What do Macedonian Facebook users do with the ads by Macedonian companies?

A survey of 450 Facebook users from Macedonia indicates that very few of them—one percent—actually use the benefits of e-commerce provided by this environment, and that over a third of them do not click on the advertisements by Macedonian firms served by this social networking platform. Even though majority claim to click on the advertisements, most of them do not do that often, and almost two thirds of them have visited the advertised websites only once.

Methods

To gather the data, I posted a note (simple text article) available to all Facebook users, containing the question and the alternative answers (closed set). Users were invited to provide the response via private messages or to post them as comments with the number of the alternatives, and additional info at their convenience. The decision to use a note, as opposed to a specialized poll or quiz application, was based on the aversion experienced as a user, and corroborated by other users, to the constant influx of invitations to install new applications.

This user-friendly approach and the nature of the social media contributed to increasing the number of participants, some of whom shared the link among their friends. The data gathering took place from May 20, 2009 till May 30, 2009.

All communication and inviting took place strictly in Macedonian language, in order to provide a sort of filter for foreign friends of the surveyor and the respondents who might notice their activity regarding the note.

The responses are based on respondents’ recall and can be used to gain a rough sketch of the current state of the affairs, but cannot be taken as precise measurement of the effectiveness of the Facebook ads, or the level of use of e-commerce in Macedonia. However, it must be taken into account that Facebook users as a group can be considered to be potentially more wired than the general population of Macedonia, for at least they need to know to use the web and e-mail to start using Facebook.

In addition, six respondents, who reside outside of Macedonia, also took part in the survey. Their responses—that they do not notice such ads—confirming that the ads by Macedonian firms are targeted according to geographical location of the viewers. The responses by the Diaspora members were not included in the final tally.

Results

Out of total of 456 survey respondents, 450 persons from Macedonia answered the question: “What do you do with the advertisements by Macedonian firms on Facebook?”. Cleared data from 435 respondents indicates that:

• 27,4% do not notice those advertisements
• 6,0% intentionally do not click on them
• 37,0% click on those advertisements very rarely or never
• 25,3% occasionally click on such advertisements, and
• 4,4% often click on them

Several respondents who choose the first option also reported that they use Adblock Firefox Add-on, or other service which automatically prevents them from viewing ads. Future surveys on this topic should add this possibility as separate option.

In addition, the respondents were asked what they have done after clicking on such advertisements. The 294 survey participants, who first confirmed that they’ve clicked on such ads, responded as follows:

• 67,7% - I have visited the advertised websites only once (then and never again).
• 16,0% - I have returned to an advertised website several times.
• 3,1% - I have placed an advertised website in the bookmarks/favorites.
• 1,4% - I have bought a product or a service directly from such a site.
• 0,3% - I have bought an advertised product or service via telephone.
• 2,7% - I have bought an advertised product or service from a shop.

These results show a correlation with the results of a study of banner ads effectiveness published by the American company iProspect, in particular in regard to 36% of users who choose the option “Nothing. I haven’t responded to any such ads,” within this survey, which is quite close to over 33% of Macedonian users who selected one of the two options with the result of non-clicking on the ads.

However, over 66% of all respondents reported clicking on the ads by Macedonian companies, which points out that this targeted advertising on social networks indeed has a strong potential for reaching the intended audience. This notion needs to be confirmed by data on the actual Click-through rates (CTR), even though the CTR can take a back seat to building brand awareness by users who just see the ads and tend to get familiar with the advertised brand name.

The low level of actual online purchases done by the Facebook users can be due to the low level of development of e-commerce in Macedonia, which also indicates low user confidence in the existing domestic e-shops. Only one percent of the respondents who clicked on the ads confided that they’ve purchased an advertised product or a service online, as compared to three percent of them who later used a brick-and-mortar shop to conduct an actual business transaction.

Assumptions and Limitations

The main limitation regards the possible bias of the sample, which included 450 self-selected respondents, a number of whom are not surveyor’s Facebook friends, so even their self-reported data such as sex could not be accessed and verified. Estimated sex ratio for this group is 48% to 52% for males and females, respectively.

