Demographics help you understand the social media landscape of a foreign country like Japan. In this blog post, I’ll guide you through the best approach to formulating a social media strategy and leveraging Japanese social media platforms.
To get a better picture on what Japanese marketing looks like and how it performs, check out our previous article: Japanese Marketing Strategies and Search Engine Advertising for Your B2B Company
Social Media
Before we delve deeper, it’s essential to be aware that the definition of major platforms can differ based on demographics. So, first, here is a comparison data based on age to give you an overview of this newsletter.
Please take a look and scroll down to explore more.
LINE
- It has a usage rate of 81.6% in Japan.
- As of July 2023, the number of users in Japan is estimated to be 95 million.(Source)
- Mainly used as a messenger
YouTube
- Number of monthly YouTube users in Japan: 71.2 million or more (as of October 2023)
- The usage rates by age group are as follows, with approximately 80% of all ages using the media; usage by those in their 40s and older has been increasing since 2020.
- In the past, long, horizontal videos were the norm, but with the launch of YouTube shorts in Japan in 2021, viewing of short and vertical videos has also increased.
- The usage rate for Twitter is 41.6% in Japan, which calculates to about 1 in 3 of the nation's population. Among them, many users are in their teens and 20s. In addition, not only young adults but also those in their 30s are frequent users.
- The number of monthly active users in Japan is approximately 45 million (as of 2023), among which Twitter, even with the Covid disaster, shows no signs of abating, with many users using the service to keep track of information in real-time.
- The usage rate of Instagram in Japan is 35.6%, and like Twitter, it has a large number of users in their teens and twenties, mostly women.
- The number of monthly active users in Japan is approximately 33 million (as of 2023).
- The usage rate in Japan is around 24.4%. The low usage rate is noticeable among teens and 20s.
- The number of monthly active users in Japan is approximately 26 million (as of July 2023).
TikTok
- Domestic usage is low at 8.5%, with most users are teenagers in Japan. However, the number of domestic users has been announced as 16.9 million as of 2021 since the service’s release in 2017.
Organic Social Media Strategy in Japan
While a wide variety of organic video content exists, 88% of marketers who embrace the organic approach indicated that they produce ‘original video content’. This includes how-to videos that incorporate company-specific perspectives and ideas. In addition, 62% of respondents create ‘videos that utilize trending hashtags’ and 51% create ‘videos that incorporate trending music and dance’ as a strategy to capture viewers’ attention. (source)
- On average, around 90% of respondents said they see some value in the major social networking sites for video marketing (Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, and YouTube).
Then how should we approach organic social media effort in Japan?
1. Check out the graph and see which platfom is being used most in your target audience, especially your target audience is based on age group. However, you should research deeper based on your industry as well – you could even refer to your competitors in Japan.
2. If you don’t have a clear understanding of your audience based on the age group and also want to just start marketing without videos- start with Facebook & Instagram (plus, experiment through Threads to generate more engagement since it’s linked to Instagram nowadays).
3. If you can test video marketing, then start with Youtube & Facebook & Instagram & (option – TikTok) – Youtube is used with approximately 80% of all ages using the media and its video marketing trend is going up and up nowadays(check out the below chart).
4. If your target audience is among teens or 20s, start with Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and TikTok. Then create 1 short-form content and repurpose it for each platform. OR create 1 long-form video for Youtube and create short-form videos by using AI like Descript. There is a feature for automatically making short-form videos from long-form videos.
5. If you are in B2C and need to have the right customer management channel, create Line to communicate with.
6. If you need more global content strategy, check out 10 Things That I Always Apply to Create High-Quality and Engaging Global Content
7. If you consider to marktet your services/product in one account with multilingual, check out 10 THINGS YOU MUST IMPLEMENT FOR YOUR MULTI-LINGUAL MARKETING
In the next episode, scheduled for next Tuesday, I’ll delve into paid social media marketing in Japan.
Talk soon,
Hyein
P.S. -Don’t forget to SUBSCRIBE to the Our Newsletter for additional global marketing strategies.
I'm an award-winning global marketing expert running HY Marketing in South Korea. We help businesses succeed in South Korea, Japan, and English-speaking markets through SEO, social media, and paid ads.
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