Harvesting the social media goldmine

Social media is evolving from a playground for fluffy campaigns to a ROI-generating platform. Joyce Yip takes a look at what social media means for businesses such as Nike, Ocean Park, 7-Eleven and Compass Visa.

At a time when advertising dollars consumed almost 90% of Facebook’s US$1.81 billion revenue in the second quarter of 2013, and after WeChat surpassed its 100 millionth registered user account after only two years of operation, it would not only be a pity, but outright crazy for a brand to neglect social media in its advertising strategy.

While Hong Kong is already accustomed to seeing social media platforms as places for virtual photo contests, lucky draws and guessing games, social media for commerce has yet to be fully harvested.

According to a May report by admanGo, only 28% of 8000-plus advertisers on traditional media have embarked on Facebook’s Premium Ads, which appear within newsfeeds and on the desktop sidebar; and a mere 5% have tried both Premium Ads as well as another option that offers only space on the desktop sidebar.

Despite the slow progress in Hong Kong, it’s safe to say marketers across most industries are dipping their feet into the social media pool, but with varying – sometimes confl icting – intentions and expectations for how it will fi t into their overall advertising strategy.

Social media for commerce, however, is not a new concept. Twitter in the States, for example, launches promoted tweets that target users based on keywords from their posts as well as through custom audience targeting – whereby brands reach existing customers who are also Twitter users by sharing their email database or website browser-related information with the social media platform.

Facebook’s ultimate strategy is not just to help you find a lot of people, but the right people.

Jayne Yeung, Facebook director of North Asia

Facebook Hong Kong – which has a penetration rate of 90-plus % – on the other hand, offers 27 types of ad products: the more familiar ones include Page Like Ads (where the page of the brand shows up as an advertisement); Mobile App Install Ad (which prompts app downloads); and, more commonly, Page Post Ads (which turns a post into an ad and is perhaps better known for pushes such as “Friend X likes Brand X’s page”).

In the past few months, it has also recently caught on with the hashtag function inherited from Instagram and Twitter. According to Facebook director of North Asia Jayne Leung, the social media platform in the region is pending upcoming features such as Verified Pages, whereby a blue check mark appears beside corporate pages who have confirmed their identity; it also has potential to grow in f-commerce, where brands link their product catalogue – along with price tags and “Buy Now” buttons – to their own e-commerce sites.

“Facebook is more than just social media: it’s no longer about fan numbers, but about business metrics,” Leung says. “Clicks don’t necessarily have a correlation with ROI and business, we all know that, so Facebook’s ultimate strategy is not just to help you fi nd a lot of people, but the right people.”

Currently, the Mark Zuckerberg empire connects brands with audiences through demographics, interest (derived through the pages users “liked”) and custom audience, which is similar to Twitter’s custom audience targeting.

According to the latest Nielsen Online Campaign Ratings measured from August 2011 to December 2012, Facebook averages an 89% accuracy when targeting specifi c demographic segments.

“The advantage Facebook has is that users generally reveal real identities, real photos and real information, meaning that brands’ customers will be among us one way or another.”

Another social media platform that is growing teeth is WeChat, which had its 100 millionth registered user account milestone last month after it announced version 5.0 – a new edition that boasts monetised features such as a game centre, sticker shop, mobile payments and barcode scanning for e-commerce transactions.

Although it didn’t reveal the number of existing corporate accounts, the likes of McDonald’s, Nike, NBA, Budweiser, AVIS, BMW and Montblanc – to name but a few – are already active users on the two-year-old platform.

Leveraging on direct and private communication, WeChat’s winning edge lies in its potential for social CRM, says director of Social@Ogilvy for Asia Pacifi c, Thomas Crampton, who adds these tools are gaining traction faster than traditional social media platforms.

“Facebook set the foundation for social media communication, which is now leaking into new ground. These new ways to connect – a new style of private networking, almost – are actually intercepting social media,” he says.

“With a SMS-like mobile platform, brands can connect with fans on a more intimate level by doing social CRM. That’s where the newest phase of social media lies.”

Such examples include Durex’s WeChat account, which offers a wingman service for struggling guys; or China Southern Airlines, which lets passengers check in directly on the app.

“Social media for business is only at the very beginning stage: it’s something that will, for sure, expand. Truthfully, it started as something that was superficial, experimental and artifi cial, and look where it is now,” he says.

Leung chimes in agreement, adding that, like Crampton, education takes up the bulk of her job and likens the social-media learning curve to how the fi rst TV ad saw a broadcaster reading directly off a transcript – a habit back when radio was the most prominent medium.

“Facebook is at that stage; social media is at that stage and everyone’s speed of learning and use of this new space is going to be different.”

