American are a giving people … but so are many others.

December 14, 2014 Phillip Nones Economics, Social Commentary CAF-America, Charitable Giving, Daana, Gallup, Generosity, Giving Season, Myanmar, Social Behaviors, World Giving Index

Coming off of Thanksgiving Day and heading into the remaining holidays of the year, with their emphasis on “giving,” it’s tempting for we Americans to think of ourselves as a generous people.

Which we are. The latest comparative analysis proves the point.

In fact, America is tied with one other country as the most generous in the world.

And that other country is … wait for it … Myanmar.

That is correct: the United States and Myanmar (Burma) each scored a 64% generosity rating in the recently published World Giving Index. The two nations were followed closely by Canada, Ireland, New Zealand and Australia.

The World Giving Index is actually an aggregated figure, calculated based on three kinds of giving:

Volunteering of time
Donating money
Helping a stranger

Data was collected in field research carried out across more than 140 countries via Gallup’s World View World Poll, then compiled by international research firm CAF-America for creating the World Giving Index based interview questions that measured the behaviors of people during the 30-day period prior to interviewing.

A sampling of adults in each of the countries was interviewed, with the percentages of people participating in each of the three behavioral attributes collected. The scores were amalgamated to determine the overall index score per country.

How did the United States achieve its first-place tie? It ranked #1 among all surveyed countries in helping a stranger (a participation score of 79%) … #5 in volunteering of time (a score of 44%) … and #9 in donating money (a score of 68%).

Myanmar’s route to the shared top spot was different: It ranked #1 for donating money (a participation score of 91%) … #2 for volunteering time (a score of 51%), but only #49 for helping a stranger (a score of 49%).

2014 World Giving Index Heat Map by CAF — This 2014 *World Giving Index* “heat map” shows which nations are the most generous. *(Gallup survey data amalgamated by CAF.)*

For the record, here’s how the Top 10 countries fared in terms of their overall World Giving Index scores:

#1 (tie) USA: 64% World Giving Index score
#1 (tie) Myanmar: 64%
#3 (tie) Canada: 60%
#3 (tie) Ireland: 60%
#5 New Zealand: 58%
#6 Australia: 56%
#7 (tie) Malaysia: 55%
#7 (tie) United Kingdom: 55%
#9 (tie) Sri Lanka: 54%
#9 (tie) Trinidad & Tobago: 54%

Looking at the Top 10 list – and also at where the other countries surveyed fell further down the roster – it appears that living in a prosperous economy doesn’t necessarily translate into being more charitable.

If that were the case, we’d see the G20 economies making up the top tier — which they don’t.

“Aspiring” economies also don’t show up particularly well, either. The so-called BRIC nations (Brazil, Russia, India and China) are nowhere to be found in the Top 10 ranking.

The MINT nations (Mexico, Indonesia, Nigeria and Turkey) are no-shows, too.

Myanmar poses a very interesting case. It’s 91% rating of people giving money reflects a practice of charitable giving (daana) that is a centerpiece tenets of religious observance amongst the Theravada Buddhists that thrive in the country.

And in the United States, charitable giving participation rates have grown significantly in the years since the Great Recession, so that today about two-thirds of adults reported donating money within 30 days of when they were interviewed.

For more details on the comparative study and the world rankings, click here.

What Facebook Looks Like Today

January 16, 2011January 17, 2011 Phillip Nones Uncategorized Barack Obama, Bob Marley, Communications, Eminem, Facebook, Justin Bieber, Lady Gaga, Lil Wayne, marketing, Media, Megan Fox, MySpace, News, Nones, Nones Notes, NonesNotes, Obama, Online, Phillip Nones, Relationships, Rihanna, Shakira, Social, Social Behavior, Social Behaviors, Social Interaction, Social Marketing, Social Media, Social Network, Social Networks, Thoughts, Vin Diesel

By now, everyone knows that Facebook has pretty much won the social media wars, as early entrant and rival MySpace hemorrhages employees as it tucks its tail between its legs and slinks away.

And Facebook itself is a good chronicler of the hyperactivity of Facebookers wordwide. Recently, it published some stats on “what 20 minutes on Facebook looks like.” Among the revelations:

 ~10.2 million comments uploaded every 20 minutes
 ~2.7 million photos uploaded
 ~2.0 million “friend” requests accepted
 ~1.8 million status updates posted
 ~1.6 million wall posts
 ~1.5 million event invites sent out
 ~1.3 million photos tagged
 ~1 million links shared

Fan designations (or “likes”) are now reaching stratospheric proportions for some celebrities. And who were the most popular in 2010 based the “most liked” status? The results show a major skew towards the younger generation … and toward entertainers rather than political, scientific or academic leaders:

 Lady Gaga: ~25 million people “like”
 Eminem: ~24 million people
 Megan Fox: ~20 million people
 Vin Diesel: ~19 million people
 Rihanna: ~19 million people

Where does President Barack Obama rank by comparison? He’s at ~17 million “likes” – right along with Bob Marley, Li’l Wayne, Justin Bieber and Shakira.

