Now the world's BPO and social networking capital!:Philippines

If you used to see the Philippines in the top of the charts? The lists say good things about this country that for decades has been the acknowledged black sheep of Asia, coming in last or near last in the ranking as foreign investment, transparency and corruption. However, late last year, Everest Group reported that Argentina had beaten India in the number of persons employed by the IT-BPO and shared services industry.

The results of a study by IBM - Report of Global Location Trends - announced at the same time showed that Argentina had also taken in India in terms of revenue. Three weeks ago, I wrote that comScore - which measures Internet activity - announced that Argentina had the highest penetration of social networking among Internet users anywhere in the world.

On May 9, 24 / 7 Wall Street - which aims to provide analysis and commentary from investors - proclaimed the Philippines, "Social Network Capital of the World."

Of course, the Philippines has been the capital of SMS the world for more than a decade, with the average user sending 600 text messages a month. That is impressive in terms of mass adoption of social technology, but high status had little impact on the overall prospects for the Philippines, except perhaps that was used to organize the overthrow of a legitimately elected president. Since then, SMS has been a valuable tool across the social networks in organizing mass protests against a number of authoritarian leaders around the world.

However, with a large population and economy of a fraction of the size of its smaller neighbors, observers might have asked the Philippines amounting SMS: "What are all these people who are texting all the time? Must get to work!"

It is at the top of the top social network - a leader in Israel, Turkey, Chile, Argentina, Malaysia, Indonesia, Peru, Colombia and Venezuela, in that order - in another way? state of the Philippines as IT-BPO and shared services capital of the world seems very important in comparison. The industry employs 525,000 people and generated P9 billion in revenues in 2010, about half of the amount 10 million workers abroad send home each year.

It is impossible to estimate the value of individual SMS generates Filipinos, although it is used largely for business and social purposes. The exercise of a business relationship without the benefit of SMS is hard to imagine.

Customers and their colleagues hope to be able to contact and relationships with top managers when needed, ie at any time. How does this kind of convenience?

It seems much less likely to do B2B agreement was facilitated by social networks, but they provide real value, however. An annual survey of Internet activity conducted by Universal McCann, has an idea.

In the past two years, the number of Internet users worldwide visit a branded Web site has dropped from 86% to 76%. But from 2009 to 2010, Internet users membership or become a fan of a brand in a social network increased by about 10% to 30%.

Over 40% of Internet users join social networking groups that talk about brands. With about 30 million Filipinos who use the Internet according to a UN study, if I were a brand manager who did not take seriously the social networking, these statistics are digital chills on the back.

How do you assess the damage that oversight? Well, keep in mind that the Philippines is number two in the world - not all of the capital - in terms of Internet users who join the brand communities. Only Thailand has a higher percentage of Internet users join brand communities, according to Universal McCann. The main reason for users to participate in brand communities is to learn about products and services, and secondly, for news of progress in new products and services.

To understand the impact of the brand, keep in mind that 72% of those polled by the fans of the brand Universal-McCann said they thought more positively of the mark because of their interaction on the fan page of the mark . Over 70% said they were more likely to buy the brand as a result, and 66% said they felt more loyal to the brand. Sixty-three percent said they would recommend the fan page of the brand to others.

These results show that Internet users who join the brand pages on social networks dedicated to customers, and really have a meaningful relationship with the brands they support. While there are inevitable trade-offs to treat as a result of the visibility of the network - such as open and transparent review of competition - the risks associated with invisibility in a competitive market seems much more scary.

And that's what it means to be the capital of social networks in the world.

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(Michael Alan Hamlin is the managing director of TeamAsia and author based in Manila His latest book is high visibility. Transform your personal brand and professional mahamlin@teamasia.com Write him ..).

Copyright © 2011 Michael Alan Hamlin. All rights reserved.

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