The comparative study looks at social media trends through three “waves”:

• Wave 1 - September 2006
• Wave 2 - June 2007
• Wave 3 - March 2008

Research highlights:

• Social media is a global phenomenon happening in all markets regardless of wider economic, social and cultural development.
• Asian markets (not including Japan) are leading in terms of participation, creating more content than any other region
• All social media platforms have grown significantly over the three Waves: Video Clips are the quickest growing platform, up from 31% penetration in Wave 1 to 83% in Wave 3
• 57% have joined a Social Network, making it the number one platform for creating and sharing content: 55% of users have uploaded photos, 22% of users have uploaded videos
• The widget economy – 23% of social network users have installed an application – 18% of bloggers have installed applications in their blog templates
• Blogs are a mainstream media world-wide and a collective rival to traditional media (184m bloggers world-wide, China has the largest blogging community in the world with 42m bloggers) – 73% have read a blog, 45% have started a blog
• Social media has strong impacts over brand’s reputation – 34% post opinions about products and brands on their blog – 36% think more positively about companies that have blogs

The report offers additional details on Internet media use:

Video Sharing:

• Brazil leads on 68%, Asian countries dominate (not including Japan)
• Significant variation in involvement (Hungary 16% < Brazil 68%).
• High frequency of involvement: 20% are uploading every day

Watching video clips:

• Growth is universal across all countries (31% to 82% global reach seen in all markets)
• Lowest difference between markets of any social media platform (Range 63% – 99%)
• Very high frequency medium: 71% weekly reach

Downloading podcasts

• Growth massive between Waves 2 and 3 (from 21% to 49% world-wide).
• China is the world’s biggest podcast market (74% use, with an estimated 45m users)
• Actively involved medium: 18% listen and download everyday

Methodology:

Universal McCann Wave 3 survey was conducted on 17,000 internet users in 29 countries and was completed in March 2008.

Source: Universal McCann (pdf)

via Podcasting News

This year, our third annual Podcast Consumer Revealed report (derived from the 2008 Arbitron/Edison Media Research Internet and Multimedia study) details significant gains in both audio and video podcast consumption. The audience for downloadable media is not only growing, but also represents a very attractive target for advertising. Our national data shows that more than one in five Americans have ever downloaded and watched/listened to a podcast, which breaks down further to 18% of Americans having ever listened to an audio podcast, and 16% having ever watched a video podcast. Those numbers are up sharply from last year’s figures, which were 13% and 11%, respectively. Nine percent of Americans 12+ have listened to an audio podcast in the past month, and those 23 million Americans are affluent, spend lots of time (and money!) online, and are increasingly more difficult to target with interruption advertising.

The study reveals that although the 18-24 year old share of the iTunes audiences represents 29%, it appears that people between 35-54 represent about 50% of the podcasting audience and are also more likely than average to download podcasts.

“The comScore study reveals significant advertising opportunities among several consumer segments,” said Nick Tabbal, comScore senior vice president of media and entertainment solutions. “While the conventional wisdom says that only young, tech-savvy consumers are downloading and listening to podcasts, there is also a sizable market among 35-54 year olds, indicating that the audience is broader than previously thought.”

What is clear from the report is that the consumption of podcasts increases with both income and education. In fact, individuals in households making at least $100,000 were 28% more likely than average to download podcasts.

“Since many of the top podcasts are in the educational and business genres, it’s not surprising that podcasts today appeal to the more educated and higher-income consumer segments,” added Mr. Tabbal. “Because these core audiences represent highly desirable consumer segments, it’s probably just a matter of time before significant advertising dollars begin to flow toward this medium.”

Jamie Riddell’s well received Web 2.0 keynote speech covered podcasting, social bookmarks, UGC, CRM, Second Life and Twitter.

What I really like about this compilation is that everyone seems to find something different to say, not only about their own podcast and reasons for doing it, but about the wonderful world of podcasting and potential for the medium.

In my own 2 minutes at the end, I give a strong shout out for PodcampUK and a direct appeal for sponsorship and involvement. Let’s hope this succeeds in boosting this excellent cross-community grassroots project in the UK.

Let’s also hope that the CD, with it’s nod towards user-friendly convenience in a conventional format, succeeds in presenting UK podcasters as the gifted, hardworking and eminently sponsorable bunch we truly are.

http://podcastnation.co.uk/tasters/

Jeremy Luebke has been beta testing Google audio ads- fascinating article.

See the screenshots on Flickr.

James Cridland. Nick Piggot.