Social Media Spotlight is a Millward Brown multi-client research, which is being conducted to study and assess the status quo of social media usage and attitude here in The Netherlands.

1. Social Media Spotlight NL
LEARNINGS 2012 FOR 2013
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2. Background study
Social Media Spotlight is a Millward Brown multi-client research, which is being conducted to study and assess
the status quo of social media usage and attitude (here in The Netherlands).
Respondents were recruited by SSI via multiple -independent- sources (combining the control of panels and the
scope of the Internet) and multi faceted (mobile, tablet, desktop) sampling (net sample: N=5212).
We elaborated on Social Media as a general principle plus we discussed in detail the Buzz 5. These are the 5
platforms that brought the most rumor and/or activity in 2012 (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, Google+).
Our large sample enabled us to assign respondents – aside from a general part – fully to in-depth questionnaires
about one specific platform.
The online survey for Spotlight 2012 was completed between 25th April and 10th May 2012.
This research study has been conducted in accordance with the rules of conduct of Millward Brown and
the ISO 20252-certificate which we possess, and also the MOA-terms of delivery. Our Corporate Social
Responsibility and Code of Business Conduct are mentioned on www.millwardbrown.nl
For further information on or participation in Social Media Spotlight 2013, please contact Yob Dippel (Director
Digital & Social Media) via yob.dippel@millwardbrown.com or m: +31(0)6 51 32 56 50.

