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Here is some more interesting data from the Universal McCaan study that validates the conclusion that we use the internet for expanding our network of contacts but use the mobile phone to maintain our current network.

In the earlier post, we looked at the number of contacts we stay in touch with using different communication channels. In this post, we’ll look at which communication channels we use to stay in touch with family, friends and colleagues. In the table below are the percentage of respondents who stay in touch with family, friends and colleagues using different communications channels (normalized by the face-to-face field) —

The Universal McCann analysts used the data to reach a rather confused conclusion –

The most remarkable trend is the influence of the virtual connection on our most personal of relationships. Nearly 38% of respondents say they keep in contact with their partner via SMS, 30% via email and 10% via Instant Messenger. All very significant compared to the 55% who stay in touch with a partner face to face. Staying in touch with children is a very similar pattern, remarkably 16% stay in touch by text and 13% by email, which again are very significant numbers considering just 34% have children and stay in touch face to face.

(Cross-posted on my fellowship blog - How International Values Shape Communications Technologies)

In my earlier post on the recently published Universal McCann study, I had written about how we use different communication channels to stay in touch with our contacts.

Perhaps the most important insight in the Universal McCaan study is that we use the internet for expanding our network of contacts but use the mobile phone to maintain our current network.

Here’s another interesting insight from the Universal McCann report: we use social networks for making new friends and personal blogs for socializing with friends –

In the previous post, we found that Brazilians and the Indians are amongst the most social online whereas the Americans are amongst the least social. The same trend can be seen here.

While differences in culture partly explain this significant difference in online social behavior, self-selection is also part of the explanation. Given the low penetration of the internet in Brazil and India, social media usage in these countries suffers from a serious early adopter bias.

(Cross-posted on my fellowship blog - How International Values Shape Communications Technologies)

I had earlier used data from the Wave 3 of the Power of the People Social Media Tracker by Universal McCann to do a comparative analysis of social media usage in BRIC countries.

Now Universal McCann has published some more findings from the same study in another report titled When did we start trusting strangers? How the internet turned us all into influencers. The report is a treasure trove of interesting findings on how digital media is changing how we look at relationships and influence and I’m sure that I’ll return to it often in subsequent posts.

However, in this post, I want to focus on Universal Mccann’s findings on how we stay in touch with our personal contacts –

The evolution of the web as a social platform and primary communication channel has had a dramatic impact on the scale and nature of our friendship networks. Figure 8 shows the global average number of friends and personal acquaintances we maintain via different forms of communication including face to face, digital and letters.

At my official fellowship blog — How Global Values Shape Communications Technologies — I use data from Wave 3 of the Power of the People Social Media Tracker by Universal McCann (PDF/ Slideshare) to do a comparative analysis of social media usage in BRIC countries.

Here are the top level highlights –

- The total number of active internet users in BRIC countries (101.2m) is higher than the number of active internet users in US (100m).

- Significantly more users from BRIC countries than US engage with social media tools, both in terms of content consumption and content creation.

- Even as percentage of active internet users, social media usage in BRIC countries is much higher than US across content consumption and content creation.

- At the country level, China leads in blogging and podcasting while Brazil is the leader in social networking and online video.

Do join the conversation at the How Global Values Shape Communications Technologies blog.