Activities

According to the Nielsen 2010 Social Media Report, of NZ internet users:

• 81% sent or shared a photo
• 75% posted photos online
• 73% sent or shared a link

Of regular online activities:

• reading wikis is up 26%
• creating social network profiles is up 16%
• updating social network profiles is up 17%
• looking at others’ social network profiles is up 16%

Altogether, 1.92 million online New Zealanders have looked to their fellow internet users for opinions and information about products, services and brands.

Platforms

Facebook

72% of New Zealanders use Facebook (source: Saatchi & Saatchi/Colmar Brunton, quoted here)

From the Nielsen report:

• 82% of online NZers have visited Facebook
• 70% have a Facebook profile
• 79% of social networkers say Facebook is their main social networking platform (was 19% in 2007!)
• Of those who have Facebook as their main profile, 54% visit the site at least daily, and 39% are on the site for at least 4 hours per week.
• 84% of mobile social networkers have visited Facebook (the most popular mobile site accessed)

And from Perceptive‘s July 2010 Omnibus, 15-24 year olds engage with Facebook the most frequently (surprise!).

Twitter

From the Nielsen report:

• 27% of online New Zealanders have visited twitter.com
• 11% have created a Twitter profile

From Saatchi & Saatchi / Colmar Brunton:

• 14% of New Zealanders “use Twitter”

From Perceptive’s Omnibus survey, again, 15-24 year olds spend the most time on Twitter.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn is a bit of a survivor. It’s older than most other social networks (established 2003) and it has successfully evolved from simply a place to post your resume online to a successful, business-focused social network.

LinkedIn has grown like topsy worldwide, and in New Zealand…

• There are more than 200,000 users according to Clifford Rosenberg, LinkedIn’s managing director Australia/NZ
• 8% of New Zealanders use LinkedIn, according to Saatchi & Saatchi/Colmar Brunton
• According to Perceptive, 35-54 year olds engage the most frequently with LinkedIn

YouTube

YouTube is the world’s second biggest search engine. And in New Zealand…

• 15% of mobile social networkers have accessed YouTube on their phone (Nielsen Report)
• Kiwis love engaging with YouTube, with a skew towards the younger audience (Perceptive)

Bebo

Yep, Bebo. It’s pretty much on life support, and virtually unusable for businesses (especially since they’re no longer selling NZ advertising) but it still has people on it. However it’s on the outskirts.

• In 2007, 35% named Bebo as their main social networking site. Today, it’s 4%. (Nielsen)
• 23% of mobile social networkers access Bebo on their phone.

MySpace

While Bebo was the king in NZ just 3 years ago, MySpace was the king of the world. Not so much any more.

According to Saatchi & Saatchi/Colmar Brunton 9% of New Zealanders use MySpace.

According to Nielsen, more people have a main profile on MySpace now (5%) than in 2007 (less than 1%).

According to Perceptive, MySpace is mostly frequented by 25-34 year olds.

Business

From Perceptive’s Omnibus:

This offers some guidance to companies who often feel caught in the “damned if you do/damned if you don’t” aspect of online engagement.

According to Nielsen:

• 42% of online kiwis are interacting with companies via social networking sites
• 44% have published opinions specifically about products, services and brands
• 73% have read other consumers’ product opinions
• Almost 2/3 of those who haven’t read consumer reviews and discussions intend to do so in 2010
• 44% of Twitter users in NZ say they have followed companies or brands

According to Saatchi & Saatchi/Colmar Brunton:

• 34% of kiwis want companies to actively interact with them
• 51% want companies to respond to requests on social media
• 41% want companies to solicit feedback
• 56% find companies on social media more engaging
• 57% feel better served by companies on social media

Conclusions

• Social media in New Zealand is mainstream.
• Businesses are active in social media and consumers are welcoming their presence.
• The best engagement is done on the customer’s terms

Many thanks to Jessica from Perceptive for her help putting this post together!

P.S: there’s also some great information from Social Media Club Auckland’s August session on measurement and analytics.

Telecom NZ has set up Support Messages for Telecom Staff, and the IRD has set up Inland Revenue’s Earthquake Response.

