Vietnam’s favourite social media sites (and how to master them)
There’s about 62 million people in Vietnam active on social media. That’s 60% of the country’s population.
Vietnam’s social media habits are particular. The country even has its own WeChat-like app, called Zalo.
Cracking into the social zeitgeist isn’t impossible, you just need to know what’s hot, what’s not, and how to smash out content that’s “on trend” every now and again.
The big 5
As of January 2020, Vietnam’s top social media sites looked like this:
- Youtube
- Zalo
- Facebook Messenger
The runners up, unworthy of their own bullet point were: TikTok, Twitter, Skype, Viber, Pinterest, Line, LinkedIn, WeChat, WhatsApp, Twitch and Snapchat.
We’ll cover the top five in this article, and will create separate posts for the others, especially Tik Tok as the “one to watch”.
If the youth determine what’s cool, then stats from Napoleon Cats shows that Facebook just ain’t it.
With an increasing pay-to-play mentality and a lack of young people using it, if you’re targeting a younger market, then you’re going to need to consider other social sites. But don’t get complacent, Facebook is still an essential tool for every business and brand.
According to Q&Me, you’ll usually find Facebook users…
- Following friends
- Following news/events
- Posting photos/statuses
- Checking in
- Following celebrities
- Buying stuff
In recent years, Facebook has gone from cute cats to a money-making ecosystem for businesses.
It’s not just about managing a page anymore. Now there are linked groups, instant ads, Facebook stories, live videos and chatbots to juggle.
With all of this competition, it’s becoming harder to be seen, and more often than not, business find themselves throwing money down the Facebook wishing well, which is why we always recommend our clients to use Facebook as one of many distribution channels for their content, not the only place for their content.
YouTube
There’s no escape from YouTube in Vietnam, whether you’re on a bus, in the gym, or just trying to get the receptionist’s attention as you check in to a hotel — YouTube is everywhere. The Google-owned video search engine listed Vietnam as one of its five largest markets in the world. Between 2018 and 2019, viewability for Youtube ads reached 97% in Vietnam.
96% of active social media users are on YouTube, but just 75% of brands are using it for marketing.
This drastically underused tool is worthy of investment and ads on YouTube see far less competition than on Facebook. Plus, content on YouTube stays around for longer, continuing to rack up views after months and years.
If your goal is to be found on search engines, YouTube needs to be in your game plan.
Zalo
Think of Zalo as the Vietnamese-made cousin to WhatsApp or WeChat. It’s also an essential business tool when operating in Vietnam.
Zalo doesn’t really start happening until you’re in your early 30s and it maintains a strong user-base with functions like:
- Finding & connect with people near you
- Sharing location
- In-app games
What does this mean for you and your business? Enter Zalo Official Account. Like Facebook, this is another popular channel for Vietnamese businesses to build communities, develop content, and drive sales.
Recently, Zalo has also expanded its services with an instant article feature (Zalo Media), online shopping (Zalo Shop) and a separate mobile wallet app called Zalo Pay.
If you’re looking to localise your marketing effort, then Zalo is definitely worth a look.
Facebook Messenger
Facebook Messenger has become the way of contacting business, with 85% of Facebook users in Vietnam using it before sending goods out on a motorbike taxi and picking up Cash on Delivery. Users tend to ask about products, promotions, store location, technical support or just to buy products immediately — from cat food and human food to gym gear and underwear.
Messenger has even started to beat out email marketing for open rates. HubSpot experimented with Messenger’s efficiency. They found that open rates and click rates were 242% and 609% respectively, showing that Messenger was more successful than email.
There there’s chatbots, a new feature for Messenger. Though it doesn’t come without its faults. Without a clear purpose and conversational context, bots quickly became boring. It proved customers wanted a warmer, fleshier representative. Done well, and Messenger bots can be a great way to qualify leads for your business.
Our takeaway? Always have someone on hand to manage Messenger.
This is where you’ll find all of those absent kids who you’d expect to see on Facebook. Instagram gave them a place to go when everyone’s mum joined up on Mark Zuckerberg’s premier social media site.
It’s seen as a place to be yourself, to stay up-to-date with trends, hobbies, and celebrities. Its users are also, coincidentally, two-thirds female.
If you’re going for the youth views, or your business is F&B, home decor, fashion or lifestyle, then Instagram should be your primary social media site.
6 takeaways for Instagram
- Instagram is all about aesthetics — keep the design slick.
- Don’t ramble on. Keep post descriptions short.
- Use hashtags to make your posts relevant.
- Instagram Stories are a must (+ filters, gifs and music) — tell stories and deploy Swipe Up ads through Ads Manager.
- Try and keep your feed in a theme.
- Young people in Vietnam very often have more than one account — one to keep it real for close friends and one to show off in their aspirations to look the part.
What to know for 2021
Though the big boys and girls are dominating the social scene there’s always room newcomers.
Here are the top four apps to look out for in 2021.
TikTok
When TikTok officially launched in Vietnam in April 2019, it quickly gained 12 million monthly users.
It’s now it is already the sixth most popular social media platform, with 39% penetration. Short videos with filters, humorous lip-syncs, dances and interactions are things that made this platform so attractive to the younger generation of social media users.
Mocha
Initially developed as a messaging app, Mocha has more recently repositioned itself as a video channel, with over 10 million users.
It’s got over 10,000 hours of film, 1 million songs, and 2 million videos available.
Lotus
Launched in September 2019, Vietnamese social media site Lotus is the app that gives back, and is another app most attractive to young Vietnamese users.
With the focus on content creation, Lotus rewards its users with “tokens”. The better the content, the more tokens the user is rewarded. These can be exchanged for gifts or vouchers from participating partners.
Gapo
Gapo, a Facebook-like social site grabbed 2 million users within its first two months.
The main difference between Facebook and Gapo, besides its younger base of users, is its ability to be customised with themes and a background photo. Bring back Myspace, we say.
With internet access growing in Vietnam, social media is bound to keep growing with it. If you want to grow with them, contact We Create Content.
Originally published at https://wecreatecontent.asia on January 27, 2021.
