Retail rebounds as top vertical in social maturity report

2The Smart Social Report: Volume Four
2016 looks to be a game-changing year for social, on the heels of tremendous growth in 2015—
the kind of growth that requires numbers to fully wrap your head around. For example:
• In 2015, social media users rose by 176 million
• Facebook now adds a new user profile approximately every six seconds
• WhatsApp gained 300 million users from August 2014 to August 2015
As marketers, this level of penetration presents new opportunity and responsibility alike. We have
the chance to reach more customers than ever before on social—but we can no longer substitute
experimentation for strategy.
In our fourth Smart Social Report, we’ve tracked fourth-quarter performance for the 50 major brands
who make up our State of Social study. We’ve also gone international, examining data from airlines
in the Asia Pacific region, and we dug deeper in our home base, examining hashtags on Instagram to
find which casual dining chains Americans prefer by state. We’ve taken a closer look at live streaming
and one-to-one marketing as well, with some surprising results.
At Spredfast, we help marketers work smarter. Our smart social software allows you to infuse the
art of your social strategy with the science of data. And the data in this report is an extension of that
effort—we hope you find your next great move or advice you can lean on within these pages.
It’s time to get smarter about social.
| Jim Rudden | CMO, Spredfast

The State of Social
A survey of 50 brands across 10 verticals
Content & Community
The Social Iceberg: Customer Care on Twitter
Brands & Consumers
#Dinner in America
Fan Activation
Going Live with Social
Building Relevance
Social Travel in Asia Pacific
04 |
15 |
23 |
31 |
40 |
Table of Contents

The State of Social
A survey of 50 brands across 10 verticals

Introduction
The State of Social report is our quarterly check-in with
50 of the top brands in the world and their sophistication
across the major social properties. In Q4, we’re
introducing one new channel and researching new tactics,
strategies, and campaigns to see who’s pushing the
envelope in the social world.
Last quarter, sports, retail, and automotive were the
leading industries in our study. Who led the industry in
Q4? Let’s dive into the data.

• Audience size: followers, likes, etc.
• Consistency of response: time to respond
to inbound communication
• Post frequency
• Use of rich media: images, GIFs, video
• Audience engagement: comments, likes, shares,
favorites on posted comments
Methodology
We looked at 50 leading brands in ten different verticals to
gauge their maturity across eight of the leading social networks.
Brands were measured at the end of December 2015, and will
continue to be measured on a quarterly basis to chart growth and
sophistication over time.
To evaluate social sophistication, we used a combination of the
following metrics, depending on which metrics are available
publicly for individual networks:
50Leading
Brands
10Different
Verticals
8Social
Networks

LinkedIn
Over the past few years, LinkedIn has grown into so much more than a hyperactive jobs board or a way
to digitally update your resume. They’ve added social sharing features, blog posts, and a timeline used
by professionals and companies alike. A company is only as good as the people who work for it and
LinkedIn’s growth allows companies to directly engage with the best possible candidates.
The network also allows current employees to share the work their companies are doing, or their own
projects. For these reasons, we’ve added LinkedIn to our study.
Retail Rejoins Media and Sports as a Top Vertical
Brands from the sports and media verticals in our study remained the top two verticals, just as they were
in Q3. But retailers edged out automotive, reclaiming one of the top spots they held back in Q1 of 2015.
Key Takeaways
Retail is back.

Tesco
During Q4 we saw the retailer advance in maturity
across several of their channels. Their LinkedIn posts
saw 118% more conversation per follower than the
average brand.
NFL
Even with a huge Twitter follower base of over 15M
people, the NFL still managed to score the highest
engagement-per-follower ratio of any company in our
study through a solid mixture of rich media (video and
images) and an aggressive posting schedule.
Across all 50 of the brands we researched, a few stood out for growth in different areas of social.
Top Moving Social Brands

American Airlines
The improvement to the airline’s overall score was
partially driven by their performance on Instagram.
Their audience responded to their strategy and the
airline saw a 30% increase in their follower base
between quarters.
Microsoft
Throughout the 4th, quarter Microsoft engaged with
their followers on Tumblr by providing unique tips and
tricks for how to use their OneNote product to keep
track of ideas. These posts increased their average
engagement by 30%.

