With the development of online infrastructure and lower costs around the world, the amount of time people spend on the Internet is increasing dramatically. SNS and social media account for a large percentage of this increase.
Currently, more than 4.1 billion people around the world use social media every month, and an astonishing 15% of users’ waking lives are spent on social media platforms.
In this trend, many companies around the world are embarking on SNS marketing by opening official SNS accounts. However, there are (in fact) many people in charge of planning projects and starting SNS operations without a thorough understanding of SNS marketing.
It is a matter of course, but marketing strategies utilizing SNS, which are so popular all over the world, are already a “red ocean” as many companies around the world are already implementing them. In such an environment, if you do not operate with a strategy, there is a high possibility that you will go in the wrong direction, that it will take a great deal of time to achieve your goals, or that it will be difficult to achieve your goals in the first place.
In this article, we will explain, based on the latest SNS user data, the basic knowledge that you need to know before engaging in overseas SNS marketing, the first step to conquering overseas markets, as well as tips and precautions that will lead you to success. This is a must-see for marketers who are considering “going overseas” or “starting with SNS operations!
Why Japanese Companies Seek to Expand Overseas?
“Market size is shrinking dramatically” due to accelerating declining birthrate and aging population.
According to announcement by the Cabinet Office in 2020, the domestic population, which was 126 million in 2019, will drop below 120 million in 10 years, By 2065, it is said that the population will decrease by 46 million to 80 million.
Furthermore, while the population is declining, the number of people aged 65 and over continues to increase, and by 2065, 43 years later, 38% of the population will be aged 65 and over, and “one in 2.6 people will be 65 years old and one in 3.9 people will be 75 years old or older. （This means that “the number of users purchasing products in Japan will certainly decline. On the other hand, what about the global population?
The global e-commerce industry has accelerated so rapidly that it has been described as “a decade of acceleration in just the first few months after the pandemic. This has led to a digital revolution in all processes, including brands’ digital strategies, business expansion, and consumers’ purchasing behavior, as well as a major change in the image of customers, including their decision-making, behavior, and values regarding consumption.
In conjunction with this, each platform is focusing on “shopping functions” that allow users to make purchases directly from social networking sites. Major SNSs have implemented this function one after another, and in recent years, they have further expanded the function. This has encouraged the expansion of social commerce, as people who had not used online shopping before began to use online stores for the first time due to the influence of Corona.
In 2022, social commerce sales in the U.S. were approximately 5 trillion yen, and are expected to grow to 8 trillion yen by 2025.
Let’s take a look at the latest overseas social media user numbers for 2023.
Global SNS Users Data in 2023
So, how many social media users actually exist in the world? Let’s take a closer look.
Number of social media “users” in the world
- 1st: Facebook 2.958 billion
- 2nd: YouTube 2.514 billion
- 3rd: WhatsApp 2 billion
- 4th: Instagram 2 billion
- 5th: WeChat 1.309 billion
- 6th: TikTok 1.051 billion
- 7th: Facebook Messenger 931 million
- 8th: Douyin 715 million
- 9th: Telegram 700 million
- 10th: Snapchat 635 million
- 11th: Kuaishou 626 million
- 12th: Weibo 584 million
Instagram was the platform with the most users in 2023. Facebook, which has the largest number of users, already covers nearly 40% of the current global population, not to mention that Facebook and Instagram (Meta) are the major social networking platforms overseas.
“Time” spent on social media
The results of the survey on “cumulative time spent on each social media platform in a month” for Android devices were as follows.
- 1st: YouTube 23.9 hours
- 2nd: Facebook 19.43 hours
- 3rd: TikTok 23.28 hours
- 4th: WhatsApp 17.20 hours
- 5th: LINE 10.59 hours
- 6th: Instagram 12 hours
- 7th: Twitter 5.28 hours
- 8th: Facebook Messenger 3.07 hours
- 9th: Snapchat 3.10 hours
- 10th: Telegram 3.57 hours
YouTube has surpassed all other social networking platforms to become the most used social networking platform for the longest time. However, the platform that increased its usage time the most compared to 2022 was TikTok, which made a huge jump from 19 hours to 23 hours. TikTok is the most popular social networking platform among young people around the world, with a four-hour increase in time spent on the platform, while other platforms saw a slight increase.
