Social Media Around the World

Webnotes by: Theresa Payton, Fortalice, LLC. Content also covered on WBTV’s “Protecting Your Cyberturf” segment, featuring Theresa Payton and Kristen Miranda.

Have you ever wondered if the entire globe was on Facebook and if not, what the rest of the world is doing online?  Well, tonight we take a look around the globe to give you a bird’s eye view of what people like you are logging onto.  You might be surprised to find that even though Facebook, Twitter and YouTube are popular all around the globe, they are not the only games in town for other countries.  

Boasting 1 billion users, Facebook always seems to be the global winner in the social media race.  It is amazing, just when we think we could not keep up with one more account, we find out that around the globe, there are popular and local alternatives to sites like Facebook or Google+ or Twitter.  And, it’s not just the locals paying attention to those sites; Hollywood big names are interested in keeping in touch with their fans wherever they are.  Look at Tom Cruise...he was the first Hollywood star to set up a page on the popular Russian social network Vkontakte, which means “In Contact” and has more than 40 million users from Russia.  So, we talked to cyber expert, Theresa Payton, and asked her to give you a quick trip around the globe to highlight some sites!

1.  In the China and South Korea region, the popular hangout spot is Qzone.  At last count, Qzone was at roughly 550 million users.   Users can blog, share posts and photos.  It’s a favorite in the 18-24 year old set.  Keep in mind, China blocks Facebook, Google, YouTube and Twitter so it makes it tough for anyone in that country to get access.  

2.  The Russians, when they go local for social media, prefer VKontakte also known as “VK”.  They have reportedly 190 million users.  It allows it’s users to post messages and share photos.  It consistently lists in the top 5 sites visited in Russia from other countries.  

3.  When the Iranian government reportedly blocked Facebook, Twitter, and Orkut, the Iranian people turned to Cloob.  As of right now, Cloob is still invitation only and has roughly 1 million users.  It’s user base is predominately male.  

WORD OF THE WEEK:

GOOGLE KEEP - A new service from Google that lets you “keep” your notes, thoughts, websites and ideas handy in one place on the web.  It’s Google’s answer to the popular Evernote service.

WEB RESOURCES:

If you would like to see a map of the social media networks, try this site:

http://vincos.it/world-map-of-social-networks/