Social Networks in the BRIC - challenges and Benefits

Challenges and Benefits Study conducted by

Habib MBACKE

As part of the

International Management Master

From IAE Grenoble

Social Networks in the BRIC

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Social media has become an important part of our daily lives, both in

professional and personal contexts. Indeed with 1.2 billion users

worldwide representing 82% of the online population, it is more

popular than internet activities such as email and online shopping1.

Created to communicate, share and connect with people from our

past, close relations or even strangers, company most often than not

should seriously take into consideration this tool if they wish to remain

relevant in this fast and ever changing technology oriented world we

increasingly live in now.

Social media and particularly social networks are tools that integrate

themselves perfectly in a world that has become more and more

international. It has the potential to be a useful medium when it comes

to companies wishing to implement strategies to reach clients or to

increase the visibility of their brands, all of this often at a lesser cost

compared to more traditional approaches.

BRIC countries in particular with their strong economic growth and

future prospective represent as of today a unique and unavoidable

opportunity for any organization wishing to expend at an international

level. Social media can possibly assist in penetrating those markets

while taking into consideration that by its very nature it is a medium

that requires a particular social and human approach.

The study was axed around three important marketing elements for

any successful social media campaign:

Social media, brands and following

Brand and notoriety

Social media, brands and interactivity

Through a questionnaire, questions related to those elements were

asked to a certain number of consumers from those countries. Let us

have a look at the results. 1 http://www.webpronews.com/social-networks-reach-1-2-billion-users-worldwide-2012-01

Comscore white paper:

http://www.comscore.com/Press_Events/Presentations_Whitepapers/2011/it_is_a_social_world_top_10_need-

to-knows_about_social_networking

Introduction ………………………………………………………1

Brazil and Internet……………………………………………..2

Russia and internet…………………………………………….3

India and internet……………………………………………….4

China and internet………………………………………………5

General use of social media…………………………………6

Brand and notoriety…………………………………………….9

Respondent profile………………………………………………12

Conclusion…………………………………………………………..17

Most popular social network in Brazil

79 246 740 internet users

Key Figures in Brazil39% of the population uses internet - Expected to-reach more than 86 million in 2012

63,9 millions social networks users Representing 74% of the online population and 31% of the total population -

Expected to reach 79.3 million users in 2014

41,5 millions users 12,5 millions users

34,5 millions users

67 982 547 internet users in Russia

Representing an internet pe-netration of 49%

Russia has the most important internet population in Europe in front of Ger-many and the UK

Most popular social networks in Russia includes

Social Network Users: 51.8 Millions users Expected to reach 62,2 Million users in 2014

40 million users / 31.5 million users / 11.9 million user

Key �gures in Russia

Almost as many as the poplution of Russia with 143 000 000

Key figures in India121 000 000 Indian citizens use internet

Most popular social network

An estimated 45 millions Indian citizens use Facebook

76 100 000 use social networks users

Representing a little more than a 10% internet penetration The number of internet users in India is expected to increase to 221.6 million in 2015

Representing 71% of Indian internet users

The number of social network users is expected to reach 129.3 million users in 2014

More than

530,000,000 Chinese citizens are oonline

Key Figures in China

There is almost as much chinese citizen online as the entire population of europe with more than 730 000 000 inhabitnats

Europe

55% of internet users have initiated or participated in an online conversation about brands

Most popular social media

300 Million users

147 Million users

536 Million users

130 Million users

Expected to reach 711,6 Millions in 2016


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General use of social media

67.2% of internet users from the BRIC countries utilize social media

several times a day

Internet user from the BRIC countries tend to engage more with social media than in other countries

Even though the BRIC have a relatively low level of penetration compared to other countries,

the people that do use social media tend to really engage with it due to political, social reasons

or simply because it has become engrained in their way of living especially considering that

they tend to also be consumed through mobile technology such as smartphones and tablet

LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter are the most popular social

networks

The most used social networks are the global ones Concerning the most used social media, the two most popular are Linkedin and Facebook at

more than 88% and 80% respectively with Youtube and Twitter being in third and fourth


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places. This result can be explained by the fact that a majority of respondents were selected

through LinkedIn explaining its edge in this study.

