Home » Report: Facebook Remains Dominant Social Platform For APAC Marketers; TikTok Lags But Growing

13 December, 2022

Report: Facebook Remains Dominant Social Platform For APAC Marketers; TikTok Lags But Growing

Social and media intelligence platform Meltwater,has released its “State of Social Media 2023” report, revealing Facebook remains the dominant social media platform for APAC marketers, closely followed by LinkedIn and Instagram. Despite TikTok being named the fastest growing social media channel, it seems it is yet to be leveraged by marketers at the same rate as those well-established platforms.

The report, which includes findings from over 1700 global marketing and communications professionals, found that the majority of organisations are using at least four of the most common social media platforms within their strategy, with 77 per cent planning to maintain or increase social budgets in 2023, and 60 per cent saying that the current economic development has led to social media being perceived as more important by their organisation.

Five of the most used social media channels in APAC are a long way ahead of the rest: Facebook (87 per cent), LinkedIn (81 per cent), Instagram (81 per cent), YouTube (67 per cent) and Twitter (50 per cent). But TikTok, in sixth place (29 per cent), is rapidly growing (globally 30 per cent vs 16 per cent in 2021), with nearly half (41 per cent) of organisations across APAC planning on introducing it to their marketing mix in 2023.

Branding remains the primary reason for using social media, with the majority of marketers (79 per cent) using social to “raise brand awareness” and (71 per cent) to “increase brand engagement”. This was followed by acquiring new customers (53 per cent) and increasing web traffic (46 per cent), with only 36 per cent using social to directly increase sales, and only 19 per cent to increase customer satisfaction.

Measuring social media marketing performance also continues to be a top challenge for marketers, with over half (56 per cent) of APAC marketers stating that “measuring the impact/ROI of social media” was the biggest social media marketing challenge, with 40 per cent struggling to “prove the value of social media”. This was also reflected by ‘revenue generated’ being the lowest used metric by marketers (21 per cent), suggesting marketers are still finding it challenging to directly link social spend to the bottom line.

Whilst different social media channels are used for different purposes and require a number of measurement metrics, the top three social media metrics for APAC marketers are social media engagement (82 per cent), web traffic (64 per cent) and social media followers (63 per cent).

Social listening is also on the rise with 42 per cent currently running a social listening program, and another 15 per cent planning to do so in 2023 – with the goal to gain a better understanding of audiences and target groups (64 per cent).

“As we are moving into a cookie-less future, facing tighter data and privacy regulation and increased fragmentation, the integration of social media listening and customer data will be critical for marketers to reach the right audience and provide a personalised customer experience”, said Ross Candido, VP ANZ and South-East Asia Meltwater.

Whilst influencer marketing has been growing steadily, the report found less than half of marketers (39%) currently use influencers, and a further 16 per cent are planning to do so.

Most APAC marketers (72 per cent) also see organic social playing a more important role in driving business and marketing strategy in 2023, and 60 per cent see paid social playing a more important role. Some 77 per cent plan to maintain or increase social budgets in 2023, with 60 per cent saying that the current economic development has led to social media being perceived as more important by their organisation.

“It’s clear that successful marketers are embracing a strategic mix of social media strategies. Social media has established its place in the marketing and communications mix. There’s been a lot of talk about organic being dead or phased out, but based on the survey findings, the importance of both paid and organic social media is set to increase in 2023 and the current economic situation has played a role in this development. As paid opportunities evolve and Facebook owned channels become more integrated, this will have an impact on how people are using the platforms in the future,” said Candido.

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