3. “The most reliable way to anticipate the future
is by understanding the present”
- John Naisbitt -
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4. YOU & I
PEOPLE ON SOCIAL MEDIA
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5. Social Media perception
W H AT ‟ S O U R S TA N D
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6. Pretty happy Campers
People grown to value the benefits that Social Media currently provide.
People are quite comfortable with the way they act now on Social Media.
There is no evident need for more or better.
Although the majority understands that the scope of Social Media
is (much) bigger than what they use and are familiar with,
people do not feel they are missing out on important things.
Few express a desire or intent to lower their use (11%).
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7. We feel comfortable
General perception:
Social Media does not have a significant influence on my real life
What we believe
how you act yourself determines your
privacy
and
security
vulnerability
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8. Social Media are products
In a broad definition of Social Media the potential target group is pretty much everyone online.
Social Media: any online platform or channel for user generated content.
However, profile sites such as Facebook and Google+ are the quintessence of Social Media.
WHAT BELONGS TO SOCIAL MEDIA ACCORDING TO PEOPLE?
We disagree ►
◄ We agree
Overall, people tend to think more in terms of „products‟ than in an organic process, despite
the fact that in the end (and also in the beginning) this is what Social Media is all about.
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9. Social Media demographics
HOW DO WE PROFILE
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10. Meet mr. Jones on Social Media… and his son
Age 35-54
Steady job
Not single, living w/others
middle education
Youngsters
Relative differences:
• More time, more different moments
• More increase in usage past 6 months,
but expect more decrease in usage
1-4 hrs/week on Social Media  near future
Facebook, Twitter & YouTube more popular
During the evenings
At home More active: both marking, posting, reacting & discussing
Wider variety of activities / person
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11. No big surprises
General popularity (any visit)
YouTube, Marktplaats and
Facebook by far most visited by
Social Media population in NL
(62%) (69%) (43%)
still very small in NL in 2012,
Visit frequency (at least monthly) with 9% being occasional visitors
(49%) (55%) (39%)
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12. Profiles monthly+ visitors
55% of people on Social Media
Average: 55% visit Facebook at least monthly
72% 16-34 years
62% females Average: 16%
57% middle educated 28% 16-34 years Average: 4%
19% higher educated 6% males
5% higher educated
Average: 13%
Average: 49% 17% males
64% 16-34 years 27% higher educated
AGE 53% males
53% higher educated AGE
AGE
53% of higher educated people
visit YouTube monthly+
(relatively higher portion
since average is 49%) AGE
AGE
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13. Social Media attitude
HOW DO WE FEEL
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14. Not every fan is the same
Social media use and online behaviour can be explained in various ways.
Attitude is a major determinant. Attitudinal attributes and behaviours are sometimes logically related,
but it doesn‟t always correspond...
There is more to the behavioural picture than meets the eye.
In the Netherlands, 5 homogeneous Social Media
attitudinal segments can be distinguished.
All these segments are of comparable size.
Social media users can be plotted by 2 core attitudinal dimensions:
to what extent do they indicate
to what extent are people that there‟s a
receptive to the opportunities deeper feel to their participation
of Social Media on Social Media
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15. 5 different stereotypes
Efficient Experienced
•Looking for ROI, searching for benefits •Social Media Integrated in life
•Personal if it serves the purpose •Willingness to explore, open to brands
•Open to brand benefits, not to social interaction •Impulsive and pro-active in actions
Passive
•Low belief in potential, feel it is overrated
•Low interest, no dynamics in profile
•Mostly impulsive, not planned
Defensive
•Forced feeling (only way, better)
•Limited interest & belief (deadlock)
•Hold back on personal content
Involved
•Active within comfort zone, at home
•Concentrate on personal content
•Sceptical on brands
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16. Social Media activity
HOW DO WE ACT
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17. Smile, you’re on Social Media
Voicing negative emotions or comments in posts is not popularly done,
and neither is reacting to these.
Instead, expressions of agreement, humour and
content that express personal interests
characterise the nature of Social Media.
Moreover, very practical content, opinions and news-related posts lead to
the fewest reactions on Social Media.
„don‟t take it all too seriously‟
seems to be the motto of Social Media users.
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18. Limited dynamics
Generally, the youngest are Across age-groups, there's a vast variety in content features
the most enthusiastic and
undertake the widest variety
(both in posting and reacting) and diversity in motivations
of activities on Social Media. cited for augmenting one’s social community.
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19. Getting in the purchase game
The role of Social Media in making purchase decisions is still fairly limited,
but it is present in purchase decision funnels.
around 13% on average decisions
Social media is currently most influential
in the purchase of electronics.
In this context, consumers most value
the opinion of experts
Influence in the purchase of electronics
is slightly higher than for purchasing
services or smaller products.
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20. Platform identities
ZOOMING IN ON THE BUZZ 5
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21. Zoom in for a reason
The buzz 5 sites tested clearly exhibit individual identities and „user rules‟.
One (inter)acts differently on twitter
than on Facebook,
and Google+ is also not (yet)
the same
as the latter.
In addition, if a video is posted on YouTube,
the reasoning behind this
is not per se the same as
that behind the posting of a video elsewhere.
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22. Intens & private
Facebook and runner up twitter lead the pack
when it comes to the label „intensive usage‟.
All buzz 5 platforms score >50% for at least regular usage.
LinkedIn has the lowest score for intensity of usage.
Overall: very strong focus on using platforms privately
Exception: LinkedIn much more in balance private/business
But: only 9% uses it
just for business purposes
underlines the importance of
personal (i.e. career)
even for business platform LinkedIn.
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23. Posting yourselves
The reasons for posting on Twitter are
the most broad (divers)of all platforms;
Facebook and Twitter both lean heavily towards
content pertaining to the members‟ personal lives.
A remarkable finding is that people on Google+ are
strongly motivated to inform others with their posts.
This rates only second after entertaining and daily sharing.
This is very different from Facebook
YouTube and LinkedIn score high on explorative activity
which is often goal-oriented.
Placing actual posts (updates, uploads) is far less popular here
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24. Building an audience
The use of Google+ has been labelled less personal.
The question remains as to whether this is by choice
or based on available circles.
It is also difficult to explain why people tend to be
more selective in building their Google+ network.
Also significantly different from Facebook.
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25. You start, I’ll follow
REACTING (text) is more popular than posting
Reacting to other people‟s posts is
the second most common practice
on Facebook and Google+ (after reading)
Reacting is done more often than marking posts (liking, tagging, etc.)
Check-ins are quite popular to post ► Reactions to check-ins occur seldom.
Video (rich content!) scores low for something to react to.