The assumption for this survey is that ratio of male to female users on Facebook reflects the estimate for the general population of Macedonia of 50% each. This could not have been verified, as Facebook estimates the ratio of males to females for users of all ages (by the rule: over 13) from Macedonia to roughly 51% to 49%. This estimate is prone to errors due to using self-reported sex info as basis, and taking into account that some users do not input this data. For instance, on May 26, 2009, the official estimate by Facebook for the total number of users from Macedonia was 170,360, with 84,660 males and 83,120 females, leaving 1240 unaccounted for. Even more peculiar is that the total number for males and females from Macedonia provided by Facebook is 168,800, while the simple sum of the above numbers is 169,120, with an unexplained difference of 320.

A rough estimate of the ethnic affiliation could be made, based on personal acquaintance and used surnames, yielding a ratio of 82% of ethnic Macedonians, 4% of ethnic Albanians, and 12% of people belonging to other ethnic communities (Serbs, Croats, Turks, Vlachs, Roma, Slovenes, etc.) or whose affiliation is undeterminable at this point. This does not provide a strong correlation with the general population. According to the 2002 census, the population of Macedonia consists of 64% ethnic Macedonians, 25% ethnic Albanians, and 11% others.

Facebook does not collect data on ethnicity or native language, and it cannot be verified if the above estimates point to a kind of digital divide between ethnic communities, indicating that a larger proportion of members belonging to one of these categories use the system.

Taking all the assumptions and limitations into account, no efforts were made in order to dig deeper into the data, such as cross-indexing of gender and a particular response. Even though the sample size of 0.26% of the total population of Facebook users from Macedonia is not negligible, to segment it even further would be too ambitious for a survey of this kind.

80 years of Tintin

Brussels celebrated the 80th birthday of the comics hero Tintin two weeks ago (Jan 14 2008) by unveiling a huge mural in the Luxemburg train station. The representative of the copyright holder mentioned that one of the important values promoted by the comics is the right of young people to travel.

The photo: “official” collectible figurines with the comics’ characters I photographed on Brussels airport in March. These are some of the "moderately" priced, over EUR 200 each. There are other similar collectibles which cost three times as much, and I’ll write some more about it soon.

The First (!?) Macedonian webcomics: Vlado’s World

At last an independent Macedonian artist has started publishing a genuine webcomics [MKD].

The artist Vlado Janevski has posted several ironic-autobiographical strips on his blog, made in English:

• Introduction
  
• Important things, EU and stuff
  
• Oh - bummer with Bush
  
• Curiosity

Paris: Street Protests against Education Budget Cuts

Last Sunday the protestors filled the streets of Paris, demonstrating against the decisions of the French Government to cut the education budget, while using public money to subsidize banks, using the financial crisis as an excuse.

Numerous leftist political parties, unions and groups took part in the protest. For me as a visitor it was interesting to whiteness the diverse demographics of the participants, both in regard to gender and age. I tried to document the various message spreading techniques by this small video made with a mobile phone:

Such tools included disseminating lyrics from protest songs and slogans on paper (leaflets), groups of drummers using professional drums or plastic cans, while using balloons as effective placards was a novelty to me. Concerning logistics, the march included vans selling sandwiches to the participants, and other logistics. The walk took many kilometers, through several main Paris boulevards.

In fact, the most effective noise-making tool available to individual persons seems to be the cowbell, like those on the photo. Their sound travels very far with high quality.

Macedonia: Fighting Corruption with Online Video

In order to aid the fight against corruption, and for increasing transparency and accountability of the government, the Macedonian blogs Komunikacii and Panta Rei published several video-clips used by citizens to document abuse of power in the municipality of Centar, а constituent part of the Macedonian capital Skopje.

The clips posted on YouTube contain fragments of conversations with the municipal officials and public servants who allegedly refrained from removal of illegal buildings under their jurisdiction. This online video aspect of the "Platina" case—named after the building company—was first revealed by the Nova Makedonija daily, and was also reported by the portal Taratur.

