It is likely that you have heard about the social network Hi5, then again maybe not. While it does not rank in the top 10 social networking sites in the US - it does rank very high in most Latin American countries (in some even as the top online destination). I am not sure if there is any real explanation for this, Google’s social site Orkut is a favorite in Brazil. Neither of these networks were specifically developed for the South American markets…they have just been “overtaken” by them.

I have a profile on both: my Hi5 network is made up of my friends I made in Venezuela and Bolivia while my Orkut network has all my Brazilian friends I met while working at Terra.com. A little secret - most of them are on Facebook too. The question is, will any one country or region for that matter take over Facebook. Honor Gunday, the founder of one the largest social networks in Turkey, Zurna, coined this possible phenomenon as Orkutization.

It is always worth while to check out which social sites are the most visited in your country - you may be surprised and find additional communication opportunities.

There are a lot of different studies that measure technology use and impact. At Burson-Marsteller we have our own e-fluentials series which we’ll be talking more about soon as we have some new studies coming out. In the meantime, however, check out the Typology Groups quiz from the Pew Internet & American Life Project. You answer a few questions about the devices you own and the type of activities you participate in online, and then get a ranking on your typology group. The options start from the bottom with those that are “off the network” which Pew indicates is 15% of the population. These are the folks living in caves with no Internet, no mobile phone, and a heavy reliance on traditional media. At the top of the spectrum are “omnivores” which are 8% of the population. These folks are wired to the max and go beyond accessing information online to truly participating and expressing themselves. Of course, there are all sorts of options in between. It would be interesting to have insights on the collective influence of each group on the others, but the quiz itself was interesting too.

What is your typology group, and what does it mean for how you communicate?

I was surprised to read e-Marketer’s article today titled, “Who Doesn’t Use the Internet?” The article references Pew Internet & American Life Project report on Information Searches That Solve Problems, and details that 24% of American’s don’t have Internet access.  This is critical for marketers to be aware of.  As important as integrating digital into marketing campaigns is, it is also critical that marketers understand where digital won’t work and allocate efforts appropriately to reach an entire audience. The Pew report identifies those with the least access being the ones who are less affluent, less educated, and older.  That has implications for specific industries, most notably health care, as older Americans with less money often are most in need of health-related news and information. I think there are also implications for government agencies who continue to rely very heavily on the Internet to distribute public education materials.
Have a look, it is a quick but good read and provides demographic details on those not online.

I did a digital bootcamp session yesterday for my good friends at Grey Healthcare with a colleague from The Exetor Group. As always, Grey had an enthusiastic bunch, and as usual, I learned as much from them as they *hopefully* did from me. We started the day with a review of the digital communications landscape, focusing on how consumers trust other consumers more than companies, and the implications of that for marketing and communications executives.

We then went into deep dives on how to engage in the blogosphere, the importance of search engine marketing, and opportunity for brands to be conversational within social media. I know for a fact that there are a lot of new Twitterers coming out of the session. We then spent time assessing their clients’ online health, and then practiced creating dialogue around the need for digital as part of an overarching integrated communications strategy.

Given that Digital Bootcamp is a one day course, the day tends to end with a discussion about what’s next in an individual’s learning path. That is the beauty of digital. You truly can learn by doing. The people who feel that they need a ton of training or lots of marketing materials are missing the point. One’s own digital footprint speaks for itself in terms of understanding the space, and the best training is truly getting online and getting it done. It sounds entry level to those of who do this day in and day out, but if you want to learn more about digital, here are the top five things you need to do today to create your own learning path:

• Set up RSS feeds - hard to believe RSS isn’t on auto-pilot for any communications executive, but so be it. Set up feeds for your company, your competitors, your clients, and their competitors. Take the opportunity to create your own personalized newspaper and check it frequently.

• Participate in Social Media - you can’t understand the emotional appeal or the rational value delivered by social networking sites if you don’t participate. Whether it is publishing photos to Flickr or creating a Facebook profile and using it to keep up with friends, the experience of experiencing social media in action will help guide you to learnings for your company or clients.

