in December 2011, however, it crowd sourced the translation of key terms, which resulted in incorrect language use, and some complaints from users (as well as participants). There were approximately 252,200 Twitter users in Norway in January 2012, with around 6,000 new accounts registered each month (it’s estimated that the number of accounts had increased to 284,997 by July 2012). By May 2012 11 per cent of the population had Twitter accounts, with 410,000 people logging on once a week in the first quarter of the year. Twitter is the fifteenth most visited site in Norway, ahead of Blogspot.no (sixteenth) and well behind Wikipedia, which is the eighth most frequented website.

Sweden was approaching 300,000 Twitter accounts in May 2012, with more than half of them created in the previous year. Intellecta Corporate’s annual report, the Swedish Twitter census, found that the number of accounts created in Sweden had tripled in the year since the previous census, with more than 50 per cent of the accounts active in the month before the report was published. In December 2011 Visit Sweden and the Swedish Institute joined forces to create the Curators of Sweden campaign. Each week, a new nominated Swedish tweeter takes over the @Sweden account and tweets anything they like. (The organisers handed the account over to a Swedish tweeter who already had a timeline full of questionable opinions, and she didn’t change her tone once representing the nation – tweeting racist and homophobic messages during her seven days and gaining Sweden a lot of negative publicity in the process.) As of September 2012, Twitter was the seventeenth most popular site in Sweden, ahead of Wordpress (twentieth) and behind illegal streaming site Pirate Bay (fourteenth).

YouTube

YouTube is the fourth most visited website in Denmark (Wikipedia is the sixth). According to socialbakers, the most visited YouTube channel is gaming review channel, gamereactorTV (nearing 13,500,000 channel views). This is followed by fast food brand McDonaldsDanmark with over 654,500 channel views, and mobile operator TelenorDanmark which is approaching 619,000 channel views.

It’s also the fourth most visited site in Norway (the next most popular social site being Wikipedia, which ranks eighth). The most popular channel has over 526,000 views, and is about long range shooting. The second and third most popular International Guide to Social Media Scandinavia

Social Networks channels both belong to mobile operators. Chess has over 252,500 views and netcommling has over 136,200.

YouTube is also the fourth most visited site in Sweden, with Wikipedia in sixth place. The most viewed channel in Sweden is gaming fan channel tejbz (nearing 81,157,000 views). That’s followed by engine4600, which has almost 5,669,000 views and doesn’t seem to have a dedicated subject matter. The third most popular channel in Sweden is mobile community swedroid (nearly 4,909,000 views).

LinkedIn is currently the eighth most popular website in Denmark. Socialbakers figures published in December 2011 revealed that there were 2.5 million Linkedin Users in the Nordic region (Finland, Norway, Denmark and Sweden), with 806,134 users in Denmark (ranking it just behind Sweden in the region). It did, however, have the highest level of penetration at over 14 per cent.

LinkedIn is one of the fastest growing social networks in Norway. It’s ranked as the twenty-first most popular site in Norway (ahead of Pirate Bay at twenty-two, and behind Blogspot.no). LinkedIn launched a Norwegian language version in July 2012. At the time LinkedIn stated that there were 600,000 Norwegian account holders.

LinkedIn is the thirteenth most popular site in Sweden (behind Blogspot.se, which is eleventh, and ahead of Pirate Bay at fourteenth). It launched a Swedish language version in November 2011, when LinkedIn reported that there were more than 800,000 Swedish account holders. As of June 2012 it had risen to over one million users.

Google+

There are approximately 368,700 users of Google+ in Denmark. Over 73 per cent of them are male, and over 48 per cent are between 18 and 24 years old. The majority of users are students, and most come from Copenhagen.

Norway has almost 320,800 users on Google+. Again, over 73 per cent are male, and the largest age group are people between 18 and 24 (over 57 per cent). Most account holders are students, and a sizable majority come from Oslo.

Google+ is much more popular in Sweden, which has over 502,000 users (almost 75 per cent male). Around 52 per cent are aged 18 to 24, and most are students and from Stockholm. International Guide to Social Media Scandinavia

Social Networks

Local networks

Norway has several small social networks that have been running for a while. Biip.no is a social network aimed at teens (in fact in 2008, the owners claimed that few people over 24 are on the site). User numbers are pretty static, there were 447,247 in November 2011 and the figure had only increased to 447,356 by July 2012. Origo is a network about local communities and it’s divided into areas where users can interact with each other. It’s grown from 174,136 users in November 2010 to 293,854 users by July 2012. Under Forest is a cultural network built around a shared events calendar. Founded in 2005, it was estimated to have had over 21,000 users in quarter three of 2011.

In summary

• All of the Scandinavian countries have a very high percentage of internet connectivity • Facebook is the most popular social network in Scandinavia • Twitter is growing in popularity in Scandinavia. Sweden has been especially innovative with its use of the @Sweden account • YouTube is the fourth most visited site in Scandinavia, with a mixture of brands and individuals as the most popular channels • LinkedIn is growing in popularity in the region • Google+ is popular in the region, with 18-24 year old students from capital cities being the most represented user International Guide to Social Media Scandinavia

Social Influencer Brands

Facebook

The most ‘Liked’ brand pages in Denmark are national, rather than global brands. Transport and freight company, Maersk Group (467,724 fans) is the most popular brand page in Denmark. Støt Brysterne – the official page of the Pink Ribbon Cancer Society’s campaign against breast cancer – has 428,147 fans, and men’s fashion brand Jack & Jones is the third most popular brand with 352,067 fans.

Luxury Danish chocolate brand Anthon Berg used Facebook to celebrate generosity (while spreading good vibes about the brand), when it set up a pop-up chocolate shop for a day and gave away free chocolate. The only ‘condition’ was that the recipient had to agree to carry out the good deed on the label (such as providing breakfast in bed to your partner). The customers used in-store iPads to log in to Facebook and agree to the promise, which was then posted to their wall. The customers then posted pictures of them keeping the promise. The campaign created a lot of word-of-mouth positivity about the brand, and it generated a lot of good media coverage for the brand.

“Luxury chocolate brand Anthon Berg used Facebook to celebrate generosity and promote good deeds.”

According to a report by Socialbakers, Norway is the most socially devoted nation on Facebook, which is say that Norwegian brands have an impressive 87 per cent response rate to questions asked to them on Facebook (for context, the UK is ranked sixteenth with 45 per cent and the USA doesn’t even make the top twenty with a mere 22 per cent response rate). Over 47 per cent of the largest 500 companies in Norway have an active Facebook presence.

The most popular brand on Facebook is the Norwegian page of global beauty brand Lancôme, which has over 2,992,000 likes. This is followed by two national brands, Norwegian fashion brand OnePiece (almost 736,000 likes), and a Norwegian photographer’s page TSO Photography (approaching 309,500 likes).

Visit Norway used a Facebook app to increase its fan base from 12,000 to 31,000 in just 45 days. As well as using daily questions and quizzes, the campaign offered the chance to win a free trip to Norway. The agency behind the campaign reported that travellers were 80 per cent more likely to book a trip after liking a page than they were from responding to traditional advertising.

Sweden ranked third behind Norway and Kenya in socialbakers most socially devoted top 20. Brand’s had a 77 per cent International Guide to Social Media Scandinavia

Social Influencer Brands response rate to fans questions on Facebook. The most popular brands on Facebook in Sweden are gaming brand Free Lunch Design (nearing 557,000 fans), chocolate brand marabou (around 386,500 fans) and Halloween candy brand Hallonlakritsskalle (around 359,500 fans).

Laundry brand Ariel’s Facebook ‘Fashion Shoot’ campaign, designed to increase engagement in a very low engagement area, featured a live installation in Stockholm Central station with a robot arm controlled by Facebook fans. The robot was used by fans to shoot jam and other food stuffs at moving targets – clothes. Fans won each item of clothing that they hit. Then there was the defy the darkness campaign by Sony Ericson, designed to cheer people up during the dark winter days. Over four days, people could use Facebook, mobiles and web apps to enter messages which were then displayed on the big screen at Stureplan in Stockholm during Swedens darkest hours, captured on the new Xperia ray handset and sent to the intended recipient. There were over 3,000 greetings sent (which included 11 marriage proposals), 14 million page impressions and mentions on influential blogs.

Twitter

Twitter follower stats are difficult to attain at a national level, because Twitter doesn’t require users to identify their home country when they sign up. According to Atcore, the three most followed brands in Denmark are: gaming accessory maker SteelSeries (it had almost 38,000 followers by September 2012); toy maker LEGO (around 34,500 followers by September 2012) and digital publishing tool provider Issuu (heading for 18,500 followers as of September 2012).

According to socialbakers, the most followed Norwegian brands on Twitter are mobile provider @NextGenTel with 1634 followers, followed by online magazine @Datamagasinet (736 followers) and cruise company @StenaLineNorge (188 followers) - although it has been reported that over 29 per cent of the 500 largest companies in Norway are on Twitter.

