Digital media analysts Brian Solis and Vincenzo Cosenza offer us the fruits of their expertise in “The State of Social Media Around the World 2010,” a new look at the social media world rife with colorful new conversation prisms that divvy up the world into geographic markets and examines which social networks have achieved hegemony and which exhibit insurrectionist tendencies.

For those of us who love looking at maps and poring through atlases, Solis’s and Consenza’s work is a welcome approach to social media analytics.

While Facebook hegemony – dominant in 100 out of 127 countries measured and boasting 400 million active users – may come as no surprise, the sheer volume of China’s QQ, with 300 million active users should raise eyebrows. And then there’s the curious case of Orkut’s continued success in Brazil.

But perhaps the most patent observation to be drawn is that the old Iron Curtain still stands. A quick look at Vincenzo Cosenza’s World Map of Social Networks (which Solis relies on heavily here) tells you that Facebook dominates the old Capitalist Block, while the former Soviet sphere of influence and China have opted for their own homegrown networks. Just a question of linguistics (alphabets and ideograms stick together)? Or “the more things change, the more they stay the same”?

To show how scattered the social network leader board is, Solis breaks down the following:

In other parts of the world, social networks that might not have registered previously among leading experts, emerge as candidates when location and society prove paramount in highly targeted, culturally-aware programs.

For example, Google’s Orkut is Brazil’s top social network.

Hi5 is leading in Mexico, Peru, Portugal, Romania, Thailand and Mongolia.

In the Czech Republic, Lide is the network of choice.

Maktoob is the social hub in Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Yemen.

South Korea is focusing its dialogue and connections in Cyworld.

Social networking in Guadeloupe and Martinque is concentrated at Skyrock.

Mixi is the leading central station for social activity in Japan.