Social media has become a global phenomenon that has changed the way the world is run. Everyone is on social media, and every enterprise manages several platforms in one go. In today’s business environment, there is an inevitable need for social media marketing strategies, and its absence is unthinkable.
In Hong Kong, social and digital marketing is actively present, bearing much resemblance in activity as other Asian countries, and differing just slightly from the west, mainly due to the cultural diversity. Here’s a general overview of Hong Kong’s social media marketing landscape for the year ahead:
Cultural Melting Pot
Before you analyse social media marketing trends in Hong Kong, first, you must understand that one of the world’s most densely populated city is a highly-mixed environment of different culture and creed.
Officially, the main languages in Hong Kong are Chinese and English, and both languages play essential roles in driving Hong Kong’s economy and is a key consideration for social media marketing campaigns locally.
Cantonese and Mandarin are very much spoken in Hong Kong, as well as a variety of other languages due to the population mix, which truly adds colour to the already vibrant urbanscapes.
If your digital marketing campaign is targeted at social media in Hong Kong, make sure your campaign content in different mediums encompass at least English, Cantonese, and Mandarin.
Social Media Popularity
In the west, people are used to a certain type of social media “ranking” – some social media platforms are simply more popular than others. The same goes for Hong Kong, albeit having some differences.
An important thing to take into account here is that social media marketing campaigns are directly proportional to social media usage in Hong Kong. In short, the more popular the social media platform, the more lucrative it is for ads. It helps to know what demographic you want to target, if it is a certain age group, you should focus on social media usage in Hong Kong by age.
On a global scale, Facebook has been leading the social media stats race up to 2018, and saw slight decline in popularity this year; on the other hand, Twitter has been gaining favour over the last two years, with a spike in popularity up to September 2019. That being said, Twitter still needs to go a long way if it wants to beat Facebook on the Hong Kong market.
The list of most used social media in Hong Kong also includes the likes Pinterest, YouTube, Instagram, Tumblr, and LinkedIn, though they aren’t nearly as influential here. Pinterest is strangely more popular than all of the listed platforms and will likely remain so for the time being. While lots of people end up getting lost in a chain of YouTube videos before they sleep at night, many Hong Kongers would instead be scrolling pictures on Pinterest.
In terms of social media marketing trends, 2020 may not bring that big a change; Facebook and Twitter is expected to remain the pillars of digital marketing campaigns in the local region.
Different Search Engines
Google dominates the search engine landscape. People don’t even “search for something” anymore, they “google” it. Google is the main search engine in Hong Kong with around an 85% market share, while Yahoo comes in next. The list of other key players include Bing, Baidu, Shenma (an engine available with the UC browser), and Haosou.
Given the fact that SEO is a vital aspect of any digital marketing campaign, you need to pay attention to what search engines you’re targeting. This gets even more complicated when we’re talking about PPC (pay-per-click) campaigns. The whole search engine aspect of digital marketing can be complex in Hong Kong, too.
Digital Marketing Basics in Hong Kong
Clearly, though there are some similarities to the West, according to social media statistics, Hong Kong can be completely different when it comes to digital advertising. First, there’s the aspect of multiple languages, and second, the difference in search engine usage.
If you’re doing SEO, you should take all search engines into account. If you’re doing PPC, you need to keep an eye on your budget, pertaining to available platforms. When it comes to reach, however, things are pretty simple – Adapt or translate your content in goal of reaching the widest possible audience.
A Different Game
Generally, there are many factors that set Hong Kong apart from the rest of the world in terms of digital and social media marketing. Just keep the variety of aspects you need to consider in check, in order to excel in different marketing climates, and you should be able to achieve optimistic results. It’s not much more complicated in Hong Kong – it’s just different.