Social Media in Spain 2014 – time for dramatic change. Due to a substantial growth on smartphones and tablet sale the social media landscape has moved on to a new high. As a Spanish MSc Marketing student at Salford Business School, UK, I notice that consumers spend an average of four hours a day online, more and more through their mobiles and tablets. According to a Comscore report, the number of users of smartphone and tablet in Spain increased by 70% last year and more than 4 million Spaniards own a tablet. Companies should take advantage of internet mobile marketing in Spain, as Mobile E-commerce is bound to be a future trend in Spain.
Teenager segment: Twitter beats Tuenti
Spanish social media network Tuenti has lost 58% of its users in the second half of 2013. Most of them are moving to Twitter. One of the reasons of this change is the greater interactivity of Twitter and the growth of Internet enabled Mobile phone. Besides, Tuenti is associated with teenagers, while Twitter isn’t. However, Tuenti is expanding to Latin America, so it still can recover its position.
Instagram is the new Fotolog
Tuenti’s users have also moved to Instagram, because of the synergies with Facebook, its new owner, and the growing number of smartphones and tablets at the moment. Although Instagram is “The King” amongst the younger public, Tumblr is also starting to get popular, as Fotolog once was.
LinkedIn grows in a professional niche
LinkedIn is growing as the professional option and so is Google +, although Google’s social network lacks in interactivity, even if the number of users is growing. LinkedIn has more than five million of users in Spain and it is thought to grow in 2014 due to the slow economic improvement.
Videos and TV
Apparently, Spaniards spend quite a lot of time watching videos and socialising on their mobile phones, over the EU average. 2013 has been the year of viral videos. Leisure and entertainment are the most demanded contents, followed by news and viral videos. That’s why some companies have used YouTube viral videos in their promotion strategies.
Microblogging + guerilla marketing = Menéame
Blogs are very popular in Spain and microblogging site Menéame is a way bloggers see their posts reach boosted. Basically, it is a news aggregation service where users decide the relevance of the content. So, bloggers send their stories to Menéame (“shake me”, in Spanish) and the posts with more votes get published and quickly spread via Social Media. Quite often Menéame stories become trending topic on Twitter. This website is related to guerrilla marketing communication, as they publish the information which conventional media don’t usually divulge. So, it is a niche for non-profit organisations to see their messages published.
It’s a great time to invest in Digital Marketing in Spain. What is your opinion about the developments in Spanish Social Media? Share your feelings with us.