Business urged to cash in on ballooning social media use

"Social media is now a powerful channel to help businesses reach their customers efficiently. Businesses should have their own big-data analytic system to utilise the data flowing over social media across platforms," said Pawoot Pongvitayapanu, founder and chief executive officer of Zocial.

The number of social-media users in Thailand this year is expected to increase by 30-40 per cent, he said. The top three platforms will be Facebook, YouTube and Line.

There now are 35 million Facebook users in Thailand, representing 34-per-cent growth from 2013.

The 33 million Line users represent 38-per-cent growth, while 2 million Instagram users represent 29-per-cent growth.

Meanwhile, YouTube has 3.3 million clips and Instagram has 99 million video and photo messages, or 173-per-cent growth from 2013.

"The top five provinces for Facebook users in Thailand are Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Nakhon Ratchasima, Nonthaburi and Chon Buri. Meanwhile, 19-year olds are the largest group of Facebook users in Thailand, while 24-to-28-year olds are the largest Facebook users in Bangkok," Pawoot said.

The Digital Advertising Association (Thailand) |forecasts that the total value of digital marketing in Thailand this year will be Bt8 billion, up from Bt6 billion last year. Pawoot said social media would be the key driver for this growth.

The top five business sectors active using social media to reach their customers are banking and financial securities, food, IT and digital, automobiles, and beverages. Meanwhile, the top four social-media platforms they prefer using are Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and Instagram. Line also has potential but is now limited to corporates that pay for an account.

Pawoot said the key strategy for benefiting from social media in business was ALARM, which stands for Analysis, Listening, Action, Real time, and Measurement.

"Currently, not many businesses benefit from using social media. In Thailand, there are only 2 million Facebook pages, while there are 35 million Facebook users, and 2 million SMEs [small and medium-sized enterprises]. There is a lot of room for businesses to tap in."