• Few brands can attract a huge base of followers while continuing to keep their audience involved
at high levels. MTV does both of these very well, leveraging rich media content and content around
breaking pop culture trends to stay relevant to their young audience.
• Netflix buoyed their performance on YouTube by increasing both their average views per subscriber
during the quarter and their positive affinity for the videos posted.
• Media brands MTV, Netflix, and the BBC all continued to boast the most engaging Tumblr strategies
of any brands within the study.
This quarter, the brands in our media category jumped their sports counterparts to become the
leading vertical from a total score perspective. Three brands, including MTV, ESPN, and Netflix
jumped up in the rankings.
Based on data from Q4 2015, the media, sports, and retail verticals are leading in terms of social sophistication
across channels. Let’s see where the individual brands in each vertical improved most and where we can look to
learn from their success:
Top Verticals for Social Maturity
Q3 Q4Media

Each of the major sport leagues have fans with seemingly endless appetites for content. This
motivates them to keep pushing content out no matter the time of year and to experiment with
ways to keep excitement levels high.
• The NBA was the leading brand in the sports vertical this quarter with an above-average presence
across a wide number of networks, including Snapchat, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook.
• The NFL made weekly appearances within the Snapchat live feature. Their partnership throughout the
early weeks of the season provided fans with a unique view into game day and a deeper perspective
than a typical television broadcast.
• The MLB was the top sports brand on LinkedIn. They performed better relative to their peers thanks to
regular posts engaging professionals interested in the aspects of the league beyond highlight reels.
Sports Q3 Q4

• Victoria’s Secret not only posts a high volume of content on Facebook, but their video content sees one
of the highest engagement rates (combining shares, likes, and comments) of any brand in our study.
• Target saw their YouTube scores improve through a combination of increased affinity for their content
and a higher volume of content posted in Q4 over Q3.
• The Gap’s Tumblr strategy is paying off. Their original content was 88% more engaging than any other
retailer active on the network.
This quarter, retail edged its way over automotive to return to the top three verticals. The
improvement was largely assisted by the LinkedIn addition to the study where, taken as a whole,
retail is the third best performing vertical on average.
Q3 Q4
Retail

Social Maturity by Vertical
* FULL BRAND LIST: BofA, Progressive, Citibank, State Farm, Barclays, Pepsi, Crest, Nescafé, Dove, Cadbury, Target, Coach, Victoria's Secret, Gap, Tesco, Hyundai, Mercedes-Benz, Ford, VW, Audi, Hilton,
Hyatt, American Airlines, Delta Airlines, British Airways, MTV, ESPN, Fox News, Netflix, BBC, NFL, MLB, NBA, English Premier League, Apple, Microsoft, Samsung, Sony, EA, IBM, GE, VMWare, Siemens,
Accenture, Verizon, AT&T, BT, Orange, T-Mobile
5
6
7
8
9
10
1
3
2
4
Q3 Q4Vertical

AT&T scored an improved Twitter rank by including the
most rich media (specifically, video content) in their
Tweets this quarter. In fact, telecom brands took four of
the top five spots for rich media on Twitter.
Audi had the highest engagement of any automotive
brand on Tumblr during the quarter. They regularly
post playful photosets of their brand imagery to
further connect with their fans on the social network.
During the fourth quarter, Pepsi strengthened their
engagement on Instagram and had 17% higher-than-
average engagement per follower than Q3.
State of Social Takeaways
Tesco was one of the top brands rising on Pinterest in
Q4, posting high volumes of content including recipes,
crafts, and product imagery.
Dove’s parent company, Unilever, is a leader on
LinkedIn. They frequently post corporate-wide
initiatives and individual brand successes. These
posts deliver higher-than-average engagement
and continually help them expand their voice with
professionals worldwide.
The brand making the most gains on Facebook this
quarter was Mercedes-Benz. They adopted a great
strategy across all of our scoring categories, including
a solid mix of audience growth, responding quickly to
customer questions, and industry-leading Facebook
video engagement rates.
Cadbury created a flood of content on Pinterest this
quarter, posting 10x more content and boosting the total
engagement from their user base with delicious-looking
recipes featuring their products as a main ingredient.
Delta posted nearly 400% more content to Instagram in
Q4. This frenzy of activity helped them to almost double
their following on the platform.

