I wanted to bring up an article by Loic Le Meur that Roope had found (see the comments on my previous posts). The article [here] deals with differences in social media use between US and Europe, thus contributing to the very discussion that this blog exists to explore, in addition to giving pragmatic advice on the use of social media tools and tactics in business and politics.
A few key take aways from the article:
- Unlike US, Europe is very diverse in its social media use, and thus hard to make a general argument about ‘European social media’. In this sense, any attempt to reach a pan-European customer/voter base beyond some specific regions (e.g. the Nordics, the Latin countries, etc.) might prove difficult due to the diversity of preferred social media tools.
- The social media is yet to impact European politics, business and society with its full force, BUT it’s coming!
- “We used to be really late in Europe compared to the US on web business, that gap is bridging fast because the US as the rest of the World is now a click away.” Therefore building European online success stories becomes more likely, which eventually results in more ubiquitous social media penetration in the regions which take the lead in this development.
- “[T]rend to watch in business is that World of Warcraft generation. These people are amazing leaders, they are leading guilds coordinating people around the World sometimes when they are below 15 years old ! Ask this generation to go in a large corporation and do a "photocopy internship" you will see the result…” As a politician you could reconsider who you are hiring to run your online campaign -A lengthy CV might be a hinderance rather than vice versa. Google’s HR has shown leadership in this trend of not hiring based on CV, but on raw ideas. We can all see the result of this policy by looking at Google’s market cap today.
- Social Media finally enables Europe to compete with Silicon Valley.
I fully agree with the last point, even though it might not be quite that black and white. After all, it is a very strong statement in all its simplicity. Nevertheless, Europe is certainly bridging the gap and doing it fast!
Thanks again Roope for pointing to this article.