In addition, since YouTube is a medium where “watching videos” is the main focus, the cumulative time spent on YouTube tends to be inevitably longer. YouTube is an excellent platform for attracting users. On the other hand, the amount of time spent on Twitter is less than half that of Facebook and Instagram.
Channels used to research companies and brands
The following are the results of a survey of Internet users between the ages of 16 and 64 on the social media channels they use to research information about “companies and brands” on social media.
- 1st: 82.7% “Use at least 8 or more platforms”
- 2nd: 60.9% “Instagram”
- 3rd: 38.1% “Facebook Messenger”
- 4th: 17.2% “Pinterest”
- 5th: 37.9% “Twitter”
- 6th: 37.5% “TikTok”
- 7th: 30.6% “Reddit”
- 8th: 27.1% “LinkedIn”
The most common trend is to use multiple social networking sites across the board rather than specific channels, with over 80% of respondents using these sites. In addition, we see a trend of high visibility platforms such as Instagram and Pinterest being ranked higher.
What is International Social Media Marketing?
SNS marketing is a marketing strategy that utilizes the most appropriate social media channels to communicate a company’s brand, products, corporate culture, and values to its target users, ultimately leading to corporate goals such as purchasing products and services or acquiring new customers. As part of a company’s marketing activities, the use of social networking to reach overseas users is called overseas SNS marketing.As of 2023, the number of users has more than tripled in just 10 years and continues to grow at a very high rate.
With the shift to “digital” contact with users, social media has become one of the most important touch points for companies to build deep connections with their users.
With 71% of users who have had a positive experience with a brand on social media likely to promote the brand or product to friends and family, it can be said that “leveraging social media is an inevitable part of an international business strategy.
The usage rates of social media users by generation are as follows
- Millennials (1981-early 2000): 90.4%.
- Generation X (1965-1980): 77.5%.
- Baby Boomers (1946-1964): 48.2%.
There is a noticeable trend toward higher social media usage as the age group gets younger, and younger generations than Millennials have been living with smartphones by their side since birth. Therefore, the Internet is a part of their life infrastructure and they are called “digital natives.
3 International Social Media Marketing Strategies
So what are the specific measures you can take using social media?
Social media account management
The most common measure for companies expanding overseas to form and establish brand and product recognition among local users is to first open and continuously operate an SNS account.
As mentioned above, more than 76% of overseas Internet users rely on content on SNS to obtain information when researching a company or brand. Creating and posting not only text, but also images and video content will promote understanding of what the product is about and create opportunities for word-of-mouth formation and information diffusion.
When establishing a social networking account, we will give preference to those social networking platforms that are most popular among the target audience in the local market and used by competitors. Content should be in the local language, which is commonly used in the local market, and should be based on an understanding of the local culture and context, which is different from Japan. Therefore, it is most desirable that the person in charge of managing the SNS account be a native speaker born and raised in the local language.
Use of social media advertising
Although SNS advertising is a paid measure, it has two major advantages. First, it allows you to reach potential users that you have not been able to reach before. Second, by utilizing the ad serving algorithms of SNS platforms, you can cost-effectively and efficiently approach the users that you want to target.
SNS ads can reach new users who have not yet been aware of your products, and can also reintroduce your products to existing users who have almost forgotten about them. Facebook, Instagram, and other social networking platforms offer functions that allow you to segment your target users based on age, interests, preferences, regional attributes, and other factors, and then distribute advertisements to them.
By understanding and effectively utilizing these functions, it is possible to properly use and optimize your advertising budget.
Influencer marketing
For products that have just been launched in the market, even if you try to spread awareness through posts on social networking accounts, unless you have a large number of followers, you will face a major hurdle in expanding awareness and leading to actual purchases. This is where influencer marketing, which utilizes influencers who have a high affinity with the brand or product, comes into play.
