Brands are placing a greater emphasis on social media in their content marketing strategies, according to the second annual Marketing Monitor study published by consultancy enterprise TNS. The report found that 92 per cent of publishers in the Asia Pacific are now using social networks and that platforms such as Facebook and Twitter are driving 360-degree engagement with customers.
The latest marketing study analysed 11 countries, including Australia, China, Japan and South Korea, in July 2016. The biggest takeaway is the emergence of social media monitoring as a cornerstone for informing marketing planning and key decisions. It was also the top metric for campaign analytics and performance information.
Mass adoption of social
Enterprises have traditionally favoured a multi-faceted analytics approach for marketing, but the TNS report shows that social media is now overtaking many traditional metrics and is more important than information gleaned from media agencies and competition analysis for planning.
TNS’ APAC Digital Director, Zoë Lawrence, said that the growing uptake of social has given marketers more ways to find relevant sources for managing and monitoring marketing activities. She added: “As the digital ecosystem evolves, we will continue to identify new ways to build insights. However, whatever the metric used, it’s important to ensure marketers are monitoring the indicators that contribute to sales.”
Managing customer relationships
The report also shines a light on how exactly brands are using social media to engage with customers. Customer relationship management is the number one priority for marketing departments in 2016, and 46 per cent are now using social channels to broaden their brand reach, while 43 per cent are optimising their customer service offerings. Marketers are also embracing social to deliver insights for product development (36 per cent), mine for customer intelligence (27 per cent), amplify other marketing activities (37 per cent) and drive sales (38 per cent).
While brands are getting better are delivering a high-quality experience for the customer and end-users, marketers could still improve their collaboration efforts. Just 16 per cent are working closely with their insights team, though this rises to 39 per cent and 46 per cent for business development teams and communication service teams respectively.
