This document discusses Australians' heavy use of social media according to Nielsen data. Australians spend on average 6 hours and 52 minutes per month on social media, more time than users in other countries. Nearly a third of all online time spent by Australians in October 2009 was on Facebook. The document advocates for brands to engage with customers on social media platforms rather than just websites, and provides some strategies for social media participation including listening to customer conversations, talking with customers, enabling customer content sharing, and facilitating customer collaboration.

1. Let’s get social... Thomas Miles & Victoria Curro, Planning Directors, Lavender* Feb 2010

3. The headlines According to Nielsen Australians are the most prolific users of social media in the world In terms of reach, over 9.9 million Australians are engaging in social media each month

4. Average time spend (h:m:s) on social media each month: Australia – 6:52:28 United States -6:09:13 United Kingdom – 6:07:54 Italy – 6:00:07 Spain – 5:30:55 Brazil – 4:33:10 Germany – 4:11:45 France – 4:04:39 Switzerland – 3:54:34 Japan – 2:50:21

5. The headlines Globally social media’s usage was up 82% on the same time a year previously, with more than 300m social media users worldwide. Facebook was the biggest driver, followed by Twitter

6. The headlines Nearly 1/3 of all time spent online by Australians in October last year was on Facebook In October alone, Australians uploaded 80 million pictures 32 million wall posts 45 million status updates

7. so what?

8. “A surprising conclusion: ... the most valuable brands in the world are experiencing a direct correlation between top financial performance and deep social media engagement.” “The world’s most valuable brands. Who’s most engaged?”Wetpaint and Altimeter

12. A brands website has been the single biggest ”online” focus for 99% of businesses over the last 10 years …however some of the biggest brands, websites and portals have been losing unique visitors hand over fist for the last 3 years

13. how to?

14. There are services that exist today that can mine data on Facebook to help marketers profile prospects. Source: Brian Solis, Defining the convergence of media and influence

16. participation planning

17. LISTENING“monitor customer conversations with each other to seek marketing, product dev insights, consumer insights”

18. TALKING“talk with the community as commentator or creator via social media channels e.g. Twitter, forums, blogs, podcasts”

19. ENERGISING“make it possible for customers to customise, share, remix your message”

20. EMBRACING“help customers work with each other to develop ideas, to improve products etc ”