14 July 2011

New Zealand’s first social media snapshot reveals Kiwis are prolific, but shy, sharers

Snapshot of New Zealand life through the eyes of social media premieres tomorrow

New Zealand’s first snapshot of life through the eyes of social media has revealed Kiwis are prolific users of social media, but cautious about what we share with the world.

On the 8th of July, Vodafone hosted the nation’s first ‘Share Everything Day’ and for 24 hours New Zealanders were invited to share what was happening in their world. Tweets, TXTs, PXTs, and status updates form the script of the short film which will premiere online at midday tomorrow. To view a preview clip, click here.

From the 6,500 submissions of content, more than 900 people woke to share their struggle to get to work on a Friday; another 550 shared their need for coffee to help them get through the day, and the fail-safe conversation starter, the weather, was the topic of 950 submissions.

Psychologist Sara Chatwin says the film reveals that while we are willing to share what is going on in our lives, we tend to self-censor and share only at a superficial level.

“People have a tendency to censor themselves when they feel they aren’t anonymous, it takes a degree of courage to bare all with your name attached, even online. New Zealanders have a reputation as being a private nation and as a result seem to take a conservative approach to sharing.”

New Zealanders were happy to share their love of food - 700 people took the time to share what was on their plate from breakfast through to dinner - and pets, 450 people submitted pictures of their beloved animals.

According to Sara Chatwin it is not unusual for people to talk about ‘safe’ topics such as the weather, pets and coffee consumption.

“Unlike our counterparts in America and Britain, social-networking is still a relatively new phenomenon for Kiwis. These results could indicate our wary approach to something that we’re not quite used to. Whether we will ever be as open and overt as our American counterparts remains to be seen!”

Kiwis were able to share via Tweets, TXTs, PXTs, and status updates, with #shareeverything claiming the top spot as the most tweeted hashtag on Twitter in New Zealand July 8.

Vodafone’s General Manager of Consumer Marketing, Kursten Shalfoon, says: “It was fascinating to see the content come through live. We know that Kiwis are private people so we were surprised at how willing they were to share their day, and even a few personal moments, with us. We received 6,500 submissions in 24 hours, the most popular medium being Facebook, followed closely by Twitter.”

The film, produced from the content, will be released tomorrow at an online premiere at midday, hosted on the Vodafone New Zealand Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/vodafoneNZ).

For those who want to share everything every day, Vodafone has launched a mobile internet add-on providing Vodafone customers nonstop access to Facebook and Twitter for $6 a month, without it counting towards your data allowance.

The offer includes an additional 50MB of data and is available until 30 September 2011, for details and full terms and conditions visit Vodafone.co.nz/nonstop

ENDS