Social media overtakes traditional metrics for brands: TNS study

ASIA PACIFIC - Brands are placing social media at the heart of their strategy as they strive toward 360-degree customer engagement, according to consultancy TNS.

The results from TNS’ second annual Marketing Monitor study across Asia Pacific highlight the centrality of social media for marketers; it ranked as the top element guiding the planning process, as well as the top metric used to measure the performance of campaigns.

Businesses are using a variety of sources to inform their marketing strategy. However, insights gathered through social-media monitoring have finally overtaken more traditional metrics such as market share data and brand tracking to become the most popular component used by marketers.

In a statement, Zoë Lawrence, APAC digital director for TNS, said the mass adoption of social provides marketers with an array of sources when it comes to developing strategies and evaluating the effectiveness of their marketing activities.

“As the digital ecosystem evolves, we will continue to identify new ways to build insights,” she said. “However, whatever the metric used, it’s important to ensure marketers are monitoring the indicators that contribute to sales.”

The study also highlighted the top priority for marketing departments this year—customer relationship management. As the marketer’s sphere of activity has now broadened, there is focus on how to deliver the best overall customer experience, ahead of the traditional aim of increasing brand awareness.

To achieve this, businesses are using social media across a range of disciplines, from brand communications to customer service.

Social media appeared to be a big part of e-commerce strategy as well, but despite this approach to using social to support a variety of marketing goals, the results showed that businesses are not working as collaboratively as they could be.

The Marketing Monitor study was carried out in July 2016 across 11 countries in Asia Pacific, comprising Australia China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea and Thailand.