Humorous posts trigger the most reactions; especially true for more personally oriented platforms
Facebook users are more inclined to react to inspiring posts
Practical messages receive more reactions on Google+.
News items are most well-received and reacted upon on twitter.
LinkedIn users will react most often to practical posts and news updates.
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26. Do I know you?
The senders to whom Social Media users react differ greatly per platform.
Users of Facebook are most strongly
oriented towards people they know.
Twitter is then somewhat less personal:
more than half of the people also react
to others whom they do not know personally
or whom they do not know at all.
Reacting to YouTube posts does not
require a personal bond
with the sender at all.
Reacting to brands occurs the least on
Facebook and LinkedIn
Google+ and twitter show somewhat more
potential, but all in all,
the tendency to react to brands remains low
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27. BRANDS & YOU
BRANDS ON SOCIAL MEDIA
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28. brand connection
S TA R T I N G P O I N T
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29. Business as usual
People expect brands to be present on Social Media
and they are generally accepting of it.
Brands participate in Social Media for commercial reasons is common belief.
It is too big to ignore and not get involved, but this opinion is NOT VERY MARKED.
People don‟t feel „forced‟ to connect to brands. About 60% doesn‟t connect.
But: brand presence on the big platforms is relatively high.
And recent figures show that Social Media budgets have increased another 30% last year.
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30. To be connected..
In order to connect, brands must
convince people every time of their
good intentions
or alternatively, by making
interesting offers.
Brand connection is based on
expected benefits or
already existing affinity
Young people are generally connected with many more brands than older consumers.
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31. ..Or not to be connected
One of the main reasons for not connecting is
the perceived „PUBLIC‟ NATURE of the sender
especially a reason on
But who
Main impediment for brand dialogue is not what they do
they are
Brand access has been substantially improved through Social Media;
people‟s interest in brands has remained fairly the same.
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32. Brand new business
There is no natural connection between the online and offline relationships.
More than half of the brands that people are connected with online have no offline reference of any kind
.
Prosperous learning for brands: Social media offers a new angle for prospects.
 Offline connection is not a prerequisite for an online connection
 Apparently, online connections can originate solely in a communication context
Within this context Q: How many of the brands you are ‘connected’ Within this context
YouTube has online the least ‘attachement’ with online, do you also consider yourself Twitter has online the strongest ‘attachement’
with existing offline brand relations to be an offline client/consumer of? with existing offline brand relations
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33. Every pot has its lid
Certain categories of brands incite more or less connecting appeal on one platform than the other.
Facebook does much better on the
Overall winner Twitter scores daily brands, such as shops, food
high on more ‘technical’ type & drinks and health & beauty.
of brands.
YouTube members link LinkedIn weighs in heavily on finance
relatively often with and has best fit w/services, but scores
telecom/multimedia and media relatively poor on most other categories
brands.
This illustrates the variety of motivations
individuals have in participating on the
various platforms they have joined.
This might also be a good explanation for why a substantial group prefers brands to be active on multiple platforms.
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34. brand interaction
NEXT STEP
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35. From connect to interact
Commenting
Reacting
Presently
Sharing
True interaction with brands
Discussing
seems almost nonexistent.
Co-creating
Being connected(fans, followers, etc.) remains an important basis
but this does not guarantee engagement or interactivity.
The correlation between „being in‟ and „being into‟ is not very strong.
In general, interaction with brands is predominantly practical, not engaging.
Like brands, people assess their efforts towards brands based on their ROI.
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36. Buzz 5 Interaction profiles
Most of the brand connections are on Facebook ..
more than half of the Social Media users having
some type of connection with a brand here.
.. but they have lowest proportion of people truly (inter)active
with the content of connected brands.
60% = inactive! The willingness to
read brand content
75% of those with a on twitter
LinkedIn account have
no brand connections
is the highest
whatsoever. of all 5 platforms.
YouTube and LinkedIn
generate the fewest Relatively many people indicate they have
connections with brands connections with brands on LinkedIn for reasons
other than the content these brands produce
Among females and young people, the proportion having brand connections is greater.
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37. Some credits
The most important reasons here
for disconnecting with a brand are:
: an overload of content
: overcommercialisation
Young people are generally more sensitive to these arguments.
BUT:
About half of the consumers has never terminated their relationship with a brand on Social Media.
People on Twitter are the least loyal; approximately ¾ of twitter members have disconnected with a brand.
Content should not annoy or clutter, but the Brands still get some slack,
brands with which one connects are not being even when offer has been
punished severely for underperforming (yet) somewhat pallid.
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38. Inactivity as main activity
There is a strong tendency to do nothing
with the brand connection or -content.
Scores on passive interaction are low but are
outright poor on active interaction.
around 60% does nothing
with the content they receive
from connected brands.
Twitter is most positive here, but still 43% is not paying
any attention to their connected brands on this platform
The main reason for not doing anything with the content is that
people are generally not very active with content,
and so this is also true of brand content.
Lack of time is also cited as a reason,
especially in the context of
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39. Passiveness as big #2
Brands are not persons,
which is still a main reason
for passiveness towards a brand
once people connect with it.
Furthermore, to explain passiveness
people relate that their overall interest
in brands offline and online is low.
Another reason is that brand content is
not considered interesting enough
to merit becoming more active
But: content is not always king. Motivations may go deeper.
On Facebook the messages that trigger
the most reactions to brands are new products,
direct questions, special offers and existing products.
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40. The second very best
Overall, the ways in which consumers
prefer to be addressed by brands are
via email Email (newsletter) is considered particularly appropriate
for special offers, benefits, discounts and contests
or via the brand website
the brand website is ideal for offering more
practical information about products or services.
Classic television is now only considered most suitable for new product announcements.
Social media are almost never considered as preferred communication channel.
However, a broad group agrees that Social Media could be very well used as
an optional channel for most types of information.
It is e.g. the most suitable back-up for the announcement of events and contests.
Relatively the least Social Media potential as a channel is been given to
providing practical information and behind-the-scene impressions.
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41. INTO 2013
K E Y TA K E O U T S S P O T L I G H T 2 0 1 2
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42. 42