Facebook is the preferred social networks for following brands

in the BRIC countries

LinkedIn, Twitter and Youtube are distant second, third and fourth Facebook took the lead position at a strong 73.9% with Linkedin and Twitter in second and

third position respectively.

Facebook as become and continue to be an inevitable network in most countries let alone the

BRIC with the notable exception of China where Sina Weibo is gaining grounds.

Users from the BRIC countries engage with more than four brands on average on social media networks


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In this graph we asked respondents how many brands they follow on social media with the

majority answering five or more at more than 52% and a vast majority of respondents

generally following more than one.

Users mostly follow brands related to services

Travelling is a strong runner up

Services are brands that are mostly followed by the surveyed at more than 60% followed

closely by travelling at 59%. A certain number of other options were left in the “other”

section of this question and will be presented in the annexes.


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Getting information is the principal reason internet users from the BRIC countries follows brands on social media networks

Other reasons commonly offered as to why one follows brands on social media are distant runner ups Asked why they follow their favorite brands on social media, a large percentage (65.22%)

answered that they do so in order to get information. At a distant second, 10.7% of the people

surveyed answered that they do so in order to get exclusive reduction and rebates and to

experience interactivity with brands.

Brand and notoriety

Social media represent an opportunity for lesser known companies in the BRIC countries

Social media users from the BRIC are open to unknown brands but tend to rely on buzz (friends, followers…) to discover new ones In this series of question we can see that a slight majority of respondents disagree with the

statement do you only follow well-known brands on social media whereas they at more than


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33% and 41%, surveyed people agree with the statement “the popularity of social media

influenced whether or not I follow it” and “I am influenced by my contacts”.

The notions of closeness, trust and buzz are all important element in the social media network experience for BRIC users

The notion of trust on social media networks is more mixed for our respondents All respondents agreed with the statements provided in this series of question. Indeed they

were 53.7% agreeing with statement ‘generally speaking I feel closer to brands I follow on

social media. 42.8% responded positively to the statement “I trust more information shared by

brands on social media with a strong part at 36.36% choosing the neutral choice. A strong

64.6% answered positively to the statement word of mouth is a way for me to discover new

brands and finally more than 60% and 58% responded respectively to the following

statements “I have discovered brands that I did not know previously thanks to social media”

and “I have followed a brand I did not know thanks to social media”.


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Interaction is likely to influence social media users in the BRIC countries

Commenting is not the preferred form of interaction with brands for social media users in the BRIC

Once again a majority of respondents agreed with the different statements provided. 43%

agreed with the statement “I am satisfied with the level of interaction afforded by brands on

social networks. Almost 60% agreed that negative comments could possibly change their

mind about a brand with few a little more than 10% disagreeing with this particular statement.

The last statement was least conclusive with a little more than 44% declaring that they

comment on social media networks.


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44.7% of respondents declared commenting on brands to share their experiences

A strong 31.7% declared to never comment on brands Asked why they comment on social media, respondents indicated that they do so in order to

share their experience. 31.7% of people surveyed answered that they never comment and

13.5% do so in order to help other customers.

Respondent profile

A majority of respondents are within the 26 – 34 years old age bracket with 35 – 44

representing the second largest age group in this survey with a majority of male, 66.3%,

answered the survey.


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A large number of respondents have reached a post graduate level of education at 66%.

Conclusions

When it comes to what social media to use we have two situations in the BRIC countries.

Brazil and India are countries that don’t possess significant local social networks. This is an

advantage for companies wishing to develop their strategy there as they would deal with

wildly popular social networks at an international level with which they are more than likely

already familiar. The only drawback here could be language. Interaction with possible

customers in most cases would be more accessible and generally more successful if carried

out in the local language. Whereas English is a fairly popular language in India, meaning that

campaigns could possibly be carried out in this language or at the very least a combination

with Hindi, the most widespread of the spoken language in this country and English, it is also

a country where there are several other official languages more or less popular depending on

the region.