Socialbakers reports that the most popular Swedish brands on Twitter are; cruise line @stenaline_se (1028 followers); mobile operator @halebop_sverige (979 followers) and telephone operator @Telia_foretag (843 followers).

YouTube

The most popular brand channel in Denmark is the Danish presence of global fast food brand McDonalds, with over 654,500 channel views. That’s followed by two national mobile operator brands, Telenor (over 618,700 International Guide to Social Media Scandinavia

Social Influencer Brands

654,500 channel views. That’s followed by two national mobile operator brands, Telenor (over 618,700 views) and Telia (over 54,600 views).

Norway’s most viewed branded YouTube channels are all mobile operators. Chess has over 252,500 views, Netcom has over 136,200 views and the Netcom customer account has almost 128,500 views.

The most viewed brand channels in Sweden are mobile community swedroid (nearly 4,909,000 views), toy brand legosverige (over 3,686,200 views) and fast food brand mcdonaldssv (approaching 1,438,000 views). Cider brand Rekorderlig launch a viral ad campaign during August 2012. The Rekorderlig Swedish School videos are designed to teach cider drinkers the culture, traditions and heritage of the Swedish cider. The channel is getting close to 124,000 views.

In summary

• Danish brands account for the three most liked brands on Facebook in Denmark • Norwegian brands top the league for responsiveness to customers on Facebook • Sweden was the third most responsive nation on Facebook • The most followed brands on Twitter seem to be national brands rather than global • YouTube is popular for viewing mobile related videos International Guide to Social Media Scandinavia

Language & Culture

Denmark has a diverse population that includes Scandinavian, Inuit, Faroese, German, Turkish, Iranian and Somali nationalities. Danish is the official language, and English is the most prevalent second language. Faroese, Greenlandic (which is an Inuit dialect) and German are also spoken.

“The Danish national coach banned the team from Twitter during Euro 2012.”

Denmark has a strong culture of equality, for example, a law giving homosexual partners the right to marry in Church was passed in June 2012. However, wealth inequality is getting worse in Denmark, but upward mobility is still relatively high. Modesty is deeply ingrained in Danish culture. Jante Law, published in 1933 by a Danish/Norwegian writer Aksel Sandemose, was used for years to promote modesty in Scandinavian cultures. The impact is still evident today. The Danish tend to try not to do anything to be seen as better than anyone else. Hygge is Danish word which is hard to translate into English, it’s a Danish cultural tradition where people gather family and/or friends around to socialise, eat and drink. Punctuality is also an important cultural trait. The national sport is football – the national coach even banned the team from Twitter during Euro 2012 to keep them focused.

Norway’s population is over 94 per cent Norwegian (including around 60,000 Sami – indigenous Artic area – people), other European’s make up 3.6 per cent of the population, with other nationalities comprising two per cent. Bokmal and Nynorsk Norwegian are the official languages, there are also small Sami and Finnish speaking populations.

The Royal Norwegian Embassy in London carried out a social media campaign in 2011 in an effort to help change the perception of Norway. The Embassy was concerned that the nation had a boring image, and set about promoting Norwegian designers, musicians and cultural events to the rest of the world.

Norway shares many cultural traits with Denmark, including the national tendency towards modesty and punctuality. Non-traditional families are very common and not taboo at all. Children are taught to be independent from a young age.

Equality is taken very seriously in Norway. Both state owned and private businesses must have a minimum of 40 per cent representation of both sexes due to a law passed in 2003. In 2011 the Equality Minister proposed putting health warnings on airbrushed billboard ads. The constitution was amended in 1990 to allow the first born child of the monarch

“Norwegian business must have a minimum of 40 per cent representation of both sexes.” International Guide to Social Media Scandinavia

Language & Culture to become heir, male or female. In 2008, Norway legalised gay marriage and artificial insemination via the gender- neutral marriage law. Norway has a strong reputation for human rights, and is home to the Oslo Freedom Forum.

Sweden’s population includes a significant number of Finnish and Sami minorities. Foreign and first-generation immigrant populations include Finns, Yugoslavs, Danes, Norwegians, Greeks and Turks. The official language is Swedish, with small Sami and Finnish-speaking populations.

Sweden, like Denmark and Norway, has a strong culture of equality. Boasting is seen as unacceptable and children are not brought-up to be competitive or see themselves as special. Consensus is very important and even stretches into the business world where leaders get everyone’s opinion on a matter before making a final decision. Swedish people don’t like to give a definitive answer without due consideration, preferring to discuss and find a common ground that way. Lagom, the concept of ‘everything in moderation’ is probably the most powerful cultural trait and stretches to all areas of Swedish life.

In summary

• The three Scandinavian countries all place a high value on equality and modesty • Hygge is a celebration of abundance in Denmark, where people gather around friends to eat and drink • Norway is a leading force in human rights and hosts the Oslo Freedom Forum • Sweden’s concept of Lagom means that Swedes base their entire lives around moderation rather than excess. International Guide to Social Media Scandinavia

Perspectives

A good source for global internet data

A source detailing top websites by country

An excellent source of social media stats by nation or brand

Website that provides Google Plus user stats by country

A good site for detailed country information

A book detailing the cultural heritage of Sweden.

A blog about social media in Northern Europe

Sweden’s official site

Norwegian Expat website

Norwegian news site

Business information about Denmark

Danish tourism site International Guide to Social Media Scandinavia

About TranslateMedia

Visit the TranslateMedia website or contact [email protected] for more information. International Guide to Social Media Russia

Overview

In this report: Russia has the second largest Internet population in Europe; it had 61.5 million users by 31st December 2011. (Germany • Social Networks • Hispanic population leads with 67.4 million and the UK follows Russia with 52.7 • Social Influencer Brands million.) Due to Russia’s massive population (estimated at • Language & Culture 138,789,892 in 2011), Internet penetration is 44.3 per cent, whereas the UK has 84.1 per cent, and Germany has an 87.7 per cent penetration level. eMarketer forecasts that this will In this series: increase to 67.9 million users, and 49.2 per cent penetration • United States • Mexico by the end of 2012. According to comScore Russian Internet • India users spent an average of 25.5 hours online during the month • China • Latin America of May 2012. • Scandinavia • France Social Networks • Germany

Further reports due Q3 2012 Russia’s largest social network is the domestic Facebook rival Vkontakte (В Контакте), also known as VK. The site, which also has an English language version, was launched in 2006 and currently has around 33 million unique visitors per day. By May 2012, VK had 110 million users, around 70 per cent of whom were based in Russia. VK reported its highest daily visits ever on 10th September 2012 (38.4 million visits, compared to 31.6 million for rival network OK). International Guide to Social Media Russia

Social Networks

It’s the second most visited site in Russia (behind Russian search engine Yandex), and appears to be very popular amongst teenagers. Although it has been claimed that the site gets a lot of spam, and has some issues with privacy as a lot of user details are revealed in search results. VK also attracts controversy for some of its services. Users can use the site to share files, and the network is frequently sued for copyright infringement due to the dearth of music videos uploaded on the site. Users also log in to VK to play games, the most popular game on the site has 8.7 million players. The social network has been accused of promoting ‘extremist propaganda’ by the Russian State Duma Vice Speaker, for example allowing videos of banned extremist groups to be posted on the site. It’s been reported that the Kremlin is planning to launch a Government-backed competitor to VK, by using existing network russiawithoutdots.rf (a social network set up to discuss social issues).

“It’s been reported that the Kremlin is plaaning to launch a Government-backed competitor to VK.”

The third most popular site in Russia is Mail.ru (Google.com is fourth most visited), a search, email and web portal that owns social networks, Odnoklassniki and Moi Mir (My World). It’s also Russia’s leading online gaming company with 19.1 million users per month. It reportedly reaches around 84 per cent of Russian internet users a month. Mail.ru average monthly users increased to 30 million in December 2011 from 27.2 million in December 2010, and My World’s have risen from 19.5 million to 20.2 million in the same year.

Mail.ru launched a blogging service in 2005 and the online games portal and video service in 2006. My World was launched in 2007, and in 2010 it acquired a stake in gaming giant Zynga and social discount website Groupon. China’s Tencent brought a stake in the firm in 2010. One of its social networks, My World, introduced a VIP status service in February 2011, which provides users with special features such as being invisible when online, being highlighted as a VIP and having dedicated technical support.

Another Russian social network is Odnoklassniki (OK). The classmates reunion site was set up in 2006 and is currently the seventh most visited site in Russia, just behind YouTube and ahead of Facebook. In December 2010 OK had 69 per cent of Vkontakte’s daily users, by December 2011 this was 89 per cent. Average monthly users reached 20.8 million in December 2011 (up from 17.4 million in December 2010), and daily active users grew by 82 per cent in the same year (with around 37 per cent of users coming from outside Russia – mainly former Soviet Union nations). In total, the site has around 90 million active accounts. International Guide to Social Media Russia

Social Networks

Odnoklassniki launched a partnership with video streaming site Rutube in April 2011, and introduced a music service and video chat functionality in June 2011. It also introduced an events feature in November 2011. In December 2011 it made user profiles searchable by search engines and enhanced profile privacy settings. At the same time, Mail.ru made it possible for users to link profiles and cross-post between My World and OK. The English language version was launched in June 2012.

