That’s a long headline but it pretty much sums up Nielsen’s latest report, “Global Faces and Networked Places” (pdf). I like the way they describe it as a “global footprint.” We are communicating online globally now in ways you couldn’t imagine ten years ago and that certainly includes agriculture. Here’s some tidbits:
. . . the global media and advertising industries are faced with new challenges around the opportunities and risks this new consumer medium creates. Social networks provide competition to traditional publishers for consumer attention and at the same time, facilitate new ways for publishers to connect with their audiences.
Time spent on social network and blogging sites growing at over 3x the rate of overall Internet growth
In terms of sheer audience numbers, for example, the greatest growth for Facebook has come from people aged 35-49 years of age (+24.1 million). Furthermore, Facebook has added almost twice as many 50-64 year olds visitors (+13.6 million) than it has added under 18 year old visitors (+7.3 million). Consequently, people under 18 years old are making up less of the social network and blogging audience, whereas the 50+ age group are accounting for more of the audience.
A well used analogy is that advertising on a social network is like gate-crashing a party.
Social networks are a communication channel just like TV, newspapers, radio and the telephone. Therefore, social networks are just another vehicle by which any company with an offering, product or service can use to communicate, engage and connect with consumers.