This week I did some training work with a (very) large corporate and came across the resources below that I thought would be worth highlighting. The training covered six markets (Turkey, Romania, Russia, Poland, the Middle East and India) and delved into social media trends in each. Stating the obvious, uptake and popularity of different social media applications/services varies widely from country to country.
I spent a lot of time online collecting all of the data that I could about usage trends and service popularity in the regions mentioned. The most relevant stuff I think for the UK, is the Facebook stuff below. Plus, I have been on a bit of a Facebook kick as of late so why stop now?
CheckFacebook.com
Bookmark this site now. It was developed by Nick Gonzalez, a web analyst specializing in social media and former writer for an obscure blog called TechCrunch.
Each day, CheckFacebook.com tracks data reported from Facebook’s advertising tool to help marketers and researchers understand how Facebook is spreading across the globe.
Mouse over country and up pops an up to date user figure. Select said country and it will give you a demographic breakdown of users. It also tracks the Top 10 Largest Countries on Facebook, as well as the 10 Fastest Growing countries over the past week.
With Facebook hitting 250 million users on 15 July, then cracking 300 million users only two months later on 15 September, this is a handy resource to have.
O’Reilly Research – Active Facebook users by country & region (August 2009)
This presentation is only a month old (or is it a month out of date?) but provides a comparative analysis of Facebook users worldwide. It goes into some depth, providing a global overview of users by age and gender, as well as diving into things at a regional level.
Combine the CheckFacebook.com stats with the presentation template laid out by the O’Reilly Research slide deck and you’ll be well on your way to creating up to date bespoke Facebook research.
Not bad eh?
