This is part III of a blog series in which my mentor Natascha Thomson and I try to provide answers to this question by surveying our world-wide networks:
How do social media styles differ by culture/nation?
Note: We make no claim that the results of our informal survey are statistically relevant, but they represent insights from people who use social media regularly for business.
We asked the following questions:
- In your country (or region or culture, if you prefer), how do the majority of people view social media?
- What would you say is a unique characteristic of social media usage in your culture?
THE RESULTS PART III
Australia
Adel de Meyer Social Media Strategist at Mammoth & HootSuite Ambassador for Australia
1.-Australians are very social by nature, hence why Australian users are one of the highest users of social media worldwide. For every hour an Australian spends online, 14 minutes are spent on social sites, nine on entertainment and four minutes shopping online.
- In fact Australians love social media so much that about one in 10 Australians (13%) interrupt their love-making to check their social media accounts, according to a recent Galaxy survey commissioned by condom manufacturer Durex.
- Facebook is a giant in Australia with 13,200,000 users, followed by YouTube and then WordPress.
- My opinion is that Australians love good entertainment, to give opinions and to make jokes.They have a great sense of humor and that shows throughout Social Media usage in Australia, from comments to advertising.
2.-Multi-screen behavior is now a daily habit for Australians
- Social Media are accessed mainly at home by over 96% of Australians and about 34% of Australians accessed Social Media at work in 2013.
- Aussies love photo and video sharing on Social Media as the second most done activity on Social.
- A lot of humor shines through on Social Media platforms used by Aussies.
Guatemala
Regina Maria Castrejón Asturias, Communications Department at Archdiocesan Caritas-Guatemala
1.-In Guatemala, only a part of the population has access to Internet; the majority of these are the young people.
- The most used networks are Facebook and Twitter, Google as a social network (not as a search engine) is unknown for many.
- Linkedin is used (socio-economic, segment A/B) to reach a labor market.
2.-Among the features to Guatemala in networks, we can say that it is a market with great growth (limiting the purchasing power for a computer, is overcome with cell phones).
- Companies are beginning been making an effort to participate in social media (although there is much ignorance of how to do it, optimize it, for that will lead to effective results), digital marketing, is just beginning to develop.
Belgium
Sofie De Beule, Community Manager at Engagor: Social Media Management & Analitytics Tools
1.-Belgians believe it's really important to have their voice be heard on social media and take to it for social customer service.
2.-The use of social media is not really progressive in comparison to US users.
- Belgians view social media more as a "free zone."
- They greatly appreciate transparency in any social media strategy.
Spain
Mariangeles Berna, Social Media Manager, digital newspaper Alicante Press
1.-For the last two years Spain is experiencing a time of change through social media.Companies need to have a presence to give their products more visibility.
- Social media, also gives customers a way to contact companies directly for feedback.
- In Spain companies have a greater presence on Facebook and Twitter.
- Google+ and Pinterest are more utilized by sectors such as hospitality, tourism, these sectors use more marketing tools in order to reach a larger audience and generate more new ideas for their products.
- Many companies are beginning to share their profile on LinkedIn's network in order to become more known.
2.-In Spain people working in social media use is as a means to get support and help.
- Through my individual as well as my colleagues experiences we can help people to become oriented in a number of networks, this way a person seeking help will find it more quickly and not get lost or confused as easily.
Find parts I & II here: