The world is currently in the middle of the biggest economic recession since the great depression. The International Labour Organisation has predicted that as many as 51 million jobs will be lost this year. This will invariably lead to budgetary cut backs, forcing companies to adapt and look at cost effective marketing solutions.
According to Judith Middleton CEO of DUO Marketing + Communications, “The landscape of marketing and PR is changing. In order to succeed in the 21st century, companies need to continually re-asses their marketing offering, looking at new trends such as social networking and blogging.”
Based on the findings of a recent Nielsen online report “Global Faces and Networked Places” a number of interesting trends have emerged. The survey which is conducted with nine member countries; Australia, Brazil, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Switzerland, United Kingdom and the USA, gives an accurate assessment of future trends in the industry.
The report states that social networks and blogs have become the fourth most popular online category, finishing ahead of personal email. The findings of the report go on to suggest that social networking is growing twice as fast as the other four main sectors; search, portals, PC software and email, underlining its importance in the future of marketing and PR.
The report also highlighted a shift in the age of Facebook users, with the biggest change coming from the 35-49 year old age group (24.1 million) followed by 50-64 year olds, (13.6 million) while the 18 and younger group increased by just over 7 million.
Facebook users increased by 228% from February 08 to February 09, while the number of Twitter users increased from 475 000 to over 7 million, an increase of 1382%. Other social networks that experienced growth in excess of 150% were Reunion.com (160%), Ning (169%) and Multiply (192%). Only two social networks on the Nielsen top 20 list, did not show growth, Myspace.com (-4%) and Flixster (-4%) both showed minor losses.
Brazil, the only emerging economy in the list had the highest penetration rate to social networks and blogs, with 80% of the online audience visiting these sites. They also topped the pole in time spent, with one in every four minutes spent online being used for social networks and blogs.
“Social networking and blogs have become a way of life for everyone and as a result provide an excellent platform for cost effective and in many instances free marketing. When one considers how much time we spend on the internet each day, we are missing out on a great opportunity if we do not take advantage of the tools at our disposal,” said Middleton.
“With more and more time spent on our computers, companies who choose not to embrace the benefits of social networking and blogging may do so at their own peril. The PR and marketing landscape of South Africa is changing and in order to stay ahead, companies need to align themselves with new cost effective solutions whatever they may be,” added Middleton.