Facebook is the eighth most popular site in Russia, after Odnoklassniki and ahead of Wikipedia. Russia is the twenty- ninth largest market for Facebook, with approximately 6,413,660 users. Socialbakers reports that 4.60 per cent of the population of Russia are on Facebook (10.74 per cent of internet users). The three most popular pages on Facebook in Russia between March and September 2012 were; tennis star, Maria Sharapova’s page (8,214,432 fans); the Facebook Russia page (5,414,369 fans); and computer manufacturer Dell’s customer page (3,602,752 fans). eMarketer forecasts that the number of Russians on Facebook will increase by 62 per cent in 2012, and predicts that social media usage as a whole will rise by 11.1 per cent, suggesting that Facebook may be starting to become more dominant at the expense of the more dominant national networks.

The twelfth most visited site in Russia is Twitter, behind Russian blogging site LiveInternet.ru and a few places ahead of blogger.com. Russia is the fourteenth most represented nation on Twitter, and had fewer than 10 million accounts as of 1st July 2012. In July 2011 Yandex reported that the Russian speaking audience on Twitter had reached the 1 million mark, by February 2012 this figure had reached 1.68 million (it no doubt helped that Twitter introduced Russian language functionality in April 2011).

According to Socialbakers, the three most followed Twitter accounts in Russia are: music brand MTV Russia (888,188 followers); news site Forbes Russia (417,937 followers); and Russian news channel RT_Com (399,421 followers). Mail. ru launched a Russian equivalent to Twitter in January 2012. Futubra has more functionality than Twitter and has been described as a cross between Twitter and Tumblr. It still has a way to go though, and is currently the 3,573rd most visited website in Russia.

YouTube is the sixth most visited site in Russia, behind Google.ru and ahead of Odnoklassniki. It’s the most visited video site in Russia (Vimeo is the 191st most visited and RuTube 293rd). The Russian government periodically threatens to block access to YouTube, most recently over the recent controversial American film seen as mocking the Prophet. The International Guide to Social Media Russia

Social Networks

funny video channel, Max (621,241,696 video views and 1,258,744 subscribers); and gun and explosives channel Dmitri (466,547,201 video views and 2,645,327 subscribers).

Google Plus has approximately 1,399,365 users in Russia; over 75 per cent are male. Forty-seven per cent are aged 18 to 24. Users are more likely to be students, and most reside in Moscow. LinkedIn appears to be less popular in Russia, it’s the sixtieth most visited website, and has 1.4 million users across Russia, Romania and Turkey in June 2011. However, the Russian language version was launched in the same month, so this figure should start to rise. Pinterest is in the process of considering launching a Russian language version (it’s currently the 307th most visited website), but by the time it does make a decision the Russian Pinterest clone, Pinme (launched in December 2011 and currently the 1052nd most visited site in Russia) may have grabbed a larger share of the market. Blogging In 2011 the BBC reported that there were over 40 million blogs in Russia, with seven to ten per cent of them being updated at least once a month. It reported the audience at being around 15 million people. Blogs tend to be used as a way to exert freedom of speech against government and it’s common for the popular ones to have up to fifty thousand subscribers. Russian company SUP purchased blogging platform LiveJournal in 2007. It’s the tenth most visited website in the country (making it more popular than Russian platform LiveInternet.ru, blogspot.com wordpress.com, blogger.com and Tumblr). In May 2011, LiveJournal had over five million registered accounts in the Russian language. Russians spend an average of 8.44 minutes on LiveJournal a day.

In summary

• Vkontakte is Russia’s largest social network, with 110 million users (mainly teens) • Mail.ru is quickly developing into a social hub, with average monthly users of 30 million • Odnoklassniki is starting to catch-up with Vkontakte as teenagers become school leavers • Facebook has almost 6.5 million Russian users and is predicted to grow significantly in 2012 • Twitter has less than 10 million active accounts, and Mail.ru has launched a Russian version called Futubra • YouTube is the most popular video site, but is regularly threatened with being blocked • Google Plus and LinkedIn have fewer Russian users than the bigger players, but LinkedIn users are likely to increase with the introduction of the Russian language version • Pinterest has yet to launch a Russian language version, in the meantime Russian competitor Pinme has launched to fill the gap in the market • Blogging is very popular in Russia – there are currently over 40 million blogs International Guide to Social Media Russia

Social Influencer Brands

Vkontakte allows users to create unofficial brand pages where they can create communities around brands to discuss things and ask each other questions about products, services etc. Official brand pages are similar to Wikipedia entries. Followers of the brand can update the page with information, but the page is ultimately controlled by admins.

One brand that has used Vkontakte’s features well is Clearasil Russia. The brand decided to run its 2010 Clearasil Goes Social campaign for its STAYCLEAR line on VK due to its mainly teenage user base. The brand created a brand page where it created content and engaged users. It also joined a popular group called ‘A group of those who are not afraid to change and know what they want.’ The group had an app which allowed people to take their profile picture using the app to use on VK. Clearasil created its own profile picture app called CLEARBOOTH and hosted in within the group. The CLEARBOOTH app encouraged users to enter their before, during and after profile pictures while using the STAYCLEAR product. At the end of the campaign they had the opportunity to have their picture form part of a video montage.

Over the course of the campaign, 13,000 photos were uploaded and over 120,000 comments were posted on the brand page. Over 16,000 messages were posted on the group wall and around 12,000 in the discussion area. A total of 1,118,606 profile pictures were created using the app, and over 500,000 users participated in the page and used the application. STAYCLEAR saw an increase in sales of 30 per cent in a year.

“Over 500,000 users participated in Clearasil’s STAYCLEAR campaign, and the product line saw an increase in sales of 30 per cent in a year.”

Mars also chose well when it used Friends Reunited style website Odnoklassniki to run its M&Ms Love Triangle campaign. Mars wanted to re-introduce the green M&M character to the Russian audience. As Green was a female character, and the more widely known Red and Yellow were male, the brand decided to place a love triangle at the heart of the campaign.

It created three profiles for the characters on Odnoklassniki, and filled the profile with the same kind of content that any regular user would post. It treated the characters like real people, posting updates about the love story daily. Users were also encouraged to visit and external microsite which was created to push sales and give prices to users. Each character got between 1.5 and 2 million friends each, with many people engaging with the characters on their pages. The most popular brands on Facebook, YouTube and Twitter between March and September 2012 were Russian divisions of global brands. On Facebook, anti-virus product ESET Nod32 is the most popular (255,546 fans); car brand International Guide to Social Media Russia

Social Influencer Brands

Audi Russia is also popular with 184,756 fans; while outdoor gear brand, Burton Russia has 103,554 fans. The most popular brands on YouTube are: gaming brand Electronic Arts Russia (19,890,095 video views and 51,506 subscribers); mobile brands Nokia Russia (5,985,227 video views and 3,388 subscribers); and Sonyericssonrus 5,865,450 video views and 4,091 subscribers.

Meanwhile, Socialbakers reports that the most followed accounts on Twitter between March and September 2012 were: environmental charity Greenpeace Russia (57,273 followers); car brand Jaguar Russia (44,475 followers); and mobile brand HTC Russia (34,857 followers).

In summary

• Clearasil and Mars are two brands that have used Russian networks Vkontakte and Odnoklassniki to target their specific audiences • Russians tend to follow the local versions of brand pages on the major social networks, presumably because these presences are in Russian language International Guide to Social Media Russia

Language & Culture

Russian is the official language, and it’s estimated that it’s spoken by 81 per cent of the population and their first and only language. There are over one hundred minority languages spoken, with most speakers also speaking Russian. The most popular minority language is Tartar, spoken by more than three per cent of the population.

The 2002 census reported that the population comprised 79.8 per cent Russian, 3.8 per cent Tartar, two per cent Ukrainian, 1.2 per cent Bashkir, 1.1 per cent Chuvash, and 12.1 per cent unspecified.

“Samizdat, the tendency to self-publish, developed during Soviet times and re-asserted itself with the popularity of blogging in the early 2000s.”

Most Russians are strongly patriotic and take great pride in being able to withstand harsher environmental, social and political situations than others would be able to cope with. It generally takes a long time to build a relationship of trust, which is one of the reasons why Russians value sincerity and patience.

Due to their politically tumultuous heritage, there is a strong culture of what the Russians call Samizdat. The tendency to self-publish, developed during Soviet times and re-asserted itself with the decrease in press freedom and popularity of blogging in the early 2000s, when the blog scene started to become extremely politically focused.

Russians have a history built on agricultural community held land, with decision making being taken by a local assembly of heads of the household. This social structure was pervasive prior to the 1930s and as a result there is still a strong sense of community in Russia.

