My Thoughts On Wave 6
You can read my thoughts on Wave 5 here, but they are 2 years old now.
Wave 6 came out in March 2012, I don’t know what rock I was dozing under, but I missed it! I was preparing for a talk on Friday and I thought “I wonder when the next Universal McCann view of social media and where it’s all going is coming out”… so apologies if this news seems ‘so yesterday’ to you, it’s full of it usual amazing insights, so I felt the need to write about it.
Wave 6 is a social media survey. 41,738 Active Internet Users (aged 16-54) were surveyed in 62 countries. View full Wave 6 report here.
- The number of social network profiles being created continues to slow, but the time spent on them is on the rise. ”Social networks are now legitimate rivals to all forms of media and will continue to have a huge effect on online consumption in particular.”
- People continue to move away from brand websites (except for ecommerce). Brands need to reach out to consumers in the social spaces if they want to connect online.
I like Wave for its insights on cultural and geographical differences, for example – in contrast to the “I’m going for a Starbucks” or the celeb following Twitter culture in the West, what is different about microblogging in China is that they are a highly vocal and active community.
They are more likely to be highly educated and well paid, viewing microblogging as a tool for self expression (49% in China vs. 32% globally) and sharing experiences (46% in China vs. 30% globally)…Clearly the microblogging platform is becoming a highly influential form of media, explaining why the Chinese government is becoming so heavily involved through new rules of use and the launch of it’s own platform.
Interesting to see the activities that people have done with their social networking profile:
Again and again as we analyse the results from Wave 6 we see the power of social media to create loyalty.
What is even more apparent is amongst influencers, those people who often talk about the category, we can see that it not only drives loyalty it creates desire for the brand too. Responding to a customer’s problem is a natural behaviour for a truly social brand and consumers clearly respect and respond to this.
Overall I don’t think that Wave 6 was as insightful as its predecessors. But it’s still well worth a read.