43 percent of Singaporeans don’t want to engage brands on social media

A global study by market research company TNS Global has found that 43 percent of Singaporeans don’t wish to engage with brands on social media networks, against an average of 57 percent in developed markets.

This signals a need for brands to adopt a more targeted approach in their social media outreach, or otherwise risk wasting their efforts and contributing to digital media waste.

The findings were announced on 11th November following a study which involved 72,000 consumers in 60 studies. More results can be found on the TNS Digital Life website.

“Winning and retaining customers is harder than ever,” said Arnaud Frade, Regional Director Digital Strategy, TNS APAC.

“Whilst there are obvious and very significant opportunities for brands online, success will only come from a deliberate strategy, considered tactics and careful tailoring aligned to a market, a channel, a category or even a group of individuals. Getting this wrong and adding to the cacophony of noise in the online world risks alienating potential customers and impacting business growth.”

He adds that the goal of companies should be to connect in an authentic manner with their target audience by understanding them intimately. “Selecting the right online approach and focusing on efficient messaging are critical,” he said.

Other findings from the survey:

• Fast growth markets are more open to brands on social networks. 73 percent of Vietnamese and 69 percent of Indonesians think social networks are good places to learn about brands, compared to 50 percent in South Korea and 62 percent in Singapore.
• Across the board, 40 percent of Asian Internet users don’t want to be bothered by brands on social networks, “revealing that Asians would rather initiate contact with brands than have brands approach them.”
• Although 45 percent of Singaporeans post comments on company pages to impart advice, 76 percent do so for the more self-serving purpose of engaging a promotion or special offer.
• While common wisdom dictates that people tend to complain about bad service more than they praise good ones, this survey challenges that assumption. Globally, 13 percent have written praise, while 11 percent have written complaints. These figures hold true for Singapore. Thais are also found to be the most likely to praise (22 percent), while the Japanese complain the least (7 percent).
• Consumers in fast growth markets are eager to spend more time and money online than they do now, although infrastructure challenges remain a problem for online brand engagement. Internet costs remain a major obstacle for Malaysians, Indonesians, and Thai users.
• 48 percent of consumers in fast growth markets are open to buying products from within social networks, compared to a quarter in developed countries. Singaporeans comes in at 41 percent, making them the most eager among developed markets in Asia Pacific.
• Asian consumers are the early adopters of group buying and m-commerce (also see this study on smartphone usage).  46 percent of people in China and 33 percent of Singaporeans have adopted group buying, while the adoption rate in Sweden and Finland is only 6 percent.

Image: Full interactive version at TNS Digital Life

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