Content & Community
The Social Iceberg: Customer Care on Twitter

Understanding the
Two Sides of Social
Social marketers are constantly looking for great examples of strategies and tactics to
push their campaigns ahead of the competition. We often look to examples that are
broadcast to all followers of a brand—messages centered around the latest marketing
campaign, live event, or scheduled post. We call this type of social post “1:many” social
content, and it’s what we normally see from brands in our daily feeds or highlighted in
the latest articles from AdAge.
But while concentrating on these polished pieces of social media, we often forget the
other side of the value that social media brings to organizations.
There is a plethora of social content created by brands every day that is never seen
by the general public. It lives in direct messages and individual replies, reaching out to
customers about their comments, questions, and raised hands. We call this “1:1” social
content, and as any social media team can tell you, it’s a huge piece of
how they reach out to customers each and every day.
But we’ve been wondering: how much 1:1 social content is
being created by brands vs. 1:many?
As it turns out, much more than you might think.

Software/Internet GrocersElectronics Airlines
Amazon AsdaGE Cathay Pacific
Apple KrogerLG JetBlue
eBay SainsburyPanasonic Lufthansa
Google WalmartSamsung Southwest
Microsoft 7-ElevenVizio United
We mined 43 Twitter accounts from 20 brands—across the industries of electronics, software, airlines, and grocery
retail—to measure the volume of brand conversation, and the breakdown between 1:1 and 1:many.
We looked at not only the primary Twitter handles for these brands (@eBay, @Samsung, @Kroger, etc.), but other
supporting accounts, (like @askEbay and @SamsungSupport, @KrogerSupport, etc.) to form a holistic picture of each
company’s complete Twitter presence.
We pulled every Tweet from the 20 brands’ accounts and their sub-accounts for 2015, for a total of over 1.3M pieces
of social content.
The Data
Number of Twitter Handles by Brand
* FULL TWITTER HANDLE LIST: @Appstore, @iOS_support, @Google, @GoogleNexus, @GooglePlay, @Gmail, @Amazon, @AmazonHelp, @AWScloud, @AWSsupport, @Microsoft, @windows, @office, @Xbox, @ebay,
@askebay, @SamsungMobileUS, @SamsungTweets, @SamsungSupport, @GeneralElectric, @GE_appliances, @GElighting, @LGUS, @LGUSAmobile, @Vizio, @VizioSupport, @Panasonic, @PanasonicUSA, @Lufthansa,
@United, @SouthwestAir, @Jetblue, @CathayPacific, @Walmart, @WalmartAction, @WalmartGiving, @Kroger, @KrogerSupport, @Sainsburys, @7Eleven, @7ElevenCares, @Asda, @AsdaServiceTeam

The 1:many Tweets we see from brands get all the attention,
but after looking at the data across all 20 brands in our study,
it seems that we, as an industry, might want to devote more
attention to the other side of the social iceberg.
The wide majority of social content in our study—over 93%
of Tweets in 2015—was not meant for the general public to
see. Most Tweets were 1:1 communications between a brand
and a person. The percentage varied by brand, of course, but
the rate of personal communication was fairly consistent over
the set of brands and industries we studied, with 16 of the
20 brands in the study seeing more than 85% of their Twitter
content being 1:1.
Not only does 1:1 conversation dwarf its 1:many cousin, the
ratio grew each quarter in 2015, ending with almost 95% 1:1
content in Q4 2015.
The “Social Iceberg”
Q1
85%
87%
89%
91%
93%
95%
Q2 Q3 Q4
1:1 Twitter Content Growth 2015
2015 Twitter Content
1:many
1:1

2015 Twitter Content, by Industry
Marketing and support needs will differ by industry, so we broke the data down to examine which
lines of business were driving the most 1:1 interaction.
Airlines saw the highest ratio of replies to original content, with over 98% of their Twitter content in 2015
being 1:1. Software was the lowest category, at 89% averaged over the five companies in the study.
Patterns By Industry
Software/Internet Electronics Grocers Airlines
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
1:many
1:1

The biggest standout brand in our study was, without a doubt, Amazon. Their social team is hard at
work on both sides of the equation, and saw the highest Tweet count in 2015 for both 1:many Tweets
(at over 35,000, the majority of which came from their @amazon account) and 1:1 Tweets (at over
317,000 for the year, the majority of which came from their @AmazonHelp account).
Biggest 1:1 Brands
Average Daily Tweet Volume, 2015
Google
AverageTweetsperDay
ASDA Samsung United Amazon
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
700
800
900
1000
1:many
1:1

