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Business Focus: Social Media during and post the pandemic

Social media has long been an integral part of our lives, but it was during this global pandemic that we discovered how important this medium is.

The importance of social media in pandemic times

Author: Erika 

The COVID-19 pandemic has completely turned our lives upside down, not only in terms of health care but especially in our daily routine. If there is anything we have learned from this situation, it is that we must be prepared for whatever the future holds. No goal is realistic, but in our plans, we must try to get as close as possible to what will be the reality.

Many are wondering what the post-COVID-19 world will be like and finding an answer is not easy. But one thing is certain, we must be ready to change and adjust our marketing strategies at any time and digital seems to be the right way to do it.

In this article, we are going to see how COVID-19 has affected the use of social media by companies.

With social distancing, digital and social media have had an impact of considerable intensity. In fact, we have seen a boom not only in messaging and video calling apps, but also all those platforms that have allowed us to make digital events.

Both in our private and working lives, our daily lives have been touched and marked by a change in many habits. However, not all the consequences have been negative.

The famous digital transformation, which was at a standstill in Italy, has accelerated considerably as a result of this global situation. Driven by the impossibility of continuing with the old methods, even the most stubborn brands have surrendered to the digital evolution of communication.

Social marketing strategies are changing

Marketing strategies have changed to adapt to new media and tools, but first and foremost the way companies communicate and relate to clients has changed.

In this pandemic period, the public has changed their needs and companies have had to learn how to relate in an advantageous way. This is why a lot of social media marketing has changed during the pandemic.

Spending much more time at home and bombarded by all this negative news, the public felt the need to feel connected to the world in some way. This is one of the fundamental aspects that has allowed companies to take advantage of the opportunities and offers related to digital transformation.

For those of us who are involved in marketing, you will have noticed that the publication times of the posts have been completely overturned. The COVID-19 has shuffled its cards around a lot, and if you used to prefer to post on socials on specific days during the lunch break, now this period has been extended to all weekdays. Instead, what we call "commuter time" has taken a back seat, so from 5 pm onwards socials are now less popular.

Whereas before the weekend was one of the worst times to publish, now post lockdown on the morning of the weekend has become one of the most sought-after moments.

Most viewed social media during the pandemic

With forced lockdown, TV programmes suspended, news monopolised by Coronavirus news, the public desperately needs entertainment. This has caused audiences to pour into social media, particularly Instagram, YouTube and TikTok in search of distraction. For this very reason, it has become even more crucial to publish at the right time.

The volume of messages sent and received has also changed. Although for some sectors there has been a decrease in the publication of posts, for other companies the volume has remained constant or even increased.

In fact, some companies increased the number of messages addressed to the public during the pandemic. For example, the entertainment sector has increased its social media activities to provide a distraction to citizens already destroyed by social distancing.

Other companies linked to the sport and tourism sectors have been particularly affected by the restriction or suspension of all activities. And it is precisely in these sectors where there has been a decline in communication. However, this was the wrong step to take. It may seem the most logical choice to cut communication-related funds in a time of crisis like this, but in reality, it is one of the most counterproductive gestures a company can make. But we will talk about this in one of our next articles.

Social media as a tool to connect people during the pandemic

Since the beginning of 2020, we have seen how our lifestyle has changed completely by creating new rules for everyone.

In fact, many companies have found themselves having to recalibrate their strategy in light of what has happened. We have asked ourselves many times whether this content is suitable for the current situation, and many times we have found ourselves removing it. In a period like this where people are particularly sensitive to all kinds of messages, it is very important to control what is shared but even more important is to adapt to each situation.

Listening to your clients' requests and feelings and identifying their needs is fundamental nowadays in order to understand how to orient your strategy. The pandemic has created a general climate of terror and for this reason, the public is now looking for positive conversations. People have grown tired of negativity and all this concern about COVID19 and are looking for social distraction.

In March, the number of messages on the topic of helping others increased by 1.174%, culminating in 19.5 million messages during the month. In this period of insecurity, people are trying more than ever to connect and support each other. Social media has become the epicentre of this movement.

