360DigitalInfluence

Asia’s Internet speed is not surprising news, but the details of this recent report on the Internet by Akamai show how much Asia and South Korea dominate the world of high speed Internet. Korea is also increasing the average national Internet speed at the fastest pace of any country in the world.

Korea, Japan and Hong Kong have the world’s fastest connections

Although South Korea continued to hold the top spot  as the country with the highest average measured connection speed at 14.6 Mbps, its fastest city (Masan) was ranked fifth among Asian cities, at approximately 1.2x the country average. South Korea, unsurprisingly, has six of the top 10 fastest cities in Asia, all with average speeds above 15 Mbps.

 
South Korea, Japan and Hong Kong are in global top 5 for increasing average speed.

As compared to the second quarter of 2009, South Korea saw a shift in the distribution of connections to higher speed buckets, with the 5-10 Mbps bucket declining from 35% to 29%, while the higher speed buckets all saw increases, with more than 10% of connections once again being made to Akamai at speeds greater than 25 Mbps. 
The increased percentages of extremely high speed connections are in line with South Korea’s third quarter growth in both average measured connection speed and high broadband adoption rates.
While having a high broadband adoption rate that approaches just half of South Korea’s, Hong Kong has the second highest levels of extremely high speed connectivity among the top 10 countries, with more than 2.5% of connections to Akamai at speeds between 20-25 Mbps, and more than 5% at speeds in excess of 25 Mbps. The distribution of connection speeds above 5 Mbps remained fairly flat in the United States between the second and third quarters, and the United States remained #12 globally for this metric.

Thanks very much to the nearly 300 people from across Asia who dialled into our webinar on “Social Media for B2B Companies”, hosted in partnership with the Wall Street Journal Asia and Citrix Online.

As promised we have uplosed the presentation deck to Slideshare and have updated to include links to a few great additional resources that you can use to help your business get started. These links include the following:

• Ogilvy On: Social Media for Crisis Management  
• Ogilvy On: Twitter for Business
• Ogilvy On: Facebook for Business
• Social Media in Asia Presentation
• APAC Statistics and Research (Asia Digital Map Blog)

Hurry! Space is limited for this 30-minute webinar and registration is required.

Join the award-winning Social Media team from Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide for a free 30-minute online seminar powered by Citrix GoToWebinar and done in partnership with The Wall Street Journal Asia.

This webinar will provide concrete examples, action plans and case studies, including:

· 5 key steps for a business-to-business strategy;
· How to build and engage a community of potential and current customers;
· Real-life case studies from successful business-to-business strategies;
· The highly popular – and now extended – Question and Answer section;
· Much, much more…

The seminar will be led by Brian Giesen a senior regional strategist in Ogilvy’s 360 Digital Influence team and moderated by Graham White, Managing Director of Howorth Communications in Sydney.

Join us Wednesday, 3 March at 11:00am (Hong Kong time):

http://bit.ly/aWsvrI

Amusing chronology of Social Media events in 2009, expressed in cartoons. By Rob Cuttingham.

Last week Google announced it’s real time search feature, which I believe is set to forever change the way we think about and use search.

If you haven’t seen it in action yet I recommend you go to the Google home page and search for something topical like climate change.

In the results some movement should catch your eye and there they’ll be - real time search results. Take a moment to just sit back, relax and let the strangely compelling waterfall of information wash over you.

Once you wake from the dull, Google-induced trance you’ll have hopefully experienced an epiphany similar to mine:

Right at this moment people all over the world are talking about you, your business, your brand, your event, whatever it may be, and now as soon as they say it - Google will display it.

So how are we going to influence the conversation and harness the power of real time in 2010?

What do hydrants, voicemails and denial have in common?  They’re all now closely associated with the Tiger Woods brand, according to new research from Nielsen Online.

Today, Nielsen Online provided me with a Brand Association Map demonstrating the impact of the controversy on the Tiger Woods brand - based on analysis of online discussion about Tiger Woods both before and after the controversy.

Not surprisingly, as a result of the recent controversy the Tiger Woods brand has gone from being closely associated with video games, golf and other sports to other, well, less wholesome topics.

While the jury’s still out on how long it will take for the Tiger Woods brand to recover, one thing’s for certain - these less wholesome associations will take far longer to fade away.

Mobile is increasingly becoming a medium for access of social networking.  According to a study conducted by e marketer on the mobile social network users, it was observed that the percentage of people accessing the social networking sites through mobile has increased at a rate of about 100% for the year 2007 to 2008 and by more than 50% by 2009 and is expected to continue at the same pace ultimately exceeding  800 million by 2012.

 Be it networking  by face book,  microblogging by twitter or videocasting by youtube,    mobile has  created an easy and seamless way to drive consumers to mobile content.

