Buzzmedia

Following up from last month’s post on social media predictions, this time around I asked my friends in major brands and agencies to contribute their insights. The contributors to this article are:

1. James Yeang, Product Marketing Manager at DiGi Communications
2. Cynthia Seow, Senior Manager of New Media at Packet One Networks
3. Derek Tan, Social Media Specialist at AirAsia
4. Biresh Vrajlal, PR & Marcom Manager at Tune Hotels
5. Cheah Hsu Jen, Senior Marketing Executive at New Zealand Natural Malaysia
6. Rachel Foong, New Media Executive at Sunway University College
7. Niki Cheong, Journalist at The Star
8. Karen Hoh, Managing Director at Edelman Malaysia
9. David Lian, Social Media Strategist at Text100 Malaysia
10. Gan Mei Lian, Client Service Director at Euro RSCG Malaysia
11. Nizwani Shahar, Associate Brand Director at McCann Erickson Malaysia
12. Alex Lam, Managing Director at Integricity

Disclaimer: The views expressed by the above are their personal views and do not necessarily reflect the views of their employer or clients.

Executive Summary

Here are the social media trends and insights for Malaysia that I extracted from their responses.

• Malaysian brands are relatively immature with regards to social media. While there has been an increase in participation recently, many are doing so for the sake of jumping on the bandwagon. Majority of the respondents agree that social media maturity will require more time. Takeaway – brands have an opportunity to crush it if they can get ahead of the curve of their competitors.
• There are many challenges facing brands in social media (strategy, expertise, perceived loss of control, etc) are causing brands to be very cautious. For the front-liners, the challenge is educating management and being able to engage and be transparent. Takeaway – many of the stumbling blocks are caused by lack of experience, therefore it’s extremely important to jump in and learn by doing.
• 100% of the respondents are planning to increase investment in social media. From the tone I guess that some may give social media a bigger slice of the marketing budget moving forward. Takeaway – be sure to measure and track results from campaigns to justify the investment in the channel.
• Facebook and Twitter rule.. but brands are cautious and cognizant of the fact that the next big thing are right around the corner. Takeaway – don’t put all your eggs in the Facebook and Twitter basket.

Soundbites

Below are the questions I posed to the contributors, with some highlighted responses. You can view the complete responses at this Google Spreadsheet. [click to continue…]

Tagged as: brands, Malaysia, social media, trends

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