Universal McCann has released an extensive report on the growth and impact of social media around the world. Surveying over 17,000 users in 29 countries, this paper is a detailed analysis that should be read by everyone whose business may be impacted by this major trend.

This 80 page document looks at all the major aspects of social media, including blogging, social networks, content sharing, and discusses their impacts and implications. Some of the highlights include:

• Blogs are a mainstream media world-wide and as a collective rival any traditional media, 73% of “active users” have read a blog.
• Social media impacts brand reputation: 34% post opinions about products and brands on their blog and 36% think more positively about companies that have blogs.
• Bloggers actually value advertisements, not only for the money they can bring, but also for the credibility they lend to their site.

The study also shows how the different social media have developed around the world. For example, this chart shows the percent of active internet users that have started their own blog in different countries:

This is an extensive, extremely interesting study and Universal McCann should be commended for producing it and making it available.