9 in 10 Singaporean marketers expect social media to reign in retail by 2024

Around 59% are now also using generative AI tools to create content that resonates more effectively with their audience.

Nine out of ten social media marketers in Singapore are expecting a surge in consumers buying products directly from brands on social media platforms, bypassing third-party websites (92%) or the brand's website (90%) by 2024, as per a recent study by Hubspot.

Additionally, 93% anticipate local brands adopting social commerce strategies in response to this trend. Instagram's social shopping features are considered the most effective by 73% of marketers already engaged in social commerce, followed closely by Facebook and YouTube, both at 71%.

Moreover, 87% of respondents stressed the importance of social search in their strategies, with 92% expecting consumers to search for brands more frequently on social media platforms than on search engines in 2024.

According to Kat Warboys, marketing director for Asia Pacific at HubSpot, with an estimated 85% of Singapore's population being social media users, platforms serve as crucial channels for brand discovery and research.

“B2B brands in particular need to adapt their approach to match the B2C experience that customers today have come to expect,” she said. 

“Moving ahead, we are likely to see B2B brands moving away from factually accurate but often over-engineered or very generic material in favour of relatable, authentic, and engaging content on social media to win audience attention and influence purchasing decisions,” Warboys added.

Moreover, the survey also showed the growing significance of building online communities, with 89% of marketers considering it vital to their strategy. Over half or 58% reported investing in community-building, with 72% planning to increase their investment in 2024.

Short-form videos emerged as the most popular content format, with 44% of marketers leveraging them, followed by live videos or streaming (41%) and user-generated content (31%). At least 77% of respondents also believed that short-form video offered the highest ROI.

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Looking ahead, 75% of marketers plan to increase their investment in short-form video content in 2024. Content types such as funny, interactive, and relatable content were identified as yielding the biggest ROI for social media marketers in Singapore.

Warboys stressed the importance of authenticity in social commerce, urging brands to embrace less-edited content and collaborate with creators to deepen connections with customers.

The study also found that 91% of social media marketers in Singapore see artificial intelligence (AI) as crucial, with 59% already using generative AI tools for content creation. 

Amongst these users, 61% report better-performing content. AI is valued for tailoring content to audience interests (54%) and speeding up content creation (53%). Top AI uses include content repurposing (35%), copywriting (31%), and ideation (30%), with short-form videos (39%), captions (32%), and images (31%) being common outputs.