According to Nielsen, Facebook is the No. 7 mobile website in terms of reach. About 15% of Facebook users (11 million) in the U.S. regularly access the social network’s mobile web version (not to mention various downloadable versions and the roughly three million users who use SMS). More than 3 million Twitter users in the U.S. alone regularly access the service via the mobile web. Besides,  large number of  consumers are frequently using Twitter through SMS and a range of downloadable mobile applications for iPhone, BlackBerry and other mobile devices. The native versions of YouTube that come pre-installed on iPhones, Android phones like the G1, and the Palm Pre offer the best mobile user experience. However, the mobile web version is also outstanding, and has well over 4.6 million users that log in many times a month. This has all been possible owing to the success of internet growth across the globe.

 Therefore, as the telecom sector is one of the most successful  stories for India and is increasingly revolutionizing the way we  connect with the world, the widening of spectrum will  enhance the experience of the subscribers  thereby generating more and more demand for  staying connected and  also accessing social networking platforms through mobile .   It seems that  ICT success story in India will generate a sequel in the form of mobile social networking success story in India

The very name of India brings to our mind a country known for rich culture and heritage. Though India is progressively moving towards higher standards of professionalism, the human bonds that bind the culture are still ingrained in the life of average Indian. This is even reflected in the way Indians use the social networking space. The social networking site which have been popular in India( like Orkut, Face book , Bharatstudents,Hi5, Myspace, etc)are the ones which have been able to create a difference in the life of the average Indian online user by bringing professional and personal worlds together. Recently I came across a survey by Plugged in done for a period of 3 weeks (across 1100+ members) . It has interesting statistics that reveals the general awareness about Twitter in India:  16% use Twitter to stay updated with news  11% prefers to stay in touch with Friends using Twitter.  11% enjoy updating their status (gives them Ego boost)  10% use Twitter for Research  17% are not at all sure of Twitter usage.  14% of the members polled are not on Twitter  12% of the usage happens on work related areas.  Only 10% use Twitter to meet interesting people Even this survey points to the fact that friendship drives this social media space. It seems that Indians use social media mainly to stay connected to people for strengthening personal relations to drive the professional network.

For years and years, search has always been the number one reason people go online. Nearly 9 times out of 10 people will start out an Internet session by using Google, Yahoo! or Bing to find a new site or look for information about a product. Advertisers and marketers have spent countless dollars trying to get their attention through sponsored ads.

But, interestingly, new research released from Hitwise earlier this month suggests that in Australia and in other markets across Asia Pacific search may soon move to second most popular online activity - behind social networking. According to the Hitwise report:

Social networks and forums are set to eclipse Search Engines and become the most visited industry for the first time over the coming months, most likely during the weeks immediately before or after Christmas.

The report also shows that search is already the #2 online activity behind social networking in other APAC countries, including Hong Kong and Singapore. Other key findings from the report:

• 11.7% of all visits to social networks originated in Australia
• Facebook is currently the #2 Web site in Australia - and it’s projected to overtake Google
• Search is a popular activity within social networks (MySpace = artists, Facebook = entertainment/utility)
• 26 minutes, 13 seconds is the average time spent on Facebook per visit

These trends could have huge implications on the massive budgets that are spent very day on pay-per-click and search marketing globally. Already, consumers are spending exponentially more time on social networks (27 percent of all time spent online in Australia in the past month was spent on Facebook, according to Nielsen) than search engines.

As more and more brands become not only findable but engagable on social sites, we could start to see social networks as being not only the #1 online activity but the #1 place online where smart brands invest their marketing and advertising dollars to build community and engagement among their customers.

Next week we are hosting the third Webinar in our “Executive Guide to Social Media” series, which is a partnership with the Wall Street Journal.

The session is going to be focused on what to do when a crisis hits and we’re fortunate to be joined by John Bell, the global managing director for Ogilvy 360 Digital Influence and Jamie Moeller, who heads up our global public affairs practice.

Wednesday, December 2, 2009
2:00 PM - 3:00 PM Sydney / 11 AM to Noon Hong Kong
REGISTER HERE

Here is a quick overview of what will be covered during the Webinar:

The best time to respond to a crisis is before it happens. That is a communications fundamental. Now in age of Twitter, mobile phones, blogs and Facebook, the speed and style of our response has changed dramatically.

Brands that are used to tightly controlled messages are thrust into the back and forth of social media. Detractors are savvy with the ways of YouTube and inciting crowds. Customers and stakeholders often demand that their brands be more transparent and engaging than ever before.

This webinar will include concrete examples and action plans answering numerous questions, including:

• How can you prepare for a crisis today?
• How do you rally your Marketing and Communications team to use all of the resources of the social Web and effectively manage a crisis?
• How should you assemble a plan?
• What NOT to do in a crisis

So get your crisis questions ready and register now as space is limited and we’ve had more than 2,000 registrations for previous sessions!