33% of associations in Brussels still don’t use social media. Are you one of them?

In the digital era we live in, it is almost unimaginable that any of our friends would live in total social media isolation. What about associations operating within the Brussels bubble?

We have been tracking the use of social media by almost 600 European associations since 2015 and the results continue to be quite revealing.

Twitter continues to dominate the social media space in Brussels, but its popularity grew by just 2% in the last year. Will new features like the ability to use 280 characters, reply without the @mention and save space on images further boost Twitter’s appeal to associations? How is advertising influencing audience development? Our latest research show there’s been quite a sharp increase in the followers and engagement of some accounts, but without their logins, it’s hard to tell if this is just a result of paid promotion.

YouTube and LinkedIn have experienced more pronounced growth in the last 12 months of 6% and 5% respectively. The omnipresent video platform is growing at the fastest pace in Brussels, especially if we look at the massive increase in number of videos. Compared to last year 2,000 new clips were added and the number of views has nearly doubled.

When it comes to new channels, we’re asking ourselves if it’s time for something new to burst the Brussels Bubble. While Pinterest is hardly used, Instagram went from 0% on previous years to 2% in 2017. Will it skyrocket in 2018? We don’t know if associations will be exploring new ways to convey their messages, but we promise to continue tracking their moves very closely and keep you posted.

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