Think With Google APAC Social
'Compelling data. Big ideas. Creative juice. Put Google research and insights behind your thinking'.
As a brand and marketer looking to break through in APAC’s booming markets, you need more than generalized statistics about the region—you need insights specific to the country you’re in, or the few that you’re focusing on. Think with Google APAC is filled with content from experts and analysts across the region. Whether you’re in e-commerce-exploding Indonesia, smartphone-first Singapore, or digitally-savvy Japan, we’ve got insights and inspiration that address the cultural nuances and fast-changing marketplace climate in your country.
TWG APAC covers the issues, events, and trends that matter to marketers across China, Singapore, Hong Kong, South Korea, India, Taiwan, Indonesia, Thailand, Japan, Philippines, Malaysia, Vietnam. Each of these countries is unique in terms of habits, behaviour, spending and how they approach the mobile world.
Challenges
1. Set up LinkedIn and Twitter TWG APAC account at the start of 2016 with zero followers.
2. Gain followers and subscribers on TWG APAC newsletter. Global TWG has a steady stream of subscribers. We needed to gain followers and subscribers on TWG APAC newsletters.
3. Content to be shared organically and tested with paid content.
4. Tasked with giving TWG APAC a social voice. (We created a social playbook for TWG APAC and launched their first social channels - LinkedIn and Twitter using fun, insightful-yet-approachable assets for all posts. We then published them on behalf of TWG. This is an ongoing project, with future social channels to follow.)
Solution
1. Set up Think With Google APAC LinkedIn and Twitter account.
2. Created a unique illustration design to differentiate between TWG APAC and Global social site.
3. Gained followers and subscribers on TWG APAC newsletter.
3. Promoted shareable content organically.
4. Experimenting with different styles of posts in terms of designs and copy to track which are favourable.
5. Testing with time, topics, targeted audiences post.
6. Interviewing marketers and industry people on their thoughts on TWG APAC site.
Results
Below are the results we collected on August 2017.
Learnings
1. Illustrated posts and illustrated GIFs perform far better than photos/stock images.
2. On Twitter, famous people in the article get more clicks and shares.
3. Morning and evening (SGT time) posts gain more responses on Twitter.
4. Copy that promise learnings get more clicks.
5. Visuals that don't reveal anything immediately don't get clicks.
6. Posts that highlight names of people and events that people are unfamiliar with don't do well.
7. Interest in technology is high on Twitter.
8. LinkedIn posts are less likely to go viral compared to Twitter posts.
How to improve
1. Start a Facebook page. This works better with the audiences in APAC.
2. Feature writers of each article and start a social following for each writer.
3. Have more articles and posts that teach or give the reader tips on making their product better.
4. Downloadable PDF of TWG reports.
5. Create mini TWG events and one annual event per year.
6. Look at what interest people in each country, then refine posts that benefit the country's target audiences.