Maintaining your ties within the community is so important that Russians have a word – svyasi – which refers to the need to have influential friends or connections that can help you make your way in life. This is one of the reasons that Odnoklassniki is so popular: Russians see it as very important to maintain school friendships. There’s a day each year dedicated to maintaining these ties, when former pupils can visit their high schools to catch-up with teachers and classmates. International Guide to Social Media Russia

Language & Culture

Names are very important in Russia: naming conventions are still used, where the middle name is a patronymic of father’s first name formed by adding ‘- vich’ or ‘-ovich’ for boys and ‘-avna’ or ‘- ovna’ for girls. Name Days (the day dedicated to the saint that an individual was named after) used to be seen as more important than birthdays in Russia, but now birthdays are given more prominence. Yet the day is still marked by people, with cards, parties and gifts.

In summary

• Russian is the official language, with over 100 minority languages • Most Russians are extremely patriotic and proud of their culture, heritage and people • There is a strong culture of self-publishing which existed many years before blogging • Community is still very important in Russia, as is maintaining friendships and connections • Many Russians still celebrate Name Day’s and follow traditional naming convent International Guide to Social Media Russia

Perspectives

From Russia with likes: Kremlin to launch Facebook-style social network

Social Media in Russia: why is VKontakte better than Facebook?

Analysis of social media in Russia vKontakte reach new record in daily visits, open visits statistics to everyone

About TranslateMedia

Visit the TranslateMedia website or contact [email protected] for more information. International Guide to Social Media DACH

Overview

In this report: Germany, Austria and Switzerland are the main German language speaking nations, and are grouped together under • Social Networks • Social Influencer Brands the DACH acronym. • Language & Culture

Germany is the sixteenth most connected nation in the world, and over 82 per cent of the population are connected to the internet (as of December 2011). When comScore analysed In this series: web traffic in June 2012, there were 51,825,000 unique • United States • Mexico visitors in Germany, spending an average of 24.5 hours online • India each. • China • Latin America • Scandinavia Austria has an internet penetration level of almost 75 per cent • France • Germany in December 2011, making it the thirty-third most connected country. comScore’s June 2012 analysis revealed that there Further reports due Q3 2012 were 4,868,000 unique visitors in Austria during the month, spending an average of 13.5 hours online each.

Switzerland has the highest internet penetration levels of the DACH region, at just over 84 per cent (reported in December 2011). Analysis by comScore in June 2012 showed that 4,978,000 unique visitors logged on in June, spending an average of 17.5 hours online. International Guide to Social Media DACH

Social Networks

Facebook

According to Alexa, Facebook is the second most popular site in Germany (behind Google.de and ahead of Google.com). SocialBakers* ranks Germany tenth in the world for Facebook user numbers, with more than 30 per cent of the German population on Facebook. Around 27 per cent of the nation’s 24 million plus Facebook users are 25 to 34 years old. The top three Facebook pages in Germany are those of German footballer Mesut Özil (7,147,375 fans), German industrial metal sensation Rammstein (5,989,949 fans) and football club FC Bayern Munchen (5,059,504 fans).

In July 2012 SocialBakers reported that Germany was the experiencing the fastest growth in Facebook user numbers in Europe. However, that hasn’t prevented concerns from being raised about the network. German data protection experts re-opened an investigation into Facebook’s use of facial recognition technology in August 2012. They argue that the opt- out photo tagging suggestion system is against EU data protection laws. However, Facebook stands by the technology, citing the notification system as sufficient in safeguarding the use of user images. In late August 2012, consumer rights organisation, Verbraucherzentrale Bundesverband, called on Facebook to make it clearer to users how much personal data they are handing over when clicking play on an App.

Facebook is also the second most visited website in Austria (behind Google.at and ahead of Google.com). SocialBakers* ranks Austria fifty-second in the world for Facebook user numbers. However, because of its smaller population (more than 8.4 million compared to Germany’s over 81.7 million) Austria has a higher penetration rate of more than 35 per cent. Almost 27 per cent of the nation’s 2.8 million plus Facebook users are 25 to 34 years old. The top three Facebook pages in Austria are dirt bike racing company KTM Racing (824,176 fans), general entertainment accounts Unnützes Wissen (753,329 fans) and aha. schön für dich (568,428 fans).

Austrian law student, Max Schrems, has filed many complaints against Facebook for its data policies; convinced that Facebook’s American lawyers don’t understand how strict European data protection law is. He formed advocacy group, Europe v Facebook, which charts the progress of the various legal battles with the network.

Facebook is also the second most visited website in Switzerland (behind Google.ch and ahead of Google.com). SocialBakers* ranks Switzerland forty-ninth in the world for Facebook users, but due to its smaller population (more than 7.9 million) its Facebook penetration rate is the highest of the DACH countries at more than 39 per cent. More than 28 per cent of Switzerland’s three million plus Facebook users are between the ages of 25 and 34. The top three Facebook pages in Switzerland belong to World No.1 Swiss tennis player Roger Federer (11,702,235 fans), coffee brand Nespresso International Guide to Social Media DACH

Social Networks

(1,770,048 fans) and general entertainment account aha. schön für dich (568,428 fans).

Switzerland is great at using social media to promote local communities and tourism. For example, Obermutten (a Swiss village with 79 residents) uses its Facebook page to promote the village. In May 2012 it had more than 17,000 fans, and a 250 per cent increase in traffic to its website. The Facebook page had more than 45,000 fans, and was using the site to poll on what the local farmer should name his new calf (receiving more than 1,100 suggestions). The campaign won a gold award at the 2012 Euro Effie Awards. Swiss Tourism’s My Switzerland’s campaign Holidays Without Internet used video and data from Facebooks API to encourage participants to visit Switzerland and disconnect. studiVZ studiVZ is a German language social network launched in 2005 and popular in the DACH region. Aimed at college students, it’s been compared to Facebook. Due to all of the privacy concerns about Facebook in Germany, studiVZ focused on reaching and maintaining high standards of security, but it didn’t stop users from heading to Facebook. The network dropped to around four million active users in total, and is due to be closed down in late 2012.

VZ Networks, owners of studiVZ, has renamed itself Pool works, and once the old network is shut down it announced it would launch a skill based social network targeted at school children – ID Pool. However, in September 2012 Pool works was bought by investment firm Vert Capital, and its new Managing Director is Bebo CEO Adam Levin.

Twitter

Analysis of the most popular languages used on Twitter between July 2010 and October 2011 showed that German wasn’t a dominant language on Twitter (it featured in the ‘other languages’ data, which means under one per cent of Tweets were in German). Twitter is the twentieth most visited site in Germany, and had around four million accounts at the end of January 2012, when it was ranked 18 out of the top 20 most represented countries on Twitter. According to SocialBakers, the three most followed Twitter accounts belong to; German media production provider Sound Invisible (1,345,011 followers), German record producer and trance DJ Paul van Dyk (741,650 followers), and New York based television music channel VH1 (717,624 followers). As of July 2012, Germany had around one Twitter account for every ten people, whereas the U.K. has one for every other person. Twitter recently blocked users in Germany from accessing a neo-Nazi Twitter account at the request of the German Government. International Guide to Social Media DACH

Social Networks

Twitter seems to be more popular in Austria, being the thirteenth most visited website. SocialBakers reports that the three most popular Twitter accounts belong to; actor Arnold Schwarzenegger (2,627,996 followers), drinks brand Red Bull (781,881 followers) and space jumper Felix Baumgartner (186,176 followers). In September 2012 Social Media Radar Austria reported that there were more than 53,000 active Twitter accounts in Austria.

Twitter is the twelfth most visited site in Switzerland. SocialBakers reports that the three most followed Twitter accounts are guerrilla marketing agency pierre-yves revaz (38,514 followers), flight operator Swiss International Airlines (34,665 followers), and football club FC Basel (10,533 followers). During the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, the Swiss fan zone Twitter account acquired 1,500 users.

YouTube

YouTube is the fourth most visited website in Germany. SocialBakers lists the three most popular channels as Kontor records dance channel (1,358,048,761 video views), the video channel of comedy duo DieAussenseiter (350,791,911 video views) and gaming channel albertoson (172,253,077 views).

In April 2012, the Hamburg State Council ruled that YouTube had to do more to prevent users from re-posting or re- mixing material flagged as violating copyright. In October 2012, YouTube announced that it would be launching new channels in Germany, specific to the local audience.

YouTube is also the fourth most visited site in Austria. SocialBakers reports that the three most viewed channels are agricultural channel agropictures (5,206,620 video views), mobile operator T-Mobile’s German channel (2,473,520 video views) and technology channel enifacha1 (1,437,293 video views).

