The past year saw another successful progression in the movement of social media in Japan. For all enthusiasts of social media out there you would have noticed that almost on a monthly basis there was a fresh story talking about a new service/product release, whether locally born or overseas driven. More and more, online users, not only in Japan but globally, are using social media to participate, share, learn and be heard.
David Armano, partner at Dachis Group and blogger extraordinaire, says that we are currently in the "participation economy", having surpassed the experience economy. The idea of "media snacking" through various social channels is becoming the norm, and it is ever so critical for brands to be visible and engaged.
So where are these snacking channels and how can brands in Japan start becoming active across the social grid? Outlined below are the top four channels that I feel would be most effective from a reach, investment, measurement and overall impact standpoint, to start dabbling in social media.
1. Twitter (Japan stats: 1.2 million user base)
The past year saw a huge surge in local adoption rates of Twitter in Japan. Google Japan recently released its Google Zeitgeist, which reported on the most searched keywords in 2009, and "what is twitter" was listed number one within the definition category. More companies are using Twitter in Japan as a platform to actively engage with their customers (new and existing).
Tsutaya online, a major video rental retail chain in Japan, uses Twitter to promote upcoming titles, movie related news, and help field customer requests. Twitter is easy to setup, not difficult to develop content for and can be fully tracked. In fact, Omniture's SiteCatalyst has a feature allowing Twitter tracking integration so sites can track backend sales activities via tweets.
2. Widgets/Applications (Japan stats: Over eight widget/application galleries online and growing)
Another area popular among internet users in Japan is what are called "blogparts", otherwise known as widgets, gadgets and download apps. Brands have found these to be successful from a reach and engagement perspective because bloggers tend to integrate them into their blogs (hence the name blogparts), and in Japan 67 percent of the population actively read blogs with 48 percent consistently contributing to blog content. Therefore the reach for these blogparts is wide.
Nissan ran a campaign where it distributed 40 unique blogparts, all downloadable from its site, which allowed bloggers to integrate them into their blogs and allowed readers to gain access to unique content and also make personal comments, which would then get fed into Nissan's Twitter page. With the right idea, brands can run a widget campaign, offer a site download, promote it through the blogosphere, and even connect with other social channels, like what Nissan did with Twitter.
3. Q&A services (Japan stats: 47.2 million Yahoo Q&A subscribers)
Question and answer services are becoming more and more popular in Japan, with Yahoo! Japan leading the charge with 47 plus million Q&A subscribers and smaller players with the likes of Hatena:Question, OK Wave, and others following suit. When searching for keywords in Yahoo! Japan, currently the top engine in Japan with a 51 percent share, 80 percent of the time the Q&A section will be listed at the bottom of the SERP (search engine results page).
This presents a tremendous opportunity for brands to monitor their target keywords and start actively probing and creating a dialogue with the users who are in the Q&A world. Brands can first find out what users are saying about a particular brand, product, industry, event, etc., and then get into the conversation, while at the same time channeling these conversations to one of their other social channels (i.e. find out more at our Twitter page, etc.)
4. Mobile (Japan stats: 86 percent of subscribers use the mobile internet)
Mobile was included in this list because the sociability and reach of this channel is enormous as is the ability to integrate social channels into the device, which is growing. Twitter is now available on mobile in Japan, as well as Mixi, the top social networking site in the country.
Nike ran a mobile campaign that was designed to promote speed and agility, two core qualities of the brand. Users would have to sign up through Nike's mobile site with their phone number, and they would soon receive calls from Nike at completely unexpected times, and were expected to answer random questions as quickly as possible (i.e. speed and agility). Users could then check their personal scores on the mobile site, as well as share and compete with friends and community members to win prizes. The technicality of creating a mobile site is easy and with the continual integration of social media into mobile, it will be absolutely critical for brands to get into the mobile space if they want to build any local trust and interest in their products or services.
As the prism here outlines, the social opportunities in Japan are numerous, and are growing more so. Brands have to start making the shift in marketing with people rather than marketing to people. And social media allows you to do just exactly that. The four areas I touch on above -- Twitter, widgets, Q&A, and mobile -- are all solid entry points for brands to start tackling social in Japan.
Andy Radovic is director of interaction at Outrider.
