Is there still any doubt that social media is here to stay? STATS

4 years ago the social media phenomenon was something only early adopters were interested in and used like the true elite explorers they were. Afterall, how many of you my readers had a social media network account in 2006? Much less one that you checked and interacted with right after you woke up, on the way to work, school even while at religious places of work..and all on a daily basis? Don't even mention MySpace or hi5. Nothing personal but really how many times after your first 5 months of use did you stick with those 2 sites? How many months or years ago did you log into your Myspace account?

Fast forward to 2011 and only a few outnumbered members les forces de resistance du social media are NOT on or actively participating on a social media network. Especially on the undisputed King of Social Media in the Western Hemisphere - FACEBOOK.

In Nigeria the STATS are incredible. At the start of 2008 we had just 100,000 users thereabouts. I was one of them, so now you know President Goodluck Jonathan did not bring Facebook to Nigeria :-) This number shot up to 1m users in 2009 and closed at 2m at the end of 2010. As at today (13th January 2011) I can authoritatively tell you the number of active Nigerian users on Facebook is estimated at 2,508,720 people (who live in Nigeria)


Damn! Means I need to revise my predictions that Nigerians on Facebook will double in 2011 if less than a month into Facebook we are already doing 2.5m!

How do we use Facebook? How addicted are we? Feel free to mentally say 'aye' when you find common threads as you read the stats in US and global market on usage of Facebook in the infographic below. Facebook penetration numbers compared to overall internet penetration in Nigeria are still a far cry away (with over 43.9m with internet access as at 2010) but the gulf is certainly closing as far as usage once people sign up. Addiction sets in to some extent. For instance, what is the first thing you do when you wake up these days? Check your Facebook and Twitter accounts. Sigh. How sweetly tiresome.

Key though is the kind of user you find on Facebook. Generally smart, happy to share information and engage with brands and generally with more than average disposable income. This is good news of course to the smart brand managers and advertising agencies out there looking to include social media engagement as part of their digital marketing in Nigeria.When a brand relates to its customers in a way that connects, the customers remember the brand with affection and loyalty. And they reward the brand with their money.

Take a look at some really cool stats and illustrations below or via this write up on Mashable and see just how pervasive social media and Facebook in particular has become. Question some folks are asking -is it a welcome pervasiveness? I would love to hear some of your own experiences with social media in Nigeria. Ok, off to my next browser tab for a quick peek-a-boo at my Facebook...


Via: Online Schools

Dayo Adefila is a tech entreprenuer and COO of Hotsauce, a digital marketing firm in Lagos, Nigeria. A former ad creative and Head, Account Planning at Insight GREY Dayo enjoys discovering and sharing useful stuff about the predictably fast evolving world of digital media in Nigeria and globally. Catch me online at any of the following locations: Twitter Linkedin Facebook