The data revealed a few brands that worked hard to ramp up their
customer outreach strategies in 2015.
Of the 20 brands in our study, three accounts saw the largest increases in the
raw number of Tweet replies sent each quarter. @GooglePlay, @askeBay, and
@SouthwestAir are not only responding to customers in high quantities, their
numbers are getting bigger by the day.
2015 Fastest Growing 1:1 Twitter Activity
Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4
TweetRepliesperQuarter(thousands)
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35 @GooglePlay
@askeBay
@SouthwestAir
“During the Papal visit to the
U.S., Golin was tasked with
helping the United States
Catholic Church of Bishops
amplify the messages of Pope
Francis. Golin engaged one-on-
one with people talking about
the impact the Pope’s visit
had on them and asking them
what they pray for. We received
a 75% response rate on the
outreach compared to a 7%
engagement rate on our one-
to-many content pieces.”
Geeta Patel, Director,
Digital Analytics, Golin

Social media is here, after all,
to connect people with people.
A robust, modern social media strategy is not just about getting retweets and likes. As we’ve seen through this
study, it’s also about providing a dependable and effective 1:1 marketing strategy on a platform where the modern
consumer expects a brand to be present. How can you make sure your social team is balancing their priorities in
the right way?
Here are three questions to ask yourself:
Does your budget reflect your content output?
It’s natural for budgets to migrate toward the big, shiny objects in social media: those Tweets and posts that
the whole world can see. But does your budget reflect how your company actually spends its time on social?
Make sure there’s a good balance.
Does your team embrace your brand’s voice with 1:1 communication?
Quick-turn responses can be a tricky thing for any team to manage. People on the front lines need to make sure
they are answering not only with the right information, but with the right tone and in your brand’s voice.
Are you prepared to surprise and delight your customers?
There’s a big difference between social customer service and social customer care. Truly elevate your 1:1 strategy
by preparing for surprise and delight—which can sometimes start with a personal message, but spread to 1:many.
The social iceberg shows us that with all the questions around social media’s place in the marketing world, we
shouldn’t forget that social teams everywhere are leveraging this platform to devote the majority of their time to
connecting with individuals, addressing concerns, and solving problems, at scale.
All Roads Lead to Social

Brands & Consumers
#Dinner in America

Tracking Food Love State by State
When you want to spend your marketing dollars wisely and make sure your campaigns
truly speak your customers' language, you rely on market research. Whether you’re making
sure a new idea makes sense for the market or fixing past mistakes, market research has
long been a reliable answer—but it's also pricey and time-consuming. Because of this,
market research is often a luxury afforded to only the biggest brand advertisers.
But thanks to social, marketers essentially have access to a full market research report
at a moment’s notice. Lack of data is no longer a problem facing marketers—if anything,
it’s the inverse. So what kind of data is worth tracking to learn more about your target
market? And how can social data help you unlock unexpected insights about, for example,
geography and brand preference?
With these questions in mind, we set about analyzing data from branded hashtags across
the United States. We chose to hone in on food, to see what regional differences exist.
State by state, we aggregated the data: Where
did people love Braum’s? What about Dunkin
Donuts? And most importantly: What can
we learn from these differences?

Whenever a photo is uploaded to Instagram there’s an option to include the photo’s location. This is a way for people to
let their followers know exactly where to go if they want in on the pictured fun.
We wanted to find instances where a brand name was used as a hashtag. A branded hashtag is a strong signal of affinity
because the user must manually type and consider the hashtag as they’re posting their perfectly filtered photo. Our
dataset included 97 fast food or casual restaurant chains from all over the United States. We gathered photos from June
2015 through mid-January 2016, then analyzed only those that had geographic information—around half a million photos.
Methodology
Starbucks In-N-Out Shake Shack Cheesecake
Factory
Dunkin
Donuts
IHOP Krispy Kreme McDonalds Hooters Olive
Garden
0
50
100
150
200
Most Instagrammed Restaurant Brands
InstagramPost(thousands)
* FULL BRAND LIST: Applebees, Arby’s, Au Bon Pain, Baskin Robbins, Ben & Jerry’s, Big Boy Burgers, Biscuitville, Bojangles Chicken, Bonefish Grill, Boston Market, Braum’s, Buffalo Wild Wings, Burger King, Captain
D’s, Carl’s Jr, Carrabas, Carvel, Charley’s, Cheddar’s, Cheesecake Factory, Chick-fil-A, Chili’s, Chipotle, Chuck E. Cheese’s, Church’s Chicken, CiCi’s Pizza, Cinnabon, California Pizza Kitchen, Cracker Barrel, Culver’s, Dairy
Queen, Del Taco, Denny’s, Domino’s, Einstein Brother’s Bagels, El Pollo Loco, Famous Dave’s, Firehouse Subs, Five Guy’s Burgers, Friendly’s, Golden Corral, Graeter’s, Hardee’s, Hooters, IHOP, In-N-Out, Ivar’s, Jack In
The Box, Jamba Juice, Jason’s Deli, Jersey Mike’s Subs, Jet’s Pizza, Jimmy John’s, KFC, Krispy Kreme, Krystal Burger, Little Ceasar’s, Logan’s Roadhouse, Long John Silver’s, Macaroni Grill, McDonald’s, Olive Garden, On
The Border, Outback Steakhouse, P. Terry’s, Panda Express, Panera, Papa John’s, P.F. Chang’s, Pita Pit, Pizza Hut, Popeye’s, Qdoba, Quiznos, Red Lobster, Red Robin, Ruth’s Chris, Sbarro, Schlotsky’s, Shake Shack,
Smash Burger, Sonic, Steak ‘n Shake, Subway, Taco Bell, Tasty Burger, Texas Roadhouse, TGIFriday’s, Umami Burger, Voodoo Donut, Waffle House, Wendy’s, Whataburger, White Castle, Zaxby’s