43. 1. SOCIAL MEDIA
ARE ON THEIR WAY
2013
BUT STILL HAVE A
WHOLE LIFE AHEAD

44. To explain…
There seems plenty of evidence Social Media is still in phase 1 of its life cycle: no
true channel preference yet by users for any brand message and low interactivity
in general, but in particularly with brands.
Upsides – on the other hand – are the very high Social
Media suitability (potential) for brand messages.
Growth in the Dutch Social Media population will be modest.
The most concrete next major development is mobile (focus).
In 2012 just supporting, in 2013 the new remote for your life.
Mobile will simplify our lives and it will become a hub for all things we do.
Growth in new applications, new ways of usage and
new social business models is an evident development.
Putting effort in connecting and especially engaging people online remains a prosperous brand
opportunity. In particular if one realizes whole new brand relationships can be build solely from
the online umfeld.
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45. 2. DIFFERENTIATION
WILL BE THE EDGE
2013
RELEVANCE
THE KEY
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46. To explain…
From the user perspective: There‟s no manifest need for more or better Social Media.
People are generally happy how they made Social Media part of their life as they do.
From the brand perspective: If not there yet, we‟re at the dawn of
an overload of brand generated content. Social media offerings
and budgets to invest in Social Media increase exponentially.
Quality of content is not just important in 2013, it‟s vital.
Valuable content contains of a whole set of variables: quality, given at the right time, while
you‟re at the right place with the right tone-of-voice. Brands have to pick up this new
responsibility very seriously to cope with expectations of user experience.
To deeply understand (your) people online is key for providing something that cuts
through the clutter and generates branded impact.
In this sense it does not differ a great deal from traditional media like television.
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47. 3. INACTIVES AS
HUGE POTENTIAL
2013
GET THEIR
ATTENTION

48. To explain…
From the user perspective: Interaction, in terms of conversations, even within most trusted
inner-circles is very low-key. Posting and reacting is generally the most advanced stage.
Social media is only used for a fraction of its true interactivity possibilities.
From the brand perspective: brand activations have a strong focus on higher ends of
interaction, which is believed to be the strongest parameter for engagement. It‟s like
scheduling a TV program at prime time that only a small group really likes. You‟ll reach your
target, but it‟s far from efficient. And neither effective for other groups.
In general, over half of people connects with a brand with no follow-up on that connection
at all. With this in mind, one wonders what the actual use is of building large groups of
fans and followers, if registration is the only commitment.
Furthermore, basic interactivity and even simple sharing will be the next key parameter
to build SEO authority. Google and Facebook have put the ROI in your efforts to get
actually something out of your fan bases.
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49. 4. BASIC METRICS
DON’T SAY IT ALL
2013
LONG TERM
USAGE HAS
DEEPER LAYERS

50. To explain…
Actual usage is something else than preferred usage. There is often
a deeper layer to it. We believe Social Media attitude should be at
the root of reaching (out to) online groups, and should therefore be
at the core of marketing communications on Social Media.
Irrespective of your definition of engagement, it should have a long term prospective.
Attitudes furnish insights reaching beyond the present day, thus providing indications
as to future user intent as well.
Segmenting people with regard to attitude lends a better feel as to their
development as a group and therefore their relevance as a target group.
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51. 5. ENGAGEMENT
SHOULD STILL BE A
BRAND’S AMBITION
2013
MEASURING IT
MEANINGFUL
AS WELL

52. To explain…
Magical KPI „engagement‟ has also multiple layers. Engagement is above all a qualitative variable.
It seems biased to measure engagement by just numbers and fixed ratios.
It might even be misleading, since very practical merits could be the main incentive of connection.
In addition, aggravation and annoyance could lead to high interactivity and plenty
of shallow feedback weighs in more heavily than few in-depths remarks.
It is – however – very wise to first and foremost clearly define what you – as a brand –
measure as engagement. Our frame definition is that Social Media Engagement is:
„getting the right response‟ which results in a satisfactory feeling.
Mind you, the right response (and therefore engagement) is an multi-interpretable phrase:
• For sharing this could mean access to information (passive) or access to conversation (active)
• For content this could mean relevant information (intangible) or offering specific benefits or privileges (tangibles).
• For webcare this could mean a fast reply (quick) or a thorough process of getting to the bottom of it (profound).
• For co-creation this could mean a nice assignment (input) or a serious assessment of your contribution (output).
• Etc., etc.
Engagement is relevant interaction on individual level. If you want to make an impact,
insights on true relevance are essential to achieve your desired brand position on socials.
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