Personally, I found the trends in relationship status to be the most interesting. There were quite a few relationship changes … but perhaps not as many as you might expect considering that there are an estimated 600 million active users on Facebook these days.

For the record, here’s what happened with personal relationships in 2010:

 ~44 million people changed their status to “single”
 ~37 million changed their status to “married”
 ~28 million changed their status to “in a relationship”
 ~6 million changed their status to “engaged”
 ~3 million changed their status to “it’s complicated”

Notice that the number of people who migrated away from marriage were nearly equally matched by those becoming engaged or getting hitched. As the famous French saying goes, Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose. (The more things change, the more they stay the same.)

The Maturing of Social Media

October 10, 2010October 10, 2010 Phillip Nones Uncategorized Augie Ray, Blog, Blogosphere, Blogs, Collectors, Communications, Consumer Marketing, Conversationalists, Creators, Critics, Forrester, Forrester Research, Global Social Technographics, Inactives, Interactive, Internet, Joiners, Market Research, marketing, News, Nones, NonesNotes, Phillip Nones Nones Notes, Social Behavior, Social Behaviors, Social Marketing, Social Media, Social Media Behavior, Social Media Behaviors, Social Media Ladder, Social Media Trends, Social Networking, Social Networks, Social Technographics Ladder, Spectators, Technographics, Thoughts, Trends, Twitter, Web, Weblog, Weblogs

Forrester Research, an international technology and market research company, has been formally tracking the growth and maturation of social media behavior over the past four years. Each year it has seen steady increase in participation – until now.

In its most recent study, just released, Forrester reports that although social media “joiners” and “spectators” continue to grow in the U.S., the number of “creators” has now reached a plateau.

Forrester defines social media “creators” as those people who maintain a blog, publish their own web pages, or upload their own videos or musical creations. As of today, Forrester estimates that approximately 23% of U.S. online adults fall into this category.

But for the first time since Forrester’s annual “Global Social Technographics®” studies began in 2007, the number of “creators” hasn’t risen. In explaining this news, Augie Ray, senior analyst of social computing/marketing at Forrester, had this to say in a 9/28/2010 blog post:

“The reasons span things as complex as human nature and as simple as web site usability. For example, is it sensible to believe that ‘creator’ behavior will ever be universal? Not every person has a burning need to be a reporter, an industry expert, a videographer, a musician, a thought leader, an editor or a broadcaster. The fact that more than one in five online adults in the U.S. are exhibiting ‘creator’ behavior is a testament to how social technologies have lowered the bar, since these tools have allowed more people to create and distribute their ideas, opinions and creations than was ever possible in the past.”

The 2010 Forrester study did find that the number of “joiners” – those people who maintain social networking profiles – continues to grow. That’s explained by the fact that people feel they must be part of social media, if only to keep in touch with friends and relatives. Notes Ray, “Today, avoiding social networks is about as easy to do as avoiding e-mail – it’s possible, but it comes at a substantial cost in terms of relationships and knowledge.”

Another interesting aspect of the Forrester report is a look at the Social Technographics® ladder that does a nice job of breaking down social medial activities into behavioral categories. As of today, the research finds the following breakdown:

 ~23% are “creators” – They publish a blog or their own web page, or upload their own videos or music at least once per month.

 ~31% are “conversationalists” – They update their status on Twitter or social networking sites at least once per week.

 ~33% are “critics” – They post ratings or reviews of products and services, comment on someone else’s blog post, or contribute to online forums at least once per month.

 ~19% are “collectors” – They “vote” for web sites online, add “tags” to web pages or photos, or use RSS news feeds at least once per month.

 ~59% are “joiners” – They maintain a profile or visit social networking sites at least once per month.

 ~68% are “spectators” – They read blogs, listen to podcasts, watch videos, read online forums or read customer reviews at least once per month, without otherwise interacting with the content.

And what about the “inactives” – those who engage in none of the activities as described above? They represent just 19% of all American adults who are online. Based on the most recent findings, that’s a figure that may stubbornly refuse to decline much further.