Influencers can explain a product or service from a third-party perspective, thereby encouraging the influencer’s avid followers to purchase the product. However, there is a risk of negative impact if the product or service is not well matched with the influencer, and engagement has been declining over the years.
The Benefits of International Social Media Marketing
Proper overseas SNS marketing can provide a multifaceted approach to the following.
- Increasing brand awareness
- Selling products and services
- Community building
- Customer service
- Targeted, cost-effective promotion of products and services
- Gather brand and product reputation
- Gather market and customer insights
Let’s look at some specifics.
Increase brand awareness
Many Internet users use social networking sites to source information about brands and products, and brand awareness is naturally derived from searches using “hashtags” on social networking sites and “word of mouth/spread” from the users they follow. As a result, new followers of the company’s SNS account will be generated and brand recognition will gradually build.
Since it is difficult to dramatically improve brand awareness overnight, build a medium- to long-term strategy and post content consistently with the goal of gradually expanding brand awareness in mind.
Effective branding
- LinkedIn, a good fit for the B2B industry
- Facebook, which boasts an overwhelming number of users worldwide
- Instagram, with its excellent visual approach
- Twitter, which has high text x spreading power
- Snapchat, which specializes in image and video sharing
- Parler, which emphasizes freedom of speech
- Flickr, very popular among photographers and graphic designers
By choosing a social media platform that is aligned with your company’s objectives and posting branding-focused content, you will be able to communicate your brand’s image to your followers.
It is also important to clarify what the product has to offer users by explaining the product’s features and functions, and the use of creative such as images and videos on social networking sites can successfully achieve the emotional appeal that is most important in branding.
Targeted and cost-effective advertising
As mentioned above, SNS advertising uses highly accurate targeting to deliver ads only to the right users.
In addition to the user’s gender, place of residence, language, etc., LinkedIn can also target ads by the industry in which the user works, job title, etc. The ad unit price can also be adjusted. You can also adjust the ad price, and start or stop serving ads on the same day.
Strengthen customer relationships
By strengthening relationships with followers via social networking sites, companies can increase the number of users who have a highly favorable impression of their brand. By strengthening relationships through SNS, companies can increase the number of users who have a high liking for their brand. Share” and incentivize users to “Like” and “Share” user posts about the company’s products.
SNSs allow companies and users to communicate with each other in ways that were unimaginable before the advent of SNS, when the only options were direct phone calls to companies or a “contact form” at the end of a website. communication tools are now available.
Increasing loyalty through SNS not only increases brand favorability, but also increases customer lifetime value (LTV) because of the potential for a long-term relationship with the brand.
Challenges Faced by International Social Media Marketers
The number of social media users is increasing every year. However, the fact is that SNS is so popular all over the world that many companies around the world are already strategically using SNS and it is already a “red ocean”. If you do not set goals and operate strategically, you may end up with measures that are “not very effective.
Therefore, before embarking on SNS marketing, here are some of the challenges that those in charge may face and “tips for success.
Achieving goals takes longer than expected
There was a time when a handful of companies that entered social media at an early stage were able to quickly gain a large number of followers. However, as mentioned earlier, now that many companies have entered the market, competition is fierce and users are becoming more and more demanding in terms of content.
Therefore, it is best to assume that “posting a small amount of killer content and getting results in a few months” is unlikely to happen. In fact, it takes “continuous effort and a series of trial and error” before you realize the benefits of SNS marketing.
No matter how much trial and error you do, be aware that “getting 10,000 followers in a month” is difficult, unless you are Elon Musk. (Elon Musk got an astonishing “over 5.5 million users in 6 months.”)
Successful social network marketing requires a long-term investment; create a proposed strategy for your social networking site and review it regularly. Don’t post only when there is a new campaign and leave your account alone otherwise.
It’s not easy to make a sale
If you post content on social media and build a community with many users, you should be able to generate conversions and increase sales.
Unfortunately, reality is not that simple. There is no mechanism that will magically lead to sales, not only in social network marketing, but in any policy or channel. Still, there may be more than a few people who expect such optimism, and there may be more than a few social networking managers who hope so somewhere in the back of their minds.
