OPINION: Social Media in Korea needs to change the paradigm

With one of the fastest internet networks in the world, social media usage in Korea is increasing at an incredible rate through web and mobile. As the power of social influence on social media grows, organisations are having to adapt to these changes. Social media is having a significant influence on election campaigns, and many companies are now checking their digital reputation on SNS during the recruiting process.

At UM, we often receive a range of requests from clients for solutions on how to deal with the rising influence of social media. How can we increase brand awareness through social media? What social media strategy would be needed for our brand? Which type of advertising will be effective on social media?

‘Cyworld’, a Korean social media site and ‘Nate On’, the most widely used instant messenger in the country, have both served as an effective channel for display advertising. The advertising fits in with the Korean style with a suitable size and format. This combination provides satisfying results when matched with proper targeting and a well-thought-out frequency plan.

However, the local trend has shifted to global social media such as Facebook and Twitter.

 

Global social media has not only had more success around the world but also have also become social hubs for key 'socialtainers': social + entertainers. These socialtainers have leveraged the power of social media and are actively communicating on Facebook and Twitter.

This is one of the driving factors as to why almost all companies are interested in a strong branding use of global social media.

Unfortunately, in Korea, display ads on global social media are not performing as well, generally yielding only 70 per cent of exposure impact and click performance, which pales in comparison with the performance of local media. This could be due to the small ad size and short text format, which is not popular with Koreans.

Companies therefore have started to utilize Facebook and Twitter as brand communication channels rather than platforms for display advertisement. For example, many brands such as Philips, Samsung and Puma are creating big buzz through the use of interactive movie apps on Facebook. Interactive movies integrate each SNS user as a main actor to release the content easily and quickly though a social network. Each company then usually uses this interactive video as new content for a TVC or an offline/mobile AD source. In addition, promotion activities within corporate SNS have escalated since ROI was measured based on the number of ‘Likes’ on Facebook or ‘Followers’ on Twitter. But, since anyone with an email address can participate in global SNS, the number of ‘Likes’ or ‘Followers’ is not a reliable source, with ‘reward hunters’ seeking promotional events, making campaign ROI measurement even more difficult.

In addition, brand SNS has become a mere 24-hour customer service center as it becomes the preferred brand communication channel rather than an official website.

As a result, operating a brand SNS has become quite risky. Rather, social viral through a top SNS influencer achieves a short-term effect. However, whether social viral will still be effective in the long-term remains doubtful. As there is no reliable index for measuring performance, SNS is unsuitable for conducting long-term communication strategies.

Although research to overcome such weaknesses is a process, I suggest that it is time to change your marketing paradigm on SNS.

The traditional view on SNS as a means of brand exposure seems to be obsolete. The probability of campaign success is slim, and performance measurement is difficult. Rather, SNS should be viewed as a CRM tool for branding and risk care. In other words, it is time to build-up the right strategy and risk care strategy through analyzing social big data acquired by social listening.

For instance, top Korean companies periodically check their brand image through social big data analysis and then establish their campaign strategy, including message, creative, model and media.
In addition, separate social risk care teams are being created to maintain positive branding on social media.

Due to the prevalence of homonyms and the metaphorical nature of the Korean language, social listening tools are not enough to achieve a valid social analysis. To obtain meaningful data, a marketing professional who has a strong understanding of the overall market and audience insights, media usage and behaviour must carefully select and manage the right keywords to listen to. The right keywords will deduce key data findings, and further manual intervention of the programs will provide a more succinct study of the audience’s online presence. It is this exact reason why marketing communication companies such as UM are launching social consulting services to support client’s SNS marketing.

If you are still wondering about how to make people ‘see’ your brand, it is time for you to first ‘listen and understand’ how people perceive it on SNS.