Social Media Predictions for Brands in Malaysia

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.

How far along are brands in social media maturity? Will 2010 see many brands who are still unconvinced, or will we see more becoming comfortable with social media?

James: I personally think it’s oversold and overhyped. Too many brands want to hop on the bandwagon JUST because it’s facebook or twitter or blogs, and they pay an agency TONS of money to manage them. What they should be thinking about is connecting with their customers.  Pick a few platforms, or even ONE platform, and just do it well.  If the agency does all the work, and they are the ones who build all the relationships – what is the point? And all you really need is to be timely, honest, transparent, and helpful – and a have good product to stand behind.

Nizwani: The core issue faced with brands is the classic case of the pink elephant – everyone can see it in the room, but nobody knows what to do with it. Brands are becoming more familiar with social media but will need to invest more time and effort in identifying their own objectives to be able to ultimately maximize the use of this space.

Karen: The year 2010 will be when social media will become ‘invisible’ – mainstream, a normal part of the fabric of discussion about marketing and communications for brands. Right now, we’re still quite a bit away from that, but things are moving quickly. Take for example the recent decisions by Unilever and Coke to move from campaign microsites to social media – that announcement caused panic and excitement globally in equal measures. In Malaysia, MNC and local brands could be a lot more engaged on social media.  By and large, many brand marketers in Malaysia are still reticent about social media and how it can drive business results, but it will change quickly.

What will be the biggest challenge in implementing social media in 2010?

Rachel: Companies will need to be brave enough to let the channels be their point of contact with consumers instead of letting agencies handle the channels. At this point, a lot of brands are still learning but without little to any hands-on. I hope that 2010 will be the year for brands to own social media and let it transform their organisation inside out to produce better customer service and products. No one should know the brand better than its mother.

David: Getting the right people. I believe eventually, every company should manage its own social media presence, with agencies playing a supporting role in creating content, channels and consulting on strategy. However, the dearth of talent means that its more likely for companies to outsource the social media engagement role to their agency at this point of time. Companies with a longer term view will invest in training and upskilling individuals to take on an internal social media role within next few years.

Nizwani: Biggest challenge in implementing social media this year, is how to get the most out of the consumer experience with the brand. The concern of the previous decade is that TV was becoming fragmented. Now with social media personalization and customization, brands are able to target the consumers in the most effective way possible. The ability to profile users and to create unique engagements enable brands to present their messaging to the right target and reduce wastage, as opposed to the typical spot-buys online (or on FB, MySpace, etc).

Hsu Jen: I think that because it has been used and abused by so many other brands/companies (e.g. merely pushing promotions instead of engaging people), the challenge might be grabbing the consumer’s attention, and keeping it. With so many brands hopping onto the social media bandwagon now and trying out new ideas to stand out from the crowd, there’s a lot of shouting going on. Sometimes, too much.

Biresh: The biggest challenge for implementing social media in 2010 will be for brands to engage with the people/fans instead of trying to sell them.  They would also do well to hire someone (not necessarily a guru) who can execute this well.

Cynthia: Alot of brands, are not sure of the space because it so alive and real. You don’t really know what is going in the heads of the consumers in this space, so you just got to try and find things that works for you. Of course, there are tried and tested methods but ultimately, its not a ONE size fits all solution. So you just got to try, and make mistakes along the way – after all, we are all human behind the walls of social media.

Karen: My view is that brands are curious at the very least, and would very much like to embark on social media engagement, but many brand marketers generally 1) are not sure how or where to start; 2) are not sure how much it will cost long term, not only spend, but investment in resources; 3) are unsure about measuring ROI; and, 4) are somewhat anxious about “losing control,” the exposure and risk, e.g. negative comments or criticism for all to see.

How much are you intending to increase / decrease investment in social media for yourself / your clients in 2010? Why?

Mei: We will continue to encourage our clients to increase their investment in social media in 2010. Reason is due to the clutter and high cost in traditional media. Social media is also a complementary medium to traditional media as it enables clients to engage directly with consumers and connect with them on an emotional level.

Derek: We are planning to actually expand our outreach to meet the demands of our market growth and language needs in differing markets. We need to start reaching out based on market needs instead of an overarching strategy that will never encompass all our objectives in social media

Alex: Increase, as we see trends moving rapidly from the traditional one-way communication to two-ways [...] We have our own community managers now, and that’s a serious step towards social media adoption for 2010 on our part!

Niki: There is a notion now that social media is free, and it is to a certain extent, but everyone will need to invest more to keep up and to use it more effectively. This would be what I recommend any individual or brands trying to engage in social media.

Cynthia: We are gonna rock the social media space in 2010! Watch out! (Editor’s note: the gauntlet has been thrown )

What specific social media tools or channels will you / your clients be focusing on in 2010? Why?

Rachel: Our target audience uses Facebook a lot. That will be a permanent channel. But we are seeing an increase on Twitter. Blogs will also be an increasing focus, a new territory for us. LowYat has been a very good channel as well.

Niki: I think I’m more interested to see how far Twitter goes in 2010, and if it has the staying power, which i think it does. But with the Net, and social media, things change so fast and new technologies appear out of nowhere, it will be interesting to see what comes up next. To directly answer your question, I think it will be foolish to just focus on particular tools… I think you first need to look at the objective of your plan – whether for individuals or brands – to decide what are the best tools to achieve that.

Mei: For our clients who are just making their first steps into social media, we will encourage them to embark on a listening exercise to first understand what consumers are saying about them / their competitors , before deciding on the next steps.

Nizwani: Specifically, I believe the focus will be to leverage on social networking, gaming, micro-blogging and video channels. A mix and match strategy of these different channels will help brands cover more ground and in the end reach more of their potential targets by generating greater conversations.

Besides social media, what other online marketing tools or channels will you / your clients be investing in for 2010? How would you rate these other tools in comparison to social media?

Alex: Traditional email newsletters, micro-site based campaigns, media buy. They work well for different industries and types of people.

Derek: I think measurement has been severely underutilised and what do we do with the data has to also improve. It’s easier to say that we can’t speak to our 24 million database and generic messages should be adequate but that way, we will never fully accomplish the potential of social media and provide more interaction and prompt more loyalty and communication which should take center stage.

Biresh: Increasing our email database & online advertising will still be a major marketing tool for us besides a strong public relations drive which has always been a cornerstone of our branding and marketing initiative. Social media will complement those initiatives by engaging the guests.

David: Augmented reality is starting to get accepted in the mainstream and geo-location services (though not necessarily social) will provide new ways for customers to experience and interact with brands.

Any other comments?

Derek: I think what companies lack when they start is a unifying objective and a long term strategy. often the confusion of what social media can achieve can also deter not only external parties but also internally. The notion that social media is free media is a wrong approach and no amount of social media can alter the image of who you are but it can keep you connected, engaged and most importantly relevant to all stakeholders which should be the essence of the social media approach.

David: Don’t rely on predictions – especially in the tech industry. Be prepared to be surprise and prepared to react fast. The industry is so fast moving, and tools so quickly changing that the next new thing will be on us before the year is out.

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I’d like to say thanks to the correspondents. I really appreciate you sharing your insights and helping to shed some light on social media here in Malaysia. For the full responses of the correspondents, you can view this Google Spreadsheet.

For those who are interested in learning more about social media, do attend one of the Social Media Club KL’s events and subscribe to our mailing list – the Buzzmedia Bulletin.