YouTube is again the fourth most visited site in Switzerland. SocialBakers reports that the top three channels are; make- up and beauty channel misschievous (111,925,962 video views), tourism Switzerland’s channel myswitzerland (1,867,970 video views) and green energy channel b4energylink (447,981 video views). My Switzerland uses YouTube to showcase tourism videos like Switzerland – more than just mountains (309,876 views) and Switzerland – Summer Holiday (279,093 views). International Guide to Social Media DACH

Social Networks

LinkedIn vs Xing

LinkedIn is the thirty-second most popular website in Germany, while rival German business network Xing is the thirteenth most popular site. Xing was founded in 2003 and had more than 11 million members worldwide as of November 2011, including five million in the DACH region (as opposed to LinkedIn’s two million DACH members). LinkedIn launched a German language version in February 2009 to try and compete with Xing, and opened its first German office in Munich in August 2011. It’s been estimated that LinkedIn DACH region membership is growing at twice the pace of Xing, but as LinkedIn will only release figures once DACH membership numbers reach 3 million, it’s hard for commentators to be accurate. In Austria, LinkedIn is currently the twenty-fourth most visited website, while Xing is twenty-third. Meanwhile in Switzerland, LinkedIn is powering ahead, it’s the tenth most popular site, while Xing is the twenty-sixth.

Google+

Google Plus has almost two million users in Germany, over 75 per cent of whom are male, and 46 per cent aged 18 to 24. The most represented occupation is student (23 per cent) and nearly 11 per cent of users are from Berlin. Although Google Plus also uses facial recognition technology, German data protection campaigners don’t see this as a problem as the system is opt-in.

Google Plus is approaching 292,000 users in Austria, over 72 per cent are male, and 53 per cent are aged 18 to 24. More than 20 per cent of users are students, and almost 11 per cent are from Graz.

Google Plus is getting close to 277,000 users in Switzerland, over 78 per cent are male, and 49 per cent are aged 18 to 24. More than 10 per cent of users are students, and more than eight per cent are from Geneva.

In summary

• Switzerland has the highest level of internet penetration in the DACH region. • Facebook is the most popular social network in the DACH region, and the second most visited site. • Twitter appears to be more popular in Switzerland and Austria than it is in Germany. • YouTube is the fourth most visited site in all of the DACH countries. • Xing is popular in all DACH countries; LinkedIn is currently trying to catch up. International Guide to Social Media DACH

Social Influencer Brands

June 2012 research by ExactTarget revealed that German social media users are willing to engage brands over social media, as long as they get useful information from doing so. One multi-platform campaign that’s been successful in Germany was for the Aston Martin Vanquish, which increased visitors to the German website by 216 per cent.

One of the best examples of multi-platform campaigns can be seen in Austria’s Red Bull Space Jump. It achieved 2.6 million social media mentions on 14th October alone. The Twitter account reached 251,031 followers, the Facebook page got 711,222 likes and had 287,012 people talking about it. It took under 40 minutes for a photo of the kneeling, victorious Felix Baumgartner which Red Bull posted on the Facebook page, to be shared more than 29,000 times, receiving over 216,000 likes and 10,000 comments. Almost 7.3 million people watched the event on YouTube as it happened.

The Social Media Switzerland 2012 report said that a third of Swiss brands and organisations were not active users of social media. Forty-six per cent considered it too expensive, 28 per cent said it didn’t represent enough benefits to the business and 24 per cent cited a lack of interest from its target audience. Bigger brands were more likely to be using social media, and 55 per cent of them had been using it for under a year.

Facebook

The most popular Facebook brand pages in Germany belong to internet retailer Amazon.de (1,857,597 fans), McDonald’s Deutschland (1,825,350 fans) and German fashion and social shopping site Stylefruits (1,397,924 fans).

ExactTarget research from June 2012 revealed that almost 40 per cent of German people surveyed had fanned at least one brand or organisation, and that younger users were more likely to fan or like pages. Thirty-two per cent fanned a brand to keep updated with the company’s products and services, while only 14 per cent did so because they wanted to be seen as cool. Twenty-five per cent fanned to gain access to exclusive content from the brand.

Food brand Nutella’s Facebook campaign to drive sales and awareness in Germany had good results. The advent calendar campaign – where people who played the App could click on a door a day and possibly win a prize – reached 3.8 million people on Facebook who had not seen the TV campaign. Fifteen per cent of sales after the campaign were attributed to Facebook. German sausage maker Reinert Privat-Fleischerei turned peoples Facebook profile pictures into sausage versions as part of its Facebook campaign, which quickly spread over Facebook as people played the App and shared the results with friends. International Guide to Social Media DACH

Social Influencer Brands

The most popular Facebook brand pages in Austria are dirt bike racing brand KTM Racing (824,176 fans), men’s grooming brand AXE Effekt (297,709 fans) and beauty and home care retailer BIPA (289,553 fans). When BIPA launched its Facebook page its Everyone Wins campaign gave every new fan a 15 per cent discount on their next in-store purchase. The brand got 15,000 fans in the first two weeks, and sales rose by 150 per cent.

The most popular Facebook brand pages in Switzerland belong to coffee brand Nespresso (1,770,048 fans), tourism board My Switzerland (331,311 fans) and men’s grooming brand AXE Effekt (297,709 fans). The Social Media Switzerland 2012 report said that in April 2012 2.9 million Swiss people had a Facebook account which they used at least once per month. Eighty-five per cent of these users checked their account weekly, with the remaining 15 per cent logging in every day.

Twitter

The three most followed brand accounts on Twitter in Germany are German luxury fashion brand Hugo Boss (112,161 followers), German mobile phone provider T-Mobile (35,688 followers) and online game Brick Force (6,487 followers).

ExactTarget research from June 2012 reported that seven per cent of German Twitter users had followed at least one brand or business on Twitter. Twenty per cent of 25 to 34 year olds identified themselves as followers. The top reason to follow was to get the latest news on the company (27 per cent), while 26 per cent followed to get more information on personal interests.

The three most followed brand accounts on Twitter in Austria are drinks brand Red Bull(781,881 followers), the Austrian account of mobile network 3 (1,251 followers) and mobile network T-Mobile (567 followers).

In summary

• German consumers connect with brands on social for information rather than entertainment. • The majority of the most fanned Facebook brand pages are local or localised brands. • Most DACH brands seem to be hesitant to take to Twitter, unless it’s used as part of a cross-platform campaign. International Guide to Social Media DACH

Language & Culture

The 2001 census revealed that Germany was over 91 per cent German, 2.4 per cent Turkish and 6.1 per cent ‘other’ (mainly Greek, Italian, Polish, Russian, Serbo-Croatian and Spanish). The official language is German.

Culturally, German’s tend to value seriousness and formality – or bürgerlichkeit, and it could be argued that this impacts adoption and use of social networks. As one blogger put it when describing the downfall of Poolworks: “There’s no casual yet well-financed infrastructure that will fund brash, brilliant kids. Germans -- or at least the ones who have money and access to technology -- prize ‘seriousness’ too much, and don’t realize that the Internet is driven primarily by gossip, chatter, videos, and games, and that there is serious money in these things.” It’s not uncommon for Germans to continue to refer to neighbours using their title and last name, even if they’ve known them for years.

The primary purpose of communicating is generally seen as a method to convey useful information, rather than a way to pass the time of day, and so Germans may be more unlikely to engage in frivolous conversation, such as talking for the sake of it. It’s evident that this impacts the Germanic social media style, with many preferring to use social channels to get information from brands rather than engage in banter, or appear like the cool kid. For example, the German language has eight words meaning comfort, each one representing a different form of comfort.

Privacy is a major area of concern for German people. ExactTarget found that German consumers were more worried about maintaining privacy online than other countries did. This trait was also seen in 2010, when more than 244,000 households asked Google to blur their homes on the new Google Street View (around three per cent of the 8.5 million households in Germany’s largest cities).

Another strong cultural trait is the tendency for Germans to compartmentalize their lives into logical, constituent parts. For example, not only are work and home usually kept separate, but communication at work is often stymied by only communicating information to those within your own team. (This is also a strong Austrian trait.)

Culturally, football is immensely popular in Germany, as is Munich’s internationally famous Oktoberfest, a 16 day festival dedicated to celebrating beer, described as the world’s largest fair. Around 6.4 million people attended the 2012 fair, drinking 6.9 million litres of beer. International Guide to Social Media DACH

Language & Culture

The 2001 census results reported that Austria was over 91 per cent Austrian, four per cent former Yugoslavs (including Croatians, Slovenes, Serbians and Bosnians), 1.6 per cent Turks, 0.9 per cent German, and 2.4 per cent other. German is the official language (88.6 per cent), other languages used include Turkish (2.3 per cent), Serbian (2.2 per cent) and Croatian (1.6 per cent – and an official language in Burgenland). Other languages make up 5.3 per cent of the languages spoken.

The German word Gemütlichkeit is used to describe the relaxed, leisurely lifestyle that most Austrians prefer to lead. The average retirement age is currently 58.9 for men and 57.7 for women, one of the lowest in Europe.

Austria is a largely conservative nation, thanks to the lack of migration and respect for Austrian traditions. It’s also not unusual for Austrian’s to be seen as quite blunt or direct in their communication style.

Like Germans, Austrians are quite formal and hierarchical. As well as only using people’s first names if they are close friends or members of the family, Austrians tend to use the formal version of you ’sie’ rather than the informal ‘du’, unless invited otherwise.

