Social Media Usage Across Cultures

October 1, 2010 Anne Egros, Global Executive Coach

With the globalization we have seen an increase of usage of social media everywhere.
According to Nielsen research (January 2010), global consumers spent more than five and
half hours per month on social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter in December
2009, an 82% increase from the same time last year.
However there are great differences on how people use social media in different countries.
For example Brazilians are the top social media users worldwide according to anotherglobal
survey by Nielsen (June 2010). People in Brazil communicate mainly in Portuguese. The
social network made by Google, Orkut, has been adopted by 50% of Brazilians internet users
but is not very popular in the United States.
For global marketers and people who want to develop both local and international networks,
it is important to determine how people from different countries interact with social media.
There are five main driving factors that determine the choice of
platforms and content:
1. Purposes of using social media
2. How open the culture is to share information online (privacy and security)
3. Online purchasing behavior
4. Languages other than English used
5. Number and types of social media users among total population
Global Usage Of Social Media
Following points are summary and analysis of the results of large
global consumer surveys on social media conducted in 2009-2010 Please see

sources at the end of the article

I-Regional and country trends on purpose and ways of using social media
1-Asia-Pacific region: Social media usage has seen unprecedented growth in Asia-
Pacific in the past year and is now one of the most critical trends in the online sector, online
product reviews are the third most trusted source of information when making purchase
decisions, behind family and friends. Japan is the first Asian Twitter nation, and second
worldwide after the US, with 18% of messages worldwide according to a “geolocation” study
of tweets by Semiocast
China: staying in touch with a friend is the most frequent use of social media
Japan: people use mainly social media to research products to buy. Japanese people have
the least appetite for Facebook with 3% of users on it. The most popular Japanese
platformis Ameba. It is visited by 38% of Japanese people online. Blogging is very
popular in Japan
South Korea: staying up-to-date on news and events was the most popular. South Koreais
in the top ten markets in the world when it comes to internet population. Naver, is attracting
95 percent of the Korean Internet population.
India: researching for work topped the social media usage motivation. 70 percent of social
media users in India identify Orkut as their preferred social media site.
Australia: staying in touch with friends is the most common activity. Australia leads the
world in social media engagement, with the highest global average for time spent per month
engaging with social media, averaging over seven hours per month. LinkedIn has seen one of
the fastest growth trends amongst social media sites in Australia, with unique audience
numbers increasing by 99 percent from July 2009 to May 2010
2-Europe: Facebook’s reach is the widest in Italy, (69%) followed by UK(66%) Spain(57%),
France (57%)
U.K.: researching product purchases
France: staying in touch with friends is the dominating motivation
The Netherlands, Italy, Spain, and Russia: staying current on news and events leads
the way
3-Americas:
Brazil’s motivation to use social media was unique and focused on “researching how to do
things.”
The US, ranked researching products to buy as the number one motivation of social media
activity. Watching video online is surprisingly low in the US compared to other regions.
II-Global Trends On Business and Personal Use
Based on the aggregate data from all the countries, the results show that 85 percent of
respondent uses social media for business use and 97 percent for personal use.
The top three reasons for using social media for personal use are:
1. Connecting with friends and family
2. Reading social media content
3. Connecting with like-minded people
The top three reasons for using social media for business are:
1. Building networks for business contact
2. Reading social media content
3. Highlighting personal and professional expertise on social media
Other leading reasons included job search, identifying potential leads, and finding product
and service information.
III-Languages spoken on Social Media
Facebook reached 500 million users around the world and it is a good indicator of the
trends on languages used on social media.
Facebook’s #1 language is English, with over 52% of the site’s total user base accessing
the site in that language. Spanish is second with a usage rate of around 15% of the total
user base. After Spanish, the drop off is much sharper, French is third.
Source: www.insidefacebook.com: Article: Facebook Top 10 Languages and who is using
them
Consumers’ behaviors are changing very fast on social media. Here’s a look at growth rates
for Facebook’s Top 10 languages:
From www.insidefacebook.com: Article: Top languages Portuguese Arabic and Spanish lead-
growth
Conclusion: On Social media, “One-Size-Fits All” content and ethnocentric (mainly USA)
communication strategies are no longer sustainable. To become truly global or even just to
adapt to global forces that are shaping the world’s economy, the most important factor for
developers, advertisers and marketers is not how large the global audience is but to know
how to reach users in established and fast-growing markets through localization strategies
including making content with cultural sensitivity, adjust to online behaviors of target
audiences at country level and languages.
Sources:
• Global Social Media Usage and the Language Factor. Findings of large-scale
surveys on global social media users and their motivations summarized in a white
paper published by Lionbridge Technologies, Inc.
• Nielsen Researches in 2010:
• a- Nielsen’s Asia-Pacific Social Media
Report
• b- Nielsen’s Global Time Spent on Social Media
• c-Social Networks/Blogs global usage
Related Articles
• Why Businesses Can No Longer Ignore Social Media (onesocialmedia.com)