More than half of the corporations in Japan have revealed that they will be increasing their budget for Social Media Marketing in 2012 — based on the study carried out by the SendenKaigi team. 100 corporations including manufactures, brands and service providers with Web promotions, Facebook pages, Websites and Ecommerce sites joined this study. 49% of them said it will increase and 3% said it will hugely increase. 18% answered it will stay the same as last year. No one said it’ll decrease.
We can breathe a deep sigh of relief and say … finally!!
Also when they were asked what devices, areas and tools they’ll be focusing this year, more than 35% of them answered ‘Smartphones’ followed by Facebook (19%) and Twitter (2%).
So your Social Media budget has increased, but how can it be used effectively?
Below I‘ve written some handy tips of some of the things you can do. So please read on!
Just as a reminder these are all services provided by us !
The Microsite
A Microsite is a dedicated online space for your product or service, this can then be linked up with your Social Media activities.
This ‘home base’ for your promotion will list all details about your product or service, and needs to in Japanese — if that’s your your targeted market of course. The Microsite can be the homebase, however if can also act as the main web presence if you wish. A Microsite can be created by modifying your current corporate website or by building a smaller sub site. Remember, the more touch points you have on the internet, the more traffic you can draw to your brand. Also after or during your Microsite build don’t forget to SEO it up!
Oh, and let’s not forget, Japanese people love browsing on their Smartphones. This means, you should make sure your Microsite has a great looking mobile site that’s easy navigate and not made solely for people with tiny fingers! Small navigation buttons and complicated mobile sites are a no no. For more mobile related information, have a look below.
Social Media Page Set Up
Let’s think about setting up a Japanese Social Media page for your brand, service or product, company or, whatever you’d like to raise awareness for. Nicely styled and effective Facebook and Twitter pages can be a great start. Remember, these two Social networks are listed as 2nd and 3rd in a ranking of what corporations in Japan are focusing on this year. Let’s not get left behind !
Social Media Campaigns
The best way to spread the love is to give some away. Perhaps give away a free gift OR maybe give a discount on a particular service. People love exciting campaigns. Let’s make sure we’re targeting the right people. It’s not hit or miss these days, so we should also Geo-Target your audience. Tools are available to help you locate your potential customers. By now your campaign will be gaining you a lot of fans and followers — essentially raising awareness for your brand — but let’s not forget that you’ll also be able to get a huge amount of information about your customers and potential customer groups. So make sure all data and results are monitored correctly, never abandon your page and keep the dialogue going with your fans and followers. They’re here to chat and find out more about your product or service — they’re making your brand more popular though their activity and conversation.
Video Content To Tell A Story
As things become progressively advanced we’re getting more and more lazy. I’d love to be able to sit back, click a button and play a video that tells me all about the service or product on offer — rather than reading some tiny text that explains who you are and what you do, blah blah blah. Not everyone will spend a significant amount of time reading text anymore — even when you’ve spent a lot of time coming up with the best text possible to describe your business! Well, it’s not only the reason why video content is so great. Video content is also great for SEO.
Video content is such a powerful tool to have on your site. It’s worth investing on a neat, concise and good looking video to tell a story. A word of warning — don’t try to put a non-professional DIY video on your home page. That might lead your potential customer losing attention. There are ways to create professional video for a small budget.
JAPAN BUZZ is a service provided by FIT Digital (www.fitdigital.co.uk), a bilingual one stop digital boutique. We can help you with all of the services above. Contact us for a chat, I’m sure we can help in some way. Also, our aim is to help western businesses and brands expand to/in Japan. We’re flexible with any situation you might have. If you don’t need to worry about budget, that’s great — but we’re also good at ‘cutting cost’ and working with lower budgets. Also if you’re a startup we can also offer you ‘Start-Up discount’. Get in touch with us for a chat for more information.
Thanks
Kana & The JAPAN BUZZ Team
Original Source:
http://www.advertimes.com/20120113/article49483/
http://www.sendenkaigi.com/
http://internet.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/news/20120113_504406.html
