Online social networking? What's that?

Do you know what online social networking is? Of course you do. But did you realize that over half of adults across the globe haven’t a clue what it is? New statistics from Synovate tell a different story surrounding the hype about the future and uptake of online social networking.

by Helen Leggatt

synovate%20logo.jpg Of the 13,000 respondents to Synovate’s survey of adults aged 18 and over, across 17 countries, 58% claimed not to be familiar with, or understand, what online social networking is.

The countries with the highest levels of recognition were Holland (89%), Japan (71%) and America (70%).

Optimists will see room for growth, but another question in Synovate’s survey suggests caution. Of those that already use online social networking sites, 36% claimed to be “losing interest” led by Japan (55%), Slovakia (48%), Canada (47%), Poland and the US (45%).

The Synovate survey asked respondents whether they noticed product ads on their online social networking sites. Overall, two-thirds of site members noticed the ads with the highest rates in Indonesia (86%) followed by Poland (83%), South Africa (80%) and Germany (80%). They were least noticed by online social networkers in Holland (52%), Taiwan (49%) and France (40%).

"When you're in the world of marketing, reading about it, planning campaigns, researching people, it's sometimes easy to overlook the basics. So we started our study by simply asking 'do you know what online social networking is?',” explained Steve Garton of Synovate.

“That's where our first myth was debunked. It turns out social networking is not taking over the world. Well, not yet anyway."

In a recent release, Garton acknowledges that the study did not survey anyone under the age of 18 which would, no doubt, have resulted in a very different picture of online social networking.