A recent research study by GlobalWebIndex’s Social Engagement Benchmark, reports that the Global social leaders are China, Indonesia and India. The report is based on the analysis of the Global Engagement Index; a tool measuring the consumer’s media usage to connect with the brands.
GlobalWebIndex, launched in 2009, is a research medium studying the internet consumer behavior. The company conducted seven researches in 31 countries with 152,000 ‘netizens’. The data of these research medium points out the penetration of social media in the Global market platforms that connect consumers with the brands or content creation about the brands, products, and services.
The countries are ranked as per the key areas of participation, creation and brand enhancement through the social media tools, namely Facebook, Twitter and Weibo. A sum total out of 400 marks are then converted into percentage out of 1200 marks which is finally converted into weighted average of 100 point scale measure.
With consumerism leading to rise of global markets, the consumer-internet interface is indispensable Even thought the internet or social media have less penetration in the developing economies of India and Brazil, the number of internet consumers constitutes a large number when compared to the developed and matured markets of Germany, UK or Japan. The reason being that these developed economies are technologically advanced where ‘the everyday social interaction’ is quite outdated!
However, certain consumer groups may show different social engagement rates, but, on the whole these differences are less significant and negligent.
As per this study, the Top Five engaged markets are:- China, Indonesia, India, followed by Vietnam and the Philippines. Tom Smith, founder of GlobalWebIndex, claims the need of countries being classified under social media. According to him, this medium helps to connect the brand with the total population of the Global market. The social media is thus adding and helping to improve consumerism in the emerging markets.
