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I presented this deck at a Social Media Leadership Forum event in London in February 2012 to put some context around what The Economist is doing in the social media space.
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Social media in a global economyFebruary 2012
Nick Blunden | Global Managing Director & Publisher | Economist.comE: [email protected] | M: +44 7968 838933 | T: @nickblunden
It is a parOcularly appropriate Ome for us to be talking about the role of social media
“There are reasons to bet Facebook will jus5fy the hype, for it has found a way to
harness a prehistoric ins5nct. People love to socialise, and Facebook makes it easier.”
The Economist (Feb 2012)
Source: The Economist
Clearly The Economist is not the only major internaOonal organisaOon interested in this space
Link: h3p://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJ380SHZvYU
“400 billion tweets and not one useful bit of data was ever� transmiCed.”
Onion News Network
But let’s start with some history: The Economist was first published in September 1843
To take part in a "severe contest between intelligence, which presses forward, and an unworthy, 5mid ignorance obstruc5ng our
progress"
Source: The Economist
It has taken us 169 years for our global circulaOon to top 1.5m
Global Print CirculaOon: 1,487,010Global Digital CirculaOon: 100,000
Combined Total CirculaOon: 1,587,010
Data source: ABC UK/US July-‐December 2011
But less than 5 years to reach more than 1.5m Twi[er followers
Source: The Economist
@TheEconomist established May 12th 2007
As a ‘tradiOonal’ media business this could be seen as something of a surprise
Source: The Economist
“Among the audience the ‘here’s the way it is’ tone appears to be the an5thesis of the idea of
par5cipa5on”. The Economist New Media special report 2006
However The Economist has always been a parOcularly social brand
“Carrying The Economist is sort of like wearing a shirt that says ‘I’m smart and worldly and interested in knowing things
about Ghana.” Ezra Klein, Washington Post
Picture credit: h3p://www.flickr.com/photos/schlunzi/80251464/
We are leveraging this inherent socialability to build a social ecosystem not just a news site
The world’s most valuable community for intelligent analysis, discussion and debate
Source: The Economist
We are doing this because we believe that social media is transformaOonal not just a fad
“A revolu5on doesn’t happen when society adopts new tools, it happens when society
adopts new behaviours” Clay Shirky, Here Comes Everybody
Picture credit: h3p://blogs.lse.ac.uk/polis/2011/09/16/social-‐media-‐why-‐its-‐useless-‐for-‐democraYc-‐poliYcs-‐usipblogs-‐arabspring/
Indeed social media is clearly already transforming the news and current affairs business
Top Twi[er hashtags of 20111. #egypt 2. #Ogerblood 3. #threewordstoliveby 4.
#idontunderstandwhy 5. #japan 6. improudtosay 7. #superbowl 8. #jan25
Picture credit: h3p://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/2011/dec/13/guardian-‐weekly-‐news-‐review-‐2011
It is also beginning to radically change the markeOng landscape for our adverOsers
“We’re going through a revolu5on a whole lot like the Industrial Revolu5on. The change
is that profound.”John Hayes, CMO, American Express
Source: h3ps://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/How_we_see_it_Three_senior_execuYves_on_the_future_of_markeYng_2835
Video: available from The Economist on request
“Thinking really is connec5ng. It’s connec5ng ideas together into a network. So that’s why it’s
so fun that we live in the age of networks.”Richard Ogle, Smart World
And although disrupOve for us social media is unlocking the extraordinary potenOal of ideas
As a result we have changed the way we think about the content creaOon process
“The blog is strong on reasoned argument, links to evidence and avoids the nasty and fruitless polemics that bog down so many other parts of the Web. Most posts have a sharp and thoughQul point about a public-‐policy issue... And if that weren't enough, the comments
sec5on aCracts educated, intelligent remarks.” Tyler Cowen, ’25 Best Financial Blogs’
Picture credit: www.economist.com
And we have started to break down the barriers between our journalists and our audience
“The role of journalists in this new world is to add value to the conversa5on by providing repor5ng, context, analysis, verifica5on and debunking, and by making available tools and plaQorms that allow people to par5cipate”
Jeff Jarvis, What Would Google Do?
