It’s a pretty-much well proven fact that the world has changed and marketers must focus on where their audiences are interacting and work to influence them within that environment – yes?
The stats tell the story…
- Nearly 80% of Internet users conduct product research online
- There are more than 10 billion online searches a month
- 50% of Internet users read blogs
- 64% of Facebook users are fans of at least one company
- 70% of links clicked are organic – i.e. not paid
- Companies that blog get 55% more Website visitors
- 57% of businesses have acquired a customer through their company blog
This week HubSpot released an ebook – ’62 Social Media Tips From Around the World’ (you can get it here) which highlights popular channels and trends in markets across the world, but for Asia Pacific they focused on four – Australia, China, India and Japan. It would obviously be great to see this information for every country in Asia Pacific, but the four markets are interesting never-the-less – including the sort of information that resonates. In Brazil it’s all about video, whereas in India, they love photos and games. Therefore we must know our audience, what’s appropriate, what’s not and it is definitely much more than just translating content – as you can see in this blog on marketing to the billion+ Muslims in Asia.
Here’s a snap shot of HubSpots findings:
Australia 
- Top social networks – Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter
- Focus on endorsements as 71% of Aussies “read other consumers opinions and discussions about brands online”
- 24% of Aussies use social media to make purchasing decisions, and don’t forget to optimize for mobile as 26% are on mobile devices (although that isn’t as high as the rest of the region)
- Post at night – and remember time zones – as one in five Australians are online between 6-10pm
- But know what makes them tick – Australians are quick to cease engagement if you get it wrong
China 
- Top social networks – Qzone, Tencent Weibo and Sina Weibo – China is not a country that welcomes non-Chinese social media platforms
- Encourage user-generated content – “Chinese users are three times more likely than Americans to make a purchasing decision based on user-generated content on social networks, such as blog posts or comments”
- I’d add, work hard to understand what is politically and socially acceptable
India 
- Top social networks – Facebook, LinkedIn and Orkut
- Night-time is primetime, between 6-10pm
- Indians love games, apps and photos – so leverage this trend in your marketing outreach
- “Together Facebook and Orkut cater to about 90% of Indian social media users”
Japan 
- Top social networks – Facebook, Twitter and Mixi
- Interestingly, it wasn’t until after the earthquake in March 2011 that Facebook and Twitter started to really gain a foothold in Japan – with Mixi dominant before this – and even though penetration is currently low (10%), both are growing rapidly
- The Japanese use Yahoo rather than Google+, so it’s not recommended as a priority for this market
By comparison, here are some highlights from the US – trends I believe many businesses in Asia will seek to follow, because that is what usually happens here:
- Top social networks – Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn
- Use YouTube to entertain and engage your audience – also great for SEO as it’s owned by Google
- LinkedIn is better for B2B, while Facebook and Twitter are better for B2C
- Post content to G+ for SEO
- Engage on Quora – “browse questions to identify needs and answer them to position your company as an industry thought leader.” If you haven’t done it yet, I do recommend getting on Quora and having a play around with it. I’ve only managed to answer one question – regarding a cure for a hang-over – but ended up getting pummelled because people thought I was encouraging drinking, sigh. I just recommended milk thistle before and after!
It would be great to get this information for all of Asia, but it’s good knowledge to keep in mind. Today we have to plan more strategically on how to approach each market based on where the audiences are, and design our tactics around how content is consumed.
Any other recommendations/advice for the major growth markets in South East Asia – Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam and the Philippines?
Alternatively, are you seeing something different working in these four highlighted markets?
Cheers
Andrea