Brazil doesn’t have the same connection to the English language but possesses the advantage

of having a single widespread official language, Portuguese.

The situation for the remaining countries is different especially for China. In Russia both local

social network, namely VKontakte and Odnoklassniki, and international ones such as

Facebook and Twitter are popular giving perhaps in this particular country more popular

platforms to implement a strategy when compared to other BRIC.

China is of course the country which would demand much more attention as it is the only one

where local social networks are more popular than international ones. This means that a

company wishing to implement a strategy there must do so by taking into account not only the

language but also the peculiarities of those platforms, such as the fact that they appear to offer

more advanced technological features to their users or again that the demographic of the

various social media appears to be split by numerous variables.

The Chinese language can represent an advantage due to the fact that more can be said with

less meaning that tools such as Sina Weibo can actually be more effective in carrying out a

message than its international counterpart Twitter for example. However this study gives us a


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more nuanced view on this. The questionnaire revealed that even though local social networks

are more popular than international ones, those are still utilized by Chinese social networks

user perhaps due to a general defiance towards government controlled and approved social

media networks, Chinese user reach out of their way to bypass restrictions imposed on

Facebook and Twitter for the most part. In the context of this study, it is clear than local social

media should be prioritize as part of a campaign, international ones could also be possibly

integrated as well even if it would be at a much lesser scale in this country.

An interesting fact about China is the prominence of Sina Weibo. Concurrent RenRen and

Kaixin001 were popular but since the emergence of Sina Weiba, both of them have fallen by

the wayside so to speak. The questionnaire also reflected this trend. Moreso Sina Weibo

seems to be a particularly interesting social network in the sense that it combines features

from traditional platforms such as those of its closer aforementioned competitors but is also a

miccroblog amongst other rich features thus presenting more varied and generally more

innovative opportunities for brand strategy as illustrated by the enthusiastic comments this

particular social media networks generated during the survey.

Controversial and polarizing opinion on social media networks can have a negative impact on brands.

This hypothesis has been validated in this study. When conducting a social media strategy

through social networks it is therefore essential to mitigate the consequences a flow of

negative comments can generate. A company must not try to enforce policies that will for

example disturb the free flowing nature of a brand community present on social media

networks but must on the contrary address criticism head on and provide solutions and

support in a timely and reactive way showing by the same occasion that they listen to their

clients and are able to provide help if a problem should arise.

Social media users in BRIC countries are likely to engage deeply with a brand online.

This represents an important opportunity for companies wishing to expand their brands in the

BRIC as social media users from those countries are proven to not only engage but are also

more likely to trust more and feel closer to a brand present on social media.

In practice this means that a successful marketing plan carried out in those countries have a

real chance to succeed in increasing a brand visibility and number of potential followers. Of

course this must be done respecting what the users want. Through this questionnaire we have

seen that the surveyed are mostly looking forward to get information about a brand before all

other reasons such a getting rebates and so on. A brand community should therefore be

heavily axed around this element which has been shown to increase the level of trust and

closeness one feel for a brand.

Social media users in BRIC countries feel close and trust brands online.

One of the most interesting data found here concerns the results taken by countries

individually where China appears to have the highest level of trust amongst the four countries

and Brazil presenting the lowest. This means that Chinese social networks in particular


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represent a real opportunity for brands wishing to implement their strategy even more so than

traditional mediums. This is particularly interesting as certain studies suggest that a company

ignoring social networks in this country could potentially be missing on certain demographics

altogether highlighting how vital it is to integrate this medium in this country.

The concepts of notoriety and popularity of a brand is essential in the social media world.

The questionnaire highlighted the fact that the popularity and notoriety of a brand is not so

important for our surveyed. This represents an opportunity for brands that are starting out as

this means that social media networks users are open to discover new brands through this

medium.

Social media can be used as a way to federate followers through word of mouth.

