In the rush to embrace social networking, are marketers neglecting more basic online media formats? That’s the implication of a regional study into online discussion around technology brands, which points to forums - as opposed to regular social networking sites - as key for reaching and interacting with target audiences.
Conducted by PR network Edelman and strategic research consultancy Brandtology, the Digital Brand Index study set out to identify the most widely talked-about technology brands across eight markets - China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, India, Malaysia, Indonesia and Australia - between July and September. It covered a total of 800,000 mentions of 233 major technology brands on 4,348 online channels including forums, blogs, social networking sites and news websites.
While Twitter emerged as the most commonly used channel in India and Australia, other markets, particularly those in Southeast Asia, demonstrated that technology-related forums served as the main platform for discussion. In Singapore, for example, 90 per cent of conversation took place on forums; Hardwarezone sites such as Eat-Drink-Man-Woman and the iPhone Chatroom showed the highest levels of activity.
The brands discussed varied between markets. While Nokia was found to have the highest number of mentions in China, the most widely discussed brand in India and Malaysia was Google; that brand ranked in the top 10 in all markets, as did Microsoft. Intel was also a popular topic in a number of markets including Hong Kong, Taiwan, India, Indonesia and Malaysia. The study will be extended to the Japanese and Korean markets in the coming months.
According to John Kerr, regional director of Edelman Digital, while the study did not provide detailed information on the nature of discussion, it served as an indication as to where key conversations were likely to be taking place. A major problem facing brands in the technology sector, he says, is poor targeting in the online social space.
“A lot of tech brands think they have to reach out to individual bloggers and treat them like journalists,” he says. “But this is not driven by factual data. If you were running an ad programme, you would have an array of data to support the programme content and divide it into the right channel. It’s easy to figure out where audiences are. The fundamental importance of forums and bulletin boards is often overlooked because it’s hard to operate there. But brands need to be there.”
Kerr says that even widely-discussed brands are not necessarily operating in the correct channels, and are hence missing out on a major opportunity to interact with and engage potential consumers. He points out that, given the diversity of markets and channel usage, it would be ineffective to employ a “one-size-fits-all” approach; but he acknowledges that “the vast majority of discussions are happening on forums and bulletin boards”.
Kelly Choo, co-founder of Brandtology, agrees that marketers “have to focus more on forums”, adding that the research offers brands a chance to listen to relevant conversations in real time, rather than waiting for quarterly reports which, in a “fast-moving world”, are simply too slow.
For marketers keen to build a presence in forums, Jeremy Woolf, senior VP at Text100, points out that the first step is simply to listen. “You then have to go very quickly from listening to participating. My advice is to take that next step and find people with an active presence in the forum and look at converting them into brand ambassadors.”
However, he adds that to achieve this, companies need to invest more effort into “empowering staff” to play an active role in forums on a regular basis, rather than waiting for a crisis to become involved in the discussion. “A crisis is the worst time to introduce yourself,” he states.
Choo says that consultation with forum owners has revealed that there remains “lots of work to be done” by marketers. “Too many brands think it’s all about social networks,” agrees Kerr. “It’s really quite simple. Brands need to consider the journey a person goes through to figure out whether or not to buy a product.”
Got a view?
Email [email protected]
This article was originally published in 5 November 2009 issue of Media.
Conducted by PR network Edelman and strategic research consultancy Brandtology, the Digital Brand Index study set out to identify the most widely talked-about technology brands across eight markets - China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, India, Malaysia, Indonesia and Australia - between July and September. It covered a total of 800,000 mentions of 233 major technology brands on 4,348 online channels including forums, blogs, social networking sites and news websites.
While Twitter emerged as the most commonly used channel in India and Australia, other markets, particularly those in Southeast Asia, demonstrated that technology-related forums served as the main platform for discussion. In Singapore, for example, 90 per cent of conversation took place on forums; Hardwarezone sites such as Eat-Drink-Man-Woman and the iPhone Chatroom showed the highest levels of activity.
The brands discussed varied between markets. While Nokia was found to have the highest number of mentions in China, the most widely discussed brand in India and Malaysia was Google; that brand ranked in the top 10 in all markets, as did Microsoft. Intel was also a popular topic in a number of markets including Hong Kong, Taiwan, India, Indonesia and Malaysia. The study will be extended to the Japanese and Korean markets in the coming months.
According to John Kerr, regional director of Edelman Digital, while the study did not provide detailed information on the nature of discussion, it served as an indication as to where key conversations were likely to be taking place. A major problem facing brands in the technology sector, he says, is poor targeting in the online social space.
“A lot of tech brands think they have to reach out to individual bloggers and treat them like journalists,” he says. “But this is not driven by factual data. If you were running an ad programme, you would have an array of data to support the programme content and divide it into the right channel. It’s easy to figure out where audiences are. The fundamental importance of forums and bulletin boards is often overlooked because it’s hard to operate there. But brands need to be there.”
Kerr says that even widely-discussed brands are not necessarily operating in the correct channels, and are hence missing out on a major opportunity to interact with and engage potential consumers. He points out that, given the diversity of markets and channel usage, it would be ineffective to employ a “one-size-fits-all” approach; but he acknowledges that “the vast majority of discussions are happening on forums and bulletin boards”.
Kelly Choo, co-founder of Brandtology, agrees that marketers “have to focus more on forums”, adding that the research offers brands a chance to listen to relevant conversations in real time, rather than waiting for quarterly reports which, in a “fast-moving world”, are simply too slow.
For marketers keen to build a presence in forums, Jeremy Woolf, senior VP at Text100, points out that the first step is simply to listen. “You then have to go very quickly from listening to participating. My advice is to take that next step and find people with an active presence in the forum and look at converting them into brand ambassadors.”
However, he adds that to achieve this, companies need to invest more effort into “empowering staff” to play an active role in forums on a regular basis, rather than waiting for a crisis to become involved in the discussion. “A crisis is the worst time to introduce yourself,” he states.
Choo says that consultation with forum owners has revealed that there remains “lots of work to be done” by marketers. “Too many brands think it’s all about social networks,” agrees Kerr. “It’s really quite simple. Brands need to consider the journey a person goes through to figure out whether or not to buy a product.”
Got a view?
Email [email protected]
This article was originally published in 5 November 2009 issue of Media.
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