And just how different do Leung and Crampton mean? We picked the brains of four different industries to learn of their defi nition of social media for business.

FMCG/7-Eleven: “Social media retargeting is not something we usually use.”

For 7-Eleven’s sales and marketing director Rose Yeung, Facebook is about more than interaction; rather, it’s a prediction tool for the campaign or premium’s popularity so her outlets can make corresponding adjustments, such as stock numbers, for example.

Despite using the platform, she’s not a hardcore believer in advertising in social media and retargeting.

“Our store network is very accessible, so we don’t need in-depth coverage and information on the internet because people rarely actively search for 7-Eleven,” she says.

“As a result, retargeting is not something we usually use in our strategy.”

Banking/Compass Visa: “Our relationship with e-commerce started in order to cut costs.”

In what began as a cost-saving e-commerce strategy, Facebook eventually became the second marketing checkpoint for Bernard Chan, head of Hutchison DBS Card, who just popped a champagne cork after Compass Visa celebrated 100,000 Facebook fans.

Having joined the Zuckerberg empire in early 2010, the credit card company didn’t fully dedicate itself to the Sponsored Ads bandwagon until late last year.

The tipping point, Chan says, was a solid Facebook fan base of 50,000.

“To be honest, a lot of marketers develop e-marketing strategies to cut costs because it’s a platform that requires a lot of manpower and attention, but not a lot of money compared to traditional media,” he says, adding that a half-year advertising budget on Facebook can only pay for a one month online banner placement, which has a much less-targeted reach.

“But since our campaigns only have a direct effect on people who own a Compass Visa card, we have to ensure we have a big enough fan base – who are mostly our clients – to justify putting more money in Facebook advertising.”

And it’s only with a solid fan base will Sponsored Ads hit two birds with one stone: one is to encourage participation from existing clients; and two, recruit more card members after seeing the brand’s “fun and active online pushes” via these ads, which currently include its CSR efforts (which are interactive campaigns that allow fans to choose which NGO to cast their donations); and a mobile shopping event named Happy Friday.

When asked about the potential use of WeChat, Chan says he and his team are looking to expand into other social media platforms, but is taken back by the substantial effort needed in both start-up and maintenance.

“Things like WeChat require a lot of work, mainly because it requires a mailing list of some sort. In terms of Twitter and micro blogs, our product isn’t really that spectacular, so there are limited things to talk and blog about on a regular basis. But we’re trying.

“At the end of the day, it’s all about awareness, which is especially crucial in Hong Kong, where people have more than one credit card. Our job is to ensure they don’t forget about us.”

Tourism/Ocean Park: “Each platform needs to tell a story.”

Riding on its summer event that ended in August, Ocean Park extended its social media reach from Facebook-exclusive (which started mid-2009) to include Instagram in preparation for its largest annual event: Halloween. The
delay in extending its online presence lies in the challenge of learning varying behaviour and inventing a new positioning for every platform.

“Each outlet needs to tell a story – so while Facebook is our core platform for engagement, Instagram can bond with our fans in a more emotional and visual way, which is good for an event like Halloween because we have countless photo-ops then,” says Vivian Lee, Ocean Park’s marketing director.

“When netizens follow a brand on social media, they have a set of expectations, so we really need to be careful on how we affect their emotions on every one of these channels.”

Currently, the amusement park puts discount offers and similar large-scale promotions on Facebook’s Sponsored Ads to drive visitor numbers and boost engagement.

“In the beginning, Facebook was a medium to spread messages and recruit a fan base, but after a while, the number of ‘Likes’ no longer matters, it’s about engagement,” Lee says. “So the problem becomes how to share your material, whether on your page or as an ad: it can’t be too commercial; it needs to be
interesting, engaging and speaks to users like they’re your friend. Success is not measured by how many people click on it, but how many share it.”

Sport/fashion – Nike: “With WeChat, we can bring consumers offline.”

Nike, which already operates on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest, jumped on WeChat early in July to debut its “We Own the Night” campaign and in a move to be “the most connected brand on social”, says Nike’s brand communication
manager Jade Lau.

“On Facebook, we are like an ambassador, so our messages are more inspirational,” she says. “The messages on WeChat, however, are more personalised and tailor-made according to the users’ response.”

For the campaign, fans who followed the Tencent account, can get updates on the programmes in Hong Kong; upload their photos of the event, add tailor-made effects and have them printed at three of Nike’s selected stores.

“We can listen and respond on WeChat. We can provide more personal services like special enrollment on specific events, a photo-filter engine and photo-sharing. More importantly, we can also bring the consumers offline.”