In BRIC countries, social media is also used as a way for people to exchange their thoughts

and experiences with people that are more or not at all close to them. Through this study we

have seen that users are really open to the concept of word of mouth related to the concept of

buzz marketing in this platform. It also shows that users are open to follow brands that have

been recommended by a contact.

In most social networks, brands update are shown through the user main page meaning that

users will be casually exposed to them whenever they visit their personal page, what this

means for companies wishing to implement such strategy is that there is also there a real

opportunity to expose brands casually to followers quite regularly as we have seen that users

from BRIC countries tend to really engage with their social networks visiting them several

times a day.

However we have seen that they also tend to follow 5 brands or more. While this is a sign that

following brands is a sizeable part of the user’s experience of social media, following multiple

brands can also lessen the impact of brands amongst the sea of information that is generated

through frequent updates. This is an element that has to be taken into consideration especially

when choosing the most appropriate social media to use such as microblogging sites such as

QQ and twitter or more general ones such as Odnoklassniki and Facebook.

Interaction is important for social media users.

Interaction for users, which is the basis of social media networks, is unsurprisingly important for users.

The study revealed than a majority of users are satisfied with the present situation when it comes to the

level of interaction afforded by brands even though a few comments were made in the questionnaire

asking for more by a few surveyed. Commenting also appear to be a sizeable part of the social network

experience which is an element that has to be taken into consideration when it comes to the impact of

negativity previously discussed.

In practice, the situation of social media use in the BRIC countries is divided in two situations:

The countries that have their own popular social media such as China and Russia


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- The countries who almost exclusively use international social media like India

and Brazil

The first case is more complicated for companies wishing to implement a strategy based around

popular social networks VKontakte and Sina Weibo, the two main social networks used in Russia and

China respectively. Whereas popular networks such as Facebook and Twitter are widely known for all

they can offer in a marketing strategy, aiming at implementing a strategy using those two probably

would be more problematic as both the language and the way they function has to be seriously taken

into consideration. This is even more true for China with Sina Weibo which appears to offer exclusive

features as said previously. This would require an extra investment in order to really grasp the

peculiarities of social media use in those two countries by hiring a third party such as an expert for

example.

The cultural element also has to be taken seriously into consideration. One of the most surprising

element found during this research is the fact that Chinese users are likely to post comments on a

brand moreso than Brazilians users for example whereas basing a judgment on initial on general

stereotypes could suggest otherwise. Social media is of grander importance in China because it

represents a way to bridge some of the communication gap that exist in this country thus explaining

why Chinese users are not particularly shy in expressing themselves when it comes to brand in this

particular media.

The second case is easier for most companies as both Indian and Brazilians users prefer well known

and international social networks such as Twitter and Facebook. In practice this means that they

would require less specific investments for any managers that knows how to utilize as a marketing

tool however just like China and Russia any social media campaigns launched through social media

has to take into consideration cultural peculiarities that can represent a challenge and are detailed in

the questionnaire answers.

To conclude, social media definitely represent an opportunity for companies wishing to implement a

strategy in those countries however it is important to note that we are dealing here with countries

that are still developing meaning that a large part of the population apart from China don’t have

access to internet for example thus a social media strategy wouldn’t necessarily reach a maximum of

customers even though the number of social media users is still relatively high and thus non

negligible. Consequently at the moment a social media strategy should be more of a complement to

other strategies based around traditional media for example. In the long term it will be interesting to

keep an eye on how social media will evolve in the BRIC countries as more efforts are put in place to

facilitate access and use of internet for their population.

The questionnaire was primarily distributed through social media networks LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter. Previous students from IAE Grenoble

University also took part in the study.

A total of 412 people answered to the question-naire with 339 completing it (including those that were �ltered) and 229 exploitable answers. India and Brazil represented 27.4% of respondent each

while 21% of answers came each.

This study was conducted by Habib Mbacke. for any enquiries please use: [email protected]

or Linkedin @ http://www.linkedin.com/pub/habib-

mbacke/1a/988/3aa

Business

Social Networks in the BRIC - challenges and Benefits