A 2008 survey conducted by the Ministry of science and research found that the top five values that Austrian’s wanted to teach their children were: healthy living (71 per cent); being careful with money (66 per cent); being polite and friendly (62 per cent); installing a desire to learn (60 per cent); and being obedient to superiors (60 per cent). The least popular value to pass on was the European sprit (20 per cent).

In summary

Perspectives

A good source of information on business communication styles

Must read articles for more details on the German internet privacy concerns

Read for more background on LinkedIn vs Xing

Detailing how German users interact with brands on social media channels

More details on social media use in Austria

Further reading on data protection concerns in Austria

Salesforce blog on the Red Bull Stratos event and social media impact

Report on social networks in Switzerland

More information on Swiss businesses and social media

About TranslateMedia

Visit the TranslateMedia website or contact [email protected] for more information. International Guide to Social Media Eastern Europe

Overview

In this report: The level of Internet penetration in Eastern European nations varies widely. The three most connected countries are: the • Social Networks • Social Influencer Brands Slovak Republic with more than 79 per cent of the population • Language & Culture with Internet access; the Czech Republic (almost 71 per cent) and Hungary, where more than 65 per cent of the population were connected to the internet by December 2011. In this series:

Poland wasn’t that far behind Hungary, with 62 per cent • United States • Mexico of the population was connected to the internet, but the • India Republic of Moldova had just over 50 per cent of the • China • Latin America population connected by September 2012, and Bulgaria had • Scandinavia almost 49 per cent of the population connected to the internet • France • Germany by December 2011.

Further reports due Q3 2012 Falling behind in the Internet connectivity stakes were the Ukraine (according to one study, 59 per cent of the Ukrainian population had not used the Internet by March 2012), Romania, where just over 39 per cent of the population were connected to the internet by December 2011, and Belarus which reported around 3.1million internet users in the country in 2011 (around a third of the population). International Guide to Social Media Eastern Europe

Social Networks

Facebook versus local networks

According to Alexa, Facebook is the most visited website in Romania and Bulgaria, the second most visited in the Slovak Republic , Hungary and Poland, and the third most visited site in the Czech Republic. Facebook is slightly less popular in the Republic of Moldova, where it’s the fifth most visited site, and even less so in the Ukraine (seventh most popular) and Belarus (tenth most popular).

More than 23 per cent of the online population of Romania is on Facebook, and the most liked pages all belong to Romanian musicians (such as Elena Alexandra Apostoleanu – aka Inna- whose page has nearing 6.7million likes). Thirty-four per cent of Bulgarians are on Facebook, with the most popular page belonging to Bulgarian footballer Dimitar Berbatov (over 1.3million likes). November 2012 saw thousands of Bulgarians joining the Facebook group “film the police” which aimed to show police officers acting irresponsibly.

The most popular page in the Slovak Republic belongs to a fashion blogger (over 2.2 million likes), while in the most liked Facebook page in Hungary belongs to jewellery brand Extreme Silver (more than 955,000 likes). Poland is ranked twenty-fifth in the world for Facebook use. The most popular page is a general entertainment page called Demotywatory, which is approaching 1.5 million likes. (Social network nk.pl used to be the most popular network in Poland – with 12.3 million users to Facebook’s nine million back in 2011 – but it is currently the twenty-second most popular website in Poland). Recent research has shown that while 40 per cent of Poles predominantly use Facebook, 37 per cent mainly use nk.pl. The most popular Facebook page in the Czech Republic is a government road safety page with over 502,000 likes.

It’s often the case that Facebook is less popular when there are other, more established local social networks in existence. The most popular Facebook page in Moldova (with over 497,000 likes) belongs to a Moldovan pop singer. However, only 6.17 per cent of the population have Facebook accounts at the time of writing. The most popular social network in Moldova, Faces.md, shut down in May 2012, leaving Russian network odnoklassniki.ru as the most popular social network and third most visited site in Moldova. (It’s seen as an easier network to use, and users are predominantly from rural areas of Moldova). In September 2012 odnoklassniki.ru caused some controversy in Moldova when it blocked 18 year old Nicolae Petrov, admin of the largest group in Moldova. The group had 369,000 users, and was used to provide information and a place for discussion. Petrov felt that it was banned because it discussed unifying Moldova and Romania, and disgruntled users planned a complaints campaign against the network.

Odnoklassniki’s rival social network vk.com is much more popular than Facebook in the Ukraine (it’s the third most International Guide to Social Media Eastern Europe

Social Networks visited site). Only 4.62 per cent of the population has a Facebook account at the moment, with the most popular page being a generic fan page for people that like cars (over 330,000 likes). VK is the most popular site in Belarus, while Facebook is languishing down in tenth position, just ahead of odnoklassniki.ru in eleventh. The most popular page belongs to the Belarusian tennis player (and world number one) Victoria Azarenka (172,275 likes).

Twitter

Twitter doesn’t seem to be hugely popular in Eastern Europe, if you go by visitors to the website alone (setting aside the number of people accessing the site via a mobile app or via a tool such as Tweedeck). It’s the seventeenth most visited site in Belarus, where the most popular account is that of blogger bygirl, which has 22,214 followers. It’s the eighteenth most visited site in the Ukraine, where the most followed page belongs to Ukrainian singer Anastasiya Kamenskih (617,847 followers).

The most popular Twitter account in Moldova belongs to a web development blog called designmodo (206,360 followers), and Twitter is the twentieth most popular website. It’s the twenty-second most visited site in both Romania and Bulgaria. The most followed account in Romania belongs to car manufacturer BMW (6618 followers), while in Bulgaria, the most popular account is that of Canadian/Bulgarian actress Nina Dobrev (more than 2.8 million followers).

Twitter is the thirty-fifth most visited site in the Czech Republic, the most followed account is that of Czech Ice Hockey star Jaromir Jagr (90,858 followers). Twitter is the forty-seventh most visited site in Hungary, where the most followed account is a lifestyle and fashion account called BienHu (just 771 followers). Finally, the Slovak Republic and Poland both list Twitter as their fifty-seventh most visited website. The Slovak Republic’s most followed account belongs to Slovakian model Scarlett Rumor (779,572 followers), while Poland’s most popular account belongs to gaming site World of Tanks, @wargaming_netPL (2859 followers).

YouTube

YouTube is very popular in Eastern Europe, it’s in the top six websites visited for all countries, but appears to be most popular in Moldova and Romania. It’s the second most visited site in the Republic of Moldova, where the most popular page is mobile operator moldcell’s channel, which is approaching 210,000 video views. It’s the third most visited site in Romania, where the most popular channel is all about clubbing (more than 1.2 million video views). International Guide to Social Media Eastern Europe

Social Networks

YouTube is the fifth most visited site in the Czech Republic, the most popular channel being clubbing channel rukahore, which has more than 23.5 million views. It’s the sixth most popular site in Belarus, where the most popular page belongs to a vlogger (video blogger), and is approaching 34,000 video views.

LinkedIn appears to be less popular in Eastern Europe; it’s the seventeenth most popular site in Romania (a Romanian language version was launched in July 2011), the eighteenth most popular site in Bulgaria, and the twenty-first most visited site in the Czech Republic. LinkedIn launched its Czech language version in January 2012, at the time it reported having 250,000 Czech users. The site appears to be less popular in Poland (although in April 2012, when the Polish language version was launched, it was reported that there were 500,000 Polish users, it’s still the fortieth most visited site in the country); the Ukraine (forty-first) and Belarus (forty-eighth).

Google+

Google Plus isn’t massively popular in Eastern Europe. None of the nations are in the top 15 countries for Google Plus users. Poland has the most Google Plus users (more than 626,000), 68 per cent of whom are between the ages of 18 and 24. The Ukraine is nearing 444,000 users, and 45 per cent of them are 18 to 24, and Romania has more than 370,000 users, 53 per cent between the ages of 18 and 24.

The network is less popular in Belarus (approaching 97,000 users – 87 per cent based in Minsk), and in the Republic of Moldova, which has just over 29,000 users, around 84 per cent from Chisinau.

In summary

• The Slovak Republic has the highest level of internet connectivity at 79 per cent • odnoklassniki.ru is more popular than Facebook in Moldova, and vk.ru is more popular in the Ukraine. • Facebook is the most visited website in Romania and Bulgaria • Twitter appears to be less popular in Eastern Europe, with Belarus and the Ukraine visiting the site the most frequently. • YouTube is very popular in Eastern Europe, especially in Moldova and Romania International Guide to Social Media Eastern Europe

Social Influencer Brands

In Moldova, there seems to be a disconnect between brands and consumers, with most Moldovan brands and celebrities maintaining Facebook pages, while the majority of Moldovan internet users prefer to use odnoklassniki.ru. Meanwhile, a study into social network usage in Romania revealed that the most popular reason for social network use was to connect with friends (over 65 per cent), followed by relaxation (over 40 per cent) and to get relevant information (20 per cent).