In SproutSocial's #BrandsGetReal 2019 survey #BrandsGetReal, it was found that 91% of respondents believe that social networks have the power to connect people, of which 78% would like brands to use social networks to bring them together. This sentiment became even stronger after the pandemic.

Being able to understand what your audience wants and show them that your company has understood this need is the best solution for good communication even in this strange 2020.

by erikaswan

Business Focus: The weird world of Japanese web design

Have you ever wondered why Japanese web design is so different from that in the West?

The weird world of Japanese web design

Author: Erika 

Japan Italy Bridge offers services for companies and part of our job is to create websites. "What's new" you might say, yes because there are so many agencies like us, but what makes us different from the others? Well, we have the ability to adapt the Japanese style and visual to Western-style and vice versa.

It is very, very important for every company to have a website that represents their brand. However, it often happens that the style and design we use in Italy is not really suitable for the Japanese language and people.

In fact, if we analyze even just visually the Japanese sites, the differences immediately jump out at us.

As we know, in most of the Western world, websites have a simple layout. In fact, compared to the early 2000s, we have replaced the myriad of links with relevant and concise content that quickly leads us to our goal.

However, there is also a different culture in Japan in terms of visual taste. In fact, some websites have changed very little since the early 2000s. In this respect, we can really see how different sites are overloaded with links and information. This is totally inconceivable for a Western eye, while it becomes the norm for a Japanese one.

Yahoo was one of the most popular search engines in Japan and still is for many homepages. However, as you can see from the photos, its design and layout have changed very little in the last 10 years.

Another example is the homepage of Rakuten, the nation's largest online shopping centre.
Rakuten is the Amazon of Asia and every shopkeeper can customize their own page. This results in a large display of various images, banners and pop-ups on different pages that sometimes take a long time to scroll through.

Why is Japanese Web Design like this?

But here's the real question, why does web design in Japan have to follow these certain canons of style? The answer is simple. The majority of the Japanese people are older users who prefer to maintain the tradition. This also happens in the visual style of how websites are built and experienced.
This makes it complicated for companies to change to a style that we might call more international.

Moreover, most Japanese users use the internet via desktop and not mobile support. So even the biggest websites tend to keep the current design, also not to confuse the end-user.

Another reason why Japanese people prefer this style that we would call "old" is also because of their information culture. In fact, if you have ever been to Japan or seen some pictures of the country, you will have noticed that signs are omnipresent. The Japanese are bombarded with bright neon lights and signs that tell of shops, special offers, and occasions not to be missed. This also transpires on websites where the Japanese people prefer to have all the information immediately.

The LINE Case

When the LINE messaging app (the Japanese equivalent of Whatsapp) decided to change and simplify the layout of their homepage, the Japanese people did not take it very well. In fact, at that time, users went wild with one-star reviews and numerous requests to the company to change to the old design.

Change on the horizon

However, despite the preference for a more traditional approach, some young people in their 20s and 30s have stated that they prefer a more minimalist design.

The Mercari case is in fact an example of this. We are in fact talking about a site that offers online auction services with a simple and user-friendly interface. In a short time, Mercari has taken over Yahoo Auctions, the most popular app in Japan for these services.

The history of this brand has shed light on the importance of a good UX layout, encouraging the Japanese to hire new designers on the verge of change.
Japanese companies will have to start adapting to a more modern design not only to be more attractive to a younger audience but also to become more competitive internationally.

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by erikaswan

Business Focus: Influencer Marketing in Japan, 5 things to know

We have all heard of Influencer Marketing but what are the differences in Japan?

Japan Italy Bridge offers services to companies in the field of Digital Marketing and events. Many Italian companies that have requested our promotion services towards the Japanese market, asked us what are the differences between the two countries regarding Influencer Marketing.

Influencer Marketing in Japan: 5 things to know

Author: Erika 

For those who do not know what Influencer Marketing is, we are talking about a branch of marketing that benefits from the use of bloggers and influencers with a specific target audience.

Nowadays, this strategy is one of the most effective methods in most markets, this also applies to the Japanese one. In fact, Influencer Marketing in Japan plays a big role but the rules are different than in Western countries.

Today we share with you 5 differences to help you understand better.

