Social Media has made the world a smaller place. Despite often being thousands of miles apart, expats are able to keep in touch with loved ones easier than ever before. When Social Media first hit the market a few years ago, many believed that social media was just another fad and would eventually die out, yet social platforms such as Facebook and Twitter have clearly established themselves as key communication channels of the twenty first century.

These Social Media platforms have had an enormous impact on the global mobility industry and changed the face of relocation, especially international assignments. Expats have often been amongst the earliest and most active users of new communication tools in the attempted bid to reduce the distance between their families and friends.

A recent survey of 3,000 expats from across the globe demonstrated the true importance of social media to those on assignment. The research, conducted by HSBC, highlighted that whilst email is still the most popular way for expats to stay in touch with friends and family, modern communication tools such as Facebook and Skype have become indispensable for keeping up with all the news from home and sharing the news from host.

52% of participants said they used email twice a week or more to catch up with loved ones, 39% stated that they used Facebook the same amount, while 36% relied primarily on the voice and video calls via Skype and various phone applications such as Viber .

This trend is robust across the world and social media is particularly popular with expats. The most popular channel is Facebook used by nearly 7 in 10 expats surveyed, with 52% using it at least once a week or more. This was closely followed by career networking site LinkedIn, of which 40% of expats said they were members. Although micro blogging site Twitter has seen enormous growth and currently has around a 70 million-strong user base, only 14% of expats confirmed their usage.

The survey also confirmed the demise of traditional communication methods, such as landline telephone calls and letter writing (sometimes jokingly referred to as ‘snail mail’), with the main reason being that "new technologies are cheaper to use" and time can be cut down. Cost has become a huge influence in the use of social media by expats, as those earning higher incomes are less likely to use Social Media to get in touch with friends and family on a regular basis, preferring to call or text instead. 50% of expats earning less than $60,000 use Facebook at least twice a week to contact friends or family, while only 28% of those earning over $250,000 do the same.

Facebook penetration among expats is fairly consistent in all regions, even in locations where Facebook has a low volume of users, suggesting that expats continue to use channels they are familiar with from their home country.

Additional research conduct by Skype found that 50% of people are more willing to move abroad than they would have been in the past, largely because technology has made the transition and staying in contact easier.

Negatives

The Hydrogen Group, a Global Recruitment firm, recently released their Global Professionals on the Move Report which was cited by the IESE Business School blog on one particular question: "Do employees on International Assignment use Social Media to get over home sickness?" 37% answered "definitely yes" as opposed to only 3% who said "definitely no". However it could be noted that sites such as Facebook could pose potential detriment to the settling in process, as it can keep some expats tethered to the people and communities they left behind. This can be especially difficult for teenagers who have built up a tight circle of friends in the home country, as they are provided a regular update of how great life is back at home through a collection of photos, videos and ‘status updates’.

What does the future hold?

Greater Integration - The future of Social Media has been forecast in becoming so ubiquitous in everything we do that we stop using the term 'Social Media'. Just about everything is more interesting when you start to realize how your friends are connected to it: who's been here, who is going where, who has experienced what, who is watching / listening to / reading what. Early adopters are already taking advantage of this. Even promotion and ticket selling giant TicketMaster recently completed a huge Facebook integration, which will tell your friends you booked tickets to an event, where you will be sitting, and if any of your friends are going and where they will be sitting. Another example lies in the app Foursquare (more popular in the US) which enables individuals to locate which restaurants or bars friends may be frequenting.

Media Incorporation – 2011 has been the year that saw media establishments jumping on the social media bandwagon with hash tags (#) and public discussions being generated via Facebook pages. In 2012, social media is forecast to continue domination and become an integral part of television. Viewers will continue to use new enhanced technology to share and react to what they're watching; from real time alerts as news is breaking to immediate feedback.

Social Dashboards - Twitter and other major social networks will merge increasingly to form what has been coined "Social Dashboards". In essence, Facebook and Twitter are social channels on which other companies can grow and develop their own technologies and businesses. Both Facebook and Twitter have created economies far larger than many nations.

Smarter – It is expected that social media will shortly start to integrate into traditionally "private" activities such as banking. Shopping is already being tested in the US.

Multiple Platforms– Facebook contains a vast amount of information about various connections such as contact details, as well as photos and conversations. Currently this information is "held captive" by Facebook. Continued and growing pressure on Facebook to make this portable has meant that they are investing in making this possible in the future. However, does the implementation of multiple platforms result in the death of social media?

The whole World in your Hands –Stating that the future of social media belongs to the mobile phone will come as no surprise to most. OFCOM’s Communications Market Overview report last year announced that 74% of handsets sold as part of pay monthly contracts were smartphones and, each time we get to the end of our contract, we inevitably move up to the next generation of handset. This endless sequence of upgrades is driving the increased use of the mobile internet too – at the end of last year, nVision Research told us that 27% of the UK population were using the mobile web at least once a month. By 2015 this will increase to 53% and will top 70% among the under-35s. The ability to be always connected to the web will only increase usership of social media.

Growth of Video Calls - Earlier this year Skype stated that Skype users are averaging 300 million minutes per month of video calling. Video calling is something that is going to see huge growth with the help of Facebook, who have since announced that they will be integrating video calling into the platform.

Virtual Orientation Tours - The ability to keep up to date easily and cheaply with loved ones at home is just one of the attractions bringing expats to Social Media. Access to a world in another country can also be useful in helping expats to ‘settle in’ to their new homes. The internet has become a fundamental research tool helping to ease overseas moves. Besides the obvious sites like Facebook and Twitter, there are lots of social networking sites expats and future expats can take advantage of. With an increased ability of 3D mapping and HD videos, expats will soon be able to comprehensively visit a location without even leaving their desk – which leads us to wonder: "How will this impact the requirements of pre-move visits prior to relocation?" Virtual tours can manage some of the expectations, but do not replace the actual experience of visiting where one can look, see, feel and smell the new location.

Role of the Relocation Management Company – We have been privy to interesting findings from Worldwide ERC in Spring 2011 regarding the preferred communication methods between expats and Relocation Management Companies:

· 85% of expats prefer email

· 84% prefer to speak on the telephone

· ONLY 8% use websites and through this only 4% use instant messaging

· Interestingly only a tiny 1% use social networking.

59% of survey respondents use the telephone as the primary means of communicating with their Relocation Management Company, whilst only 39% use email. The growth of global Skype usage will no doubt lead to a growth of Face to Face video calling between Relocation Management Companies. This will lead to an increase in services delivery to expats and may also strengthen the relationship between relocation consultants and assignees.

The majority of Relocation Management Company websites are generally aimed at selling services and not supporting the assignees, and so it is no surprise that websites rank so low. Greater emphasis needs to be placed on supporting phones calls and emails with the likes of websites and forums, in order to support the other channels available.