ASIA-PACIFIC – JULY 2011 – Following the release of the annual State of Marketing: Singapore Industry Report based on a survey conducted by GetITComms with the support of Singapore InfocommTechnology Federation (SiTF), adobo asked GetIT Comms Director and CEO Anol Bhattacharya about the social media marketing landscape in Singapore and the latest developments in the industry based on the report’s findings.
Would you say that Singapore is leading Southeast Asia in terms of social media marketing?
Awareness and success rates are sporadic and vastly vary. I would rather say it’s easier to implement a social media marketing plan in Singapore, due to almost homogeneous social persona. Regarding innovation, again – although it’s too early to judge, but Singapore’s got an edge over the rest of the Asian countries due to effective bi-lingual position. We’ve got a tremendous opportunity to become the digital marketing hub for Asia.
It seems that marketing budgets have generally increased, with social and interactive media taking a significant chunk of added monies. Would you say that digital isn’t taking the place of the traditional channels, but is complementing them?
Definitely. Despite all the buzzwords, nothing gets replaced by new; rather, they are complimented. Think about old school content marketing. Social media is now providing an outbound syndication channel for marketers to distribute content.
With the upswing of lead generation as a function of social media, is there pressure to prove digital’s ability to deliver ROI?
Every marketing initiative should have a clear ROI and metrics. With digital, measuring becomes easier. The question is what to measure. Still many organizations are stuck in the ‘ego-measure’ trap, i.e – number of fans/followers only. Without clear business ROI it will be difficult to sustain the initiative. We are still in a very nascent phase of maturity continuum of social and digital marketing ROI measuring.
What is keeping e-commerce from growing as quickly as lead generation and customer engagement?
Linking transaction with social media is still a tricky affair for couple of reasons. The buying pattern in B2C is more individual action based. Although social influence plays a role there, and many companies are trying to incorporate that in their marketing strategy, it’s still difficult to pin-point the ‘last touch point’ before sales. For B2B, there is no one step transaction, so linking e-commerce is almost non-existent there.
There appears to be a preference for in-house social media managers. Is there a need for specialized training for marketing professionals in social media?
To be a successful marketer today, you need to be a lifelong learner. But there is no formal training available to upgrade your skill-set for social media marketing. Continuous informal learning is the key.
What is the role of the digital agency or consultancy?
Digital agencies/consultancies should play the role of a coach—establish the game plan, identify the KPI, plug the loopholes, measure and improve. But the actual engagement in social media should come from the people of the companies. You can’t outsource authenticity, and that’s the key of social media’s unwritten rules.
From the report, there seems to be consensus on the need for social and interactive media in marketing. Where does mobile fit in? Is there a need for mobile websites or are apps recommended?
If you are not thinking about your mobile marketing strategy you are doomed. OK, that was a bit melodramatic. But seriously – think about the mobile surfing pattern, check the analytics of your corporate site to see how much traffic is generated based on mobile browsers. Native apps look better but the issue of multiple platform development is a bugging issue. Start with mobile optimized digital assets (Website, marketing content, Newsletter) first.
Are blogs on their way down?
I am blogging since 2002, and this is the most exciting time for bloggers. The number of blogs generated per day (even minute) went down drastically, ‘cause another lonely emo teenager is not starting a blog to inform us about her cat’s diet pattern’, they moved to Facebook or Twitter actually. So the signal-noise ratio is much improved now. Although the mode of engagement is vastly changed, majority of conversation/ discussion now happens outside the blog, in FB, Twitter or LinkedIn. For B2B businesses, blogs are becoming the content marketing hub.
What is the potential of LinkedIn for marketing purposes?
LinkedIn is a great marketing channel, many ways more effective than FB or Twitter, especially for B2B. In LinkedIn, users’ modus operandi is completely professional, focused and uncluttered.
Does Google Adwords have any real competition in SEM?
Think in terms of search engine usage ratio and rephrase the question to ‘is there any real competitor of Google in search engine’ – you will get the answer.
View the State of Marketing: Singapore Industry Report here.