#Starbucks, perhaps as no surprise,
is in a league of its own. It’s used
6.4x more frequently than #Innout,
the next-most used hashtag, and on
the state level it was the most-used
hashtag in every state except Vermont,
which uses #benandjerrys the most.
This speaks to both the brand
strength of Starbucks and the nature
of Instagram. Instagrammers use the
network to curate a view into their life.
It’s obvious that Starbucks has become
a major part of many Americans’ daily
lives—plus, who doesn’t enjoy a good
cup of coffee?
To dive into regional
differences we needed
to exclude our outlier,
Starbucks. Once we did this,
a more robust picture of the
United States emerged.
Starbucks

Our first finding was that the most popular brands aren’t necessarily those with the most physical locations.
Looking closer, we can see Dunkin Donuts consuming the East Coast, and there’s both a Cracker Barrel belt and a
Krispy Kreme belt through the South. Meanwhile on the West Coast, In-N-Out is the only burger that matters.
The United States Does #Dinner
Excluding Starbucks, Dunkin Donuts is
the top brand in eight states compared
to Krispy Kreme’s four, but when you add
the population of those states together
it represents the same amount of
Americans—about 10%.

In-N-Out has been a regional favorite in California since it was founded in the 1940s,
but it has been expanding its footprint dramatically and its reputation is following.
Shake Shack was established in 2004, but its youth only seems to be working in its
favor. This demonstrates that even in a saturated and mature market like dining,
there is always room for a new brand to gain a share of voice on a national level.
In-N-Out just barely edged out Shake Shack with the total number of photos tagged.
Though each burger joint dominated in four states, considering population, In-N-Out
is preferred by 16 percent of Americans, compared to
11 percent who nosh on Shake Shack.
There are several states where brands like Braum’s (Oklahoma) or Graeter’s Ice Cream (Ohio) are
the most hashtagged. Many of these will be unknown if you’ve never visited these states, but local
favorites have a tremendous advantage in this dataset. Many people in the area will have decades of
associations with them or visitors will want to show the unique thing they’re doing while traveling or
heading back home.
Shake Shack and In-N-Out
Smaller Brands

Rhode Island & Sonic
Rhode Island by Month Cumulative
June
TotlaNumberofPhotos
July August September NovemberOctober December January
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
180
160
140
Dunkin Donuts SonicBen & Jerry’s
When looking at a smaller state like Rhode Island, we were able to uncover the impact that an entry to a new market
can have for a brand. We charted the cumulative usage of each hashtag in the state on a monthly basis. Yes, aside from
Starbucks, Dunkin Donuts is overwhelmingly the most used hashtag in the state, but a new brand appears in October
and becomes the second-most used during the time we were studying.
Sonic opened their first location within the state in October of 2015, and people trying out the midwestern fast food
chain mentioned it frequently enough to rise above the other entrenched food choices in the state. So even if a brand
isn’t new, its new arrival in a location could herald a change in branded hashtag sentiment and activity.

