Thais still gaga over social media

Thailand is ranked eighth in the world for its number of Facebook users – with 41 million users from the 1.59 billion global total, a new study has found.

For Southeast Asia, Thailand ranked third. 

Pawoot Pom Pongvitayapanu, co-founder and executive board  director of Thoth Zocial, a social media analyse service, said a study by the company revealed Thailand has had 5.3 million Twitter users [1.2 million active], 7.8 million Instagram users [one million active], and 33 million LINE users. 

For Facebook, Pawoot said Saturday was the day with the least engagement while Wednesday had a variety of high-engagement times. 

But normally, peak time on Facebook is between 11am and 8pm, he said, while the weakest engagement time is 10pm to 9am. 

On Twitter, the high-active time is 8pm to 10pm.

For Instagram user in Thailand, the study found that from 2,000 Instagram users in there were more than 1,330,000 post in 2015. Their preferred posting time is 8pm to 9pm. 

Pawoot said night time was the best time to shop on Instagram because that was when merchants preferred to upload pictures for advertising.

He said businesses in Thailand were very active on social media, with the biggest users including brewers and other beverage producers, automobile makers, the bank and financial sector, cosmetic companies and food retailers.

“From the Facebook advertising insight, we can segment the audience into nine major segments and more than 200 minor segments, including entertainment, hobbies and activities, technology, family and relationships, business and Industry, food and drink, sport and outdoor, fitness and wellness, and shopping and fashions.”  

He added that males were more interested in entertainment and technology than females. 

The study found Thai Facebook users mostly press the Like button on brand’s Facebook page followed by sharing content and posting comments.

Wow is the reaction button Facebook users most prefer on brand pages. 

Kla Tangsuwan, co-founder and managing director of Thoth Zocial, said that businesses were now driven by data. 

Kla said in Thailand in 2015, there were 2.6 billion talks (or messages) online, or around seven million every day, 5,000 every minute, and 82 every second. 

This data is based on 3.5 million Twitter accounts, 100,000 Facebook pages, and 200 websites. 

Thoth Zocial said it provided participants of its survey with in-depth data and insights that had been thoroughly observed, analysed, and categorised in order to enable them to make better use of the data in their strategic planning for online marketing. 

 

Pawoot said of Thailand’s 68 million population, 38 millions were active Internet users – around 56 per cent of the population and the same number as the active social media users. 

The number of social media talks has increased 80 per cent over the past two years, which means all businesses, regardless of their size or type, have to turn their attention to social media, he said. 

“We are constantly developing our tools as well with an aim to keep delivering insightful data of high accuracy to our Thai entrepreneurs and help them move forward, and to achieve our goal of becoming a one-stop provider of online insights and online data management at regional level who is ready to provide data services to every business in the Asean region,” he said.

Thoth Zocial’s key services including KPIology, ZocialEye, ZocialRank, and Warroom. KPIology is a measurement system that reflects opinions of customers towards products and services of a brand on social media in a real-time manner and in the form of an intelligent analysis report. 

 ZocialEye is an analytical tools that analyses Facebook reactions. This tool allows brands to listen more deeply to the needs of customers – whether they like or dislike products and/or services – on all major social media sites.

ZocialRank is a ranking tool for social media sites that compares the online marketing of competitors.

Warroom is a system that makes it easier to manage data on social media sites, cope with crises in a timely manner, and communicate with consumers in a quick and easy way. 

“Thoth Zocial is the first company that consumers can conveniently communicate with via the LINE application through this system,” Pawoot said.