Picture credit: www.economist.com
This enables us to harness extraordinarily levels of social engagement and parOcipaOon
"I enjoy your comments sec5on because of how well moderated it is. It is a much more civil place than most news sites, it comes as close to true discussion than any other news site (I generally just avoid the comments most
places -‐ reading them or making them!)"Economist.com user
Picture credit: www.economist.com
Picture credit: h3p://www.flickr.com/photos/kenfagerdotcom/6023062691/
There is no such thing as a social media expert but we’ve learnt some lessons along the way
“A journey of a thousand miles begins with one small step”Chinese proverb
Germany 18.81m
47%
38%
32%
Brazil 33.49m
54%
51%
34%
Mexico 12.80m
52%
63%
37%
Spain 10.10m
47%
45%
36%
USA 114.55m
51%
51%
20%
Canada 11.72m
54%
43%
26%
UK 19.27m
44%
40%
28%
The Netherlands 6.30m
45%
42%
18%
Poland 12.03m
48%
46%
26%
Italy 12.66m
38%
49%
36%
China 155.29m
47%
53%
34%
Russia 26.06m
56%
62%
46%
Japan 13.66m
16%
16%
8%
South Korea 10.93m
23%
33%
11%
Philippines 14.43m
60%
73%
46%
Indonesia 18.93m
57%
66%
52%
Singapore 1.96m
48%
57%
32%
Australia 7.05m
50%
48%
27%
Malaysia 11.50m
54%
63%
41%
Hong Kong 2.56m
39%
56%
33%India 35.08m
50%
64%
49%
France 15.92m
57%
45%
28%
Global Map of Social Networking 2011
About the MapThis shows the universe size of active social networkers for each market and then segments users into three behaviour types: Messagers, Groupers and Content Sharers. This behavioural data is based on a number of detailed questions we conduct into the way that consumers use social networks. Because social networking is now so big and touches every aspect of our internet experience, this detail is essential for the effective planning and implementation of marketing activity across social networks. This data reveals that users across the world are very different in how they utilise their network, with more focus on messaging and less on content sharing in established markets like the US and UK but more focus on content and groups in fast growing markets like Indonesia and China.
Behaviour Types:active social networkers (millions)
content sharers
joiners and creators of groups
messagers and mailers
designed by [email protected]
Find out more /// www.globalwebindex.net/mail /// [email protected]
The most detailed study on the consumer adoption of the internet ever compiled:
PC /// Mobile /// Tablets /// TV sets /// Gaming 100K+ surveys a year /// 3 waves a year /// 36 markets
% A
ctive Online U
sers
UK
Canad
a
Russia
Japa
nInd
ia
Netherl
ands
Hong K
ong
USA
Global
Avera
ge
Poland
South
Korea
German
y
Mexico Ita
lySpa
in
Franc
e
Singap
ore
Philipp
ines
Indon
esia
Brazil
Malays
iaChin
a
Austra
lia0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
Global Social Network Penetration
Social media is a truely global phenomenon not just a western one
Source: Global Web Index
Facebook fans top 10 countries for The Economist: US, India, UK, Canada, Pakistan, Italy, Brazil, Germany, Turkey, Indonesia
But Facebook and Twi[er alone do not consOtute a global social strategy
Fastest growing social networks1. Sina Weibo, 2. Pinterest, 3. Google+, 4.
Tumblr, 5. Instagram
Source: Sina Weibo
Technology clearly has a criOcal role to play in realising the global social media opportunity
Source: The Matrix
“The Economist has a highly ac5ve and engaged audience in terms of both clicks/Tweet and Retweets/Tweet, sugges5ng a high level of alignment between content posted and aCen5on users are willing to
provide.” Social Flow
But social engagement is as much an art as a science so human involvement is essenOal
“When I looked at tweets from @TheEconomist, I could tell immediately that they were handwriCen, with a variety of approaches – some5mes incorpora5ng a headline, but not always – and frequent use
of hashtags.” Poynter.org
Picture credit: h3p://www.flickr.com/photos/nodivision/3907667713/
There are no hard and fast global social rules so everything should be tested and opOmised
PosOng frequencyThe use of hashtags
Headlines v body copy
Picture credit: h3p://www.flickr.com/photos/nodivision/3907667713/
But understanding what success looks like from a social perspecOve is sOll fundamental
Picture credit: h3p://www.flickr.com/photos/drewm/468436732/
Global page views from Facebook up 148%Global page views from Twi[er up 226%
Source: Facebook
A good place to start is to forget about adverOsing and start thinking about value exchange
“You can’t just buy aCen5on anymore. Having a huge budget doesn’t mean anything in social media…The old paradigm was pay to
play. Now you get back what you authen5cally put in. You’ve got to be willing
to play to play.”Alex Bogusky, Founder CPB
Because in the world of social media complete control is just an illusion
Source: LinkedIn
“Conversa5ons among the members of your marketplace happen whether you like it or not. Good marke5ng encourages the right
sort of conversa5ons.” Seth Godin, Permission MarkeOng
Some types of content confer instant social currency so are naturally more social than others
37k Facebook likes, 2k Tweets, 762 LinkedIn shares, 732 recommends
Picture credit: www.economist.com
Facebook = commentTwi[er = shareTumblr = like
LinkedIn = discussReddit = link
And not all social planorms perform the same role
Source: h3p://theeconomist.tumblr.com/
Despite our successes we sOll have plenty more lessons to learn
Source: Google+
“The doorstep to the temple of wisdom is a knowledge of our own ignorance.”
Benjamin Franklin
But we’ve seen enough to know that the social media opportunity is too good to waste
Picture credit: www.economist.com
Social media in a global economyFebruary 2012
Nick Blunden | Global Managing Director & Publisher | Economist.comE: [email protected] | M: +44 7968 838933 | T: @nickblunden