• Blah, blah, blog - Log on to a blog search engine and have a look at where your company or client is mentioned - good, bad and ugly. But before you get critical of the bloggers, try it yourself. Go to blogspot, or any other free blogging service, and start a blog. Whether you make it public or private, and whether you write about a work-related topic or personal interests, actually blogging will give you unique insights into the challenges of creating interesting content day after day. Truly understanding what it is to be a blogger is critical to trying to reach bloggers on behalf of your company.

• Let your fingers do the talking - Mobile is truly the best way for a brand to have a persistent presence. Think about it - you always have your mobile phone with you, more so than any other device. To understand the power of mobile you need to truly experience the convenience in which you can communicate with friends, as well as the ease of accessing information via the mobile web. And if you don’t have a web-enabled phone, throw your antique away and go get one.

• Put it all together - Take a look at your company, or your client across digital media. What is said about them in blogs? How do they rank in search engines? Are they doing sponsored search? Do they participate in social media? Does their website create dialogue or talk at consumers? Do they have a mobile platform, and if so, how are they using it? Doing some simple searching and then having a look at the competitive set will allow a story to emerge that explains the digital positioning. Once you truly know the existing positioning, you can figure out what to do about it.

It is easy to forget that so much of what we do as digital strategists is merge traditional marketing strategy with new digital concepts in a way that moves beyond encouraging transactions to building relationships. If you want to get more digitally savvy, the best thing you can do is get more digital. I was so impressed with my colleagues at Grey for their enthusiasm and the fervor in which they approached this new opportunity. I plan to try to maintain some of their excitement, and hope you can too.

Contribute’s Janet Rae-Dupree had a great story yesterday morning detailing the philanthropic endeavors of Second Life avatars, an important topic in the virtual and real worlds. Anyone familiar with the success of the virtual world (both from an advertising and public relations perspectives) knows that Second Life is a unique way to target an audience. Today, this audience of 9 million users is beginning to look toward the land of Linden Labs for greater meaning. “When it comes to matters of the heart, it turns out that Second Life isn’t that much different from first life,” writes Rae-Dupree. Care and thoughtfulness seem to have a profound effect on avatars, with a range of charities and activists supporting “pixelanthropy.” 32 non-profit organizations have already set-up shop on a virtual office park dubbed “Nonprofit Commons.” Rae-Dupree also points to an island where real world donors can contribute to the action. “It’s pretty empty, for now – mostly just a smattering of technology-prone activists (including real-life philanthropists Bill Gates and AOL founder Steve Case) waiting for the party,” explains the author.

So, what does this mean for visitors to Second Life, the business community or agencies? Potentially a lot.

As we see an explosion of networks that connect people from all walks of real and virtual life, Second Life and other emerging virtual worlds will become an environment of great discourse and thinking, inexplicably uniting individuals on the basis of shared intent, interests and ideas. More and more people are beginning to understand the power of community and collaboration in ways they hadn’t before. Social networks, microblogging services and virtual worlds provide a new medium for social activism. “This isn’t just some fad or something new and interesting that we’ve grabbed onto,” says Jonathan Fanton, president of the MacArthur Foundation (truly an awesome organization), Serious conversations take place in Second Life. People are deeply engaged…

My firm works with many non-profit and association clients, many of who are always looking for the next shiny toy. As interesting as this development is, and regardless of what the opportunity may hold, proceeding with caution is important. The Second Life user base is significant, but the amount of traffic at any one time is significantly less. Efforts need to be considered against a risk analysis, ROI, and the true ability to meet philanthropic goals. That said, any time there is a new tool in the toolbox it is good news for companies and consumers alike.

Thanks David for your work on this post.

Two recent surveys highlight the state and nature of internet usage in mainland China:

The first, from CNNIC (aka the official China Internet Network Information Centre)’s ‘Survey Report on Blogs in China 2007′ (eng summary), reports that China now boasts some 47m bloggers, or one quarter of internet users in the country. Of these, a remarkable 36% can be classified as active bloggers. Interestingly, female  bloggers out-strip males by 57% to 43%.