What’s really interesting about this is that these are internal staff communities. They just happen to be available to the public – partly because it’s convenient, but also because it shows some of the humanity of two organisations which (let’s face it) don’t have a whole bunch of fans.

What’s also interesting is that Facebook allowed staff a quick and easy way to set up a communications infrastructure that just about everyone is already part of. When servers are offline or possibly destroyed, it’s hugely important.

Organisations that already have a page have an advantage. Lincoln University have been using their page to keep students, staff and anyone else updated about the damage, as well as when school resumes.

Seen any other examples of social media for emergency support? Please add them in the comments below.

(Also immensely awesome: this display of grassroots support from students)

Here’s what’s new, in a nutshell:

1. The Like Button. People no longer “become a fan” of your business; instead they “like” it. Apart from that, the functionality of a business page (used to be called “fan page”) is much the same.
2. Facebook for websites. You can now put a “Like” button on any website. Highly techie explanation here, but in short, when someone likes your website, it’ll show up on their Facebook profile, and they’ll continue to get updates from you in their Facebook news feed.  (If you have a Posterous blog, it’s already built-in to every post).
3. Community pages. Sometimes pages have been created for non-organisations (e.g. baseball). Facebook is turning these into Community Pages. For the moment, Community Pages look and behave exactly like Business Pages, but the plan is to make pages Wikipedia-like as more and more people like the page. Speaking of Wikipedia, they’re working with Facebook on this one. More info on Community pages, and the Wikipedia connection.
4. Big privacy changes. Your Facebook profile information is now more accessible in more places around the web, unless you specifically adjust your privacy settings. Some find these changes quite disturbing. There’s a pretty exhaustive collection of links here. Update: The NZ Privacy Commission has launched the Global Privacy Enforcement Network (and that’s the first time I’ve heard of sweet innocent internet companies being referred to as “multinationals” – have we turned a corner?) … also some good coverage from our friend Courtney Lambert.

Implications for marketers:

1. Start using “like” instead of “become a fan” in your promotional material.
2. Install (or get your web developer to install) Facebook for websites.
3. Stay tuned on Community Pages. It’s all a bit hazy at the moment, but will likely come clear soon.
4. Ensure you and your family are diligent and informed about your personal privacy options (from the Facebook home page, go to Accounts-> Privacy Settings). If in doubt, don’t post anything that you wouldn’t want everyone in the world to see.

Almost exactly a year ago we met Alex and John from Spin Advertising and Design in Christchurch. They talk about how social media has helped build their sales and extended their networks. A year on, it’s amazing how little has really changed – pick up some best practices in this interview.

John Johnston (JJProjects) led the social media campaign for the World Wildlife Fund’s Earth Hour earlier this year. Find out the connection between success and letting go of your message!

Key learnings:

• 21st century marketing – whether it’s for a non-profit cause or for a business – is about you being of service to your audience. In the case of Earth Hour, JJ’s team were of service to people around the world who cared about the environment, and gave them resources to rally others to the cause.
• The way to scale your social media project is to share control with your audience. Try to control everything, and you’ll never be able to scale.
• There may be malicious or negative people who will try to sabotage, but this is largely self-correcting as your community stands up for you.

There’s a theme here of cooperating with your audience. It’s emerging in all sorts of aspects of business, as I discovered at the Auckland Tweetup on Friday night. Justin Flitter told me that Zendesk finds its staff among its greatest fans on the community forums. Our intern Courtney, who’s also a big fan of Giapo Icecream, found herself behind the counter serving a customer. An apt analogy for what’s happening now.

Will you let your customers behind the counter? When does this not work? Love to hear your thoughts, as always.

Josie Campbell, Communications Manager at The EDGE Performing Arts Venue, tells us how she uses social media to build buzz and hold conversations with her customers.

Follow Josie on Twitter. And let us know what you think? How do you use social media for more than just one-way announcements?

Referenced in this podcast:

• LinkedIn
• Facebook
• Twitter
• Skype (we recorded this interview using Skype)
• WordPress (a blogging platform)
• Socialise Me! (a WordPress plugin)
• The Interactive Marketing Summit - coming up soon, in Auckland on May 26th!

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