The digital world is moving at an incredible speed and is driven by the human need to belong, to connect with others and to satisfy an ever increasing consumption of products. But, are we fully aware of the effect that social networking has on our lives and its impact on the next generation?
Social networking is the number one internet activity, beating both porn and email. Time spent on social networks is growing three times faster than overall time spent on the internet and the mobile phone is driving this growth. One in every thirteen people on the planet is on Facebook (Nielson). The pace of this change is remarkable considering Facebook was launched in February 2004 and as of July has 750 million active users.
MXit, a South African company created in Stellenbosch under six years ago, has grown to over 40 million registered user accounts in 220 countries. Every day, around 700 million messages are sent and received on the platform, which is 3.9 times more than the total amount of global Tweets sent per day.
The mobile social network has evolved from an instant messaging platform to a social universe that educates, sells and trades, informs and entertains - and has its own virtual currency. This has sparked the interest of companies and organisation that want to drive meaningful engagement with young adults. It is also one of the few global social networks that has cracked financial success.
Consumers now have more influence over brands than ever before. Interaction is immediate and impactful with brands having to adapt their own marketing strategies to keep up with the fast pace in which social networks influence consumer decisions.
According to socialnomics, 78% of consumers trust peer recommendations, but only 14% trust advertisements. Commentary emulating from the general public is seen as far more authentic and genuine, than a corporate message that has been refined and sterilised to fit in with the brand image.
However, brands that have managed to tap into social networking and successfully adapt marketing strategies to include social media, gain the trust of the consumer and reap the benefits. Pampers sold 1,000 nappies in 1 hour on its Facebook store, Gap sold $11 million in Groupon vouchers in one day and on MXit, Nike added over 1 million users to its community during a World Cup campaign.
The advancement of the mobile phone and the explosion of smart phones have continued the fast paced development of social networking, with people able to connect on MXit, Tweet, update Facebook statuses and message on the go, giving them access to a multitude of connections to others in an instant.
Mobile phones have become one of the most private and important possessions of those who own them. In 2010, 76% of the world's population owned a cell phone; that is 5.28 billion users (ITU). Phones are always carried on your person, and 91% of mobile phone owners keep their phones within 1 meter of them at all times (Morgan Stanley).
Mobile phone separation anxiety, called nomophobia, 'no-mobile-phone-phobia' is now being recognised as a real problem where people without access to their phones feel lost and anxious when they don't have them nearby, when they lose connection or their battery runs down. The study conducted by the UK Post Office found that 53% of people feel highly stressed and anxious if they don't have immediate access to their phones.
The phenomenon of the mobile phone and the social connections they provide doesn't seem to be slowing down, but rather gathering momentum as parents give their children phones at younger ages and this generation of teenagers view mobile phones and social networking as an extension of their personal being.
In essence there is a shift in culture where virtual connections to others are becoming part of the perception of self. Constant contact to virtually the entire world through social networks is going to continue to grow and corporates, brands and societies will adapt with the pervasiveness of these social connections.
By the time you have finished reading this article, Nokia will have manufactured 7,800 phones, 4.8 million messages will have been sent and received on MXit's network and a total of 360,000 Tweets were fleeted.
*Juan du Toit is International Business Development and Marketing Head for MXit.
