Where Does Your Audience Live?

From AllFacebook.com

The world of social media moves incredibly fast. No news there, but just how fast may shock you. Facebook continued growth overseas should continue to raise the profile of this platform in U.S. international admissions circles. For example, in December 2010, Brazil was beginning to see some dramatic growth in Facebook users and stood at about 8.8 million users. a short six months later at the end of June, over 21 million Brazilians were on FB, many of which have moved over from their Orkut accounts to Facebook.

In terms of other social networks, the AllFacebook.com graphic here shows those countries where Facebook is not yet the #1 social media platform in the world. Interestingly,  the GlobalWebIndex Social Networking Map 2011 shows the penetration rates of social media in various countries. Guess what the top 3 most connected countries are with regards to social media usage as a percentage of their online users? The Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia each with between 67-76% penetration. 

For U.S. colleagues looking to explore Facebook as a main platform to reach international students, you would be very much barking up the right tree. Using the semi-annual format produced by Nick Burcher out of the UK of the Top 30 countries on Facebook, here is that top 30 list with some additional data related to the college age demographic (16-25 years old) for users in each country.

for EducationUSA July 2011

Pay particular attention to the highlighted countries (India, Mexico, Brazil, Thailand, Egypt, Poland, Peru, Pakistan, and Russia) which enjoyed triple digit growth in the last 12 months in terms of Facebook users. Not including the U.S. you'll find that of the top 29 countries, 254 million are in the 16-25 year old demo. Happy hunting!