Social Media in Australia

Rozlyn de Bussey | @RozlyndeBussey

When I was asked to research this information for Social Media Delivered (SMD), I thought, “Oh great that won’t be too hard, I’ll do some research and I’ll be on my way!” As we Aussies say: “No worries mate, she’ll be right” with the big thumbs up to mean “yes, I can do this, not a problem at all.”

Well, that is not what happened at all. There's some amazing content-filled social media sites for B2B and B2C and some spamming and scam sites. There are also a number of local and government sites explaining social media surrounding the analytical side and the proportional side of users as examples of how fast social media has grown in Australia since 2009. For example, Box Hill Institute of TAFE, Melbourne, provides this great video:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7Oh9TIpzhY[/youtube]

The statistics below come from a site called Social Media News Australia and reference recent numbers of social media users within the total population of about 23 million. For many Australians in the not too distant future, social media could possibly be viewed as the democratization and the amalgamation of information and gives the capacity for many more people to use this medium of communication in so many ways. The mind boggles and overflows imagining the possibilities!

  1. Facebook – 11,500,000 Australian users/accounts (steady).
  2. YouTube – 11,000,000 unique Australian visitors (steady)
  3. Blogspot – 3,700,000 (down 100,000)
  4. WordPress.com – 2,900,000 (steady)
  5. Tumblr – 2,900,000 (steady)
  6. LinkedIn – 2,400,000 (up 200,000)
  7. Twitter – 2,114,000 Active Australian Users (steady)
  8. Instagram– 1,510,000 Active Australian Users (steady)
  9. TripAdvisor– 960,000 (steady)
  10. Flickr – 800,000 (steady)
  11. Pinterest – 650,000 (up 10,000)
  12. MySpace – 390,000 (steady)
  13. Google + – approx 377,500
  14. Yelp – 200,000 (steady)
  15. Reddit – 150,000 (steady)
  16. StumbleUpon – 100,000 (steady)
  17. Digg – 50,000 (down 15,000)
  18. Foursquare – 53,000 (down 5,000)
  19. Delicious – 30,000 (steady)

These statistics provide great insight as to how this medium of communication is growing at a rapid rate in Australia and the world. As an Australian newcomer to social media, however, I think it is wise to start slowly and it is better to do a few things well than many things poorly.

References: Social Media for the CEO. Author Eve Mayer Orsburn; American and English consulting firm, Bluuewolf.com; Dialogue Consulting, Australian Consulting Firm; Social Media News Australia; Guy Kawasaki videos including Lie Spotting and Truth Speaking given by Pamela Meyer.