Social media is supposed to be a fruitful tool for communicating with users, building trust, and acquiring leads that lead to sales, among many other measures. However, achieving “ROI” in social network marketing is not simple. Keep in mind that simply posting content on a daily basis is not a measure that will lead to a large amount of profit.
The question is, “How can I leverage social media to increase customer satisfaction?” is a much simpler and more reasonable question than “How much sales can I make from social media?” is much simpler and more reasonable than “How much sales can I make from social media? Here are some of the business goals that can be achieved through SNS marketing.
- Increase website traffic
- Obtain leads
- Improve customer satisfaction
- Gather information for product research and development
- Competitor research
- Increase brand awareness
Observe the appropriate metrics for each goal over a period of time. If you have been able to set social media goals that align with your business goals, also identify metrics that measure their effectiveness.
-Aside from “number of shares of posts and clicks on post links,” do you also check the “abandonment rate of users after entering your site”?
If the attrition rate of users who came in from social media is lower, then you can be sure that your audience targeting is set correctly and social media is contributing greatly to your business.
Not as many people are showing interest and engagement as you thought
It is impossible to win the hearts and minds of all users in the world. However, it is often the case that those in charge actually get their hopes up and overestimate the number of engagements their business should get. Don’t be happy or sad, but rather repeat the PDCA cycle silently.
Focus firmly on the people who matter to your business – your customers, prospects, and brand fans – rather than posting to every user on the platform. Analyze the users who respond to your posts and focus on measures that can strengthen the relationship and increase the content that users have shown interest in. First, focus thoroughly on “what your target users are doing on social networking sites.”
When a user follows a business account, it’s like giving them an entry ticket to a valuable “personal SNS feed.”
- Is the post valuable and engaging to the user?
- Is it a vague business pitch?
An easy way to check the quality of your content is to ask the question, “If I were a regular user, would I want to follow this account?” Always and every time ask the question, “If I were a regular user, would I want to follow this account?
It’s getting harder and harder to be effective for free
Social media once had a golden age. There was once a time when it was extremely effective without the help of advertising. However, with the countless amount of content being posted today, the “organic reach” has declined significantly.
Most social networking sites have very sophisticated algorithms that “screen” content for display, rather than simply displaying every post in the feed. Therefore, the most effective way to get your posts to as many users as possible may be to invest in promotions and social network advertising.
Some people may have the impression that paying to spread posts and distribute social networking ads is something that only big brands with a budget can do. However, if you have a strategy and set up targeting and campaigns, you can often get amazing results even with a small amount of money. If you can afford it, please give it a try, even if it is a small amount.
Marketing is heavier work than you might imagine
Successful social network marketing not only requires more effort and time than you might imagine, but also a lot of skill.
Short to long term strategic planning, copywriting, editing, proper data analysis…
If only there were someone in charge with all the necessary skills, problem solved! However, the reality is that most companies find it difficult to set up an in-house social media team, and even just assigning one person with the right skills for creative production and strategic planning can be a challenge. And if you are managing a global business account, you are even more limited in the number of qualified people you can assign.
For your team, “What are the most important social media skills?” Be clear about the “what are the most important social media skills? Then, communicate clearly and accurately the skills needed when looking for the right person or when asking a partner company to do the job.
Hire a social networking specialist from the outside? Or develop your own skills?
Whichever you choose, you need to be knowledgeable about social media. In addition to books, Infocubic Japan’s blog publishes monthly information and know-how on social media, so be sure to check it out when you have a spare moment.
Conclusion
Compared to Japan, where the number of buyers is expected to decrease significantly, overseas markets, where the population is expected to grow, will see an increase in the number of digital natives. SNS marketing is one of the essential measures for companies looking to expand overseas in the future, and by understanding and utilizing the characteristics of each platform, it can create opportunities for significant business growth. Make full use of SNS for marketing based on “goal setting, strategy, and optimal content. In fact, SNS marketing has the potential to be more effective in overseas markets than in Japan.