Gamers as a media target, symptom of wider discrimination

This is sort of a follow up-prequel to the article I published on Global Voices Online:

• Macedonia: Traditional media demonize gamers
  

Regardless if a person considers oneself a gamer or not, I think they should become concerned by the pattern of discrimination labeling group by group as abnormal, wasteful, and dangerous even. And this does not concern the various breeds of geeks only, it’s not just about technophobia. As Umberto Eco points out in his essay “Eternal Fascism,” the nascent forms of such movements incite the fear of difference.

Articles inciting fear of a minority can incite real problems for its members (“What does he do in his spare time? Playing DotA or Counter Strike? How can I employ this guy, he can go postal any minute.”), but seem to fit into divide and rule tactics used against the society as a whole. Instead of becoming united, Macedonian society becomes segmented into ever smaller, isolated groups which can be easily branded as freaks and dealt with as part of some final solution scheme.

Considering all of the above, I dared to paraphrase the antifascist quote by the German pastor Martin Niemoeller:

“First they came for the hackers,
but I was not a hacker so I did not speak out.
Then they came for the pirates, forgetting that Jesus said:
“He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone”,
but I did not resell other people’s software, so I did not speak out.
Then they came for the gamers,
but I did not consider myself a gamer so I did not speak out.
And when they came to hunt the bloggers down,
there was no one left to speak out for me.”

Does this make sense to you? If yes, help raising awareness by digging the article, or join the discussions (in Macedonian) on Kajmakot or Blogeraj.

Blog about the poetry of Jovan Koteski launched

A blog dedicated to the poetry of Jovan Koteski (1932-2001), containing his complete published works and personal archives was released this week by his daughter. The famous Macedonian poet has suffered decades of "Kafikian" persecution and surveillance by the former communist regime. Entire content of the blog is free to use for noncommercial purposes on condition of attribution.

Macedonia: Greek Pacifists' Visit

Anastas Vangeli posted his impressions of the anti-nationalistic and anti-militaristic Greek-Macedonian Dialogue which took place last Saturday - in Macedonian and English. The participants were branded as traitors in the Greek media, and the Metropolitan of the Greek Orthodox Church put an anathema on them in his Sunday sermon.

(First published by Global Voices Online)

Macedonia: Bloggers Emphasize Need for Open Communication with Greece

by Filip Stojanovski for Global Voices Online (15.05.2008).

Amid the internal turmoil caused by Greek actions to block Macedonia's accession to NATO and the EU, and due to an increasing number of reports of attacks over Macedonian truck drivers (official reaction) by nationalist mobs in Greece, many Macedonian bloggers are attempting to bridge the gap of ignorance existing between the two nations. On the one hand, they've identified the need to pass information about Macedonians to Greeks, and, on the other hand, some have taken to the task to share information from Greek media with fellow Macedonians.

Many bloggers reacted to a statement by Greek Foreign Minister that even mentioning the existence of Macedonian language and ethnicity is “not helpful” to solving the name issue, perceiving it as continuation of the policy of ethnocide. Zharko Trajanovski, referred to the related U.S. Dept. of State Briefing, extracting the most interesting parts (MKD).

In the same vein, dozens of bloggers promoted the video of the song “Postojam” (”I Exist”), by embedding it in their own posts and even reposting copies of it on YouTube. The video features scenes from documentary films about the ethnic cleansing of Macedonians during the Greek Civil War of 1946-49, accompanied with humanistic lyrics: “I exist… All is forgiven: even your wish for me to be no more.”

The author of the blog Agness wrote (MKD):

Since its official release, the video of the single “Postojam” by the pop rock singer Miyatta received wide media coverage and it is a topic of discussion among the Macedonian population all around the world. Interest for the English translation of the lyrics and releasing it abroad has also been shown. Regardless of the context, the video has become something worth a comment. Those who were familiar with that part of Macedonia's history congratulated Miyatta for delivering this audio-visual expression. Those who see such pictures for the first time, think that it is too painful to be true. Some believe that this is just an attempt at attention-seeking. All kinds of positive and negative comments are yet to be heard. I am happy that the number of people who were indifferent towards “Postojam” is rather small.