Facebook

The most popular brand page in both Romania and Hungary is jewellery brand extreme silver (697,271 likes and over 57,000 people talking about the page). Colgate Romania used a Facebook App called Zambometeru (or Smilemeter) to track interactions with its social media campaign in September and October 2012. Back in 2010, Saatchi Hungary and T-Mobile joined forces to carry out a street art campaign that demonstrated how easy it was to use Facebook on mobile. Over the 10 days of the campaign, the page received more than 18,000 likes.

Fashion brands are the most popular in both the Slovak Republic and Bulgaria. Legends of Slovakia has over 328,600 likes, and Bulgarian brand Koketna has almost 251,000 likes

The most popular Facebook page in the Ukraine belongs to nightclub brand metroclub (nearing 104,000 likes), while the most popular page in the Czech Republic is that of drinks brand Kofola (over 363,700 likes). The Czech Republic tourism board recently changed its slogan to Czech Republike in an effort to reach out to the social audience, and started rolling the changes out to all of its social presences.

In Belarus, the most popular Facebook page belongs to car manufacturer Mercedes Benz (6075 likes), while in Poland its most popular page is Serce I Rozum (more than 1.4 million likes, which is mobile provider Orange’s page (and appears to centre around the brands Polish mascots). In Moldova, web developer DesignModo dominates with over 80,000 likes and more than 1600 people talking about the page.

Twitter

Web development firm, Design Modo, has the most followers of any brand-owned Moldovan Twitter account (over 206,000). In Bulgaria, domestic mobile operator Globul has the most followers (approaching 1000), while AV provider AVAST has the largest follower base in the Czech Republic (more than 70,000). The most followed Twitter account in the Slovak Republic belongs to advertising agency WebPomoc (over 26,000 followers). International Guide to Social Media Eastern Europe

Social Influencer Brands

Romania’s most followed account is car manufacturer BMW’s Romanian account which has over 6,600 followers. Poland’s is cruise firm, Stena Line, with 259 followers, meanwhile in the most popular brand account in Belarus belongs to Alfa-Bank (981 followers).

YouTube

In four nations of the Eastern European nations, the most popular branded channels belong to mobile operators. In the Czech Republic, it’s the local T Mobile channel, with more than 24.5million video views. In the Ukraine it’s life.ua’s channel (nearing 458,000 views). Bulgaria’s most viewed branded channel was MTel (over 178,000 views). In Moldova, the Moldcell channel has over 209,000 video views.

In Poland, fashion channel stoprocenttv has approaching 46 million video views, while EA Games Czech Republic channel is the most popular channel in the Slovak Republic with over 4 million views. The channel for Cluj Life (a kind of events and party website) has over 1.2 million views in Romania.

In August 2012, Durex Poland used YouTube as part of its social media campaign, creating a video that received over 1.3 million views.

In summary

• Moldovan brands seem to favour Facebook, while consumers prefer odnoklassniki.ru • Some brands, like extreme silver are popular in more than one country • Web development brand DesignModo is popular across all social channels in Moldova • The most popular social presences are of local brands, or localised global brands International Guide to Social Media Eastern Europe

Language & Culture

Czech Republic

The 2001 census reported that the population comprised over 90 per cent Czech, more than three per cent Moravian, almost two per cent Slovak and four per cent other. The main language spoken was Czech (94.9 per cent) followed by Slovak (two per cent) and other/unidentified languages just over three per cent.

According to the 2012 Eurobarometer report, 49 per cent of people speak at least one foreign language. Twenty-seven per cent of the population can speak English well enough to hold a conversation (followed by 16 per cent Slovakian, and 15 per cent German). Only 19 per cent of Czechs understand English well enough to use it online.

The Czech Republic celebrates quite a few national holidays, including: the Day of Restoration of Czech Independence (the republic was founded in 1993) on 1st January; Liberation Day(marking liberation from Nazi occupation in 1945) on 8th May; Workers Day (celebrating the workforce, most spend the long weekend at their weekend homes); and CzechoSlovak Independence Day(which celebrates the creation of the Czechoslovakian Republic from the Austro- Hungarian Empire in 1918 and is still observed in the Republic on 28th October). People also celebrate name days, and have a carnival/masquerade season called Masopust (known as Fasinek in Slovakia).

The Czech Republic claims to have the highest consumption of beer in the world, and the most popular sports are football and hockey.

Belarus

The 2009 census revealed that almost 84 per cent of the population were Belarusian, just over eight per cent Russian, around three per cent Polish, 1.7 per cent Ukrainian and just over three per cent other. The official languages were Belarusian (23.4 per cent) and Russian (70.2 per cent), with other languages making up 6.4 per cent.

Belarus has national holidays for: Independence Day (marking the liberation of Minsk by the Soviet troops from the Nazis) on 3rd July and a second Independence Day celebrated by some on 25th March, marking the time in 1918 when Belarus temporarily broke free of Bolsheviks rule. International Guide to Social Media Eastern Europe

Language & Culture

Belarus has strong regional ties, with Russian buying around 70 per cent of its exports. It’s also interesting to note that the Queen of Poland is a Belarusian. Belarus is mainly rural, with several larger cities.

Poland

The 2002 census showed that almost 97 per cent of the population were Polish, 0.4 per cent identified as Belarusian, 0.1 per cent Ukrainian and other/unspecified 2.7 per cent. The official language was Polish (almost 98 per cent), and other languages made up 2.2 per cent.

According to the 2012 Eurobarometer report, 50 per cent of people speak at least one foreign language. Conversational English is used by 33 per cent of the population, 19 per cent can hold a conversation in German, and 18 per cent in Russian.

Sixty per cent of Polish people live in cities. Name days are very important to commemorate. It’s important to use the correct form of language in Poland, for example, people can only use “Ty” for “you” if the relationship has progressed to that level of informality.

Hungary

The 2001 census reported that 92.3 per cent of the population were Hungarian, 1.9 per cent were Roma and 5.8 per cent were other or unknown. The main language was Hungarian (93.6 per cent), with other/unspecified at 6.4 per cent.

According to the 2012 Eurobarometer report 35 per cent of people can speak at least one foreign language. Only 16 per cent of Hungarians understand English well enough to use it online. Just 20 per cent of Hungarians say that they use English well enough to use it in conversations, with 18 per cent saying that they can hold conversations in German and three per cent having conversational French.

Major national holidays in Hungary include: commemorating the death of King Stephen on 20th August; remembering the civil revolution of 1848 (celebrated on 15th March); and remembrance of the revolution on 1956 on 23rd October. Local festivals and fairs include the southern Folklore Festival along the Danube and the northern region’s annual Palóc Festival. International Guide to Social Media Eastern Europe

Language & Culture

Slovak Republic

The 2001 census reported that almost 86 per cent of the population were Slovak, almost 10 per cent Hungarian, 1.7 per cent Roma, one per cent Ruthenian/Ukrainian and 1.8 per cent other/unspecified. Almost 84 per cent spoke Slovak(the official language), more than 10 per cent Hungarian, 1.8 per cent Roma, one per cent Ukrainian, and 2.6 per cent other/ unspecified.

According to the 2012 Eurobarometer report 80 per cent of people can speak at least one foreign language. Sixty-one per cent of Slovaks say that they speak Croatian well enough to hold a conversation, while 26 per cent have conversational English, and 22 per cent can hold a conversation in German.

National holidays in the Slovak Republic tend to revolve around the Christian calendar, but also include; Independence Day (January 1st); the liberation of the Slovak Republic (May 8th) 8 May; and Constitution Day on 1st September. Agricultural areas celebrate the annual grain harvest with a festival called dožinky in August. In the early fall, oberačky celebrates the harvesting of apples and other late orchard crops. These local secular events include feasting and dancing.

Ukraine

The 2001 census reported that around 78 per cent of the population were Ukrainian, more than 17 per cent Russian, 0.6 per cent Belarusian, 0.5per cent Moldovan, 0.5 per cent Crimean Tatar, 0.4 per cent Bulgarian, 0.3per cent Hungarian, 0.3 per cent Romanian, 0.3per cent Polish, 0.2 per cent Jewish and 1.8 per cent other. Sixty-seven per cent speak Ukrainian (the official language), 24 per cent Russian, and nine per cent other languages.