The language barrier

One of the aspects of Japanese social media and therefore also of Influencer Marketing is that everything must be done in their language. Unfortunately, Japan is ranked 49th among the 88 countries and regions in the ranking of English language study and knowledge. A lack of expertise when you think about how much Japanese use social media to get informed and communicate.

Because of this, classic global influencers such as Chiara Ferragni, Cameron Dallas and others are not as influential as they are in other countries accustomed to the English language. In fact, sometimes they are almost unknown even compared to local influencers with fewer followers.

This leads to a big dilemma for companies: to use local influencers or completely ignore the Japanese market? True, the Japanese market is now not as profitable as the Chinese one. However, Japan is ranked 3rd in the GDP world ranking and this is too important to completely ignore this country and its audience.

As said before, it is true, Japanese Influencers have fewer followers than global ones. However, precisely because they speak in a language closely related to the culture of the Rising Sun, this leads them to not have many followers in the rest of the world.
What we can understand from this data, however, is that in this case engagement becomes extremely important. In fact, Japanese influencers are extremely connected to their audience and the interactions far exceed those of the westerners one.

Japanese hashtags require a cultural background

When a company opens to the Japanese market, it must understand the uniqueness of this country and its culture. It is therefore important to work with correct hashtags and use them properly. This will lead us to find the target community that we can approach and get a return on our investment.

Influencers and micro-influencers can be found using hashtags. However, finding the correct Japanese hashtag is not so easy for those who do not speak the language and do not know the culture. Moreover, very often the most common hashtags are neologisms.

For example #インク沼 is a direct translation of "Bottomless Swamp of Ink". Apparently, this doesn't make any sense, except that "Bottomless swamp of something" is an internet slang used a lot by Japanese people to describe when someone is really passionate about something. However, if we take away the cultural background, this hashtag completely loses its meaning.

photo credits: @v_sarasara, @tommy_notes_16 , @mizuki___iz

In addition, Japanese hashtags can often be very complicated for a Western eye to understand. This happens because of the three ways of writing the language, namely the mix of Kanji, Hiragana and Katakana.

So when we use Japanese hashtags, we have to be careful how they are written because the combination of the three ways can bring different meaning. In the language of internet, a hashtag written in a different way also brings different results on an audience level. In fact, this can affect the number of people we might reach.

Influencers in Japan are distributed on different platforms

Even in the West, it is rare that an influencer has the same strength on all the most popular social platforms. Many are popular only on Instagram, others only on Tik Tok or Twitter. This has even more effect in Japan with the presence of some specific platforms for Japanese culture. For example, we have NewsPicks that interfaces with a purely corporate audience. While note is a social dedicated entirely to the content creators such as stories, tutorials, news blogs and especially manga.

The top Influencers and agencies

As it also happens in the West, many Japanese influencers are followed by some agencies when they start to become popular. At the moment, unfortunately, there are few influencers who work freelance. So, if you want to work with an influencer who belongs to an agency, you have to go through the agency itself.

All this has its pros and cons.

Pros.

• Access to major influencers
• You save time in finding the right influencer since agencies like ours cover this part of the work for you.
• The agency negotiates contracts and fees

In this case, the work of the agency therefore becomes a benefit for the company that finds itself having a job tailored to its interests.

Cons.

• Higher costs
• Minor flexibility
• Direct contacts of influencers remain private

Unfortunately, when using an agency you have to comply with the rules of the agency and these vary from agency to agency.

photo credits: @watanabenaomi703 , @rolaofficial

Undisclosed paid posts

Japanese people are very strict when it comes to honesty and transparency. This severity is also applied in Influencer Marketing in Japan. In fact, when paid posts from influencers not reported as such, they tend to be ignored by the public and give a bad impression.

However, there are no direct laws governing the transparency of an Influencer-sponsored post in Japan. In addition, not all influencers are aware of the right way to communicate a partnership.

For a company, it is therefore very important to educate the chosen influencers and not to work randomly to get impressions.

In the West, we now have clear guidelines on the use of sponsorship through Influencer Marketing and these should also be used for collaborations with Japanese Influencers.

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by erikaswan