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Jinny Jacaria Account Group Director Strategic Edge, Inc Email: jjacaria@seinc.com.ph
• Active Accounts
Despite a relatively poor telecoms infrastructure, and Internet penetration only 30%" suddenly people are talking of the Philippines as the new social media poster boy. Philippine use of Facebook has surged to 17.6m users, and the country boasts one of the highest Twitter penetration rates in the world'.
_Inactive Accounts
30%
20%
Local companies are now playing catch-up, with the great majority focused on exploiting consumer opportunities - typified by a multitude of contests, discounts, promotions and product launches - and an increasing focus on customer service. Most activity is on Facebook. A good example is mobile company Globe Telecom, which actively uses Facebook and Twitter to increase awareness of its products and get closer to its customers. And with some success - the company now counts over 230,000 fans on Facebook and 35,000 followers on Twitter. Even the top local banks, insurance and other financial services companies are experimenting with Facebook (though not with microblogs, video sharing, corporate blogs and other forms of social media). Yet it is mostly experimentation - the majority of accounts were inactive during the period of research for this study. Meantime, few Philippine companies have begun to use social media for corporate marketing and communications and, where it exists, it is mostly to highlight corporate citizenship activities. A notable exception is the Ayala Corporation conglomerate, which maintains an active Facebook page, a corporate blog and a YouTube channel. Ayala Corporation - Leadership Communica-
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Ayala Corporation Chairman and CEO of Philippine conglomerate Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala uses Facebook to communicate the progress of his companies and corporate initiatives concerning sustainability and corporate governance, and to serve as a platform to share his views on philanthropy and other public issues.
10%
Microblogs
Social Networks
Corporate Blogs
Video Sharing
Instead, the great majority are hanging back until they train their communications teams, have the necessary investment to sustain the relevance and interest in their social channels and are satisfied of the legal implications of sharing company information and views on the Internet and in social media. Philippine companies are also concerned about how to measure the success of social media as a platform for corporate marketing. It is perhaps only when companies are able to see the real value of social media engagement in their broader marketing efforts that they will be able to justify it as a corporate marketing tool. Meantime, most Philippine companies remain in website mode. Having spent sometimes large amounts of money relatively recently on these channels, they are keen to see a return on their investment. This is a missed opportunity. Web traffic in the Philippines is already dominated by search engines and social media, and traffic to company websites often in decline as people spend more in social networks and other media. More important, companies must understand that customers now have more choice, and power, than ever before. Staying away from social media simply lessens their ability to influence stakeholder behavior.
1. Internetworldstats.com, October 2010
2. Market Insight Social Networking in the Asia-Pacific Region, Gartner, October 2010
CORPORATE SOCIAL MEDIA REPORT 2010
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