In summary

• Each nation speaks its own language, although they do share minority languages • Although several languages may be popular, in general, there seems to be no strong desire to learn a second language • The celebration of cultural landmarks, such as independence days or liberation, is still very important to cultural identity International Guide to Social Media Eastern Europe

Perspectives

European Commission Report: Europeans and their languages, published June 2012 http://ec.europa.eu/public_opinion/archives/ebs/ebs_386_en.pdf Excellent source of information for the current state of European languages

Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism: Media Landscape of Romania http://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/fileadmin/documents/Media_Landscapes/Romania.pdf Good view of Romania from a journalist’s perspective

Library of Congress: Federal Research Division: Country Profile- Bulgaria http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/profiles/Bulgaria.pdf Comprehensive profile on Bulgaria

About TranslateMedia

Visit the TranslateMedia website or contact [email protected] for more information. International Guide to Social Media Turkey

Overview

In this report: The level of internet penetration in Turkey is around 45 per cent, placing it outside of the world’s 50 most connected • Social Networks • Social Influencer Brands nations. According to one Intel study, over 71 per cent of 13 to • Language & Culture 29 year olds live in households with a computer. Two thirds of those questioned viewed being social offline as equivalent to being social online. Three out of five people questioned had regular access to the internet (two out of five in rural In this series: areas). The report stated that Izmir had the most connected • United States • Mexico population, with almost 80 per cent of people having regular • India access. • China • Latin America • Scandinavia However, strict internet laws make it very easy for websites to • France • Germany be blocked. In 2010 Reporters without Borders placed Turkey on a list of “countries under surveillance” for its attitude to Further reports due Q3 2012 press freedom. In May 2011 it reported that Turkey’s internet regulator had banned 138 internet keywords including the word free. The word pic has been banned because it may be short for picture in English, but it has a totally different meaning in Turkish. Turkey also blocks sites that mention the founder of the republic, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. International Guide to Social Media Turkey

Social Networks

In October 2011, comScore reported that Turkish internet users spent an average of 10.2 hours on social networks that month. This made Turkey the fourth most socially engaged nation in the world. It has been reported that Turkish citizens are turning to social media channels in place of traditional media, which some feel is under more government control.

A rumour began circulation online in September 2012, stating that the Turkish government was considering blocking Facebook and Twitter at times of social unrest or disorder, but this was soon denied by official sources.

Facebook

Facebook is the most popular website in Turkey, with over 40 per cent of the population using the network (more than 10 million of whom are aged 18 to 24). Turkey is the seventh biggest market in the world for Facebook.

The most popular pages are all sports related. Football club Galatasaray has over 7.5 million likes on Facebook, followed by Fenerbahce, which is a sports club covering multiple sports (more than six million likes) and basketball club Besiktas, which has more than 3.7 million likes.

In February 2012, it was reported that Facebook had a list of rules for Turkish content. It was reported that Facebook banned attacks on Kemal Atatürk, images of Turkish flag burning and maps of Kurdistan. Supporting the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) could result in getting your account blocked.

Twitter

Twitter is the sixth most popular website in Turkey, with around nine million users. The most popular accounts all belong to popular personalities. Turkish stand-up comedian Cem Yılmaz has a Twitter following approaching three million, while the President of Turkey has over 2.4 million Twitter followers. Turkish/American cardiac surgeon and TV personality Dr.Oz has around 20 thousand fewer followers than the President.

In June 2012 Turkish classical jazz pianist, Fazil Say, was charged with insulting Islamic values on Twitter. In September 2012, a Turkish couple used Twitter to get married. They exchanged vows by mentioning each other, and following the instructions of the mayor officiating the service. International Guide to Social Media Turkey

Social Networks

YouTube

YouTube is the third most popular website in Turkey. A December 2011 comScore report highlighted the popularity of online video in Turkey, when it revealed that in October 2011, Turkish internet users watched an average of 250.7 videos per viewer (coming fourth in the report, behind Canada, the U.S. and UK).

The three most popular YouTube channels belong to: a TV production company, Made in Turkey, which had more than 10.4 million video views; a TV gaff clip channel (more than 7.2 million views) and technology company Samsung’s Turkish channel, which has more than 3.1 million video views.

YouTube was banned for 30 months in 2008 (after users posted videos Turkey deemed insulting to the republic’s founder, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk). In October 2012 YouTube agreed to operate in under a Turkish domain name for the Turkish market. This gave the Turkish authorities more control over the service in their country. YouTube described this as launching a Turkish language version.

More recently a minor social media controversy erupted when Turkish singer Atilla Taş released a song and video called Yamyam Style, in tribute to the South Korean global phenomenon Gangnam Style, which has almost 717 million views on YouTube to date. Unfortunately for Atilla Taş, his compatriots didn’t appear to be that keen on the song, which many viewed as an embarrassment. A social media campaign sprang up on YouTube (spreading to other networks including Twitter) which renamed him Athillas Thasos and claimed that he was Greek, not Turkish.

LinkedIn is the thirty-second most popular site in Turkey, having launched a Turkish language version in June 2011. In April 2012 it was reported that there were 1.3 million Turkish account holders, an increase of 67 per cent from September 2011.

Google+

Turkey was one of the first nations to take to Google Plus, with more than 372,000 signing up within the first three weeks of launch. There are approximately 1,018,529 users of Google+ in Turkey. Almost 84 per cent are male, and more than 54 per cent are 18 to 24. Twelve per cent are students and more than 39 per cent are from Istanbul. International Guide to Social Media Turkey

Social Influencer Brands

Facebook The three most popular brands on Facebook, in Turkey, are: Turkish mobile operator, Turkcell (more than two million likes); mobile, internet and TV provider Avea (more than 1.8 million likes); and car manufacturer Volkswagen’s Turkish page (more than 1.6 million likes). Volkswagen is one of the brands that has used Facebook as a platform for a social media campaign. The brand used a flip book of 200 photos to create an interactive moving banner, which allowed people to ‘drive’ the VW Amarok via down a street depicted on a banner on the page. The car also drove past a large billboard with a ‘Like’ sign on it, allowing participants to become fans of the page.

Twitter The three most followed brands on Twitter are all Turkish brands. Mobile operator Turkcell (more than 282,500 followers); performance centre Babylon Istanbul (more than 252,600 followers) and the Twitter account of Turkish Airlines has more than 247,400 followers. Turkcell launched a campaign using Twitter using a game. A picture of a prize covered with post-it notes appeared on a website, and each time someone read one of the notes, and tweeted them out with the hashtag #turkcelltweet, that note was removed. The more messages were tweeted, the more the prize was uncovered. The campaign generated more than 55,000 retweets over seven days.

YouTube The most viewed brand channels in Turkey on YouTube are currently all either Turkish brands, or local versions of international brands. Samsung’s Turkish channel is the most viewed branded channel with more than 3.1 million video views. Mobile operator Turkcell is also popular with over 2.5 million views. Finally, mobile, internet and TV provider Avea’s channel has more than 1.7 million views.

In summary

• Turkish mobile brand Turkcell is one of the most popular brands on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube • The most popular social pages either belong to domestic brands, or localised global brands • Some brands like Turkcell and Volkswagen are starting to use social media to run campaigns International Guide to Social Media Turkey

Language & Culture

In 2008 it was estimated that the Turkish population comprised 70 to 75 per cent Turkish and 18 per cent Kurdish people. Other minorities made up seven to 12 per cent of the population. Turkish is the official language; Kurdish is popular, with other minority languages also being spoken. English is the most widely used second language. Turkish is spoken by approximately 220 million people worldwide, and it’s the fifth most used language in the world, according to Turkey’s tourism board.

Sport is very popular in Turkey. One comScore report, conducted in February 2012, revealed that Turkey had the highest reach for spots sites in Europe (70.7 per cent). Globally, Turkey was second only to the United States, which had a reach of 70.9 per cent. Sport is so popular in Turkey that it’s even in the Constitution; article 59 states: “The State takes measures to develop the physical and mental health of Turkish citizens of all ages and encourages the spread of sports among the masses. The State protects successful athletes.”

Football is the most popular sport in Turkey, but it also has its own traditional sport. Yağlı güreş, otherwise known as oiled wrestling, dates back to 1065AD.

Turkey is 99.8 per cent Muslim, which contributes to the formal etiquette that is central to Turkish culture. (However, it’s also the only secular Islamic nation in the world.) The national flag is regarded as sacred.

Older people and opposite genders are addressed formally unless they happen to be close friends or relations, with older men being addressed with the title “Bey” and women with the title “Hanim”.

Public holidays include: National Sovereignty and Children’s Day on 23rd April; Ataturk Commemoration and Youth Sports Day on 19th May; Victory Day on 30th August (commemorating the victory of the Battle of Dumlupınarin 1922); and Republic Day (divided over 28th and 29th October).

The 19th May celebrations used to involve thousands of students performing in stadium ceremonies around the country, but this was changed in 2012 so that the majority of Turkish children took part in ceremonies at school instead (one reason being that it had started to impact children’s education). International Guide to Social Media Turkey

Language & Culture

The Turkish government refused to permit campaign groups holding their own rally in Ankara to celebrate Republic Day 2012, as campaigners had started using the day to demand change, and protest against the government for what they

In summary

• The country is divided between Turkish and Kurdish people, with the vast majority Turkish Turkish is the official language • English is the most dominant second language • Sport features in the constitution and is very popular in the country • Turkey is the only secular Islamic nation in the world • Elders and members of the opposite sex are addressed formally unless a close relation or friend • All major public holidays centre around the founder of the republic (Atatürk) • There is increasing tension between those who feel that the secular traditions are being threatened and the government International Guide to Social Media Turkey

Perspectives

http://www.rudaw.net - Kurdish online newspaper http://www.brandingmagazine.com - online magazine about branding in Europe http://www.youngdigitallab.net – Italian social media blog

About TranslateMedia

Visit the TranslateMedia website or contact [email protected] for more information.