Social data is about so much more than hashtags. Marketers can add additional layers like the geography we focused
on within this study to more finely hone their brand voice.
So how else can this type of brand research be applied—and done well?
Spend Effectively:
Tracking your brand's hashtag by location can help demonstrate the effectiveness of dedicated real world ad spend.
These correlations can help your team decide where to allocate budget effectively for your next campaign.
Learn The Language:
Are you targeting a specific region of the United States on Instagram? When doing so, consider placing a regional
favorite into your Instagram photo collages. If you’re aiming to relate to a specific geographic audience this can help
identify brand associations that are more resonant than might initially be evident.
Competitive Analysis:
Why are your competitors being talked about more than you—and where? Not only can you find areas where your
brand is stronger, but by looking at other commonly used hashtags for your competition, you can uncover what
products you might need to reposition or improve to better compete.
Marketers can apply social data analysis like that explored above at any scale, thereby removing some of the
advantages that used to only be enjoyed by the largest brands with the biggest budgets. Data is now democratized:
in the past, a brand might’ve spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to divine uplift from a billboard campaign, but
now marketers can see campaign results in real time.
Making What's Neat into Something Concrete
Data is now democratized

Fan Activation
Going Live with Social

Broadcast 2.0
For as long as social teams have been around, they have carefully planned out
content calendars and crafted polished messaging. But technology and trends
continually redefine the social space itself, and in 2015 a new category of
content came to marketers in the blink of an eye.
Live streaming, originally popularized when Meerkat launched at the SXSW
interactive conference, had brands and agencies scratching their heads,
wondering what the ability to broadcast live feeds meant for their content plans.
Has live streaming taken off, or just been a flash in the pan? And if this technology
is here to stay, what are some best practices that marketers can leverage to make
the most of the broadcasting side of social?

Here’s a quick breakdown of the most popular live streaming platforms and capabilities.
The Platforms
Periscope
Available in a dedicated app, Periscope broadcasts to the public and
integrates tightly with Twitter, Periscope’s parent company. There are private
Periscope sessions available as well.
Meerkat
The first big live streaming app, Meerkat is still a major player. Videos can
be shared through other social channels like Twitter or Facebook.
Facebook Live Video
Videos appear in the Facebook newsfeed to all friends of the broadcaster.
Videos can only be shared on Facebook.
Longevity:
Videos expire after 24 hours
Longevity:
Videos must be watched while live
Longevity:
Videos are saved to the brand’s “Video” section in Facebook like any
other media.

We looked at Twitter data from March through December of 2015 to see how many livestreams were taking place, and
how many different people were using the technology.
First, we looked at instances of Twitter users sharing Periscope links, month over month.
The growth was phenomenal and, more importantly, steady in its rise. The continual
increase of instances month over month (a +700% increase from March to December)
indicates that this trend is carving out its place in our social lives.
In addition to live stream session growth throughout the year, we’re also seeing more
unique users on the live platforms.
The data shows the number of users creating and sharing live streams tripled (+307%)
from March to December 2015, with a fairly steady rise month over month.
The Rise of Live Streaming
Unique Users
doing Live Streams
INCREASED
307%
in 2015
March April May June July August September October November December
Live Streams Shared on Social

What are some of the top brands in the world doing well on live streaming platforms?
Let’s take a look at a few leaders across different industries.
The iconic pizza brand does live streams with behind-the-scenes looks at the kitchen and products.
Top Brands Live Streaming Today
Pizza Hut

ESPN leverages live streaming to expand the experience of its audience, allowing them to see what happens
inside commercial breaks and after shows—a great way to turn social from a messaging platform into a
deeper viewer experience.
ESPN

Mashable
Mashable leverages live streaming to conduct live
Q&As with their audience on breaking tech topics.
Dallas Cowboys
Hosting smaller, less formal events on live streaming
platforms (like this Q&A with sports reporter Bryan
Broaddus) helps engage the audience, allowing them to
have real interaction with topics central to the brand.

“The key to live streaming is be
aware of the moments that
people want to participate in.
Celebrating on the volleyball
court after our team won
the National Championship
was a no-brainer, and we
saw more than 30,000 live
Facebook viewers on the live
stream celebrating along
with us. Since that moment,
hundreds of thousands more
have watched the video.
Knowing that your biggest
audience is tuned in during
the event, and being able to
bring that audience into a
post game content funnel is
pretty huge. Live video is a
great way to do that.”
Kelly Mosier, Assistant AD
of Digital Media for the
Nebraska Huskers
University of Nebraska