The second (press release), by fellow WPP agency JWT, digs deeper into quite why China’s youth are taking to living their lives online with such relish (in contrast to young Americans, who are significantly less enthusiastic). The reasons given are not new, but are worth repeating:

 - in a environment where freedom of speech remains tightly controlled, the internet provides access to a range of information and opinion they would otherwise stuggle to find

- beyond this, China’s relatively (at least, relative to its mainstream media) unregulated internet and ability to post anonymously allows the Chinese to express themselves and gain a voice in ways they would not and can not in their offline lives

- the internet enables people with a personal and public outlet to discover themselves, develop their self-identity and experiment with different identities.

- in a highly structured society, online communities, games and other channels makes it easy to meet and build relationships with others with similar interests.

Fortunately for the authorities, the great majority of time online is spent on entertainment-related activities - celebrities, music, fashion are all the rage. In contrast to western style blogging, often done for personal brand-building purposes, bloggers in China restrict their output to records of personal thoughts and for their own pleasure - very rarely do you meet Chinese who promote their blogs, even to their friends.

Yet, the stirrings of a more activist citizenry are emerging. Last year witnessed a mobile-phone based campaign against the building of a new chemical plant in Xiamen via mobile phone and Zola Zhou’s well-publicised (online) lone battle against the destruction of the Chongqing ‘nail house’.

Like most surveys in China, the surveys require qualification: China’s internet population remains highly skewed to the top tier urban centres as the internet has not yet hit the country’s massive rural base (indeed, internet penetration remains limited to c.12% of China’s population - CNNIC).

But when it does, the social and cultural implications may well be startling.

New data from Mintel Comperemedia points to a higher email tolerance among Hispanic-Americans. “This population is certainly more receptive to marketing and offers,” explained Carmen Curran senior email analyst at the firm. Hispanic consumers accepted 11 emails a month from companies they knew compared to that of 7.4 for non-Hispanic consumers. However, more interesting was the correlation between other demographic groups and time spent online, a meme that has been written about extensively. Non-Hispanic whites tend to read and write email more often than Hispanic consumers, although the latter group averages 9.2 hours per week online versus 8.5 hours online than the general population.

This shouldn’t be surprising as minority populations are beginning to take a more active role in Internet activities, specifically, social media exercises ranging from social networking to blogging. As we begin to move into a more networked society, both online and offline, it will be interesting to see how new technologies will advance minority voices. Recently, Burson-Marsteller launched a US Multicultural Practice that focuses on this aspect among many others. Take a look at our report focusing on African-American fluentials for more information on the shrinking minority digital divide and stay tuned for additional research that will be forthcoming soon.

Happy New Year! I can’t believe it is 2008 already, and wish you all the best this year.

I’ve been reading a lot of year-end wrap-ups and many, many blogs with detailed predictions on what we should all expect in 2008. As interesting as all that is, I’ve decided to dedicate my first post of the year to resolutions. My resolutions last year were largely work-related and i stuck to them for the most part. This year, my resolutions are more about balance - finding that work/personal balance that is often quite blurred for those of us who work in digital media.

I find it a challenge, and quite honestly would love to hear if/how others deal. I love social media, and spend a fair amount of time online from a personal perspective. The time I spend online is largely self-imposed, and I’m not complaining. I’m into wine and love reading the wine blogs or browsing online to find a hidden gem. I travel a bit and am always online researching my next trip and sharing stories with others. Those of you who follow my twitter (personal: www.twitter.com/erinbyrne and work: www.twitter.com/BMdigital) know that i could use a twelve-step-twitter program. I’ve been known to talk to my BFF on Google Talk late into the night over a glass of wine, and consume everything i can get my hands on relating to digital, politics, wine, fitness, music, quilting, and New England sports teams. Some people ask me how I can always be online. Duh - I love my blackberry and my iphone. So what’s the problem?

The problem is that the lines are completely blurred. What started out as research for my role as a digital strategist has become a hobby over the last few years. As I write this I have eight computer programs running, twelve browser tabs loaded, and three work emails started. It will be another hour or so before I even consider winding down, and that is largely due to the multi-tasking. So, my New Year’s resolution is to reclaim balance, and definitely to focus. When I’m working, I’m going to work. (Yes, that means I won’t be playing so much scrabulous during the day.) And, when I’m goofing off online for fun I will pass on the work-related activities.

This may or may not make a difference in my output, but at a minimum it should be interesting. If nothing else, it will be an exercise in self-control. Share your thoughts, and I’ll post an update on my progress in a few months.