Images of sorrow and exile on the one hand, and images of unity and pride on the other make for a rather authentic representation of Macedonia.

The past is not to be revived, but to be outgrown.
Let us outgrow it, but first,
Let us know it!
Macedonia exists.

In the other direction, the blog Drugarche posted translations of articles from the Greek press, including cartoons [MKD]. A number of bloggers also praised the interview of the Macedonian director Milcho Manchevski [GRE], given to the Greek newspaper Eleftherotypia, and posted links to its English translations. Some offered more historical information from ancient books [MKD] and Western newspaper archives [MKD], as well as about the possible origins of the Greek flag.

But, most importantly, blogs have proved to be the primary vehicle for distributing information on grassroots peace-building. The news about the upcoming visit of about 50 Greek peace activists to Skopje scheduled for May 17, 2008, appeared [MKD] on the influential Vuna blog first:

This is not an attempt to stoke fires of the Macedonian nationalist sentiments. This is not a call to stone embassies, supermarkets or whatever.

On the contrary, this is a call to participate in an event intended as opposition to all the madness. Greek citizens are first and foremost human beings, and most of them have nothing to do with their retrograde and fascizoid state policy, nor with the hordes of morons who harass people on the highways. At the same time, not all Macedonian citizens are hotheads who “hate every Greek thing” and can't wait to throw stones on the Liaison office.

[…]

Peace, love, empathy!

Macedonia: Sakura - Cherry Blossom Celebration in Skopje

by Filip Stojanovski for Global Voices Online (May 6, 2008)

Even though very few ethnic Japanese live in the Republic of Macedonia, many locals took part in the second annual celebration of Sakura - the festival of cherry blossoms in Macedonia's capital, Skopje. Organizers of the festivals included martial arts dojos and some prominent bloggers who recently started a collaborative blog, Japan@mk [MKD], and initiated spreading the word through the Macedonian blogosphere.

The festival took place on April 12, on a street lined with Japanese cherry trees in full bloom, next to Skopje's main square. The program consisted of martial arts demonstrations, reciting of haiku in Macedonian language, accompanied by music played on Japanese flute, making of origami, writing the names of participants in Japanese calligraphy, and tasting healthy products made of Japanese fungi.

Thanks to the social networking within the community, dozens of bloggers used the event to socialize, including several who came from other cities. Some of them, like Bi, Volan, Strumjan, and neW1, posted extensive photo-galleries afterwards, while others wrote posts with most favorable impressions. Nadezna and HibernusCorvus, posted their reasons why they didn't attend.

Members of Samurai Dojo in action. Photo by Volan.

Bi, one of the organizers and an Iaidō practitioner, wrote [MKD] about her insider experience:

The origami were quite successful, and were done in three booths… [for samurai hats, cranes, and cats]. The kids were very happy, and many of them took their samurai hats to Nahomi [Japanese lady who did calligraphy] to write their names in Japanese.

Nahomi got genuine Macedonian experience because the audience did not allow her to catch her breath. They crowded around her, handing papers under her nose to write their names in Japanese, without any order. They even overturned her ink. She was confused because the people could not form a line, but accepted all requests with grace and impeccable manners…

The haiku turned out great, and the three guests read poetry by classic Japanese masters and by Macedonian poets. Some in the audience turned a deaf ear on this, and complained of boredom… Other audience members provided an unpleasant experience of rude curiosity, by grabbing and even drawing the swords and the bokken from the participants' hands…

I hope next year we'll have an even more interesting and more beautiful program, with more elements, and the city will help with more than just providing space, and the consulate will provide more than just moral support. We had great time anyway, even when the uncultured mishaps mentioned above are taken into account :)

[…]