With the rise of any new technology, it’s important for marketers to not only understand the capabilities
of the platform, but to use it in a way that is authentic to the brand.
Prep for Planned Spontaneity:
Live streaming can capture great in-the-moment opportunities, but that doesn’t mean that there’s no planning involved.
Make sure you have people ready to broadcast key moments to take advantage of every live opportunity.
Know the Platforms:
Different live streaming platforms offer very different capabilities, especially around sharing content, so make sure you
know which platform(s) you’re looking to target. A good place to start is to ask: which audience do we want to stream to?
Your Downtime Has Now Become On-Air Time:
Live streaming is a great way to show behind-the-scenes content that is less polished, but gives the audience more access
than ever before. The audience loves content that adds to their experience but doesn’t seem too polished or rehearsed.
Hacking Hashtags
Here are three takeaways to get your team pointed in the right direction around live social broadcasts:
Now On-Air

Building Relevance
Social Travel in Asia Pacific

How Social Takes
Flight in Asia Pacific
Every day, marketers are communicating directly with more people in the Asia Pacific
(APAC) region than ever before. An explosion of mobile devices and accessibility
throughout the region has made it possible for foreign and domestic social media
platforms to be adopted widely—and to deliver significant business value.
But the sheer variety of cultures and options in APAC can lead to paralysis when
deciding where to allocate resources.
What types of strategies should be adopted to succeed? To find out, we took a look
at the air travel industry within the region. By focusing our study on one industry,
we can quickly summarize best practices and avoid getting bogged down in the
volume of companies marketing in APAC.

Communicating at Home & Abroad
National airlines are well suited for our study because they are required to serve domestic travel needs, but they
are also the most common choice for travelers visiting the nations where they are based. This means that airlines
use different tools to reach domestic and international audiences.
The Right Network
for the Right Audience
The number of networks on which these Asian airlines have a social media presence is directly related to the
countries they are seeking to operate in. For example, any airline seeking Chinese business is all but required
to have an active presence on WeChat, but if they are not focusing on China then there is little need to operate
on the platform because it only dominates in that particular country. Typically, the carriers we studied have
about three active social properties at any given time, but there are outliers. Air Asia, for example, had 10 active
accounts across the six networks we analyzed.
We were also interested in the most commonly used languages. It goes without saying that the diversity across
the region also makes it more challenging to communicate. Communications for these airlines are commonly in
English, but this isn't always the case. In China, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Laos, and Thailand it’s best to invest
in communicating regularly in the home country’s language. However, when responding to customer service
needs, it’s still a best practice to reply to any question received in the language it’s asked in, even if the rest of the
channel operates in a single language.
Let’s take a look at the social platforms and how airlines are using each in APAC.

Australia
Bangladesh
Cambodia
China
Hong Kong
India
Pakistan
Indonesia
Japan
South Korea
Malaysia
New Zealand
Papua New Guinea
Philippines
Singapore
Thailand
Vietnam
Laos
Domestic Focus International Focus
Who Is Active Where?
Each of the content examples we provided are representative of how the network can be leveraged to accomplish
these goals. However, this is still a tremendous amount of information to take in. For quicker reference when
considering a new network or country, this table can help determine if either is worth the effort. Use the table to
quickly answer the following questions: Is a particular social network being used in a country or group of countries?
And is it being used for domestic or international communications needs?
Facebook is the only network
used by every airline we
looked at, and two-thirds use
the network with a primarily
domestic focus.
All airlines active in China had
a presence on both WeChat and
Weibo, essential networks for
the country.
Japan and Malaysia were the
most social countries. Japan
Airlines and Malaysia-based Air
Asia had more active properties
across more networks than all
other airlines.
With this in mind let's
walk through each of these
networks and their typical
use cases for the airlines:
We’re seeing a
few key trends:

WeChat | Established 2010 | 650 Million Users
For any airline seeking to communicate
digitally with Chinese consumers, WeChat
is crucial. All of the airlines active on the
platform provided the same range of
services, including:
Point of Sale:
Customers can easily book trips
within WeChat.
Special Offers:
Official accounts are limited to four
unsolicited messages per month to
subscribers. These airlines offer last-minute
deals or credit card ads with this feature.
Flight Updates:
Updates for any flight can be searched
for directly from the application.
In this example, China
Airlines offers the ability
to book a trip directly
within the application.

Line | Established 2011 | 400 Million Users
Line is unique in that each country has its
own regional setting within the application.
This means that if an official account is
created in the Thailand region, it won’t be
visible when a user is searching for the same
account in any other region. The airlines
adopted the following best practices:
Speak in Local Languages:
Marketers can hone their focus in each
individual country by leveraging multiple
accounts wherever they are operating.
Offer Branded Stickers:
Japan Airlines regularly provides limited-
edition sticker packs to both new and
existing followers. Having more unique
stickers gives Line users new ways to express
themselves, and lets Japan Airlines have
more opportunities for direct marketing.
Advertise Flash Sales:
These are time-based offers that are
pushed directly to their followers, only
available via Line.
Japan Airlines offered
a chance to win an
international business-class
ticket and used the popular
Line emoji character, Cony
the bunny, to help relate to
their audience.

