Part 7 of 12
In Europe, the use of social media in business and politics lags far behind that of the U.S. Blog seven of the "One Size Fits None" series examines what companies and politicians are doing and how far they have to go to catch up with their American counterparts.
Social media is becoming an increasingly important tool for business in Europe. A report from Survey Sampling International (SSI) found that the Spanish are most commonly members of business social networks, with ‘networking’ itself given as the biggest motivator for signing up in Spain (50%), the U.K. (49%) and Italy (42%). Business social networking is becoming an integral part of many Europeans’ lives, with more than 50% of businesspeople logging on to networking sites on a daily basis.
Meanwhile, the fragmented nature of European social networks is reflected in the business space. Many professionals across Europe are members of LinkedIn. In the Netherlands – a small country that is used to having to do business outside of its borders – 25% of the population are members of LinkedIn; in the U.K., that number is 13%.
Moreover, the chances are that LinkedIn users are also members of a business social network specific to their country, and in some countries these local sites have a particularly strong presence. In Germany, that is Xing.com; in France, it is Viadeo.com. The language barrier has enabled the likes of Xing and Viadeo to establish themselves, so much so that half a million Xing users pay a monthly subscription of €6.
Despite the growth of business social networks in Europe, few business-to-business users have incorporated the new technology into marketing and brand-awareness plans, according to the SSI survey. Even in Spain and Germany - the leaders in the use of social networks for business - only 25% of people said Web 2.0 is part of their marketing strategy. Figures from other countries are even lower: Italy 20%, France 19%, the UK 11% and the Netherlands 8%.
European businesses certainly lag behind their American counterparts in the use of social media. An example of this is the difference in how companies are using sites like Twitter. A BusinessWeek article examined the Twitter habits of CEOs from 16 American companies, including IT systems and network provider Sun Microsystems, Zappos and Technorati, an indexing and search engine for blogs. No such article could be written about European CEOs at this point because, in Europe, the rate of incorporating this technology into corporate communication has been slower.
According to Twitter’s search tool, Twitter Scan, there is a corporate account for Tesco and for J Sainsbury, two rival U.K. supermarket chains, but neither have been updated more than a handful of times. Other divisions of Tesco’s have dipped their toes into the Twittersphere, most notably TescoEntertain, (twitter.com/TescoEntertain) Tesco’s Book, DVD, CD and Games outlet, which has almost 400 followers and 250 updates. But it is the U.S. division of Tesco that is showing its British parent how to do it; the West Coast Fresh and Easy chain has more than 5,000 followers. As Tesco faces regular accusations in the UK of monopolistic behaviour, it would perhaps benefit more than most from engaging with consumers on a one-to-one level through Twitter.
The low take-up of Twitter is not confined to UK retailers: a Forbes article in January quoted a spokesperson for the Swiss food group Nestlé as saying, "Twitter just never came up within the group strategy.” At Total, the French oil and gas corporation, a spokesperson said the Chief Executive had no idea what Twitter was. But despite the relative lack of brand engagement, there are some notable European examples of using social media as a marketing channel, such as the Cadbury campaign to bring back the Wispa chocolate.
Another implication of social media on business is the time spent by employees logging on to social media sites at work. According to a recent survey by TNS, the use of social networking Web sites like Twitter and Facebook was costing British businesses £1.4 billion ($2.3 billion) a year. While there is undoubtedly work time wasted on the personal use of social media sites, the figure of 1.4 billion pounds was widely derided, with the positives of social media use at work being highlighted. The editor of Management Today even went so far as to suggest that the personal use of social media at work could help resolve the problem of more than half of small businesses in the UK not having a Website.
In the world of politics, no European politician has used social media with the same success as President Barack Obama. But the growing importance of social media as a way to reach people is illustrated by the increasing number of European leaders with an active presence online; in part to communicate directly with the electorate, but also to demonstrate their ‘cool’ credentials.
One of the forerunners of this trend was the leader of the U.K.’s Conservative opposition party, David Cameron, who launched WebCameron in 2006, a regular blog and videocast featuring his take on current issues. Meanwhile, Hyves, a Dutch social networking site, boasts its most popular user as none other than the country’s Prime Minister, Jan Peter Balkenende. He has some 150,000 online friends and sometimes invites people he meets on the site for a visit to his office.
Social media will become an increasingly important part of the political landscape, not least in the UK with imminent general election. The recent #welovetheNHS campaign on Twitter, to protest against American attacks on the British healthcare system, demonstrated the power social media outlets have to galvanise a community and propel it to the top of the news agenda. The success of the Obama 2008 campaign has been dissected by political strategists in Europe. The question remains, however, whether the success can be repeated.
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