SOCIAL
The UK’s worst Internet-connected regions

Anything connected to the internet — from smartphones to power plant controllers — can be manipulated. — Photo: © DJC
Despite the advances with fibre optic cables and the roll-out of so-called superfast broadband, many rural areas suffer with poor Internet activity. This is a multi-country problem and the issue affects the U.K., as an example. In the U.K. the aim is for gigabit-capable broadband, made available to all. This means download speeds of at least 1 gigabit-per-second. As things stand, this remains a little way from realisation.
In the U.K., the most poorly served areas for an Internet connection are:
- Tees Valley and Durham are the least Internet-connected regions.
- Lincolnshire and Merseyside come in second and third respectively.
- Southern Scotland and Cornwall also make the list.
The findings have bene put together by Convertr.org based on regional data compiled by the U.K. Office for National Statistics (ONS).
With the area with the weakest connectivity, Tees Valley and Durham sees only 87 percent of residents using the Internet in the last three months. This is nearly ten percentage points lower than areas like Surrey, South London, and Berkshire.
In early 2021, it was announced by the government that 40,000 homes in the Tees Valley would receive upgraded speeds – up to a gigabit connection for some. This was to be realised through the government’s £5 billion ‘Project Gigabit’ scheme. It remains to be seen if this will deliver.
Lincolnshire comes in second, with only 87.6 percent of residents using the Internet in the last three months. Lincolnshire’s statistics sits at nearly three percentage points lower than other East Midlands regions like Derbyshire and Leicestershire, and almost five percentage points lower than the UK average of 92 percent.
Merseyside is in a very close third place, with 87.7 percent of residents using the Internet in the last three months. Liverpool was the area in the region which was the least connected, with only 84 percent of Liverpool residents regularly using the Internet.
The areas most greatly impacted are:
Region | Percentage of people who used Internet in last 3 months |
Tees Valley and Durham | 87 |
Lincolnshire | 87.6 |
Merseyside | 87.7 |
Southern Scotland | 88.7 |
Shropshire and Staffordshire | 89 |
West Wales and The Valleys | 89.1 |
Highlands and Islands | 89.5 |
East Yorkshire and Northern Lincolnshire | 89.5 |
Northumberland and Tyne and Wear | 89.9 |
Cornwall and Isles of Scilly | 90 |
Such tables demonstrate why the government needs to accelerate the provision of digital services. Commenting on the findings, a spokesperson from Convertr.org explained to Digital Journal: “With the majority of all regions browsing the web daily, certain people still go months without using it, and it’s clear there is a stark contrast in the quality of broadband in the UK. The government spending billions on superfast speeds shows that there is an incentive to connect the UK through the Internet, and it will be interesting to see how these statistics change throughout the 2020s.”
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SOCIAL
How to Successfully Use Social Media: A Small Business Guide for Beginners [Infographic]
![How to Successfully Use Social Media: A Small Business Guide for Beginners [Infographic]](https://articles.entireweb.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/1675842944_How-to-Successfully-Use-Social-Media-A-Small-Business-Guide.jpg)
Are you a small business owner or marketing manager, just getting started on building your social media strategy? Need to learn the basics before launching your first social media campaign?
In this infographic, Sprout Social shares social media tips broken down as follows:
- Who uses social media?
- What does social media do for you?
- Define your goals
- Targeting your audience
- Choosing a platform
- Social media metrics
Check out the infographic below to learn more.
How to Successfully Use Social Media: A Small Business Guide for Beginners
Sprout Social
SOCIAL
Moore Digital Names Two Executives To Serve Nonprofit Fundraisers 02/07/2023

Moore Digital, which assists nonprofit clients with fundraising, has named Adva Priso as chief strategy officer and Bonnie Huey as senior vice president of
digital media.
They are joining a team of “more than 70 top digital experts from across the for-profit and nonprofit industries, including strategists,
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SOCIAL
Pinterest Now up to 450 Million Active Users, Posts Solid Numbers in Latest Performance Report

Pinterest has posted its Q4 and full-year earnings for 2022, showing steady increases in both users and revenue, as it continues to build out its various offerings.
First off, on users, Pinterest added five million more active users – most of them coming from Europe – within the final measurement period of last year.
That’s a good sign for Pinterest, which actually lost users in early 2021, after the COVID-induced boom in eCommerce activity of the previous year, which saw the platform post record high usage numbers.
Many analysts and businesses seemed convinced that the COVID boost to online shopping would hold, even after the pandemic ended. That lead to companies like Meta, Google, Amazon and Twitter investing big into commerce solutions – but many of the staff they put on were eventually culled in the most recent round of lay-offs, because once physical stores re-opened, people actually did go back to shopping as normal, as opposed to continuing to rely on online options.
Pinterest felt that the most, but now, it’s steadily building back up again, as it continues to refine its solutions around evolving shopping behaviors. Which includes video content.
Pinterest’s big winner on this front has been Idea Pins, its Stories-like option which presents uploaded video in a swipeable, full-screen display.

The emphasis on this format has helped boost the platform’s appeal with younger audiences, with Pinterest reporting that Gen Z was the fastest-growing demographic on the platform, increasing double digits year over year.
“Gen Z sessions grew much faster year over year than sessions from older demographics, while nearly half of all new videos pinned in Q4 were from Gen Z users.”
Pinterest also says that sessions continued to grow faster than MAUs, an indicator that it’s driving better engagement overall, while it also increased its overall video supply by 30%, another marker of the popularity of Idea Pins.
Because you can’t post video as a native pin anymore, only in Idea Pins (or paid ads), underlining the focus on the format, and Pinterest’s evolving usage.
On the revenue front, Pinterest posted a 4% year-over-year increase, after bringing in $877 million Q4.

As you can see in this chart, Pinterest’s revenue is climbing steadily, though its revenue splits remain concerning:

Or maybe you see this as an opportunity, with Pinterest still able to potentially eek out a lot more revenue from regions outside of the North American market. Definitely, it’s got some work to do in that ‘Rest of World’ bracket.
But Pinterest is still developing, and is still expanding its ad and business offerings into new regions. So there is, indeed, potential there – yet the size of the gap here is a concern.
Still, there is growth, slowly but surely, and maybe, if you’re a believer, you can see more ways for Pinterest to generate much bigger revenues moving forward.
Pinterest remains focused on shopping, and highlighting relevant products to users, with its ever-evolving recommendation engine providing better content matches to more users every day. It’s also investing in live-stream shopping, a trend that all platforms hope will catch on in western markets, while it’s developing more presentation tools for Idea Pins to capitalize on that engagement.
In combination, these approaches are working – but at the same time, usage growth in your local market may have stalled, going on these charts.
And of course, while overall growth is interesting, what marketers want to know is whether their customers are there.
For this, you can use Pinterest Trends, which enables you to search for the most popular Pin trends by region.

Tap into these with Idea Pins and you’ll likely be on the right path, based on these latest insights from the app.
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