Comscore has released devastating news for companies ignoring the social media space as a marketing medium, when almost half of Europe is signed up to at least one social network of their choice. Even if that figure is slightly exaggerated one quarter of the market is socialising online with active accounts and significant amount of time spent using the networks. This is so significant that it could change the face of marketing for ever.
At the moment Facebook and YouTube are leading the way but there are many others such as Flickr, Bebo, MySpace, StumbleUpon and LinkedIn that complete the picture. On top of all that, UK has the highest social networking penetration rate at 79.8%.
It is evident that content generation will become far more intense and the need for lower costs to acquire content such as video, greater. The level of direct engagement with the consumer is going to be phenomenal, as live feedback, opinion sharing and product development will be created wholly from the consumer.
Science fiction or a small glimpse of the future?
One Response
I believe that the increase in number of subscribers of social networking in Europe should be the next big thing in marketing strategy in EU. I have been to UK and all of my relatives own one account of their choice.