How Do Smartphone Brands in the Philippines Get Engagement on Social Media?

It will be hard to think of a time when not everybody had easy access to a phone. Even though most of us witnessed the key moments that led up to smartphones becoming commonplace (like the time everyone got their first mobile phones that could withstand even kryptonite), it is very hard to think of a time when IM wasn’t a thing.

Unless you were one of those sorely disappointed people that queued up for the latest iPhone 7, you are probably sick of all the furore over a phone that is no different to any other phone. If so, this analysis of the smartphone brands is for you. Here, I investigate the social media habits of top brands in the Philippines. I will discuss how ASUS, Lenovo Mobile, Microsoft Lumia, OPPO, Samsung Mobile and Sony Mobile performed on Facebook during the month of August 2016.

Let’s take a quick look at what the numbers say

1. Samsung Mobile Philippines had the most Fans
2. ASUS Philippines had the highest Fan growth and the most People Talking About Them (as a % of Fans).
3. ASUS Philippines had the most User Posts and they responded to the most (as a % of User Posts)
4. OPPO Philippines had the best Average Response Time

To judge these brands on engagement, let us look a little closer…

ASUS Philippines published the most, while Lumia had the least number of Brand Posts

In terms of total number of Likes and Comments, ASUS has the lead. OPPO had the most overall Shares. However, given that ASUS published the most Posts, a more accurate measure of engagement would be the number of Likes, Comments and Shares that these brands received on average. Samsung has the most number of Likes, Comments and Shares per Post. Here’s some of the most engaging content from the group.

Samsung Mobile

This Post was the most shared. While it is possible that such high levels of engagement is owing to the launch of a new product. The two Posts that advertised product launches had the most engagement. This Post had money behind it, and it definitely reflects in the reach that the Post got. 3.3 million unique users got to see the Post which got over 5.6 million views.

ASUS

Contests are big winners on engagement because Posts like these ask Fans to comment on the Post for a chance to win. The conditions of the contest ask Fans to Like the Page and Like and Share the Post with their answer as the caption.

See how there is a marked increase in Fan numbers following the date this Post was published:

This Post had money behind it as well. It got a Reach of over 2.3 million and close to 4 million Impressions.

Another extremely engaging Post by ASUS informed their audience about an attractive EMI offer. It was the most ‘Like’d with 87,450 Likes.

Since all of the top engaging content we’ve discussed so far are promoted, let us explore the effect Promotion has on the engagement brands get.

Promoted/Organic

ASUS had the most Promoted and Organic Posts. However, OPPO and Samsung promoted a greater fraction of their total Posts. Samsung’s Promoted Posts were mostly aimed at fetching wide publicity for their latest phone. OPPO promoted a lot of Posts that was part of their #SelfieExpert campaign. Lenovo backed their Posts that advertised offers and discounts. A big chunk of ASUS’ promotion went into Posts that carried videos (ads) and contests.

Promoted content wins hands down on engagement, compared to organic content. OPPO has the most engaging Organic content, while Lenovo had the most engaging Promoted content. But Lenovo promoted only a very small part of their content. Even though their Promoted Posts gave a huge boost to engagement (see graph below), the momentum gained does not reflect because they were too few and too disparate.

Lenovo benefited the most from Promotion, in terms of the surge in engagement. If you are wondering why that did not have a noticeable impact in their social media performance, consider what fraction of content they promoted.

See how most of the spikes on the line graphs coincide with Promoted Posts?

Reach

If you are still not sold on Promotion as a key ingredient of a brands’ social media strategy, take a look at the Reach that the brands studied in this report received.

OPPO, ASUS and Samsung, all promoted a sizeable portion of their content that has paid off in terms of Reach.

It is no longer possible to bank on Organic Reach. There are ways by which unpaid efforts can translate to engagement. Content, irrespective of Promotion status, is still key. So too, is visibility. Promotion gives a significant push to these brands’ Reach and Engagement.

If you want to design an efficient Promotion strategy, here are the things you need to consider (read measure):

1. How well Promotion has impacted Engagement and Reach: This needs to be studied based on your past performance as well as trends in your industry.
2. The Content you want people to see: Make sure that when you are backing a piece of content with ad spend that it will bring in returns. If Engagement or Page Likes are what you are after, then contests might be the way to go. Given, of course, that contests work well with your audience. Analyzing content trends is a must-do.
3. The Reach that you get currently, versus the Reach that Promoted Posts from your industry get: This often can make the decision for you.
4. What you’ve got coming up: Product launches, offers, a new campaign, whatever you want your audience to take note are all Promotion-worthy. Especially when your company has already spent so much on creating the perfect video, or engineering an amazing new product, you need people to know about it. And what is a guaranteed way to get Reach?
5. Who you want to get to: Target your Promotion to reach good leads. To this end, knowing your audience is essential.

All that sound like a lot of work? Analyze has answers to all that and more.

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