UM’s Wave 4 Yearly Report Concludes Online Social Networks Dominate
November 28, 2009
For the last four years Universal McCann has published a report on the changing landscape of the Internet and how people are using it. Wave 4 of UM’s research shows the main trend to be how social networks are coming to dominate the online world. Social networking sites such as facebook and orkut are the new focus for internet savvy consumers.
The other unsurprising trend is from text based information sharing to video. YouTube is a frontrunner here, but increasingly people are uploading and watching video on social sites. As broadband becomes more widespread video becomes more the norm.
Another trend seen in UM’s research is the consolidation of social media and social networks. From the origin of simple blogging with text and posting video and photos on seperate sites, people are now doing all of these things increasingly in one place. As traditional blogs change to become more media rich, businesses will have to keep up by providing media rich content to keep their audiences’ interest.
In the social media landscape it is vital for businesses to have a social presence. As more and more people sign up for social profiles, in ever increasing numbers, they are also spending time keeping them up to date and a large 71.1% will visit a friend’s social network page.
UM concludes with the message that increasingly the online world is socialised. Opportunity exists for businesses to reach their target markets online and engage with them more deeply than traditional media allows. Social networks also offer the opportunity to highly target your message.
In our experience direct selling via social networks simply does not work. To be successful online businesses need to engage and stimulate their audience. Their content needs to be constantly engaging using the latest rich media. In this way they can engage their target audience and build a relationship with them. If your audience does not trust you they won’t buy from you.
Posted via web from TwoKad @Posterous