Travel Inspiration:
Each of the airlines posted tantalizing
photos of the carriers’ destinations to
convince travelers to consider those
locations for their next trip.
People:
Airlines frequently showcased their in-
flight crews and other service members
to further humanize their brands.
Promotions:
Occasionally the brands highlighted
specials to either bring people to
their home country or for inter-
regional travel.
Instagram | Established 2010 | 400 Million Users
Lao Airlines advertising
a Thailand getaway.
Instagram was the second-most adopted platform by airlines within the region and was primarily used for domestic
communication needs. Imagery typically used by the airlines included:

Twitter | Established 2006 | 320 Million Users
Airlines primarily used Twitter,
where they had some of
the largest audiences for a
single channel, for domestic
communications, including:
Customer Service:
The airlines active on Twitter
sent thousands of replies a year
to keep travelers up-to-date or
resolve issues in real-time.
Special Offers:
Airlines frequently offered
giveaways and limited-time
special deals to their followers.
In-Flight-Service:
To entice first-class passengers,
many airlines highlight their
unique, region-specific in-flight
food options.
Korean Air uses multiple
languages in the countries
they target—like French in
this example.

Facebook | Established 2004 | 1,190 Million Users
It doesn’t matter where an airline is active
throughout APAC: Facebook is key to all
of their communication strategies. Here’s
what APAC airlines shared on Facebook:
Cultural Events:
All of the airlines highlighted celebrations
of the Lunar New Year throughout the
region—and their own branded events
around the holiday.
Travel Updates:
Major weather updates that impact a large
number of flights were proactively pushed
out by airlines to help keep concerned
travelers ahead of potential snafus.
Customer Service:
Each airline either answered customer
questions directly on their page or via
Facebook Messenger.
Garuda Indonesia
frequently communicates
directly to their followers
in Indonesian. Here, they
are celebrating the Lunar
New Year.

Weibo | Established 2009 | 198 Million Users
To Give Travel Recommendations:
Weibo has an abbreviated and
conversational post structure, which
airlines used to share local highlights
for destination cities.
To Match Network Personality:
Airlines weren’t afraid to use Weibo’s
animated emojis and speak in the
context of the network. By using the
network in a casual and friendly way
their posts more readily fit the norms
of the platform.
To Amplify Users:
Frequently brands shared posts
from their followers with additional
commentary, showing their customers
they are heard and deepening
connections with their most
enthusiastic travelers.
In this example, China
Airlines shared a positive
experience a tourist had
while visiting Los Angeles.
Like WeChat, this microblogging platform is focused entirely on the Chinese market. Five of the 18 carriers we studied
used Weibo as part of their communication strategy. Here’s how airlines used the network:

Marketing in APAC presents an enormous opportunity– 60% of the world’s population lives there. Each of the airlines we
studied have found winning communication strategies across the region.
A few things to keep in mind for developing or expanding your APAC strategy:
Set Goals:
By defining the goals of your brand’s communications strategy, selecting the right social network in the right country
becomes a less daunting task, and your marketing and customer care teams can then define realistic, achievable goals.
Examine Team Makeup:
Depending on the strategy employed, you might not need a team that can speak every language in the region. If all
communications can take place in one language, the available hiring pool of qualified candidates widens. Conversely,
knowing which markets and languages you plan to enter might dictate and narrow eligibility.
Research Thoroughly:
The social market has matured past the point where failure counts as experimentation. By combing through one
industry, we were able to find patterns that could inform campaigns and strategic decisions. Build time and resources
into your budget to do the same before expanding internationally.
Lead By Example:
Marketing teams that have had success in the region should consider adding new networks or experimenting with new
communication techniques. This will help keep your audience engaged and your team ahead of the curve if any new
networks gain significant traction.
APAC: Next Steps
More Opportunity Than Ever Before

Spredfast’s smart social software enables companies to build lasting relationships with
today’s digitally connected consumer. Part of that is using social data to make smarter
marketing decisions when you plan, execute, and analyze your social efforts.
Spredfast Intelligence provides a searchable lens to historical and real-time insights to better
understand your audience, relevant conversations, and your brand’s social performance.
Spredfast is transforming the way
companies connect with consumers.
See the brands we work with:
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