Facebook Tops Social Networking in Brazil

As COLLOQUY has been publishing our research on loyalty around the world (two Cross-Cultural white papers and one on India, with additional coverage on Brazil to come) we took note of the news from comScore that Facebook has taken over the top position in the Brazilian social networking market after a very successful 2011. It's probably no surprise to anyone who has celebrated Carnival in Sao Paolo or hit the beach in Rio that Brazilians are just as social online as they are in person

Brazil had been one of only seven markets in the world in which the social media giant had not been in the top spot. Facebook leaped over Orkut and Windows Live getting more than 36 million visits in December of 2011.

According to the comScore report: “Brazil has always been a particularly social market and currently owns the fifth largest social networking population in the world. But despite the cultural affinity for social media, Facebook adoption had traditionally lagged in the market. That has all changed in the past year, during which the site has tripled in audience size as engagement has grown sevenfold to assume the leadership position in the market.”

Our 2011 COLLOQUY Cross-Cultural Loyalty Study compares several emerging and developed economies looking at consumer attitudes and perspectives. At that time, the closest we come to a universal consumer definition of loyal behavior is “telling friends and family to shop” and what better, more social and widely broadcast method do we all use than our Facebook accounts. We recommended that any program should be looking at embedding recognition benefits and rewards for word-of-mouth behavior. Looks like Facebook in Brazil just became the number one tool for that purpose.

And, in a sneak peek of our soon-to-to-published report on Brazil, you will see us say: Brazilians are significantly more vocal about their positive and negative brand experiences then citizens in other countries - two-thirds tell family and friends about a positive experience with a particular company. Look for that in a couple of weeks. And, for more on madvocates and champions, be sure to read our most recent WOM white paper.

Tell us what you think about the intersection of social media and loyalty.